Look !

Lately all I do on here is tell you about stuff that is in Magazines

I'm hoping soon after a few big jobs are out of the way I can start playing with the blog again. I kinda miss it.

The Latest Australian Homespun Magazine is out and has one of my creations on the cover.

you can buy it here

Please note Ms 7's placement of the lego horse....... I think she has watched me set up photo shoots far too many times.

I used a Aurifil variegated blue cotton thread on my Bernina 710 to quilt it in an echo pattern. Have a look at the mag for more detailed pictures and the pattern. 

I'm off to finish writing up some patterns for more magazine stories which you should see in a few months time.......

Siobhan  Xx

All in the bag

Hope you all enjoyed your Easter long weekend - It was beautiful Autumn weather in Sydney, perfect for eating :) 

I've been making bags again.....

I'm waiting on the go ahead on some quilts and happily making myself some smaller projects and testing out some skills in the mean time.

I loved the green corduroy bag I made in my previous post and whilst admiring it I was wishing it was leather...

Then thought to myself - how cool would a leather version be with Liberty lining!

and so a week later here we have it

a leather bag with Liberty of London lining made by me - I'm a little bit over excited about this project!

I used the Amy Butler Nappy bag pattern again.

and sourced my leather from 

NSW Leather Co in Sydney, Australia

with their advice I bought some really soft sheep skins ($25 each) - I needed two to complete this bag. I went for a nubuck feel with a ostrich finish effect.

The Nappy bag pattern is cut in two whole pieces and the strap is included, If you wanted you could have more cuts/ joins to use less material. 

I was a bit impatient and dove straight into my leather sewing - I did buy a leather needle and upholstery thread. The needle was great but the thicker thread kept getting gobbled up by my machine so I switched to a polyester sewing thread instead. 

I used my standard plastic foot on my machine which seemed to work fine (although did struggle at times) and had my walking foot engaged.I own a PFAFF Expression 4, which has a built in walking foot.If you own a different type of machine it might be worth using a walking foot?

I read somewhere that a teflon foot is good for sewing leather? If I make another bag I'll look into that a little more.

I had to adjust my stitch length all the way up to 6 - I usually sew on 2.5 for piecing and around 3.5/ 4 for quilting.

Make sure you do a few practice runs on the leather off cuts first.

The lining is Liberty of London Tana Lawn - the red Liberty Fabric was bought last October 2012 in London at the Liberty store its from the seasonal Tana Lawn range.

For the inside pockets and the outside pocket I used the off cuts of Liberty Tana Lawn that I had used in the Green Corduroy bag from the last post.

Leather and Liberty!

I LOVE it :)

Have you ever sewn with Leather?

Any advice or links to your projects?

I'd love to hear from you and see what you made

Xx Siobhan 

Corduroy and Liberty

I'm on a roll!

Today I whipped together another one of Amy Butler's Nappy bag pattern (no I don't need nappy bags anymore or ever again  - I just like the pattern)

Its actually a really good camera bag and holds my SLR nicely when I'm out and about.

I used a green corduroy for the outside bought from Purl Soho and the feature fabric on the outside is a Liberty of London Tana Lawn.

I looked everywhere locally for corduroy fabric (I was actually after an olive type colour) but couldn't find any!

I also wanted the wider more heavy corduroy but this stuff worked out nicely.Its very fine, thin and soft.

The lining on the inside is two prints of Liberty of London Tana Lawn and a little bit of the green corduroy.

below you can see a picture of the bag turned inside out and the liberty fabric as the lining and the pockets.

The bag is completely reversible so I could have it any way I wanted - really it doesn't matter.

I used wadding as a lining for the pockets to help stiffen it up

 Very happy with my new bag!

I bought a few more colours of corduroy and I might make a few more variations...

Xx Siobhan 

Lost treasure

Amazing what you find when you clean up.

I've spent the last few days sorting cupboards and moving my things into the new shed - or my new house if you are talking to Miss 6yrs.

Anyway I came across two sample panels I had made over a year ago for Better Homes & Gardens magazine that never ended up being used - long story - but to do with change of colour theme etc, that sort of stuff happens a lot with lifestyle publications......

So I decided to turn them into little baby rugs and get some use out of them!

I did these a little bit like a cushion - sewing the two right sides together and then turning them through the right way. 

Doing it this way means no binding and a baggy kind of quilt. 

To keep it together I have sewn all around the edge in a 1/4 inch seam & also a bit of stitch in the ditch (which I very rarely if ever do)around the squares.

This particular one is going to a school family that have just had a baby boy & the second one will be kept in the pile ready for the next friends baby.

More treasures coming up over the week!

Xx Siobhan

Liberty strips - Part one

You will notice that most of my quilts are simple piecing, I don't have the attention span or time for complicated piecing - I love the look of complicated works! I just don't have the patience in "me" at this stage of life. 

I have busy little kids around me who at times can be demanding.

On the other hand I love craft and I love creating 

I keep a few more difficult projects on the go, I have some paper piecing and I like to hand quilt - but these get put away a lot to make way for the quick satisfying achievable ones.

