Alphabet quilt

Just received some photos from one of my customers of their little girl playing on her cot quilt. I made the quilt late last year when the intended recipient was still a ‘bump’ and so unisex fabric with an alphabet and numbers theme was just right.

After much hunting, I chose the cream-based cotton fabric from the ‘ABC 123’ range designed by American Jane for Moda. The fabric was great fun to work with and is reminiscent of children’s picture books from the 1930s. With copies of detailed hand-drawn illustrations, there are lots of things to spot and talk about which makes the quilt great as a playmat until ‘little one’ is able to use it as bedding.

The front panel was bordered in green dotty fabric with red contrast binding and is fully reversible with multi-coloured dot backing. While the majority of the quilt is machine quilted, I did hand-quilt around the numbers to make them standout.

I doodled this ditty as I was making the quilt… can you find all the items?

This entry was posted on August 4th, 2014.

Blanket coverage

MayCrafts is steadily going global. How exciting - my quilts are already on beds in the UK, France, Luxembourg and Canada and now they've reached Australia too ...

Earlier this year I made a quilt for a little boy in Australia and just received a great testimonial. "Love it! I enjoyed receiving updates on the quilt as it came together. Service was great!" Azra, Melbourne, Australia

To see how the quilt was made from the fabric arriving to the final hand-stitches, check out the individual 'work in progress' page for this quilt.

Which country will it be next time? I'm happy to ship anywhere!

This entry was posted on April 2nd, 2014.

Adding a label

Yay! I crossed another thing of my mental to-do list! I finally ordered some fabric labels for my quilts and cushions and they arrived in the post yesterday.
Sooo many decisions to get to this point…
Woven or printed? definitely woven, more luxurious;
Adhesive or sew-on? sew-on – longer lasting I’m sure (wasn’t Mallory identified on Everest by a sewn-in clothing label);
Colour? – blues? pinks? neutral?;
Font or fonts? - script font? handwriting font? block font?;
What to include … and so the procrastination continued…

... but having made all my decisions I love the end product

I opted for a simple woven label with burgundy script on a sandy background.

The script font lets everyone know that my items are lovingly handmade by me, and the block font provides an easy-to-read reference for my website.
I think the ‘dark magnolia’ background complements the vintage fabrics I incorporate and is more forgiving than white on the modern fabrics.

First label sewn in this afternoon on a quilt that’s off to the other side of the world! International marketing through a small label just 3” x 1”.

Look out for the labels on a bed or sofa near you!

This entry was posted on March 5th, 2014.

Winter Olympics: Patchwork

Have you noticed the images on everything from posters to podiums at the Winter Games? Yes, a patchwork quilt is the official look for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games being held in Sochi, Russia.

According to the Sochi’s games press release, ”The Olympic patchwork quilt, developed by Bosco’s creative department will be the official look of Russia’s first Winter Games. Our goal was to represent a diverse range of emotions and feelings, connecting concepts like Motherhood, Family, Culture, Time, Olympism, Peace, Nobility, Friends, Memory, Honour, Dreams, Beauty, Freedom, Pride, Warmth, Happiness, Greatness, Reliability, Victory, Creativity, Hospitality, Creation, Future, Russia, Planet Earth.”

Bosco Sportswear (general Olympic partner of the Russian Olympic committee as well as the official outfitter of the Russian Olympic team) say they “had a wealth of choices to represent Russia’s rich diversity, but in the end we settled on something familiar, warm and welcoming: the patchwork quilt.”

The quilt shows 16 designs of famous traditional Russian national Arts & Crafts. Each diamond represents a different craft, showcasing traditional crafts from each of Russia’s 89 regions: in a single tapestry Bosco has combined “Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and the flowers of Pavlo Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns, fabrics of Ivanovo and other distinctive Russian patterns. That is how we arrived at a modern, distinctive and unmistakably Russian Look of the Games.”

There are many more photos and stories on Bosco’s official site.

It will be very exciting to watch for this “patchwork” branding as it seems to be on everything from official Olympic clothing being worn by athletes and volunteers to public transport, merchandise and of course the Olympic medals themselves.

Patchwork is on the map again!

This entry was posted on February 14th, 2014.

Roses for Ruby

Finished making a quilt in pinks and greens for a joint birthday and christening present. The customer sent a lovely testimonial...

"The quilt was the perfect gift for my niece. She loved it straight away and is already getting full use out of it. She mainly uses it to snuggle up to for bedtime stories....which she loves! I've recommended you far and wide, and thank you so much for making such a lovely gift. The quilt really is beautiful and will be treasured for many, many years."

Click here to see more

This entry was posted on February 4th, 2014.

