sewing

I had an idea for a quilt,  after seeing and making a soft structured cup and saucer, I wanted to incorporate soft tea cups into the design to give it a 3D effect. I started by collecting together old tablecloths and napkins, these would inspire the design of the 'soft crockery'. I sketched out my design for the quilt, it would be formed of nine main table cloth squares. Eight of the squares designed with cups in and the final square would be a mug.

I have a soft spot for 'soft' sculptures, the kind made popular by the American artist Claes Oldenburg, it's the mixture of art, fabric and crafts I like. Claes Oldenburg's sculptures confuse our expectations of how ordinary objects should “behave.” Using ordinary, everyday items, he developed “soft” sculptures using pliable materials such as canvas and vinyl to create flaccid objects. I've included some photos of his work below, the light Switch, French Fries and Ketchup and Soft Toilet.

In October, at the Knitting and Stitching show in London, I bought a Bernina sewing machine. My previous sewing machine had served me well for 22 years, it has been a work horse of a machine like an old friend. Now I wanted to treat myself and get a computerised machine. I have been looking for along time as these machines are an investment (investment read costly!). At one point I was disillusioned and disappointed as none of the machines were compatible with my MacBook.

Over the last couple of days I've been getting familiar with my new sewing machine, especially the embroidery stitches, a novelty to me!

These bright flowers couldn't be easier to make, just a little sewing involved.

Following my diagram make a pattern.

Cut out the felt.

The petals are formed by folding the main oblong of felt in half, making six cuts as indicated, giving you seven petals. Sew a running stitch along the bottom edge, pull thread to form a circle. Sew the two ends together, at the base.

Traditionally in sport, competitors exchange Pennants as a sign of friendship. To continue this tradition, and as a memento of their participation in the London 2012 Olympics www.quilts4london.org.uk  is organising a project to make an A3 (12" x 16") Pennant for each athlete - a personal gift for each athlete, created by you.

For this Easter decoration I took the basic Scandinavian woven heart basket pattern and instead of using traditional red and white felt I used felt cleaning cloths, in pastel shades. I decorated the baskets with flowers, made from the same felt, and placed a piece of tissue inside to nestle small eggs in.

For this Easter basket I bought a 99p packet of cleaning cloths, the pastel colours are perfect for this Easter project. In The 99p Shop I found a packet of 15 pearlized eggs, they open up, you can put sweets of your choice inside. Alternatively you could put chocolate or decorated eggs in the basket . For the basic basket I found this comprehensive tutorial on Maya Made Maya has made a beautiful basket, I have just tweaked it a bit for this project.

After doing previous projects using the Suffolk puff (yo-yo's), and being pleased with the effect they give, I wanted to try something else. I liked a brooch I saw on The Eternal Magpie it was another twist on the Suffolk puff. This is my version of the flower.

I used a fine cotton lawn fabric, from this I cut out six circles for the petals and one in a contrasting colour for the centre.