Noel is coming

First I would like to show you one of the cards made for the Brithday swap with the group BQLPC way back in 2013.

I made a few on this model with different positions for the elements .

And then I would like to show you some presents I received from my friends last Christmas, all sewing related of course.

From Fiona I received this lovely friendly penguin....

I think she made a hundred of them for her friends and family. She is such a nice woman.

And then Nicola made me this heart. I am in admiration of both their work.

She also gave this covered notebook, which I intend to use for my sewing of course. I. Like to make notes of my choices for size or material as a reminder.

,

These are so nice, and I feel so lucky to have such friends.

In the meantime I can wish everybody a lovely time at Christmas, and here is a photo of our tree from last year with lots of home made decorations, some dating to when the girls were really small.

Have a nice time sewing.

Pascale

A new bag, very french...

First I must precise, if you are still following my blog, that everything is fine. I just got busy with life and not much time for blogging. I believe I need to find a way to quickly upload photos, as this slows the process of publishing by quite a lot.

So now I will try to resume where I left and show you what I am doing that is textile related. I didn't stop making things, but not as many as I was hoping.

My husband sent me this link to some knitted food if you want to have a look : http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/04/low-in-calories-high-in-wool-knitted-comfort-food-by-jessica-dance/
I don't want to copy their photo without permission so you will have to follow the link.

I will not  stay on the theme of knitting, as I am working on things and they are not finished. But I can show you some things I made.
For today I'll show you this bag I love.

This is printed linen, bought in Northern France while we were on holidays there.
I had the leather handles in my stash. Love them.

The pattern comes from a book by Liberty "The Liberty Book of Home Sewing" (you can look inside at some pages on Amazon, but look around to find a good price if you want to buy the book...no affiliation...), which has lots of wonderful projects. THey have published another book, and I'm waiting to find it at a reduced price to get it. The projects are not too complicated.

Inside the bag I added a pocket. You never have too many pockets.

The lining fabric is from Ikea, but I don't know if they still sell it.

THere is some interlining ironed onto the fabric to give it a better shape.

This week end is longer in England as Monday is a Bank Holiday (first Monday in May in this country, where in France the day off is always the 1st of May).

Enjoy your sewing, and the nice weather if you have it.

Pascale.

Little news

I haven't posted much recently, it's been a bit busy.

DD1 came back for the week end a week ago. It takes her 6h30 to travel down from Glasgow. It was great to see her, but too fast .

I've been sewing , and knitting, so I've got lots to show, but I need to take photos first.

First for fun, my friend Fiona just came back from Australia and brought back some goodies:

The small bags are really good to keep parts of projects together, like this 

And the band aids say "quilted" on it.

Thank you again Fiona.

I'm working on some paper piecing as a hand sewing project, inspired by this book 

And this is my project at the moment, to make a baby quilt

I love the idea of using paper clips to hold the fabric on the card before basting. This book is very inspirational.

I put little stickers with numbers when I had decided the position of each star. I made 6 diamonds from each fabric, and used 3 of them for one star.

I have not completely decided on the edges, it will come in its time.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale

Medicine bag

Another quick project, or 2.

One bag is on it's way to Glasgow, with DD1, and the other one will be used by our family when we travel. Experience has taught me that if I forget the paracetamol, I will need it, same for anti-histamine tablets, or plasters, so I tend to take them if I am not certain there will be some in the house we are visiting, and especially if we are staying in a hotel.

I found the idea and pinned it on my Pinterest, from the blog "A spoonful of sugar" and adapted it on a bigger scale.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale

Plum's card

In the BQLPC group, in our ongoing Birthday card exchanges this is my offering to Plum for her Special day.

Each letter was drawn in reverse on some double sided interfacing ( on the paper side), then ironed on the wrong side of the fabric, cut and free motion quilted on the white fabric.

Here are some photos of the process.

I wrote my message with different coloured pencils. 5 colours. Then I knew which fabrics for each letter.

Don't forget to reverse the writing! I drew them freehand, but you could use Word. I thought it would take too long. The glue side of the paper is ironed on the back of the fabric. Then you cut each letter on the line, take off the paper and iron them on your base fabric, glue down. This means they are easier to sew at the next stage.

Here you can see that I just lift my needle when i travel from one letter to the next. I come back at the end to cut the threads.

There is also some polyester wadding under the fabric.

This is after I iron the fabric plus wadding ondo the piece of pelmet stiffener, and back fabric.

The only stage left is sewing around.

I have been around my shape with a zigzag stitch and can now cut the extra fabric.

I went around the card a second time to finish off the edges.

It's finished. Ta-daa!

I know that she received it so can publish it without spoiling the surprise.

