Happy Mother's day....

So this cushion that I was working on last week wasn't actually for my shop :-) I had to tell a tiny white lie as it was my Mother's day present for my Mum and she reads my blog so I didn't want to give away the surprise for her. I chose 16 florals that I thought she would like, some have been used before in other projects I've made for her. She has long admired this cushion that now resides in my downstairs window seat so I knew she would like this design.

The centre came out nearly perfect but good enough for me with all those points to match up. I actually meant to sew on a button but completely forgot :-( 

On the back I did a scalloped button enclosure which seemed to go down well with Mum as she likes this side more than the front??!!

Anyway I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's day like I did. We were blessed with a beautiful clear sunny day here and my girls spoiled me by giving me a set of  champagne glasses (I might have dropped a small hint earlier) and some dark chocolate. My day was made perfect with a walk along the beach and an ice-cream.

Sewing on a wet Sunday afternoon....

What better way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon than sewing together some pretty florals whilst listening to some favourite music to drown out the thunder. One of a couple cushion cover ideas for my shop.

A perfect Friday.....

So I've had another busy week plus it's been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster with some personal stuff I've been processing but today was the perfect ending. Spending time with good friends makes everything feel much better and of course getting out and exercising in the forestry surrounding our town is the perfect tonic when you're feeling a bit down about things. After a couple of hours of somewhat leisurely biking and chatting we headed back into town and home to shower then we gathered again for some more girls talk over tea and cake at my place.

For some reason I felt like baking late yesterday afternoon and was also in the mood to try out a couple of new recipes that I had come across recently. The above loaf is a coconut loaf with pink raspberry icing. Perfect for a girls afternoon tea not that I had that planned at the time of making it :-) Here's a quick run-down of the recipe because it is too delicious not to share.....

• 125g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
• 3/4 cup coconut cream
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 
• 3/4 cup desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 175C. Line loaf tin with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add coconut essence and coconut cream and beat to incorporate. Stir in flour and coconut. Spoon into prepared loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Once cold, drizzle with pink, raspberry flavoured icing made with 2 cups of icing sugar, a drop or 2 of red food colouring and 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry essence, 20g melted butter and 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Slice to serve. Enjoy!!

The second item I made was these maple walnut bars which are divine ! You can find the recipe here on Susan's blog Hanging on by Needle and thread. Susan often shares her delicious recipes :-)  and this one certainly is a keeper.

Today has reminded me how thankful I am to have such caring and supportive friends and to live in a town with so much to do right on our doorstep.

Some finishes

So the last 2 weeks seemed to have flown by and I don't seem to have much to show for it. My father is out of hospital and seems to be recuperating well. He can't drive yet so I have their car and am going over once a week to take them shopping which isn't such a big deal as I do my shopping at the same time and their supermarket is way better than our local one. 

I have managed to get some sewing in now and then. The above bag is for a friends daughter to use as a peg bag. Her previous peg bag was well and truly worn out so I hope she gets as much use out of this new one. The strap is long enough to sling across your body making it hands free plus as requested I have put one pocket on the front to hold her cellphone. Her washing line is up a hill and must be some distance from her house hence the need for a cellphone. I decided to quilt it with a layer of thin batting in between the layers to make it more sturdy and durable. 

I do hope she likes the fabrics and the bright and cheery colours I've used. Hopefully they will brighten up her washing days.

And this pretty purple pouch is for another daughter of a lady from church. Her only instructions were to use the colour purple so I do hope she likes this mix of purple fabrics I have used . The fabrics are an assortment of batiks, florals with one or two vintage fabrics thrown in for good measure.

Now that these two bags are finished I am free to sew some things for my shop and I have no idea what yet which will not doubt mean I will have to have a play with some fabrics until inspiration strikes. Nice to have a clean slate but somehow daunting as well :-) 

New cushion designs......

 

 For the last couple of weeks I've been working on these new cushion designs for my shop but I kept getting interrupted with 'life'. I've had these designs floating around my head for a while now then I drew them out in a sketch pad and that was as far as I got for a while until the time seemed right to actually make them. 

 I'm really pleased with how they finally turned out and how they evolved further as I made them. I like how the grey background makes the prints pop out. The addition of the little buttons on both these cushions was not in my original design but not a surprising addition since I love buttons in general, you know big, small, new or vintage or whatever....

I did my favourite pebble quilting on this one but instead of circles I did ovals to echo the oval applique's. 

Then on this design I just did random loopy squiggles.  The fabrics are a real mixture of prints but I did start off with some of Sarah Feilke's fabric line "On the Pond" she designed for Spotlight.

