Making your very own ironing mat

Both my sister and I were looking for a new ironing mat. She because of the big move. She simply could not find hers anywhere. Lost in all the boxes of fabric and stuff.....

Me because my darling cat decided the mat was much more use as a claw sharpening tool..... Strangely the manufacturers of this item did not take pets into account while designing their mat. Ah well, it was an oldy anyway. Time for a new one!

Looking for prices (expensive!), delivery times and measurements (not what we wanted) we found several tutorials for making one ourselves. We chose this tutorial from Little birdie secrets. It sounded like fun, so we ordered materials instead of a completed mat. On Thursday we planned our quiltdate and got started.

Even if some people (I won't name names, but you know who you are) have a complete disregard for the diet the other person is on....

It was really easy work..

My sister has no fear of the machine....

I have no fear of ripping stitches....

The sun was shining with all it's might, so we could do some of the glueing outside! Even the fact that - yes - we did have to rip out some stitches at some point (we decided to use regular binding next time we do this), did not really matter that much!








After stitching the binding, we now have two completed, (almost) identical ironing mats. Lovely!

It folds away!

Front

Iron-on-side

Lots of love,
Heleen and her sister!

Bunny, bunny, bunny

Well, technically it should be hare, but hare, hare, hare just doesn't have the same ring to it......

Front view

I made these for a friend. She is hosting a street quiz this year and since her street has the word hare in the name, she thought it would be fun to have these little guys as prizes. It took me a few times to get it right. The first try looked more like a cat or a really ugly mouse than a hare. So I started again, and again.

Bunny tails for the hares......

I was over the whole hare concept ages before I finished the required 6, but a deal is a deal. So here they are. All six. Ready to go be a prize!

Lots of love,
Heleen

A birthday gift from years ago

Back when I just started quilting - which is 6 years ago already, jeez..... - I was given a beautiful quilt kit for my birthday. A Petra Prins quilt. White box, tissue paper, fabrics held with a ribbon, the works. A stunning gift.

Up close

Naturally I was completely intimidated by the thing. And so it landed in a storage cupboard. Every once and a while I took out the box to look at all the pretties in there and you know, just say hello. In my mind, the quilt kit became more and more difficult and almost impossible for someone with my limited quilting knowledge........

Helper holding up the quilt, dog not really interested....

So, finally I decided it was time to tackle it! I was going on holiday and was in desperate need for some blocks to take with me. Trembling I took the box out of its cupboard and started.....


The pattern turned out to be- wouldn't you know - really easy. It took a few days to do all the drawing and cutting, but by then I had a very satisfying stack of blocks to complete. I just love it when there is a pile of pieces waiting to be turned in to blocks. I just have to pick up my bag and continue with some stitching. Heavenly! I took the blocks to The Gambia and actually stitched some there and on the plane!

The blocks came together with ease. They formed beautiful rows and the rows came together to make this fabulous quilt top!

It looks every bit as good as the box promised! And now, sandwiching and quilting!

Lots of love,

Heleen

The NEW mystery!

I know, it is July and the new one doesn't get going until November. But still, I could not get it out of my mind. The name for the mystery - Sweethearts - was enticing enough for me. Then I found out that the new mystery was appliqué, which was a bit scary I admit that freely. So, I was in doubt. The fact that I was already behind on the current mystery and am still quilting the one before that did not really help.

But then, oooooh I saw the fabrics at Françoise's new place and she told me that the appliqué in question was more than suitable for my kind of cheating. And those fabrics were actually soooo beautiful. And I need stuff to do anyway, when everything else is finished, and those fabrics......

In short, I could not resist. Tell me the truth, could you resist this?

Lots of love,
Heleen

Mystery Carrousel part 9

There is an upside to falling behind! I got so used to having to piece or cut every day in order to catch up, 

I'm already done!

It was helpful that it has rained virtually non-stop here. Nothing else to do but sit in my rocking chair (yes I am that bad) and piece, piece, piece!

All eight blocks together. Looking at them, I thought maybe ....one day....I'll make a whole quilt like that. Hopefully I will not find another message from Françoise, telling me I got it wrong.....

I also cut 64 triangles and stored them in the pink-box-of-mystery. No doubt I'll find out what to do with them some time......

The little mystery quilt required some assembly, so no new blocks there. This is what it looks like now:

I'm regretting the choice of Christmas fabric here. I might have to remake the whole thing in some nice, bright colours. Then again, I might not..... But, that is just what a mystery is. No clue what the thing is going to turn out to be. 

Lots of love,

Heleen

Square pincushion

You remember the great round pincushion disaster....If not, read all about it here. I told you I was going to cheat (again). I think it turned out way better than the round variety.

 It did turn out nice and big....So you can pop in the pins from a distance, without having to take your eye of your work! As it turns out, square really is better. Well, for me anyway.

I've been inspired by this pincushion, I going to enlarge it into a pillow. And something else, but more on that later!

Don't you just love the butterfly! I'll give you the link one more time: Red Brolly. Be sure to visit. Bronwyn has the most adorable patterns and ideas!

Lots of love,
Heleen

Mystery Carrousel part 8 - take two

All damage has been undone. It took less time than I thought too! I found out (by row two of course) that I did not need to rip out all the seems. Helpful! It would have helped also, if I had bothered to iron the pieces again... Ah well. It went quick enough.

Now, that does not mean that I was any less moany or grumbly about it. It is just so stupid to NOT read the instructions. I think I will put this one under the label Experience......It does however mean that I am a little happy that it is done......They joined all the other blocks-in-the-pink-box that are ready and waiting for the assembly at the end of the mystery!

I have received part 9 on Thursday. Let's just say, it is in progress....

Lots of love,
Heleen

Mystery Carrousel part 8 NOT

I thought I was finished with this one:

Thankfully Françoise was paying attention....since I clearly wasn't.

This is how they should have looked:

That means a LOT of seam ripping for me.......and then a whole load of stitching.....again!
Can you imagine that I am a bit grumbly and moany about this? I'll just get started, shall I?

Lots of love,
Heleen

Mystery Carrousel part 8

Pffffffew. Done. I had to cut all the pieces earlier, which turned out a really, really good idea. Since I was behind with my mystery, this was a great possibility to catch up. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of work. A lot, I am not kidding. BUT.....I'm finally done. Plenty of time till the next assignment (arriving next Thursday.....).

This is one of eight of these sets. That's right......EIGHT. That is a lot of pieces. Since I piece by hand (old fashioned I know, I know), pinning them to my trusty pillowcase proved difficult this time. I have a few bent pins to prove that theory. So I started thinking, I even had an idea to replace my pillowcase by something else. More on that later (I hope).

To prove that I actually finished all the sets, I'll show you this:

You'll trust me about the bigger ones, right? Difficult to photograph!

The little mystery had one block this month:

This elephant was then joined by the horsy and the carriage from earlier assignments. Now it looks like this:

 The picture is not that clear, but frankly....well fill in the rest!

As I said, the new block will be in my mail by Thursday, and I still have some other projects to work on!

Lots of love,
Heleen