Secret Santa in July swap

We did a Secret Santa in July cushion swap at the East Midlands Modern Quilt Guild.  We were each given a person to make for and a list of their likes and dislikes.  When I discovered I'd got quilting professional extraordinaire Trudi, I begged our swap mama Moira to make a new rule that the cushion couldn't have any quilting on it.... she refused.

I went from not having an idea, to having a pretty much fully formed idea overnight and I got started, this was back in June, or maybe even May... I think it was before I became ill again this time.

I didn't follow a pattern, I just made it all up.  I drew the outline of a sewing machine, improv pieced some aqua scraps, then traced the shape onto Bondaweb which I fixed on the back.  Not until I'd actually quilted it did I realise the sewing machine is back to front!  I sewed round the edges and added the details in free-motion thread painting.

Trudi loves Aurifil, so, despite my ambiguity towards the brand, I made Aurifil spools in her listed preferred colours. Each area is quilted differently.  Some are geometric square designs and some are curvy.  I did four and then struggled for ages to think of other designs to use!

The middle section had loops and hearts and the borders were matchstick quilted.  I did a simple ribbon pattern in the spools.  The aqua borders are left unquilted.

One of these pictures should show the segment I did in pebbles.  It took FOREVER.  It can't be a very big area, the overall cushion cover is 22", so we're talking 6-7", but I was quilting those pebbles for hours - so it felt.  Never again.

A quick shot of the back where you can see the quilting pretty well.

I used a tutorial by Ms Midge to do the lapped zip which I've never done before.  It was really easy so I'll be doing that again.

See, there really is a zip under there!

And my cushion?  I knew it would be a bunny!  This is by the very talented Gillian.

My apologies that all the links (except for Ms Midge's tutorial) are to Instagram, my intrepid fellow guild members have all abandoned blogging for the instant gratification that is Instagram.  I go on Instagram every now and then, but I find after about 2 minutes I'm just flicking and the images are flying past.  Much like how I felt about Flickr in its day, there's not enough depth to Instagram, it's just photos and no real stories.  

noodlehead divided basket

Good morning ladies.  I've got the day off work today and I'm trying to avoid doing any housework, so I'm starting with a blog post, then I'll get on with the thing that needs doing that I took the day off for... more about that later in the week.  Hopefully.  

I didn't tell you about the last meeting of the East Midland's Modern Quilt Guild.  The lovely Moira booked us a church hall in a location halfway between my house and my work.  I set off on the Saturday morning, all smug as I couldn't get lost this week as I usually do.  Then I found myself nearly at work.  I had to turn around and drive back!  I was late anyway as I was waiting for a man to come and fix our dishwasher following the letter we got telling us our dishwasher is likely to blow up and burn the house down.  Great, thanks for that Hotpoint.  When I arrived the other ladies were steaming through their projects.  

Some of us were making Noodlehead's Divided basket.  Moira had suggested the pattern and as I'd been umming and ahhing about buying it anyway, I went for it.  You can buy the pattern here.

Now, I had a little problem.  Looking through my supplies prior to going to the meeting, I didn't seem to have enough fusible fleece.  I grabbed some interfacing, thinking that would do.

It didn't!  How hilarious is that floppy mess??  I chose not to sew the lining inside the outer, but to try and do something with it when I got home.  Strangely for me, I set to the very next day.

Turns out I did have enough fusible fleece, it was just in 4 pieces, but that's not really a problem as it was fused in place, then sewn.  The fleece still wasn't really thick enough.  I think for future baskets I'd want a very firm interfacing and maybe some thicker fleece too.

The outer is some of the Femme FQs I won a while ago, they're linen-cotton mix which I thought would give it more body (clearly not).  The lining is some stripy fabric, I'm pretty sure someone designed it and manufactured it, but I don't know who.

Sewing in the divider was tricky and I struggled with it, but the rest was a breeze... until it came to sewing the lining to the outer.  The lining was a bit too small.  I'm not sure if it was the fault of my crap sewing or my crap cutting!  I fudged it eventually and don't have any huge puckers or tucks.  

It's currently living in the bathroom holding cleaning supplies and the centres of toilet rolls (I give them to the bunnies who love them), but it mocks me every time I go to the loo, so I might have to make another and relegate this one to my craft room where there are dozens of uses for it.

Oh, forgot to mention my handles.  Yeah, they definitely need some interfacing!

The pocket is lined with the lining fabric.

I think I took this photo to show you the hideous pucker in one of the corners that I didn't notice until it was all sewn up.  But maybe my camera just went off, it doesn't look like the kind of photo you'd deliberately take... 

Coming up this week, something completely knew and a some tiny little crochet items.  Maybe the afore-mentioned project that I've taken today off for too.