Quilted Jewellery Roll "How To" Part 1

Well "Hello" everyone.  It is lovely to have Handmade Monday back and I do hope you all enjoyed and have recovered from the Christmas festivities.

Here as promised is my "How To" for the quilted jewellery rolls I made my daughters for Christmas. If you haven't read my previous post it may help to give it a quick view so you know what all this is about.  You'll be glad to know my cold has cleared up and 2015 is back on schedule!

Jewellery Roll "How To"

Part 1

Below is what your finished 'fabric' will look like.  

You will have

2 full 9 square patches in the centre 

6 triangles made of 6 squares around the edges

4 corner triangles made of 4 squares in each corner.  

In total you will need about 74 of the tiny squares (perhaps a few extra in case you make a mistake!). You will also need 6 plain pale squares for the hearts.  

The finished size is about 11" or 12" x 7" or 8" depending on how accurate you are!  

When working with tiny squares like these there is plenty of opportunity for error, believe me!

Cut into 1.5" strips and then cut those strips into 1.5" squares.  I can't remember how many I cut but if you aim on about 9 x 1.5" squares of each colour you can use any left over to chop up for the hearts.

Now to start sewing!  Use 1/4" seams throughout.  Begin with the 9 square, squares and stitch 3 squares together to make 1 strip. Make the other two 3 square strips.  Then stitch the 3, 3 square strips together, side by side, matching up the seams carefully!  Press, then you have completed your first patchwork square!  Only another XX to go!  Complete the others in the same way and then you will be ready for the next stage.

At this point you will need to cut 6 plain pale 3.5" squares.  Lay all your squares and triangles out like this.

Now join into strips like you did before (see the arrows) the squares will just be slightly larger this time. Then join the strips together, side by side, being particularly careful to match up all the seams. Don't forget to add the last 2 corner triangles!  Press neatly, admire your work .... and breathe :)

You should have something which resembles this.  Each tiny square will measure 1" or just under (told you it was difficult to be accurate!) and each plain square will be 3" or under.

Ok - you still with me?

Good, let's make the hearts :)

I'm afraid I lack a few pictures of this bit!  But it should be a doddle for you clever crafters out there. First you will need to draw a heart to fit the blank squares.  When you are happy with the shape draw this onto bondaweb (other gluey stuff does exist!).  Cut out and place in the centre of the blank square, ironing into place (don't forget to protect your iron from the sticky stuff).

At this stage it may help to stitch around the outline of the heart as it can be a bit difficult to see.  I also backed it with a little stitch and tear to give it a bit of strength.  Next you will need a selection of teeny weeny chopped up bits from all 9 choices of fabric.  Sprinkle these so they completely cover the heart and over the edges (now you can see why it's difficult to see). Protecting your iron again, iron over the itty bitty bits until they are stuck in place.  Now stitch around the outline of the heart and free machine all over until they are well and truly fixed in place.  You can do this as much or as little as you wish. Finally trim off any excess little pieces. Give yourself a pat on the back and ..... complete the other 5!!

I
Phew!  I think that is enough to take in for one session, it will take quite a while to get this far so next week I will post Part 2 which will explain the quilting bit and how to make the pockets for the inside.

Happy sewing!

Hello 2015! Hello Jewellery Rolls!

Well I personally have decided to postpone the start of 2015 for a week or two!!!!  Why?

Well on New Year's Day I came down with a pretty rotten cold!!! First one for at least a year and a half, so not bad really but not how I would have planned the start of 2015 if I had had a choice! But to those of you who are off to a roaring start may I just wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Having said that whilst I'm snuggled up on the settee with my box of tissues, watching day time TV, I am thinking of using my time wisely. Those of you who have kept up with my blog may remember many moons ago I mentioned joining a Quilting Group.  You may also have noticed I haven't mentioned it since!! I had a very legitimate reason though.  I decided to make a couple of Christmas presents for my daughters and as Clare who writes her own blog reads mine and with the remote possibility of Kerry popping in to see what I've been up to, of course, I had to keep schtum!

But now it's time for the great reveal!!

I didn't want to make a full size quilt or a lap quilt but was interested to learn the art of quilting so I made two jewellery rolls with very tiny squares.  Each of the little coloured squares are less than an inch.  I did Kerry's first (the top one with hearts) and then challenged myself a little further with Clare's using fabric manipulation (the bottom one). There are two zipped pockets, a small pocket and loops for necklaces on the inside.

If anyone is interested, I am going to start on a 'How To' in the next few days, so please pop back and I will explain how it all came together.

Stitched card and a coastal walk

Well I hope you have all recovered from the Christmas festivities and are now looking forward to 2015.  We had a lovely time with our family and are now beginning to make a dent in the leftovers!

A short post from me today.  A friend's daughter had her 30th birthday just before Christmas so I decided to make her a card.

I cut out numbers in a pretty fabric and stuck them onto bondaweb, stitched around the edge a few times in black then backed them with felt to give them a bit more strength.

