Quilting and embroidery tutorial

Today I'm thrilled to post my first ever tutorial! I've been wanting to do one of these for a long time now and have finally taken the plunge with this one! Hopefully there will be many more to come!!!

It's a very simple tutorial using one my fabric kits recently listed in my shop (here). I thought it would be cool to give some ideas as to what to do with it! So here goes!

In the kit you will find:
- one larger piece, beige with white spots
- around 15 scrap pieces 
- felt bunny cut out (it's been handcut not with a diecut)
- 5 handcut felt flowers

You will need:
- batting (optional)
- co-ordinating cotton fabric if you want to line your end product and/or add handles
- zipper if you want to make a zipper pouch or small bag 
- embroidery floss in various colours
- off white cotton thread
- pins and embroidery needles
- scissors + usual sewing notions
- sewing machine

How to:

Cut a piece of batting to your desired size. Mine measured approximately 26cm x 17.5cm (10'' x 7'').
Choose what fabrics you would like to use and randomly lay them on one piece of batting.

Pin or baste in place:

For your backing piece - or prepare a second one in the same way you did the first or take a larger piece and place a few fabrics as I did.

Machine quilt both pieces. I did this randomly, I didn't draw any lines I just went along randomly with the machine in rows. Be careful to catch the edges of the fabrics so they don't lift.

The front and back will look like this:

Place the felt bunny on your front piece and applique it with small stitches using a same colour cotton thread:

Place the felt flowers and put a small stitch with cotton thread to hold them:

Embroidery- center of the flowers : 4 strands of DMC moline thread , French knot. The leaves are single daisy stitches here and there. Please note I didn't draw my embroidery on, I just placed the stitches randomly.
Tail : stem is backstitch, leaves are single daisy stitches, berries French knots.

I made my little project into a zipper pouch, which I love, love, love!

I haven't included the making up of the pouch on the tutorial as the kit could be adpted to so many different projects. 

You could also make it into many other items, here are some ideas:
- fabric basket
- easter egg hunt basket/tote (I have a pattern here to which this kit could be adapted)
- sweet little wall art
- book cover

And the list goes on! 

Thank you so much for reading!
 
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Bunny pillow pattern

My new bunny pillow pdf pattern is here! It's super cute and easy to make!

A wonderful gift for a new born, birthday or even make them as Easter gifts. Rather than 'bon nuit' you could stamp or embroider the child's name to make it a more personal gift.

I made them in soft pretty colours but they also look fabulous in bright, cheery colours! To adapt the pattern for a boy applique stars rather than flowers!

The pattern can be enlarged to make a larger pillow or reduced to make a smaller bunny, fill it with lavender! It could also be appliqued onto a quilt or bag. It's such a versatile pattern!

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Needle books snail mail on the go!

At the moment I have many small projects on the go! Needle books, snail mail, so many ideas are flying around in my head confusing me! Hopefully I will sort out my thoughts soon, I want to do too many things, end result nothing! It's so frustrating!!! Anyway here are a few works in progress nearing completion!

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I Love Christmas in Sydney

 Beautiful colourful decorations at a gorgeous shop called Little Paper Lane in Mona Vale Sydney.

 Love Santa's area at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney. They were setting it up this week. A woodland theme... love! These pictures are for you Lulu.

 Charity Christmas cards... such cute designs.

 

Our Christmas mantle.... a bunch of Christmas drawings on cardboard and cut out. Inspired by a picture I found on Pinterest. 

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Easter Craft Time at Vacation Camp

So here they are Rach... the Easter crafts that I did with the kids at camp. They absolutely loved the activities.... especially the bell jars. The idea came from the magazine that is here.

Here were my samples....

 

Here are some of the kids creations whose ages ranged from 4 to 9 years old.

Another activity was Easter toilet roll characters. Here are my samples......

Some of my ideas came from chicken (here), bunny (here) and Shaun the Sheep (here).

My son started by making a Darth Vader Bunny then just made Star Wars characters- Kit Fisco, Darth Vader, Yoda, Darth Maul and General Grievous.

It seemed to catch on with the boys and there were pipe cleaners Light Sabers galore!!! So cute as some of these were made by 4 & 5 years olds. I also love the Shaun the Sheep that one of the kids made with a massive head!!

They also made lots of Easter baskets made out of a paper plate. I didn't get photos of them as the kids were off doing an Easter Egg hunt while I was photographing the rest. Here is my sample and the idea came from here......