Bear Buddie Cushion

Missing bears in our house are a regular fixture - it is part of our nightly ritual to find 'bear' . . . and it drives me just a little bit bonkers!!

So when Melanie from Melly and Me fame sent me sampling of her new range of fabric for Riley Blake fabrics, 'Teddy Bears Picnic' I had a little notion . . .

ta dah! . . . Bear now has a bear buddie cushion to tuck neatly into for his 'rest period' during the day! 

It might be a little too much to hope that my evenings will now be free from the frantic search for 'bear' and I will instead be able to have a calm and peaceful night time ritual putting my eight year old to bed, but one can hope! (& at least the cushions look very cute in her room)

Bear buddie cushion has a foundation pieced pocket to the front in which to tuck a soft toy. I also appliqued 'Hello Bear' above the pocket but you could applique a child's name or some fun shapes.

 

I seem to be designing in pairs at the moment so the pocket cushion is matched with a bear applique - I love this one as I used some very cool linens for his face and a patch of soft brown velvet for his nose.

My Bear buddie cushions are available as a PDF pattern in my Etsy store and sold wholesale through Creative Abundance so you can ask your local patchwork shop to get them in stock.

Happy stitching x x Claire

Teddy Bears Picnic will be available in stores from April 2016

A Quilt for Summer

My latest commision for Australian Homespun magazine appears in Januray's edition. The brief was to bring a taste of summer that incorporated beach umbrellas and beach balls & as we spend most of our summer weekends at the beach I didn't think it was going to be too tricky!

As you can probably tell, I love colour & the brighter the better. My collection of Kaffe fabric was attacked as it was perfect for the design & I put together a series of bird eye view umbrellas that I blanket stitched and foundation paper pieced. With a bit of extra wadding behind each one and a very cool tight quilt pattern I was really happy with the way each brolly 'popped'.

Beach ball borders.

Appliqued and machine blanket stitched brolly.

foundation paper pieced brolly.

how cool is this quilting!!

Check out Australian Homespun if you would like to make a version for yourself.

happy stitching x x 

Claire

KITTY CATS

This summer I headed into the school holidays armed with good intentions and a wish list of projects to be done. however, my dreams of idyllic mornings at the beach and leisurely afternoons in my sewing room isn't quite what was acheived! My mornings at the beach turned into afternoons at the beach and my sewing room saw very little action.

It wasn't all fun and frivolity though as I did manage to sneak a little time to get my teeth into my stack of Cats Pyjamas fabric from Jodie Carleton and the team at Ella Blue fabrics. Admittedly it did start out as a quilt (thats now coming later!!), and I did make a few disastrous cuts at the wrong dimensions as someone was yelling at me but never the less I managed to pull together a cushion trio as per my original design idea.

The pattern includes three different designs, two for an 18" cushions & one slightly smaller or a 16" cushion. I teamed the Cats Pyjamas with some reds, black and text from Ella Blues basics range as I loved the way they made the border fabric sing.

The smaller cushion uses some cute fussy cut 3" squares.

Ridiculously cute feature fabric from the range with yes . . . those are tooth brushes!

You can head over to Jodies Blog to catch up with all her madness HERE

The pattern is available wholesale through Creative Abundance HERE

& is in my Etsy store HERE

Happy Stitching

x x Claire

UNICORNIA QUILT

Finally after holding onto this design for quite a while it is done . . . phew!

When I was sent a layer cake of Leciens modern L's fabric in all those delicious array of colours the design unleashed its self and it gave me a chance to attack my stack of liberty fabric too.

I'm always quite exhausted once a quilt is finished - the pattern writing, photography, checking, tieing all the quilting thread ends in leaves me a bit brain dead so I am just going to leave you with the photos of the finished quilt . . . 

. . . i rather love it x x

FABRIC CREDITS

Backgrounds - I used a pastel rainbow fat 1/4 pack of Michael Miller Cotton Couture Fat Quarter Bundle of 12 - Spring Rainbow Sampler from Polka Dot Tea

The castles and unicorns I used Leciens Modern L's basics in cool and warm packs. All the unicorns tails and manes as well as the triangles and sashing are Liberty fabrics bought at Materialise in Perth.

