A glimpse of Spring

Splashed out with the last gold coins left after this Sunday's market shop to bring a little bit of spring into the otherwise grey winter house. What a joy. Walking in the door and having the smell of spring hit you is wonderful. Must treat myself more often.

Flag Banner

It occurred to me in a bit of a panic that my friends’ beautiful girl Charlotte was turning 5. I don’t pretend to try and keep up with all my friends’ childrens birthdays, and I figured after the first birthday they usually had so many presents they didn’t need any more from me. However, with Charlotte turning 5, I thought perhaps I could manage some milestones.

The father Richard is a builder and has made their house absolutely gorgeous. As part of the work he was doing when I last visited they were working to have a rumpus room finished so they could have a kiddies party ( – lucky girls to have a play room. It’s also where Richard will be relegated to play his drums.) Anyway, I thought I’d make a wee banner to celebrate and also with the dual aim of annoying Richard if he thinks for a second it’s his room and not the girls’ room. So I opted for a banner spelling out “Big Girls Room” (is it wrong to make presents to annoy your friends? Perhaps I have the giving spirit a bit skewed?).

Anyway, I had some scraps fabric and left over kiddie patterns from a quilt I’d made for my niece and so I thought I could use those up. I opted for the front to be pretty with flowers, and the back to be a bit less girlie

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised, I think it turned out looking ok.
It’s pretty intuitive but just in case anyone appreciates a step by step:

1.) plan what you want to have. I am terrible at planning as I’m too impatient and always skip this step. Despite projects always having flaws due to failures to plan (I call them made-with-love-idiosyncrasies), I still just charge into projects. Key point though – make sure you have enough fabric for the each flag.

2.) I cut out triangles at a size of 7inches along the base and 9inches in height. They seemed a decent size – not too big, not too small. They are large enough to put lettering on if that’s your thing, but don’t require it. They show off the fabric pattern too. (When cutting them out you can cut a strip 9 inches high and then do the triangles side to side. So, the right side of one cut down like a “V” becomes the left side of one pointing upwards “^”.)

3.) I then did the lettering. In hindsight the letters could have been a bit bigger. I used a piece of black felt and some fusible bonding. Note if you haven’t used this before, remember to write your lettering onto the fusible bond back-to-front so when you finally turn the piece round to fuse it onto the finished fabric it faces the right way. You could also applique the letters if you like that look or have the time. Given this was panic job, I didn’t bother.

4.) With right sides facing and a 1/4 inch seam, I stitched the sides together down the sloping sides, just turning the fabric with your needle down in the fabric when you get to the tip of the flag. Do this for all the flags. I trimmed the seam on the tip so it wasn’t too bulky when turned. The tops were left open to allow the flags to be turned right sides facing out.

(At this point I realised I hadn’t made enough to allow a gap-flag in between the words. I also managed to get some of the same backing fabrics together when I wanted them to be dispersed randomly – not the end of the world but that kind of thing would irritate me if it was hanging in my room. I also suspect you need to be careful if you’re planning words on both sides to make sure the words read correctly in both directions. In short – this is where your planning or no-planning approach comes to the fore.)

5.) I choose a thick bias binding I had lying around as the joining line. I am not good with bias binding as I find I don’t have the patience to do it perfectly and whilst the concept seems simple and easy it never quite seems that easy in practice. In the end it may not have been the most perfect sewing but I figure kids don’t really care about that. I sewed each flag to the ‘ inside back’ of the binding and then folded it over and topstitched the ‘front outside’ of the binding to the front of the flags. This means on the back there are two lines of stitching in the bias binding which can look a touch scruffy for those perfectionists out there, but I matched the thread to the colour so it’s not very obvious. (If you’re a perfectionist or making this for a designer banner rather than a children’s’ banner then read up on sewing the bias binding so the stitching matches perfectly over each other. As I say – I’m too impatient but it can be done.)

I quite liked the result and not a bad effort for a couple of evenings work. I have posted it off.

Can't beat Wellington on a good day

Can't beat Wellington on a good day

Patchwork Cushions - for sale

oh hurray!!!! - I've managed a post and to get the cushions up for sale all in one day. Good on me!

(Has to be said - this blogging thing is much harder than i thought it would be.)

Anyway, the range of cushions is up and can be seen at:
www.felt.co.nz/browse/user/12redhead

Perhaps not surprisingly I think you have to have one in your home.

Patchwork cushions

I am still very fond of patchwork. Often relegated to the realm of doilies and folksy patterns, the combinations and colours can so effectively be used in patchwork to create something beautiful.


While overseas one becomes naturally very patriotic, and New Zealanders certainly seem to become embrace the kiwiana vibe. I found a fabric store in London that was selling New Zealand fabric designs which I immediately had to have. Using those – and still with my hand stitching approach – I made a few cushion covers to remind me of home. They were popular and so became a present for expats in London.


I have repeated the same kind of concept again now, inspired by some bundles of fabric I found as I patrolled the stores of Wellington, on a line of cushions which I hope capture some of the niceness of simple patchwork. I think they work – they look stylie, homely, but also not totally ‘mummsy’.

I hope to be organised enough to get these up for sale soon.

The first quilt always has a place in one's heart

The sewing started almost 3 years ago now with a casual flick through a Home and Garden magazine during a visit back to NZ. I really liked the quilt that they had in the magazine, and when I returned to Australia my friend emailed me the instructions. (I still have the photo. See it’s a lovely quilt isn’t it?)

I didn’t want to shy away, or be hampered by a lack of experience or tools, so I started my first attempt at sewing regardless. It was all quite new – choosing fabric and seeing how patterns and colours work together etc - I had never stood in the fabric section of Spotlight before. And then I started painstakingly hand stitching the squares of fabric (that’s right – no sewing machine).

Eventually, about a year later I was 75% through the front, and I put the quilt down. It became difficult to pick back up. It followed me as we packed up our lives in Australia and moved to Canada for a few months, and then on to the UK. It moved from flat to flat in London.

Finally my partner relented to my whinging and bought me a sewing machine for a birthday present (big call as we were transient and living out of suitcases so a hefty sewing machine called for some compromise). It was only then I realised just how quick sewing in a straight line could be with the machine – what had taken me a whole evening to hand stitch could be done in a minute.

It took some time to go back to the partial quilt but eventually I did (this was after yet another country move, and finally being back in Wellington, NZ – having carted the sewing machine back). Only then did I finally finish it – some two and a half years later.

What it illustrates is how much you learn in a short space of time without really being conscious of it. Looking at the quilt now, I will always have a fondness for it as it was my first project and it took such a long time to finish, but if I was to start a quilt with the same pattern again now, I suspect it would turn out very differently. But still, it is cosy in winter and is for me more a heartfelt piece about perseverance more than quality or style.

I’ve been pondering on this day for a while now. It’s a truly scary moment to try to put yourself out there in amongst a world of talent and wave a teenie tiny flag. Like waving one of those cocktail toothpick flags amongst a riot of talent and creativity. Nevertheless, these things don’t happen if you don’t try, so this is my first baby step. Little, little baby step.

I hope this will be a hobby site. I am the first to admit that my attention span can be somewhat challenged. In my short crafting and sewing life I have jumped from paper bracelets to mosaics, from stencils to dresses. But I am hoping that I can bring some of these things together and make a little sense. I have no idea how to blog or how to create a readable site, but I’m hoping there will be many many lessons. I gave up when I had to start reading things which were initials phps and htmls and just jumped. It may backfire.

I shall now promptly demand that my mother and loyal friend immediately read this blog and be awestruck. Everyone else, please just bear with me as I learn.