Mad sewing from the house of Raven

This week has been manic....  sadly little Bob was ill  which meant that Mum and DAd got it as well!

So whilst looking after the little Bob ( Rowan ) I sat down and made this for my swap partner on Sew Swapit .... Riley Blake loveliness but then................... I had issues.... was it right was it good enoughh hmmm did it hit my quality requirement.

I made my own large style almost Pantograph type freemotion for one end and had used some of my machine embroidery on the rest . ... nope it wasn't doing it for me .....

Thankfully Rowan improved fairly quickly and wasx back to school Thursday whilst I ended up being ill.  And then a lovely present arrived for her.... from the Lovely Rosalyn  All the way from Kansas . Xmas decorations and some fabulpous postcards made wth images taken by Rosalyn herself . . Rowan is collecting xmas ornaments from states of the USA and aroiund the world. People are bing so kind and generous finding and sending these items for her.

You can see how totally thrilled she is when she receives them

So I;lve been fighting with this for a few weeks on and off. It was slowed by a wrist injury which I seme to have seen off with helpo from a pair of quilting grip gloves. These are weird sort of gardening gloves with semi sticky dots on them these then take the strain and save the small muscles in yr hands and wrists having to work so hard . It will still take about anotehr hour of free motion embroidery and quilting to get this where I want it . watch this space for conclusion.



Then kitten stopped play



So my re reading of my swap partners preferences and I thought arggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

no this won;lt do so I selected new colours and redid the design same flying geese insert .... and then I went for something completely new . 

 and it whizzed pu as some colours and styles do . Now given this is the third bloody time I have made this pattern you would think I had it nailed.

Haaahahaahhahahahahahahah yeah right .

 

Now with all that sharp geometic shapes I decided to go with complete change  of quilting stlye and went for PEBBLES .  but I also left some neutral space to give it some extra texture.

 

I then panicked AGAIN .

OMG is it too much ?

Is it all wrong ?? Oh god is the colour wrong ??

 

FREAK OUT MOMENT

 

so I threw it out to the swappit team for honest feedback which is a toughie but everyone was honest how they felt and I appreciate that. 

 



 

So to balance this in tense and thread heavy I simply did some line work on the flying geese and the sqaures. I then did some compact stiopple and tram line ... sergerd /overlocked the edges and

 





 So I made a companion bag to go with it  out of some 5 inch

strips . I repeated the pebble quilting and some nice simple zig zag as wel land made this ....

 

And I found a lovely co-ordinating zip ull I had ... lush . 

 And the back ..... nice

So here is the completed SMC . I like it and I really hope my partner does too !!

 You can see the tram line work here ... I like the simplicity of it .

THis has bene madel ong enough to take the Janome Memory craft or Brother size machine.

 

 Sweet .

 

The 3 of the SMC  2 of which will go to new home soon. First to shout out gets the yellow based one!!!

LEts see who is reading and comments ! 

So my swappee gets this pile of lusciousness !  Sewing companion

zipper bag, sewing case with fancy pins , Xmas stocking and an ear phones pouch. I ma praying

the postage to ............................ isn't too much . 

RIght I am going to watch Strictly and pray that the Christina Rhianoff keeps her legs together and on the ground this week as I choose not to get a course in gynaecology on primetime TV .

 

Have a lovely weekend
Love RAVEN ! xxxx

OMG where has the month gone ????

Yup today I figthened the wits ( what I have anyway ) out of myself by looking at the caleneder and thinking where has the last 12 years  3 weeks gone ???

So I have had a productive montyh and Ithink that when yr busy sewingh you don;t always have time to blog it ..

That;s my excuse anyway. so today sitting at home with a child who is less than 100%  Tuesday and possibly tommorow allows me to put fingers to keyboard and laod pics and chat on about what is happening here.

Shhh I can hear the cheers from here in the UK      I wish !

Anyway my petit pois  here we go 

Mr Leo  as ever my faiuthful kitteny helper .... he;s an absolute monster and menace ... but such al ovely cuddly mummy;s boy as well . Much like the Kray twins Iexpect ... that's not saying much .  but anyway where I go he goes .... and as the label says ... "Everything is better WITH cat hair "

We can still negotiate all wel ike but at some point there will be fluff .

 Giveaway goodies

Here we have thep ictures in construction of 3 lovely chevron cushion/pillow covers there are 2 normal size and one mini. well it;s about 10 inch . square.  All are handquilted in co-ordinated  perle thread it looks great. even if I do say so myself.

 

I,m very very pleased with them .

Now below I have also made a quilted pouch.... it's done in plaid type hand quilting  It looks pretty cool.  

Then of course I went off on one with some more handquilting as I can't sew really after 8pm as my daughter has the room next door to my sewingm achine room etc and tbh I make such a load of noise when sewing that it would drive you nuts .... so I stop sewing after her bed time and so hand sewing is the answer providing my eyes or wrists don;t give out .

 

So at this point I drew out some sashiko style patterns on a larger piece of fabric and got some technical work in . This will be made into yet another blininking cushion cover... 

