Happy Cloud Baby Toy and Precious

Le Challenge - Precious

Thanks to Lucy and Nat for running Le Challenge this year. When I look back through my blog posts it appears to be the thing that has kept me blogging this year. Like others my enthusiasm for Blogging has taken a dip but then I remember how precious online blog friends are and it keeps me going.

Cindy recently wrote a tutorial for a fantastic block when I was having trouble visualising how it was made....to me that is very precious. Thanks Cindy, I've made a block already and in this picture stolen from Fluffy Sheep Quilting Blog you can see how the hidden stars appear.






And on to precious number two.....
Sarah is expecting Little Beany and so she had an online Baby Shower which you can read all about here on her blog Narcoleptic in a cupboard.
I thought Sarah would like a little happy cloud and so I made this from a tutorial on Refabulous Blog. It was easy to follow....though I did sew all those little strips on the wrong way up the first time...I should follow the instructions!

Le Challenge ....link in the side bar...go and take a look at how everyone interpreted this month's theme and perhaps join in the next one.

I'm a month late for the Thriller theme....I so wanted to make Bubbles, but suitable socks were not to be found in Biarritz! Then when the next theme was stripes....I thought I'd make Bubbles come to life.


There are lots of tutorial on line for making sock monkeys but the two I found most useful were these ones, the first for the clear pictures and the second for the excellent way that was suggested to stuff the tail with a piece of wadding to make it smoother.
Tutorial one
Tutorial two


Carefully select your socks, as the heel and toe colour will make a big difference. Some tutorials used the heel for the nose and others used the toe section. I tried both ways and I thought the heel section worked better.
There isn't that much sewing and could easily be made by hand. The hardest part was attaching the nose section.


I pinned all the bits in place first to get the right look.


I used Google images to see lots of different monkey expressions and I think he looks quite cheeky.


He was definitely grumpy when I asked him to wear his hat though!

Location:Bubbles the sock monkey

le Challenge

 When Nathalie and Lucy announced that the Le Challenge this month was Heroes, I immediately thought about Super Ted.  We still have a glow in the dark Super Ted and Spottyman on the wall in what was "The Girls" room. I'm not too sure what our visitors now think of them!

My partner, Sandy in Buenos Aires, for the Fab Little Pin Cushion swap received this super cute little bat from me.  Though he is only small, one day he will grow and be as awesome as his hero Batman! (...poor link I know, but it's the best I can do!)
Sometimes I can search for ages on the Interweb for a suitable pattern, but as soon as I saw this, I knew I had to buy it.  The pattern is by Maritza Soto @Soto Sew and available in her Etsy Shop. I reduced the pattern by 50%, if Sandy really wants to store pins and needles in him, then I hope she carefully puts them in his wings so as not to hurt him!

In return I received a fantastic Deep Dish Pincushion from Leslie, made in fabric by my hero...Heather Ross!

 

There is still time to enter Le Challenge. Link up is on the 15th September.

Click the link in the sidebar to look at all the inspiration on the Le Challenge blog.

Tea Bag Wallet

My mum's birthday is in August and she is visiting this weekend. I knew when Nathalie swapped me this butterfly fabric a while ago that my mum would love it....I just had to decide what to make with it. Charlotte who blogs over at Displacement Activity has a great tutorial to make a tea bag wallet, very easy and quick to make, but looks very impressive. Well I think so anyway.



This week there has also been some Bramble and Apple jelly making....after picking 3kg on a long walk. Last year I didn't make any until late September, so this is much earlier, but the berries weren't as juicy. I even squeezed the bag to get more juice, as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggested, but still not as much as last year.



The first lot of fabric has turned up from Sarah, from the HipBee and so now I have to put my thinking head on and make sure I don't mess up on my first month in the Bee.

Paper Pieced Houses

These paper pieced houses are from a free pattern on Craftsy. It was called holiday houses, as there was some snow on the roof and tree. I missed off the snow as Amy wanted a white background. Amy put a shout out for scrappy little houses for her wonky village. If you fancy making her a couple have a look over here and I'm sure she will be grateful.

