Christmas Stockings

I have been working on writing a pattern for a Christmas Stocking using some of the beautiful Christmas fabric we have in the shop. 

I wanted to make the most of the feature prints without much wastage and so I devised the following pattern.

You will need 2 FQs of fabric, one for the main part of the stocking (Fabric A) and one for the toes & cuffs (Fabric B).

A piece of wadding measuring approximately 36” X 23”

8” of ribbon

(Optional - pom-pom trim ric-rac etc.)

Fabric A:–

Trim off the selvedge. Cut the remaining rectangle in half squaring up your fabric as you go. You should end up with 2 pieces of fabric each approximately 19” X 10.5” each.

Fabric B:

Trim off the selvedge then cut into 4 equal pieces measuring approximately 9.5” X 10.                                                             

Take one piece of fabric A and one piece of fabric B, turn  Fabric B a quarter turn then pin to the bottom of fabric A and sew using a ¼” seam this will make the toe.

Repeat, but sew Fabric B to other side of your piece of Fabric A making a mirror image. Ensure you have a pair at this point not two the same (see picture). Press the seam flat.

Baste the two stocking pieces to your wadding. You will need 2 pieces of wadding reserving each measuring 4” x 10.5”to pad the cuff of the stocking.

Quilt the 2 stocking pieces as desired then trim.

With the remaining 2 pieces of fabric B:-

Turn under the longest sides WST by ½”and press. Then fold in half WST.

Place the reserved piece of wadding at the top of your quilted stocking front then place the folded fabric over the top tucking under the fold, pin in place. Topstitch along the folded edge ensuring you catch the fold on the underside. You can at this point also add pompom trim ric-rac as desired. Repeat.

Fold your piece of ribbon in half and pin to the side of one stocking piece 2” from top. Place both the stocking pieces RST and stitch around all sides using a 1/4” seam. Remember to leave the top open for Santa to put the presents in!

You will now have a very square looking stocking. Do not fear! Still with the wrong sides facing outwards place the stocking on a flat surface and draw a curve on the toe and heel (see picture).

Once you are happy with the shape of your curve sew along the lines you have drawn. Then cut away the excess leaving ¼” allowance. You can at this point neaten all the edges of your stocking with a zig-zag stitch.

Turn though and you then have a Christmas Stocking all ready to hang up for Father Christmas. 

We have put together kits for these Christmas Stockings and we will be bringing them with us to the Knitting and Stitching show at Harrogate next week.

Remember to share anything you make on Facebook or Instagram @PinitandStitch

Selfish Sewing

As you may already seen a couple of weeks ago I felt like I needed a little bit of me time and so I scheduled in a little bit of "Selfish Sewing".

Sewing that wasn't for any particular purpose but just for me.

I decided to make the block from the latest issue 2 of Quilt Now by Reenee. 

And a little while later I had this.

I used some of my very precious Anna Maria Horner scraps and a print from Tula Pink which was on sale in John Lewis a little while back. 

I Love it!!

Thanks Reene and Quilt now for saving my sanity!

A Little Hand Sewing

I am going to share my latest obsession with you it is these little ildicobolde's. 

I first saw these on instagram a while ago and found the tutorial here. I like to have a little project that I can just pick up and sew anywhere and these fitted the bill. 

I used some of my precious liberty scraps for the dresses.

I've got them to this stage now and I'm not sure If I'm going to do the next round or not.

I've got them printed out ready to go just in case.

Sweet as Honey

 Slowly but surely all the new fabric is making its way onto the website.

Newly listed this week is this yummy Art Gallery Fabric by Bonnie Christine.

Is'nt this bee print stunning?

Art Gallery produce these amazing lookbooks for you to skip through for inspiration and the Sweet as Honey one can be found here.

The free pattern above can be found here.

Young Quilter Winner!

Whilst we were at the festival of quilts earlier this month we met once again the most amazing young quilter Darci.

We first met Darci and her mum at the Malvern Quilt Show in October where she was looking for inspiration for an entry into the Young Quilters Challenge. She bought some fabric from us and we had a lovely chat with the both of them. 

Well guess what.... Darci won her category!!!

She brought along her winning entry to the Festival of Quilts to show us and here it is. 

Winning her section was, as she says "the best moment of her life"

The details of the Young Quilters competition can be found here. 

Her mum Jacqui sent this to us from Darci:

Darci says:-
Last year at Festival of Quilts, mummy let me join the YQ and I have made things from the news letters. Then I heard about the YQ competition and asked mummy if I could have a go. It was great fun making it and I never thought I would win. My ideas and inspiration came from seeing a few fabrics at Malvern Quilt show last October. These were the blue swirls/rock pools, different patterned zigzag in blue and yellow for sea and sand and the brown pattern for the sand dunes. The idea of the scene was now firmly in my head and so I went around the rest of the show and found all the other fabrics I wanted for it. Mummy found the dolphin fabric on ebay for me and helped me cut them out as they are small and fiddly. She also helped me by doing the hot ironing on of the fusible appliqué. I did all the sewing on my own machine which was my Christmas present 2012. Some quilting is with vary colour quilting threads and the appliqué is blanket stitch with invisible thread. I decided to make it into a cushion cover and so chose some blue nautical rope pattern fabric to make the envelope back. I have learnt so much from the workshops and everyone's help which made me think 'I want to enter the competition'. Thank you to everyone for being so kind and their great help in learning to do this. I really love sewing !