We don't usually buy presents as such but as it was her 30th I thought it would be nice to give her a small gift so I made a pretty little flower brooch to match.

I stuck a simple version of the flower on the card with some leaves and pinned the brooch on the top so when the brooch was removed the card still looked good.

Below you can see the finished card.

I'll leave you now with a few pictures of a 6 mile walk we did today along part of the South Devon coast path.

Erme estuary

Looking along the coast towards Bigbury with Burgh Island in the background

Happy New Year everyone!

See you soon

x

PS - Since I wrote this post my daughter Clare has also written about our walk on her blog with a few different pictures.  If you would like to have a look just pop over and say 'hello'

Finished Mandala

Now to a ta dah moment, well actually the second one for this project! You may remember a while ago I made a mandala inspired by Yarndale.  I finished the mandala but had to wait for my OH to cut a thin wooden hoop for me so I could attach it and hang it up.

You can see the hoop he cut for me and the finished mandala before I attached it in the picture below. It measures about 18" across.

I added two rounds of treble crochet to the outside edge of the mandala, one in the front loop and one in the back loop of the stitches.  I then placed the hoop between these two and closed the rounds with a round of double crochet.

Ta dah! Here it is in it's full glory!

Don't you just love the colours?  I can't get enough of them.

If you would like to have a go at this yourself you will find the pattern over at Zooty Owl's Blog.
I thought I may have a go at making a smaller one using a tiny hook and crochet thread, anyone got any ideas on what I could use for a hoop?

Have fun!

See you over at Handmade Monday

Crochet Spoke Square

I have been playing about with crochet squares this week.  I'll explain why another time but for now I decided I would like to design a few myself so thought I would start with the basics.

I want to work on 4" squares.  Using a dk cotton I started by crocheting a circle of 12 trebles increasing on each round until I got to 4 rounds (48sts).

Now came the tricky bit! Squaring the circle! I divided my 48 stitches into 4 and set about making some corners.  You can see in the picture below how I placed the markers at equal intervals around the circle before I started the squaring.

It's not been blocked yet but after a combination of dc, htr and tr here is my basic square to work from.

It feels a little as though I'm reinventing the wheel here as you can look at numerous sites and easily find a pattern to create this basic square.  Having said that, working it out for yourself gives you a deeper understanding of the construction behind such a simple square and I can now go ahead and deconstruct/reconstruct bits to create my own designs.  In theory that is! We'll see what happens in practice as time goes on!!

Ok, basic square made.  Whilst at Sharpham last weekend I made a quick sketch of some of the plaster work on the ceiling (I had these squares in mind you see!).

When I got home I set about creating!!!! Now the observant amongst you will notice there are 8 'spokes' to this design.  Well let's just say it took me quite a while to work out that it is impossible to make 8 'spokes' in a circle of 48sts!  (If anyone knows of a way, please share it with us!).  I settled on 12 'spokes' eventually and here is the result.

Not the best photo I'm afraid as I am using up yarn from my stash.  It actually looks a lot better in real life but I think you can see the effect and if I used contrasting colours it would be more striking.  I'll show you the scrummy colours I have chosen for my project in another post when I have finished designing my squares.

All that's needed now is to work out how to add the bobbly bits to the design, but I think this could be a simple square design on it's own.  It's not for the feint hearted mind you, it took a bit of working out how to work the two colours in without colour drag and how to carry them along seamlessly behind the work.  Oh did I forget to take a photo of the back!!!! Whatever was I thinking!

I'm off over to Handmade Monday now to see what you have all been up to this week and I'm also linking up with Hookin on Hump Day but I thought I would leave you with this picture of the pretty pink sky from our lounge window late this afternoon.

Sharpham Retreat

As part of my convalescence and recovery from Breast Cancer I have just spent a wonderful weekend on a retreat at Sharpham Estate near Totnes in Devon, organised by the charity Cancer Lifeline South West.

I met an amazing group of ladies and came away with many memories to treasure for a long time to come.  Sharpham is such a beautiful place I felt I would like to share some of the photos I took.

I had a room to myself despite it having twin beds, a cot and a rocking horse!! And here you can see the view from my window (not a good photo as it was taken through glass).

Views of the river.  

Sharpham is situated on a small peninsula with the river on each side.

Now you may wonder why I'm sharing this photo, just a muddy bit of river and an expanse of water you may think, but look a little closer and yes there seems to be a stranded shark or fish!  As we are on the River Dart which runs into the sea at Dartmouth, not far away, a perfectly feasible assumption!

But ....... and we were all deceived ....

when I got home and put it on the computer ...... what a surprise!

You guessed it ....... it was just a log!

For those of you who are familar with Handmade Monday I am rather late this week as I was so tired when I got home yesterday I just couldn't manage a post in time but thought I may just manage to squeeze in on the end as I was keen to share this beautiful place with you all.  I did make a start (small start) on designing some crochet squares but more on that next week.

Have a good week folks!