In another avoidance tactic from sewing the other curtain (I really will have to finish that next) I finished “Really Big George”- based on a photo of Giant George. If you don’t know who Giant George, he was- until extremely recently- the biggest dog in the world ever!
This quilt is about a square metre and I have put it in my Etsy shop, but it’s not cheap 😉
There’s several different FMQ styles in there- my usual thread sketching but also I followed the design on the front on the background which gave a lovely effect. The fabric is from Heirloom by Joel Dewberry by the way.
The back is just simply Kona Natural, and the applique fabrics are a total mix of different manufacturers and designers I couldn’t possibly name them all.
Since it’s Wednesday, I decided to show you one of my new WIPs, based on Giant George…
It’s now all glued together and I need to sew it next and then quilt it! It’s only taken a couple of days to turn the edges under and glue. The background is Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry and I think it looks great. I should probably get back to making my curtains soon now that’s sort of out of my system.
And this stack came through the post yesterday, just after I wrote I’m expecting my last few fabric packages before Christmas and not ordering anything else. I was lucky enough to win a $50 gift voucher for Abbi Mays from the Pets on Quilts competition on Lilypad Quilting and this is what I bought! 6x 1m cuts of Keiki Oops a Daisy from Moda. I only ordered Friday 17th from the US and they arrived in the UK on Tuesday 21st! AMAZING!
I’ve had a play about with a couple of sewing techniques over this weekend and there’s a bit of a duck theme going on…
Firstly I made this embroidery and I think we will be keeping it because OH really likes it. It’s in one of my decoupaged hoops from yonks ago which I will put on the PennyDog site shortly because they’re no good to anyone languishing in a drawer.
This is my first attempt at raw edge machine applique and it’s based on a sketch I did a few years ago.
Next up is this large placemat or mini quilt if you wish. I’d intended it to be a table runner but got my measurements drastically wrong. Still it’s my first go at curved piecing and I think it’s pretty cute and it used up a few scraps so it cost me nothing in new fabric. I quilted and binded (bound?) it this morning. I went through 3 needles on the machine because the tension of the invisible thread was ridiculous due to it getting caught on a little nick on the edge of the bobbin resulting in my face being pelted with tiny bits of metal three times.
Time to make some more falafels and clean out the hedgehog!
EDIT- I am entering the mini quilt into the Ellison Lane Modern Mini Quilt challenge. I’m not sure if it counts as being modern enough, but I figured it had curves in so it would count! It’s 24.5″ across the long edge.
I’ve made a video on how I do cut away applique working from the reverse of the fabric. I call it reverse applique in the video but I don’t really mean that 😉 It’s by no means a masterpiece of the silver screen and the video angle does get better as it goes on I promise. Hopefully it will be useful still and not too boring. If it gets boring, just imagine I’m Kirsten O’Brien, it frightens me how much I sound like her on recordings…
I made this cushion for my sister as a belated Christmas present. It was going to be 7 rows of felt petals but my sewing machine was struggling to get in over the layers and I was feeling lazy, so I stuck with 3 and a blob in the middle. It’s not the neatest thing ever but I was so fed up with it that it will do!
I also managed to do a lot of cleaning and bake two lots of my brownies this weekend. The floor is down in my craft room too so I’m starting to move stuff in (anyone want to take two Billy bookcases with doors on off my hands?!), more pictures to come shortly…
One last thing. If you promote your business on Facebook, I wrote this article earlier in the week, it might be a useful read if you’re not au fait with all of the rules over there.
This is me- Kerry- and I live in Leicestershire with my partner and our greyhound boy who features above in the banner. I started out making and selling resin jewellery, but now I am heavily into patchwork. More information is on my about me page!
I AM A NO-REPLY BLOGGER. Sorry about that- it's a Wordpress thing. You can e-mail me though at kerry(AT)penny-dog.co.uk - I won't mind!
PennyDog Patchwork (and illustration, recipes, other crafts...) 