And so....drumroll please....I have completed my first proper patchwork quilt! It was a labour of love and took me aaaages and is also far from perfect. However, I am very pleased with it.
It was inspired by this beautiful quilt which looks far more perfect than mine! Part of the beauty of this for me is that the quilt front is pieced from fabric scraps that I've been hoarding for the past 15 years or so - so it's really meaningful for me to be able to see them every day, and that I've finally managed to find a project that is able to use up all the little tiny pieces. I knew I'd find a use for them one day!
The back is made from an old duvet cover - I love the print and didn't want to throw it away! So it's been re-fashioned. I did buy a few little bits of fabric to finish off the back - including a lovely bit of Liberty print (Mitsi I think it's called - a Japanese flower print).
The binding was an absolute delight to do. I had been dreading it, until I found this great tutorial which walks you through step by step. I decided to finish the back binding edge by hand, and I'm glad I did as it has given a really clean finish. I then read lots of information on blogs about whether to put it in the dryer or not. In the end I decided I would put it in the dryer, and it's given it that lovely crinkled look, which is what I was after. I used a bamboo batting.
I have just been camping in Spain which was gorgeous - anyone in the UK will understand how lovely this was given that we have had such a cold and endless Winter. So I was really excited about it and made a new yellow sun dress for the occasion.
I got the fabric from the Cloth House in London, an absolutely beautiful shop - if you have never been you should definitely try and pay a visit. There are actually 2 of them really close together on Berwick Street. One is more beautiful than the other and is 100% stacked full of temptation. It's pretty expensive as well, but as soon as you get through the door you will be unable to get away without buying at least something. There are even videos on the wbsite so you can get a little taster of what it's like. No 47 is like a dream...Anyway, I fell in love with this yellow fabric which has tiny pink polka dots on it (you can't see that in the pictures).
I also tried out horsehair braid for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised (check out Gertie's great post on the stuff here). It stiffens the hem, so it keeps the skirt held a bit more rigid along the bottom edge than it would be without it. Definitely a technique to try out again in the future!
I love Junkaholique - it's such a gorgeous blog, filled with loads of inspiration and many Liberty fabrics! She's so creative, I love checking out what she has been up to to give me ideas for my own projects. My friend has recently had a baby of her own, so I took inspiration from Artemis's gorgeous DIY baby stuff to make a little gift for my friend. Here's the result - I used some leftover Mitsi fabric to make a patch pockets, and made some matching bias binding to go around the neck and to use as a drawstring. I drew out my own pattern, so I hope it fits!
Today I made some white chocolate and pecan cookies (from the Hummingbird cookbook), as it's Easter and all. I really like the recipe. You have to roll the dough out into a sausage shape and then leave it to firm up in the freezer. After an hour or so, you chop it up into discs which means your cookies end up relatively uniform in size and shape.
I had this really sweet striped tissue paper which came as packaging from Selfridges, so I sewed it up into a little bag and punched a hole for a bow. I also printed out a little sticker. I'm going to give it to Theo when he gets back from work - hope he enjoys it! White chocolate and pecans are two of his favourite things, so I'm thinking that it will be a winning recipe...
In other news, I've been doing tons of sewing recently. I need to take some photos so I can write about them on here, it's taking me ages to get round to it!
Today my new Kitchenaid got its first outing - very exciting! Theo had to work today so I thought I'd potter about and make some cupcakes. It was really nice to use an electric mixer rather than do it by hand, and it seemed to make the whole process a bit tidier too. Sometimes it creates so much mess! I just love the way cupcakes look, they're so pretty.
And finally, here is a gratuitous picture of one of my lovely kittens too. He is 18 months old, but he's enormous (6kg - and still growing!). He still behaves like a kitten though. Happy weekend to you all, hope you're having fun.
I am an avid follower of Gertie's new blog for better sewing - she makes gorgeous retro clothes that fit really well and generally look amazing. She also quite recently published a book with really lovely patterns, including one for an incredible wiggle dress which I fell completely in love with and couldn't resist buying the book! I need to dress quite smartly for work, but I also find that shop-bought dresses tend not to fit me - they are often tight over the hips and loose at the waist. Not a good look! So I thought I'd make one instead, and I'm really happy with how it has turned out.
I did a pattern making course a few years ago and have become obsessed with fit! So I can't help but make quite a few toiles before I'm happy to start on the final garment. Doing that also gives me confidence to buy more expensive fabric which will generally give a much nicer finish than something synthetic. I went to Soho in London to buy this fabric and bought a wool/cashmere tweed to use, which has such richness of colour which I unfortunately wasn't able to capture in these photos. The weave of the fabric means that it sometimes appears different colours in different lights. It's a really deep forest green - I love it! I was quite cautious when I bought it, so I made sure I had a little extra just in case. In the end, there was enough left over for me to also make a pencil skirt. I've worn both the dress and the skirt endlessly, so it was definitely a good investment to splash out a bit on the fabric. What have your experiences been with using better quality fabrics?
Just wanted to share some pics of a recent camping holiday in Wales. We stayed in a yurt which was amazing! It had a bath in it which had hot running water. This turned out to be necessary since it was November and even snowed at one point. There was also a hot outdoor shower which I braved even though it was so cold outside! We are usually quite hardy campers and spend many nights a year under canvas, but it was nice to enjoy a little bit of luxury. The yurt was near Abergavenny in Wales, which is a stunning place. Do you have any favourite camping spots?
We also spotted this castle from the road - it's Raglan Castle - and it looked gorgeous so we stopped to have a look around.
One day we'd like to build a little woodland retreat somewhere remote so that we can escape from the hustle and bustle of life in a city.
