Linen and Liberty Love!

Posted on 12 June, 2016 by patchworkfairy

It’s no secret I love linen and Liberty so what better combination for a quick make the morning we were going on holiday! I’m one of those people who needs water wherever I go – even in the UK – so I can’t imagine being without it abroad in hot weather 😓😓

Well it’s easy to take a water bottle with you but not so easy to carry it when you’re sight seeing with a small lightweight handbag. I knew we were going away months in advance but somehow I left it till the day we were travelling to the airport hotel to start creating a bottle carrier! Nothing like time running out to get the creative mind in gear pretty quick.

So here it is – and it worked very well. The ribbon came wrapped round the linen fat quarter bundle and made a comfy and quick carrying strap for over one shoulder. It’s so light I didn’t even notice it was there most of the time

Bottle carrier for my purple Chilli Bottle!

The trim is a couple of Liberty scraps machine appliquéd on!

Linen Water Carrier

On holiday I had bottled water bought locally but I’ve since I’ve come home I’ve bought a handbag size Chilli Water Bottle. This lightweight bottle is like a thermos flask inside and keeps your water as cold as when it was put in there, for many hours. It’s a brilliant little bottle and saves money as I now buy large bottles of water and keep them in the ‘fridge for decanting into my Chilli Bottle. If your tap water is pleasant to drink it would be even cheaper to fill up!

So that’s it – I’m easily pleased!

Sewing Machine Appliqué

Posted on 22 February, 2015 by patchworkfairy

Not done a lot this week so thought I’d show you how I used the digital download of a sewing machine which I bought from Wendy’s Handmade Harbour a few months ago! I made two sewing machine appliqué for two machines.

Embellishing Machine

I had great fun copying the images onto felt then sewing on the little details using some of the array of stitches which normally I never use! The little patchwork quilts are made from Liberty Tana Lawn scraps!

Sewing machine cover

so that’s it for now – over to Handmade Monday to see what’s going on in the crafting world!

Ripple Blanket and Duvet Cover

Posted on 19 January, 2014 by patchworkfairy

Not much to show this week except for my ripple blanket progress and the start of a duvet cover for our bed! Must start DD’s cushion covers soon though as it’s her birthday next weekend!

I have found that as long as I don’t switch back and forth from acrylic to wool I can manage the acrylic ok as I get used to the feel and rhythm of working. This also has the added advantage of keeping down my WIP pile! It’s quite a wide blanket so each row takes quite a while and every now and then I get carried away and forget to make the increases on the ‘hill tops’ and decreases in the ‘valleys’ and so have to undo a few trebles! Once you’ve got going past row 3 it’s a really easy and relaxing project as there is no need to refer to the pattern (from Attic 24) – each row is the same. It is a good seasonal make too as it keeps me warm whilst I’m working on it – in summer this might be too uncomfortable.

ripple blanket in Stylecraft Premium Acrylic yarn

Ripple Blanket Week 3

My daytime project this week is a duvet cover for our bed. I decided I wanted to finally use up my 200 x 2 inch squares of Liberty Tana Lawn which I bought online last year and was dismayed at the thought of sewing together such small fine fabric pieces. Luckily I came across a good method of working with such small squares in the Very Berry blog but it is actually Elizabeth Hartman’s method found on her Oh Fransson blog I have bought quite a bit of liberty fabric from Ali at Very Berry and all her tutorials are very helpful. Basically I ironed each square onto Vilene first, making a large patchwork square and then sewed the rows together in the normal way, ie right sides together. This way it gives the fine Tana lawn some body and stops it getting chewed up in the machine plate at the start of sewing!

I now have the middle of the duvet completed and am now sewing a surrounding border of triangle -within- a -square using my tri-recs templates. This is a bit fiddly and I am making up my own pattern so will take a while!

patchwork quilt top using Liberty Tana Lawn

Quilt top of 2″ Tana Lawn pieces sewn into 7 inch blocks

So that’s my work this week! Looking forward to seeing what everyone else been up! Linking up with Handmade Monday!

Liberty Tana Lawn Wedding Bag!

Posted on 18 August, 2013 by patchworkfairy

Have I mentioned that I love Liberty Tana Lawn fabric before? 😉 Yes I thought I had! I realised this week that when writing about the wedding last week I’d omitted to say that I’d also made myself a special little wedding bag for the day from my favourite fabric – Liberty Tana Lawn! I just adore the colours, the ditsy prints and the feel of Tana Lawn and I have been collecting pieces of it for a year or so now. I make mobile fone covers in it to sell on Folksy and every time I buy some I have been squirrelling away bits to make myself a bag. It is a very simple clutch bag with interlining and fusible fleece for support, a magnetic closing and floral buttons just for decoration. It all echoes the lilac colour scheme from the wedding. I loved making this the day before the wedding – it was a special bit of relaxation and ‘me time’ in the midst of all the preparations!

clutch bag in assorted lilac floral Liberty Tana Lawn fabric

My wedding bag in Tana Lawn patchwork

inside of clutch bag showing pretty pink floral fabric lining

pretty pink lining

I’m linking up with Handmade Monday now so I am off for a read around the crafty blogs over there, why not pop over too! UPDATE- I can’t comment on lots of your blogs – I keep getting an error code – I assume this is a google/blogger problem as others are ok.