My First Quilt Finish of the Year!

Simple baby quilts are just the best!!

This one was a request from friends of friends. It is made up of sixty four 5" finished squares of organic cotton prints taken from my stash. Oddments left over from previous projects.

I was careful to arrange them so they faced all different directions.
I love those animals!

The backing is not organic, but it picks out the orange and deep turquoise colours quite nicely I think.

I debated how to quilt it for quite a while. I wanted something modern, and I didn't want to quilt too heavily. I wanted it to stay nice and soft and drapey. In the end I settled on a chevron pattern with 1" spacing.

I made 2 bibs and 2 burp cloths to match. Again made with organic cotton. The towelling backing is a mixture of bamboo and organic cotton, which I have used before and I know dries quickly. Need to keep these items practical as well as decorative!

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment, but they're all long term, slow sewing things. It was nice to have a quick finish!

Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton - A Review

                           

A few years ago I became very interested in trying to use organic cotton whenever I could. At the time there were several yarn companies producing a fairly impressive range of organic cotton yarns, but very few fabric companies had taken the plunge at that time and their range of designs was very limited. 

Over the last few years the tide seems to have changed completely. You can now easily buy organic cotton fabric in a wide range of types and a mulitide of designs, but several of the yarn manufacturers that initially started an organic line have discontinued them. 

To the best of my knowledge Debbie Bliss Eco Baby is the only one remaining from those early days.

I can't even begin to guess at the reasons for this, but it has meant that whilst my stash of organic cotton yardage continues to grow and be used, my yarn organic yarn stash is now almost totally used up.

So a few months ago I tried really hard to find some new organic cotton yarn supplies. 

I purchased a few and today I shall review the first one that I found - Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton

Knit on 3.75mm needles I achieved a double knit tension of 22sts to a 4" square 

It comes as a 65 gram skein and is hand wash only. 

At £12.25 a skein it is definitely a luxury yarn.

There are 22 colours to choose from, and the shades are modern.

I chose to use Squash (shade no. 306)

Both the cost and the hand wash criteria made me hesitate for a while, but I'm glad I took the plunge and tested this yarn.

I can honestly say is a dream to knit with - and I don't think I've ever said that about a yarn before! It is so, so soft and did not make my hands ache, which some cotton yarns do. It did not split at all, gave brilliant stitch definition, and held it's shape well

I think that the hand wash only factor would be a deterrent for some knitters if they wanted to use this yarn for baby items. Babies are prone to a lot of unpredictable spewing, after all!

In my experience, however, mothers who want to avoid traditionally grown cotton close to their baby's skin are quite prepared to trade a little hand washing for the knowledge that their baby is not being exposed to unnecessary chemicals.

The pattern is Sirdar 1238 from the booklet Cosy Little Knits.
The model in the top photo is my grandson!

Would I use this yarn again?  Yes! Most definitely - provided I knew the recipient appreciated organic cotton and was prepared to hand wash their garment.
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And Baby Makes Three

I am super excited to say that my first grandchild has arrived!  Oscar David was born last week and I've flown over to meet him. Needless to say I think he's adorable! But then I'm sure every Nana thinks the same when their grandchildren are born.

I've been busy sewing and knitting for him for the last few months, and when I arrived he was dressed entirely in Nana made clothing.

The blanket is organic wool that I bought years ago, and my own design. The hat is organic cotton interlock from The Village Haberdashery. It's one of manyI've made! They are so quick and easy to make.

He also has several pairs of pants from the same fabric. The pattern is from an old Ottobre magazine. I'm so glad I purchased a few of these magazines when I saw them. They are going to be so useful over the next few years.

I knitted him several tops, but omitted to photograph them. Here's one I did take a picture of.

Once again its my own design and is knitted from Debbie Bliss Eco Cotton.

Every baby I knit for always gets a hat knitted from my Logan Pattern, and this one was no exception!

I made all the crib bedding from organic cotton percale sheeting from The Organic Textile Company

and finally I made him a hooded bath towel. 

Towelling is also from The Organic Textile Company

Of course, I have ideas for many more things I want to make him, but right now it's just time for cuddles and to enjoy watching my son and daughter-in-law do a wonderful job of looking after him!

A Quilt Finish!

It's a finish! My Hazel Hedgehog quilt for Siblings Together is finally all done. I'm kind of sad, it was such fun to make, and got such a lot of lovely comments here on my blog and on Instagram. But now I can send this, along with the other two I have, off to Siblings Together to be handed out at their summer camps, and I can move on to all the other hundred and one things in my head!
There was no chance of an outdoor photo. We've had gale force wind and a hail storm yesterday! but I think you can see it OK on this bed.

