I've made....

the most ridiculous mistakes this week, honestly you wouldn't believe how stupid I can be at times.  Well, maybe you can.............

But first how about I show you something I didn't make a mistake on?

Colourwheel, the first block in Gypsy Wife.  I am so happy with the way it came together and the beautiful vibrant fabrics on the lovely Carolyn Friedlander background.  Sigh........ I could look at this all day.  When you examine it it is just half square and three-quarter square triangles which I made as such rather than piecing together triangles, I do have some left but I may well be able to use them further on in the quilt, and if I can't then they will go into a box towards a scrappy improv quilt.  Now if I was being really picky I would criticise two of my joins which are off by a minuscule amount, but I'm not so I won't.

The next block is Perishing reputed to be the most difficult in the quilt, I'll tell you how I get on next week.  If you have always wanted to make Gypsy Wife the quilt along has just started so it's not too late to join in, you can find details on the Gnome Angel blog here, including links to Instagram and the Facebook page.

I thought I would make my bee blocks this week and get them posted, I was much later than normal last month and I wasn't happy about it.  I don't like leaving things to the last minute, especially when it is a commitment I have made and people are waiting for me to fulfil it.  Now that's where the trouble started.

The first one I made was from........

Dog Gone Cute.  The block is from a quilt along and designed by the lovely and very generous Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts, Lorna makes the most beautiful quilts many on animal themes, and you can find several free patterns on her blog.  If you haven't visited Lorna's blog before I strongly suggest you pop over and have a look around, I'd be surprised if you didn't find something you like.

This block was made for Ann one of my bee mates in our own special bee Bee Inspired, Ann has a great blog too,  Brown Paws Quilting.   Ann has just finished a wonderful sampler, if you have time you could pop over, say hello and check it out.

Now about those mistakes, if you have a look at the block it has a centre piece where most of the fiddly stuff is, then two side pieces and a long bit across the top.  I followed the pattern and made the two side pieces then the top piece and as you can see they were quite straightforward to make,  Lorna's instructions were very clear.  Next I made the more fiddly centre, but when you analyse it it's not too bad.  So, all I had left to do was stitch on the side pieces then add the strip across the top, sounds simple they were already made, but thats when the problems started.

I stitched the sides on, one seemed a little short but the block probably just needed trimming so I added the top, but when I measured it it would have been short if I trimmed it, I must have cut the piece wrong.   I couldn't understand it but the easiest way to remedy it was just to make another piece,  no big deal.

I unpicked the top part way across, removed the faulty piece, and made another by cutting the white rectangle, adding a square in the corner and doing stitch and flip to make the triangle, trimming it, pressing it......... and then I realised the wrong side of the white was uppermost, so exasperated, and it couldn't be fixed, sad.

Out came the cutting board and I made another one, perfect, I made it a bit longer than I needed to make sure it fit, stitched it onto the side, stitched the top back on..........and realised IT WAS TOO NARROW  What??????  I had cut it 31/2 inches instead of 41/2, how had I done that?  So I had to take it all off AGAIN

Out came the cutting board, again, and I made the FOUTH one, this time I cut it extra wide and triple checked it, I also made it extra long and triple checked, surely I couldn't get it wrong again.  The relief when I didn't, I trimmed it and it was perfect.

 Here are the rejects, the first one on the left, the back to front one in the middle, and the narrow one on the right.  Lots of white scraps then.

Karen encouraged us to name our dogs this was the easy part, I haven't told you what my little one got up to last week.  When Gary came home last Thursday we went to the pub for a quick one before tea, now that is a very rare occurrence for us but it was a beautiful night and we had a lovely drive first before having a larger in the pub, then we went home to find..........

this.  It's my kitchen and what is that on the floor?   One of the curtains.........

from my lounge.   Indi, she must have pulled on it so hard the hooks came out of the curtain then she had dragged it across the floor, through the hall, and into the kitchen.  I'm not sure if her half sister Ella had anything to do with it but if there is trouble about you can bet your last dollar Indi is at the bottom of it, and no she is not a puppy she was four yesterday.

Remember this?

The cushion I made last year from the practice blocks?  Take a look at it now........

It has sat in the rocking chair for ten months until two weeks ago.   All I can say is I'm glad I had moved my snowman cushions!

