A colourful little affair happened…. over the Easter weekend!

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Artist and crafter, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Colourful Bed Topper, Crafty creations, Creative colourful Quilts, Creative crafting, Fabric art creations, Fabric Off Cuts to competed quilts, Fun with fabrics, Hand Quilted Patchwork Quilts, Large Lap Quilts, Patchwork Picnic Blanket, Patchwork Quilt Throw Cover, Snooze Snuggle Rug, Unique Patchwork Creations

Scrappy quilt 2# – why does the wind always catch the quilts just when I think I have it nailed for a pic?!!

As Easter weekend was destined to be miserable…(children had visited the weekend before-due to having their own plans for Easter itself) Dearest had a ”million and one” sport programs he ‘needed’ to watch (sigh!!)….I don’t eat chocolate….And, the weather forecast was dire ;-/….SO…what else..??… I chose to dive back into my fabric off cut bag 😉

So as not to bore you all with the same steps as the week previous quilt make, as it is seemingly almost the same (although these little squares of colour all start off surrounding a central skewed ‘square’)..see here..if you missed it/or interested…

A little close up of colours and form…I love the way the profile has raised by adding them to a cotton wadding backing when first making them, obviously helped even more by quilting around them 😉

Simple hand quilting makes it even more hand made and special I think…so many hours and tiny stitches are worth it in the end

Some happy little scraps go a long way when put together! 

After two large lap quilts out of one carrier bag’s worth of tiny off cuts, my first notion of there being another 20 in there hiding awaiting discovery, is a complete underestimate!! I even feel there is more fabric in that bag now, than when I started, given adding off cuts from these two makes LOL ;-D I seriously feel I could spend the rest of my life just working from that bag….trouble is …I needed a refreshing change from seeing the same fabrics over and over again! So….. sneaked of to buy a few more new bits YAY… Already have plans for them, but, maybe it’s time for a little art therapy to recover from all the hand quilting 😉

 

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Colourful Quilt Creation

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Artist and crafter, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Colourful Cosy Lap Quilt, Crazy Patchwork Quilt, Creative moment, Fun with fabrics, Hand quilting, Patchwork with tiny scraps, Picnic Rug Blanket, Snooze Blanket, Unique Colourful Creations

…..using up new, but, tiny off cuts of fabric…..

A little over a week ago, I finally tipped out my bags of leftover cotton fabrics, with full intent to use them ALL up in one project (how wrong I was on that though)!! I’d been keeping the bits quite orderly in separate colourway bags… but then….came face to face with this unruly scrappy looking pile………

Somewhere….within,  lay my next project   ;-0

Not daunted by their tiny sizes, my main concern was to make something with some kind of symmetry in the final finished piece, whilst also avoiding putting too much thought into choosing every single piece to go next to the last as I sewed, otherwise it would never get done….. So, I tipped the piles into a kind of colour ‘blob area’ next to the sewing machine, all within arms length, where I could just grab a piece randomly and stitch away wherever it would fit in and around the ‘crazy patchwork method’ I had decided to go with…. For some stability I decided also to stitch them onto some pre-cut small squares of cotton wadding, which I later trimmed back to neat 5.5” square

Things were definitely looking very colourful by now 😉

For this project, I had made a pact with myself,  and decided I wasn’t going to go and buy Anything!!!!….it would all have to be done from what I already had! So, I picked a lovely lime cotton print which seemed to keep the super colourful theme on track… after measuring to make sure there was sufficient to cut all the remaining squares I needed, I realised I would have just enough to bind too, if I pieced five lengths together  😀 ……Already doing a happy dance and I’d not even started sewing the squares together lol

Once assembled into a large panel, I used lightweight synthetic wadding and added a cream cotton backing before hand quilting over the entire piece…

….believing…’you can Never have too much colour!!’ … I added in a lovely bright blue around the border, which I think, added just the perfect balance to the whole look and completed by hand stitching down the lime binding  😉

Another cosy colourful creation completed! 

At 42” x 60” it’s the perfect size for a Snuggle snooze blanket/Lap quilt/A single bed topper…OR even a super picnic rug!

I’m super happy with this little quilt which emerged from the scraps…. though, I still have issues with my left overs ;-/  Although I made 42 (5.5 x 5.5) squares…In the end, it didn’t even look as though I’d used any from the pile at all!! On that basis, I reckon there are at least another 20 quilts waiting to be ‘discovered’ in the scrap bag….better set to again then  😉 !!

