Tag Archives: birthday gift

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The past week since my last post has been somewhat devoid of blog material. In fact, it has been generally fairly quiet with us spending most of the time at home. There were a couple of fine sunny days which were perfect for some more fence painting. We have now completed 2 coats on all of the outside of the pickets and both sides of the gates. Once we finish the inside of the pickets then I will just need to do some touching up of baseboards and posts which are dark grey.

We did go out yesterday afternoon to pick up the quilt which I had taken to a friend to quilt on her longarm machine. It is always a delight to see the transformation from a piece of patchwork to a completed quilt. I think this one looks particularly spectacular.

A close-up of the stitching pattern.

The backing fabric from a thrifted doona cover really highlights the quilting.

Meanwhile, in a change of pace we have a weekend full of activity but more about that next time.

Some Special Sewing

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I have put my head down and done some concentrated sewing over the past couple of days. It is a birthday gift for our elder granddaughter.

The result is that I have now completed 21 patchwork blocks which is half of the total needed for a QS quilt.

I wrote a post in February which you can read here in which I mentioned that I had done the first block.

Here are the other 21 blocks ready to start sewing.

The disappearing 9 patch is essentially a 2-step process. The first is to sew the 9 pieces together and you can see some of them here at that stage.

After that, each block is cut into 4 pieces and rearranged before restitching. This gives the overall random finished pattern.

I hope to have the patchwork completed in the next week or so but it is somewhat dependant on other activities.

Patchwork – Pink & Pyjamas

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I began a new sewing project today. This is the first block of a patchwork quilt I am making for my elder granddaughter. It is for her 18th birthday in December. One block done, 41 to go.

Most of the fabric has been randomly collected from op shops and offcuts from various previous sewing adventures. However, there will be some from a particularly special piece. The small pale pink squares have history. They are from some leftover fabric from a dress which my mother made for herself – probably close to 30 years ago. From those leftovers I made a dress for my granddaughter which she wore on her first birthday.

This is not a great photo but you get the general idea. It was from an Enid Gilchrist pattern which I had made many time before and numerous times since.

The other patchwork was for the boxer shorts which I mentioned in my last post. I had rather optimistically thought that it would be a simple matter of adding a strip of fabric into the side seams and a bit at the top to extend the overall length of the crotch.

As I began to unpick the side seams it became obvious that the construction method was appalling and regardless of any alterations that I might make, the existing seams were not robust enough to stand up to much wear at all. So, I altered my plan and unpicked the entire garment. By this time it became obvious why they were not a great fit. The pieces bore only minimal resemblance to the pattern I had.

I used the excess length of the original trousers to add pieces to be able to recut all of the pieces for the boxer shorts using my own pattern. I used flat felled seams for joining the extra pieces as well as the main construction as I always do. These seams are great as there are no raw edges on the inside as well as being extra strong due to the two rows of stitching.

This photo shows the randomly joined pieces of fabric before I cut out the pattern pieces. I did not have enough fabric nor the desire to match the pattern.

It was a bit of a fiddle but I now have a pair of boxers which are comfortable. The various joins are really barely visible.

Time to Reveal

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I have made some fleeting references to some red and black patchwork that I was working on in the latter part of the year but I couldn’t reveal too much as it was a gift.

This is a photo that I took in the very early stages when I was still unsure of the overall plan.

It all came together quite quickly as I used some larger pieces in places rather than all disappearing 9 patch blocks. This after it had been quilted but before the final trimming and binding.

The quilt was not actually a Christmas gift but an early (milestone) birthday present for my brother. I know I won’t be with him to celebrate on the day so this was a good opportunity to be able to give it to him in person.

I was very pleased with the result and I think his smile says it all.

Nearly Finished & A New One

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Today I sewed all of the patchwork blocks together.

My next step is to contact a lady who has a longarm machine to do the quilting. Once that is done I will bind the edges and the quilt for our daughter will be complete. I am hoping that I will have it done in the next 2 weeks so that it is finished in time for her birthday.

