“Sew-euro-bee-an” – A bee quilt

May was my month in our Flickr Bee “Sew-euro-bee-an”.
Except that it was May 2013.
Well. You know how things sometimes take longer than planned, don’t you?!

I had chosen an easy “squares and triangles” block,

inspired by a winter coat I had bought for my eldest son.

The colours were entirely chosen to match our living room.
Here’s the finished quilt.

I will admit, that it was very difficult to sew those blocks together as the block sizes varied more than I had thought they would. I ironed the quilt several times but it is still crinkly.

But as I will keep it for myself, I do not mind and it only shows that the blocks were made by lovely ladies from many european countries.

They all made signature blocks that I pieced together in one long strip for the backing. It will be nice to snuggle up under my quilt and look at all those familiar names and remember how and when I met them in person and how much fun we had together.

I kept the quilting simple. I quilted diagonal “straight” lines, using different Aurifil threads – yellow, variagating orange, grey and variegated grey.

 

Those diagonal lines made it hard to wrestle the quilt while quiling though…

I like the texture and how it looks on the back

Another post-wash photo:

And here is a shot of the quilt on one of our yellow chairs. I think I’ll just keep it there and enjoy the sight (o:

Thank you to all contributors! Dianne (Czech Republic), Pippa (France), Elisabeth and Helen (Switzerland), Floh and Tacha (Germany), Nicole and Linda (Netherlands), Celine and Lush (UK), Annabella (Morocco). I had so much fun with you!!!

This is one of my entries for Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2015. If you came over from Blogger’s Quilt Festival, please consider leaving a comment so I can return the favour and visit you too!

If you have never heard of Blogger’s Quilt Festival, grab a cuppa and hop over – there are many lovely quilts to discover and much talent to be seen.

Happy Quilting!
Christine

Gifts made

Although I have not been blogging much lately, I managed to get some little things done over the last months. Here’s some of my secret sewing:

A fabric basket for my neighbor (she asked for berry as the main fabric):

A keychain for my colleague:

A tote bag for our little neighbor turning 5 who is a huge fan of firefighters:

A coaster/ mugrug than can double up as potholder - for our friend’s birthday (Pattern from Sarah Fielke’s “All that and the hatter”)

Fabric baskets for my friends… (free tutorial here)

 

4 Coasters for my friends in Québec, Canada, who love cats. (The free pattern was part of Elizabeth Hartman’s “Catventalong”). So much fun. One day I might make an entire cat-quilt.

And last but not least, I made another tote bag. This one is for my sister’s MIL:

That variegated aurifil thread is my new favourite!!! And those FMQ Stars are way easier than I feared. I shouldn’t have procrastinated quilting that tote for so long…

If I can find a minute or two this afternoon, I might get a blog post ready for tomorrow with all the handmade gifts I received (o:

Have a great sunday!
Christine

Newborn Kimono Top

A picture post.

My favourite part: the scrappy bias binding - made entirely from bias tape leftovers.

It’s size 0-6 months of this free pattern. Thank you for sharing, Amy!

Happy Sewing!
Christine

Neck Bean Bag – A free tutorial

Before life turned wild, I had shot some photos of the Neck-Heat-Bag that I made as a birthday present for my mom. Sarah asked for a tutorial and here it is:

Download the free pattern (handdrawn, nothing fancy…), print it at 100%, tape it together and cut it out.

You’ll need:

• 45cm x 70cm cover fabric (100% cotton)
• 45cm x 70cm inner fabric for the bean bag (100% cotton)
• some cm of velcro
• beans (I used rapeseed/canola but you could also use Wheat, Rice or Oatmeal)
• basic sewing supplies

Cut out the fabric TWICE (following the mark for the FRONT) and ONCE on the fold (using the inner mark for the BACK as your guide)

Fold in the straight edges twice…

… like so. Topstitch along the edge.

Lay out the fabric left sides together with the straight edges overlapping.

Pin the two pieces of velcro in place.

And stitch them down.

Close the velcro and lay out the pieces right sides together:

Pin to secure from shifting. Stitch all around the edges TWICE. Once with a straight line stitch and another time using a zig zag stitch. Or use a serger.

Cut out the inner fabric TWICE on the fold. Just a bit smaller than the outer fabric.

Place the fabric right sides together and sew all around using a narrow straight line stitch. Leave a small opening:

Turn inside out.

Fill with beans and close opening. Afterwards sew some straight lines thereby forming even segments to prevent the beans from shifting.

Slide into the cover, step back and admire.

Now go heat it up* and relax =)

Have a lovely week!!!
Christine

*Be careful and never leave your heat bag/ bean bag unattended in your microwave. I set mine at 350W max. And please: don’t burn yourself, always check the heat of your bean bag before applying to your body (o;

Tutorial Fabric Baskets

O.k. I’m a bit slow but I finally finished my tutorial for easy Fabric Baskets. I’m going to add it to the “My Tutorials” site one day sooner or later, but in the meantime you can find it here:



Supply list:
- basic sewing supplies (sewing machine, iron, fabric marker, scissors, rotary cutter, ruler, etc.)
- outer fabric, depending on size of your basket
- inner/ lining fabric, depending on size of your basket
- fusible batting, depending on size of your basket
- a round object to trace or compass



1. Cutting
This fabric basket is made from a circle and a long rectangle.
First, decide on the size of the circle. Then you calculate the length of your rectangle. Remember what you learned in school? The cirumference of your circle is equal to 6,28 x radius of your circle. (Remember: 2 x pi x r) Some things you learned were really learned for life ;o) Oh, and add a generous seam allowance to your rectangle!
Choose height of your rectangle according to your needs.

2. Fuse your batting to the outer fabric. Follow manufacturer’s advice.



3. Draw the circle onto your fabrics, either tracing a round shape or using your compass.



4. Cut out the cirles and the rectangles.



5. Lay out your rectangles right sides together and sew along one long side.



6. Open up and mark the centres of both raw long sides.



7. Take your lining fabric circle and your lining rectangle and lay them out right sides together.



8.  Pin centre of rectangle to any point of your circle.



9. Pin all around the circle…



…until it looks like so:



10. Sew all around the circle, just remember to backstitch at the start and in the end to secure your seams.



Make sure you finish your seam in the exact place where you started it. Like so:



11. Repeat no. 7-10 and attach your outer fabric circle to your outer fabric rectangle. Afterwards it should look like this: a long tube with an open side.



12. Sew from one end to the other, leaving an opening in the lining fabric.



13. Cut back your seam allowance to 1/2”, turn inside out and close the opening (by hand or using your sewing machine). You might want to stitch around the top edge of your fabric basket once but that’s really up to you.

Enjoy the variety of your new fabric basket (o;



Credits: Fabrics used in this tutorial: two prints of Juggling Summer from Zen Chic (Brigitte Heitland) for Moda.

Thanks for reading. If you do have any questions, please let me know in the comments, I’ll try to answer them asap.

Happy Sewing (o:
Christine