Skew Whiffy Snooze/Lap Quilt

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Art, Artist and crafter, Blues, Bold Vibrant lap Quilt, Brushed cotton quilt, Cosy Colourful Quilt, Craft from scrap Fabric, Crafty, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Electric blue cotton fabric, From scrap waste to desired object, Hand quilted snooze blanket, Hand quilting, Inspiration, Lap quilt, Patchwork, Patchwork throw, Quirky Fabric creations, Skewed square panel designer quilts, Snooze Blanket, Super Soft Cotton Quilt

I appear to have slipped back into ‘skew whiffy’ mode this past week or so  😉 Spurred on by the sale of my first ‘skew’ panel design quilt, over in my Etsy store, earlier last week. So, naturally, I hot footed it down to the local fabric store to see what goodies I could find for a new version…usually, any excuse to go fabric shopping, but!!!.. this was…a needs must!!

A new exciting colourway for my ‘skewed’ squares design lap quilts. After a manic rummage through the bottom level of fabric cottons in a display unit at the local fabric store, I’m sure the staff thought I was trying to make myself a little den/nest and move in…LOL…(in fact, thinking about that idea – what sheer heaven that would be?? and, just think about how much I would save in fuel travelling there and back??!)  Anyways, I meander…with age, that seems an increasing activity these days  😉

I had set off with a perfect menu of colours for the new quilt in my head…probably due to seeing most of them the last time I visited the store?! Though it’s very much a case of, buy it now !!!!…if you want it kind of store, as it may never make another appearance here again – which at the time I didn’t… as I was doing other projects..So, naturally of course, the colours I hoped for had gone 😦

I shall keep a look out for the colours I wanted every time I go in from now on, and hopefully will eventually accumulate them for a future version  🙂

The fabric, I had set out for, for this project, was brushed cotton/soft flannel to make a really soft cosy quilt again. The store selection on this visit, on the bottom shelf, was very sparse and threw up only a few lime green prints, a vibrant blue and a shadowed cream/lemon, a yucky mustard speckle and a dark bottle green too. Dismissing the mustard I plumped for two lime green prints, the dark bottle green, vibrant electric blue and the shadowed lemon/cream after remembering I had some small remnants of salmon pink flowered brushed cotton and some flowery blue too – how much?? I had no idea at the time…but, thought I could fudge them in somehow!

Having collected my chosen fabrics I then stood at the cutting desk.  ?????…????? Of course if you know me, I don’t work from patterns, just thoughts and ideas, plus, this kind of design is quite random, so, when asked..”How much do you want cutting?” Well, I quickly estimated and thought of a number for the lemon/cream, it being for the backing, borders and strips too….I estimated the finished quilt being approx 57 inches as of the one just sold, so asked for 60 inches PLUS 3/4 of a meter (that’s confusing in itself – though the cutter didn’t even flinch and measured out then snipped and ripped!) I decided on a metre of the blue as I wanted the big squares and strips, then 1/2 metres of the three greens

Boring as this may seem..it WAS a complete Guesstimate of perfection!! When I returned home to cut I wanted the warp for the long stretches of borders around the finished panels, so as not to twist out when sewing them in…AND OMG!! I had just ONE inch to spare between the two long borders = two borders halved = 1/4 inch play each end of the strips…YAY my planets lined up once again – Happy Dance!!

Lots of happy therapeutic stitching of skewed squares later, teamed with the electric blue panels and a complex work out of my limited salmon pink equated into some very vibrant patchwork panels…but a good three days of hard work and it’s ready, and now packaged, for a new loving home… 🙂

I have just enough to make two matching little throw pillow covers, then who knows…???…maybe the cut scraps can be made into little mug rugs.. waste not want not….and create wondrous new things from bits and pieces…watch this space 😉

A Little commission ~ Super soft cotton flannel appliquéd monkeys on a quilt

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Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Ccotton flannel monkeys, Commissioned patchwork, Cotton fabrics, Cotton handmade quilt, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Creative patchwork and applique, Cute unique Quirky designs and ideas, Designer Patchwork Quilt, Fun with fabrics, Hand quilted patchwork, Little Monkey Quilt

Where on earth does time go….???? ……..Even on a very grey day, this little patchwork and applique quilt certainly brightens up the garden !

Since last posting, just what have I been up to???? Well, lots of things ~ plus, a few out of the norm activities too….my world has been somewhat shaken and stirred of late ;-/ in between many new crafty creations!!

