Sewing Machine Cover

I Made it! YEAH!

I hope that I made it in time, but I have finally finished my Sewing Machine cover for the Elefantz competition

I have been trying to get this project finish for sooo long and today I'm sitting here with a big grin on my face, because I finally have that sense of achievement!

I'm especially proud of myself as I had to teach myself how to use my left foot to sew, and my quilting lines are really quite straight! Surprise Surprise! hehehe

I sat at the sewing machine most of the day yesterday, to get it done. It was really uncomfortable as you can imagine with my leg the way it is, but I had to take my mind off things, because both my Mum and my Husband were stuck on the other side of the bushfires on the south coast of NSW in Australia. Thank goodness my hubby got home safe. Mum decided to stay up there until it was safer to drive home. They were stuck in Ulladulla and we live in Batemans Bay.

Anyway, here are my pictures for the competition, just click on them to be taken to Jenny's blog, there are some awesome entry's in the competition to give you some inspiration.

Do you like the whole I made for the handle? I was quite impressed with myself! hehehe I really really really want the win the book!! :)

Thanks Jenny and Cheryl I would never have finished this if it weren't for your competition!

A new Applique Cushion by Bareroots

I have been very slack with posting lately, but it seems like I have a dozen things on the go and just never seem to get anything finished! It is very frustrating, because I love that sense of achievement I get when I finish a project.

I have been trying to turn my Spring Garden pattern into a Sewing Machine cover (I changed my mind) for Jenny of Elefantz' competition and with two days to go, I don't think I'm going to make it unfortunately, I find it very difficult to sit at the machine for any length of time as you can imagine.

Are you like that? Do you get a real buzz when you finish something, but feel down when you don't get anything finished? Maybe I need to spend a day making pincushions so I feel I've acomplished something.

Anyway, here is the cushion I finished yesterday. It's from the Bareroots book Pretty and Cozy. I don't like how the red heart shows through the white heart, next time I will reverse applique the white heart. Also the pattern has a severe lack of photos, making it a challenge to follow the pattern at times.

Free Felt Scissor Keeper Pattern

Ok I have finally finished it! Just click here and you will be taken to my download page with all my free patterns. I'd love you to leave a message if you download any of my patterns and let me know what you will be doing with them!

New free Pattern for a felt scissor keeper coming

Well it has been quite a while since I last posted, but the reason is I am finally home from hospital! Even if it is only for about 6 weeks, before my next surgery. This was my last day in hospital, the reason for my big smile. I have the big brace on until everything has a chance to heal. The Drs want it on for up to 3 months. It will have been 6 weeks on Wednesday, so I'm halfway there.

Anyway this is what I have been working on. I'm doing a swap and my blocks are going to be for a picnic rug, so I thought what better theme than 'Teddy Bears picnic. This teddy will be in the middle of a spring garden. More pics soon I promise.

On to the freebie. As you may remember I ordered some wool felt from The Home Patch recently. Along with some gorgeous patterns and kits to keep me busy in hospital, I bought some wool felt 6" squares to make my own creations. This Aqua colour just spoke to me and I had to do something with it immediately! So some quick sketching and a little stitching and I come up with this....

I will try and scan the sketch tomorrow and get it up on the blog for you.


But then again, we are having a birthday party for my big 5 year old tomorrow, so it may be the next day. I have to instruct my darling husband how to plug the scanner back in as I am unable to move easily. Hopefully this won't cause a Divorce! hehe

Summer Garden and a lovely Giveaway from Jenny!

Guess What! A new summer garden stitchery is on its way!

After you all went so crazy for my spring garden stitchery I have started working on a summer one!

I'm trying to come up with an Autumn and Winter, but I'm have trouble trying to think of flowers that bloom in those seasons (I'm definately no gardener). Any suggestions?

In the style of Jenny of Elefantz Here's a sneek peek.

