All Things Lovely

Tote Bag Gifts And Wrapping

Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was lovely. Mine was busy but fun. The weather was so horrible here in Sydney, so not many fun outdoor activities.

I've been away from blogging for so long that I'm about to show you something I made for Christmas 2011. Yep, 2011. I love making a small gift for my close girlfriends each year. Half the fun is dreaming up what to make about twenty of.

Inspired by the beautiful tote bags made by the talented people at The Purl Bee (side note, that blog is so lovely! I want to make everything!) I decided to make up a bunch of their great 20 minute tote bags for Christmas gifts. Using home decorator weight fabric from my favourites; Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry and Amy Butler, I whipped them up. Well, whipped is probably not the word! They took me a bit longer than 20 minutes, but once you get on a roll you can get them churned out pretty quickly.

When it comes to wrapping gifts, I'm incredibly fussy and I really prefer to wrap things in boxes! I couldn't find any cheap enough, so ended up sucking up my OCD and wrapping everything in brown paper bags. Much cheaper!! Plus I actually loved the look. It's amazing what a brown paper bag, doily and some string can do.

Are you a handmade gift person? I love seeing people get all excited about it, and especially seeing them using their bag, makes it very special.

A Little iPad Cover Tutorial

I feel like I've finally caught up with a large percentage of the modern world, and entered the land of iPad ownership. I'm pretty excited and a little in love with Ivan...my iPad.

Ivan needed a little home to live in, so of course I thought I would quickly DIY a cover for it. Inspired by this iPad sleeve here, I came up with this. It's so easy so follow along if you'd like to make one too. 

Start off with some wool felt. I just used some of the leftover felt I had from my MacBook cover that I made last year. I also used a crochet doily that I picked up from Spotlight, a couple of white buttons, some velcro and yellow thread.

Cut out your pieces of felt. My top piece is 21.5cm wide and 24.5 cm high. The bottom piece is 21.5cm wide and 35cm high, to make room for the little flap.

I used a bit of spray glue, and then sewed my doily onto the back piece of the cover. Lay it out however you want. For mine I only wanted half the doily.

Once I'd sewn and glued it on, I trimmed around the edge to neaten it all up.

OK, now we're getting somewhere. To add a bit of interest to the front of my cover, I thought I would make a scalloped edge for the top. The easiest way I found was to mark the centre of my cover so the scallops would line up perfectly on both sides. Confession: first time I didn't do it and it looked horrible. My flap is not quite as long as originally planned because I cut it off and did it again!

Then using a reel of cottn and a Sharpie, mark out the scallops on the wrong side of your felt, so any marks won't be seen.

Then cut them out, and you'll be left with a cute little scalloped edge.

Next up is to sew some velcro on so that nothing slips out. You can use little press studs if you want, but I find velcro really easy to use. I just sewed a little rectangle on. Make sure you use cotton that blends!

Once that's done you can sew the two pieces together. I used one of the fancy blanket stitched on my machine to do this as I thought it would help the doily on the back stay together and not fray too much. You can use any stitch you want really, just make it sturdy.

I have to admit, I wish I hadn't of stitched around the scalloped edge now, but you live and learn right? Maybe I'll just make another one later. Once you've sewn it together, put your iPad inside and line up where to sew the other piece of velcro.

I decided to then sew some buttons on just for a bit more visual interest, and then because I'm currently in a mustard yellow obsession, I tied some cotton around so it does up like an envelope.

I'm kind of in love....

How To Make An Australian Quilt

I've finally made my first quilt! To the joy of my mum who is a quilting queen. I just went with something very simple for the first go, but I'm so happy with it. A simple brick pattern, each square made up of six rectangles.

I agonised for months over my fabric choice, and eventually settled on pretty much the entire range of Dolce, by Tanya Whelan. It's so beautiful isn't it? I know this will probably offend real quilters who delight in picking out their fabrics, but because beautiful fabric is so expensive in Australia, I prefer to buy online and it's just easier to know everything matches!

As a little nod to my mum and her style of quilting, I included a little pink 'peeper' between the main quilt and the border. I really like how it breaks the colour up without standing out too much.

The wonderful lady who did the quilting used an aqua cotton so it can just be seen, with a lovely squiggly pattern for the edge, and a flower pattern for the main body of the quilt.

Uh oh....I think I've now got the quilting bug!

Time To Quilt

OK, I know in Australia we're in the midst of summer, and a very very hot one at that. But, because I take time to do everything I'm starting to plan the quilt I want to make this year.

My winter theme colours for the lounge room are based on Joel Dewberry's Aviary fabric in bark. Beautiful browns, creams, oranges etc So I'd love to use all these fabrics and more for my quilt.

Image from Sew Good Fabrics

As this is my very first quilt, I turned to some of the best for inspiration as to what style I will make. These are some of my favourites, starting with Amy Butler.

