Craft corner

First of all I would like to apologise for neglecting my blog.  Work has been extremely hectic and I have been very busy making my first proper quilt.  Update to follow.  However, craft corner is finally here!  I had been thinking about doing this for months and months.  I had all the plans in my head and I would figure out measurements and how to do it as I was falling asleep.  Summer holidays, drum lessons for my daughter and general life expenses meant I kept putting it off.  But finally my daughter told me I had to sort it out.  So one afternoon I took a trip to B&Q with my sister.

In the end all the materials I needed came to a grand total of £50 and as I had been preparing this in my head for months and months it took no time whatsoever to actually put everything together.  A grand total of about 4-5 hours for all of the shelving.  First of all I put some batoning up 800mm from the floor as that was how long the legs were.

Then the living room needed to be painted.  It hadn't been done for quite some time and was looking a bit old.  Time for a nice fresh cream colour.

 Then I attached the shelves to the batoning and attached the legs too.  Thankfully my daughter was there to hold things when needed and in no time craft corner was here.

As I had somewhere to cut and sew I thought I should make some pretty things for the 'girlie' end of the room.  Bunting was called for! 

But now I am working very hard on a cot quilt for my second cousin who is having a baby soon.  As I said earlier, this is a first for me.  The patchwork has been machine sewn but I am actually quilting by hand.  It's a slow process, but I think I will be able to show you the finished article soon.  Until then, see you later!

Patchwork cushion

I have been asked to make a patchwork quilt for a new baby arriving soon and thought I had best practise my patchworking skills.  I decided to choose a simple pattern, the Balkan Puzzle Block which is made up of half square triangles.  I had a look at some of the fat quarters I had a decided on these three fabrics.  I needed to cut 2 5.5in squares out of the patterned pieces and 4 5.5in squares out of the plain piece.

I then pinned a plain square to each patterned square and sewed around all four sides.

I then cut the square from corner to corner on the diagonal and this produces 4 half square triangles. 

 Ironed out this is what they look like.  I then trimmed off the little corner triangles so that they end up square.

 I then place them in the pattern that they will end up in.  I took a photo for reference.

 I then sewed along each row, and then I sewed each row together.

 This is the final block.

 And the back.

 With one of the patterned fabrics I made the backing and tada!  I have a Balkan Puzzle Block cushion.

Practise run

Been having a go at making some bags.  Watched a video on Craftsy and off I went.

This is my first bag

This is the inside of my first bag

A little pencil case/make-up bag

The two together

Over the weekend I shall be having a go at some other styles, but the tote bag is really nice.  Very spacious and comfy in the hand.  I gave the pencil case to a friend who is about to start college and she loves it.

Having a trip to an amazing looking fabric shop in a couple of weeks so watch this space.  It could end up full of bags!