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo since I was at the FatQuarterly Retreat in London. I think I was overwhelmed by all the talented ladies I met and by the amount of stuff I then had to blog about. I didn't speak much to "old" bloggy friends as unfortunately there just didn't seem time to talk to everyone. I made some lovely new friends and through visiting London I am now pleased to be in a bee..... With the HipBees....I just hope they will be patient and don't mind waiting a few weeks for their blocks if I'm away on my travels....which I will be soon. You can read all about where we go on my other blog.



So, a short and sweet post, linking up with Liz to Brit Thursday Sewing and Paper Piecing Friday with Kristy...must be Friday in Australia!

Coin Purses

These UR Priceless coin purses have been made for my sample swaps for the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London THIS weekend.


And as this one is a wonderful toffee colour, has chocolat on the front and "T" on the back...T for Toffee then my homework is done for Le Challenge. Hopefully Lucy and Nat will forgive me for being last minute again. If you have not seen Le Challenge yet then click the link in my side bar. The next challenge is to make something using Heroes as inspiration.....I have an idea....just need to get on with it!
These are the other purses and I have been lucky enough to do a little swap with Di @ Willowbeck for one of her wonderful Liberty book of Pockets. So Di the little bike one is on its way to you. Thanks.


I also must show you this fantastic quilt name tag that Ceri of Inspired By Felix made for me.......it has the cutest little fussy cuts and the back even says have a nice weekend on a large London Transport ticket....think I will still need my Oyster Card too though.


This is the one I made for Ange @ Heart of Charnwood


And this is what I made for ME ME ME....


Ok.....it was supposed to be a Noodlehead Super Tote......but the weather was just too nice so we went away for 3 nights and came back 10 days later!


Oh.....this is getting so long that if you want to see a picture of me or find out a bit more then please look back here at my Liebster Award post.
See you all soooooooooon.

Home to happy mail 2

Sorry I had to re-post this as BlogPress had a new update and couldn't post pictures....reverted to old version!

Home again and catching up on some old and some new swaps.

These printed fabrics were waiting for me from the Hand Printed fabric swap.


This fabulous book that I had pre-ordered from Amazon.....this is the second time I have pre ordered something and it has worked out quite good value both times. Looking forward to making some of the projects and catching up with the Zakka Along 2. The snips were with the fabric that I received from Workroomsocial with the fabric swap, and have proved useful already.


Then to my delight was this awesome pouch from a pay it forward from Chloeandme over on Flickr. It is very, very scrumptious and just right for my little camera.


......and then The Village Habberdashery had a sale.......so this will become part of the Me Me Me Bee with Kettleboiler as I have plans for a Super Tote for ME of course as that is what the Me Bee is all about. I've even got a Bee in my side bar now....as I'm not in any other bees....but I now feel part of the gang!

Maritime Randomness

In Libby that's a van 5x2x2 meters it is surprising how much maritime themed stuff I could find. Quilt cover and the pillowcases I made, of course the pirate quilt and pirate fuzzy felts stuck on the interior fabric.


I had this cross stitch from the Exeter show for a couple of years....and it hadn't progressed much. I think I was put off by all the 1/4 stitches....so I attempted to finish it...


But.....is is as far as I have got.....


...so not good enough for the task set for homework....
I made Tim this poppy treffry inspired book cover a few years ago...


The inside pocked was a picture on a card by Alyce Palace...


But in the end this photo from a beach in Portugal...it wasn't staged ....I found the light bulb exactly like this.....though I think you had to see it to appreciate it fully.

Tail Feathers and Wings

Le Challenge - Wings


Sharon from Lilabelle Lane blog was kind enough to make the button in my side bar, but I should change it to "I'm STILL stitching Tail Feathers".
I started gathering the fabrics in February 2011, I needed two Honey Buns which in the end I had to buy from two different shops as they weren't easy to find, started stitching in May last year and although I finished lots of the smaller panels I was put off doing the trees as satin stitch is not one of my favourites.
I found a handy tip that said to start in the middle of the area to be covered in satin stitch. This worked really well for the green, but for the variegated tails it takes a bit of working out.
The yellow smudges on the background fabric isn't suntan cream from stitching on the Algarve, but a lovely colour fabric called Popcorn, I think it is a Moda one!



This 6" clip frame has been fantastic. It's made by R & R Craft Frames and doesn't leave as many marks as a traditional hoop. It is easy to reposition and light to hold. To save on postage I also bought the larger version, with interchangeable sides, but I have never used it as this little one is just nice to hold. So no saving in buying the big one too....though I'm sure I will find a use for it one day.


