Kiwi Cushion for Hanni

This is a 22" cushion for Hanni, I used my embroidery machine to stitch out the Kreative Kiwi Embroidery Designs on this front, called Kiwi Blocks, Hanni had fallen in love with New Zealand on her seven week visit so I thought these designs would go down well.

For the back I used my Accuquilt Go strip dies to make this checkerboard pattern, I just kept going until it fit adding borders around the edges lol.

Sorting sorting sorting

Drawer units are in, the filing cabinet and the pedestal, that was well planned.  It's just now down to sorting stuff out.  You know when at last you are able to actually see what you've got and you think 'I didn't know I had that' and 'oh, that's where that went' lol, if I've said those things once I've said them a hundred times.  Some of it I'd think 'why the hell did I buy that' and 'how do I use that', but I have so it's been dusted if needed and a new home to live has been found.

Hanni's dressing room: the two sliding door wardrobes are brilliant, we have managed to fit three of my drawer units into one of them, with enough room down the side to store larger items such as the embroidery unit for 'My Brother'.  The walls still need painting but that's a relativity quick job and once done my ink and ribbon racks can go on that back wall.  I still call it Hanni's dressing room but in fact it is now the storeroom.

In the other wardrobe David has put all but one of the drawers in, I didn't want the top one in as I would have been hitting the ceiling every time I needed to get in the drawer, so I asked him to put a shelf up there instead.  I could have put it in the gap half way up but wanted a shelf there too.  As you can see I'm now sorting fabrics out.

Not far off finishing now.  Once my old craft room is empty, David will be moving in there and using my old desk while his office is decorated and rearranged.  Then once he's moved back into his the old craft room can become a bedroom again.

Craft room photos

Thought I'd share some of my photos with you, I keep being asked, so I'm sorry for the delay.  These photos have been taken throughout the week.

David has put up the wall units and the dado trunking, you can also see the support battens for the worktop.

It's now at the stage where the wiring can be done, but first he's checking to make sure everything is level.

My desk area, just making sure the vents over the radiator is lined up.

Worktop level and time to adjust the support legs.

 This is going to be my sewing area.

This is the view from the as was dressing room, this room hasn't been started yet. as soon as we can shuffle things around and it can be emptied it can be painted.  The two fitted wardrobes have drawers half way up, I'm wanting all the drawers in one of the wardrobes and some of my blue drawer units will be in the other one.

 David is taking the largest of the two Billy bookcases.

 Out of one door and into the other.

 Look at all those boxes, I didn't realise there was that many in there.  As you can see the under wall unit storage has been added as well as the doors and handles, the under unit lighting has also been fitted.  All power and network cables are in and working.

Testing the wall unit doors will open without hitting the bookcase. 

 Next the smallest.

 Mucky cow, look at the muck on that wall lol.

 This is now, David as you can see has added the glass doors to the bookcases and is now giving the worktop a coat of Rustins Danish Oil.  They will need three coats and will also need between 4 and 8 hours to dry in between each coat.

More soon.

Carpet down

Carpet down, it is one of those heavy duty ones that have to be glued to the underlay.  I wanted something that is easy to clean with a short hard pile, that will actually make it easier to roll around on my chair lol.  It takes a little longer to lay this kind of carpet, and you need a window open to air off the glue lol.  I think it's well worth having this kind of carpet in a craft room or the like, in the long run it will last a long time.  When Hanni bought her new house and got to the carpet stage both her and David went to Shaw Carpets in Barnsley, so we went to have a look.  As soon as I walked into the factory showroom I'd seen what I wanted.  

The box thing in the pictures below is the first of my new under wall cabinet drawers from Ikea, just the right size for all my threads etc.  More storage haha you can never have enough storage.  I'm having a couple as shelves as well.

The carpet in the dressing room is staying the same no need to change that for what it is.

Craft room update

Craft room coming along nicely, the paint is on the wall, I chose the Dulux Ivory Lace, it actually dries slightly lighter than it looks on the tin, which I'm glad about.  I chose to have paint on the walls to keep the room cooler.  When we had the house extension done our bedroom had painted walls for a while then we papered them and the difference that made was really noticeable.  Upstairs in summer gets a bit warm, so I'm hoping the painted walls will make a difference.  I currently have a ceiling fan in this craft room, so I'm trying out the new room before I decide whether to have one in there or not.  Everything is now ready for the carpet.

New Craft Room

Well I'm having a new craft room, Hanni has moved out as I've mentioned before and her room is bigger than the one I'm currently in.  This one is being reverted back into a bedroom, I've had it for the last three years, it does feel a lot longer.  Her room is actually a bit bigger than mine, plus she has a dressing room.  David has planned it down to the last nut and bolt lol, he just keeps saying what about this and how about that etc, etc, etc.  So the plan of action is to strip the walls (I'm just having them painted) to find any lumps or bumps and sort them out.  Wall cupboards turned up on Saturday morning, dado trunking and LED strip light arrived Friday.  Carpet being delivered and fitted next Thursday, so the painting has to be finished for then.  

