Crafty As L

Last year, I joined a local textiles group.   We meet once a month and usually have a speaker or we take a project we’re working on plus some finished projects for “ Show & Tell”.   Each year, they run a Travelling Books scheme.   Each participant has their own A5 -sized book which is passed around the group of six ladies and each month a new piece of textile art is added to the book.   Since I was new to the group, I had also to make a bag for the book to travel in, plus I could decorate the front of the book too. First, I made my bag using some lovely cat print fabric.   I used my embroidery attachment on my machine to embroider my name before assembling the bag the same as I did here . Next, for the front cover.   I had kept the off-cuts from my festive table runner so I sewed them together to make a mini-quilt and edged it with binding.   To decorate it, I stamped the images from Visible Image Destination Unknown onto white cotton backed...

I borrowed the title of this post from Only Connect, a UK game show that in our house is addictive but largely impossible.   We get very excited if we get one question right in the entire show!   I bought the Heart of a Lion pattern for this quilt from Etsy and it was my first go at a Foundation Paper Piecing.   It was a baptism of fire and I had a few moments when I thought I’d just chuck it into the UFO (unfinished objects) box, never again to see the light of day.   However, I persisted, finding a way that worked for me, and I’m so glad I did. The pattern came with three size options so I chose the largest as I though that would be the easiest for a beginner.   After printing out all the pages on thin paper (I found this  paper on Amazon and the reviews said it was perfect for FPP), I then trimmed and assembled them.   I used the guide sheet and coloured pencils to indicate which colours were applicable to each section. Each section is num...

My friend and I were going to visit Dougie, one of the veterans from Project 71, and he kindly lets us stay in his static caravan, which is in a glorious position mere metres from the coast just outside Cardiff.   We like to make his something as a thank you and this time we decided to make a cushion.   Each of us would make a side, not disclosing what we’d made until it was finished. Dougie sometimes stays with us when he comes back for events so I decided my side would reflect what he gets at our house, namely cats and music.      He used to have cats and enjoys playing with ours and he also likes to listen to me playing the organ.   I bought the Four Cats Quilt Block pattern from Etsy but each of the finished blocks were too big so I had to redraw them to get the block to be 15” finished size.   I added the seam allowance and cut out each template. The first step was to make the intertwined tails by starting with the small squares. Next, t...