So Karen, due to all the trouble dog gone cute has given me her name is Indi.

Now I'm thinking that most people reading have given up by now and gone off somewhere so I can tell you my embarrassing moment.  This is on condition you so NOT let anyone connected to Stash Bee know.

I made this months block for Monica at the weekend and it is one of the nicest blocks this year,

this is her pic from her Stash Bee post which has all her fabric details.

I particularly like the original design where the centre blocks are the same colour and I can just see it as a panel sown a modern quilt in soft greys and pinks, it is the Alpine block and you can find it at Blossom Heart Quilts here .

I made up the block from fabrics in my stash and it went together like a dream and yesterday I posted it on the Stash Bee blog, that's when it didn't go to plan.  I had posted the pic sideways.  I removed it and turned it around, upside down, I removed it again, turned it around again and posted it.  THEN I went to check it had published properly and I noticed it didn't look quite right, I couldn't put my finger on it.  I checked the original pic and realised........

I had put the sides on the wrong way!  i was mortified, and it was on the Stash Bee blog and on the world wide web for everyone to see.  I went straight back to blogger and deleted the post breathing a sigh of relief, if I hadn't spotted it just imagine the ridicule.

Next I went to check my feed on Bloglovin and........... the post was there, mortification.  Fortunately when I clicked the link it came up post not found and my luck was in, the pic on Bloglovin doesn't give any clues as to who posted it, lets just hope no one recognised the fabrics, but I will make sure I wait a couple of weeks before I repost it to make sure.  So, it looks like I got away with it because it's only you and me who know and we are not telling......... are we?

While I think on I just have to tell you that I've been featured on Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication today, for my sampler quilt.  I am thrilled, it is the second time Susan has featured me, I have the I've Been Featured button on my sidebar, how cool is that?

Lastly an update, my Dad is doing well and is home, it may well happen again in another six months but we will cross that bridge when we come to it, anything can happen in the meantime and today the sun has come out and I have a block to repair.

Until next time,
With smiles from,
Kate x

Linking up with:
Midweek Makers
Let's Bee Social
Wednesday Wait Loss
Needle and Thread Thursday
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Quilting is more fun than Housework hosting for TGIFF
Finished or Not Friday

IT'S CHRISTMAS.........

and my stop on the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop hosted by the lovely and very generous Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  There are the most wonderful giveaways on this hop (and I'm not talking charm packs), and Sarah is giving instructions for a new quilt, you'll find all the details at the end of the post.

So now, without any further ado (unusual I admit) is my contribution to the hop...........

It's Christmas

and it's partner, the second of the matching pair............

I Believe

We all love cushions (pillows) and they are great for decorating your home at Christmas,  who can have too many cushions?   So I started  doodling and I came up with, 

this design.    I wanted to keep it simple as I'm a simple kind of girl (no, I didn't mean in the head, who said that?), I'm not a designer and I don't have any fancy equipment, just a pad of graph paper and a pencil.

Next I found some large sheets of graph paper so I could draw it out actual size, I bought it years ago for some abandoned project.   Yes it is rather faint, but this paper is expensive and I thought if I did it faintly I could rub it out and reuse it, waste not want not and no I am not mean!   It was a case of making it bigger and working out the template sizes. Only thing was it took a while to get the  snowman right.

So I measured it for length and width,  halved a sheet of A4 sheet of paper down the centre, and drew the shape to the measurements, and it worked.  Then it was just a matter of cutting it out, opening it up and checking it was what I wanted.  It did take a couple of goes to get it right though.  Once I had sorted my snowman all the other elements were much easier.

This is what I did to make my 18 inch cushion.  If you have done this kind of appliqué  you may find some of this a bit basic but I'm going through it all for the benefit of new quilters who may not have done it before.

First I cut my background fabric, I used Galaxy Stars from Makower, I love this fabric, I cut a 19 inch square.  Appliqué can distort the background so I cut it bigger by just half an inch, it doesn't distort it much though so if you are worried about trimming it later just cut it to size.