Scatter cushions

Happy New Year! Hope you had a restful, yet productive break.

My collection of books and crafting goodies has grown again and I’ve been dipping into my new books when I should be doing other things.

I started my sewing year by making some scatter cushions for a lady who had just purchased new curtains for her sitting room. The linen fabric was from Sanderson, part of their Borocay range called Sorilla. Originally produced in the 1950's, the fabric has a vintage floral design with shabby chic roses in pinks and clarets and lilac flowers in whites and mauves.

I choose contrast piping in the palest of pinks, to bring out the colour of the rose buds.

I had a lovely letter back with some photos showing the cushions in their new home - “I am delighted with my custom - made cushions which now sit so well on my sofa. Your advice to choose a contrast piping to match the colour of one of the flowers in the material was sound and much appreciated. Thank you for all your help and for work skilfully executed.”

This entry was posted on January 21, 2014.

Gingerbread ladies

Every year I make a new felt decoration for our Christmas tree and last year I decided to sell some of them locally. A real mixture of hearts, puddings, trees and gingerbread men but all decorated with buttons from my collection.

   The Scandinavian style hearts in red, blue and purple

Christmas trees with button baubles

Christmas puddings and snowmen that don’t melt

And of course gingerbread men

This year a lady who bought some decorations last year came back and asked if I could make gingerbread ladies as her ’man’ was lonely on the tree! Happy to oblige

Hope they’ll be very happy together !

This entry was posted on December 20, 2013.

keep calm...

"Received this t-shirt as an early Christmas present....says it all finished my customer orders this morning but still stitching for family and friends..."

This entry was posted on December 6, 2013.

Owl doorstops and bookends

I’ve been creating owls from my patchworking scraps!

The main body and the wings of the owl are made from a cotton fabric and the individual features have been handmade from scraps of felt and securely sewn by hand.

I rummaged through my button tin for his eyes and then placed them on felt circles edged with hand embroidered blanket stitch. Ricrac decorates the wings and I individually hand cut and sewed the feathers to complete the look. The mix of scrap fabric, felt and buttons means that each owl is unique.

I stuffed the body of the owl with polyester toy stuffing to give a soft edge and then weighted him down with dried rice (the fun part?!). Each owl stands approximately 9” (22 cm) tall.

Lovable and functional, these unique handmade owls are heavy enough to hold open most doors, but soft enough not to hurt your toes. They would be equally at home sitting on a shelf, weighing down a pile of papers on a desk or standing guard as a bookends. Upcycled from fabric remnants this one-of-a-kind owl is a welcome addition to any home!

The owls are on sale through my online shop.

This entry was posted on November 18, 2013.

Those were the days …

Just been given this advert from the Lady magazine circa 1977

A complete double-bed quilt kit for £15.45 !?! including all the fabric for the top, the backing and the wadding?

A quick look at a cost of living calculator suggests that based on RPI that would be about £64 in today’s money ….

£250 would be nearer the mark now…ho hum, as Piglet would say, ho hum

This entry was posted on October 17, 2013.

News from the crafting table

Well I may have taken a break from all the business admin and blogging but not from quilting and sewing – that would be too strange!

So I thought I’d bring you a quick round-up of what’s on the crafting table at the moment…

I’ve just finished a classic teddy bear cot quilt. It was fun playing with neutral tones and making a quilt that would match any nursery. Ideal for a baby shower or for the mum-to-be who isn’t telling the colour of her newborn!

So what else is on the table?

I’ve been playing around with making quilt tops from 6 fat quarters. This is a very efficient use of fabric and means that I can combine several fabrics from the same range by buying in smaller quantities. Many quilting groups run 6 Fat Quarter fabric days and I thought I’d take up the challenge.

I’ve made the quilt tops in two parts so I can insert a white panel to personalise the quilt with a child’s name. Here’s a preview of some of the fabrics: This one features sweet leaves, blossoms and butterflies from the Bella Butterfly range for Michael Miller fabrics in peaches/pinks with accent greens.

The second quilt top is in pinks and blues and has a more scrappy feel:

I used ‘Fairy Allover’ fabric from Makower and complemented it with plains, spots and abstract flowers from my fabric stash.

This entry was posted on September 27, 2013.

A quilt – 40 years on!

I love working with customers on their ideas and using cotton fabric that has special memories for them. I recently worked with a lady who had intended to make a quilt for her daughter. But time had passed and much had happened, and the daughter is now aged 40! However, she still had the fabric that she has kept all these years and I had the opportunity to make a quilt for the lady’s grand-daughter.

