Fancy Folded Fabric

Gee whizz, it's three weeks since I posted, the summer is flying past. I've been doing very little crafting other than finishing off my quilt. I'm on the last leg now, hand stitching on the binding and hopefully, I'll get that done today.

I did however, spend some time scratching my head for the new Crafty Cardmakers and More challenge. The theme is FANCY FOLDS.  You can create anything you like as long as it has some fancy folds on it!  

I haven't really been card making of late, but I've got lots of fabric to hand so I settled on some fancy fabric folding ...

You start off with two fabric circles. I just drew round a small bowl which was 5" in diameter.  This gave me a finished square of 2 1/4"

You then sew them right sides together, leaving a gap for turning

turn right sides out, then top stitch all the way around.  Now, this was my first go at this and you can see my stitching is not at an equal distance from the edge.  It doesn't really matter, as you don't notice it when it's finished

You then need to stitch it together (if you fold the fabric in half, both ways, and crease the folds a little bit, this will give you your stitching point.  It doesn't matter how neat you stitch as the stitching will be covered later)

(Note: you want your main fabric to be on the inside)

draw up the other two sides and make a few stitches so that it's held tightly together

you then turn the four corners inside out, tweaking a bit to get them looking even

the back should look like this

and the front should look like this

finish off with a button, gem or brad in the middle.  (I cut the 'legs' off a brad and hot glued it to the fabric)

Initially I was going to use it as an embellishment for a card but it's really a bit bulky for that, so I added a string to make a hanging ornament instead.

You can make them any size, and on the internet you can find quite a lot of folk have made them in Christmas fabric and they make lovely Christmas decorations.

The challenge is sponsored by The Stamping Boutique who are donating 4 digital images of your choice

Also linking to Handmade Monday which I haven't joined in with for a few weeks.

Thanks for popping in, see you later in the week with my finished quilt!

Suze xx

First Quilt Progress and Kaffe Fassett

Warning: This is a photo heavy post!!

Hi all,

Hope you've all had a nice week, I certainly have, I have been hob nobbing at the opening of the Kaffe Fassett exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery.  About 10 of us from my sewing group went along and very nice it was indeed!  We got a preview of the exhibition followed by canapes and drinkies!

Here is the man himself ... (of course he wasn't interested in talking to me but I sneaked a pic anyway!)

He also did a talk, with accompanying pics, the following night about where he gets his inspiration from.  I have to say he was very entertaining and I'm now really looking forward to attending his workshop at the end of August (just don't ask how much it's costing! Lol!)

It really is a super exhibition.  Here are a couple of his tapestries ...

and knitting ...

and quilts ...

and speaking of quilts I have been beavering away this week on my own "first quilt" ...

First I made the scrappy binding ...

then the backing ....

then I spent Saturday night on the kitchen floor basting it ... (I can tell you I needed a drinkie after doing that!)

We're going on holiday on Wednesday for a few days but I'm hoping to get the quilting done before then.  I'm just going to go for straight lines as I think that will be the easiest option!

I'd like to link to Handmade Monday.

Okay enough from me today, thanks for popping in, have a lovely week.

Suze xx

A Glass of Rosé

Hi all,

It's my good friend Jenni's birthday today.  Now I have to admit I almost bought her a card as my 'card making mojo' has temporarily gone awol, but then remembering that she likes the "odd" glass of rosé wine, my neglected Silhouette machine came to the rescue ...

I cut a layered wine glass from silver miri, silver paper and pink glitter card. The sentiment is also cut from silver miri with the Silhouette. The DP is Stampin Up and I just added a little "J" glass charm to personalise it!

Now the eagle eyed amongst you may think that I'd been on the bottle, as the DP is upside down!  Well, I can tell you I was sober but I made it at night, without my specs on! Lol!

I'd like to link to CAS on Sunday - Birthday

Finally, I was in town on Tuesday and was surprised to see another parade coming down the main street.  This time it was the 4 Scots Regiment marching after their tour of duty in Afghanistan.  I have to say their kilts were fair swingin' in the sunshine! What a braw sight to see!

Okay doke that's me for today.  Thanks for popping in.

Suze xx

Busy, Busy

Hi folks, thought I'd just touch base to let you know I'm still in the land of the living!  We've been so busy in the Bain household this past week.

My sewing group did a workshop with quilter Gail Lawther.  She specialises in the stained glass window technique and I really learned a lot. It was a great day.  

I still need to put the binding on this but we did Rennie Mackintosh inspired tulips.  We all used our own fabrics so they all turned out completely different ...

For the sewers amongst you, it was done by reverse applique and the black outline was fusible binding sewn on with a twin needle.

I'm linking this to Handmade Monday.


I then had a little trip to Glasgow with a friend on Friday and Saturday, whilst my husband and son went to the re-enactment of the Battle of Bannockburn ...

Then on Sunday it was Armed Forces Day, my son was marching ...

and then this morning the Commonwealth Baton went past the top of our road ...

this lady did really well, we live at the top of a hill!

So that's it, thanks for popping in, I will do my blogging (and the dreaded housework) catch up today!

Suze xx

Scottish Wedding Card

Hi all,

Well, here we are at the beginning of a new week and we have a new challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers and More.  I'm hosting this time and I've chosen the theme:

"Wooden it be Loverly" 

I'd like to see something wood related in your project. Perhaps a wooden embellishment like I've used, or wood effect stamping or embossing, trees, wooden fence etc, or you could even alter a wooden box.

A friend recently travelled to the States to attend a family wedding and she asked me to make a Scottish themed card for the happy couple, so here it is ...

I used a Hobbycraft wooden embellishment which I layered onto some tartan fabric (I used Bondaweb to stop the tartan from fraying).  The celtic circular die is from Tonic Studios and I used a Rennie Mackintosh font for the sentiment.

Our sponsor for this challenge is ...

Crafty Sentiments Designs

who are offering 3 digital images of the winner's choice.

I hope you can find the time to join in my challenge. Hope you all have a lovely week and thanks for taking the time to come visit.

Bye for now

Suze xx

Anniversary Card

Oh dearie me, it's been two weeks since I last posted.  Don't ask me what I've been up to, cause I couldn't tell you, the days have just passed by in a flash!

I haven't found the time to do any more of my quilt but I've a wee anniversary card to show ...

Made almost entirely from dies, I used: Memory Box Prim Poppy and Resting Birds, Sizzix Decorative Accent Die and Stampin' Up Framelits.

I'd like to enter these two challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More - CAS
CASology - Anniversary

Okay dokes, thanks for popping in today, hope to see you all again soon (and thanks ladies for my recent win at Addicted to CAS for my baby card).

Take care,

Suze xx

Quilt Top

Hi all,

I've been busy sewing this afternoon and have at last finished my first quilt top ...

This photo shows the truer colours ...

It's not perfect but I'm quite pleased with it.  I've got the wadding and just plain fabric for the back (to make it easy!) but the next dilemma is I've absolutely no idea how I'm going to quilt it!  I'll take it to my quilting group on Wednesday and ask the other (experienced) ladies their advice.

I had a stall at the local school's summer fayre on Saturday and I have to say I did better than I'd expected.  The Christmas Fayre is always busy with folk looking for pressies and stocking fillers but the summer one is usually quiet.  My best sellers were the fabric bookmarks, the children's ones I showed in an earlier post and I also made some adult ones ..

and right at the end a (very nice) lady bought three of my children's activity packs, so all in all it was 2 hours well spent.

 Okay, that's me for tonight, I'm gasping for a cuppa!

Linking to Handmade Monday.

Thanks for popping in, see you all soon.

Take care

Suze xx