Next I traced the templates on to the paper side of Heat'n'Bond Lite, I use this one but any other make will do.  Cut the shapes out roughly, don't cut on the line at this point.  Now iron them onto the back of the fabric you are using, paper side up.  I used just whatever fabric I had, I didn't buy any specially because you need such small pieces and you don't need Christmas fabrics, just a fabric that represents a wrapping paper you would use for wrapping your prezzies.  When the fabric has cooled cut the shapes out on the line, peel off the paper backing and it's ready to be ironed onto the background.  It will still need to be machined or hand stitched though or it will come off again.

First I added the snowman, I centred it about 2 inches or so from the bottom and ironed it on.  I didn't  add all the pieces of the snowman at this point because the nose and arms don't adhere as well and I didn't want them to start lifting while I was stitching the body and scarf in place. 

I used a buttonhole stitch about length 2 and width 2.4 to attach the pieces, although I reduced it for the stick arms and carrot nose as they were so much smaller, down to about 1.5 stitch length and 1.6 width, I just did a few stitches and adjusted it accordingly.  The good thing about using buttonhole stitch is I don't need to use a stabiliser, if you prefer a zigzag make sure you use a tear away stabiliser the back.

It doesn't matter which side you put the scarf on, I just made it the opposite side to the hat to balance it more, but I ended up with the long side different on one of them, it really doesn't matter, does it look wrong to you?

I cut different size pieces of paper for the parcels and snowballs trying for size and ended up using 11/2 inch squares and 11/2 inch circles using seven snowballs in I Believe, and seven parcels in It's Christmas, but you can use however many you want.   I just drew around the top of a reel of thread for the circles, the size isn't vital, for the parcels I just cut a larger piece of Heat'n'Bond, ironed it to the back of the fabric, and when it cooled cut it down to size using my rotary cutter.

Then it was just a matter of arranging the parcels or snowballs how I wanted leaving a space of a couple of inches or so at the top and sides and angling the parcels so they looked like they were being juggled.

At this point I decided to add two larger parcels at the bottom for balance which are a bit bigger at 1 3/4 x 2 1/4 and 1 3/4 x 3 1/4  but I know they are a bit different on one as I cut it slightly small, there again I could just say it's a design thing..........   I was going to add snowballs but when I tried them it just looked like it needed a bit more colour.   I used my ruler to line them up at the bottom.

I added the hat so it looked like it had fallen off.  The hat caused me problems, my original one was far too small so I made it bigger, I made it black and it disappeared.  After I tried another couple using different fabrics and I eventually realised it wasn't going to stand out unless I made it bright to show up on the dark background so I matched it to the scarf, duh!

The arms ere trickier, I just ironed them on and hoped for the best, you could place yours a little higher if you want, you may want to cut them a little shorter though so they don't get too near the edge.  I just took my time stitching in and out of the sharp points.

After all the pieces were stitched on it was the fun time, decorating it.

I made the smile with french knots using two strands of stranded cotton, but if you are not happy with that you could just use a black Pigma pen.  Same with the letters on the snowballs, I lightly marked them using a fabric pencil and backstitched them with two strands of black, but you can use the Pigma pen here too.

The letters may be a little wonky and the smile may be crooked, but add it all together and it says 'Handmade with Love' (hysterical giggles).

After I finished Believe, I had a thought that if I had added the snowballs using needle turn and stitched the letters first I could have stuffed the snowballs with toy filling to give a 3D effect, just saying........

For the parcels I used two strands of cotton and stem stitch for the ribbons, I didn't mark them, I just tried to keep them small enough and figured that being thrown in the air the ribbons would be all over the place anyway.

There again, if I had thought to use a narrow ribbon like this at 1/8 th of an inch wide,

it would work just as well, just remember to stitch through the knot so it doesn't come undone.

Three tiny black buttons added the finishing touch.  I didn't measure it just did it by eye.

Then I made another one, like it?  I stayed with the seven snowballs but as EMILY has only five letters I added snowflakes at the ends in long stitch going down in a centre hole.  But, there is no rule to say you have to use a certain number of snowballs or what size they have to be, the name can be shorter or longer.  My granddaughter is going to love this.