The parcel that arrived was a mixture of fabrics – purple cotton with a ditsy rose print, a panel with six Dresden plate designs and two smaller panel pieces (one with a basket design and the other a ‘plate’ surrounded by hearts).

Having washed and pressed all the fabric, I took photographs of the material and then ‘laid it out’ using a graphics package so as not to cut into the precious fabric until the design was approved. The original design for the quilt evolved during the design process.

I had found a blue and white mini print similar to the background of the Dresden plate panels to appliqué two large hearts. Having decided against the central panel with Sophie’s name, in the final version I painted Sophie’s name on one heart and her date of birth on the other. I quilted a corresponding heart on the opposing squares.

There wasn’t quite enough material for a cot-sized quilt top, but I found a modern print fabric by Makower called Abstract Flower. This picked out all the colours in the panels and had a 1980′s feel to it that fitted in well with the original fabric style.

I used this flower fabric to complete the top and for the backing too. I pieced the remaining strip of the purple rose fabric into the back of the quilt to add interest (but forgot to take a photo!). Although the quilt was for a little girl, I was under strict instructions not to make it too pink! So I used a powder blue for the binding and for some of the borders.

The quilt took around three weeks from start to finish. When I delivered it to the customer who lives locally, she was thrilled. She’s looking forward to giving it to her grand-daughter as a present in the near future.

This entry was posted on July 1, 2013.

Wedding cushion for an amazing couple!

Congratulations to Ellie and Chris who have been married a week today!

This entry was posted on June 29, 2013.

Applique train track playmat

Excuse the radio silence – I’ve been working late into the night on a top secret Birthday present! But now the Birthday has happened, I can reveal the new portable train track….

My son loves his Thomas trains (other trains are available!), and the plastic mat with printed track that we take everywhere was becoming brittle and cracking along the folds. I found a basic track layout and created a paper template for the track, scaling up so the finished mat would be approx 2′ by 3′ (60 x 90cm). Leftover fabric from various projects provided the basic layer – green fields with a small all-over leaf design, large leaves with birds for the forest, blue for the river and pond, and some great pebble fabric for the beach and shoreline.

James travelling along the pebble shoreline, past appliqued houses.

Percy passing the farm. Cows, sheep and lambs gently graze in the meadow ~ the animal labels were left from a previous quilt .

Thomas and Edward at the station. I decided to create a bird’s-eye view of the station roof using patterned orange and red material and then added tiles with fabric pens. The flagstone edging to the platform was sewn using machine blanket stitch.

Diesel, Spencer and Mavis meet at the various junctions! I initially marked out the track using a Frixion rollerball pen that fades on ironing. I was worried that if I stitched the track the train wheels would eventually get caught in a thread so opted to use a black Dylon fabric pen for the rails and brown Dylon fabric paint to free-hand paint the sleepers. Both pen and paint are fixed by ironing. The track turned out really well. I secured the edges of the grey fabric track bed using one of the decorative stitches on my machine, an elongated curve stitch.

Toby at the dockside. Gingham ribbon provides the stone wall edge at the quayside, while a fabric painted crane waits to unload any passing ships.

My son loves playing with the mat which makes all the late nights worthwhile. Happy 4th Birthday!

This entry was posted on June 13, 2013.

Guildford Dragon:

Turning quilt making passion into a business

I was recently interviewed by the local online newspaper for Guildford. The article on May Crafts is now ‘live’ in the news and business sections.

You can read the full article here: Guildford Dragon.

This entry was posted on June 6, 2013.

Chelsea Fringe & knitted vegetables!

I was watching the Chelsea Flower Show on the BBC last week and Alan Titchmarsh mentioned the Chelsea Fringe. Apparently as part of the fringe festival, there’s an arts project running in Battersea, where people are coming together to knit all kinds of vegetables and for some strange reason Alan Titchmarsh thought this amusing. When he was presented with the hamper of knitted vegetables he was laughing so much he could barely speak :-)

Can’t see what’s strange about knitted food myself!

The Chelsea Fringe is all about harnessing and spreading some of the excitement and energy that fizzes around gardens and gardening. Now in its second year, events and projects are slowly spreading out from London.

I’m hoping to go along to my local event next Thursday 6th June – the blurb reads “Garden related craft festival – making and creating portable, wearable, useable colourful ‘gardens’ from recycled and upcycled materials. Come along and experience the warm and enthusiastic welcome from our community arts team and take away your very own bijou creation! Free entry. All materials provided” I’m all for free craft events!

Perhaps there’s an event near you? Check out more details at: http://www.chelseafringe.com

And if you want produce an abundant crop of vegetables without an allotment, I recommend – Knitted Vegetables (Twenty to Make) by Susie Johns.

