Christmas · Liberty Of London Fabric · Quilting / Sewing Tutorials · Sewing Projects · Table Runners · Uncategorized

Tree Runner

I am not a Christmas person, but I do love to decorate for winter. It adds personality to this old Victorian home during the bleak season. I’m obsessed with trees & mushrooms as they can stay out until Feb.

This runner was made with the liberty of London lines Merry & Bright and Woodland Christmas. There is no set pattern but here’s what I did, get creative and have fun.

Runner back ground was a 9 inch cut from a half yard piece of fabric, so it’s about 20 inch long once finished

To make the trees and mushrooms: Take some lightweight interfacing and draw triangles in various sizes, trunks, mushroom bottoms and tops making sure there’s around 1 inch between shapes. Cut the shapes leaving 1/2 inch around the drawn lines so you can sew and trim. Place on fabric with the fabric right side up,you will “trap” the fabric in the interfacing. For the trees and mushroom tops sew around the whole shape. Trim to 1/8 around the shape, make a slit in the centre of the interfacing and turn the shape right sides out. For the trunks and mushroom stems, you can leave the top open and turn through that. The tops will be tucked under the trees and mushroom tops to hide them.

Once they are turned tight side out, iron.

Lay out your back piece and place the trees and mushrooms where you want and pin in place.

Sew them by machine or hand to the background. I like to use the blanket stitch in my machine.

Once you have sewn them all down, add a boarder and finish as desired.

For appliqué shapes I like to draw the shapes on card stock so I can keep the templates. Mushroom and trees are easy as there’s no set shape. I have videos on my YouTube channel on how to make & sew the appliqués and how I finish runners

Sew Fundy YouTube

Exploring & Road Trips · Sewing Projects · Uncategorized

New Beginnings & Fresh Starts

The greatest thing of New Years is learning from last year and move on. The past is to learn from, aside from re-enactment, I love my wartime knit ware and would dress 40s style anyday!

Our first adventure of the year was to Shediac and Bouctouche. The lobster in Shediac had a Santa hat on, very festive! We toured around town then headed north. We hadn’t been up that way yet.

We stopped by the little lookout in Bouctouche for a walk, Ellie loved looking through the puppy look puts in the gazebo, we had to look through each one! We say huge anchors, smelled trees then headed home. It was New Year’s Day so nothing was open but it was good to explore, the drive is beautiful!

New stuff on my work table for this year are a few stuff toys, Patchwork placemats, and pillows with anchors. The new items break up the repetitiveness of bag making lol, yes lots & lots of my signature zippy pouches are in the works too

There’s the working on pile and stock pile .. going to need more bins!

The aim this year is to have enough that I’m not sewing every night in the summer. Hopefully it works out.

I better get back to the sewing table, Cheers!

Christmas · Uncategorized

Time to decorate the house!

I am not a Christmas person, never have been but having an old house to decorate I must say makes it more fun, it fits it somehow compared to our old townhouse. I keep the tree simple, baubles are blues & silver, lights are white, decorations are mushrooms, robins & stars I made from fabric bought in Germany to tie in with our German Canadian household. Christmas dinner is on Christmas Eve here with Christmas Day kept for sleeping in, stockings, presents , lazy day with heated up leftovers when you’re hungry.

Other things around the house are lots of Amaryllis & Paper Whites. I always leave the bulbs do their growing thing and store for a few months back in their boxes before replanting. I like to get a few new ones every year but most are a few years old. I have a white one flowering first this year
Some cute Ikea Gnomes
Project:
Simple vintage garland made with wide ribbon and vintage baubles. Just string the baubles on and slide to where you want them. The thick ribbon makes them stay in place without knots. I tie my ribbon ends to candles so I don’t have to make holes for mounting. The picture shelves work perfect for it.
One of the wooden trees with my favourite handmade decoration, a vintage deer sewn in felt from the Cath Kidston Christmas Book.
Hubby has been baking, his cinnamon rolls turned out amazing!
I have Geraniums, herbs & Mums still blooming in the porch. I found I could keep them going all year last year. I’m thinking of bringing in a few rose bushes in pots too, it’s a weird 13c today with tons of rain, a good day to bring them in before it gets cold again on Thursday

That’s my house this year, I hope you have all decorated with many handmade makes and make the most of the holiday season! Vall

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Gardening · Quilting / Sewing Tutorials · Uncategorized

Well It’s October…..

What happened between the last post and now.. summer tourism! I was not expecting it to be as crazy busy this year as it ended up being, but its all good. Now back to being able to sew things that are not urgent! I will catch up on a few things but for now here is a quick fun block I love to make.

The one I am currently making is made up of a 4 inch center square, (4) 2×4 inch sides and (4) 2 inch corner squares in off white. The finished block is 7 inches.

Material used is 10 Fat Quarters of Hidden Cottage by Minki Kim, you will have extras left over for something else. I used Confetti Cotton in Off White, I am working from a yard cut I have, so facture in a yard.

Side Note: I also like to make theses with 3.5 inch centers, 1.5 x 3.5 sides & 1.5 inch corner squares. I may do a post on the other quilt I have on the go using this size.

I try to make them scrappy, I cut (30) 4 inch centers, 3 from each fat quarter. Then cut all the side pieces.

From the off white I cut 2 inch strips, then sub cut into 2 inch blocks.

I like to lay out all the inner squares, put sides on top then the 4 2 inch squares each block requires. They are then ready to sew.

I like to stack mine on a vintage plate, you can use anything, I just really like vintage china and try to use them in weird ways. Sew together & iron.

Lay them out somewhere and play around until you like how it looks. This quilt will be 5 block across, 6 rows total. Stack them how ever your brain likes to do that and sew into rows using 2 inch x 7 inch strips in the off white in between the blocks.

I used 2.5 inch strips in the off white as my boarders on all sides, added on after this picture was taken. Cute & Quick .. now into the to be quilted pile it goes!

What else has been going on? SNOW! Too early.. I am not a winter person. The flowers are still blooming, they were not expecting snow either. I managed to get all the dahlias dug up and in before it hit. Here’s a few frosty flower pictures.. poor roses!

Scouse on the other hand was very happy to see the snow. She LOVES it..

Its Nov now .. I will get another post ready. Hopefully wont be as long in between as the summer ones here .. That was a crazy summer!