All Things Craft Sewing

So, it's been a while since I posted anything in here about projects on the go or finished for that matter.  I had a camera fail, so taking pics became an issue. That's all fixed now and so onto the projects I've completed first.

My extended family welcomed 2 new editions in April, a little girl, Kate, and a little boy Lucas.  I had planned on having the cushion covers that I was putting together finished by the time they were born. But you know how it goes, you think you have time and then life gets in the way.  I managed to finish the pink one and then promptly forgot to send it up to my cousin.  Brilliant I know!  I even posted in here that I was sending it too! Oh Well better late than never! I sent it up last week, and here is a pic of that cover.

I was also in the process of putting together a bigger cushion cover for little Lucas. I managed to grab some more fat quarters for Lucas' cushion as I hadn't purchased enough to complete it by the time of his birth.  I used a pattern by Hot Possum called "Big Owl".  I used scrap fabrics from my stash mostly and the two new fat quarter pieces, and was quite pleased with how it all turned out.  I almost forgot to take a pic of it before I posted it up last week.  So here are the pics I took of the finished product.

I hand stitched all the Blanket Stitch around the letters and the pieces of the owl too.

I had fun making these two pieces, which is why I do this. 

Something that kept me occupied

I had some left over 1/4 triangle charm squares from the table runner project and wanted to do something with them.  It was suggested I make a heat pad to go with the table runner, but I decided that I wanted to make something for me instead.  I had purchased a Sony Touch eBook Reader almost 12 months ago, with a cover.  I wanted to make a padded sleeve for it too, but had never managed to get to it.  So I when I looked at the leftover charms and the left over brown bubble strips, I thought...maybe?

So I measured the eBook reader, this time remembering to add in the seam allowance! The last thing I tried to free form I forgot about the seam allowance, so it was too small for what I wanted. Anyway, I digress.  I made 2 panels sewing two of the charm squares together then dividing them with a strip of the brown bubbles. I then added a strip of the brown bubbles to either side.  I think I did the sewing together in a round about way, and I am sure there would be a simpler and faster way of doing it.  I then ironed on the pellon and sewed up the final side seam.

Next bit was a little disaster, I didn't quite get the positioning right when I sewed the bottom seam.  Then I thought I'd square the corners off, BEFORE Looking to see if it had worked properly. As you can imaging it wasn't sitting properly and was off centre to boot! So I spent some time unpicking seams and lamenting that I had cut the corners off. So I turned it up the other way and pinned the seam straight and anchored the rest of it before I started sewing again.  I then had to figure out out to fix the top bit, so I just squared it off and added a boarder piece of the brown bubbles.

I tested that the eBook reader still fit inside.  How to close it? Press studs? Velcro? Buttons? I decided on folding in one side and attaching 3 different coloured ribbons in slightly varying lengths to wrap around the entire thing. I then added beads on the ends to help anchor them when wrapped around.  The pic below if the finished product, with the eBook inside, but I took the pic before I added the beads.

Sideline Project

So while on my cooking jag I also had a bee in my bonnet about a sewing project that has been on the back burner for a while.

I had purchased two bundles of 5 inch charm squares at one of the craft/quilting shows a couple of years ago.  I had intended making myself a tablecloth with them, and had even designed the layout. I went back to it every so often, and each time I grew dissatisfied with the design.

Now at work we have a large board room with large table, which is where we tend to have our morning coffee. It's a routine to help us bond and catch up before we all start to work in earnest. We have been using folded up tablecloths that really don't fit the table, and I was also getting dissatisfied with that too.

I had recently been to the Australasian Quilting Convention here in Melbourne, and bought a little ruler that is a straight 1/2 inch.  It is used to help with making half triangle squares.  I'm sure that's not the technical term, but it's what I am going with.

I had decided to make a table runner for the office.  It was to sit across the end of the table in the boardroom.  I took my measuring tape in and made sure I had enough of what I needed at home to start it off.  So I re-sorted the charm squares and made a lot of half triangle squares.  I then decided that I would boarder or sash them with plain calico.

I checked my measurements and found I was too short, so I added some more charms.  This time however, I had sewn two half triangle squares together and cut them up so that they made a 4 triangle charm square.  I was truly proud of myself, because this was the first time I had sewn triangle squares. To keep consistent I actually matched the spacing of the other charm squares, and sashed these with calico as well.