 

 

Then I was naughty and bought some fabric at the Wroxham Barns sewing and quilting shop .... and threw in a couple of fabrics I bought at the fabric guild .... and then made something nice for myself ... this was a trial pattern made by myself using the cutting common sense dished out in Fast quilts from fat quarters book.



 

 

Yup flying geese gone wild and only took 8 inch sq of the fabric so I have plenty left 

And who can resist this little hairy helper ..... awww he;s jsut a kitten



Then I got my edition of Gen Q and made a sample of the free pattern to use up some of my scrap box ... this cutie popped up .

My block of the month for STASH BEE  but as yet I have to hear if it has arrived at it;ls destination .  SIGH* 

Then I made this quick ear phone pouch for my giveaway , made from Kaffee Fasset sent as a swappee gifte. Lush 

Now my lovely friend Ali is expecting a baby in JAnuary and we know the flavour and so I madethis lovely happy rotating dissap 9 patch in a mix of fabrics  as Babies first quilt . This is part of the layette. and I will gradually add the bag, bibs, burb cloths etc .

 

This was quilted with simple wavey lines with Guterman sulky in soft lemons. I then hand quilted some star fish little orange fish and jelly fish and sea horses into some of the neutral areas. 

 

I also made myself the new sewing machine cover. Lovely 

Then I mde this one for my Sew Swappit partner . This is still being quilted and will be gfinished and posted soon .... but to where I hear you ask  

I blooped asnd added this again LOL but it;s cute



CLEAN YOUR MACHINE !!!

 

You may have guessed I have an issue with machines not being cleaned . I clean mine every day I use it and change the needle every 4 hours or so . Blunt needles wreck work , snag thread and make a right dogs breakfast of your sewing . There arel ots of simple guides on how to best clean yr machine .

 



One drop of oil regualrly and a good clean and a new needle and it;s like a new machine. If you do;nt oil yr machine I worry about yr car ... quite honestly I can't afford to throw away £1000 machine and for the sake of 1p drop of oil !!!!!

Fun eyemask ... using a simple drawn pattern and a bit of elastic and made this for Rowan ... just so she can't spot Santa nearer the time :))



Now the hexi quilt has gone with the addition of a black cat applique near and edge.  Miss Poppy sits in pride of place and is apaprentyl very very happy in her new home  .



 

Yup he is a big boy .... this is a Maine coon of 20 months! Weighing in at 16lb at present  and growing like a weed.

 



RIght .... I had done traditional sashiko style patterns and decided to do something a bit different . I took my 60 degree traingle and drew loads of traingles obviously 

 

Then I used a range of tones of perle thread and did this ... It;s sort of sashiko meets pink floyd  meets mod quilting . I like it . ANd thats what really matters to me . 

 

I have been making 22 Christmas stockings for my husbands class at school and had a few charm squares left. I made a D9patch then sliced them diagonally and then added some funky green spotty bastik I got from Pied Piper . I added some Riley Blake in vibrant red and made this jolly item . It will go to the Childrens unit at the hospital . 

 

My last trip to the fabruc guild netted me some free fabric. This is Flock by Thomas Knauer

I did it Jelly Roll race style .



 

 

I quilted it in a mad fingerling style to give  plenty of support . 

Beautifully modelled by my lovely girly

 

So Here is the pattern ....... select your colours and fabrics...  I chose about 8 fabrics and I cut either 2.5 inch ( standard JR size) or in this case cos I got it wrong... I cut 3 inch wide strips . 

 

 

I cut them into different lengths . so you get plenty of movement and interest ... I think when you do JRR you chop 18 inches off the end to get the fabric uneven enough . Some do it with mitred ends I like flat ends ... 

Take yr strips and sew the ends together .... 

So you have one HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE strip...  I can;t quite say what total length of fabric I used  sorry but I cut about 14 strips across the width of the fabric to join together... this should give you a finished piece about 40 inches by 19 inches ideal for a good sized bag ... 

His Imperial Hariness came to supervise. 

So here it is JRR into the shape and size I want ... about 40 inches  wide and 18 /19 inches deep .

 



Then I set it up for quilting   I use 505 SPRAY and it is fantastic . 

Guterman sulky thread for quiltin and I did this made sort of fingerlingquilting  it gives a coral type look to the whole thing which for a sea type theme I love. 

 

It;s a lovely lovely texture ... sort of ripples under yr fingers...

I then zig zag of serge around the edges ot bind everything in I then aqdded handles and button loop.

 

I use a simple method just turning handles in under the edges and triple stitching in .

 



I am making Ali pouches and zippys to put stuff in rather than pockets that drive me mad!

 

I putstuff in pockets and then spend half my time rustling through them to find what I lost.... This will take lots of big bits that every new mum needs ... kitchen sink, washingm achine, spare everything plus extras . 

Right so you can see how busy busy busy I am . Enjoy and Remember the draw  ends at the end of October and I have some lovely items and freebies for the best referrer !

 

May your wellies be watertight . Love

 

Raven xxx