Secret Santa

This year for the first year, I am taking part in the Secret Santa swap with BQL. I have received my parcel, and it is waiting neatly, still in the envelope.

On Friday I sent my own parcel and am allowed to show its content, without revealing who will receive it.

I embroidered the front of the needle holder with a design found on Cynderberry Stitches by Natalie Lymer called "Sweet and spotty Needle Wallet". If you look on the website there is a free download of this project in the column on the right.

The pin cushion is made with 2 squares sewn in a strange way.

You start with one corner sewn on the middle of the side of the other square. You keep going like this all the way around. I then added a button in the middle.

The 6 fabric coasters you have seen before in a post.

Bear Brooch

I found this tutorial on the net, to crochet a bear and mount it as a brooch.

You need 2 big circles and 2 small, easy.

And then my daughter, can't remember which one, said it looked like a pig....maybe because of the colour of the cotton !

Anyway I wore it once and got some interest, so I can say that it is a ..nice .. bear.

You can find the tutorial on Folksy, the author is Irenestrange, and it is called an amigurimi bear.

November Calendar

And November is going on quickly, Christmas seems to be running towards us.

This is my interpretation of our block for our perpetual calendar on BQL for this month.

The block was "Drunkards Path", and we could

machine applique a circle in the middle of a

square, then cut it in 4 to get 4 little blocks.

I complicated it a bit by putting 2 circles in, one being much smaller than the other. It was all calculated so that the final design would give the impression of a continuity between the squares on the block. It worked if you don't look too much in detail.

This photo was taken before the quilting-embroidery-ribbon were added.

I love the result, tried different fabrics, on the basis of a blue, white and red choice.

And then I thought there was still a lot of space in the red area, and added the embroidery (machine) and the ric rac ribbon.

It looks a bit old fashioned, which I find interesting.

I enjoy trying a different technique every month, and a small project gives you the opportunity to play a bit with fabrics, ribbons and quilting.

Soon I will be given the instructions for Christmas, I wonder what Kandy has done for us...

Fine cell work

I have just been watching a video about "Fine Cell Work".

This organisation is teaching men and women in prison in England to sew, embroider, make patchworks. They produce cushions and throws sold to the public, admittedly they are not cheap but very good quality, and the designs are beautiful.

The video is very interesting, so if you have a few minutes, go and have a look.

http://www.finecellwork.co.uk/audiovideo/

They have made things for Dover Castle in a medieval inspiration and will have a piece at the V &A museum in a coming exhibition.

Baby shoes

Julie who lives next door from me had a baby boy last Friday. We are all very excited about this new addition to their family and I made some little shoes from a pattern made by Amy Butler inher book "Little Stitches for little ones".

There are some other projects which are quite tempting. My only regret is that my own children are too old, and I think I didn't have enough time to make all the things I would have liked to make when they were baby girls.

But I'm still making some for the babies around me.

I followed the pattern in the book, done in a size 3 months in this case, but wasn't happy with the space left for the leg of the baby. I then changed the position of the velcro on the shoe, put it higher, and it works much better.

This photo with my hand is just to give you an idea of the size of the shoe. It needs to be roomy enough for the socks as well.

Now should I make another one for my young niece in France, in size 6 months...

News

I am sorry there was a gap in my posting.

I went away in France for a week and took some sewing with me, but didn't find the time to do much. Nothing finished anyway.

We came back in time for Halloween, walking the streets with my youngest, and then on 1st Nov was the Malvern Autumn Patchwork show.

I went with my friend Jane and her daughter Amanda and it was a great day. I didn't buy too much fabric in the morning, but the afternoon was more productive.

I also bought some wadding in advance as I hate chasing cotton wadding for a project, and paying a high price. In fact what happened was that near the end of the show I mentioned it near a shop and was offered to buy whatever wadding was left for £5.50 a metre. A bargain. So instead of a roll I have pieces going from 1 1/2 metres to 4 metres, but I know that some of them will be used for small projects, so it's not a problem.

I am still looking for some black fabric for one of my projects. I am running low but the rolls in the shop have a slightly different hue, and I am getting nowhere. I left my phone number with a shop and haven't heard from them after a week. Another one has something close to the right colour, is that good enough ?

I am hoping to get more sewing done now.

Oh and I have a new computer, much faster, that should help as soon as I get used to the new features.

Enjoy your sewing..

Tilda bathing lady

In the last 3 days I made this beautiful doll, from the tilda book "Sew Sunny Homestyle". There are a few other projects that tempt me for later.

I bought a fat quarter of the black with white spots fabric, from the Tilda collection, and a metre of white croquet ribbon. I already had the fabric for the skin, plain calico.

I had fun and am pleased

with the result.

Now it's your turn to try.

Here is a photo of the book, it has recently been translated in english, and I bought it straight away as I already love Tone Finnanger's other books. Here is a link to the product on Amazon uk no affiliation.

I was wondering how to do the hair but followed the explanation and it worked. I put some pins around her head and weaved the knitting thread around the pins. Then I sewed everything in place, and took the pins out.

I just need to put some colour on her cheeks.

