100th Post & Crafty Kids!

I started blogging at the very end of December, after being tempted lurred inspired by my good friend Sarah of Sew Me.

Today is post no. 100!  Woohoo!  

Amazing, because I really don't ever think I've got that much to say, nothing terribly interesting anyway (I can churn out shed loads of nonsense!).

I was hoping to have a giveaway to mark said achievement, however the particular item I'm planning to giveaway hasn't arrived in the post yet!  Sorry, but I will hopefully be able to do the giveaway soon.

So you will have to make do with a round up of a crafty day spent with my kids yesterday.  

Hubbie and no.2 daughter were both away this weekend, so the house was unusually quiet!!

We started off in my sewing room (gone are the days when play dough and finger paints would entertain for hours!), where my youngest made a pincushion for her friend's birthday ...

The only part I played in this was the rotary cutting and hand sewing it closed!  She did everything else herself!

....while the big girl got all arty with fabric scraps and my soldering iron!

Next, the 'baby' wanted a go with said soldering iron (eek!) ..............

Melting off the top layer to get lots of texture!

Ta dah!

....while the big girl did something similar with water soluble fabric.

Then we moved downstairs to the dining room table and got felting!  Great fun!

The 'baby's' works - I suggested some stitching over them but she likes them as is!

The Big Girl's felted beads - part of her GCSE Art & Textile module.

As for me, I was hoping for a sneaky nap yesterday afternoon - no chance!

I got a hanging sleeve put on to my Eye Spy Quilt and No.3 daughter is delighted to now be displaying it in the perfectly sized recess above her bed!

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ............... T!

She's looking forward to many games of Eye Spy at bedtime!

Hope you all had a creative weekend!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

The lovely Amy at Amy's Creative Side is hosting the annual Blogger's Quilt Festival.  This is an opportunity for quilters from around the world, old, new, beginners, experienced, to enter a quilt they've made. 

Although the quilts aren't judged, there is an opportunity to win quilty goodies for all those who enter!

I've decided to enter my Eye Spy quilt......

.....with the homemade rainbow binding:

I've seen many different types of Eye Spy (or charm) quilts over the years, but not so much in this new age of contemporary quilting. 

I love the concept of 'Eye Spy' quilts for children (& adults!). I have this dreamy fantasy of sitting with a little one on my knee, playing 'eye spy' while finding the different pictures in the quilt lovingly draped over the 2 of us!

This activity also indulges my love of recycling fabrics & giving them a new purpose. Over the past 12-18 months I've been hoarding collecting little pieces of fabric that have pictures on them.  This can become quite addictive as you start to see pictures that you could use everywhere (other people's clothes, curtains, etc.!). 

When I thought I had enough fabrics collected, I set about fussy cutting them - larger pics lent themselves to a 4" square while smaller motifs were cut as a 3" square.

It took a wee bit of canny calculating to work out how to fit borders made up of 3" squares around a the 4" squared centres, but I got there in the end (amazingly!).

I had a wee bit of bother quilting this baby (blogged about here), so after outline quilting the larger squares, I ended up doing more outline quilting and in the ditch quilting for the border.  Not very exciting but I'm still pleased with the end result.

I came up with the idea of rainbow binding because I didn't want solid or patterned binding, and I think the rainbow colours keep this quilt fun & child-friendly.  You can find a tutorial on how to make rainbow binding on my blog.
This quilt is only 37" x 37" but there was a huge amount of fun & joy that went into it, and I hope much enjoyment from it in the years to come.

Eye Spy ...... a finished quilt!

At long last I got it finished!  Hooray!

After outline quilting the larger squares, I free motioned the outer border and around the border squares. 

However, I didn't realise until after I'd finished that the tension in my bobbin wasn't quite right and the pale yellow bobbin thread was showing on top - aaaah! (never attempt free motion quiliting at 9.30pm in poor lighting - lesson learned!).

So the next morning I unpicked all the previous evenings' work (weep!).

I had to machine wash & dry the quilt to get rid of the tell tale stitch holes.  This resulted in the much sought after (if not premature) crinkly look!  So that ruled out any more free motion quilting.

So I ended up doing more outline quilting and in the ditch quilting.  Not very exciting but I'm still pleased with the end result.

I'm particularly proud of my rainbow binding, which will become my first blog tutorial (watch this space!).

So first Eye Spy quilt complete.  Let the games begin!

Eye Spy - a quilt (well, almost!)

Once I finally decided on my sashing  .....................

Navy was too dark & heavy - hastily unpicked!

White was much more balanced!

...........I had a great time piecing all my little squares together.

The unfussy white sashing allows the pictures to stand out.

I spy something beginning with ................ C!

..............something beginning with ..................P!

It took a wee bit of canny calculating to work out how to fit borders made up of 3" squares around a the 4" squared centres, but I got there in the end (amazingly!).

So that's the front done!  Yippee!

And now for the quilting (deep breath!). 

I'm still contemplating how to quilt this little piece of fun (it's only 37" x 37"), but I think there will be some free motioning in there somewhere!

P.s. If the thought of fussy cutting has you reaching for the brown paper bag (to breath into!) then this is either not for you, or it will completely cure you of FCP (Fussy Cutting Phobia)!  I'll let you decide!

Eye Spy Progress!

I decided enough was enough!

It's time to make sense of the over-flowing basket of picture prints & get cutting.

I have a mixture of 4" squares and 3" squares.

And so to design & background/sashing:

Mmmm! Don't like the blue background - too insipid!

Liking the white better, but still not quite right!

I might try bordering the pictures with a contrasting fabric before adding sashing. 

More playing to do.  Will keep you posted.