I quilted it with wavy lines from top to bottom....nice and easy and no ends to sew in.

Fortunately I had just enough of some of the fabric scraps left over from the hedgehogs to make a scrappy binding. The backing fabric is Lime Twist Harlequin by Makower which I bought at a recent visit to the Sewing for Pleasure and Hobbycrafts Show at the NEC Birmimgham. Its such a lovely fabric and very useful for backings. I wish I had bought more of it.

I also have another finish to share this week (Two in one week must be a record for me!)
Its this "Little Zippy Pouch" from Quilt Now magazine volume 9.
Sonia from fabricandflowersuk kindly hosted a Sew Along for this pouch on Instagram, which was great fun to follow. Its the perfect size for all my paper piecing paraphernalia, so was put to good use right away.

I used only organic fabrics. The patterned fabrics are Wildwood by Cloud9 and the solids are Cirrus solids again by Cloud9

Linking up with Work In Progress Wednesday and Lets Bee Social

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter

Julie

Bunting for Baby Connie

Ten days ago a very precious baby was born into our family - Connie Hope. Her heart had not grown properly and her young parents knew there was a long road ahead of them. Despite being shifted from one hospital to another, and waiting a long time for the first operation, this little girl had her first major heart surgery yesterday, and all went as planned.

As soon as she was born, I set to work making some bunting for her. I pulled all my favourite organic fabrics and chose the colours I knew her Mum and Dad would love. Fortunately, when I saw them at Christmas, they had told me the colours of the nursery, so I knew which ones to pick. I didn't have the right organic solid for the lettering, so I had to choose some Sketch that went well. A little disappointing for me, I would have loved it to be entirely organic, but that will be the very last thing on their minds right now!

I had a fun day cutting and fusing the letters.

Sewing them in place with a zig zag stitch

and adding the tape.

I made two separate strings as Constance is so much longer than Hope, and it just wouldn't balance well if I joined it all together.

I also made the strings ridiculously long !!

They will spend the next month in a guest room provided by the hospital, whilst little Connie recovers in intensive care. I'm guessing it's not a very homely looking place, so this is something to brighten the room and remind them that she is not far away. When they get home, they can shorten the ties to suit wherever they hang it.

This little girl still has a long road ahead of her, but hopefully I'm going to be able to make a lot more items for her in the future.

I have a tutorial for making the bunting here

Precious

A precious gift set for a precious baby!

I managed to get these finished in good time, after all. The set comprises a swaddling blanket:

A burp cloth:

A traditional bib:

and a bandana style bib:

These are made entirely from organic cotton with organic flannel on the reverse of the blanket and an organic cotton/bamboo blend on the back of the bibs and burp cloth.

I blogged about the making of the traditional bib here.

I chose the word precious for a very special reason. This set is a Christmas gift for my niece, who is expecting her first baby in February. It's the first baby in the family and we're all very excited. At her second scan, however, it was found that this little one is not growing how we would have hoped. The simplest way to describe it is to say that her heart has developed back to front. From the moment  she is born, she will have to stay a very, very long time in hospital whilst they operate to try to put her heart to rights. She will need many operations as she grows.

I pondered for a long time, trying to decide what would be an apt gift for this very precious little girl.

Hospitals are wonderful places that perform life saving miracles for many, but for a new mum, they are not home. The more things of her own that this little one can be wrapped in during her long stay in hospital, the more comfortable and comforted my niece and her husband will feel. There will be chemicals a-plenty surrounding this little baby, most of them life saving, but the fewer there are in the cloth in contact with her skin, the better in my opinion.

So, hopefully with this little set, they will be able to swaddle her, cuddle her, nestle and feed her, knowing there is some nice organic goodness, right close by. I'm sure they'll need no reminding just how precious she is, but it's embroidered there, right on her bib, just to take care of any low moments that come along in the difficult weeks and months ahead.

I can't wait to see their faces when they open this on Boxing Day. I'm already planning a great many more items, but I'll gift them one at a time, as and when they're needed. (after all, it's a good excuse to buy more organic cotton!!)

As luck would have it, the topic for this month's challenge over at le-challenge is "precious", so I'm definitely linking up today!!

A Gift Set for a Precious Baby

I have been busy cutting into my stash of organic cotton. Oh happy me !! I'm making Christmas gifts for my niece who is expecting her first child at the beginning of February. First up is the receiving blanket, which I have finished.

It's 27"x35' and has two layers - The top is part of the organic Safari Soiree range by Birch Fabrics. That fluorescent looking red is really a coral colour. It was such a dark day when I took this photo I had to do some serious adjusting, which has distorted the colours somewhat!