Around Ester time, I was dragged (kicking and screaming onto an aeroplane after 15 years of avoidance… on the grounds of health and safety,  lol – much better to have your feet on land than the base of an aeroplane I think..but, in necessity and eagerness to meet lovely new in-laws in Serbia  (after the marriage of our daughter to our new son-in law) it was a must 😉 Meeting our new extended family was wonderful! Though, having flown back into the UK in the wake of storm Katie, flying is definitely not on my agenda again any time soon! The plane seemingly hit a thousand and one ”potholes” on it’s roller-coaster style approach in the sky, as we circled the London Eye at least seven times waiting to land!! Very scary, even for seasoned travellers ;-/

Just before leaving for the trip, I was commissioned to do a little lap sized handmade cotton quilt for the grandson of a special, dear friend in the US 🙂 My lovely friend Jackie! She asked if I could make a patchwork quilt for her little grandson?? YAY.. Of course! I was super excited!!!!! Especially having  been given free reign once again by Jackie, to create something unique. My only brief for the project …’Monkeys’ !!! I could choose all the fabrics, colours and design…WOW!!! Where should I start??

Pencil and paper at the ready, I sketched out some cheeky little monkeys. I wanted to make sure the background design was very simple so the blanket could grow with the little guy it was intended for, maybe even passed down to future generations !!

Finally, I went for a large geometric pin-wheel/triangle background to represent the jungle in different shades of green cotton fabrics, along with creating some large cotton fabric ‘jungle leaves’ which I appliquéd around the monkeys . Adding some more primary colours, bright red and blue borders, I think, made it feel more masculine too. The little monkeys are all made from super soft cotton flannel and backed with 100% super soft cotton too! In fact, All the applique pieces have been cotton backed, turned and then hand stitched into place, so, they will never fray! Following the jungle theme I added in a little cotton parrot and a couple of cute, crazy looking frogs 😉 A quilt designed and made to last!

A little close up of the hand-stitched parrot, monkey and a cute, crazy frog, ironed folded and  packaged ready for shipping.

I know Grandma (Jackie) and mum are super happy with it…YAY! A little snippet from Jackie’s e-mail after receiving her parcel…

{Hi Caren,

The quilt was delivered safely and I couldn’t be more pleased! It looks even better than the photo you sent.

 As soon as I can I will write a review in etsy. 

Again, thank you for the quilt! I hope you have a great week. 

Take care and I’ll talk to you soon. xx  }

Thank You so much Jackie!! It was a lovely little project and very exciting to be given another commission by you  (though always a little scary to have free reign) I’m so glad you love the finished quilt!!) I know you will see this post at some point ;-)It was my absolute pleasure to create another unique little art quilt for you and your little grandson!

Maybe in the future as Jackie’s little grandson gets older, he will give each of the little monkeys a name 🙂 Meanwhile, I hope he has many, many happy little naps and sweet dreams under the colourful quilt 🙂

‘Skewed’ design super soft flannel quilt

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Artistic moment, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Crafting creations, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Fun with fabrics, Lap qult, Patchwork and hand quilting, Quirky Skewed squares designer quilt, Soft flannel quilt

…look what happens when you find a couple of fabrics at the bottom of your stash….over the course of a week or so, they turn into a lovingly handmade and hand quilted throw blanket

Cosy up in this colourful, cuddly, flannel blanket, perfect for those cool Spring and Summer evenings. This 57 x 37 inch super soft unique quilt is perfect to brighten any corner or space 🙂

some small leftover pieces of soft cosy flannel…all look quite ‘innocent’…until…….

….you put them together in a quirky skewed design WOW Colourful or what?!

…of course, as is ever the case when trying to use up fabrics…I ended up having to buy more (…such a shame LOL  😀  ) once I had made my mind up to use the square panels for a cosy cuddly quilt. Luck was definitely shining down on me as I visited the fabric shop!! Fortunately, I managed to source a shadowed cream flannel for the reverse, a ‘flocked’ burgundy red to tie in with the red check in the skew panels and finally a brown and black ‘dogtooth’ flannel for the border and binding. A super soft cotton wadding (as shown here lying under the quilt) and plenty of tiny hand quilted stitches turned those remnants into a stunning ‘Skew Whiffy’ Quilt/ Throw Blanket

A little close up of the hand quilting over the red flocked squares after its final wash, dry and iron session, ready now to be packed for shipping 😉

A One Off!!…ready for a new loving home!