I then joined the two end pieces with the main body.

Next came the boarder, again it was calico strips, which were 2.5 inches wide.

I did have to go and square all the half and quarter triangle charms to 4 inches square before I started to piece this all together.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to sandwich the top with a baking fabric and some wadding, or just the backing fabric.  In the end I went with just the backing fabric. Only problem was, I didn't have anything that was really suitable. So off to Spotlight I went for some cheap brownish cotton!  Luckily they had a number of quilting fabrics on sale, and I ended up with some pretty funky backing fabric.  I decided to bind the runner with a plain chocolate brown cotton, as that fit in the with the top and the backing. I ditch stitched to sandwich the two pieces together.  I then decided that the plain boarder needed something a little extra, so I used a variegated brown silky cotton and sewed 1/4 inch lines inside the binding, and that was all the quilting I did.

So below is the finished product, front and a sample of the backing too.  I am proud that I was able to match all seams and that everything in in line! Not too bad for my second free style quilting project!

Sample of the backing material.

Two for the price of one!

While I was on a cooking jag last week, I wanted to use up some leftover roast vegetables.  I was of a mind to make a vegetable mince mixture.  Well that's not what happened!  I ended up with a soup and a mince mixture.

I started out cutting all the leftover roast vegetables into small cubes.  The I added some celery, red capsicum, half an onion, some more carrots, and I think some sweet potato, but don't quote me on that.  I also added a tin of crushed tomatoes, and a tin of 4 bean mix, with some added tomato paste and water. I used dried mixed spice and parsley too. As you can imagine I ended up with a soup instead of a base for my mince!

As I had already defrosted the mince I browned it in another pan, and slowly added a number of spoonfuls of the soup mixture.  What I ended up with something that tasted brilliant and was healthy too.

I have since blitzed the soup and frozen it in snap lock bags to added to other dishes; and the mince? I've also portioned that out and frozen it too!  Although if I do too much more batch cooking, with on accident or purpose, I'll run out of room in my freezer!

On the left is the mince mixture and on the right is the soup.

... and yes that is a crochet tea cosy in the background!

Low Fat Banana Bread

So I've been on a journey with medical appointments and such over the past 2 months.  I've a need to bake when I get stressed, so in line with that  found this great Banana Bread recipe from the Best Recipes website.  The recipe can be found here and I will include it at the bottom of this post too. A big thank you to "marie" on Best Recipes for sharing this one.

I had bought about 3 kilos of very ripe banana's from the supermarket the day after I found this recipe with the intention of making a banana bread...or making millions of smoothies! Anyway, I used 3 of the 15 banana's to make the bread.  I was a bit dubious about the taste as I found the mixture rather dry to begin with, but then remembered I hadn't actually added the bananas!

It smelt rather tasty while baking and had me salivating the 40 minutes it takes to bake...well it took a little longer than that.  I had to try a piece while it was still warm from the oven, and I have to say, it really was yummy! Moist and flavourful.  I had added a half cup of walnuts to the mix as well.  I will definitely be making this again.  I sliced the loaf up once it had cooled completely, and froze it in individual slices, so that I can have a piece whenever I choose.

Low Fat Banana Bread

Recipe by 'marie" from Best Recipes website. 

(http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Low-Fat-Banana-Bread-L1162.html)

2 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup Splenda artificial sweetener - I used Hermesetas

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup milk - I used Semi-Skim

2 tablespoons butter, melted - I used the heating up oven to do this.

3 tablespoons golden syrup

3 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Place flour and sweetener in a large bowl.

Combine eggs, milk, butter and syrup in another bowl.

Add egg mixture and banana to the flour and mix well.

Pour mixture into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 40 minutes.

As an added extra you could add in 1/2 cup of walnuts or oats.

To Experiment...

So I went shopping the other day at The Queen Victoria Markets here in Melbourne, like I always do the weekend I get paid.  Buying meat/fish/veges/deli & bread for most of the month.  I do go back every 2 weeks to get more veges.  I then take everything home and divide and chop and freeze what I won't be using over the rest of the weekend.  Lately I've gotten into the habit of easy meals on Saturday, and then firing up the slow cooker and the oven on Sunday to cook meals for the week.