The base is also organic. It's brushed cotton, which will be lovely and soft and cosy and warm against a newborn's skin.

We know the baby is going to be a girl, but my niece does't want a pink overload, so I thought these giraffes were perfect. I have a bit of a thing for giraffes anyway, and the heart shaped trees are so cute, I couldn't resist choosing this fabric.

I shall be making some burp cloths to match, and I'm part way through making a bib. The top half of the bib is solid white organic cotton and the bottom will be the giraffe fabric.

I typed the word "precious" into a Word document, printed it off and then traced it onto the fabric using a water erasable pen.

I'm embroidering it with a simple back stitch using a coral pink thread.

If I did this again, I would work the embroidery before I cut out the neck shaping of the bib. I had to be very, very careful not to distort the fabric as I secured it in the embroidery hoop.

I've deliberately cut the strip of fabric for the bottom so that I can make the seam line along the top of the green bunting, and if it works like I want it to, and I don't mess it up (!!), the grey heart tree will be in the centre of the bib. 

That's the plan, anyway.

The embroidery is done, so hopefully this will be finished in the next couple of days. It is my entry for Le Challenge  - a monthly challenge which accepts any kind of handcrafted items. This month's theme is "Precious" and the challenge date is the 15th. The items do have to be finished ones to count though, so I'd better get a wriggle on !!

Linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

A Quilt Finish!

Yay! I have another quilt finish! This one grew from an idea I had whilst making this strip for the Strip Sewing Bee that I'm part of. 

The blocks were fun to make, but there was always the concern in the back of my mind that if I wasn't 100% accurate they wouldn't match up very easily. So I made the blocks using 2 charm packs from the same line, trimmed them and sashed them so that took all the worries about lack of accuracy away. 

I love the contrast of the grey sashing. I think it's Kona Mid Grey.

Crawling about on the floor, pin basting the sandwich was NOT fun in the 30 degrees heat we have at the moment. It became my own personal hot yoga studio!!

But sitting in the shade, hand sewing the back of the binding was sheer delight!

It will serve as a quilt in the guest bedroom until my Swoon is finished.

Quilt back is organic cotton by Nancy Mims from the Free to Grow line. It's no longer available unfortunately. I've had mine a good while and it was a great match for this quiilt.

The binding is also organic - just a solid aqua.

I've written up the pattern, and added it to my Craftsy store

Details: Used:  2 charm packs (Honey Honey by Moda), Kona snow for background and cornerstones,  

              Kona mid-grey for sashing.

              Quilted with straight line quilting 1/4" away from either side of the sashing

              and each diagonal seam line.

              Finished size: 57" x 66"

Granny Square Blanket

I have so, so enjoyed making this Granny Square blanket as part of my 2013 Stash Buster project for Greenfields Africa It is made entirely of organic cotton, so not only is it going to a good cause, it's good for the environment too.! I often talk about the rhythm of the stitch being just like yoga, and this was so true in this case.
I keep really tiny pieces of cotton yarn - and I mean really tiny!

I'm not totally crackers - being cotton, they are good for little bits of bold embroidery on children's clothes, pencil cases etc where you don't want anything too fine, just some eye catching stitches.

But as this is stash busting time, they were the start of the grannies.

Next came the slighlty bigger oddments, the sort of size that most people hold on to.







and finally the larger balls.

And then of course the large balls become small balls, and the small balls become tiny balls and so the blissful rhythm carries on, and we have have one calm, collected, wonderfully relaxed Julie!

I had great fun experimenting with colours - putting together shades that I wouldn't normally risk putting together, without asking a few people's opinion - red and pink, for instance.....

I played around with the finished squares, seeing which combinations made me happiest (no stressing,... just play!)

The off white that I had for the outer two rows of each granny, wasn't all of the same shade, which is probably a good job as far as Greenfields is concerned, or I would have wanted to keep this blanket for myself.

I struggled to find enough of the same weight cotton for the border, but I'm happy enough with it.

It's one useful, eco friendly blanket that I wouldn't have made if it wasn't for this challenge, and I really want to make another one before the year is up.

 

Onto other things - it was Mother's Day here in the UK, yesterday and we had a lovely family walk in the Lickey Hills

It was cold and snowing slightly, but it was really good to spend some time out of doors.

 

Finally, I want to tell you about a new feature I'm starting here on my blog, this week. I'm calling it Wishful Wednesday and basically it's a round up of what I wish I had time to make in the week, if I had all the time in the world! There will be a bit of knitting, sewing, quilting... anything that I really would like to make. There will be lots of pictures, info on where to get the patterns and what my fabric or colour choices would be. Hopefully a lot of inspiration to get everyone's creativity jump started.