Spotty pin-wheel lap quilt

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Artist and crafter, Arty, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Colourful cotton fabric creations, Cotton fabric, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Fun with fabric, Hand quilted throw, Patchwork lap quilt, Patchwork quilted cushion, Pin-wheel quilted patchwork, Spotty cotton print fabrics, Turquoise fabric

Spotty pin-wheel lap quilt and coordinating cushion cover
Left with several small pieces of spotty colourful cotton fabrics from previous projects and a meter and a bit of a lovely turquoise cotton print, which never seems to match anything I ever make… impulse buy – like you do ;-)!  I decided to combine them all together…after all, on their own they seemed useless, so nothing to lose?! From the four spotty fabrics and a piece of white cotton fabric (which has the same print as the turquoise) I determined I had enough to cut out five 4 x 4 inch squares of each colour and twenty white ones. Once I had all my squares, I then cut diagonally to give four triangles from each square, having done this to all 40 squares I then set about sewing them back together including one of each of the four coloured triangles and four white triangles to form a pin-wheel square, which once ironed to flatten all the overlapping seams was trimmed back to a neat 4.5 x 4.5 inch square and surrounded by a narrow 1.25  inch border of white. Loosing the seam allowance sewing on the borders I was left with 20 x 6.5 inch bordered pin-wheel squares. Carefully measuring for long borders of the turquoise which I wanted to surround the panel, I found I had enough left to cut 20 x (6.5 x 6.5 inch) squares of the turquoise too – so I played around with different combinations until I decided to on the straightforward panel above and proceeded to sew the squares together, then surrounded with the turquoise 3.25 inch wide long lengths I had put aside at the beginning. Once all that was done I marked out the diamond grid for quilting, used a 100% cotton wadding as the middle layer and a plain white cotton for the reverse, then hand quilted over the entire panel 🙂  Once the excess oversized wadding and backing were trimmed I found a darker turquoise marble printed cotton fabric which tied in perfectly as the binding. If by now you have counted the squares on the lap quilt, you’ll have noticed I didn’t use all of my 20 pin-wheel squares for the design…so, having a couple left over I decided to make them into a coordinating cushion/pillow cover!

…which also used up the small remaining spotty fabrics. The same diamond grid was drawn over the piece, though this time I used a soft springy synthetic wadding for
quilting and finished with a simple envelope opening on the back of the 17 x 17 inch (430 x 430 mm) cushion/pillow cover

Hand quilted spotty pin-wheel lap quilt 44 inches x 34 inches (1120 mm x 865 mm) Both the throw/quilt and the cushion/pillow cover are now available in my Etsy store 
I’m really happy with the end result as the little leftovers and the lonesome turquoise fabrics compliment each other in such a simple pretty way 😀

Having been MIA for a little while (spending a lovely time with our daughter and her partner as they plan their wedding) I have eventually got around to doing a little post on a couple of creations I finished before we left – a pretty throw/quilt and coordinating cushion/pillow cover 🙂

”Summertime Blues” Patchwork hand quilted pin wheel design lap quilt/picnic blanket

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Artist and crafter, Blue and white patchwork quilt, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Colourful cotton handmade quilts, Creative crafting, Fun with fabrics, Hand quilted patchwork, Handmade lap quilt, Patchwork and quilting, Patchwork table cover, Patchwork wallhangings, Picnic blanket, Pin wheel design patchwork, Quirky creations, Summertime blues, Unique crafty creations

Blue pin-wheel design lap quilt or ‘Summertime Blues’ as I decided to call it 🙂
After making the red and black version shown in the last post,
https://carentaylor.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/beautiful-minimalistic-patchwork/
I knew I wanted to make a cool fresh blue version – I’m so happy with the result!!
Even though I’ve called it a lap quilt, equally it could be a picnic blanket, or, a piece of art for a wall hanging, or even, a bright bold table cover 😉
Keeping with the simple theme as before, though this time I have used three different blue cotton print fabrics for the front panel and a simple clean white cotton for the backing then hand quilted through a 100% cotton wadding layer finally binding with the same blue fabric as the thin inner border.
Even though it was a dull overcast day when I took the photograph, it certainly brightened up the garden 🙂

Beautiful Minimalistic Patchwork

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A perfect gift, abstract, Artist and crafter, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Coordinated cotton fabrics, Cotton fabric, Cotton fabrics, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Fun with fabrics, Hand quilted creations, Original, Patchwork and hand quilting, Patchwork creations, Patchwork throw blanket, Pin wheel lap quilt, Red and black cotton fabric quilt, Simple beautiful patchwork designs, Triangular patterned handmade quilt

