handmade by Mary Emmens

Geese, flying everywhere

Published on 26/01/2014 by Mary in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Patchwork and Quilts. 14 Comments

I started the month with this:

and 4.5 metres of Kona Snow with the goal to complete all the cutting for a quilt top.

My sewing space now contains this pile of flying geese, all trimmed, approximately 70 large and 224 small:

This pile awaiting trimming;

I’m hoping that this is the last lot that need stitching:

And a test block I made to make sure my plan was going to work!

So, yes I met my goal for the month, I won’t say it was tedious and boring but it’s been a struggle, more on that another day!

Linking up with:

Not Sunday Stash

Published on 19/01/2014 by Mary in fabric and Scraps. 7 Comments

If you use Instagram it probably hasn’t escaped your notice that there is something happening tonight called #greatukfabricdestash.

Basically it’s an opportunity to get your hands on more fabric for a price, it might be great value, it might be rare and there might be fighting and heart attacks if you want Heather Ross (none of that here though). Here’s a peek of what I’m destashing:

Books and precuts:

Fat quarters, half yards:

Patterns:

There is even a little bundle of fat 16ths!

Scraps;

If you want to join in here’s the plan taken from lovestrawberrypatch IG feed:

My pile of stuff is all ready but I’m not buying as yesterday’s exercise of sorting through my stash reminded me of what and how much I have! Oh yes and there is the small matter of Fabriholics Anonymous!

Gifts for Jo

Published on 17/01/2014 by Mary in fabric, gifts, Paper piecing, Patchwork and Scraps. 16 Comments

Last week a good friend of mine Jo celebrated a milestone birthday, she’s someone you might know and blogs over here. I knew her before she really started sewing so she might blame me for her addiction but I can live with that.

On Saturday night Emily, Susy, Jo and I went out for dinner to celebrate Jo’s birthday, we had done some secret sewing and presented her with this:

Call it what you like; a table runner, mini quilt or wall hanging. We each made a block reflecting some of Jo’s interests. If you didn’t guess, Emily made the bike book, I stitched the sewing one and Susy the cake (pattern from Patchwork Please).

Photo’s nicked from Jo’s IG

Susy very kindly took delivery of the blocks and put them together, quilted and bound – thanks.

For a while I’ve wanted to make a lone star, I was again reminded of this during the Cushions for Christmas blog hop. I thought that I could make one up and turn it into a gift for Jo’s birthday from our family. So the week before Jo’s birthday I printed off the pattern (free here). Bethan helped choose fabrics from my scrap boxes that we thought were ‘Jo’ and I got stitching. Like me Jo has 3 children and I know how grubby things can get so rather than use a white background fabric I used a grey which also felt like a Jo colour!

There are scraps in there too from Catrin from a swap I joined.

I machine quilted around the star using Aurifil 2530.

After thinking that I didn’t have an invisible zip I was trying to get my head into gear to put in a concealed zip (across the back with a flap over rather than invisible in the seam) when I searched again and the invisible zip became visible – phew!

On Sunday morning our family went to Jo’s for breakfast along with another family, something we try to do fairly regularly and the girls were very keen to give the present.

And here she is ‘modelling’ it (also nicked from her IG):

A really satisfying paper piecing project, I see more of these in my future!

Linking up with:

Drumstick case commission

Published on 14/01/2014 by Mary in Christmas, Commission, fabric and gifts. 8 Comments

Back in November my friend Rachel said that she would like to commission me to make a drum stick case as part of her eldest daughter’s Christmas gift.

Once she had bought the new sticks she came round to talk about what she wanted. We pulled fabric, choosing some Amy Butler home decor weight for the outside (Water Lotus Spinach) and inside flap (Water Lotus Ivory), for the pockets we chose Cuzco (peacock prints in fuschia). The other interior fabric was supplied by Rachel, she’d searched online to see if there was a fabric with the same name as her daughter and had bought a fat quarter of Mia in Pink by Tilda!

Mia had an idea of what she wanted for her sticks and Rachel brought a couple of drawings which I used as a starting point along with the pencil roll pattern that I have in my head.

Rachel left the sticks with me as I knew from experience it is much easier to have the items to hand to check the fit as I sew.

I started sewing on the Monday morning and had finished by late afternoon, the day also included picking up my son from preschool and the girls from school and the usual household chores so all in all it was quite a quick job. I don’t think Rachel could quite believe it was done so quick but when I have a job to do I treat it as a priority and have to get it done!