With just needles, yarn and a little knitting know-how you can create lots of healthy veg from everyday carrots and peas to more exotic chili peppers and artichokes. And if you really have the bug she has written other books on knitted fruit, fast food and cakes (all low calorie of course!). Ideal ‘playfood’!

This entry was posted on June 1, 2013.

A glimpse

Just finished the personalised wedding cushion for a lovely couple getting married next month. Can’t show you the finished item in case they peep, so just a glimpse for now :-)

This entry was posted on May 25, 2013.

Vintage fabric upcycled

Just finished making another custom cushion cover for a customer. The fabric was of great sentimental value and it was great to be able to give it a new lease of life as a cushion cover. There was not quite enough fabric so I added a complementary new border and then interfaced the front and back to reinforce the fabric.

Do you have any fabric lying around that you want turned into a cushion cover? To create a cover for a 17″ (43cm) cushion pad, you need one piece of fabric that measures at least 18″ (46cm) by 18″ (46cm) minimum for the front and 18″ (46cm) by 23″ (60cm) for the back to allow for the envelope opening. The front panel can be created from different fabrics, keeping lots of different memories alive.

This entry was posted on May 22, 2013.

Guildford embroidery

I finally managed to go and see the Guildford Embroidery this week. The work entitled The Celebration of Guildford 2012 is a massive wall hanging measuring approx 50 by 90 inches and has taken around four years to complete.

Two local ladies, Rhoda Nevins (who also worked on Kate Middleton’s wedding dress) and Kristina Graham, who both trained at the Royal School of Needlework, teamed up to create the wall hanging and recruited 25 embroiderers to help them with the task.

The overall embroidery which was unveiled last month gives a 3D effect of the best of Guildford’s historic landmarks. These include the High Street, farmer’s market, the Mayor’s procession, GuilFest, G-Live, the river with raft racing, ‘Guildford in Bloom’, the castle grounds and the cathedral.

My photos don’t do it justice, but it is an exquisite work with amazing detail. I found the cluster of dragonflies above the River Wey, but didn’t see the snail or the fox which I am told are there somewhere!

Although you can click on my images to enlarge them, visit the Guildford embroidery facebook page to see some amazing close-up photos taken before the embroidery was displayed behind glass

https://en-gb.facebook.com/peony555

The Guildford Embroidery is on display in the lower foyer of G Live, Guildford’s new live entertainment venue, situated on London Road, at the top of Guildford High Street. (G Live, London Road, Guildford, GU1 2AA)

This entry was posted on May 10, 2013.

The sewing bug!

Mama, am I old enough now to use your old sewing machine? I am nearly seven and it has got pink on it so it must be for little girls! Oh the powers of persuasion…

So just before the holidays started, I dusted off the my old Singer Featherweight that I inherited from my late great Aunt and took it to the local Singer dealer to be serviced. (When I collected it, I was asked if I wanted all the old lint and threads in an envelope to keep!)

My daughter was very excited and spent a morning sorting through my scrap box looking for fabric to make a doll’s quilt. She found scraps left over from her birthday bunting, a couple of cot quilts and cushions I had made and some binding strips left from a picnic rug. She decided she wanted to make the brickwork pattern I had recently used on my Liberty cushions (gratuitous plug – they’re on sale in my Etsy shop).

I rotary cut all the blocks for her and then she joined them together to make strips. She loved watching the quilt grow (Mama, I showed Dad, he can’t believe I’ve done another row!) She stitched the strips together to make the quilt top (Mama make sure you say I back-stitched at the beginning and end of the rows) and then we pinned the quilt sandwich together. She sewed through all the layers to quilt the top.

I finished off by attaching the binding and hand-sewing the edges. Milly looks very snuggly wrapped up in her quilt.

My daughter’s so proud of her first doll’s quilt and I hope I’ve passed on the sewing bug :-)

This entry was posted on April 13, 2013.

Elmer

Are you making Elmer, Mummy? Are you? For me? Can you make me a cushion? Pleeeeease? I said please! And so this week my 3-year old son and I sat down to make his Elmer cushion. He’s been asking ever since the multi-coloured fabric arrived for the rainbow quilt, so with Elmer book in hand and the holidays upon us, we set about cutting up the scraps and ‘sticking’ them together (What did I do before fusible interfacing?) The Jungle fabric, a donation from a dear friend who was tidying out her craft room, works well as the background. The back of the cushion is a snuggly fleece fabric, just right for curling up with a good book.

Mummy, I like a Wilbur cushion too…

This entry was posted on April 6, 2013.