Bonnie and Bright

Baby Quilt!

I had a lovely lunch with a close friend on Tuesday and was delighted to give her the baby quilt/playmat that I had made her.

The reason I say playmat is that I may have got ever so slightly carried away and made it bigger than I should have!! :)

I made the quilt using flannels and tried to incorporate a circle theme into the fabric and some of the quilting. I didn't have enough time to quilt it myself so I had it Gammilled at my local quilt shop - Seattle Quilts.

I was sooo pleased with the finished effect which had different coloured threads to match the fabric and lots of cute hearts.

 

The finished quilt was so soft! I don't work with flannels very often but this very special baby deserved an extra special quilt.

It's quite difficult to see the quilting but I hope you can get an idea below.

 
 
My friend loved the quilt (phew!) and told me she couldn't wait to go to her next mother and baby music class. When I asked why, she said that some of the other mums had very fancy baby mats to put on the floor and made a big deal about it. Then she said now she would feel better because she could take out her own fancy handmade one! I haven't laughed so much in ages!!!!

Have a great weekend and thank you so much for stopping by.

Sara x

Christmas is coming!

I absolutely love Nancy Halvorsen. It is hard to find someone who does Christmas patterns and fabric better than she does!

I have purchased many of her books and patterns over the years and I have bought many of her Christmas panels. I take all my pictures down and put them up every year. Then I truly feel Christmas is coming!

This year a friend and I decided to make one of her Christmas wall hangings rather than buy a panel. We had to send off to America for the button pack and when it arrived decided to spend a lovely summer Saturday making our hangings together.

 I decided to make my hanging with modern fabrics rather than the traditional colours Nancy uses.I made the background first and then I used three charms squares from  Moda's Tweet Tweet range to make the letters. They fitted perfectly and it saved fabric!

 
I labelled each letter with R - red, B - blue or G-green so I wouldn't make a mistake!

 
I then stitched each letter using my machine - Slowly!!!

At this point I placed the buttons so that I get an idea of where the lettering would go. I also noted the American spelling of a word in the pattern and wanted to check that a British spelling would fit!

 
 

 
Next came more buttons and thread! I am not someone who embroiders very often so I had to take my time!

I am quite pleased with the results for a first effort...

 
Last but not least I added borders and quilted 1/8 inch from each seam and added binding.

 
 
I am delighted with the finished project and now I just have to decide where I will hang it this Christmas!

Have a great Sunday...

Sara x

 

. Sashiko in September...

Three years ago this month my father had a serious but successful heart operation. During the 5 hours we had to wait for him to get out of surgery I spent a lot of time sewing a sashiko bag. It's simple and rythmic pattern was calming and distracting at the same time.

I love Sashiko for that very reason. It is so relaxing and simple that you can watch a movie on TV at the same time yet still get a stunning result!

A couple of years ago I attended a great class to make a sashiko wall hanging using a pattern adapted from a Kitty Pippen design (I think!). I loved it and felt that the appliqued butterflies finished it off beautifully.

 
I was slightly panicked about quilting the finished hanging as I didn't want to ruin it. I took it along to a local framer who was amazing. It turns out that he does all the framing for the local Embroiderers Guild and has a great technique for framing work without glue or staples.

If you're interested, it involves lots of tiny silver pins placed into the side of a board! I didn't want glass in the frame so he put a piece of wadding behind the centre of the hanging to raise it slightly.

It's difficult to see the effect but I am delighted!

I am now working on another hanging for the opposite wall and hope to blog about it soon! I have also spent the last two Mondays nights at a sashiko wall hanging class. Now I just have to get it finished and take some photos to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

Sara x