I made 5 pockets as requested, enough for 5 pairs of sticks or other drum things that I can’t remember the name of!

The case rolls up and ties wrap around to keep it closed. I lined it with quilt batting to give it some stability and give some protection if dropped.

Mia also asked for a loop to hang the case on while she is playing:

As with most commissions I take on it was fun to make and lovely to work alongside someone who takes pleasure in choosing fabric too!

A new baby (quilt)

Published on 08/01/2014 by Mary in Babies, Patchwork Please, Quilts and Scraps. 11 Comments

Last summer I made a gorgeous (in my opinion) baby quilt as part of the Zakka sew along using the pattern from Patchwork Please. It had quite a boyish theme to it, I struggled writing that because I don’t think we should stereotype babies or children but I’m sure you get what I mean:

Actually in my head it was really blue but obviously it’s not!

Anyway back in the summer some lovely friends of ours who were expecting a baby told us that they were expecting a girl, the mum is an English teacher and dad is a lover of books too so I decided I’d like to make the baby a Books for Baby quilt but of a more feminine version.

So on December 16; once some but not all the Christmas gifts had been made I did a fabric pull:

And quite quickly stitched up 12 book blocks. Again I drew on my text charm swap pile and found a few gems in there to use:

I love this one:

I then picked out Alphabetti in coal by Lu Summers for the border around each block, I like how the letters fit in with the theme of the quilt and it worked much better than any of the other prints I had!

Deciding on sashing was much harder, I auditioned a few but as I’d already used quite a few solids in the blocks it was tricky finding a balance. In the end I went for Aqua (Moda Bella solid) and I still like how it looks which is a good sign! At the same time as choosing the sashing I chose the border (Round in Purple, Chelsea Collection – Windham Fabrics) and then my eldest daughter (9yrs) and Tobit independently both said I should use the Alphabetti again for the binding.

It was my last finish of 2014, hand stitching the binding on the sofa on New Years Eve it was finished an hour or so before midnight just a few hours after the baby arrived on her due date!

The label was stitched on a few days later when I knew the name and the quilt had been washed.

It’s backed with some Amy Butler prints from the Daisy Chain line:

I like the bright and boldness of them not a hint of nursery prints.

We invited the family over for Sunday lunch to meet the new arrival and gifted the quilt to them, I think it’s safe to say they like it!

I’m hoping that the big sister might be inspired to make up stories to go with each book to tell to her little sister as she grows.

So my final quilt finish of 2013 but there is still another one I need to blog about!

Quilt stats:
Pattern – Books for Baby quilt from Patchwork Please!
Fabrics – all from stash and scrap boxes (if you have a specific query on one please leave a comment below)
Binding – Alphabetti in Coal – Summersville by Lu Summers
Backing – a selection from Daisy Chain by Amy Butler
Wadding – Super-Soft 70/30 Eco-Blend by Sew Simple
Quilting – Outline around each book, around each block and in the ditch around the border
Size – Approx 38″ x 47″

A goal for January – #ALYoF

Published on 06/01/2014 by Mary in A Lovely Year of Finishes, projects and Quilts. 6 Comments

Deep breath, time to make a decision about my goal for the month.

Truth be told I’m going to try and be really disciplined this year and focus on what I want to do, not pick up BOM’s or QAL’s unless I really have the time. This afternoon I finished off an essential project and have nothing else on my list of ‘must do’ other than the wedding quilt.

So the plan for the month is to get all the cutting done for the quilt, it might have to be interspersed with some sewing to stop me getting bored. I’m not committing to a finished quilt top because I’ve not yet calculated the finished size or how big a quilt I can make with the fabric I have!

This is the fabric for the top along with metres of Kona Snow.

I guess I actually have some maths to do before cutting!

Linking up with:

Sunday Stash

Published on 05/01/2014 by Mary in fabric and Sunday Stash. 12 Comments

Here it is then the first Sunday Stash of 2014 and the last Sunday Stash from me filled with new fabric.

The fabric here today was all purchased in 2013 so before I committed to a fabric fast.

Just before Christmas I won a $50 credit to Fat Quarter Shop from the Cushion for Christmas blog hop, my lovely Greetings from Antarctica cushions got the most votes for favourite cushion! I was delighted!

