Spring Mystery Project Sew Along Week 2

Tips for using fusible foam and quilting.

Welcome to the second week of Spring Mystery Project Sew Along for the Sip Tea and EPP party with Irina @nordiccrafter and Larisa @stitchingnotes. We are absolutely smitten with all the delightful tumbler arches you have been making during the past week. Once again, we would like to thank you all for sewing with us and trusting us to lead you on this mystery adventure.

Tutorial: Scrappy Happy Trivet

Do you have some pretty fabric scraps that you cannot part with, but don't know what to use them for? Then this quick tutorial might be exactly what you need. Easy step-by-step instructions will help you create a sweet and useful trivet featuring all your precious scraps and make you smile every time you use it. Let's not waste any time and get sewing!

Grandma's Love

My Grandma has a special place in my heart and her love still warms my heart every day. It's the small things like freshly backed sugar rolls, late night tea, a bunch of flowers, a dinner I am cooking that bring memories of her. Our pretend games we used to play together, our trips to the lake and the river near our summer holiday house, our laughs and our tears - it's all a part of who I am now. My brother and I used to spend almost every summer with our grandparents. Each spring our parents would pack us up ready for the summer adventures away from home and send us on a plane trip to a different city for the next three exciting months. It was always fun, and I have to say that we hardly missed our parents, but if our parents managed to take some time off work and come spend some summer days with us all, it always felt extra special.

English Paper Piecing Wedding Ring

Have you heard about the Sip Tea and EPP party me and Megan of Dolly Henry are having every Sunday on Instagram? It's a lot of fun and anyone who loves English Paper Piecing can join us using the #sipteaandepp hashtag. The idea is to share the EPP projects you are working on, encourage each other and share tips, tricks and interesting ideas.

Pink Quilting Bee 2018

What an adventure it has been! Last year I was lucky to be invited to join a group of wonderful girls to go on a year-long adventure - the Quilting Bee. I had no idea what it was and how it really worked, but after reading some history information behind it and some blogs, I thought that it was a wonderful opportunity to help all 11 girls make a quilt each and get help making my own pink quilt along the way. I am so grateful that the girls picked me for this project and let me use my stash for sewing for them.

Each months one of the Quilting Bees picked a particular block and sent us the instructions and colour preferences and then it was up to us to pick the fabrics from our own stashes, sew the block and send it to the Queen Bee. It was fun going through my stash each month and pulling the fabrics that I felt were right for each and every block. Even though I felt quite scared at the very start of this adventure, I am happy I joined the group and got to know the Instagram girls much better. So let me show you all the 12 beautiful blocks that I have made during 2018.

The Sunny Bunny Quilt...

...is finally finished after one and a half years in the making. Looking back I cannot believe that it took me so long to complete this simple quilt, but I have to admit that I was having a "love and hate" relationship with it for a long time. Even though I finished all the thirty blocks back in September last year, it still took me this long to put them all together, quilt it and bind it. Now looking at this lovely quilt, I cannot be more happier and my Little One is absolutely in love with his new quilt that is full of cute bunnies and pretty petals. Perfect for the winter snuggles.

Boro Style Coin Purse and a Little Surprise

I am totally and absolutely in love with my latest make! This little boro style kiss lock coin purse was such a pleasure to make, especially the front patchy part. I have always admired this kind of patched up tattered look, but never had enough courage to give it a go until I found a perfect pattern.

Christmas Mitten

It's pretty much Christmas time and I have to say that I am not even remotely ready for this. This year simply whooshed by and I had to slow down a lot to enjoy the small moments of everyday life, enjoy my Little One being little and needing me all the time, enjoy my Big Boy being a young man and not needing me as much as before. I even had to make sure that I enjoyed the mess and the little time I had for sewing.

Revisiting the Splendid Sampler

The past week I was spending some time working on my all forgotten The Splendid Sampler quilt. At the time of the sew along, I only managed to sew 25 blocks and then I fell badly behind. I was trying to catch up and luckily printed out a few blocks, but then I gave up. Why?

Hexie Talk: Part II

I hope you enjoy making hexagons as much as I do. I have a small constantly growing stack of them sitting on my shelf waiting to be sewn into my Hexie Therapy Quilt. Once you have a few hexagons, you can start the most wonderful and satisfying part - hand sewing your hexies together. 

Hexie Talk: Part I

Lovely hexagons! Large, small, tiny ones, with cute prints, with flowers or simply plain ones. They are so much fun to make! What I love about English Paper Piecing (EPP) is that it is a highly portable way of hand sewing that does not require a lot of material and there are hundreds (if not more) ways of using finished hexies in your projects. It's a very therapeutic type of sewing as well, calming and relaxing.

Little Sewing Kit

It's not a secret that I love all sorts of cute little sewing kits, folders, pouches and other special sewing notions. It seems to me that I can always find some time for making a new little pretty thing to keep me company on my sewing adventures. The other day I went to Spotlight to get the most ordinary and boring black buttons for some mending work, but as you can imagine, I simply could not leave the store without some pretties that inspired me to sew this little sweet folder. In pink.

