No sew week!

I have done no sewing this week! But I have entered a competition. It just so happened this week the theme at the Quilting Gallery was trees, leaves and flowers. So have entered my flower pillow. Take a look here and cast a vote no the entries you like.

That's about it on the sewing front though. 

This is because at the last minute we decided to book a hotel break in Whistler for a few days. The summer weather seems to have deserted us, but that has not damped our spirits at all. We have done lots of mountain biking! We found a 'cool' bike park (according to my son!) 

The hotel has a pool so we have done lots of swimming too. Thankfully the outdoor pool was heated and there were numerous hot tubs to warm up in! OJ (son) has finally learnt to swim whilst here too! He has been swimming widths of the pool! So pleased! Only one more to get out of armbands now, and she won't be long looking at her!

We are off to do some kayaking / canoeing in the morning which we are all looking forward to. Hoping the rain holds off :)

Unfortunately, child number 3 is still too little for a lot of the activities we would have liked to do but we will get there another year! 

And another highlight of the stay for me, no cooking!

But back home tomorrow. Thankfully a long weekend before school starts next week! Cannot believe it is so close to September! 

Flower Garden cushion

I started this cushion cover as a gift to a young girl with the intention of showing her the kind of things she could do using fabric and her sewing machine. I got half way through quilting it and took one look and thought this is beyond her ability, yet. So I started again with a different design.

So this cover sat for a while half done staring at me. I kept thinking I should finish it, but with nobody in mind to give it to, it stayed on the side unfinished. Then last night, quite randomly, I decided I would finish it. And here is the finished item:

Front

Back

The pattern comes from Don't Look Now, she has some lovely things over on her blog, although I think she has moved to Facebook now. I really enjoyed creating this, and had forgotten the joy of appliqué and the wonderful look you get at the end.

Third hat lucky!

You may have seen the bucket hat I made here that didn't fit it's purpose! Well, I enlarged the pattern a bit more, possibly a bit too much, but at least it doesn't perch on his head like the last one, ha! I also found some wonderfully bright orange fabric to suit my son. End result:

My model just was not cooperating last night when I asked him for a pose! So the work table had to do. Lets hope the sun hasn't left us for good for the summer and I can get a picture soon.

Finished Quilt Top

Here it is, the finished Christmas in July block-a-thon quilt top. I am quite pleased with how it has turned out. It went together relatively easily, just a little bit of jiggling here and there! :)

So I need a backing now and some method of quilting it! I enjoy the quilting part but am always very indecisive on a pattern and then nervous about starting it! So it is likely to take me some time to completely finish this off. I would love to see how others are quilting theirs!

Hat Trick

I so like projects that are quick and can be completed in an evening, especially when it's clothes sewing and not quilting. This is one of those projects :)

I came across this wonderful pattern for a bucket hat (bucket hat). My son badly needed a new hat for the summer. So I made the largest size, age 6-8 years head size 21 inches. Well, he is 6 and his head measures 21". But I suspected this might be a little tight so made a girlie one first as my girls have slightly smaller heads. I finished the hat in one sitting, only a couple of hours! So impressed with myself. Here is the final product. Not very good photos, sorry.

But unfortunately it fits none of my children! It perching on top of my 3 year olds head! I am not sure if it is my children having odd heads or inaccurate sewing (usually my seams are on the small side) but something went a miss somewhere. 

So I went back to the sewing machine. I enlarged the pattern a little using the scanner and tried again! Hat number 2, it fitted one child's head. Yay! So I WILL try again, third time lucky :) Watch this space!

It was fun making them though. Very easy to do, after mastering the first one! Give it ago :)

Change of plan!

I got half way through finishing the cushion for the birthday present when I decided, that although I loved it, it had diverged from the intended purpose. I wanted to make a cushion that a 9 year old could attempt to copy or be inspired to do part of it, but the appliqué pattern I was doing really was beyond her (and her sewing machine) ability at the moment. 

So I started again and made four small traditional blocks in some Starr Design Fabrics I had. Then on the back I used steam-a-seam to appliqué a few more shapes. Two different techniques that she could perhaps try.

This was the end result, and I was quite pleased:

More to the point it got finished on time and the young lady in question thought it was wonderful, so that made my day!

But now I have a half finished cushion front that I know will now sit there until I can find time to finish quilting it. Especially as it has no home yet.

Feeling British today :)

A friend visited us at the weekend from Cardiff, UK. He came with some very British gifts, which were so welcome! A bar of Cadburys chocolate! Yummy! It just does not taste the same here. And some Marmite!

Both of which have clearly been effected by current events! The Marmite by the Queen's Jubliee and the chocolate by the Olympics. 

And to top it off today the Brits got their first two gold medals. Bradley Wiggins for road cycling and Helen Glover and Heather Stanning in the pairs rowing. Nice work chaps! :)

So I thought I would share my British flag cushion cover I made a little while ago at a workshop whilst visiting family in the UK in March. Paper pieced using some Moda Papillon fabrics finished off with some linen and cute British ribbons. Still need to sew on some buttons but I'm sure I'll get round to that shortly! 

  

I saw this amazing quilt the other day which makes me think I might have to make some more flags. Now need to figure out how to add an extra hour or two to the day ...