So this past week I had bought a small leg of lamb on a whim, well that and the fact it was rather cheap.  I didn't have an idea of what I wanted to use it for, and thought about freezing it. that is until I got home and put everything away, only then realising I need a bigger freezer! It is currently chocka-block! So I needed to cook the lamb leg on Sunday.  As my last attempt at roasting only worked with another person in the kitchen, I decided to free style with the slow cooker again.

So here is what I did...

Recipe for Lamb Casserole...

Take one 1.5-2kg Leg of lamb, brown in pan to seal.
Place 2cm sliced pieces of potato in the bottom of your slow cooker. Use as may as you like, I used 3 medium sized spuds. Then slice an onion thickly and place on top on potatoes. I then had abut 2 sticks of celery already chopped and about a 1/4 of a red capsicum sliced thinly. I added those into the slow cooker too. About 2 carrots chunky chopped, but add more if you are feeding the family. Then place the sealed lamb leg in the centre of all that.  I then sprinkled about 1 teaspoon of Vegeta Vege Stock powder over it all and then poured a can of crushed tomatoes over.  Then added about half a can of addition water. Put the lid on and cooked on low for 8 hours.  Served it with steamed broccoli.

Experiment with it, after 8 hours the lamb fell off the bone, so I just broke it up in the mix.

I forgot to take a pic of the initial finished product, but will add one shortly of what is left...and below is the promised pic.

Small Pin Cushion

I spotted this pattern on the Moda Bake Shop website.  It is called a Cathedral Window Pin Cushion.  I purchased the materials from Spotlight , I thought these were quite cute.  I also used a piece of butterfly material I already had.  I must say it was very easy to make, and I enjoyed putting it together. 

I did make one change though, I appliqued the flower on the middle, as my sewing wasn't quite up to scratch, and the button I had was not big enough to hide the imperfections. I must also work on my hidden stitching though.

Pin Cushion Front

Pin Cushion Back

Finally Finished

Well I finally finished this cross stitch. 

It's only been about 20 years or so.

Trip into the past...

I got inspired about a month ago and decided to finish off some long outstanding craft projects.  One in fact from 1985!! The other one wasn't quite that long ago, but nearly!

Some of my former school friends might recognise this project from Year 8 Art Class! Yes I finally finished it! LOL! It was a screen printing activity.  We had to design a template based on a bug/insect of some sort.  I chose the butterfly and if I remember correctly the art teacher didn't think I enough detail, so co-opted someone else bug onto my material.

The next project I finished is a cushion cover.  I finished stitching the cross stitch quite some years ago, so it's just been sitting amongst my stuff waiting to be made into something. So I decided to use some of the leftover boarder material from another quilt.

Here is the finished project.  Laura this will be winging it's way to you at some point for Kate!

Cooking a Nigella Recipe

I made this over Christmas while in Noosa.  My Mum and I watched one of Nigella's programs and she made this on the episode we watched.  Mum and I were both so impressed, I tried to find the recipe on her site the next day, but to no avail.  So I did the next best thing, I watched it on ABC iView and wrote it down as she made it. 

It is call Black Beer Gingerbread, and it tastes heavenly!  All members of the family loved it too, even my Dad who isn't a fan of ginger anything ... taste not red heads! :D

I used Kilkenny Stout, and have made it again since with the same Stout.  Although I do have a can of Guinness sitting in the fridge for the next batch to see if it makes a difference to the taste.

Below is the recipe as I watched the program.

Black Beer Gingerbread

Recipe By Nigella Lawson

Pre-heat oven to 170 C.

Melt in a saucepan, 150 grams of butter, 300 grams of Golden Syrup & 200 grams of dark Brown Sugar (Demerara). Once melted, keep on heat and whisk in 250 mls of Black Beer (Stout). Then mix in 300 grams of plain flour, 2 teaspoons of Bicarb Soda, 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger and a ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves. Once this has been whisked into the beer mixture, remove from the heat. Whisk together 300 mls/grams of Sour Cream (Small carton 300ml) & 2 eggs. Mix sour cream into batter and pour into a pan. There is no need to grease the pan, especially if using the suggested BBQ foil pan. Bake in moderately slow oven for 45 minutes.
Serve on it’s own, or with cream, ice cream or custard.