I layered Emily's top with a blended batting and calico, then I quilted it by stitching around all the shapes, I didn't quilt the background as I didn't need to with the batting I used.  Next I cut two pieces of fabric for the back 18 1/2 x 14 inches and made a half inch double hem on one of the long sides of each piece to make an envelope back.  If you haven't done this before put the top face up and the two back pieces face down on top, matching the long raw edges top and bottom.  Pin well, then machine around using a 1/4  inch hem, I do two rounds of stitching to make it secure, especially where the envelope joins are at the sides.  Then I zigzag around to neaten the edges and snip the corners.  Turn it right sides out and carefully poke out the corners, don't use anything sharp though or it could go through the fabric and then you would be sad :-(

Now here is my confession, although I had bought enough fabric I decided I love it far too much to use on the backs, especially as I had already discovered my supplier had ran out.  Fabrics change and I may not be able to get any more, so I had a root around to see if I had anything else I could use.  Oh yes, I found a fabric I bought eleven years ago at Joannes in Florida.  It was when I was a new quilter and didn't know much about fabrics, I knew it washed ok so that's what I used instead.  You see I don't like using favourite fabrics for backs, in fact I would rather use something I got in a sale.  Are you shocked at my meanness?

Back to the cushion, after trimming the corners and turning I stitched all the way around at 1/4 inch to stop the back showing through to the front.

With the two others I didn't even quilt them,  I just lined the back with calico and added the envelope back.

 I think they look just as good unquilted, what do you think?  I may go back and do 1/4 inch stitching around the edge though.  The back doesn't show as it would on the quilted version but it just gives a nice finish, what do you think?

And there you have it, a veritable trio of Christmas cushions, I Believe, It's Christmas, and Emily.

Wouldn't they make lovely Christmas mini quilts too?

It is Christmas (we are pretending anyway, shhhh) and I believe in spreading the love, so, here is the link to MY TEMPLATES in case you would like to make one.  Make sure you print it out at 100%, there are two pages.  I don't have any fancy programmes remember, the templates are hand drawn.   If you make one (or both) of the  cushions I would love it if you sent me a pic  of your finished cushion,  but do you know what would really make me happy?  If you like my design and use it it would be wonderful if you shared the love and peace of Christmas by making a small donation to a children's charity of your choice, just a few pennies, whatever you can afford.

If you are getting a jump on Christmas check out the Origami Christmas Tree I made last year.

IMPORTANT - a number of commenters from the hop are no reply, this means Sarah wont be able to contact you if are drawn for a prize and haven't added your email address.  Please check you are not one of them, especially if you are Google +  Even if you have changed your settings they can revert.

I have had an increase in no reply comments recently including some asking questions, if you have asked me a question and not received a reply or you would like to ask me a question but don't want to leave a comment you can always find my email address on my About Me page, smilesfromkate@gmail.com

As if great holiday ideas and a tutorial weren't enough,  this year Sarah has arranged  something extra special!   The lovely folks over at Free Spirit Fabrics have donated not just one item for a giveaway, but THIRTEEN! And it's pretty drool-worthy stuff, too - it's Tula Pink's new holiday line, Holiday Homies!!!

Sarah has six design rolls, six layer cakes, and one fat quarter bundle to give away - and here's how it works! Visit each stop on the hop, including Sarah's blog, and leave a comment on each post for the day. At the end of the hop, Sarah will do a giveaway for each day by putting everyone's name in the hat who commented that day (from all that day's hop-blogs), and drawing a winner for that day. That will be twelve winners - the design rolls and layer cakes. Then all all the names from all the days go in a hat a name is drawn out  for the fat quarter bundle! Only one prize per person, though - let's spread it around a bit! So carve out a bit of time to visit all the blogs and comment - it makes the time bloggers spend on each post worth it when we see what people think about our work!

Don't forget visit  Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Jan @The Colourful Fabriholic today and leave comments on their posts too to increase your chances of winning.  If you haven't seen any of the posts until now you can find Sarah's first post here, you will need to start there if you want to make the Christmas quilt she has designed.  It is not too late to comment on any of the blogs, you get one entry for each and every comment you make.

Here is the full list of all the blogs and schedule in case you missed any, I'm updating the links so they should take you direct to the post:

Friday, July 14th

From My Carolina Home

Vrooman's Quilts

Pampered Pettit

Saturday, July 15th

Citymousequilter

Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Quilting Fun

Sunday, July 16th

Swimming in a Sea of Estrogen

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting

Monday, July 17th

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Crayon Box Quilt Studio

Tuesday, July 18th

Seams To Be Sew

Stitchin at Home

Domestic Felicity

Wednesday, July 19th

The Colorful Fabriholic

                   Smiles From Kate  This is me!