Darci has received some lovely emails congratulating her on her win even one from the lovely Stuart Hillard.

Well done Darci! x 

Festival of Quilts 2014 Round Up.

This years Festival of Quilts has come and gone and we survived it once again!

We met so many lovely people. Some that we had met before at other shows. 

Some we knew from Instagram and Facebook but only as a username and so we now have a face to recognise. 

And some new ones. 

(sorry for the crappy phone picture)

I promised you some new goodies for the shop before we went and all the deliveries came in. 

We re-stocked our Aurifil Thread to include some of the amazing variegated ones. 

We also had in some of the lovely Aurifloss which is just stunning. And it comes on these lovely wooden spools!

We also carried at the show some of the Designer Box sets from Aurifil. These are a bit pricey but when you break down the cost per reel they are so worth it. 

(These will be a special order item in the shop so if you need one for a Birthday or Christmas gift just send us an email)

We have lots of new Art Gallery Fabrics.

Arizona by April Rhodes.

 Sweet as Honey by Bonnie Christine

This stunning Hexie quilt is a free pattern over at 

Art Gallery Fabrics.

And Dreamin' Vintage by Jenni Baker.

 Some of these have sold out almost straight away at the show but we have re-ordered and will have them back in within the next week. 

Also coming in next week is the amazing fabric Indelible by Katarina Roccella. 

Thank you to everyone who came and saw us at the show and we look forward to seeing you all again next year.

x

Festival of Quilts 2014

We are in full swing trying to get ready for the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham later this week. 

Slightly panicking that we are not going to have enough fabric to take but we do have some deliveries due in the next few days so I'm sure we will be fine. 

We going to be having a few new things with us so hopefully there will be something pretty to tempt you!

Remember to stop by our stand and sign up for our new website launch as there will be a fab giveaway for you to enter.

New Pinny's for us.

As you may remember some time ago Natalie had a pattern published in Sewing World magazine for a Pinny just like this one here. 

We have since had quite a few people telling us at the shows that they had made one following the pattern. 

We met Sandra and Lyndsey from the Sewing Shop in Lichfield at Sewing for Pleasure and then again at Quilt Village at Uttoexeter and their Pinny's put ours to shame! 

They had trims and bobbles and vintage lace on theirs and ours were looking a little bit sad.

We decided that we had to make ourselves some new ones and so while we were cooking in the Marquee at Malvern, Natalie brought along her Featherweight and ran up a new one for herself and also one for Stacey next door. 

I finished mine after our Holiday, in fact it was the first bit of sewing I did upon my return.  

Thank you Sandra and Lyndsey for motivating us to get some new ones made! 

Share any pictures you have of your Pinny's using the hashtag #showusyourpinny

I made a dress!

Yes I made a dress!

I don't know about you but I get really jealous of all these people that make these fantastic clothes. 

Me, I struggle to put a zip in a pouch! 
However one day last week I sat with the computer and researched dress patterns. I looked around back and forth on the internet until I finally settled on this pattern.
The Bianca Dress by Rae of the Washi Dress fame. 

I have even worn it out of the house on more than one occasion! (How brave am I!)

The pattern was really easy to print out and put together and incredibly easy to follow. I managed to cut out and make the whole dress (except heming) while watching back to back World cup Matches. 
(I would have been quicker if I hadn't been watching the football)! 

I plan to make at least one more as I have some fabric stashed away which I bought to make a skirt with over a year ago. I'm going to scratch the skirt idea and make a dress instead. But the speed at which you can make this dress means that there may be several more made over the summer. 

P.S. Sorry about the headless photos but I really hate having my photograph taken and instructed the photographer (number 2 son) to chop my head off in all the pictures. He obliged willingly!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Tracey

X

Two Finishes (at last) for Two Little Ladies

I seem to have been really busy chasing my tail over the last few weeks and not actually finishing anything. However I do have these two quilts to share with you which I finished a few weeks ago and sent them onto their recipients. 

I was asked back in January if I could make two small quilts for two sister's. 

I was given a brief of Minnie Mouse for one and Lego for the other and asked if their names could be included somewhere. 

As you can see from these pictures one was spot on to the brief the other less so. 

I struggled with the Lego theme. If it had been for a boy I would have had no problem and straight away gone for some Paper Pieced patterns from here. But girlie Lego I struggled with. 

I eventually gave up and went kind of down the Scrappy route with lots of 2 1/2" squares and spelt her name. 

I zig-zagged around each letter to add some definition and used my favourite Ikea fabric for the background of this one and also the backing on both quilts. 

It was only then as I was typing up this post that I realised that I had spelt Lily's name wrong. 
DUH!!!
You Idiot!
Don't you know that Lily is spelt with one L and not 2!!

Of course I knew.
I had the name written out with one L and yet I put 2 L's in the quilt.
Why???

So I spent the evening unpicking and replacing and finally a few days later, I had a finished quilt that was at last spelt correctly. 

So there we have it.

I did say I was going to be finished for Easter but that deadline passed me by. However I have now handed them over, (only a couple of weeks late!). 

Hope you like them Isla and Lily-Ann. 

X

AWOL (Sorry)...

Apologies for being absent from blogging for so long, normal service will resume shortly. 

We have returned from a fantastic holiday with our families.

Stay tuned for some exciting news. 

This Weekend.

I'm a little late sharing this as we have already been there a day, but I just wanted to let you know we are going to be at the Quilt and Stitch Village in Uttoxeter over this weekend. 

Come and say hello!