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Showing posts from May, 2019

Tula Palooza Sweet Tea Block.

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Hello everyone! Here's my May block for the tulapalooza sewalong. This one came together very quickly. The pattern is Sweet Tea by Amy at During Quiet Time and can be purchased from her shop here . Here's my fabric pieces cut out. I knew straight away I wanted to adapt the pattern to allow a large fussy cut of the octopus in the centre. I very much chose the fabrics based on colour rather than design, so this mixes three different Tula lines together. I also wanted to get away from the greens and purples that have dominated the last few blocks. This block came together very quickly! It's a nice simple block and the piecing instructions are very straight forward. I am really happy with it, I like how the cat's eyes and woodgrain emphasises the strippiness of the block. What I am not sure of is how I am going to make it fit with the rest of the blocks in the sampler quilt, because it is a different shape. I am considering squaring it up with more of the ...

#fussycuttingsewalong April roundup

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Hello everyone! Another selection of hexagons made out of diamonds for you all. This month the theme was Shapes. I was busier than I realised, making a total of 10 starflower over the 5 weeks. We kicked off April with a freestyle week to celebrate being a quarter of the way through the year. I made three for that week. Mostly, I was playing with fabrics I had wanted to use, but not had an opportunity to yet, and returning to the theme of lines. This first one is playing with lines in the centre. Once I had joined the inner diamonds, it reminded me of ironwork railings or balconies. So I chose this delicate floral for the outside and fussy cut it so the flowers looked like they were trailing. The beige backgrounds didn't match as closely as I hoped. Next up, a new layout. I originally cut this out intending to have a traditional layout with the lined fabric in the centre and the dog ears in the outer diamonds. But I saw so many people on IG playing with the la...

Before the Blog: July 1990 Girl with parasol Long stitch kit

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Hello everyone! One of the reasons I started this blog was because I wanted to tell the stories of pieces I made in the past, before I had a blog. Seeing as my Mum dropped off this piece at my house a few days ago, I figured this was a good a place to start. This was made in 1989/1990 from a long stitch kit made by Anchor. We were living with my grandfather in Maidstone, Kent at the time. My Mum bought this kit for me. It was the most ambitious long stitch kit I had done at the time. I loved everything about it. The old-fashioned dress and parasol, and the pretty, flowery vintage vibe was very me at the time. The kit provided canvas with the shape outlines marked on, pre-cut lengths of wool and an organiser card for them, and a chart. I had made 2 or 3 kits previously, but I am pretty sure this was the first time I had done French knots. The only thing I dislike about this is the small stitches in the skirt. They weren't on the pattern. Having finished the pattern...