So I made this ...

I again visited the Sylvia Pippen Designs website and spent some more money.  This time I purchased her Sashiko Scissors Holder.  The colour selection was a random pick by the person who fulfilled the order.  As luck would have it I got red & black fabrics!  I was really happy about that.  So the kit includes 6 Sashiko designs to choose from, white cotton, a needle, a button and all the fabric and wadding needed to make this beautiful and functional item. 

So the first decision I had to make what what design to choose.  The red and black accent fabric to go on the front was of paper fans, so picking a design to go with that was hard.  I decided to go with the double cranes, as that is what my eye kept being drawn to when looking at the selection.  I traced the design onto the black fabric, forgetting that I needed to angle it so it sat properly when the boarders were stitched on and it came time to construct the holder.

Double Cranes

Then came the cutting and sewing of the boarders to the above piece, which was fairly simple. Then came the sandwiching together and then some very simple quilting. I ditch stitched around the centre panel and then sewed a quarter inch line either side of the ditch.  I sewed on the binding, and made the button loop.  Which was to me a new thing and it took me a bit to work out how that might work.

Then came the folding into the shape and stitching in place.  I used one of my own buttons as the button that came with the kit did not match the fabrics.  Below is the finished result, both front and back views.

Front View.

Back View ... if a bit fuzzy!

More Presents...The Final Show!

So I only have two more projects to show that I completed for Christmas 2011.  The second lot of tableware and the wall hanging.

So first to the tableware.  I asked the recipients what colours they would like, all I was told was "Not Pink!", so that left a lot of scope.  Luckily I noticed a few things around their flat/unit the last time I was there and come up with the below colour scheme.  I wanted to do something simple yet fun, so I decided on simple strips and a large square. 

I decided on minimal quilting, as these were for males, so the "less is more" adage fit well.  I made 6 place-mats in total, all with the coloured strips in different combinations, but always finishing with the green one and the large brown square.  I used a variegated green thread for the quilting & ditch stitching, and again the tea dyed calico to bind and back them.  As I forgot to take photo's or measure them before I gave these away, this is the only photo I have of them.  I think the dimensions are 9" x 12" and that the strips were cut at 1.5".

I wonder if the secret on the back has been discovered yet ...

So on to the final piece made for Christmas 2011.  This is what I gave to my Mum.  I had spotted this panel on the BeBe Bold website in one of their Sales. I had it long before I knew what I wanted to do with it.  I knew I wanted to put some Sashiko stitching on it, and was going to do a spray over the printed Sashiko on the panel itself, but as you can see I only stitched a little on the print, and made a star quite by accident.

I also shadow quilted with a variegated blue sewing cotton around the square of printed Sashiko.  I think I could have shadow quilted around the lady too, but didn't think of it at the time, it might have anchored the quilting a little more.  Oh well, hind sight is always 20/20.

So after doing those two things I decided it needed something else.  I took it into work to show my friends and described what I wanted to do.  The opinion was that the white Sashiko thread might be a little stark on the outer edges. I had completely forgotten I had a blue to white variegated Sashiko thread too.  So the results are below. I also shadowed the lines with machine stitching, but did not stitch over the Sashiko thread, instead stopped and started o the other side of each row.  I can tell you there was much frustration in the sewing of these!

A close up of the detailed Sashiko stitching.

I backed the wall hanging with a bright blue & dark blue leaf print that I bought on the fly.  I literally picked it as I walked to the checkout/cutting table at Spotlight!  I think it works really well, and was surprised myself.  I also added a channel on the top, in case Mum wanted to hang it on the wall.  I whip stitched the binding down on the back and used a calico coloured thread, so made it a feature of the back for something different.  Again I was so focused on giving the present I forgot to take a photo of the back! 

So here it is in it's finished form!

... and more ...

The next batch is ...

The beaded open lariat necklace I made for my Aunt. This was a design I bought from the lovely ladies at Bead Shack.  This is a custom colour piece, of light gold silver foiled seed beads, topaz silver foiled seed beads, light gold Swarovski Pearls, and dark brown Swarovski Pearls, and gold crystal rondells.

