CHARM ABOUT YOU

I have been quietly hand stitching in the evenings and have finished a couple more Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew-along blocks. Both of these blocks were hand pieced, to see my hand piecing tutorial click here.

As someone that doesn't do well with change, I really admire the author of this letter for her determination and acceptance of the fact that her and her husband needed to return to the farm. "I was determined that I would go to that farm and like it, in spite of myself". The grey Carolyn Friedlander print represents the town and the Cotton + Steel Sprinkles is for the farm. The central fabric is both sad and happy, it looks like tears but the colours are very pretty. It turns out that she was not unhappy living on the farm, "We work together and plan together. To be sure we have had disappointments, but they are part of life, so we meet them together".

Another letter that focused on triumphing over adversity. I used Liberty fabric for this block. The brown pixels and the blue swirls are for the "the dust [that] fogs over us when it blows". The roses are for the fact that the family felt "blue" until they decided to go to Sunday School and the lesson was a "balm to our tired souls]... Now we sing as we work, and next year is another year".

I am still catching up on blocks though I'm choosing to skip a few here and there. I currently have 52/99 blocks and suspect I won't actually sew them all, preferring instead to make a quilt when the sew along finishes rather than to try and make all the blocks. The OCD part of me really hates that but I think it's more realistic and enjoyable for me to just make the blocks I like and actually have a quilt*! Does anyone else have this struggle?! Would you make them all or prefer to finish with what you had?

* I have decided on a layout, other than the one in the book, that doesn't require me to have all the blocks completed. I'm ok with that.

It's a bit panic stations over here, madly sewing presents for people. I have a couple of other gifts to finish but I actually managed to complete all the teacher's gifts just in the nick of time - it's the last day of term tomorrow!

These cute little coin purses are a great way to use up scraps. I had a lot of fun diving through my big scrap bag, mixing and matching prints. 

I added my favourite Kam snaps - I got a selection of different colours and handy snap pliers from a set on Ebay - for those of you in the UK a quick google has just shown they also have them on Amazon, there is a dedicated online shop Kam Snaps UK and Plush Addict stocks the snaps.

I love the way the little purse opens; perfect for holding coins, business cards, maybe a little emergency kit (plasters, safety pin etc).

The tutorial is the snappy coin purse by Rashida Coleman-Hale and I definitely recommend it, even after making 10! There is a bit of hand sewing to finish them off and it was a nice evening sofa job.

Each of the kids made ornaments for their teachers too. Just glitter felt, cut out circles and some shapes, confetti and pens! I punched a hole and added some baker's twine.

They wrote their names and the year on the back of the felt. I think it's a nice gift and I hope the teachers do too!

Today I finished this cute apron, a commission for a lady that loves gardening. I was given a couple of pairs of jeans to use and I decided to combine it with some gorgeous Pam Kitty Garden fabric.

The apron is backed in the same fabric as the appliqué letters. I sewed the right sides together leaving a gap, turned it through and stitched around the outside, as well as stitching around the pocket so the lining wouldn't be baggy!

Originally I was going to use denim for the straps but it would have been a little too 'utility' and decided instead to use the same as the binding fabric.

It's nice to have that seam showing from the original jeans and I stitched vertical lines on the pocket to create three separate sections in the pocket (before sewing the lining on!).

Now I've got a zillion things to sew before Christmas and very little time to do it so I better get back to sewing! 

left to right: Confetti, Scales in Fog, Cloth Pattern in Natural, Grid in White, Grid in Graphite and Cloth Pattern in Black all from Luster by Zen Chic.

Get a copy of Every Life I Ever Lived for yourself (or as a gift!). My son is currently reading it and it's opened up a new world for him. Since he's used to action / superhero comics, now he is thinking about drawing in a different way, which I think is excellent.

A lot of crafts and drawing goes on in our house, here's Lois thoroughly concentrating. It's hard to see but she also made pen holder out of a juice bottle by covering it in feathers and lollipop sticks.

except that I didn't! I put the binding on my rose star quilt and all the time I kept looking at the back and the front and thinking I should have quilted the hexagon shape around the central hexagons in the 'roses'. 

I can't not do it because I think I would regret it. As nice as it would be to finish it now it wouldn't sit right with me.

It was a lot of fun picking the fabrics. The soft Make Drafts, Maker by AGF Studio is a sweet cup and I tried to balance it with the bold Shadow Dot, Hadley by Denyse Schmidt, which also fits nicely with the coffee theme!

This is my first time doing reverse appliqué and, while it's far from perfect, I'm really pleased with it and definitely want to do more. I had no clue what I was doing so I used this Fons & Porter video tutorial to help me. I had the perfect brown Aurifil 50wt #1285 to do the top stitching. I did needle turn appliqué the cut out of the handle but it looked odd without the top stitching so I added it! It would be super quick to make this and just do raw edge appliqué but it was nice for me to try and challenge myself.