Starting my own floral fancy

As I said in my This January post I impulsively booked onto a workshop, and then wondered if I had the enough of the right skills and the right sewing stuff to do the ‘floral fancy’ panel justice (spoiler: I did) The workshop was run by Region 10 of the Quilter’s Guild of the British Isles (QGBI), and was taking place in a village about 15 minutes away from me - even better, I knew where the village was!

I needn’t have worried though as while there was quite a long list of stuff needed - some of which I didn’t have and so Amazon was my friend - I was told not to worry about the long list of stuff, but of course I did. The workshop itself was a fabulously creative, inspiring and friendly day, and I was so glad I went. I couldn’t decide between the two panels offered at the workshop, and opted to buy a kit for the material, so that was one less thing to worry about, though to be fair, I probably I could have sourced that from my craft room relatively easily. In the end there was only a kit left for the floral wreath, so the choice was made for me.

I did laugh though as when my Amazon parcel arrived MOH couldn’t help but wonder how I had a whole room of stuff and how I needed more, but as I said to him it wasn’t the right kind of stuff. Well, mostly anyway.

A stitch and flip background

The morning session consisted of assembling the background of the panel using a stitch and flip method, but before any sewing could be done I needed to cut and layout the background in a radial design, with the darker fabrics in the centre. This challenged me more than it should trying to get the different length fabrics (there’s three different lengths) from the fabric I had. Thankfully there were also some spares so I dipped into those, as I think did everyone else.

Despite trying to keep to the same layout, it seems that as I stitched and flipped at one point I must have flipped, stitched and flipped so one of my rows turned around. Of course I only noticed when I was way past sewing that strip, and so it stays. And to be honest this is the background so it’s not the focal point of my piece. So if anyone asks, you didn’t notice it.

After lunch the real creativity started

Having completed my background piece before lunch I had the whole afternoon for the most interesting part of the workshop, and that was the floral fancy. My floral fancy was the wreath version, though others were also making a vase of tulips (which was also gorgeous).

As we know all good wreaths start with greenery, and so did mine. I had several greens in my kit of material and so chose a selection of those and headed over to the Sizzix machines, which I’d not heard of before. Though I soon realised they were a die cutting machine for fabric, and worked very similar to my paper cutting die machine.

I choose two leaf dies and cut the designs randomly from my selection of greens, working on the theory that leaves aren’t all the same shape or colour, and the contrast of both would enhance my wreath.

And then I arranged them on a pencil circle line I’d drawn on my background, and rearranged, and faffed about with them some more until I was happy. Without my own fabric die cutting machine it was important to me to get all the cutting out done on the day, and that became my mission.

I cut five simple five petalled flowers from the fabrics that most appealed to me, and then realised they’d look better layered with the same shape offset in a complementing/contrasting fabric.

So back to my kit and I finally settled on the combination above - remembering to take a snap so I didn’t forget my choices!

After I’d added the flowers I realised they needed a middle, so I was back cutting various circles I could use from the offcuts, and then working out where they worked best.

It was good, but I thought it needed more flowers - and probably fatter flowers. So back I went to the die cutting machines again, though this time just taking three fabrics with me, reusing the bright pink material of the flower that’s at about 10pm in the photo above and below.

The fatter flowers also needed middles - and all of the middles for these were also cut from offcuts. Needless to say I spent a fair amount of time using those die cutting machines - and got everything I wanted cut out on the day. Though since the workshop I’ve decided I definitely need a Sizzix in my craft room - so I’ve been sussing them out online, and I’m planning to order one from Hobbycraft this week taking advantage of an online offer, and vouchers I seem to have accrued.

Finishing it off

With my design finalised and home safely (phew), this has definitely gone on my craft to do list to get finished. It won’t be a small job though as first I’ll need to dismantle it - I’ve already printed out a picture - and peel the bondaweb backing off each piece before ironing and stitching it into place. And that probably needs to be done in layers so the stitching builds up as you’d expect.

But I can’t wait (sort of). I’m keen to get going, but also keen not to mess it up! Though given that I wasn’t sure if I had the skills to get this far, I’m pretty certain I’ll be fine I just need to get on with it.

It was a great workshop and I left feeling really pleased I’d gone along as well as feeling like I’d really achieved something. It was also a really friendly and welcoming space so that helped too.

I also brought all the offcuts home as my plan is to make this into something bigger - I know running before I can walk again, but I’m aiming high, though I’m not sure just how high yet. I don’t want this panel to be a cushion cover, or a bag and I want it to live outside my craft room, so I’m thinking it would work as the central panel in a quilt for our spare room with more panels that complement it, but aren’t the same - that’s the bit that’s mulling over in my mind, and I think will continue to percolate for a while yet.

And anyway, I’ve plenty of other projects in mind before that - but keep an eye out on the progress I make with this one. This isn’t a project that’s going to sit in the cupboard I’m pretty sure of that.

Sharing the pouch love!

