Forwards

Christmas was lovely.  Yesterday was very long, 450 miles on the train up and down the country to my Grandad's funeral.  A long and sad day but a funeral shouldn't really be anything else.  I don't like to dwell, I won't be posting all my makes of the year or anything like that.  I like to see these elsewhere but generally when I have made something I like to move on to the next project, get the creative buzz from figuring out how I am going to make the new idea.  This is handy, it makes it easy to pass on bee blocks, swaps and presents, I don't like to look back only forwards.

This pillow was for my sister.  Aneela's wonderful Walk in the Woods fabrics and a few others!

These fabrics are on sale in the Spring.  But just in case you still pine for a little Christmas, look at her festive fabrics for next year.  

Concealed zip, I don't do my pillows any other way now.

The back is simple parallel quilting and the main print is a Cosmo Cricket fabric given to me by Anna ages ago.  It matched perfectly.

There are some texty treats scattered around to make my sister laugh and my nephew too.  We have a puerile sense of humour but it can't be helped.

Now, Bee blocks to finish...off I trot

A Walk in the Woods- Mini Tote Tutorial

Aneela, Moda fabric designer extraordinaire kindly sent me and some other UK bloggers generously filled parcels full of scraps from her forth coming line A Walk in the Woods, released Spring 2012, what a treat!  I knew the first thing I was going to make, and here it is.

This is an easy adaptation of my mini tote tutorial.  I made this one for my niece's Christmas present, you know how young children love bags for carrying their treasures and the fabric is perfect for fussy cuts. A multi-functional gift ready for a game of eye spy as well as filling with goodies.   This bag is 7" square finished size not including the handles.  Wanna make one? read on.

You will need:

For the front and back- Fussycut eighteen 2" Squares 

Sashing strips for the front blocks- Cut two strips 1 3/4" x 5" and two strips 1 3/4"x 7 ½  from a light solid e.g. Essex linen

For the Straps- Cut two strip 3"x 8" from co-ordinating fabric

Lining-Cut two 7 1/2" squares from co-ordinating fabric

Fusible Fleece- Cut two 7 1/2"squares  e.g. Vilene 630 fleece interlining (supplied by Julia at Gone to Earth).  You could also use cotton batting or interfacing.

Letter stamps and Versa craft ink pad

Embroidery thread for the running stitch detail- I used Sashiko thread

Sewing supplies

Seams are 1/4" throughout.

Step 1: Making the Front and Back

Stitch your squares together in rows of 3. On the top and bottom row press the seams to the left and on  the centre row press seams to the right.

Join your  3 rows of squares matching up the points at the seams.

I stamp my sashing before I stitch it on.  I use Hero Arts Clear design rubber stamps and Versacraft ink.  This is heat set with an iron. Let the stamps dry for a few minutes, cover with a bit of scrap cotton and press for 15 seconds with a medium hot iron.  Remove the scrap cotton and repeat two more times and press on the reverse as well.  Then, add your sashing.

The rest of the bag follows the tutorial here from Step 2.   The only addition you will need to make is to add the running stitch detail.  I add this at the beginning of step 3, after I have added the fusible fleece but before I add the handles.  

Hadley did a lovely version of Ayumi's wristlet pattern with the same fabric and more fussy cut squares see here. 

 Thankyou Aneela, I think everyone was thrilled with their fabric parcel x