Speaking of Jenny, she has just released a Gorgeous new stitchery range on her etsy site and is having a giveaway on her blog! I bought her new christmas range of patterns this morning and she sent it to me within an hour and a half!!! Fantastic service! Thanks Jenny. Check out this gorgeous little collection, you could win this just jump on over to Jenny's site!

Wool Felt Kits by Annie Downs

I'm so excited, I've been wanting to mess around with wool felt for ages and so I got onto The Home Patch and ordered these.

Hubby just called and they arrived this morning! Yeah Looks like I'll be making christmas Baubles this afternoon. I also ordered the little pincushions, the lamb one, a ladybug and a chicken, I also got some extra wool felt so I can do some of my own designs (look out for some more freebies soon). I'm so excited, as I mentioned I just love Annie Downs designs.

Free Embroidery Applique Pattern Spring Garden

Ok friends here it is

It is a very rough pattern, but as so many of you wanted it, I didn't want to make you wait for me to draft up a better copy, so it is just a pencil drawing, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

I used 2 embroidery threads throughout and the stems are worked in Stem stitch as is the tail of the bird and the second flower, the swirly one. For this I used an opalesent thread from DMC, while the dragon fly and the running stitch inside the last flower is worked in Rayon. It just gives a bit of shimmer when the sun catches it.

The embroidered flowers at the bottom are just lazy daisy stitches with the pink one having two rows, the first longer than the second and the middle filled with french knots.

So there you go, I hope you all love it and please send me pictures if you do use it, it gives me that warm fuzzy feel to know that people are enjoying my art.

hugs Paula x

Cushion it is!

Wow I am overwhelmed by all your lovely comments!

I will definately be sharing my pattern. I have sent my pencil drawing home with my sister and she will scan it for me, and after she emails it to me I will clean it up for you and then put it up as a PDF.

I'm so gratful to Jenny for sending you all over, I have been a fan of her blog for quite a while, so to feature on her blog makes me feel all funny inside. You know that feeling you get when you feel like a little school girl! hehehe I feel very special, thank you Jenny. After all she was the inspiration for my stitchery. I really love the way she combines applique with embroidery, (Annie Downs does this too, another of my favs) so this was my first attempt.

You all have been so kind that you have inspired me to give it another go, so stay tuned for another pattern soon! all your ideas for projects has my brain swimming with ideas! Lucky I brought my sketch book to hospital.

I really love Judith's comment about it reminding her of 'spring' so thats what it will be called. Coming soon, 'Spring 2' or maybe 'Winter' or 'Summer' or 'Autumn'.

Thank You all, I truly appreciate ever single comment, you have all made my day!

Hugs Paula

Oooh by the way, because I'm in hospital for a little while longer, I have sent 'Spring' home with my Mum, she is going to make it into a cushion for me, so hopefully I will have pictures in the next few days.

Free Sleepy Cat Embroidery Pattern

Yeah I have finally worked out how to put up my PDF patterns for you, so you can download them for free. I blogged a while back about this little pussy cat cushion, it has a secret pocket. I was going to sell the pattern on etsy, but decided that I have received so much help in the way of free tutorials and the like that I need to give a bit back to the blogging community. So if you like this, please feel free to download it from here and of course please let me know what you do with it! I'd love to see pictures!

I might add a tutorial when I get out of hospital. I have the instructions written, but I don't have any photos. Do you want the instuctions without photos for now or would you just rather wait for a proper tutorial? let me know in the comments. :)

Heres a picture of the secret pocket, sorry about the pic, this is from my old camera.

Please leave a comment if you have the time, it really makes my day to find someone has left me a comment, and it lets me know I'm on the right track of what you want from my blog.

Star Chrismas decoration / Ornament mini Tutorial

I had some fun yesterday whipping up this cute little star decoration. I think next time I'll use 2 threads of DMC though, the embroidery is a bit too hard to see.

I forgot to take a picture of the back, it is also a red star, but I left it blank except for the running stitch around the outside. I'm going to embroider the year, or my name, or I'm thinking about using it for an advent swap, so I might put some details of that on it. As you can see, I'm still very undecided.

