Tag: Tilda

Friday Night Sew In, Quilting & Sewing, Sewing

Friday Night Sew In – Feb 2025

Anne S

Yay it was Friday yesterday, which meant my sewing/stitching pals were busy creating and working on sewing and other craft projects.

In my case my first task was to put together this book cover, which was from Tilda Club issue 36 by Lilabelle Lane Creations. I managed to attach the embroidered panel on Thursday night, and put it all together yesterday (Friday) … however the notebook that it was based on didn’t end up fitting! I grabbed an alternative hard-backed notebook instead, which fits perfectly, but now the embroidered panel is off-centre and kinda annoying. I must say, though, the project itself is really pretty – and it was a great one to use this very colourful and busy Tilda fabric collection.

I’ll be truthfully honest that I found the instructions a bit lacking for this pattern. There seems to be one clear error where it says for both lining pieces “along one of the short ends on each piece…” to fold over and top stitch the edge. On the smaller piece of lining, though, the actual edge that needs the foldover and topstitching is the longer side and not the short one – the instructions contradict the diagram in the instructions.

There’s also no adjustment made to ensure your notebook fits other than for the height (ie it doesn’t take into account the width of the notebook), so the notebook I’d originally intended using for this didn’t fit thanks to the coiled wire spine – I had another hard-backed notebook I could use instead, so that was no drama though. When adding the embroidery panel it states to ‘take into consideration the 1/4″ seam allowance and the width of your A5 notebook’. What would’ve been super duper helpful (especially to this less experienced sewist who takes every instruction literally) is to also add a note to “take into account the 1″ back flap that holds the notebook in place”, and not just the 1/4″ seam allowance. Anyhoo, that’s just my lack of experience not thinking about that, so regardless of which notebook I ended up using the embroidered panel was never going to be aligned in the centre … my bad, and something I’ve learnt from for future projects! One day in the future I’ll do something to fix it – either by removing and reattaching the hexagon panel or adding a stamped fabric tag/label with a positive saying on it. For now I’ll just glare at it with a filthy look every now and then haha.

Last night I also started working on another project – another notebook cover, must be the week for it – but old fluffy bum (aka Smudge) decided she needed attention so it got put to one side. And while trying to finish it this morning she decided to join in the fun but this time kept swishing her tail by the needle, so I had to down tools for a while today too … at some point either today or tomorrow it’ll get finished and another kit can be ticked off the sewing list.

Sewing, Tilda

Windy Walk Project Bag

Anne S

I’m excited that I’ve managed to start and finish another old kit project from Kitty Rose Cottage. These Little Boxes of Creativity offer a great variety of projects in Tilda fabrics, and really worthwhile – the only reason I cancelled is because I was amassing too many kits during a time I wasn’t sewing anymore. It’s great that I’m finally finding the time and motivation to work through them.

This was the “Windy Walk project bag” kit, and my first attempt at doing hand quilting – my goodness, I have so much empathy for those who hand stitch full quilts, it’s very time consuming, although rewarding at the end. It was great to try this technique out on a smaller scale before committing to a quilt.

I’m not a huge fan of pink fabrics, and I loved that Dawn sent enough squares in the kit that I could leave out the squares that were predominantly pink. I’ve always loved the red fabric with teal flowers in this range, and I think the teal and red colours help to offset the pink so it’s less prominent (also really happy that the lining in the kit was teal, so that helped me to embrace it haha). I’m super thrilled overall with this finish – and super chuffed with myself that I’m getting back into sewing again!

Friday Night Sew In

Friday Night Sew In – Jan 2025

Anne S

I’ve been invited to the Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) for a long time, but haven’t joined in because my stitching and sewing bugs were off having a holiday together. The time has finally come that I can actually join the group and put needle to fabric, woohoo!!!

I started this project last week, and it just needed to have the binding and button to be attached before it’s finished. Hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be able to share the finished project!

Tilda, WIPGO

Sewing WIPGO number 20

Anne S

Now my stitching mojo has returned a bit, I’m attempting to join the WIPGO Challenge again this year. So far so good, I’m managing to give some love to each of the projects called – both in my Stitching and Sewing WIPGO boards.

I’m also trying to keep track in a digital planner this year to help keep me motivated, and it’s great to be able to quickly jot down notes into the planner on my iPad … I just have to remember to go into the planner in the first place LOL.

#20 on my sewing board was to complete the Sewing Day Tote Bag that was a Tilda Lovers Group sew-along project in 2020 which I was unable to complete. I loved being able to tick this one off of the list of those backlog classes, and I look forward to doing some more as the months go on this year. Here’s my finished project – I changed it slightly by changing the fabric choices to cool tones (all Tilda fabrics), and I didn’t add the stitchery panel that’s supposed to go on the front of the bag, but added another two columns of squares instead.

The next project that was called is the “Be my valentine hanging scrappy heart” project from the same sew-along. Hopefully I’ll manage to get that one completed by the end of January as well – I’m loving getting my sewing machine out again after a 4-year hiatus!