Patchwork and Quilting doesn't have to be tricky maths/ calculating and piecing all the time.

This quilt is destined to belong to a new baby girl that a friend is having very soon.

A baby quilt is a good example of something that should be simple.

If it's one that you intend the family to use then it is going to be washed a million times and thrown all over the place.

I still had some 3inch strips hanging around after making my Lovely Liberty quilt a while back, and I had been hanging onto them for just the right project.

I joined 15 strips together, I could have left it at that - but I wanted it to look a bit more bitsy and antique looking.I like a good scrappy quilt.

to give me the effect I was after I then cut the quilt top into 4 inch strips, as you can see below

mixed them up a bit, I use the rule of random - what ever ends up together was meant to be! I don't worry too much about the same fabric being in a row.

I then joined it all together again! 

now it looks a bit more scrappy!

This process took me about 1 1/2 hours,in between looking at my emails and chatting to my dad. Not bad for a baby quilt top.

The fabric is lovely - which is one of the reasons the simple pattern works. Later down the track I'll try it with some solids and we can compare? I still think it would look great, but I'm curious non the less.

My backing and wadding are ready, next I'll show you how I will quilt it.

Xx Siobhan

A bit more liberty

I'm finally hopping on the circle band wagon, possibly a whole 18 months after everyone else.

I can see this being my year of the circles.....

Also mid project my sewing machine has decided to not work - Its in desperate need of a service & tinker. 

It currently sews full speed even if Im not pushing the pedal and makes an awful noise. I'm thinking maybe its possessed?? 

Its definitely telling me it needs some R&R.

Xx Siobhan

Sticking with the classics

Hi All

I've settled back to routine nicely :)

Kids back to school today & everyone cheery 

Playing with fabrics today - working out what to do next!

sometimes I get overwhelmed by my stash of fabrics and colour choices, I think thats why I always have a go to fabric.

I have no real intention of being a fabric designer, when I design and print fabrics on spoon flower the intention is usually to make a fabric that will mix n match with designer fabrics - I dub these my "classics". 

When I say classic - I mean something that will have a staying power from season to season, something that will mix with new designs - a fabric that will go with everything.

If you look at most of my quilts/ cushions - they all have a bit of my own fabrics in them.

below are some I received in the post today, 

I needed a few more colours to mix up with my stash. 

Mustard, red, turquoise, pink & grey

if you'd like to have a look they are all on my Spoonflower shop

and here we have some IKEA fabric, this is going to make some great cushion backs

Im desperate to put some of my mustard numbers & black/white/grey text fabric with the IKEA fabric - Love the combination

This matches beautifully with a new lot of Liberty fabric I picked up!

Looks like I have some sewing to do

Have a good week :)

Xx Siobhan

prep......

I'm doing some final bits and pieces for my Zig Zag workshops at Calico & Ivy Balmain

Calico & Ivy Day Work Shop

Siobhan’s Zig Zag quilt is perfect for those who have always thought that patchwork would be great, but are a little daunted by the process.

 Siobhan will take you through the process of making this large scale quilt in a day, selecting the fabrics, cutting and beginning to piece your quilt top, leaving you with the confidence to complete the top at home. Classes are small, so you will enjoy lots of one on one time with Siobhan. Sewing machine necessary.

Thursday August 18 

10.00am - 2.00pm $75.00 (materials not included)

Thursday September 1 

10.00am - 2.00pm $75.00 (materials not included)

Still some space if your interested :)




XxSiobhan

Home

Holy roly, me, oh my, you’re the apple of my eye.

I've been stuck at home for over a week! I've

 had a bit of an old man cough and trying to

 rest up - sleeping mostly so not much has been

 going on in the creative department, thanks to

 my third lot of antibiotics I'm almost back to

 myself...almost

No your eyes haven't gone - I forgot to turn the auto focus on :) but I liked the colour and movement. 

 here is what it should look like actually focused.

 I still think it looks like the entry way floor to a big old beautiful house

53 x 37 inches

I used my Pride & Prejudice fabric that I designed and printed on spoonflower and my left over bits of Liberty of London fabric that I had from my previous Quilt.

I used my full 1 yard of fabric in the pride & prejudice fabric.

Its a bright little quilt - I think it would be a lovely addition anywhere, but maybe a cot or stroller blanket or rug to play on?

Very easy to whip up.

It would look fantastic as a Big persons Quilt! 

Now I just have to work out how to Quilt it?

Below I have some surplus & with being busy & having a few projects on the go I know I'm not going to use them.

I'm going to give them away :)

Leave a comment in this post, 

Ill leave it open till Sat 28th May 10pm Australian Eastern Standard Time.

please make sure you make a comment with an email address so that I can contact you if you win the fabric.

There have been some beautiful mini quilts and hand made sewing kits on lots of blogs which would look so pretty with these little bits of fabric.

This is it - all together, lots of pretty liberty and Pride & Prejudice fabric

eight 5 X 5 inch squares in Liberty and Text 

 & lots of little mini triangles (around 2.5 inch X 3.5 inch) in Liberty & Text fabric.

Did anyone guess my song reference ? 
- Ed Sharpe

XxSiobhan