This is how I made it:

I drew a star on template plastic and cut out my template. I used this to cut out two red felt stars and I just eyeballed cutting out a white star 1/4" bigger, but you could use a second template or even a cookie cutter, your choice.

I embroidered a lazy daisy flower with a swirly stem, two lazy daisy leaves and some french knots in each point of the star.

I attatched seed beads in a rough star pattern in the middle of my star using sewing thread, It is much stronger than embroidery thread!

I took my blank red star (if you want to add a date or name it is easier to do that now) and attatched it using running stitch to the white star. Make sure it is centred! Before stitching down the top point, add a loop of ribbon to hang your star. I added a few quick stitches with my red sewing thread that I still had threaded from the sead beads, before the running stitch went through both the ribbon and white star.

Next I took the embroidered red star and attatched it in the same way, using a running stitch but make sure your needle only goes through the top red star and the white star! You don't want a double row of running stitch to come through onto the back.

And thats it! Easy peasey!

What should I do with this?

So I've been working on this for sometime now and am finally at a stand still. I just don't know what I want to do with this cute little embroidery. Actually its not so little about 12-14" Wide x 10-12"high.
I'd Love some ideas, and I think I will put the embroidery pattern up as a freebie if anyone is interested.
If you want me to put up this and other free patterns, just leave me a comment!

Any ideas would be most appreciated and if I get an idea from you guys that I like I'll make up a tutorial too. Sorry I haven't got an iron here, I'm very embaressed about the state of this...

Hugs P

*UPDATE*
Hi Ladies, Due to poular demand I have put the pattern up here. Please keep commenting, I love to hear suggestions for future projects. Go to the main page for more project ideas!

Hugs Paula x

My Mushrooms, embroidered christmas Decorations

After posting the link for the little mushroom house pin cushion / decorations I thought I should show you my effort. Isn't it cute! and So much fun to make!

I made this one in my hospital bed between physio and all the other that you endure in hospital and it only took me 1 day, so really easy too!

I must admit, Mum did do the machine stitching for me. I have brought up most of my stitching equipment, but I think the nurses would be a bit miffed if I brought in my trusty Janome. :)

Ooh I wanted to mention too , the hexagon I showed you the other day, and again above, was actually designed by Gail Pan, who is amazingly talented! Check out her blog for some free patterns, just beautiful. She's offering a free BOM. Don't miss out it's stunning!
I just checked Gails Blog to get the link for you and I see that she is releasing a book! I'm very excited, I have been a fan of her work for quite sometime, Check out the cover here!

I also forgot to tell you that I gave my sister my credit card yesterday and asked her to go and buy me a decent camera, I'm sick of the quality of photography I've been subjecting you to. This is what she came back with! As you can see from the above photos, I've been having fun playing, but I really should get the manual out and read it. hehe.

I've been going on about being in hospital, so I thought I'd better show you why. This is a picture of my brace that is on my leg. It is worth $26,000 AUD would you believe! It is to support my knee while it heals. You can find the full store here. It will be left on for at least 6 wekks and as long as our prayers work and I don't get an infection will be on for up to 3 months. The surgeon says I will probably never work again, but hopefully my knee will be more stable. All I want is for it to be strong enough for me to be able to take my kids to the beach next summer. Thats my goal! Anyway, this has got to be my longest post ever, but I wanted to show you a picture of my DH and my baby boy, this is one of the first pics I took with my new camera.

Anyway it is getting late, so I best turn off the light before the nurses start giving me funny looks. :) The other night when I was still stitching together my hexagon at midnight I was getting some very interesting looks from the night staff, wondering what on earth I was doing. hehe

Hexagon Embroidery

I have had a little bit of stitching time today between Physio and other things (I made it up and down the two steps in Physio 3 times! Only a few more times and I might be able to go home!).

Anyway, it gave me the chance to start and actually finish a hexagon, it is part of a quilt that my embroidery group is putting together to raise money for cancer research.

Fiona from Peaceful Threads put together the pattern and supplys for us, and we just had to stitch up our hexagons. I hope you like it. I think it came out great, especially for my first hexagon.

