The Shy Ada - a tutorial and a newsletter

From time to time, when I'm tired and I can't work, I return to my drawn little girls and boys.
Thinking of a shy little girl to whom I intend to make a gift, I drew Ada.  I appliqued it on a piece of fabric and I placed on its dress a pocket in which it keeps the teaspoon on hand for the little girl.

Then I used this piece of fabric to make the mug rug from above. But I wanted to make quilting appearing different on the two sides:  top and backing. 

As you may see, on the left side of the top I left room for cup or plate so that Ada is not covered by them.

First I quilted the backing with the batting together, with waving lines parallel with the long sides.

 

Then I added the top with the stitched appliqué...

 ...and I cross quilted with the same waved lines all the three layers together but only on the empty left half. 

On  Ada’s half,  I stitched only one row with waves, along the edge of the 3 external sides. In the end, It appears as a discreet scalloped border because the waving is partially covered by the binding. 

 And so, in this simple way, I managed to make my mug rug to have a quilting design on the top:

 ...and another quilting design on the baking:

The Shy Ada free design is my gift for all my newsletter subscribers.

I think Ada would look great also on a girl’s pillow. Or maybe on a quilt, why not? If you need a larger design, print it at a larger scale.

Have a beautiful day!

Linking up to Linky Tuesday
 

....and a present for myself

I spent the week before Easter sewing a few presents but I managed somehow to make a small one for myself.

I used one of Geta Grama's patterns. As always she gave such detailed instructions as in a few hours I made this nested pouch using only some little pieces of fabrics and 2 zippers.

Now I have a roomy pouch to get all I need for sewing when I will go to my country home.

I love it!

Have a beautiful day, my dears!

Another test and another present

My love for traditional stitching made me interrupt the work on the bucket bag.
I have seen some images of the traditional motifs from Basarabia and I tried a quick test to see if I could transform one of them in a patchwork block.

My source: http://semne-cusute.blogspot.ro - a wonderful Romanian Lady sharing his hard work aiming perpetuation of traditional Romanian stitching art 

...and another Easter gift is done! No waste!

Have a beautiful day, my dears!


  

Tests and presents

I keep working on a bag pattern. This time I made a smaller version of this one. I used another printed black thinner fabric, woven fusible interface and regular polyester batting.

Why black fabric again? Because I found in my closet a few black tassels I made some time ago and I wanted to use at least one of them. You know, well....I had the horseshoes but I didn't have the horse....

It turned out satisfying enough to give it as present for Easter to a lovely girl but not satisfying enough for the pattern.

Oh! It has two exterior side pockets, but I forgot to take the evidence photo !

I am late, very late with the other Easter gifts.

On the saddle! Back to work, now!

Have a beautiful week, my dears!

Pretty little things – Cone Sachets. My first newsletter

We have a beautiful beginning of spring, here!

In the past few weeks I have noticed an increased interest for my lavender sachets.  That's why I decided to give my newsletter subscribers a free template for sewing a Cone Sachet and a free design: a Lavender Bouquet, for embellishing it. 

 Until lavender will bloom for using its flowers and stems for filling them, you have enough time to prepare the sachets using some of your odd fabric leftovers.

You could make embroidered sachets.

A few words about the Lavender Bouquet Design:

You can transfer the design directly onto the fabric using a light source such as a light box or window and use it to sew an embroidery.  

You can sew the embroidery by hand, by embroidery machine (if you need the digitized .pes file of the Lavender Bouquet design, email me and I will gladly give it to you for free, too) or using the free-motion foot, at your sewing machine. You don’t need special embroidery skills. If you know quilting, you can do it, for sure.

....or you could only draw directly on the fabric using textile finliners. In this case you need to fix the colours by ironing at the temperature supported by your fabric.

Here there are: on the left - one sachet embroidered by embroidery machine, on the right - other one embroidered by sewing machine using the free-motion foot and in the center, the green sachet with the drawn Lavender Bouquet .

But you may also leave some of them without embroidery or you may place a small applique instead. 

The best idea is to sew the sachets one of a kind, when you are in that special mood to search in your scraps box and sew only little things that can be done shortly but needing patience with the little details. 

This way you will have them done on hand for composing some sweet and fun surprises for whatever occasion may occur.

When you don't have lavender buds you may fill them with what you want:

 Here I used them for a little Easter rehearsal :)

And of course, you may play making all kind of edgings and borders:

This kind of sachets may complete in a sweet way a present or could be as well a present by themselves.

Enjoy your sewing!

Have a beautiful day!