Cookies

I've been spending some time learning new techniques for a very enjoyable (and tasty!) hobby.

This is what our trick or treaters received for Halloween:

Then there is a set of Moomin cookies:

A set to post to my friend as a homage to her amazing fine bone china designs (see Nicola Suckling Design)

and then a set for Remembrance Day:

Crafty Football

To encourage a bit of crafting I signed myself up for: 

I thought my husband would be proud if I sewed together a football (otherwise known as soccer elsewhere in the world) in Manchester United colours. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that everyone else on the blog hop was talking about American football... That wasn't in the plan. Thankfully the powers that be were happy to be flexible and suggested I craft something for Aussie Rules Football. 

Football Rattle

I'm not much of a designer. As you'll see, my finished product differs from those in the photos as I sewed together a prototype first. Hey, live and learn, right? It's also a fairly simple tutorial for reasons you will see later on in the blog post.

You'll need to draw and cut out a long, elongated leaf shape: 

I sketched mine on a folded piece of card and then cut it out:

You could use this template to cut directly from your fabric or greaseproof paper but I added an extra step. I prefer to do it this way as I find that greaseproof paper buckles a bit if I pin it to my fabric which can leave uneven edges. Also, I can never find a fabric marker when I need one to draw around a template so my preferred method is to cut all the pieces out of freezer paper:

and then iron the pieces (shiny side down) onto my material:

You can then cut out around the template:

and peel the paper off:

It's now as easy as pinning the pieces of fabric, right sides together (I was careful to avoid any particular colours in case I was inadvertently supporting a particular Football team...): 

and stitching them in place:

Instead of 'proper' laces, I cut some ribbons, about an inch long:

and then pinned and sewed them in the middle of one of the sides:

When sewing the last seam, leave a few inches to turn the ball out the right way and to stuff it. 

If you pop the top off a tic tac box, you can cut quite easily into the plastic. Fill it with rice, put the top back in and you've got yourself a rattle insert:

When you have stuffed the ball sufficiently and inserted the rattle element, pin and hand sew it closed.

I did have grand plans to embroider the kangaroo symbol and some lettering on one of the felt sides but, well, even pinning the pieces together was a struggle with this little fella:

He doesn't seem overly fussed with his rattle at the moment, but hopefully he'll change his mind soon!

Make sure you check out all the other amazing projects from this blog hop:

Booties

I've got to that time in my life where everyone seems to be having babies (including myself!). As such, my crafting has taken on another angle. Here are two presents that went out this week:

Macmillan morning tea

I was asked to bake a cake for a Macmillan morning tea fundraising event. Challenge accepted.

My mother and I spent two days putting this cake together. One of us was on baby duties while the other baked and decorated. The afternoon tea raised over £150 for Macmillan Cancer Support. 

We were lucky enough to win first place! 

Whirlwind tour of finished projects

I've had a break from posting so here is a whirlwind tour of the projects I've finished while I've been away.

A Fimo cow with heart:

A 40 x 40cm musical cross stitch for a friend's birthday:

A crocheted anglerfish:

A crocheted mouse doorstop:

Crocheted seaweed brooch and grouper fish fridge magnet for my grandmother:

Mini bunting for Nicola Suckling's stall:

Crocheted owl blanket for my niece:

Crocheted whale pencil case for a secret santa present:

Soft ribbon alphabet blocks for a friend's little girl:

Hand sewn fox for a colleague obsessed with foxes:

Kitchen wall mosaic of a local landmark:

Pigs in mud cake for my husband's birthday:

Knitting and sewing iced biscuits:

I think that might be it. My aim now is to keep this blog updated!

Quilt border and basting

Having constructed the top of my guest book quilt a while ago, the process was interrupted by a house move and the premature birth of our first child.

Picking up where I left off, the quilt needed a border and then the layers needed basting together.

I cut strips of green fabric and pinned the parallel sides to the quilt, sewed them together and pressed the seams before sewing on the other parallel sides:

Here is the inside border with all seams sewn and pressed:

I then did the same for the outer border:

Here's what the top looks like with all the borders done:

I'm sure there are a few different ways to baste a quilt but I used the following method. Firstly I taped the backing fabric (right side down) to a flat surface. I do usually cut off the selvedge off but this piece of fabric was larger than the quilt design so I knew it would be trimmed off later:

Then the wadding was added on top before the completed quilt design. All the layers were pinned together using curved pins. It's best to work from the centre out towards the edges. 

Next step: sewing and then the final edging.

The Guest Book

It's time to finish off the wedding guest book, otherwise known as the wedding quilt. All the squares have now been received (some of them making a journey to Australia and back) so it's time to sew them all together.

I prepared all the squares before they were signed; sewing the design together, trimming and putting tape over the seam allowance. This was to save me time when assembling the quilt.

Firstly, I took off the tape and laid out all the squares until I was happy with the design:

Each square was sewn together in a row (right sides together):

Before the rows were sewn together:

All of the seams were pressed. This was done row by row and then the bigger block.

Next step is purchasing some wadding and backing fabric before basting all the layers together.