This is hand sewn with Nymo thread, using St Petersburg Stitch, and sewn to any length you like.

Here are a few different angles.

Ooops!!! Post the Third etc....

So I completely got caught up in life and forgot I hadn't posted about the remaining craft projects I completed for Christmas 2011.

So here goes...


This is a pic of the pink quilt I made for my cousin...just because.


It started out as a small jelly roll of 2.5 inch strips.  I then had to decide on how I wanted the strips to come together. I drew out the sequence on some graph paper with coloured pencils. I had enough strips to do 3 panels, but decided on two. So I very meticulously joined one lot of strips together along the long side, and created a sort of tube.  Then cut 2.5 inch strips across all the colours. To sew the cut strips into the above sequence, I undid which ever seam would create the design. The I joined then all together, trying to match up all the seams as perfectly I as I could manage.  This being the first of these type of quilts there are some that are just not matching.

The sashing is some of the tea dyed calico I made a while back. This is also 2.5 inches in width.  I then had to go out and find complimentary pinks for the boarders.  The first boarder is a pale pink on white mottled cotton and is 4.5 inches wide. The next boarder is plain calico and is 2 inches wide, and the final boarder is bright pink floral on white cotton and is 3.5 inches wide.


The backing fabric was picked on the fly while I was out shopping for the material for the Green Place-mat set.  I used the remaining jelly roll strips to help widen the backing as the bright pink material was not wide enough.




I had help sandwiching the quilt, I used a cotton/bamboo blend wadding.  I decided to do a combination of hand quilting and machine quilting on this one. 'Cos why not challenge myself?  I used a template of a Japanese flower and hand quilted through all layers with a variegated pink cotton.  So there are 3 big flowers in the centre, and one small flower in each far corner as well.  I then machine quilted straight lines in diagonal from each centre flower and 'V' shapes on the inner boarders, and straight lines connecting each boarder flower.




The material I used for the binding was a tie dyed cotton of bright blues and purples and pinks.  I totally forgot to take a photo of the label sewn onto the back.  Might have to get my cousin to take a shot and I'll add it later.

Part Second ...

So on to the next project I completed for Christmas...

It's a bag I made from a See & Sew Butterick pattern, No.B5273.  I used upholstery fabric and lined it with calico, and used canvas strap for the handle, instead of making it out of the material.  The lining also contains 2 pockets. I think it worked better than the material would have.  I like it so much I'm going to make myself one too! I made this for my bestie Karen in Sydney.

Next project was ... Tableware for my sister.  This was a design of my own, using a fat quarter bundle I bought from Spotlight. I cut each fat quarter into four 9.5" x 10" squares. I didn't use all the squares on the front as I had what I needed with the 4 x 6 square size. I also made a heat pad to go with the tablecloth.

This is the reverse side, with the inbuilt table runner.

A close up of the reverse side.

This is the heat pad I made to go with the tablecloth.

More to come....

The post you've been waiting for! Part 1 ...

So over the last couple of months I've been giving updates on projects I finished for Christmas Presents.  I can now reveal what those presents looked like!

So first up is the Sashiko panel I made into a cushion cover for a very close friend.  I backed the panel with a thin iron on wadding, then backed that with the plain blue fabric you see on the side of the cushion. The back was lined & divided in half as I attached a zipper for easy removal. I also did some detail on the join of the side flap.

Honus Sashiko Kit Panel from Indigo Niche

Sashiko stitch detail on the cushion wing.

Next up is the first of 2 Mug Rugs, completely of my own design.  This first one is made with some scraps from my Teapot Lap Quilt, and some Kimono off cuts I bought at one of the Craft Shows I attended in 2011.  I used a Diamond Template I bought from The Scissor Man a while ago, and then I added my own flair!

The centre dragon panel & the side white & black panels are Kimono scraps.

The next Mug Rug, I used plain black cotton and transferred a template design I bought from Kim Bradley Creations. The design is a Ponga Frond.  I Sashiko stitched the outline with some red, yellow, green variegated Sashiko Thread bought from Indigo Niche. I used some bright green checked cotton to frame the rug.

The thread is a lot more brighter than you can see here...

I will post about the next three projects tomorrow ... so stay tuned for part 2!!!