Tutorial: Lovely Squares Mini Quilt

As the name suggests, this mini quilt is all about squares. A very simple and quick step-by-step tutorial on how to sew your very own mini with tiny squares of your most favourite fabrics. This pattern does not require high level sewing skills and is suitable even for a beginner. Being a very symmetrical person, I really like the perfect match of all the squares and the stitches in this pattern and the ease with which you can connect all the squares together. OK, let's get started!

It's All About Minis Today

Ove the last two months I have made a few lovely mini quilts. There used to be time when I had no idea what to do with a mini, I did not even see a point in making one because they seemed to be simply useless to me. How wrong I was! There are so many things you can do with mini quilts. You can hang them on a wall to decorate your place or sewing room, you can use them as a place mat or a mug rug or even use it as a trivet and of course they make lovely gifts. I like using mine on our dining table under a vase with flowers or a small stack of books. I also enjoy using them as working mats while doing some hand sewing in the living room. I realised that the most important idea behind a mini quilt is trying new patterns, ideas, new challenging techniques and showcasing your skills and pretty fabrics and they are simply fun to work on.

Tutorial: Baby Linen Bib with a Hexagon Panel

This is pretty much a step-by-step process of how to make this hexagon baby bib. It really is a quick and fun way to create something cute for your Little One. I am using Amy's from NanaCompany bib template for this tutorial. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, I really like the particular shape of this bib and it was the original bib I made for my Little One, but unfortunately it got lost. Secondly, for a few reasons we still don't have a printer at home (I know, it's crazy) after our Little One destroyed the old one a few months back. I cannot really design anything at the moment that requires printing or scanning. This shape is really great and suits older babies from about 4-6 months when they need it the most. I have designed a smaller bib of a different shape for my Little One and it was perfect for him while he was a newborn. I might write a tutorial for that later. OK, let's get started.

For this bib, as the name and the photo suggest, you will need to make 18 hexagons. They are fun to make and you can get really creative here. Once you have 18 1" hexagons, sew them into a panel, as shown in the photo above.

Hexie Stitching Companion

Oh my goodness! I am in love! I am in love with my own creation! It's not very humble, isn't it? Sorry, but I do like this little make very much and for some odd reason, it reminds me of something I had when I was little. I cannot remember it for sure, but every time I take this little folder in my hands, I have a feeling that I had something similar, maybe a coin purse. It was white and red and opened the same way. It is a very strange feeling, but a pleasant one I have say.

Sweet Scallop Pouch

A long time ago I saw a cover of a book on Pinterest. It was in Japanese and there was not any information about this book, but I fell in love with all the colourful patchwork and applique squares on its cover. I did not even know it was a quilt. It took me a while, but I found a copy of this book in Chinese. It was the only version available at that time. This book is called Happy Flower Quilts by Atsuko Matsuyama and it's full of prettiness! A collection of 30 lovely projects designed by Atsuko in her unique style combining pretty prints and bright happy colours to create the most adorable bags, pouches, mats and quilts using applique and patchwork techniques and sewn entirely by hand. Last year this book was translated into English to the delight of so many quilters and crafters. Finally, many of us can read and understand the names, comments and instructions for the projects in this book. Last month Kristyne Czuperyk, who is one of the technical editors of the English version of the book, ran a giveaway on her blog Pretty by Hand. I had this book on my wish list, but to my huge surprise I won a copy of the English version from Kristyne's blog. Oh my! I did a happy dance when I got an email from her and then another one when I received the book from Lindsay from Zakka Workshop. Thank you so much girls!

Work in Progress

It's been a while since I posted anything about my current works in progress. As always, I have quite a few small things going on at the same time that I switch between depending on my mood and the time I have available for sewing. Some of the projects have been planned, some are simply a spur-of-the-moment decisions, just like the project below. I came across that little scrap of Belle and Boo fabric (I keep a small basket on the desk where I put some of the precious scraps). I pulled a few more floral scraps and got lost in playing around with pretty fabrics and buttons. It did not take long for a vague idea to form and I can say that now it's finished. Something quite cute that I will be sad to part with. Pinks, florals and cute buttons. I cannot wait to show it to you.

Goodbye Year 2016!

The year is pretty much over. With just a few hours left before we begin a new journey through 2017 I look back and feel that the year for me has gone by too quickly. Sometimes days and even weeks were rushed by without much realisation or productivity, they came and went in some kind of a sleep deprived haze. I know it's just a phase and it will pass like everything in our lives, but my goal for the next year is to slow down and concentrate on the happiness of every single moment no matter what I do or how tired I might feel.

Sunny Bunny Pouch

When I saw the latest fabric "Dandelion" by Belle and Boo, I instantly fell in love with it. These bunnies flying on dandelion parachutes are simply adorable. I wanted to make something with it for my Little Boy. The only problem is that it's pink. I have nothing against pink colour being used for boys, but still I would like to keep it a bit more boyish, but quite sweet.