Thursday, July 20th

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting

The Inquiring Quilter

Selina Quilts

Friday, July 21st

Katie Mae Quilts

Quilted Blooms

QuiltFabrication

Saturday, July 22nd

Devoted Quilter

Kathy's Kwilts and More

All Points of the Compass

Sunday, July 23rd

Mel's Quilting Blog

Resourceful Momma

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting

Monday, July 24th

Anja Quilts

PickingandStitching

A Dream and a Stitch

Tuesday, July 25th

Christina's Handicrafts

Abyquilts

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Wishing you all love and peace.

With smiles from
Kate x

Now, if you have caught up on all the posts, why not join me in viewing my favourite linky parties, you can find them on my sidebar, I'll be there for sure.  you don't want to miss anything, do you?

Let's Bee Social
Midweek Makers
Wednesday Wait Loss
Needle and Thread Thursday
Finished or Not Friday
Pretty Piney hosting for TGIFF
Crazy Mom Quilts

Playing with my scraps update

Welcome to Day 4 of  New Quilt Bloggers Special Posts

Today I thought it would be fun to go back to a post I did in April, I've been playing with my scraps.  You may not have seen that one, I did it as an extra post after a fun filled Saturday afternoon.  I didn't share it at all, it was just there, so if you were not a follower then chances are you will have missed it.

These are the scraps in question.  All I had left from the Oakshott City Lights Lipari fabric.  They were so beautiful I didn't want to waste them, so I just had a play.  They were from fat eighths, selvage scraps which varied in width from less than an inch to about an inch and a half so not much to play with.  

Now I hadn't done any improv at that time although I was drawn to improv quilts but I hadn't anything to loose and thought, how hard can it be?  So I had a go.  Oh how naive, I didn't have a clue what I was doing.  

I just started machining random strips together first, then started cutting them up.

This is what I eventually ended up with, not very inspiring is it?

Ok, so time to see if I could do anything with it.

I decided to make the most of it I would turn it into a cushion (pillow).  First of all I added a black narrow border to finish about about three quarters of an inch.  That's when I had my brainwave, now don't laugh, I decided to paper piece it.  When you have picked yourself up off the floor and dried your eyes I will continue.  Thank you!  I got out my roll of golden threads paper and drew an 18 inch square with seam allowance, I allow extra for a cushion.

I chose the angle I wanted to place it, and used a dab of fabric glue to secure it so it wouldn't move around when I was working.  I would usually use a pin but it was a little large, well ok then, a lot large.

I estimated how much I would need, creased it, and cut.

Then I checked the cut was right before I machined it in place.

Then I repeated for the second side.

It was adding the third side things started to go wrong a bit.  The fabric kept slipping with the slippery paper, so I ended up taking it off and pinning the fabrics together.  That is why the black edging is a little, yes, I did say a little, uneven.  I can't show you a pic of the three sides because I forgot to take one.

I then went on to do the quilting, finishing it with a simple envelope back, because as we all know, I don't do zips, at present that is.

This was the result.  Like my buttercups?  Why have a boring green lawn when you can have a bright and cheerful one.

Have another look, isn't it beautiful?  All of those selvedge ends that could have gone to waste, would you have kept them?  Yes it's a bit wonky, and it's not proper improv, but would you notice that unless you examined it closely?  Well, yes, probably, but not if you just glanced at it across the room you wouldn't.  

I just did straight lines with the walking foot using the edge as a guide, so about half an inch width.  I had been thinking about spiral triangles but there was no point because there isn't enough negative space around the triangle.  If you look closely at the bottom you can see I did a diamond shape grid at the points, a nice little feature which saved me from burying threads (believe that you'll believe anything :-))

So this is all I now have left which includes the binding scraps, shame to waste it............

I hope you are all suitably excited about The Secret of Bluebell Woods post tomorrow.  Have you guessed yet?

Remember you have until midnight on Saturday to enter the giveaway, just leave a post about Bluebell, or the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop on Bluebell Woods Revealed to enter, and for a second entry let me know how you follow me.

I am so excited to be revealing the secret, I would be even more excited if I had written the post!

See you tomorrow

With smiles from

Kate

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