Pin-wheel lap quilt
A strikingly simplistic, but altogether beautiful, simple piece of fabric art! Chose a couple of coordinating fabrics, make a few squares, chop them up, and sew back together…add lots of hand quilting….and… a sight to behold! This worked even better than I had imagined 😉

Enjoying it’s final wash, and blowing in the Spring breeze, my little make of the week! A whopping 13 hours a day for seven days…Yep, that’s 91 hours of loving labour!!!!!! … has gone into producing this stunning little lap quilt – SO, I would say the price is a steal in labour costs alone!!! Trying to show, that patchwork doesn’t have to involve thousands of colours and stupendous patterns to be beautiful 🙂 !

Pin-wheel fabrics close up!
Just two fabrics have been chosen to complete this little masterpiece….well actually, three if you want to include the cream cotton backing! It is one hundred percent cotton through and through, as it had a pure cotton wadding layer too, which means it can be ironed after washing – perfect!!

…..Did I mention…it has ALL BEEN HAND QUILTED TOO!!! 😀

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/carenscanvasandcraft

Super cute quilt. Designed hand crafted Patchwork and Appliqué Bunny quilt

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Adorable bunny quilt, Appliquéd super soft bunnies, Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Cotton fabric quilt, Crafting from scraps, Crafty creations, Creating my own patterns and designs, Creative crafting, Cute colourful cotton creations, Designded and lovingly handmase items, Floral cotton prints, Fun with fabric, Hand quilted designer patchwork, Lap quilt, One of a kind creations, Original, Patchwork and applique quilt, Patchwork bed topper, Patchwork throw, Quilting creations, Unique

My newest design 🙂  an adorable Bunny quilt 61 x 46 inches of colourful fun perfect to snuggle under with
six SUPER soft little bunnies! Why bunnies you ask ??? – well, it could have been any number of different animals which I had drawn out as the pattern, but ever wanting to use fabric down to the last scrap if possible, I had some offcuts of super soft cotton wadding left over from my previous quilt and determined they would make the perfect fabric for fuzzy bunnies! After making templates for all the individual applique pieces I set about making each and everyone double thickness, then turned them inside out before blanket stitching them to the colourful panel I had made for each one…This way they can NEVER fray and will ensure they look just as good many, many, many years down the line! The same method was done for the bunny dresses and bows, which not only protects the fabric but also gives a lovely raised profile to the finished quilt

Bunny lap quilt panel close ups

Bunny sleeping panel

Bunny lap quilt label

Unique !!!!! hand-crafted Bunny Rabbit Quilt 61 x 46 inches now available
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/carenscanvasandcraft

My only dilemma now I have completed this one….is….I now have more offcuts… ;-/ Hmmm…. wonder what I can make with those ??? 😉

An early Christmas present (for this year AND THE NEXT FIVE AT LEAST!!!)

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?, Appliquéd hearts, Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic, Christmas present, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Custom orders, Fabric creations, Forget-me-not, Fun with fabrics, Hand quilted quilts, Inspred by colours, Lap quilt designer, My Etsy Shop, Original, Original designs and creations, Patchwork and quilting, Patchwork lap quilt, Request something special, What next

Finished forget-me-not quilt
OMG! How many stitches can you put into a 6′ x 4′ panel???? at least double your thought and and then add another two million!!! Then you might be half way near to the quilting in this little creation!!! I can’t put into words the joy of finishing this little piece – never has a project been on the go for so long – interrupted by day trips with family, subsequently contracting crafter’s lung (as diagnosed by Mrs.P) more trips after a successful recovery then projects for Etsy/Commissions/Life in general… eventually back to find this awaiting unfinished project in a lonely bag!!!

I won in the end! This little creation has been playing on my mind for almost two months!!! Though already, and only finished two hours ago,( I couldn’t wait for better light to take the picture…!) it has a new owner – My Dearest is snuggled beneath it as I type….:-) There could be no other owner than him, as it has little Forget-Me-Not flowers and lots of hearts in the design!

I have been promising him a larger lap quilt for ages, but always they have been spoken for, or intended for My Etsy shop. As winter is approaching, it is a great time to be making these little lap quilts, though I won’t be able to put in 13 hours of sewing each day as I have for this baby! Dark nights have me a new plan, I am about to embark on a new batch of paintings instead – Dipping a brush into paint, by candle light, is much easier than trying to thread a needle when you are past 40!

…..Oh My!… I think I hear snoring?!? Obviously it is comforting too! 🙂