Bunny Cushion!

The birthday party day has arrived and the present was finished with an hour to spare!

The pattern by Elizabeth Hartman was really easy to follow but the cutting out was quite intense because there are pretty small pieces of fabric!

I made the bottom of the bunnies face a little bit bigger so he has a nice chubby face.

Once I had finished the piecing I decided to not quilt the bunnies face apart from the nose and some whiskers. I then concentrated on the background. Into to this I quilted carrots and swirls. A bunny needs carrots after all!

The picture of the finished cushion is not great - no light here today!

I hope that the birtdhay boy loves it as much as I loved making it!

Sewing a Bunny!

This weekend midi monster has a birthday party to attend. It is the 10th birthday of his best friend.

You may not know this, but midi monster is a very talent young sewer. He can happily set up a sewing machine and can sew patchwork blocks, quilt and make simple things. His best friend is also a young sewer, he has helped his mum set up her machine and discover stitches she didn't even know about! They both attended sewing classes with me earlier this year and loved it.

But what to give a young man that will be meaningful and not too expensive?

The obvious answer is a quilted bunny cushion to go on his bed!

During an search on the internet last weekend we came across a wonderful pattern sale last weekend at Oh Fransson, the wonderful blog written by Elizabeth Hartman.

Elizabeth Hartman designs the most amazing blocks and quilts. Her new animal shape blocks are gorgeous and luckily there is bunny one!

Bunny pattern by Elizabeth Hartman

Just look at those amazing bunnies!

This evening we have printed the pattern off and sat discussing the cutting instructions for one bunny. After much consideration it was decided that mummy should cut out the required shapes - they are little bit fiddly.

So begins the first new project in quite sometime..... plus a short deadline! Must be ready for the birthday party at 11am on Sunday!

Wish us luck!

Taking an Online Class

A little while ago, Alison from Pollyanna Patchwork wrote a blog post about the crafting website Craftsy.

It is an amazing resource of classes for all sorts of crafts, including patchwork and quilting.  The site is very clean and easy to navigate, with loads of opportunities to learn something new.

There are plenty of patchwork classes for beginners to experienced quilters, so I was really excited to find it! But money over the summer is always really tight - higher childcare costs and no private lessons....

So I had to wait until I could have a go! Luckily the site offered a free class to try out. The class is Creative Quilt Backs by Elizabeth Hartman. I tried out the course and I was really impressed, the class is broken down into sections that are easy to navigate, you can ask questions as you go and you can upload images of your work so Elizabeth can give you feedback!

I have been slowly saving my pennies, because the class I really wanted to take is Angela Walters called Machine Quilting Negative Spaces. I have been a fan of Angela for quite a long time - she is really approachable on Twitter and her blog is fantastic.

So far I have managed to watch the first 4 sections of the class, each around 20 minutes. It has been fantastic. She gives you so much information, support and ideas. The class is really well filmed and clear.

The best thing so far is that Angela is really reassuring that it doesn't need to be perfect - it is your design and the aim isn't to be perfect quilters but to add texture and design to spaces of colour. That makes me happy, since my machine quilting is no where near perfect!

I am so impressed with the class and really glad I bought it. So if your considering a Craftsy Class I say go for it!