And the lovely Heather Bailey

And some beautiful quilts from Joel Dewberry fabrics

And last but very much not least, beautiful quilts by Lisa Manoglesby. I absolutely love the edging she does on her quilts, it's a small touch but makes such an impact.

My Cottons Have A Home

How cute is this? I needed something to store all my reels of cotton on, and I found a wonderful seller on eBay who makes cotton reel holders! I bought mine unvarnished, and painted it with some leftover wall paint samples I had. It's perfect, and so handy!

Pretty Little Cushion

Just to dress up my new chair, I thought I'd make a pretty little cushion to sit on it. Using my absolute favourite fabric from Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room collection, I made this cushion. I love this fabric, there is so much going on in it.

To make it a bit interesting I cut it up and just sewed some of my favourite bits together, of course the beautiful bird had to be a feature.

The Cushions Are Done!

I am so thrilled to have these out of the way. I wrote myself a massive 'To Do' list for the past few days. I took two days off work and it was bliss. So, cross at least one thing off the list. Although 'Fully clean the house' might have to wait a bit!

I've ended up making three of these, I have another two seater lounge, so the third is on that. Yay, the winter colour scheme is finally coming together! next up I'd like to recover a light shade and make a brighter table runner for my coffee table... all in good time, they're not on the To Do list yet.

Tiny Sneak Peek

I'm getting ready to launch my brand spanking new Etsy shop! More details in the coming days, but I thought I'd just give you a sneak peak into one of the items I'll be selling - retro style food carriers. Just what you need when you're off to a pot luck dinner or picnic.

The Laundry Is Finally Finished!

Even though I didn't actually do much at all, this seemed to take weeks! It started here, and then I decided I didn't like any of the fabric choices, so I went with Fresh Poppies by Amy Butler, from the new Midwest Modern range. My first attempt with the curtains turned out far too poofy, so I toned it back and I think I'm happy now. I'm still getting used to walking in there and having something up on the window. So here are the new curtains!

This is the full look of the laundry, including my little fabric covered canvas 'L' that I finished a couple of weeks ago. I think it goes OK, but if anyone has other suggestions I'd love to hear them!

And this is the wall decal from Elephannie that I have next to the door, so you see it as you walk out. I didn't quite get it applied right, it's missing a lot of blossoms off the trees! I'm tossing up whether to take it off and buy another one the same. We'll see...

One Cushion Down...

I've been sewing my little heart out lately, and finally turned my attention to sewing something for my home. After absolutely falling in love with this fabric collection, and convincing myself I could like orange, I went ahead and sewed a cushion for my loungeroom.

It turned out to be a little more fiddly than I anticipated, only because I hadn't bothered making a pattern or doing anything smart like that. Cut and sew is kind of my style! I've lined it all in a light calico, as the sparrow fabric in particular is quite light. I've used the darker brown as the backing as well as a small feature at the front, and a zip is sewn in the bottom of the cushion cover. I need to make 2 more, but this was a good start. They're actually smaller than I thought, oh well! I think they go well with the standard chocolate suede cushions I use on my lounge all the time.

When I get my new furniture at the end of June/early July I'll take a photo of the whole lounge setup. At the moment, it looks like a bomb has gone off.

New Cushion Time

I've got quite a neutral loungeroom, the walls are a latte colour with a feature wall in a darker brown that really isn't much of a feature. Ooops. My lounge is also a deep chocolate brown, which is all wonderful as it allows me to bring in feature colours and change the look easily, and most importantly, cheaply.

At the moment my feature colour is teal, I have teal cushions and some teal bowls and other things. For winter, I think I'd like to do more of an orange feature colour. This is a huge step for me, as I really have not been a fan of orange! However, I've seen it in a lot of fabrics and other things recently, and it's swayed me. Plus, I figure I'm only spending about $40 for fabrics for the cushions, so if it looks dreadful, it's not a disaster.

Which brings me to this post. I've just ordered this fabric. What do you think of this layout for some cushions? Is it too much, not enough, just right? Opinions would be great, to help me second guessing myself!

It's from my new favourite designer, Joel Dewberry, mainly from the Aviary line. I love it! The colours are slightly off because of the computer images, but you get the general idea.

Future Sewing Projects

Recently the most wonderful book arrived in the post for me, which I've mentioned before on this blog - Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. I was so excited to receive it, but now I've managed to add to my list of things I want to make about 5 extra things, in the space of about 2 minutes. You know when there is so much you want to do, but so much else in the way? Anyway, I thought I'd share with you some of the beautiful projects in this that I'm hoping to make in the future.

I am in love with this little elephant, I think she will make a perfect present for little Kirrilly.

Then of course, there are the birds from the front cover of the book. I might leave these until later in the year and make some for my Christmas tree. Or, I'll make some earlier!

I also love this pencil holder, I'm wondering if it would be OK for a 3 year old, or maybe a bit too much?

And how cute are these pincushions? The bonus being you can use several fabrics with them.

And last, but not least. These cute and simple bags. I love how they look with the Amy Butler fabric.