Gecko #2

Well, after the amazing success that was my first gecko cushion, I decided to make another to 'match' the first. (Mainly because the first is now sitting in a lovely little flat all by its lonesome and needed a friend to join it)

Ok, I admit, its just cause I wanted another go!!

Since the border on the first cushion had been made of silk, the, now, owner of these two cushions stated that the border of the second cushion must also be silk. Now, before we decided what colour silk, we needed to choose the fabric for the gecko. I have quite a number of different patterned fabrics, some batik, some not. Most of them would make awesome gecko fabric. However, the white and black was chosen. From this came the (in retrospect) mental on my part, decision to go with grey silk... but no, it was insisted upon!!

And so came the time to decide what colour square to have in the middle. OH MY WORD! Nothing matched with both the black and white and the grey! Bright Blue - gecko didnt stand out, purple - made grey look dull, yellow - didnt stand out, dark blue - made grey look dull, green - been told not to use, red - avoiding red because of other cushion.... DILEMMA!!

In the end, I managed to find a square of orange just big enough, and this worked well enough. Then came the second dilemma... My sewing machine didn't have the option to change the stitch length, and as such, I couldn't sew round the edge of the gecko with the same stitch as last time (which was done on my Mum's sewing machine)!! Oh lordy... in the end, I used a zig-zag stitch. It did the trick, but i'm not completely happy with the final cushion!

However, I really do like this whole 'Lets sew a shape onto a square of fabric'

 Im going to have to experiment more!! :O :D

Ribbons for Christmas!

Yes, I got ribbons for christmas, only so I can make another woven ribbon cushion cover!

Its pretty the colours are all autumny this time, compared to the last one it shines!

I loves it :) Just got to find a back for it now - Im thinking Brown?
Check out my last woven ribbon cushion at: 5m of Each!?

GECKOS ARE AWESOME!!

I did say in my last post to watch out for the geckos did I not!?
Apparently that day came sooner rather than later. But, I had done a good two hours of revision before I started this so it was a 'well done on getting some work done' present! (At least thats what I'm telling myself!)

Above = front of cover gecko

Below = Back of cover gecko.

I could quite decide which I liked better when I'd only done this bit. But I stuck with the original (top) and added the border (bottom picture)

This red is the left over silk from a dress that I made when I was 18, so a good three years ago now. Its been sat there ever since, and I've finally found a use for it!!
I will be making lots more of these, because they're very simple once you know what you're doing. Admittedly the stitching around the outline of the gecko was a bit harder than I had anticipated, but I got there!
I found another quilter when I was browsing the web last night and she suggested using batik fabrics for the lizard. This will occur, as soon as I get back to my stash of fabrics! Then watch out world, it'll be a gecko takeover!!

I really do love them! :D

Inspiration is everywhere!

Well hello my lovely people! I bring you good wishes for the New Year!

I also bring you really cool patchwork ideas!

Now, my Dad is a bit bonkers. He likes learning new stuff and will happily chat to a squirrel about its day given half a chance. However, due to this, I ended up round a lovely womans house today chatting and learning about quilting! It was fabulous! There were so many new things I'd never even thought of doing, yet are so very simple that almost anyone could do them!

One thing stuck in my mind (apart from creating patchwork geckos - keep checking the blog, they'll turn up on here sooner or later) - and that was a quilter named Gail Lawther and her style of patchwork. Here are a couple:

I absolutely love them! They're in the style of stained glass!
So simple, yet so effective! And the artist even sells the kits on her website:
http://www.gaillawther.co.uk/home.asp

I'm definitely going to be having a go at this! How about you? 

Merry Christmas!

HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THIS!?

Its memorizing! I just had to buy it for myself when I saw it. Sadly I only have a fat quarter of it, but that can make something beautiful. Im just not too sure what at the minute... as per usual!

My mum also suggested making a summer dress out of this fabric... now I only have to go back and hope they have it on roll! :O

This was my Christmas present to myself.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, wherever you are in the world and however you celebrate!

Christmas is coming!

Christmas is coming - the goose is getting fat!
Lets hope they don't spill anything on this B-E-A-U-tiful table runner! I made this for my family this Christmas because my Mum mentioned that she might need/like one. So I decided to make one for her. Mainly cause I like making things... we should all know this by now! :D

It took me a while to choose which fabrics I wanted to use. Literally couldn't choose, but then, THEN, I saw the bauble fabric!! BAUBLES! :D
I LOVE BAUBLES

It turns out that I had the other 3 fabrics just sitting around in my box of fabrics so it all worked out pretty well.
Its currently sat on the coffee table because my Mum didn't want to get it messy at the proper table!

Im deffo going to be making more of these because they're so simple!!

There's a first for everything!

Welcome to my first post about a bag! (wooooo) As most people who read this blog know, I'm very much a cushion person :P And quilts - I can do quilts too. But i've never properly had a need to make other items such as bags. UNTIL NOW!

Yes, thats right. I decided that I needed a bag. You see, I had just bought myself some dance shoes and as such felt that they needed their own little bag! (Excuses excuses, I know!) But hey... It cant be all bad cause this is the final product!

I found a free walk-through on someone's blog (thank you!), altered the measurements slightly because I didn't need one as big as was being suggested, and also altered the strap so it was different to theirs. It was actually a really simple pattern! So simple that I finished it in a morning effectively!
The funny thing is - I still don't have my shoes so I have no idea whether they'll actually fit inside. I may have gotten slightly too impatient waiting, and then became bored. The two together are a disastrous combination sometimes.

The fabrics I used (as they only used two different fabrics) - one for the outside, another for the lining - were literally two I had a lot of in my stash. The hieroglyph fabric, well. What can I say? Everyone is going to know the bag is mine, thats for sure! :D At least i've finally found a use for the fabric. I was scared it was going to sit in my box for years on end! Plus, I had enough that if I went wrong it wouldn't have been the end of the world.
I did establish that because the pattern was so simple I could spruce it up slightly - Maybe add a pocket on the inside/outside - or maybe I could actually make it patchwork by making the pieces of fabric from lots of smaller pieces

I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS!!!