Mushroom Magic

Hello I'm finally back in my Town, not home yet, but I was flown back from Sydney last week and am now at least able to have visits from my baby's. The hospital I'm in, is only minutes from where we live. Yeah!


I've been unable to take pictures of what I'm working on because I don't have a camera here so I thought I'd share a pattern I've found online. Aren't these the cutest thing you've ever seen!

Click on the picture to be taken to the free pattern and tutorial.

So you may be wondering how I'm blogging from my hospital bed, well, my Darling Hubby, went and bought me a pre-paid wireless broadband thingy, so I just plug it into my laptop and I feel like I'm a bit normal again. At least I can check my emails (I had over 660 when I finally got back to my computer hehe).

So thats all for today, but thanks so much to everyone who left messages and sent emails, it really lifts my spirits on the hard days!

Hugs Love P

Off to Hospital I go

Hi all,

I'll be a bit quiet for a while as today Jack and I are heading off. We are starting out at a sleep school for Jack, we just had our last nights sleep together :( Then we are heading up to Sydney for my knee recon. (we will be squeezing in a visit to the Thimblelady's shop before hospital, Yeahhh.)

I'll see you all soon!

Happy Stitching!
Paula x

Needle turn Applique

Can you believe that 1 week ago I couldn't needleturn to save myself! Seriously!

The butterfly on the right is my first attempt at the thimblelady's technique, The one on the left is my second and the top one is my newest attempt. Sorry about the pics, my camera is crappy.

Anyway, see that little pink spot, the one inbetween the grain of rice and the corn kernel. Yet the one that looks like a pin head, well guess what, I needleturned that! Me yes Me! Yeahhhh. It is unbeleiveable what You can do! and thats only my very first attempt!

Here have a closer look!

Here have an even closer look! See why I'm raving about the Thimblelady!

You really have to check her out! She is just unbelievable! And so nice too!

www.thimblelady.com.au

Thimblelady Applique Package Review

To say that I'm a perfectionist is a bit of an understatement. So I have been becoming increasingly frustrated at my needleturn applique attempts. I have really fallen in love with quilting because there is so many areas in which to conquer. I'm one of those who likes to just jump in and give it a go, if it doesn't work the first time, it eats away at me until I feel I have achieved my level of said perfection, then I'm over it and want to move on to the next challenge.


So needleturn has become a bit of a love, hate challenge. Imagine my surprise when I went from this: (which a week ago I was quite happy with..)



to this:
Check out those points!


In 1 day! That's right! One - uno - un - ein - eins day!


Just to be clear I have not been paid in any way for this review, this is simply my experience.


I first saw the thimblelady on Simply Quilts and was really impressed, firstly because she was a really great hand quilter and second because she's an Aussie!

Because Liuxin is an Aussie, I felt an instant connection to her, I then started reading more information on her and felt we were kindred spirits of a kind. The way Liuxin thinks and teaches is a really logical style. Exactly the way my brain works.

While watching the Dvd which came with the kit I found myself saying 'why didn't I think of that' so many times. I then showed the DVD to my mother (my Quilting buddy among many other things) and picked up just as much the second time as I did the first!


I read a comment recently on the Thimblelady Forum which basically said 'Why bother putting out another Applique book, there's hundreds of them (books), theres nothing else to learn, applique is easy.' Well I beg to differ; I have tried all the different ways and never had the INSTANT success that I've enjoyed with 'Perfect Hand Applique'.
That butterfly is only my second attempt at Liuxin's technique.


I felt like I had learnt more in 30 minutes than I have in 12 months.


I find myself torn, I want to give a true review about this system, but I also don't want to give too much away. The Thimblelady deserves to be paid, and paid well, for her innovation! As the invention of the rotary cutter changed quilting forever, this technique will go down as a moment which changed applique. This may sound like an commercial, but I truely can't express how huge this is for my quilting life!


