A Giveaway and a tutorial in the making!

Well, this time last year I was sewing and crafting like a manic getting ready for my first ever Craft Fair! To celebrate Strawberry Patch's first foray into the crafty business world I am going to hold a giveaway on the 26th September (next Monday) so check back here for details then!

Ive also been busy working on my entry to the Pings & Needles scrap bag challenge and its finished! I have been writing my first ever tutorial for it too so I will reveal all next week.

For now I'll leave you with a 'lovely' photo of me looking very geeky and trying my hardest to hide my nerves at my first craft fair! Oh how things have changed in a year (and my hairs grown rather long too!)

Ullacombe Farm, Dartmoor, Devon - 26th Septmeber 2010

Old MacDonald Had a Farm....

Eee - i - eee - i - oooo!

I have been practising disappearing 9 patches with Moda's farmyard line. Its full of cute chickens and scarecrows :)

I used the fab tutorial from P.S. I Quilt which you can find here.  It runs up so quickly because you use a charm pack and all the pre-cutting is eliminated!. I used 3 blocks to make this cute little runner, which was really my practice run for the Table Runner Swap being held by Jenna over at SewHappyGeek. You can still sign up here.

I'm really glad that I did this practice run because now I get to keep it rather than having to tear myself off it to send to my partner!

I practiced more free motion quilting, my absolute favourite kind of quilting but I most certainly need the practice, it doesn't come naturally to me! The backing is a half yard of quilting cotton i've had in the stash for an age. I really never liked it and it seemed a good way to use it up, after all, I will never see the back as it will always be on the sideboard with the top only showing.

I was also very naughty and cheated with the binding. Rather than hand stitching it to the back I machine stitched it, meaning I ended up with a stitch line just next to my binding on the front. Nothing wrong with that but I defiantly prefer to hand stitched finish, I was just impatient to get it done and washed.

I love the fluffy crinkly effect you get from washing and tumbling a new quilt, especially when its all warm and snugly when it comes out of the dryer, this runner was no exception, despite its small size my daughter still attempted to wrap herself up in its snuglyness!

Old MacDonald's Disappearing 9 Patch Runner

September 2011

Moda Farmyard Charm Pack

Hobbs Heirloom 80/20

Free Motion Quilted

Ooo Lookie Lookie Sneaky Peek!

Here is a sneaky peek at what I've been doing most recently

Hope you love it as much as I do! I'll share more next week, I'm off to have a pyjama weekend :)

Another Rug!

Oooo I love mug rugs! They are so scrummy, quick and easy and instant gratification for the quilting soul :)

Here is my mug rug for partner 2, I love it so much I may shed a tear or two at the post office next week!

I am head over heals with the kitchen print panel in the middle, I also cant stop stroking its 'puffyness' where I left it unquilted.

I decided a pieced back would be the perfect way to use up the leftovers and also pop in one of my new labels. It comes from Spoonflower where you can have your own custom design printed onto quilting cotton! Its a little hard to see in the picture but it reads 'a,b,c,d,e,f,g this quilt belongs to me' then my business name 'Strawberry Patch' and on the right hand side 'Made by Emily Levey South Devon UK 2011'

I also ran up a couple of fat quarter bags for partner 2's goodie, aren't they cute! I cant decide which to send to her, I know she likes them but she didn't say which was her favourite! I think I'm plumping for the dumpy birds on the left. I'm going to pop in a little felt brooch too as I know she loves them, but I wont show you a picture or it will spoilt the surprise!

Today I have also been working on my Lunch Bag for the Japanese Scrap Challenge. I have pieced the patchwork panels and cut the other pieces for the main body of the bag, now I am just waiting on the iron on vinyl to arrive in the post. I have been taking lots of pictures along the way and hope to share my first tutorial with you soon!

That's all for now, happy sewing! (oh I forgot to mention I started another quilt - a baby Maisie one this time, I just cant help myself, I think I may need professional help soon!!!!)

Mug Rug and Goodies

I've been indulging in quite a bit of selfish sewing of late, those germs I thought I had turned out to be Glandular Fever :( So I've been very tired and the thought of trying to wrestle with my Across the Sea quilt just makes me sleepy so the quilting will have to wait a little longer there.

I have been working on small projects because I simply cant NOT sew, I am sure that would me me even more poorly haha! So getting my mug rugs done for my swap partners seemed like the prefect idea.

This being my first swap, I spent quite some time researching their tastes, stalking through their blogs and flikr profiles. Partner 1 gave me some interesting colour choices (mainly because my stash was virtually devoid of all of the colours she mentioned!) This is what I came up with.

There is a sneaky clue as to who it may be for with the initial on the rug, hope it doesn't give too much away! I really enjoyed planning this out and love the texture of the quilting. I cant stop stroking it but I guess I will have to as it needs to leave me soon and wing its way to its new home. As for the goodie to go with it, my partner popped a picture of a Needle book and a pincushion on her like mosaic, so instead of picking one to make I decided to make both! Well after all they go together don't they?!