I promised more pouches, and more pouches there will be - though this is just a few of them, there’s plenty more to come. In this post though I’m sharing the pouch love and all of these were gifted to relatives over the last month or so.

Let’s start with the smallest ones

This year we decided that cash would probably be the most welcome present for our nieces and their partners, but I also wanted to do more than pop it into a card. Many years ago I wrapped some cash up with some chocolate, and they were obviously much younger but the cash was discarded in favour of the chocolate (you can tell we’re related!) and so I was keen to avoid that, especially as there’s more of us now which means there’s a lot more wrapping paper to sort through!

Anyway I thought the pouches with the vinyl fronts would work, but smaller. And so I made one half the size of the smallest one I’d previously made - opting for the easy maths every time - but it was a bit too small. So I went midway between the two measurements and ended up with two pouches that size, alongside the smaller one.

I was happy, and so were the recipients though I think they were most happy with the cash inside. My 4 year old great niece was probably ambivalent about receiving the smallest one (even with a £1 coin in) as let’s face it at that age there’s much more interesting things going on.

Repurposing an old shirt

Even MOH didn’t escape, though I took a different approach here as I knew he’d say he didn’t want/need one - but as you know that’s never the right answer to the pouch question. I decided that by using one of his old shirts (which he’d already discarded and I’d claimed as ‘potentially being useful at some point in the future’ I should add) he couldn’t argue that it wasn’t his thing.

I can be canny like that.

He’d said that he tends to keep his coat on while on the train even though it can be too warm as he hasn’t got anywhere to put his phone or wallet… I told you the answer to these types of questions is “you need a pouch for that!”

And so I made him a pouch for that, whether or not he’ll use it is another matter but I know it’s been with him on his recent London trip. So that’s at least part of the battle.

For this one I cut one side of his old Superdry shirts, using the breast patch pocket and the buttoned placket, which I sewed closed before assembling the pouch. I left the pocket functioning as a pocket, thinking that it would add interest and may actually also be useful. Along with the same material for the back, and a toning zip I followed the same process as for the vinyl fronted pouches, now fully confident about the size changes. I’ve worked out the back needs to be about 1.5 inches bigger than the front to allow for it to wrap around to the front.

For this one I used an old denim chambray shirt (also MOH’s) for the lining - again not taking any chances on the material choice, and you never know it may even get used.

A flamboyance of flamingos

That’s actually the proper name for a group of flamingos, isn’t that great? Almost as great as this set of pouches I made for mum who has made, and continues to make, me many pouches which I’ll never complain about. Mum was quite taken with the flamingo pouch in the original stack of pouches, and so I thought with my newfound size knowledge I could go flamingo mad (or plamingo mad as they’re sometimes known in our family).

And so I did.

With four more pouches! Each fits inside the other - and so it was a tropical flamingo pass the parcel for one - what’s not to like?

Noughts and Crosses - another quilt completed

Around the same time I shared my Flying Geese quilt I saw another quilt which I fell in love with, this time the Happenstance quilt by Sarah Hibbert - isn’t it beautiful, and well, curvy!

Immediately my mind was making all sorts of plans, and that’s before I even knew if I could sew a curved block. The plans went on hold (briefly) and I thought I’d better try it out as I was sure I had an orange peel template hanging on my craft room pegboard - I remember having fun balancing them across two hooks.

And sure enough I did, so I dug out some flowery material from my stash and tried to work out if I could sew a curved block.

I started small, although I had a plan to go large (well medium) and so my test block was all the patterns. And it worked, and wasn’t too onerous at all - even with all the pins. I think the key to this curved sewing, was to take it slowly - and to be honest, all the pins meant you couldn’t go fast anyway, as sewing over pins isn’t recommended.

With a few successful curves under my belt, the larger more medium plans were well underway.

This time though along with all the patterns there was also a plainer fabric - for some blocks this would form the outer square, and for others the inner circle - that meant I could use all of the material I’d cut, so a great way for me to use up some materials I’ve had in my stash for quite a while.

With the curved blocks sewn, it was time to work out a layout. I knew that I had some blocks left from my Great Granny Square quilt and once I’d played around with the placement for a bit I had a plan, and it wasn’t the one I first thought of, but this does remind me of Noughts and Crosses hence the quilt’s name.

Initially I thought I’d have the square - or crosses blocks - diagonally across the quilt, with the curved blocks in a triangle shape either side, but what worked in my head didn’t work so well in real life - and this was the layout that I was most happy with.

And that’s how this quilt stayed for most of December and a fair bit of January, and I’m not sure why as it was mostly done. This week I’ve completed the scrappy binding and managed to photograph it in pretty much the same position as the Flying Geese quilt!

Like that quilt, my plan is to donate this quilt to Project Linus UK, a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets. 

Again it isn’t perfect, but it is done and perfectly acceptable - plus it’s formed another slightly larger plan (more on that soon) and made me realise that the Happenstance quilt is also perfectly do-able. Of course I have a plan for that too, I just need to work out when, and how - as ever!