Ok so the system draws together the importance of all your tools from fabric, to needles and threads, even the scissors you choose to use play an important role in your success. I jumped straight in after watching the Dvd, I truly couldn't wait another moment to try Liuxin's 'tricks' and imediately picked up about 4 things I had been doing wrong. My first thought was gee the thread makes a big difference, then, wow the needle is an improvement, then, I looove this fabric it makes it so easy, then, ohh I wish I had the magic needle marker 12 months ago. I can't decide which tool made the biggest difference.

The old saying 'A poor tradesman blames his tools' came to mind, but with the right tools, one can do anything!

With the kit I ordered from the thimblelady website I not only received the Book and Dvd but it also came with everything you need to get started. A beautiful Fat quarter of stunning fabric, a reel of silk thread, a packet of needles, you also get a thimble glove, a sheet of template plastic and a pair of scissors. For $68 I learnt more than with all my magazine subscriptions ever.

The magic needle marker is incredible. I gives you a clean line to follow with nothing to wash off and I feel it actually helps with the turning under of the fabric, because it sort of 'folds' the fabric for you. There is a video of this being used on the website. At $15 a very worthy investment!

The only negative I can find is that the video is a little ameteur, but in saying that it is so engrossing you don't mind the occasional shake of the camera. Someone should be throwing money at Liuxin to make the Ultimate Hand Quilting and Applique Video.

In closing if you want to see a circle the size of the @ symbol on your keyboard needleturned, then this package is worth the money. If you want to be able to do it yourself then its worth double what your asked to pay!

Thimblelady website


If you have anything to add please do!



Paula x

Daisy Chain by Amy Butler

I love love love this combination of Fabrics from Amy Butlers Daisy Chain range! I guess thats why I just bought it off Etsy. Amazing value, I ended up paying about $10 AUD per yard including delivery.... I can see it becoming one of these.... Yes I'm fnally making a quilt for MY bed.

Amy Butler Addict!

My name is Paula and I'm an Amy Butler addict! hehe

Seriously I love every single thing that I have ever seen from Amy (I like to think we are on a first name basis *BG*.)

As you may know I'm going into hospital so the doctors can hopefully fix my knee this time and so I decided rather than borrowing my hubbys footy bag again, I needed my own pretty case. So I got on line and bought Amy's Weekender Bag pattern (from Belsize square 'Awesome service') and came up with this....

Because the recovery will be quite yucky and we have to travel to Sydney (5 hour drive) Our girls will be visiting Poppa for a few weeks, So I needed a nice photo album to take with me. Once again, Amy to the rescue and I made this awesome photo book from her 'Amy Butler's little stitches for little ones' book.

I had some gorgeous Vera Bradley fabric that was just perfect! and It only took about 1 hour (sooo frustrating!) to get the Matilda's own ink jet printable fabric through the printer. But I got the whole thing done in a day, so I was really happy with it. What do you think?

Amy's understanding of interfacing is just incredible, and very inspiring. Although the timetex was a nightmare to use in the Weekender, the finish is just incredible. The book uses 2 different types of interfacing (fused together)and again the finish is just stunning! The pages are nice and stiff, not all floppy like a normal fabric book. I can stand it up and so I'll be able to look at my pics like its a picture frame.

Next job, My matching toiletry bag. This one I'll design myself though.... Stay tuned!

Static

An online quilting group I belong to has been discussing static and how treads stick to our fingers as we sew, and it brought this picture of Cherub #2 to mind. The more she went down the slid, the more her hair stood on end! hehe :)

Anyway, I have been doing heaps of sewing and not much blogging.... I guess thats why I have been getting lots of sewing done :) Catch 22.

Anyway I have finished my Amy Butler Weekender Bag to take to hospital, I have made a new table runner, and finished 3 UFO's. Cool huh! I've also nearly finished a little Photo book, (also to take to hospital) It's from Amy Butlers Little ones book and its just adorable!! I will try to take some pictures later today.

Needle turn Applique

I have had a crazy week. I managed to get in a bit of designing and stitching between the hundreds of tissues that we have gone through with 3 sick kids.