Cartonnage, Quilting & Sewing, Tilda

Tilda exchange

Anne S

I joined an exchange for the first time – I hadn’t touched my sewing machine in almost 4 years, and I found it a struggle I’ll be honest. Then when I was made redundant in the last month of prepping for the exchange I just didn’t have the headspace available to finish the last couple of homemade gifts that I wanted to include. I’m still proud of what I managed to achieve, but it wasn’t the exchange gift I wanted to send. I may still complete the remaining two items in the new year and send on to my recipient, though.

These are photos of what I sent to my exchange partner – the criteria was to send something in each of the following 5 categories/themes:

  • Something special for the recipient
  • A small doily or table runner
  • Something for the sewing room
  • A Christmas ornament
  • Something to eat

Something special

A small doily or table runner

Something for the sewing room

A Christmas ornament

Something to eat

Cartonnage

Cartonnage clamshell box

Anne S

I recently unpacked my cartonnage tools and completed a past kit project from Boxed and Bound – and it was probably my most challenging project to date, with lots of errors made on my part. The end result, though, is a really stunning and functional box, made in some of my favourite Tilda fabrics (Cotton Beach collection). As I love blues and teals of all shades, and I adore beachy decor, this was the perfect mix for me!

Indigo Rose, IsoMaynia, Lizzie Kate, Lyn Manning, Mirabilia, Needlebook, Nora Corbett, Rosewood Manor, Sewing

IsoMaynia – week two

Anne S

My crafty mojo remained high for another week – here are the projects that were at the end of my needle for IsoMaynia through the second week of May:

8 May: Piwakawaka, the Fantail by Lyn Manning

A small kit I bought from The Ribbon Rose in Auckland while Dad was in hospital last year. I’ve always loved fantails, and this is a really sweet little stitching project that reminds me of home. I didn’t quite manage to get it finished because I worked during the day, but I kept stitching on it the next day and managed to get it completed.

9 May: Stitch now, worry later by Lizzie*Kate

I changed the threads to my own choices of silk threads, trying to roughly match the colours I’d used in my last Lizzie*Kate a few years ago. I changed the thread spools to use satin stitch instead of cross stitch. This saying couldn’t be more relevant in these times! Eventually I’ll stitch the larger design as well.

10 May: Catherine Agnes by Indigo Rose

So excited to finally kick this project off – it’s intimidated me for years, but I put the feelings aside and just started. Such a fun project, I’m looking forward to getting back to this one again after May – I think this will definitely be going into the formal rotation I’m considering next month. A good challenging stitch with luscious silk threads … and yet more queen stitches!!

11 May: WIP – Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor

Finally dragged out an older WIP – it’s a goal to actually finish this one at some time this year, so once again this will probably become my focus piece in a formal rotation from next month. Sadly I stitched in the wrong place in a previous session, so the next time I stitch on it I’ll get around to frogging those random stitches. This week, though, I just avoided that area and started a new motif instead 😉 I was busy during the day so not much to show for it – oh well, a few stitches closer to a finish, every little bit helps!

12 May: All you need is love and coffee by Design Works

I was initially put off by the stiff black aida that came in this kit, but it turned out to be really good for the style of stitching. Initially I used normal one-stitch back-stitches for the lettering, but it looked kinda clunky – when you look at the cover picture the back-stitching is all done as long stitches instead … so I frogged my back-stitching and did the same. It looks much neater and I really love the look. One of my favourite stitching projects so far during IsoMaynia, and I can’t wait to get back to work on this one again soon! I think I’ll be stitching this one more than once as well as gifts.

13 May: Tilda needlebook challenge

Still waiting for some Tilda fabrics to arrive that have been on back order for quite a few weeks, so I decided I didn’t want to wait anymore and wanted to start a needlework set now (I’d already missed all the past four challenges waiting for the fabric to arrive). I chose one of my favourite series of fabrics from Spoonflower, and think the set is going to be gorgeous in this fabric! Lots of glue, and not a lot of needlework involved in this one, but it’s another new-to-me challenge, it’s crafting of a different sort, and I did use a needle to buttonhole stitch the needlebook pages and then whip-stitched the lace on top of the felt. I used some light turquoise/teal felt I bought in Paris during my last visit, some wool flannel gifted to me by a dear friend recently for the needlebook pages, and I found some silk ribbon in my stash to finish it off. I did some fussy cutting for the first time, and I really love it!

14 May: Mia mermaid by Nora Corbett

This was the design we were given as the free gift at the Mirabilia Retreat in 2017 where Nora attended in person for the first time in Australia. I stitched this in 2017 after the retreat, intending to leave the wording and the date off. Over the last 12 months, though, I’d changed my mind and kept dithering about including the wording and date as a momento of the retreat weekend, which was also the start of some amazing stitching friendships. So I finally sucked it up and put her back into the Qsnaps to add the wording. I ran out of time to do the date as well, and I can’t really decide how to do it yet, so it’s not quite yet an official finish … maybe next month! I changed the wording colour to use the Pine Forest silk instead of the Copper as charted. The fabric colour is more accurate in the first photo.