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 😉

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A bored moment filler!

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Art, Art Creation, Artist and crafter, Artistic imagination, Artistic moment, Arty, Bored moment, Crafty, Creative, Creative craft, Different, Experimental art, Failure or success?, Inks, Mosaic effect collage, Original, Perpetual art, Watercolour paper

face from ripped up painting bits or ‘perpetual art’ as my daughter remarked!

Over the holidays I found myself alone one day and thought I might experiment more with the Inktense pencils. Firstly I sketched out some small, (4” x 3”ish) doodles of imaginary countryside scenes with an ink pen, I decided not to ink over the originals, so I scanned them and scaled them up to A4 and printed them off on watercolour paper to play around. All good for quick experimentation though as I had scaled up so had the width of the lines on the drawings, some were now almost a quarter inch wide, not to be put off I carried on playing with the ink pencils just to get a feel of what they were like for blending and bleeding together. after an hour of so I had four wet soggy landscape scenes, so mainly green, blue and a little brown from trees and stone walls. As I sat with a cup of tea watching the contorting and curling failed experiments, I decided there must be something I could do with them – really I think I was just trying to pass more time until my family returned – having finished my brew time I grabbed my hair dryer and gave them a quick blast. A little more dry and curly than before I started ripping them into little bits. By the time my family returned from their day out I was sat sorting small pieces of coloured papers into piles, armed with my PVA glue, a brush and the cardboard back of the watercolour pad raring to go again. A couple more hours resulted in the piece you see above formed from bits of sky, lush green meadows and trees! – I have no idea who it is meant to be it just happened!

Definitely not my best work, but never wanting to throw anything away, the mosaic effect collage is different and I liked my daughter’s description of it having become a piece of perpetual art! It did also fill a bored moment…or two…..even three or four 🙂

Creative Patchwork and Applique – Folded Origami style bags

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Art and craft, Beads, Buttons, Character bags, Children's bag, Colourful, Colourful bags, Cord, Cotton Patchwork, Craft, Craft bags, Craft style, Crafty, Crafty ideas, Creative craft, Cute, Cute characters, Decorative beads, Hand quilted, Hand quilting, Handmade, Handmade and quilted, Handmade bags, Handmade craft, Little bags, Multi pocket bags, Origami, Origami bag, Origami folding, Origami style bags, Patchwork cotton, Style

Little origami bags

These little handmade bags for children are made using the origami method of folding. Each bag has eight internal different sized pockets, all folded from one square. The square starts as two pieces of cotton with a thin layer of wadding sandwiched between  It is simply a case of folding and hand quilting through as you go. For extra effect I turned back little flaps on the two smallest pockets which reminded me of ears! So to finish I added a few decorative beads, a cord strap and buttons for eyes and a nose – Which I think give them cute individual characters!