Polka Pink Apron

 

Another apron to show you!  This time I added a contrasting polka dot pocket to the front of the apron.  I used the same white and grey polka dot fabric for the reverse, polka dots are such fun,and for the finishing touch some bright pink Jumbo ric rac.  I am loving the colour combination of pink and grey at the moment.

 

FRONTBACK

 

Just thought I would show you the progress I am making with the EPP Hexagon flowers. You can read more about my plans for them here

English Flower Garden Quilt

 

Change of Plan!  Yesterday I blogged about Hexagons and how I was only going to  make 2 hexagons from the same piece of fabric.

 

SCRAP THAT IDEA

 

So instead I decided to do a traditional English Flower Garden Quilt, also known as Grandmas Flower Garden Quilt .  I have already made a start!

But I am going to cheat a little bit with this quilt as I would like to get it done in the next decade! and to do that means sewing less hexagons, so instead of doing the background in white hexagons I am going to sew the flower hexagons onto a white background fabric,  it saves making loads of white hexagons, which would drive me crazy and means I get this finished sooner than later!

I got the idea of sewing the completed hexagon flowers onto a white background fabric from  Pleasant Home.  and that’s not all, she also came up with an ingenious idea of putting a call  out to fellow bloggers to send her scraps to make a Grandma's Flower Garden Quilt. She asked for enough fabric to make one whole flower.  Everyone that sent fabric to her was then entered into a giveaway.  Now this sounds like a great idea, and one that I am thinking of doing, what do you think?  How fantastic would it be to receive fabric from all over to add to this quilt.  You can read all about it here on her blog.

If anyone else would like to join me  in making a English Flower Garden quilt then we can make it a sew along too and I can start a Flickr Group, let me know in the comments section.

I came across some great tutorials on English Paper Piecing, my favourites are:

Hexie Paper Piecing Tutorial – and   Hexie Flower Tutorial      from Bee In My Bonnet

Check them out, they make EPP so much easier to do.

Hexagons

 

Recently  I was lucky enough to be the winner of a giveaway hosted by Brooke over at Sillly Mama Quilts Blog and won an assortment of fabric scraps.  Even before winning I had an idea in my head of  a project that I wanted to do and winning this giveaway was the excuse I needed to start on my project.

Way back when I was about 11 I had a go at some EPP (English Paper Piecing) but never got very far with it, I think I made a few flowers with some scrap shirt fabric but they never amounted to anything and I don’t know what happened to them.

I came across a blog called Moxy Ideas where you can download some PDFs of different sized hexagons.  I chose to go with hexagons that are 1.5 inches and printed them on cardstock so that I could reuse them  a few times. All that was left to do was to cut them out and start basting.

 

Last night while watching TV I sat and basted just a few, but it’s a start.  I see this as a long term project.  It will probably take me years to make something with them, as I have decided that I will only have 2 hexagons with the same fabric. So it will take a while for me as my fabric stash is not that big.  I don’t plan on a colour scheme so can use any colour fabrics.

This project is also the perfect thing to do on the go while travelling, watching the boy play football or when I am in situations where I am just hanging around with nothing to do.

 

So what fabrics do you see?  All the fabrics apart from the scroll purple fabric, are the fabrics that Brooke sent me. (thanks Brooke) .  My favourite is the fabric with the leaf pattern.

Cathedral Window Pincushion

One of my favourite sites to visit OFTEN is Pinterest, I sometimes could spend all day just sitting browsing Pinterest.  There is just so much inspiration.

Recently I pinned a cathedral window pincushion tutorial to my sewing board, I love the cathedral window block but have always been so intimidated by it.  When I saw the tutorial that Kim had shared over at My Go Go Life I just had to give it a go.  And what do you know it is really easy, Kim's tutorial is so clear and easy to follow, you really can’t go wrong.  So pop on over and check her tutorial out. Thanks Kim

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.

