There's a club for that!

It seems I'm not the only person obsessed with Tilda....in fact, there's a whole community of people worldwide who love anything and everything created by Tone Finnegar and her team at Tilda. Who knew? 😀

You can imagine my joy when I discovered that there's even a Tilda Club! It's a bi-monthly subscription, and you receive a pack FULL of Tilda goodness. I receive mine through my local quilt shop, Care2Create in Woodvale, WA....a must-visit if you're ever in the area.

I signed up immediately, and received my first pack late last year. It contained some pins, fabrics, and a pattern to make a tablerunner....such pretty colours!

The top was finished at a retreat I attended in December, but I pulled it out recently and finished it off.

I kept the quilting simple...just echoed around the main shapes and along the pink lengthwise strips. It's even reversible!

 The binding, of course, was my least favourite part of the whole process, but being so small, was knocked over in no time.

The February edition has just landed at my house, and contains some gorgeous buttons, and a pattern for a lovely cushion using the new range, Bumblebee.

Now to find a spare hour or two to make a start!

TTFN

Susan xxx

Tilda Bunny

The internet is full of great FREE patterns. 

In fact, you could almost type in any article that you'd like to make, and you'll probably find a freebie (and possibly a YouTube video) showing you how to make it :)

The Tilda website is one of my favourites....not surprisingly 😉  Not only does it have the latest Tilda catalogue to swoon over, but there are lots of free patterns for quilts, soft toys, and other bits and pieces. Well worth a look!

This precious little bunny is a free pattern, and was quite a simple (but very fiddly) little project to make. Yes, she is sitting inside an actual eggshell inside an actual eggcup.

My plan was to make several to give away as small gifts at Easter, but after making just two of those teeny, tiny ears I will definitely be re-thinking that!

TTFN

Susan xxx

Pixie Stars

Another finish for my Year of Small Projects, and the first for #2017sewingbookchallenge...YAY!

As I outlined before, the idea behind the challenge is to make things from your craft books, instead of just collecting them (oops...guilty!)  I chose a Tilda book (since that is my current obsession) but totally balked at actually cutting Tilda fabric for a small project...it's so precious!

The cushion matches a single bed quilt, but I wasn't feeling quite that adventurous.

As it happened, it turned out to be more the size of a European pillow than a cushion! The fabric is Pixie Noel by Tasha Noel, and it was very VERY hard restraining myself to only red and green. The navy and aqua prints are just gorgeous.

I find Tilda instructions a bit tricky to follow, and there wasn't much in the way of finishing instructions, so I just winged it. I made some striped piping out of the co-ordinating red/green stripe, which finished it off nicely....reminds me of candy canes :)

I possibly made it more time-consuming than it needed to be by layering and quilting the cushion top, but the texture was totally worth it!

The characters in this fabric are way too cute! If you look carefully at the finished cushion, you'll see I've also fussy cut lots of little kissing rabbits for the small green squares :)

 It's going to be hard putting this one away until next Christmas....but that's what you get when you make Christmas projects so early in the year I guess!

The dogs hardly batted an eyelid while I was taking the photos....it's a hard life!

Have a great day, and thanks for popping in.

TTFN
Susan xxx

Foxley Village

Tilda fabrics by Tone Finnegar became my obsession at around this time last year 😀

Prior to the release of the Pardon My Garden and Spring Diaries collections, I only had a passing interest in the fabrics...I liked them, but not enough to buy more than a random fat quarter here and there. As soon as I saw the new collections, though, I was hooked!

Candy pink, turquoise, oranges and greens, all in the most delicious little prints...I couldn't resist!
Unlike most fabric that I buy, I felt the need to cut into it immediately. This was about the time that the Homespun magazine Block Of the Month was released...Foxley Village by Natalie Bird. Her version was made in two previous Tilda ranges, but the oranges in Spring Diaries were all kinds of perfect for a quilt with a fox as the focal point!

I didn't need much convincing to bite into yet another BIG project.

Totally in love with the large scale blue floral... I featured it in Block One.

 Block Two saw the first appearance of the adorable fox, sitting on top of the Tea Shoppe...WAY TOO CUTE!

After auditioning a few different colours for the cat, I went with black polkadots (SURPRISE!) A project of mine is just not complete without polkadots :) and he stands out quite well amongst all those busy florals.

Block Three took a little longer...satin stitch is a bit more time consuming, but well worth the effort.

The middle block (Block Four) is one that I played with quite a bit before settling on the final colours...it's the centre of the quilt, and really needed to pull all the colours together.

Right now I'm putting a few finishing touches to Block Five, and have cut out Block Six ready for stitching and assembling.

Only ten parts to the whole quilt, so I'm really hoping to see a finish on this one in the next couple of months....unless I get distracted with all the other projects I have in progress ;)

Are you working on Foxley Village too? I'd love to see what you're up to, especially if you've finished!

Have a great day
TTFN

Susan :)

A Year Of Small Projects

I am a lover of BIG projects. The bigger the better, usually.

If a project runs over several months (block-of-the-months are so much fun!), or over a year or more (love me a good stitch-a-long!), then chances are I'm already signed up and smack-bang in the middle of it.

The only problem really, is that it's quite rare for me to actually finish anything. I have lots and lots of projects on the go, but that wonderful feeling of completion is elusive.

Until recently....

 ....just before last Christmas, actually, when I decided to stitch up a cushion each for two of my dearest friends. I had been working on the stitchery for about 6 months, using a beautiful Cottage Garden Thread stitched on a Rosalie Dekker stitchery design.

I pieced and quilted a background from Lucy's Crab Shack fabric by Sweetwater, and attached the circular design by machine (it always feels so much sturdier than hand stitching).

The back panel feature is a few leftover fabric squares, with a hand-embroidered Tilda quilt label...I LOVE those labels!

The cushion turned out just as I had imagined in my head, and was so quick to put together! 

My mojo was on fire (lol) so I pulled out another completed stitchery, and whipped up another Christmas cushion....OH MY GOODNESS!

That feeling of finishing something (and actually packing away all the leftover bits and pieces) was kind of euphoric, and totally motivating!

As the new year rolled around, I decided to aim for that "finished" feeling more often, and my YEAR OF SMALL PROJECTS was born :)

My first project : a zippy hobby bag designed by the talented girls of Sew-a-long, Claire Turpin and Jemima Flendt.

Finished in an afternoon, and such a great size!

 Of course, my eldest daughter requested one immediately, and there are another two on my craft desk just waiting to be sewn up.

I then stumbled across a hashtag on Instagram #2017sewingbookchallenge, which involves sewing some items from craft books that you already own. Luckily for me, I do have the odd one or two ;)

Tilda's Toy Box was my choice, and I even pulled out some lovely Tilda fabrics to make a start on the cushion in the bottom right corner.

Currently crushing on anything Tilda, and just couldn't bring myself to actually cut it. 😳
I did, however, cut some Pixie Noel fabric, and am currently putting the finishing touches to a very pretty cushion.

A year of small projects...this is already lots of fun!

Thank you so much for visiting. I know it's been a while (ok, a very long while) since I've shared anything in this space, but I'd like to think I might pop back in a bit more often in 2017. Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your comments, or even just leave me one to say hi and let me know if you're still blogging....I miss catching up with everyone's news and creativity!

TTFN
Susan xx

P.S. And the other cushion, for my other dear friend?

This is what was wrapped up for her (OMG) and it is currently STILL a work-in-progress. Watch this space 😆