I enjoy this challenge, it forces me to follow a deadline, although at the beginning I thought that I would be able to make all my cards in advance. That didn't happen.

I believe there is more diversity as a result .

Enjoy your sewing .

Pascale.

A washing bag for University

Tomorrow I'm driving my first born to Glasgow University. She is packing her stuff, there is a lot of it... And between the other things, i had to make her a wash bag.

She chose this lovely print with the typewriters, I kept half of it. So completed with some cotton fabric I had. Pink gingham ribbon to finish.

I will miss her, but am grateful for modern ways of communication. Between emails, texts, Skype and Facebook I should be able to keep well in touch.

She is the last one to go back to school, the summer is over. I have several projects that need to be done around the house, but there should be some sewing as well.

Yesterday I led a workshop in Boutis for the ladies from my quilting group, the Golden Lion Quilters. They liked it and I will help them again at our next meeting in 2 weeks. I still have to finish a project started 2 years ago. It will happen.

A bientot.

Pascale.

A new birthday card

I'm still making cards for our birthday swap on BQLPC. This one is obviously for Helen.

The free motion embroidery was done on my machine with some metallic thread, which shines a bit but it doesn't show much on the photo. I think I might use this model again.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

Yarn bombing in Rosslyn near Washington DC

We were on holidays and happened on this as we were leaving the subway to go back to our hotel.

We crossed the road to take better photos.

They were at the corner of Lynn Street and Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn, Virginia.

Enjoy your sewing, knitting,crochet, and the summer.

Pascale

A new school pencil case

My second daughter, who is soon to turn 18, asked me to make her a new pencil case to go back to college tomorrow morning. I am very proud.

She chose the Asian inspired fabric. The lining is a lovely purple, and I had the zip in stock.

Job done.

Yesterday was a great day as we had a party at home to celebrate our 20 years wedding anniversary. Lots of friends came but I was so busy that I forgot to take photos. Such a shame.

We had about 40 people, spent the day cooking. I brought some wine back from France last week, and we have some left as we were offered some.

I know that 20 years is not that much, but there were so many changes. We had 4 girls of course, we also changed country. We bought our first house, worked on it and sold it. We are still working on our new house to make it properly ours. And now our first born is going to leave for University.

Let's see what the next few years will bring.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

A new fabric Birthday card

This one is for Jan and has been sent before we left for our holiday.

Enjoy the great weather if you have it. Summer can be wonderful. 

Pascale

Little travelling bags

As we are soon going on holidays I made some bags for the girls to carry their personal items in the suitcase. The seams are basted and they are very simple to make. The only tricky part is to leave an opening for the casing of the ribbon.

These are for DD3. She chose the fabrics from my stash.

The bird fabric is a print by Lotta Jansdotter.  I love it and there is no point keeping things because they are too nice.

The bigger bag is useful for shoes or as a laundry bag.

These bags are for DD4, my youngest. She loves the Kath Kidston style, and has now got some curtains with red flowers. I saw this green fabric at the Malvern show in May, had to buy it for her.

Here is a photo of her bedroom, but as it's the evening it's only electric light.

The boxes and curtains come from Ikea, and I added some lining to the curtains as well as shortening them .

It helps that I love sewing.

Enjoy the summer 

Pascale

My first knitted cushion cover

Dear Husband borrowed a book from the library for me on knitting. In there was a project for a cushion cover using chunky wool. It goes up fast and provided your sample is OK you can easily make a cushion cover.
Here is the result:
and the link to my Ravelry project page

 I think the cushion pad is getting a bit old, it's not very square any more. I can assure you that my knitting and the backing are square.

The zip at the back is hidden and the fabric is from Benartex, Cool Britannia collection.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

Little twister stars, tesselations

I made a workshop for our group The Golden Lion Quilters to realise the pattern of the twister stars. There are lots of illustrations on the internet of this block, and books and rulers.
I couldn't ask every member to buy the ruler, so designed a cardboard square with all the marks to realise the twisting. All the ladies enjoyed my workshop, some of them finished their blocks and made it into something.

I had some Liberty squares which I sewed together and added a border all around.

Next I marked with a pencil where to cut for the tesselation to happen.

This is what I had cut, twisted and then sewn back together.

 I realised at that point that you need a very good contrast between the fabrics. And I don't think there was enough here.

I was left with my samples, and I have to use them. This one became a cushion cover. Another one you might think, but I have some wearing out on the sofa, so I'm trying to replace them.

I quilted around each little block, to show them better, and then added some FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) in the border

This is the back with the zip hidden.

This cushion looks beautiful with the white background. Still pristine. And it means I can enjoy seeing my work displayed.

I wish you lots of sewing time. I'm off to see the Malvern Spring Quilting Show tomorrow, with 2 friends. It's bound to be a great day out.

Pascale.