Read the Pattern!

A.K.A the Purse of Epic F*** Ups

This purse was meant to be a gift for my handmade birthday club.

The fabric is Petal & Plume by Art Gallery Fabrics. I won a FQ bundle of it in a giveaway (yay! thanks Art Gallery!). The prints are stunning and the collection has some great blenders. I don't think the photos do this line justice. Especially striking is this peacock print. Remember this for later...

The pattern is the Noodlehead Envelope Clutch Pattern. I am in love with Anna's patterns. Have a look here for other Noodlehead makes. I have also made a few of her patterns in my pre-blog life. I am a bit of a fan. I am telling you this because I want to make it clear that what happened here was not the fault of the pattern.

So, I will admit here that I am a bit of a "wing it" kind of girl when it comes to following patterns. I don't always read patterns the whole way through. I did not even read this pattern before I started. And that is where it all went wrong....

First of all, I misread the seam allowance and sewed everything with a 5/8th seam allowance, which I didn't realise was not right til I went to attach the lining - yes that's right assembly was quite advanced by then. Of course, the lining was too big to fit into the purse, cue some creative trimming.

Then I didn't realise that I had to cut the back exterior panel for assembly. So remember that peacock I was talking about before...decapitated.

Of course, had I read the pattern I would have known that...

Oh and see that thing there, that is the back of the magnetic snap. Next to my finished purse. Not sure what sort of longevity this baby will have...

At the end of the day, the finished product is cute. Testimonial to the pattern, I think. I will keep it for myself - too many stuff ups to gift on. It will definitely get some use. But the moral of the story when it comes to sewing is to READ THE PATTERN!

Gratuitous lining shot. 

A finish: Wee Wander Roly Poly

I bought a bundle of Wee Wander probably close to a year ago to make a birthday quilt for my eldest niece. I made quite a decent dent in most of the prints, but I didn't touch either of the panel pieces. They were just lovely and it seemed criminal to cut them up, yet I couldn't quite get my head around what to make with them.

Fast forward to now, and here is Wee Wander Roly Poly in blue.

The fat quarter panel easily fit in the front piece of the pattern (I made a 2T). I used chambray for the exterior side pieces and a cute Lisette green and blue check print for the lining. 

The pattern was a pretty easy make. I was hampered a bit by my inability to read a pattern the whole way through but I still managed to sew up the whole thing in one night. 

Someone mentioned on Instagram using their blind stitch foot to get even top stitching, so I used that which was a great help (thanks for the tip, whoever you are!). 

And here are some shots of my Ms Bird "modelling". Anyone with kids knows how impossible this sort of task is - especially when you want to keep the clothes clean so you can't bribe with food. 

Perfect for conquering the playground

Next up is a pink one for my eldest. 

Linking up for my February ALYoF goal. There's a button in m side bar if you want to play along.

WIP Wednesday: It's All About the Bee

Buzz, buzz.....

This week it has all been about completing my bee commitments: both new and old.

First up I made this Stacked Windmills block for Jess as part of the Aussie Modern Instabee (an Instagram based bee, check out #aussiemoderninstabee for some delicious eye candy).

All the blocks are from the book Modern Bee: 13 Quilts to Make with Friends. And the Stacked Windmills block is by Jeni Baker. It is a very pretty block, but all those HSTs...So versatile, so very annoying to trim. My life changed when I discovered paper pieced triangles. They are super handy when you want to do lots of HSTs in the same colours. Sew, slice and done!

This was the last month of the bee so now it is time for everyone to sew up the blocks. Here are all the blocks I sent out (excuse the crappy phone photos - I sew in my garage, mainly at night).















As you can see, the Stacked Windmills block proved quite popular in our group. I'll be happy to have a break from this one ;)

Here are the blocks that I have received so far:

Now I just need to make up some more for mine and sew it together.

I have also made these blocks for The Bee Hive Quilt Bee, hosted by Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts (see the button in my side bar). The Alison Glass Handcrafted ones are for me and the other one is for our February Queen Bee, Nicole.

I am going to make my blocks into a sampler quilt - I can't wait til the next installation!

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday.

ALYoF February Goal - Wee Wander Roly Poly

A while ago I won a copy of the Roly Poly pattern by Rachel from Imagine Gnats.

I also have these two sweet panels from Wee Wander and some chambray that I bought to make a skirt but I think would actually border on indecent - it seems kind of sheer for a lower half covering (I am going to make a top for me from it though). 

The magical union of these will hopefully result in a sweet little top (or perhaps two) for my girls. Ms Moo has bagsed the pink, so I guess that leaves blue for Ms Bird. 

Since I haven't made anything for Ms Bird for a while, she gets hers done first. 

Linking up as my February goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

A finish: Scrappy Union Jack quilt

An English colleague of mine recently had a baby. His wife (an Australian) made sure that he was very clear as to which team their child would be cheering come the Ashes (that's cricket if you are outside the Commonwealth).

I thought it would be cute to make the bub a sweet little Union Jack pram quilt, although I was sneaky and included some Australiana in the form of these kangaroos from the Terra Australis line by Emma Jean Jansen. 

For a pattern, I used the one by Lynne from Lily's Quilts in Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine. I made my panels scrappy to add a bit of interest since I was only doing the one Union Jack - instead of using a fat quarter as the pattern called for I made up patchwork pieces. I also added bigger borders and then a second border with the pinwheels just to bring it up to a snuggly size for tucking a bub in the pram. 

I quilted it in diamonds following the crosses in the Union Jack and bound it in the Bush Sticks, also from Terra Australis.  It measures 35.5 in x 27.5 in finished. 

Another of my 2015 Q1 FAL goals ticked off my list.