Hope Grows

Hi all! As you may remember, I decided a while back to have a go at Amy's Texting While Sewing competition.

After lots of umming and ahhing, a few mistakes and some learning, I can finally show you the result. Ta-da!

I'm calling this block 'Hope Grows'. Yes, it is a little cheesy. My apologies. In my head there's a story that goes with it - a girl who has found a new passion in gardening, has been reading all the books and as her first plant grows, so she flourishes and is filled with hope.

Enough of the cheesy rambling, get back to the sewing? OK then.

Most of the elements of this block were pretty simple. The plant pot is a tumbler, like the ones I used in this quilt, and the rest is mostly rectangles. Designing a realistic but easy-to-make shoot was really tricky (much agonising and asking the hubby for inspiration was involved) but eventually some simple HSTs (half square triangles) did the job.

Even the kindest readers will have noticed I have some issues with creasing. The cream background fabric is some really cheap, thin stuff, which definitely doesn't help! If anyone has some tips to avoid this in future they would be much appreciated. I hope that by the time I've quilted the block and turned it into a cushion (the current plan) no-one will notice :)

Above is my 'being creative with text fabric' attempt - I used some text to represent the vertical lines of pages in a backwards book. I really like the effect :) Below you can see that I added some text corners as well, to get into the spirit of things.

So there we go, my first attempt at a picture block! I really love the result. My favourite thing about it is the colours - pink and orange is one of my favourite colour combos, and the FMF green goes really well with these ones. The tiny little border was a pain to piece, but is so cute! I'm looking forward to making it into a cushion, even though it won't even slightly match our home. It matches me though, so that must be OK, right?

I hope you like it :)

Ribbitt

Ribbitt, ribbitt croak ribbitt Edmund croak squelch ribbitt ribbitt. Emma's croak croaketty croak squelch (ribbitt croak-croak croak) squelch, croak ribbitt croak ribbitt squelch squelch. Croak, squelch ribbit croak croaketty ribbit, ribbitty ribbity croak squelch, croak croaketty croak squelch Thursday squelch croaketty croak squelch.

Hi, my name's Edmund and I'm a frog. Emma's been too busy with summer plans and secret sewing projects (with fast-approaching deadlines) to post here, so she asked me to step in. Now, I don't really know how to blog, us frogs are more into swimming really, so I'll just wish you a happy Thursday and leave it there.

Ribbit ribbit,
Edmund

Much love,
Edmund

A Little Something

I don't know about you, but I am not a very quick sewer (if that's the correct word?!). I'm amazed by people who whip up a baby quilt over a weekend - quilts take me a matter of months rather than hours. So I was quite pleased when it only took 2 evenings to get from "I'd quite like to make something to for so-and-so" to taking photos and wrapping it. Quite an achievement!

Admittedly it was only a zip pouch rather than a quilt, but hey - you've got to start somewhere...

I'm really pleased with how it worked out. I wasn't at all convinced when I'd finished the patchwork and added the embroidery - it looked a bit plain and dull. Thankfully my tub of buttons came to the rescue to add a bit of colour and interest.

I used Ayumi's tutorial to learn how to add pockets to the pouch. So fun! Since I'd made a smaller pouch I only went with two pockets. The lip balm one ended up next to the zip by mistake, so isn't too easy to get to (woops) but the other big pocket is definitely useable.

I'm not sure which of the three pouches I've made is my favourite. The other two are pictured below. Which do you like best?

       

Linked up to Made By You Mondays :)