Sunday 27 October 2019

October at Plush Addict

It's time for my monthly visit to sponsor Plush Addict and I've spotted some beauties to share, particularly for quilters!  I have noticed that someone has been taking some particularly gorgeous photos of the new arrivals and the colours really shine through.


  1. FQ Bundle Kona New Colours for 2019.  A must-have for solid colour lovers, a fat quarter for each of the 25 new colours!
  2. FQ Bundle Dashwood Under the Stars.  A bundle of eight night-time forest animal party-themed prints designed by Sarah Knight,  A lovely, warm winter colour palette.
  3. FQ Bundle Very Hungry Caterpillar Bundle. 11 Fabrics. A timeless story and the perfect bundle to welcome a baby
  4. FQ Bundle Andover Royal Blue 24 Fabrics.  Designed by Edytar Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts, a stunning selection of the most beautiful prints with a blue theme. There's a free Norway quilt pattern to go with these beauties too.
I'd also like to give a mention to the Alison Glass Handiwork Collection- the FQ bundle is already out of stock but there is yardage of most fabrics, Decoupage is my pick of the prints!  

Saturday 26 October 2019

Catching Up

It's been a busy few weeks, I'm just catching up with everything after the half-term break from my day job.  This month has been dominated by a complicated health diagnosis for Joni.  She has renal dysplasia.  This means her kidneys are not properly formed and are only 30% of the size they should be.  It was a massive shock and we spent the first three weeks trying to establish a prescription diet and encourage her to eat. After a lot of stress, we've found a food she can eat and her most recent blood test has shown some improvement and a couple of things that need closer monitoring.  It does impact heavily on looking after her- we can't use food treats with her so on longer walks, it's rare that we let her off the lead, she needs lots of water so more toilet breaks, she rarely sleeps through the night as a result.  She is the most loving and lively of dogs and it can be hard to comprehend how complicated things are inside her.  Our vet has been amazing, incredibly supportive and giving us positivity when we have needed it. At the moment she's happy and active, we're doing all we can for her.  It has taken up a lot of time so whilst I have been sewing, I don't have much I can share here at the moment so I'll leave you with a few recent pics of her, she is a total joy.




Sunday 6 October 2019

The Make Stuff Zip Pouch

At a recent guild meeting, I got talking to the lovely Saira of Olive & Flo Handcraft who came to run a pop-up shop.  We were chatting about solids and she was selling the Art Gallery Pure Elements solids among the many prints on her stall.  Sarah Ashford and I offered to make something from Pure  Elements to showcase to how beautiful they are to work with as we all thought they were a range that can easily get looked over.  As with all Art Gallery woven cotton, they are lighter weight than solids like Kona and have a silkier feel.  We each chose four colours, Saira sent us a fat quarter of each and we got to work.  This is what I came up with, The Make Stuff Zip Pouch.








The colours I worked with were: Cozumel blue, Banana Cream, Crystal Pink and White Linen.  I thought these made a summery happy combination, the sort of colours I like to look at all year round and especially when it's not summer!  I recently had a birthday and my husband bought me lots of Aurifil appliqué threads and I knew I wanted a zip pouch like this to put them in.  I drafted the letters as a starting point and then turned to a beautiful Courthouse Steps Sewing Bag that Penny (Sewtakeahike) made me a from some amazing embroidered silk.  I treasure it and use to keep my small 50wt Aurifil spools neatly organised and all in one place.  The pattern she used was from Natural Patchwork by Suzuko Koseki.  I remembered a similar one in Patchwork Style, the first of her books that I bought many years ago and still love to look through.  I adapted the pattern diagrams with a combination of instinct and fudging and made it work with the foundation paper pieced text, double zip and the thread spools. The big bonus of Pure Elements is that even with the tiny piecing where 1/4" seams end up layered upon each other, the bulk is reduced and there's no lumpiness. The front and back bag panels are layered with batting and lining and quilted.   I also used Pure Elements for the top and side sections(with a single layer of fusible interfacing), as well as the handles panel lining.  

I'm so pleased with the pouch, it's just how I imagined.  I didn't sketch it out, instead, I relied on the image in my mind's eye and kept on going until it worked!  The prints were from a scrap bag I bought from Saira and my own scraps.  The inside seam was finished with some vintage pre-made bias binding and sewn on in one pass.  It could be neater- the corners are so tricky with this shape- but it passes even my critical eye.  The double pull zip was in my stash, you can find similar at Rose Garden Patchwork, it helps with the opening and access on a project like this.  Thank you Saira for providing the fabrics for this project, I'm very happy that I get to keep this one!  Keep a lookout for what Sarah does with hers too, I'm looking forward to seeing...