Puggle Patch

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Marine scrappy

What do you make a dear friend, a guy buying his first house and a beach house at that? A quilt of course with a masculine vibe.

Mr Marine has oft admired a scrappy light n dark I throw over my couch so I grabbed the pattern from mum and knocked one out for him featuring mostly navy and green fabrics suiting his interests and travels - marine biology, fishing, Canada, Africa, Thailand. A big thank you to the quilters store for digging out their fishing range! The quilting is meandering but sort of looks like coral, appropriately!

Here's the work in progress. It's a simple enough block and the optical effect comes from the way you turn them. But of a nightmare until you get your groove.

Whoops! Looked right up close!

Damned machine naturally jammed with 1/5 to go!

And the finished product

With its slightly crazy recipient

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Roll her Coaster

So I'm back at my day job and we have a new policy of no waste at your desk. I've been in this situation with previous employers and it's a great environmental scheme. You do tend to recycle more paper when it's hard to throw it out but it does mean nowhere to dispose of teabags conveniently.

As a tea officionado, I like tea strong, or as my mother says, "string enough to stand a fork in it". As such I tend to leave my teabag in for awhile which inevitably drip as the string soaks up the liquid and down the side. The result... tea rings!

So needing a bit of crafty respite from my work week, I whipped up a couple of coasters to solve the problem.

I knocked a scrappy one out using the remnants of half square triangles from a precious project (see Chevron Quilt).

Then tried something new! A big shout out to Totallystichin.net for the tute and From the Blue Chair for help with hexies! http://www.fromthebluechair.com/2012/08/tutorial-cutting-accurate-hexagons.html?m=1

Here's my practice one using scraps...

It was actually so easy that I wish I'd gone straight to the designer fabrics!

Sunday, February 21, 2016

This old thing?

So I've become obsessed with watching Dawn O'Porter's This Old Thing on ABC2. Inspired, I realised I have a lovely FCUK dress I wish was longer.

Since I've been doing more sewing in the years since my first dress making attempts (fails) I felt confident I could take a bash at it.

The hem had an extra piece behind it to line it. This was 3.5in wide, perfect for lengthening in the same pretty print fabric!!

Then I hit my stash and found some navy silk from a previous project! This became my new lining of the hem and became a nice little peak of feature when I'm sitting.

I also fixed the sash loops and a small gap in the side seam where the stitches came loose.

Check it out! Much more ladylike.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Made by Grandjen

So I'm back at my day job so haven't had much time to do any sewing. But I just had to share this project of my mothers with you! It's an activity book handmade by her for little Dash's first birthday. She made me one when I was a baby, but I think she outdid herself this time as the concepts are pretty much her own!