It also meant that I could buy fabric for my brothers wedding quilt. It gets better…Fat Quarter Shop have a 12 days of Christmas event where a different item is discounted each day. It happened that Art Gallery Fabrics were 50% off one day so I quickly grabbed a FQ bundle of Tule and a half yard cut of all of the other fabrics in the line:

It wasn’t a random purchase, my brother had already pointed out this line to me as something he really liked (he’s a designer/maker and his wife to be is a doctor and she was more than happy to leave the colour selecting to him!).

To fill the envelope I added 1.5 yards of Essential Dots Black on White for a project I have up my sleeve for later in the year, it was on special with 20% off, all that just for the cost of the shipping:

Alongside that is 4.5 metres of Kona Snow, Simply Solids had a 48 sale at the end of the year so I bought the solids I plan on using in the wedding quilt, not the most exciting purchase but essential and with 20% off not to be missed.

Linking up with the new host of Sunday Stash; Molli Sparkles, go check it out, you don’t have to have new fabric to join in…

UK and Ireland Vintage Sheet FQ Swap Round 2

Published on 04/01/2014 by tobit in charity shopping, swap, thrifting and Vintage. 2 Comments

It’s official; I’ve finally got my act together to organise another vintage sheet fat quarter swap. I’ve updated the flickr group, you can find all the details here.

I’d be grateful if you’d tell your friends/blog readers, IG friends, generally spread the word, the more participants we have the more lovely vintage sheets you’ll be able to get your hands on.

If you want to pop a lovely swap button on your blog;

The following code will insert a 200×200 px button:

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/2063494@N25/"> 
<img style="border: none;" alt="FQ SWAP" src="http://goo.gl/OK7nwU" /> 
</a></div>

I look forward to seeing what sheets you want to share.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – review of 2013

Published on 02/01/2014 by Mary in A Lovely Year of Finishes. 6 Comments

If you’re a regular reader you may have seen these all before but it’s a quick (and satisfying) resume of my monthly goals in 2013.

Each month links to the blog post with details of the completed goal if you’d like more details:

I must say that I found this ‘party’ really, really helpful. 2013 was really tough, most of the first half of the year we had major building works going on and then health issues made for a stressful and exhausting remainder of the year! So having something to focus on each month was a real motivator and I’m delighted if not somewhat surprised that I managed to achieve each goal!

Linking up with:

Happy New Year and no more fabric?

Published on 01/01/2014 by Mary in Fabricholics Anonymous. 9 Comments

Check out my etsy shop for a great sale; 30% off all vintage sheet fabrics.

OK it’s a new year and I have a stack of sewing plans but I don’t ‘really’ need any more fabric for them, Here is a idea of what my fabric stash looked like in September:

It’s even messier now and needs a good tidy but what it doesn’t need is more fabric. So I’ve decided to join in the Fabricholics Anoymous programme organised by Making Rebecca Lyne.

GOALS:

- To use the stash I already have

- I only have a few unfinished things – all paper pieced blocks awaiting inspiration

- Not to buy the latest, greatest, newest line (even if those Charley Harper prints still haven’t made it to my stash!)

- Save the ££ I spend on stashing. My little brother is getting married at Easter and we’re taking the opportunity to have a few extra days in London with the children but need every penny to pay for travel, apartment and sightseeing. Any additional savings will go towards a family summer holiday (we’ve not had one for almost 4 years).

- Destash the fabrics that I realise I am never going to use.

FABRIC FAST RULES:

1) No fabric purchases for 6 months beginning January 1, 2014 (see exceptions below)

2) At 6 months re-evaluate and decide whether I can keep going for a whole year. Evaluation July 1, 2014.

3) Exceptions

Vintage sheets/pillowcases – these are essential for my shop and therefore for funding our trip to London
Backing: I can buy fabric to back the quilt for my brothers wedding gift (fabric for the top arrived yesterday and solids were ordered yesterday) I will however try to use any leftovers from the top for the backing and binding.
Books and magazines: I have an existing subscription and will not buy any books or magazines.
Notions: I can buy these if absolutely necessary although I have a good stash of these so hopefully won’t need to.
Swaps: I can swap fabric if necessary.
Commissions – I almost always use fabric from stash for commissions however if essential to earn money I will buy fabric for a commission.

I think that’s it, hopefully I can do it without a problem, there are lots of other folks joining so mutual support/peer pressure will help. In fact only yesterday I persuaded Amy not to stock up on non essential solids, I think she thought that as it was still 2013 she could do it