Quilting was expertly done as usual by the wonderful Julia Punlar at Beachside quilting x x 

Sweet Mariposa

A fresh new pattern for spring. My hubby and I have spent a rigorous few weekends in the garden making it a restful place to be in the on coming summer months rather then the bomb site it usually is. For those that know me you'll all know that this is HUGE for us as our back yard is usually a total junk yard and there is usually an array of rusty tools, kitchen sinks (just don't ask!!) & quite honestly junk spread everywhere! but no more . . . . it is now clean and tidy, weeded, The chooks have a nice new home & I have some nice cosy corners to sit in and escape the noise of the family.

. . . and now i have some gorgeous new cushions for all those cosy corners!

Reverse applique butterflies. The shapes were cut away from the centre of each fabric block

Applique butterflies that I laid down to make a heart shape . . . 

my fabric inspiration came from Rosalie Dekkers Flower Child range of fabrics available from 

Ella Blue fabrics

The pattern is available wholesale through Creative Abundance. it is also available at many patchwork stores as well as my Etsy store HERE

Happy Stitching

x Claire

ANIMAL CIRCUS

A while ago I received a bundle of very good stuff from Ella Blue Fabrics by the glorious ms Jodie Carleton at RicRac. I always have a backlog of ideas stored away in the depths of my noodle and it just so happened I had the sprinkling of idea that exploded when I got my hands on some of her new fabric range Backyard Circus.

. . . quite yummy isn't it!

Well, after what seems like an age my quilt is at last finished! A happy parade of circus animals sandwiched between an lot of log cabin blocks!

The charge is of course led by the elephant who only emits sounds of love . . . and he is closely followed by a bemused lion and a pair of very clever circus poodles.

. . . closely followed by the dancing bear and the circus pony!

. . . lots of fab log cabins using all the colours from the fabric range & featuring the Pom pom dots on the outer borders

I experimented with adding some little rows of folded bunting across the applique block - it looks very sweet and adds a nice level of dimension . . . it wasn't the easiest thing to sew I must say, but the end result looks great . . . you could always applique it down if you don't want to be fiddling around with tiny bits of bias tape!

Animal circus will be available as a pattern at the end of September and as always it is compatible with a Brother Scan and Cut machine

Patterns are sold wholesale by Creative Abundance worldwide and will hopefully be stocked in lots of fancy shops.

the fabrics used are Backyard Circus by Jodie Carleton and Ella basics, all by by Ella Blue Fabrics 

happy stitching x x 

PHOTO DAY

Every now and then you realise that some things need to be left to the professionals and all your attempts to be brilliant are futile! . . . enter please the professional photographer . . . phew!

Last friday furniture was shifted, carpets lifted and our main living space was turned into a make shift studio to get those illusive fab photos that pick out all the detail in your quilts. 

Anyhoo . . . thought you might like a peek into what went on and I even managed to get a few photos of my everyday quilts x

We used the door off our back shed as a back drop to the quilts - thankfully Steve didn't bat an eye lid when I asked him if he could it remove the door off the shed and bring it inside . . . (and for those of you that know us - no the door is not still in the dining room and yes Steve has put it back on the shed thank you very much!)

Cushion shots needed a little propping up from behind - it was of course Mr Potato Head parading as spiderman that made it perfect!!

CROSSES QUILT

I made this earlier this year for a girl friend & I love it - green is my favourite colour! Good job I like her as it was very hard to part with!

KAFFE FASSETT COLOUR WASH QUILT

Made this years ago, still one of my favourites as it makes me happy . . . just love all those luminous colours. It lives every day on the back of my couch.

MODERN KALEIDESCOPE QUILT

I have made two of these this year and have loved the challenge of washing the colours from corner to corner. I am not very good with anything that is repetitive, which of course this is, so the detail in getting the wash correct saved me from the monotony!

STEVES QUILT

I made this for my husband a few years ago while on retreat. The coloured triangles are all Liberty fabrics and the grey is a Kaffe Fasset shot cotton. It was an interesting journey where I learnt about the perils of working with both types of fabrics. I also made the HST triangles using the large square method (two large squares RST, sew around the edges & then cut on the diagonal to yield four HST) . . . not the best method when using the shot cotton as it then puts the bias on the edges of the HST! . . . like I said, it was a learning journey!

. . . it was a long day but this is one of my favourite shots of the day - quirky!

x x Claire



many thanks to the brilliance of Bill Shaylor Photography . . . as usual x x x