Its an ill wind.....

That makes me stay at home all week with a dodgy back.. But it has meant that I was able to crack on with some projects that were getting near their deadlines...
First up was a door curtain for my son's flat.... Problem 1 - they had bought some fabric but not enough..!! Just liked the look of it and thought it would work somehow... Enter Mum!!
They wanted the curtain to be thick enough to keep out the draughts as it would be in place of a door.. So my best idea (and most cost effective) was to make an extra deep hem with a contrasting fabric... Any excuse to visit Ikea!!
Result ... some lovely velvet...
Problem 2... the fabric is not very wide so header tape would gather it up too much.... So my first attempt at Eyelet Ring Curtains.... which I am pleased to say worked out very well...

Not easy to photo until it it hanging.....

Project 2 was a birthday present for my niece's little step-son who was 4... I had seen a couple of similar ideas for Toybags/Playmats used to store Lego and thought this would be ideal for him. The fabric I found was very boyish with cars & roads on... I cut it around so that he could 'drive' his toy cars around

I bought the last of the fabric so I had to improvise .... he can have Town/Motor-way driving and also move out to the countryside too.......

The bag is wadded so that he can use it as a playmat on hard floors and the toys can be left inside when it is time to pack it all away..

and can be hung up for storage.... by gathering the cords up through the grommets (another first..)

I hope he likes it.... I am going to have to put a couple of cars inside to make it more exciting I think for a 4 year old.... 

If anyone asks me "can you just make one for....." then they can think again... It went together really quickly but when I added up the cost of materials etc the price gets silly.... It would work with cheaper fabrics of course but then it wouldn't be such fun for a little boy...

My last project of the week was a bag for my Daughter in Law's birthday... I had found some great fabric on Spoonflower and wanted to make her a large book bag for school.. (she is a Teacher..)

They have my 'grand-dog' Harvey and I bought some Jack Russell fabric, along with some Dr Who K9 and Tardis prints (she is a big fan..)  But my personal favourite was a print with cute dogs on... I thought they were dogs portraying shoes.... (in convo with the prints owner I found this was not how she designed it.. it was just how her dogs stretched out..) I still like the shoe idea myself.. What do you think?

My first thoughts were to make a bag featuring Harvey mixed with some vintage style fabrics... but I didn't like how it was going....

Plan 2

I made plainer panels for the outside of the bag using the Shoe-dogs and some Essex Linen and used the quilt as you go method to line them with the panel I made featuring Harvey and the K9 fabric... So the bag is presentable on the outside (& therefore more useable I hope) and personal on the inside... 

The pattern is pretty much made up as I went along... I quilted some side gusset panels and the base in a black linen, then popped a zip in the top and used my favourite method for sturdy fabric handles.. ( I may do a tutorial on this soon - but black isn't the best colour to photograph..)

If I say it myself... I am chuffed with the result... not sure how a young teacher about town is going to feel about it.. but I hope she likes it.

I am off to order some more of the Shoe-dogs...

So a bad back week turned out pretty good.....Except I still walk like an 80 year old......

Craftsy times..

Gosh I knew I had been missing on here but I didn't realise for how long.... I think if I haven't anything new to report then you don't really want to know about the other areas of my life...

I work in a Quilt Shop (Quilters Haven) and I am lucky in that my work schedule is pretty flexible but I do commit to help out during busy periods... I have just been through a really busy couple of weeks and it has left me little time (or inclination) to get to the machine and work on any large projects.... 
But it also means I get to work at a Quilters Guild Regional Area day and see/hear fantastic speakers....

Back to the sewing room.....

I needed to construct a backing for Big Jack and wanted to make it a bit different... He was too big for one width of fabric and I didn't want to buy metres more than I needed so had to think creative..
I had bought a class on Craftsy - Inspired Modern Quilts by Elizabeth Hartman and love it.. I have purchases several of the classes on here and they have all been pretty good... even the free ones... Particularly the one on Creative Quilt Backs by Elizabeth - Go check Craftsy out... once 'purchased" you can return to it any time you want...And between these two classes I had my answer.. .(I've also noticed that you get discounted offers on other classes once you have purchased - so don't go mad the first time..) 

Big Jack needed about an extra 20" to make his back work with one width of fabric so I thought that Wonky Blocks would be very appropriate for this quilt.. Floated on 2 bands of white I am really pleased with how this looks...and it used up a lot of my leftover fabrics so was also economical. Excuse the fact that you can see the shadow of the quilt top underneath...

So now I just need to spend a bit of time on the floor basting - ugh!! this is not my favourite bit but I am going to try spray basting with 505... I haven't done a quilt this big with it before but there is a first time for everything.

Then there will be the decision to make on thread  colour and a quilting design... think I will be doing something pretty simple like Lynne did on the original as it may get a bit complicated trying to work a design that will suit the front and reverse at the same time.






The other reason for my distraction of late is that I am planning a little 3 week trip early next year......

Which is also the reason behind needing to work as much as I can to save my £'s...........