So back to Le Challenge.....even though there are loads of wings in the above and the tree panel is now finished.....it is far from being a finished item! So out with the sketch book. I'm by no way an artist, but I do enjoy copying other people's pictures. Alwyn Crawshaw has some great How to paint books and this one is from Watercolour Holiday Painting.


.....and as its from a book I can also link up with Ange, Heart of Charnwood monthly book challenge too. Remember if you have made anything from a book or a magazine you can link it up over on Ange's blog. I'm sure with the zakka two stitch along about to start and also all the medallion quilts that I've been drooling over that there should be some creative things linked this month.

Mollie Makes Rabbit

Meet Coelho......Portuguese for rabbit, pronounced Koo-elyoo....according to my travel dictionary!


On the way to Plymouth Ferry Port I thought I'd treat myself to a magazine, not having bought one for about a year. I bought Mollie Makes as there were a few projects that I thought I would make, including this Geometric Travel Case.....but in the small print it says that this pattern is actually in "Gathered by Mollie Makes", very disappointed, there were a few other pages like this too....sometimes I think there are 50 good pages, extended into a 100 page magazine.....anyway rant over and onto the wrabbit.


Being away in Libby, the camper van, I had to hand sew everything, but first I had to find some fabric as I wasn't wiling to sacrifice any of our clothes....we've not brought that many with us. In Contenente, the local supermarket, I found the perfect napkin as it had a coordinating edge to it.


So after some fiddley stitching, as the fabric frayed lots, I had all the parts, but I needed some stuffing. I managed to find a small fabric shop by the market in Silves, but they only sold stuffing in bales big enough for two pillows. After much gesturing the old lady thought I wanted a small amount for ear ache and suggested the chemist.....ahhhha....I could use cotton wool which comes in small packets....not ideal, but as this rabbit will never be washed then it doesn't matter too much. I stuffed the arms and legs before tacking them to the body piece, I think this works better than slip stitching them closed as the pattern required.


I even added the tag that was on the napkin. I didn't have any contrasting felt for the tummy, so I did a bit of chain stitch and some lazy daisies. I think she turned out quite cute, especially her lopsided ears!


The last of the mini eggs!


.....and as she was a make from a magazine, I'm linking up with Ange's Monthly Book Challenge......just in time!!

Yarn Bombing Alamo

Having just read about yarn bombing in Mollie Makes magazine I was very surprised to see this in Portugal. As we drove down the side of the Guadiana River, the Portuguese - Spanish boarder and looked at all the allotments that had flooded, due very high rainfall and the dams had to be released, loads of destruction all the way to the coast at Villa Real de St Antonio.
The small village of Alamo was set back from the river and their sign had been beautifully "Yarn Bombed".....lovely crochet, wouldn't it be nice if every village signpost was like this?

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Not yet had time to work this out......

Truncated Icosahedron or a Patchwork Ball!

Le Challenge - Geometrics

A truncated Icosahedron is the Archimedean solid shape that a football is based on. It has 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. Because these shapes will not tessellate on a flat surface they make up the ball.......put simply....if you lay them out on a table and try and make them fit....you can't, there will always be a gap and it is this gap that makes the patchwork curve enough to give the ball shape.


When Nat and Lucy issued the first challenge I was going to the Sewing Directory meet up in Exeter the next day. Thanks to Fi and Kerry it was a tremendous success. I hoped that Kerry would use 1 inch sided hexagons, so I quickly cut out some pentagons from an old shirt to take along too.


Kerry had precut some hexagons for us to use and also I used her Sizzix to cut a few more. I sewed the hexagons to the pentagons, making the ball shape as I went along, making sure each pentagon had 5 hexagons surrounding it.


Eventually I ended up with this.....


....and after removing the papers that were stuck down with a Sewline fabric glue pen instead of basting.....thanks for the great time saving tip Kerry!


......not quite perfectly round as it is stuffed with carrier bags and 2 e-cloths....whatever was at hand in Portugal in the van! Depending on the next Challenge I might have to cut up Tim's shirt or the tea-towel!!!
Sorry there are no links in this post, but blogging on the go. Please see my sidebar for a link to 'Le Challenge' inspiration and ideas.