Coasters

This is a simple project, you can use whatever size of fabric you have at home, or some remnants or bits left at the end of another project, which is what I did.

I assembled the fabric to make squares 4 1/2"

unfinished size. Then very simply you cut a square the same dimension for the back, put them right side together on a piece of wadding. As a remark I can add that I used leftover wadding, and didn't cut it until after I had sewn around my coaster. This is easier.

So you put the walking foot on the sewing machine, start 3/4 down one side of a square, and sew 1/4" all around your square, leaving a gap at the end to turn everything right side out.You cut the corners to reduce the bulk there, and turn your coaster out.

There is some hand sewing involved now, to close the gap. I use a ladder stitch that disappears in the fabric.
The last step is to quilt each square 1/4" all the way around the top. They should finish close to 4" square, but that's not very important as long as they are all a similar size.

I can say it is a quick project, but it depends how many coasters you make, and how long it takes you to make the top. You could choose to piece it with a small block, or embroider it. I had 2 bits of trees left from another year, and used them.

I chose not to be too precious about it, because I want these little coasters to be used, and washed. They will be little presents ready to go, I don't know where yet.

I love the batiks and their colours.

I hope you find this inspiring and start yours. It could become a little Christmas present...

Blog award

I was nominated by lovely Gill for the Dorset Cereals Blog award.
I don't know if I have any chance, but I ought to try to participate. As we say in french "Qui ne tente rien, n'a rien!".
So I would be very impressed and pleased if you would take a few instants to vote for me on their website : I am going to put a little banner at the bottom of my right hand side column to take you to the right place.
With lots of thanks, from Pascale.
XX

October calendar

And here is my next panel for the calendar organised by Kandy for BQL. Kandy also has a blog called"A break at home" where she posts about her sewing and her family, as well as looking after us on the group site .

This October we made some windmills, in 3D. They were easy to make and effective when finished.

Cat purse

This is a small project I started and finished yesterday. It is for my friend Chris who has 2 cats, and for whom I made a bag with the same fabric. I'm not sure if she still uses the bag, but she can use this on its own.

It is lined in a beige fabric, and I have used a thin wadding, plus my little label of course.

I am working on different things but they are either not finished yet, or I need somebody to help me to take a good photo. I'll show them soon.

September Calendar

And here we go again with my square for September in the British Quilters List Challenge for 2009.

This is a small interpretation of Log Cabin. The logs are cut at 3/4" and end up at ...oups ! 3/8" instead of 1/4". at the end my block measured 13 1/2" so had grown 1". But then when it is on the wall by itself nobody will notice.

I made my 16 log cabin squares and played with possible designs. Here are a few photos.

I chose the last design, partly because I had never done it.

And here it is pieced together.

And I wondered how to quilt it.

I opted for some kind of leaves, accentuating the diagonal lines. There are 3 in 2 corners of each little square.

They look almost like butterflies, or hearts.

Owl pencilcases

In August I was lucky to attend the Festival of Quilts in Birmimgham. I bought this fabric and have made 3 pencil cases with it.

One has gone for DD1, the second to Kandy from BQL and I'm keeping the third one for myself.

I spent Tuesday at Kandy's house and we had lots of fun. She has displayed a lot of her work around the house, and showed me where she sews. I had a little taster on EQ6 (the program to plan your quilts, but it does lots of others things as well..). And very quickly it was time for me to go pick up the girls from school.

We'll have to do it again Kandy. It was great.

House key ring

Here is a little project I started during the holidays.

I made it all by hand because I didn't have a machine there, and finished it when I came home because Iwanted to use a key fob; this way I can change the keys, or not take the little house with the keys if I have a very small bag.

It comes from this magazine, written by Veronique Requena, which went out of print because it sold so well, and has been made into a book. I am afraid it is only available in french at the moment, also I only looked on Amazon UK for an english version.

She is also the owner of the shop in Bourgogne, France, "Born to Quilt".

The pattern is pretty simple, measure your keys and the space they need, and you could adapt it to suit your needs.

DD4 new dress

You would think that having daughters I would get to sew them some clothes. But no, they are not interested any more. Not at 15, 13, 11...and then yes maybe, but really to please me, at 8. Finally.

I let DD4 choose her fabrics, and she picked one by the Japanese Lecien. She's got good taste or what. And if I bought it, I've got to use it.

I picked a raspberry pink for the fabric under. This dress is almost 2 dresses. The pattern is the same except one is longer than the other. Oh and I had to recalculate because they didn't go up to her size.

Then I zigzaged some leaves design on the front dress, and cut the holes to see the fabric of the second dress.

There is no button, zip, or other opening way to help put the dress on. And so it was good that I could try it all the way on my daughter, because when she put her arms up, it changed the width of her shoulders, and I had to make some adjustments.

The book I used is in french, " Les vetements de petite fille" by Cecile Vincent, and I loved the photos, the ideas, the colours. But I found that the explanations were a bit light, especially if you had never done anything like this. I used my own method in some parts. And there was no mention of the seam allowances, and where they should be.

It's a book to give you ideas, show you the way Cecile Vincent has done it, but you need to know how to make clothes to really be able to use it.