This is a link to my current craft room 

It looks all very clean and tidy, but it's nothing like that at the moment.  I have the addition of 'My Brother', he is currently living in front of the window so I don't have that much room any more, not to mention the fabric that I have squirreled away haha.

This is Hanni's room as it was being decorated when we did the house extension and looked like this when she moved out.

 My Brother will live in between the doors, so I will have plenty of sewing room.

This is the dressing room area with the floor to ceiling sliding wardrobes, soon to be my storage.

This is what it looks like at the moment

The red stuff on the floor above is the dado trunking which will be full of sockets for all my gadgets, it won't be red that is just a peel off cover. 

Work in progress

This is what I've been up to today, I've been on My Brother, I've really missed this machine.  I'm doing some cushion covers for Hanni, she bought her house last October and after all the renovations she moved in March and has been waiting for cushions ever since.  I have started a couple of them before Christmas but everything had to stop because of my rubbish health.  This is a cat and will be for a cushion that will live in her bedroom, there will be two but this is the first.  I just thought I'd show my work in progress.  The design is from a set called Large Farm Animal Collection from Kreative Kiwi Embroidery and has to be sewn in two hoopings.

Quilt for Iyla my nephews baby

I made this quilt using my Accuquilt Go 2½" strip die, very quick, very easy.  I just cut some of the strips into squares, doubled the size for the rectangles then just sewed both of them together and made a strip to sit at the side of them, these where my blocks.  The size wasn't planned, I just thought when she is a little older and needs a duvet day she will need a quilt to a least to cover her lol.  Once I'd pieced all the blocks together I used a cotton wadding and the grey and white spot cotton fabric for the backing.  I did do a stitch in the ditch to quilt it but had an urge to randomly stitch lines across the quilt, so it ended up as a crazy paving effect.  The border was left over bits of fabric trimmed down before adding the binding. 

 I inserted a label I made on my embroidery machine with wash and dry instructions on the back.

Baby Bibs

Three bibs I made for my nephew haha, well for his baby of course.  I used Sweet Pea Machine Embroidery designs for these.  There are some really lovely designs for baby stuff on here.  This first one is the Rabbit

Second is the Owl

Then I did the Monkey, very cheeky lol.

They are all done in the hoop and really easy to do, the instructions are very clear and easy to follow, in fact once you made one that's it you can just get on and do the rest.  They look quite different depending on the fabric you use, take a look at the pictures below each main picture on the website.

Quilt for my mother-in-law

Another before Christmas project this time for my mother-in-law.  Last summer David and I were thinking of something to get for his mum for Christmas, what on earth do you get for someone who has nearly everything.  Well, I had a brainwave, she had had to have heart surgery, and with winter coming around I knew her legs would suffer a little from the cold.  I remember my dad having the same problem years ago when they took some veins out of his legs, so I knew she would be the same.  I thought a quilt would take the edge off.  

I used the Kreative Kiwi Embroidery designs Redwork patterns, I know I didn't do them in red but stay with me on this lol.  The designs are called Garden Delight and Garden Delight 2, I thought they would be apt for her as she really does enjoy her garden.  One of the sets has nine designs and the other has ten so I had to repeat one of the designs to make this quilt, you may also notice that some of the blocks are stitched slightly darker than the other, this is the amount of times a line of stitching has been overstitched, the more lines the darker the line.  Each set was different so I alternated each design to balance it out a bit.  I used her favourite colour which is aqua, I also used white cotton fabric.

I matched the colour of the aqua fabric with the embroidery thread so if you have a look at the back of the quilt you will see I quilted in the hoop and just did the sashings once the blocks were finished.  I like to hand sew the sashings down to finish off as my lines of sewing on the machine look horrendous, I just can't get them to sew in a straight line, so less stress, just get out a needle and thread lol.

The label I did on my embroidery machine, I always put washing and drying instructions on the back, just so anyone I make for will know how to look after it.  

Cushion covers for my nephew

A couple of cushion covers made using the Kreative Kiwi Embroidery designs, in fact I bought extra fill cushion pads as well for these, nice and plump lol, I think they were a 20" cushion pad, they were made for my nephew and his partner for the arrival of his first baby.  I used the Jungle Animal Collection - Large Applique patterns, they are so cute, these cushion covers were made using the largest size and needed two hoopings.  As you can see I used grey and white spotty cotton fabric for the envelope cushion cover and for the giraffe and leopard I used a brushed cotton fabric, very touchy feely.  I did the animals on my embroidery machine then attached them onto the covers with a straight stitch just on the edge of the outline.  I really enjoyed making these and definitely want to use these animals again.

A few pictures showing the stitch out process.  As you sew them you actually tuck the body under the head and this connects them together, but because I was putting them onto the cushion fronts I did them separately so I could move the head about if needed.  If I had have done a smaller size I would have connected them before hand I think.  It actually didn't make that much difference in the end, it just felt like a good idea at the time.