I am already planning my next project which is a similar quilt for our elder granddaughter. My goal is to have it done for her 18th birthday which is at the end of 2025. I know that sounds a long way away but it does take time to source suitable fabric and cut the squares before you even start sewing the blocks. Of course, I don’t work on them consistently as there is always other sewing to do as well cooking, gardening and simply having a life.

I have made a start by finding the precut pink fabric I had on hand as well as beginning to cut some larger pieces. I need 378 5 inch squares to make a QS quilt.

Do you have any long-term craft projects that you return to from time to time?

Small Things

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Not everything I do is a massive project, like the photos.  It is often all the small day-to-day jobs that can make a real difference.

Today is a case in point.  Last week I received a birthday parcel from my younger daughter who lives in another state.  She had made me a decorative embroidery which was mounted in a frame.

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I have now hung it in my sewing room alongside the one she made a couple of years ago.

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The other small task I completed was mending a pair of GMan’s jeans that he wears when working in the yard.  I no longer have a mending pile so when he showed them to me I mended them straightaway.

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You can see more of the story on the inside.  The blue patch had been done some time ago and then they split again immediately below that patch.  So, today I added the green patch.

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Here is an old post with a bit more detail about my rudimentary patching methods for clothes that are worn in the garden.

 

 

A Special Gift

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My birthday was a couple of months ago but I recently received a slightly delayed gift.

Our younger daughter was working on this project when her life was thrown into disarray with the sudden death of her partner.  In between everything else that was going on she continued to steadily embroider this piece.  Apart from her desire to complete the gift for me, I am sure it was beneficial for her to have this project to work on.

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It is now hanging up in my sewing room where I can see it as I sit at the sewing machine.

I had no idea that my daughter could embroider, let alone produce a piece of work like this.  What a clever girl she is and I am a lucky mum that she chose to make this for me

The thing I like about this story is the value of skills from days gone by.  I am sure you could reproduce this using a fancy computerised embroidery machine but like so many artisan skills there are so many more benefits to this endeavour than simply the production of the finished piece of work.

What skills have you taught yourself with the assistance of Google and YouTube?

Flashback Friday

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As with all new projects, ‘Flashback Friday’ is being fine-tuned.  As well as linking back to the original post I am going to copy and paste it into a new post.  So, here goes…..this is from August 2012 just before Izz turned 3.

I have been making a gift for Izz for her birthday.  She has a doll’s bed which has been passed down to her but no bedding.

I bought 2 u-shaped pillowcases recently from the op shop.  Here is one that I have unpicked ready to use.  Note the roll of fabric which is the dismantled and pressed frill.

2012-08-06 01The Duke bought a piece of foam cut to size for the mattress and I have covered that using some of the pillowcase fabric.

2012-08-06 02The next step was to make a patchwork quilt.  I worked out the size and number of pieces I would need.  The plain pink is more of the pillowcase, plain mauve from a piece in my stash of fabric, Dora pattern is a few leftover scraps from the doona cover and curtains that I made for Miss O last year and the pink patterned fabric is from a blouse I picked up at the op shop.  The frill is the one I unpicked from the pillowcase.  The hemmed edge remained intact so I simply regathered it and reapplied to the quilt edge.

2012-08-06 03I bought a large piece of cotton/bamboo batting for a bed quilt I am working on for Izz’s bed so I used a small piece for this quilt.  (I think this is a rather spoiled doll!)  The backing is more leftovers from some op shop fabric.  I quilted it by simply machine stitching along the seam lines which is nothing fancy but seems effective.

2012-08-06 04The finishing touch was to make a matching pillow.  A couple more fabric scraps and some salvaged filling from an old cushion and I had a complete set of bedding for the doll.  Here is the mattress with the pillow.

2012-08-06 05The total cost of things I bought specifically for this project was $6.60.  This is a gift which I know will be loved regardless of the cost.  I am looking forward to seeing Izz’s face when she opens the gift.

Now I need to work on the the bed quilt I am making as well since her birthday is in 2 weeks and I want to be able to give her the present before we go on holidays.

2015-04-03 01In the interests of presenting a complete picture here are a couple of photos I took when she received her parcel.

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