And my usual handmade button and loop enclosure teamed with some pretty ric-rac :-) on the reverse.

Taking time....

Sorry about the unintentional absence here on my blog..... These last 3 or so weeks have been a little difficult for me to get through as it's been a whole year since my life was turned upside down which I blogged about here. We escaped for an extended weekend away to our favourite beach a couple of weeks ago and once we got there it was so nice to be back in this peaceful remote beach again. The above photo of my girls is taken on a walk at the northern end of Piha.

We also took along my parents who hadn't been back to stay in Piha for a few years. My Dad wasn't up to any walking but Mum did the waterfall walk with Caitlin and I one afternoon.

 On our last morning I managed an early morning walk up the lookout track above the gap ....

 I love the shadows created on these cliffs by the sun rising up from the hills behind.

 So just when I thought I was about to get back to a some what normal schedule my Dad was taken to hospital with a couple of broken bones after falling in the middle of the night earlier last week. There is more to this story than I will share here but he is on the mend for now and getting rehabilitation to prepare to be at home again. So I have been busy travelling back and forwards to hospital with Mum although now he is thankfully at a closer hospital in Thames. On the plus side Mum has been staying with the girls and I for nearly a week which is nice for both her and us to spend time together and my Dad has been busy being my sales representative and giving out my business cards to nurses and fellow patients. He was getting admiring comments on his bible cover that I made for him for Christmas which has led to 2 orders for diary covers for a fellow patient and his brother. Yay I love custom orders!

Be back soon to show the sewing that I have managed to get done these past couple of weeks.

Handmade button tutorial

Well I had every intention of doing this tutorial last week but last week flew by so here it is today just a wee bit later than planned :-) These buttons are super easy to make but because I'm a visual person I have included lots of photos to make each step clear and easy to follow.

  To make the circles I use my Fiskars circle template that I use for scrapbooking. Love it when my craft supplies have many uses :-)!

On a double layer of your chosen fabric and using a fabric marking pen, draw a circle 1/2 inch bigger than your desired finished button size.You can of course make any size you want which is the beauty of making your own buttons. For this tutorial I have drawn a 1 1/2 inch circle which will produce 1 inch sized finished buttons. I do suggest for your first buttons to make slightly bigger ones as the little ones are just a bit fiddly and tricky when turning and stuffing. 

 Cut out the circle through both layers and with right sides together sew around the perimeter using a very scant 1/4 inch seam leaving a finger width size gap for turning and stuffing, reversing at each end to reinforce the seam ends. Snipping into the seam allowance every 1/4 - 1/2 inch will produce a smoother circle once turned right sides out.

 Finger press the opened seam edges inwards to make it easier to hand sew the opening closed once stuffed.

 Using some polyester stuffing and a stuffing/turning tool fill your turned circles as firmly as you can as this will push out the seam ending up with a more even and smoother circle shape.

 Now I've just included this photo to show you what I use for turning and stuffing. It is simply a thin metal rod on a wooden handle with a slot at the end for turning tubes of fabric for handles etc... It was made by a quilting friends husband and I have had it for over 15 years. It is one of my most used tools so I can thoroughly recommend looking out for one if you don't have a tool similar to this. I'm sure you can buy something similar in a quilting shop.

 Once stuffed, carefully sew up the opening endeavouring to keep the curve of the circle as smooth as possible. I use a ladder stitch for sewing up seams like these as it is almost invisible but also strong. A ladder stitch is made by slipping the needle along and inside the folded edge of the seam then crossing directly over to the opposite side and slipping the needle along and inside of the fold. . I also use a double length of thread and poke or pop the knots through the fabric so they are buried inside the button/stuffed circle.

 Here is my tiny little sewn up button which doesn't look perfectly round does it but not to worry because the next step of adding the perle thread will cover up any imperfections ;-) The smaller the button the harder it is to get it looking perfectly round ...

 Using a 10 to 12 inch length of  perle cotton tie a single knot in one end and poke your needle through the middle of the button as shown in the above photo. Pull all the way through carefully pulling the knot through the first layer of fabric so it is buried in the middle. It should 'pop' through the fabric, just be careful you don't pull too hard and it comes all the way through the other side. This method of burying the knot in the layers is what I use when I'm hand-quilting.

 Wrapping the cotton around half the button bring your needle back up through the middle again.

Keep wrapping the cotton around the button and bringing the needle up through that same middle hole, dividing the circle into 6 even segments.

When I've finished wrapping the perle cotton around I leave the remaining length of cotton attached as I like to use it to attach it to a finished project like a pillow closure here or my Boho bags here.

Hope you have found this tutorial easy to follow and are inspired to make you own buttons for your next project.