My Etsy shop kicked off well with lots of visitors and a few sales too. Woo hoo.

I even got a message from Homespun magazine asking if I'd be interested in designing a project for them. I was totally chuffed!

My husband spent the night last night close to tears as his beloved blues where hammered by QLD in the state of origin. That first silly decition lost it for us, totally destroying our mojo. :)

On a stitching note, I have been trying out a new applique technique, here's the tutorial I used. All I can say is wow! I have tried needleturn so may times and always pulled it undone and ended up going with blanket stitch. But this method is sooo easy and much quicker than cutting out freezer paper and templates. My stitches aren't perfect yet, but much better than I've managed before, so I'm pretty happy with this.

Giveaway Day Winners!

Congratulations we have two winners! I used the random number generator on Random.org and the two numbers I got were number 34 and number 6. So congrats to Jbear and Ariel. I'll be emailing you shortly!
Thanks so much to everyone who visited, I hope you come back soon. Paula x

My Newest Creation! Pussy-cat Pussy-cat.

Here's my newest embroidery design. I have made it into a little pillow this time. But this little pillow holds a secret! It has a secret pocket! Perfect for a little tooth, or a treasure that your little miss wants to hide away in its own little hidy hole.

I'd love some advice, do you think people would be more interested in buying just the embroidery design or the whole patterns? Or should I offer them already made or in a kit?

I have just a few things to adjust on my secret pocket cushion pattern and it will be in my etsy shop, I'd love to know what you think.

Extra Giveaway!!

Ok I'm totally blown away by the amount of visitors and comments, so i'll definately giveaway a PDF copy of the wallhanging or the Teacup Carrier (winners choice). I'd love you to click on the follow button (I feel like I'm talking to myself alot :)) and then just say hi in the original competition post, not this one. Make sure I can contact you too. Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting! Come back soon!
Paula x

Owl Wallhanging, Giveaway Day (week) is here!

Ok so It is finally here! You're chance to win the very first Sew Little Fabric Wallhanging!!!
Designed by myself and beautifully stitched out by Lesley (my mum and co-creator of SLF) this is the very first design we are offering for sale. We will be selling the pattern as a PDF on etsy, complete with the easy to follow instructions of how to complete this cute little wallhanging, the embroidery design and colour chart. Measuring around 7 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, it looks so cute hanging from a branch. It is also a great candidate for Redwork or Blackwork and we are also working on six other co-ordinating designs, each with it's own project, that will be able to be combined into a gorgeous lap or cot quilt.

Ok so here's how to win, simple really! All we want you to do is leave us a comment telling us about the last pattern you bought and where you got it from. Thats it! Easy Peasy!


Depending on how many comments we get, we may also offer a PDF copy of the design as an extra giveaway!


Entry's will be open until the 31st of May (Australian time)and the winner will be drawn randomly on the 1st of June. We will post internationally so enter now! Good Luck!

Click here to go to our Etsy Shop!

Sneek Peek!

Here's a sneek peek at the first Sew Little Fabric embroidered wallhanging. We will be selling the pattern for this and more patterns on Etsy, and tune in, in a few days for the Sew mama Sew Giveaway! You could win this cutie pie.

Giveaway Day!!!

My absolute favourite blog ever is Sew Mama Sew, they are the place that I have found sooo many tutorials and patterns. If I need inspiration or a tutorial this is where I look.
Anyway they are having a giveaway day on May 27th and as we at Sew Little Fabric are about to launch our Etsy shop, we though that this would be a fabulous way to get some traffic to our new store, so we will be giving away one of our gorgeous new stitchery wallhangings. Featuring a cute little owl and saying this wallhanging will be the first pattern that we will be selling, also coming soon in the same series will be a coffee mug bag to take your mug to classes, a note book cover, needlecase, a gorgeous little pillow, and a lined purse. These will be available as a pattern or you can order a kit or a made to order product.
Come back soon for more details, and don't forget to check out Sew Mama Sew.