Finishing touches

It's been a holiday this weekend and beautiful weather. Unfortunately the kids haven't been exactly on their best behaviour so we have all been going a bit stir crazy. But anyway.... Did manage to get a couple of projects finished which is always a good thing!!

First off, my Amy Butler Birdie Sling. I have had this pattern for quite a while and the fabric as well (from my stash of Rouenneries), and have over the last few weeks tackled the bag in a few sittings. It came together pretty well, although I did have to use the quick-unpick a few times - mainly due to my failure to read the directions properly.... I added a zip pocket inside and a magnetic snap closure. I love the bag, and would love to do another, but next time I would lose the fusible fleece on the lining. I think one layer of interfacing is enough. There was way too much bulk in the seams around the band which made it tricky to do the final top-stitching.

And now for my second project finish - my first bee blocks for Fresh Modern Bee 2 - string quilt blocks for Scruffycat. This was my first attempt at string blocks and I love them! These were so much fun to do and I love the result. I hope you do too, Amy!

Now off to finish dinner - a roast lamb has been cooking away slowly all afternoon and it smells divine!!!

Finally - the finished quilt

This quilt made for my hubby's birthday is the quickest finish ever! Took about a week from start to finish (with the start even including thinking "uhhhh, think I'll make a quilt for Craig's birthday next week...."). In the end I was very grateful for my mum's help in sewing on the binding (including hand-stitching). She loves sewing on binding! What can I say?? It isn't my favourite part of the process, and in any case, to keep it a surprise I couldn't really be sitting there at night with hubby happily stitching away on his quilt. Although when I told him this he said he wouldn't have suspected.

The fabrics are mainly from the Simple Abudance line by Bonnie and Camille. The large floral print (which I think is called Mum's Blue) is my favourite and hubby happens to really like it too! I'd used it in a previous quilt and he admired it so much I stored that away for future reference. On the back I used a Robyn Pandolph Christmas print I'd had for about five years, which I thought went really well with the colours of the front, plus a pieced strip - which took waaaaay longer than I thought it was going to....

All-in-all, very happy with how this one turned out! And the best thing is (apart from Craig really appreciating it) that it gets to live with me! :)

Stitching with the Prints Charming Girls!

Well I can never resist the call of a beautiful design and some yummy embroidery thread, so yesterday I went to my LQS for a few hours of stitching with the very clever ladies from Prints Charming. Not only do these girls design the most amazing, unique and fun fabrics, the likes of which you are never likely to see replicated by other designers, but they also design beautiful stitchery/embroidery panels with their signature motifs (birds, flowers, leaves, combinations thereof) which you can then embellish to your heart's content.

Love these colours!

It was so much fun seeing everyone's take on the same design - a simple bird pattern, but with everyone's different choices of colour, stitch style, and where on the bird these colours and stitches appeared, they were all so unique.

This is the same bird motif we were stitching - looks fabulous on the natural linen and simply framed

Cath and Kirsten (the brains behind Prints Charming)

The girls also had a lot of their quilts and other goodies on display - which only serves me to wish (again) that there was more than 24 hours in a day. And now those clever people at my LQS spotted an opportunity to suck more people in to start a Prints Charming block of the month program! Arrgghh!! When am I going to get all this done??

If you haven't ever heard of Prints Charming you must go and check out their website right now!! Oh, and they also run screen-printing classes at their studio in Sydney which I would love to do. Cath gave us a quick demo yesterday and it looks super fun and so easy!

In other news, I have been embarassingly absent from the blogosphere recently and it's occurred to me I haven't even posted a photo of the completed quilt I made for my hubby. So I must get onto that. (In case you were wondering, I did go with the natural chambray sashing and it looks great - even if I do say so myself! Thanks to those who offered suggestions!)

Last week I returned to (paid) work for the first time since my youngest was born (20 months ago) - working 3 days a week as that's really all I can manage at the moment with 3 kiddies, of course there will be even less time for sewing :(

Life's big questions - to sash or not to sash?

I have been sewing like a demon (?!) today. Last night I spent a couple of hours (way too late really) cutting my fabrics into strips and cross-cutting into smaller strips and squares. This morning I just started randomly sewing them all together and wound up with this.

All in all I'm very happy with the result, but the big dilemma now is - to sash or not to sash? And if yes to sashing, what colour? And between all the strips? Or just two or three? I have got some gorgeous Carolina Chambray in a natural/stone kind of colour, and I think that might look lovely. But perhaps red might be a good option too? This isn't neessarily the layour I'll go with, I've basically just laid out all the strips one by one for now.


What do you think? Any suggestions happily appreciated!!

PS have just noticed a big smudge on all my photos from today and realised this comes courtesy of a certain small person's finger print on the lens... sorry! And please feel free to admire small person's fire engine slippers in the background. He'll be flattered. They have flashing lights, you know!

My creative space (one amongst many!)

Creativity hasn't been on the backburner chez Petits Elefants these last few weeks, despite the absence of posting. On the contrary! Lots has been happening. But for now, just a taste of what's happening today.

Some Simple Abundance, from Bonnie and Camille (love this line!) getting acquainted with my rotary cutter. The print on the bottom left in the pic below is from My Mind's Eye by Riley Blake. Isn't it adorable? Love those little birds (obviously!!)



My sewing machine has been at the doctors for the last week and I'm just about to head off to collect it! Hooray!

More creative spaces, as always, over at Kirsty's.

My creative space

I can't explain it. I have approximately 4,623 projects on the go, but still I had the uncontrollable urge today to start something new. Linen and red thread, cute bird .... how could I say no?..... The pattern is from here.

More creative spaces over at Kirsty's place.

My (very late) creative space

Sadly I've been missing in action from the bloggy scene for the past couple of weeks, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy slaving over a hot sewing machine!! Some months ago I swooped on a big pile of Rouenneries fabric from French General. I am so in love with this line, it is simply divine. My initial intention was to make a quilt for our bed and I'm still toying with various designs.

But while I'm waiting for my inspiration to settle into something more concrete, I decided the time had come to cut into the lovely pile - well, at least a little bit of it - and whipped up a tote for my aunt's birthday.

In the meantime I've also been progressing with the pink quilt. Now all that's left to do is put on the binding. I decided to put a solid pink around each of the blocks, using several different shades of solid. I didn't really plan it and when it came time to arrange the twelve blocks it turned out to be a bit of a task to set them out without blocks of the same colour adjoining each other. Anyway, I think it turned out OK in the end! The quilting is a pretty simple pattern, just in-the-ditch around the blocks, a cross through the centres, and some (occasionally wonky) railway tracks through the solid pinks.

All the while my head continues to swim with other ideas for new projects! Not enough hours in the day at the moment!