Apron - Butterick 5474

This pattern is a  Vintage-styled apron that has five views (3 full aprons, 2 half aprons). I made view A a halter style full apron with ruffles.
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All sizes are in one envelope. For the skirt part of this apron I  made a medium and for the bust area I made a large as I was worried it would not fit me up top.  As it happens next time I would make a medium up top! (see more details about this below)

This is a photo of the Pattern envelope

The apron looked like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once I was done sewing with it, apart from I did not add the pockets to the apron skirt.
The instructions were extremely easy to follow and clearly illustrated.

What I really love about this pattern is the cute vintage styling and the versatility of the pattern.  However what I really did not like was making all the ruffles, saying that the end result was great, and definitely made all the effort of making the ruffles worth all the trouble!  I just love all the girlie, feminine ruffles.

What I would do differently next time - As mentioned above,  I would make a medium up top as it does gape quite a bit in the chest area, this can be fixed by adding a pleat.  I think that as  this is a halter-style apron, making a larger top bodice piece does not necessarily result in a better fit.
I used 100% cotton, for both the main fabric and contrasting fabric on the ruffles and ties. 

If you only ever buy one apron pattern then buy this one!  I absolutely love this pattern and in just a short time its given me the basics to know how to put aprons together and has enabled me to have a go at making my own reversible and half aprons (future posts).  I have already added a blog post about a reversible half apron I made for a friend.  See this post Reversible Half Apron.

The first of Many–Aprons

Ages ago when patterns were on sale at HL, (Hobby Lobby) I couldn’t help myself and bought a number of different patterns from Aprons to stuffed animals.
As most of you know that read this blog (and for those that don’t) there has been a little remodeling going on around here,so there has not been much creating going on, that has all changed and since the last time I blogged I have made 4 aprons, a pincushion, and my first mug rug.
This is not the first apron I made but wanted to share it first as its going in the mail to the recipient first thing on Monday, I have a friend who has a birthday coming up and wanted to create her something.  It also gave me an excuse to dress up my new dress form, So enough of me…………………   Thanks for looking, have a great weekend..

I am loving this Jumbo ric rac, it just adds that little something to an apron.

Sewing/Craft Room Reveal

 This post is extremely picture heavy!

Remember this post about the remodel of my craft room?  If you don’t this is how it looked after I packed everything up in preparation for the remodel.  Not very inspiring at all!

And this is what it looks like now. 

I am so excited to start crafting and sewing in this room.   I just know I am going to have so much fun.  I finally got a girlie room.  I love everything about it, it turned out even better than I imagined.

(me and dh laid the flooring ourselves, we liked the flooring so much we also laid it in our entertainment room – that’s another post for the future).

 

This iron mannequin/dress form was a present to myself!  She arrived on Thursday just in time for me to add her to my room.  She is just perfect for displaying the bags I have made, and I am sure she will be sporting a few more in the future!  She has a little door at the back of her to gain access to the shelf inside,  I added this little birdhouse that I altered ages ago with scrapbook paper.

You can read more about the two bags she is displaying  here and here.  And if your interested there are a few more that she will be wearing in the future here and here. 

 

I had a lot of fun accessorizing this room, I am a lady! and ladies like to shop!  and one of my favourite places to shop is T.J.Maxx,  where I bought the poppy picture and rug.

 

My 3 singer sewing machines now have somewhere to call home.

I also painted the old rocker that I bought at an estate sale by just painting it with spray paint.  It looks so much better and not creepy like it did before.  I need to make a nice cushion for this, I have seen some grey and white chevron fabric that would be lovely. 

I am so lucky to have a beautiful view, and at last I have some curtains.

I am being watched, I am sure he is checking out the new rug so that he can come and join me when I am crafting/sewing.

I bet your all wondering what is behind those closet doors!   You do know that I had to have somewhere to keep everything and the great thing about doors is it keeps the room looking nice and tidy (for now!) that’s another post for another time, for now I want to have a little bit of fun in this room.