Merry Christmas from Stitching Cow

Make a Smilebox greeting

Christmas Craft Idea

For a week now the kids have been chanting the count day to the last day of school which means that the pressure was on to come up with a lovely Christmas Craft idea to give to their teachers. Thankfully I had only two to make this year because my teenagers are past the whole teacher gift giving thing.

Despite the constant ringing in my ears of the daily countdown I still found myself trying to create miracles the night before.
This year I opted for some cute little angels that were very quick and easy to make. The morning after I was met with a big warm hug and a little burst of excitement from Miss Nine as she jingled the little brass bells. Then for the final touch I had Miss Nine sign the back of the Angel and include the date so that her gift would be remembered for years to come.

As she wrapped her precious Angel I was reminded of how simple a gift could bring such delight. Surely this is the essence of Christmas. I hope you are enjoying creating your own Christmas crafts for others to enjoy.

Baby Cot Quilt Inspiration

When my youngest sister gave birth to a lovely little girl in September I knew that I had to make her a very special baby cot quilt. 

It had to be designed just for her and I wanted the whole family to contribute to it, although I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do that. I knew that hubby and master 13 were not going to be excited by the idea. 

My two daughters, on the other hand, were eagerly waiting for me to start so that they could begin. They have both grown up with sewing and I knew that incorporating some hand embroidery work was a good idea and in safe hands.The challenge was to motivate my two men folk. 

Then I stumbled across this wonderful new book all about baby cot quilts and my hopes lifted.

Click the link below for more information about this book and other baby cot quilt pattern books
Quilts, Baby!: 20 Cuddly Designs to Piece, Patch and Embroider

Something about this baby cot quilt book inspired me and made me smile. The fun and quirky designs appealed to me and I knew my younger, artistic sister would fall in live with them too. More importantly it presented me with a  solution to my baby cot quilt design. I now knew how I was going to involve all my family (including my reluctant men folk) with the design of the quilt.

Have a peek inside this book and you will see what I mean.

 

Many of the designs include little hand draw sketches of delightful creatures.

So my plan is to get my men folk, who are thankfully both good at drawing, to sketch some special little characters to appear in the baby cot quilt design.

 

And I know my girls will have heaps of fun embroidering some designs like these.

 

It would also be fun to include some applique, like these amusing little monkeys.

 

Thanks to this inspirational book called "Quilts Baby" by Linda Kopp, I now have lots of fun ideas for my baby cot quilt. I just need to find a free weekend so that I can get started.

Here's the link again if you would like to take a peek.

Quilts, Baby!: 20 Cuddly Designs to Piece, Patch and Embroider

Warmly Lenna

www.stitchingcow.com

Easy Machine Quilting Tips

Looking for some easy machine quilting tips?

You're excited, you've just finished your very first quilt and you're very pleased with yourself. And rightly so!

But then you're struck with the realization that the quilting process is ahead of you. You start to panic. You have no idea where to start? You couldn't bare the thought of making a mess of things at this stage. Not when you have invested so much of your time and effort into this project, not to mention money.That would never do.

Sure you could take the easy option and get a professional quilter in but really you want to have a go yourself. You want this quilt to be your masterpiece from start to finish. And fair enough too, I totally understand how you feel.
So where do you begin?

Here are my tips for easy machine quilting.

1 Ideally choose a backing fabric that is wide enough for the quilt top, consider the colour and pattern of the fabric. Choose it to match the colour of your quilting thread and if you are new to machine quilting decide on a patterned fabric that will be forgiving.


2 Press your backing fabric and quilt top. If you are using a cotton or wool batting it may need pressing as well to get out any fold lines. Trim any lose threads, these can shadow through if quilting over a lighter fabric. Depending on the size of your quilt, tape the backing fabric to the floor or table right side facing down. Place your batting over the top and then your quilt on top of this. Your backing and batting should be bigger than your quilt top.

3 Take time preparing your quilt, by this I mean that you need to decide whether to baste your quilt, or to pin all the layers together. As a general rule hand quilters baste their quilts in a grid fashion using a needle and thread and machine quilters prefer to pin. Use safety pins and  pin every 10-15cm (4-6"), starting from the middle and working out.(yes you will need a lot of pins for a full size quilt and yes your fingers will probably get sore)

4  In most cases easy machine quilting does not involve marking out a pattern on your quilt top, it can be done in sections using your quilt design as a guide. If you want to quilt a shape, you will need to transfer your pattern onto your quilt before attaching all the layers together. Do this with a water soluble marker or tailors chalk, lead pencil can be difficult to remove.

Most easy machine quilting involves stitching in the ditch (this means following the seam line). Or you can quilt straight or curved lines by sewing your first line of stitching and then follow it with a special bar to space the following lines. (look in your sewing machine accessories compartment and you may discover one of these)

5 Once you have decided on a overall quilting plan, consider your thread choice. Use machine quilting thread which is slightly thicker than ordinary thread and choose a contrasting colour (for the more experienced quilter) or complimentary colour (for the beginner quilter). Use the same colour thread in your top and bottom bobbin.

These are five of my top easy machine quilting tips. Read the remainder of the article and discover another three tips for easy machine quilting here

I hope these easy machine quilting tips have shed some light on the quilting process and that you now feel more confident to give it a go. Happy quilting.
Warmly Lenna
PS For more helpful information visit the resource section of
www.stitchingcow.com

Nursery Rhyme Quilt Fabric Kits

 

Fabric starter kits for the new nursery rhyme quilt by Little Green Cottage are available now at Stitching Cow.

Last week I spent days cutting and sorting fabric. Not that I'm complaining. I love nothing more than playing with fabric, even if it involves folding and packaging it for someone else to enjoy. And hubby is very relieved to have a few less bolts lying around the house. 

Here's what my kitchen table looked like:

 

The starter kits contain most of the exact fabrics I used for the applique in my new nursery rhyme quilt, unfortunately I did not have enough of the cream background fabrics or the green border to include although these will be easy to substitute. I have just taken all the hard work out of choosing colours for the block designs. 

 

Thankfully they have been moving quickly because last week my delivery man came to my door with a new range I had ordered for a future project. Hubby shook his head and signed as more bolts entered through the front door.

But more about that later.

If you're looking for a new quilt project head on over to the nursery rhyme quilt information page. There you will find close ups of the blocks and details about how you can join the monthly e-pattern program for only $10.50 per month. It's a fantastic way to tackle a more challenging quilt project. And while you're there grab yourself one of the starter fabric kits, they won't last long. 

Warmly Lenna 

PS If you're an Aussie blogger don't forget to check out my lighting give away

 

New Block of the Month Nursery Rhyme Quilt

Proudly presenting a brand new block of the month Nursery Rhyme quilt pattern by Lenna Green of Little Green Cottage.

Sit back and enjoy this slide show presentation:

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

More information about this unique quilt project can be found by clicking the link below.

Click here to see more of the new block of the month nursery rhyme quilt pattern