For the pincushion I just used eight 2" squares and a couple of vintage buttons. You'd be amazed at home much wadding went in there though! (Apologies to the wee yellow birdies for being stabbed with pins!)

For the needle book I used this tutorial from Kelly Rachel, its really straightforward and easy to follow. Here is the back, how cute??!



And the inside, there are 2 pieces of felt, giving you four 'leaves' to pop your needles onto. The tutorial used one piece of fabric for the inside, I decided to piece mine so I was able to incorporate a couple of my partners colour choices. All I did was divide the pattern piece into 4 and add a 1/4 inch seam allowance into the edges of the pattern I had cut along, then cut the fabric using my new pattern pieces and joined the seams.

I think my partner will love them, judging from the feedback in the flikr group. If you want to see lots more goodies and rugs, have a look at the group here.

I'm off to finish up sewing the binding on Partner 2's rug whilst Baby J is still sleeping, I'll leave you with some pictures of my rainbow scrappy quilt that Ive promised for a while!

Scrappy Rainbow Quilt

August 2011

2" scrappy squares and log cabin border.

Quilted with rainbow lines and bubble quilting on border.

Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Wadding.

So, I have had germs :(

Well, that wasn't a great week! I have had the flu. Que violins and feeling sorry for myself! The positive side is that I decided that sewing would be the best form of recuperation and once I was well enough to get out of bed, sew I did and then some!

I finally got started on the Across The Sea Quilt along! I have been meaning to get going for weeks but I'm glad I held back as I decided to ditch my original fabric choice of Modas Farmyard as I though it may be too traditional looking for this modern quilt.

Instead I went and used my bargain Swoon by Melissa Averinos that I picked up for a song at FOQ

I only have the green and blue colourways and decided as I was making a baby size quilt with 12 blocks I would use my 6 blues and have a double of each. On Monday I got cutting and laid it out on my background to get a feel of what it would look like

I managed to get the background cut out later in the day too and chain piece some of the arms. Wow isn't chain piecing great! I'm so glad it was suggested.

On Tuesday I mostly stayed in my pj's all day feeling sorry for myself, but today, oh man have I sewn!

I got all the chain piecing done and then made up all the blocks

then feeling motivated I got on and put the blocks together, so far so good. This is my first real attempt at any kind of precision piecing and I'm so glad I 'treated' myself to that 1/4 inch foot!

And THEN and baby J was STILL asleep I managed to piece the scrappy border, add it and the plain border and TADAH - the quilt top was finished! Off I trot outside to take some scrummy pictures.....

But the weather had other ideas lol.....

I kept waiting for a lull in the breeze but it never came so indoors I went to take a decent picture!

Then I popped up to the local quilt shop (about a 5 minute walk from my house, heaven!) and brought the batting and backing fabric. They didn't have anything that jumped out for the backing so I brought Calico and I am going to dye it (I think!)

So, that's a major leap forward on the to-do list. Tonight I have been researching my deadlines/partner preferences for the Japanese Scrap Bag Challenge and the Mug Rug and Goodie Swap. I'm hoping to get these made up next week, I have a big weekend coming up as I am taking Strawberry Patch to the 10 Parishes Festival in Somerset!

Japanese Scraps Have Arrived!

WHoooooooooo, my Japanese scrap bag arrived today and full of lovelies it was too!

I cant wait to dive in and make up my sandwich bag, I will have to wait though as I have 2 craft fairs over the next two weekends and lots of stock to make for them.

Speaking of which, part of the reason why I have been so quiet on the blog is because I have been busy preparing stock, the other being we went away for a lovely long weekend to Exmoor for my Birthday. There is no phone signal where we go and so I made the most of the total isolation for a few days to recharge the batteries.

Here is a peek at my latest makings:

I gave myself a little playtime and made up this cute little mini quilt using  the tutorial from Sew Happy Geek. Its so easy to follow and its a fab technique that makes a really complicated looking pattern but is actually very simple and quick. I decided that something on this scale would be perfect for trying out some free motion quilting and I am fairly pleased with how I did. I will be practicing more before I try it on a large quilt tho!

Here is a little wedding gift I made for a friend, I liked it so much that I had to make another one for our home. If you are interested in how its done, I used freezer paper to carry my fabric through the printer. I was amazed and will definitely be using it again and again and again!

Here is a little stitched picture for the Gallery in Teignmouth as they have sold out!

.....and another.....

.......and another.....

....and the last one! I was so tempted to keep this little one. The idea had been floating around my head for some time and I felt rather attached to it but they needed stock and I need to make money. I can always make myself another one to keep  I can always plan to make one but never get around to it!

That's all for tonight, lots more photos to share and new project to rave about but I wont bore you anymore, besides I need some sleep.....the rainbow scrap quilt is finished though so I will leave you with a promise of a picture next time.