my vintage style make

I have been very industrious and made my first Christmas gift! I just love the gorgeous fabrics used to make this patchwork cushion, they are all vintage style prints and florals in cotton. I love the way the colours and prints work so well together. I have lined the front with fusible wadding to give it more stability and the backing is made with lovely vintage damask linen in an off white colour that in it's heyday was a large serviette! One of my finds from years ago in my fabric stash.

I made a similar one a little while ago and loved it and  I knew someone else who would love it too!

One I made earlier!

                                           
Onto my next project, another Christmas gift, this time a throw for my mum. I wanted fabrics that were not pastel but still had a vintage feel and I found these lovely prints in a shop in Brighton.

The fabrics are from different collections, Rounneries deux by french General for Moda, Athill range by Cabbage and Roses for Moda, a fabric called Spring patchwork, in the far left of the picture, but I don't know the collection. I added two other fabrics to brighten things up a bit, Tilda dots on red and Doily and Rose Cotton a pretty floral fabric from Sew La La an online shop with loads of gorgeous fabrics.

setting the squares out on the bed!

I really wanted to have a pattern in this patchwork but I just couldn't decide on what to do with the fabrics I had bought with mum in mind, so in the end I decided on piecing the fabrics in diagonal stripes. This has worked well as the colours and patterns blend well together but also there is a nice contrast with the tilda and pink floral fabric against the dusty pinks and browns. (Unfortunately the photo makes the colours look a bit dull). I intend to line it with a nice fluffy fleece which I am going to get today and I expect that won't be the only thing I come out of the shop with!

home continued..

As promised I managed to finish the lovely home patchwork cushion. I chose the fabric I wanted to make the borders with, it was a fabric that I had used  in the patchwork mainly Petit Fleur by Lecien, I bought them as fat quarters from Quilter's Cloth (who have a fantastic range of quilting fabrics) and then added various other fabrics that I thought would work. In total I needed 13 different fabrics

It seems a lot of the fabrics I have are from Lecien, the hearts in the middle are made from the Durham range

There are also designs from Moda and Makower, all 100% cotton. The next step after attaching the borders was to iron some fusible wadding onto both the front and back, for the back I used an unbleached muslin and although this fabric is quite flimsy, adding the wadding gave it stability. Then it was simply a case of stitching them together.

Being a keen recycler I stuffed the cushion with the insides of a previously used cushion pad long ago discarded and sewed up the bottom et voila! I just love the way the colours all work together I am very pleased with the end result, in fact I am definitely going  to make another, but perhaps with a different mix of colours and fabrics, the truth is I have a huge selection of gorgeous fabrics to choose from!

yet another birthday!

yes I am still only 30 ( oh dear my nose has just grown longer!) well double it and that will be about right!  I had some lovely birthday presents, I did very well indeed! Two of the presents were craft books that I had specifically asked for having checked them out on Amazon. The books were Fast Fabric Gifts by Sally Southern and  Country Cottage Quilts by Lynette Anderson and I was so pleased with them,they were full of gorgeous things to make. I couldn't wait to get home and get crafting. So as soon as I could I sorted through my stack of lovely fabrics and decided to make pencil cases for Rosie, Joni and Poppy three of my grandchildren. And here they are after several mistakes like sewing the applique on upside down or attaching the bondaweb to the wrong side of the material to name just a couple! By the third one I just about got it right!
This is the first one I made, a lot was learnt from this! The front of the case

and the back.

Number 2....

and the back....

and last but not least number 3...

the back of this one is made in the same fabric as number 2. The lovely fabrics were from www.sewlala.co.uk . I stiffened the fabric to make the case more sturdy and each one has a zip fitted. I can't wait for the next project!