Hi! My name is ...

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Gemma!

At Embroiderers' Guild we are all encouraged to make a name badge so we have a better chance at remembering names! It's really great for me - I meet so many new people at WI alone I can't really cope with trying to remember any more!

Here is my badge ...



I stamped my name on to paper and traced it on to the plain calico, then satin stitched over it in black cotton.

The tiny hexagons are paper-pieced. Very fiddly and not too symmetrical, but very cute.



I'll be wearing this to WI as well - we've started giving out sticky labels there to help everyone get to know each other.

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Kindle cover

Friday 27 January 2012

I challenged myself to make something new last week - a Kindle pouch.

It's just a bigger take on the phone pouch I made myself a while back, but needed to have a flap and some sort of fastening so the Kindle doesn't fall out.

Also, it was for a male friend, so I couldn't just go for my usual flowery fabrics.

And here it is!



Luckily I had some of this funky boy fabric with cars and bikes and boats and planes, which is great for a small feature panel. It also matched in with the chequered fabric and I went with the traditional blue and red fabrics for the main construction.



This is the back, with two panels. I pinked them round the edges and stitched on with a zig-zag stitch. There is a layer of batting and the lining is a plain calico.



A Formula 1 car on the front and the flap has a press-stud for easy opening (and also because I had no velcro).

I used measurements from a tutorial online and it actually came out a little long for the Kindle, but it does the job.

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Love, love, love

Monday 23 January 2012

With Valentine's Day coming up I thought I best prepare a card to send to Jenson Button! Well, you never know!



I've gone for what I hope is quite a sophisticated look and used Crumb Cake and red.



The little envelopes are made with the Petal Card Double Punch, which cuts and embosses, and the DSP is the now retired Love Letter series. The images are from a hostess set from last year called Cute By The Inch but it is one of my all-time favourites. The ribbon is Real Red Taffeta Ribbon.

Hopefully it will help me win Jenson over!

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Latest quilt progress

Friday 20 January 2012

Having spent all of Christmas working on my quilt I had to put it away for a while and do something different. I was getting hexagon blindness!

I've been drooling over several quilt patterns and new fabrics recently and have in mind a "proper" quilt to make, but first I really should finish the Japanese hexagon one.

So, last night at our Buns & Roses WI meeting I took my quilt along to get going on it again.



I now have nine and a half rows sewn together and it's looking pretty good.



It's getting pretty big so it keeps me warm as I sit and stitch.



I was delighted to be able to share my project with the WI ladies too. I received so many compliments on it and everyone wanted to know how (and why) I was doing it.

I do have a slight conundrum though - the edges.

When I started I thought I would leave it pointy as there are no raw edges and all the shapes are finished as they go. But now I'm not so sure - it feels like it needs something to finish it.

Any thoughts? I might keep the pointy edge but go round it with some binding. I could just straighten it off, or add a border, but the latter would be extra work and it's already taking rather a long time!

All input is welcome!

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A new patchwork project

Friday 13 January 2012

Keeping up the tradition of doing a million things at once I have started work on a patchwork bag.

My mum bought the kit for me as a Christmas present at the Knitting & Stitching Show and I was itching to get started as soon as I got back to Leeds and had my sewing machine set up.

Good job I bought a rotary cutter and ruler as there was a lot of cutting and I had to be quite precise!

This is the front all pieced together ...





And here is the back ...





I'm quite pleased so far, despite it being a little wonky. It was quite tricky to put together but there were no major incidents and I still have all my digits attached even after extensive use of the rotary cutter!

Next up I have to start quilting it and making the flap, which involves some machine applique.

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Bright birthday card

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Winter can become rather dull, so when Hayley asked for a card for a boy who was turning one earlier this month I decided to got for bright and bold.



I combined some Celebrations DSP with card stock from the Brights family, a big star and some coordinating brads.



If you ever need cheering up I can highly recommend playing with some bight coloured card!

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The Quilt

Thursday 5 January 2012

I managed to find quite a bit of time while I was home over Christmas to work on my quilt and I'm pleased to say I am making good progress.

If my calculations are correct, I just need to make another four hexagons and then I will have enough. That would bring the total to 294, although it might need to be more in the end. At the moment I'm too scared to lay it out on my bed and see!



This was it a couple of days ago with six whole rows sewn together.





I'm now up to nine rows, so that could be half way done, if all goes to plan!



Pippa liked to help me work on the quilt too!

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A final Christmas present

Tuesday 3 January 2012

One final Christmas present to show you now I know it arrived safely.



My lovely friend Kat has a company called Flamingo, so when I found this cross stitch pattern in my stash I knew it wuld be just the ticket.



I only just got it finished in time for Christmas - it was trickier than it looks because of all the fractional stitches.

And I very nearly had an incident with Hayley's staple gun while mounting it on the canvas. I'm not allowed to use it anymore ...

Anyway, it was great to get back into a bit of cross stitching as I've not done it for a while. Maybe I should dig out all those unfinished projects ...

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