I made this backing for the dinosaur quilt. All the fabric is from my stash.
I thought Miss P might not be so keen on dinosaurs when she is a bit older. So now she can flip the quilt over and have a more grown up side.
I still have to pin it and quilt it, but I don’t have enough wadding and a trip to the fabric store with two girls is very unappealing, so I will wait until school goes back.
Filed under Fabric Stash, Quilting
I started these socks in September – the actual knitting time was quite small, but I had a huge delay because I needed Miss P around to work out when to start decreasing for the toe and when she was around I would forget to do it!
This is a really basic sock – I knitted a tension square to determine my tension, measured her leg circumference and cast on the appropriate amount (40), which is just tension multiplied by leg circumference, and then knitted in stocking stitch.
Filed under Knitting, Sock Knitting
Where did 2011 go?
Last year I made
When I look back over the year I am pleasantly surprised by how much I achieved. I would have liked to have done more, but at the time I felt like I wasn’t achieving anything.
I meet almost all of my 2011 goals (see here).
2012 is going to be the year of finishing things – I have the dinosaur quilt to finish, an applique dinosaur cushion to start (bit of a dinosaur theme) and I’ve just started a pair of toe up socks (but more of that later).
I’m going to keep working on my machine embroidery designs, challenge myself with my knitting and try to use the stuff in my stash!
Filed under Inspiration, miscellaneous
A pinwheel block – foundation pieced using an embroidery machine. This one is done in four pieces and then joined together.
Filed under Foundation Blocks, Machine Embroidery
I finished testing my flying geese block – it took three attempts.
I made this block using foundation (or paper) piecing on my embroidery machine. I digitised the design using Embird Studio.
The final design size is 138.4 mm by 139.6 mm.
Read this if you’re interested in using your embroidery machine to foundation piece – it does make for very accurate piecing, but your limited by the size of the embroidery hoop.
Filed under Digitizing, Foundation Blocks, Machine Embroidery, Software
I made these blocks into a cushion cover. I just added borders until it was big enough -the back has an envelope closure (no zip!)
Next time I must remember to finish the edges of the construction seams – it’s not something you do when quilting (because the raw edges will be inside the quilt sandwich) – and it didn’t occur to me until it was too late to finish some of the border seams.
Filed under Foundation Blocks, Machine Embroidery
We made the teachers felt Christmas tree ornaments. This is one of the designs I used for my Advent Calendar – the back has the girls’ names and the year.
Filed under Christmas Decorations, Machine Embroidery
This is my final card. The design is from here.
Just adding the design rather than trying to cover the front with fabric seemed to work better – not as crinkly.
Filed under Applique, Machine Embroidery
I’ve been using my embroidery machine to make foundation pieced quilt blocks. This makes for greater accuracy. I wrote a tutorial about it a few years ago – you can find it here. There are also a few free designs available for download (hour glass, snail trail, water lily and picture frame).
I digitised the log cabin myself. In the past I have used Thred as my digitising software – it’s free and they’re heaps of tutorials on how to use it. However, the limited number of colour changes meant that I had outgrown it. So I purchased Embird Studio, which is the digitising plug-in for the Embird package. I’ve been using Embird for years to convert, rezize, merge, etc designs, so I feel confident that Studio will meet my needs.
I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find designs that I like – most are frumpy, over-filled, too sentimental and just boring, so I mean to design my own.
Filed under Digitizing, Foundation Blocks, Machine Embroidery, Software
More felt hair clips.
I sewed my finger (with my sewing machine) while making these – the needle went completely through the edge of my finger. Fortunately the needle didn’t break and the machine stopped stitching – still there was blood.
These are quite fiddly to make and I am still not sure that I attached the owl to the base very well – I hand stitched them on, but maybe glue would work better.
The design is from here, but I am currently working on some designs of my own.
Filed under Machine Embroidery
