Quilt for Pulse

I remember the sense of hopelessness I felt when hearing about the events unfolding in the Pulse nightclub in June 2016. It was a targeted attack on a gay nightclub on a "latin night".

Not long afterwards, I saw a call out by the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild for quilts. Any contribution was welcomed, from single blocks, through to quilt tops, and of course finished quilts. The recommended block pattern was a simple heart one from cluck cluck sew.

Initially planning on completing just some blocks, I soon found myself watching out for bright colours in quilt shops, quickly picking up some beautiful background fabric (Paradise by Chong-a Kwang for Timeless Treasures) from Shellys Sewing Centre in Goulburn and a jelly roll of Moda Grunge from HobbySew Belconnen. I had never worked with a Jelly roll before, and soon found myself designing quilt after quilt, trying to incorporate a rainbow design, and taking care of the quantity of fabric required. Finally, I settled on this design:



I had no real neutrals in my stash, so I got a couple of jelly rolls of Whispers by Muslin Mates for Kona, and some generic fabrics from Lincraft and Addicted to Fabric.

It was a real labour of love, requiring a lot of math, fabric layout choices, careful cutting, and never ending ironing. So many seams when working with jelly rolls!

Bit by bit, I saw my design come to life, and before long the top was finished.

Because I bought my backing before having a quilt design/final size in mind, I was short by a frustrating few inches. This required a little more design work, and some thin strips of neutral to form small hearts and tie into the front of the quilt

Next was the question of quilting. My old sewing machine has not a lot of throat space, and I was tossing up between straight-line quilting and a stipple effect. With a little help from Christina Cameli's book "First steps to free-motion quilting" and a sewing desk I received from my local Buy Nothing Group (allowing me to lower the working area of the machine to table level), I launched head first into my first serious free-motion quilting.

It was difficult working the stitches on such a small machine, but I love how it turned out.

Made with Love by Jen E. 2016 #quiltsforpulse

 
I was proud to send the quilt to Orlando, to take its place with well over a thousand other quilts worldwide. I have seen that the distribution of these quilts has begun.

You can check out many of the quilts made by searching for the tag #quiltsforpulse

• On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/quiltsforpulse
• On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/quiltsforpulse

Lastly, I wanted to mention that there was a lovely short news clip about the project, and another news clip on distributing quilts to the Orlando police department.

Dotee with a fancy button

It's been over 5 years since I last made a dotee doll, or participated in a swap on swap-bot.

I don't know what brought me back to them, but I really enjoyed taking part in the "Dotee with a fancy button" swap.

I had a lot of fun in the details, including the beaded/laced bodice and weaving metal through the hair.

I also recently discovered a site called So Sew Easy, where I got a pattern for a nappy changing mat for a baby shower. There's also an active Facebook group, where I saw lots of people posting about a "teeny tiny mini zipper pouch".

I decided to make a pouch for the dotee doll, and found that using some of my 7.5sq in Japanese charm pack fabric was the perfect size, and I added some of the same lace used on the dotee's bodice when top-stitching the zip.

I had a lot of fun designing this, and I was so happy to see that people are still making and swapping dotees. I'm looking forward to making more! Flickr has lots of great inspiration.

Stencilled morsbags using the handle in the design - Round two!

Back in 2010, I posted the first set of stencilled morsbags using the handle in the design. I made a few more in the series not long afterwards, once again using freezer paper for the stencils.

Old-school radio cassette player.

Octopus!

Alien spaceship!

The alien spaceship concept started simply enough, with a sketch of a spaceship (a design suggested by a friend of mine).


Then I got all of my screen paints colours out and went to town. I did it in two layers - colours first, then the black layer. Afterwards I added some details by hand.

I love this photo - it shows the cramped quarters I was working from in 2010. I had everything set up on an ironing board between my bed and my wardrobe.

This detail shows that I didn't quite align my layers. Of course, I realised afterwards that I didn't need to leave a gap in the yellow layer - the black would have printed fine straight over it! Luckily, I like the effect it produced given the context.

Got a bit fancy with mixing colours here.


And my favourite detail - the alien in the cockpit.

This bag is living with the friend who suggested the design.

If you want to make your own Morsbags, grab the free pattern from the site and some reclaimed material (these bags were made from old sheets). Careful - it's addictive, whether you screenprint them or not!

In memory of Ian

This portrait was made in memory of Ian, one year on.

I completed it in November 2010, using Dudecraft's excellent tutorial.

Toy Society Drop: No llores, Lorretta #2 (with added lightning!)

Since I made the ¡no llores, Lorretta! pattern available, I thought I'd better test it. The first time I made the toy I didn't really use a pattern.


I had different colours of felt to work with, so it came out a little differently. Still pretty cute, I reckon.

After making the toy, I made a few adjustments to the pattern for next time (the right hand was a little wonky, redid the cloud bumps between the arms...). Looking at the pictures now, I probably should have also trimmed the dark felt a bit more so it didn't show up on the happy side!

I decided to leave her for someone to find, as a Toy Society Drop (#1332).

I left Lorretta attached to a tree near one of Lake Burley Griffin's walking tracks (Canberra, Australia) around midday.

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Related post: Free toy pattern: Lorretta

Reversible cycling cap

UPDATE: Pattern updated 02/10/10
Please scroll down for details.

This reversible cycling cap was intended ad a gift, and as you can see it's a bit big for me! I scored the tweed material for next to nothing at my local op-shop, and the plastic in the brim (which allows it to flick upward like a traditional cycling cap) came from a display folder's cover. No that is not a real fingerstache tattoo, and the brooch is from Dog Daisy.

I got the idea from Panda Face's original pattern on flickr, which has some interesting comments and links to photos. Dude craft's video tutorial and PDF pattern were also a great help. The pattern is for a non-reversible cap and his brim is more like a baseball-cap. Unlike Panda Face's pattern, which needs some adjusting to get the proportions right, Dude Craft's is correctly proportioned and ready to print. It helped me create my own pattern using the more traditional brim as per Panda Face's pattern.

With their permission, I am releasing the pattern under an attribution, share-alike creative commons license, which means you are allowed to modify and redistribute the pattern as long as you do so under the same license and give credit.

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UPDATE: After feedback from the recipient, I have modified the pattern to make the brim a little skinnier and the hat a little shorter. The files below have been updated, and the old versions are still available too. I have also removed the non-commercial clause from the creative commons license.

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• pattern PDF v3 (A4)
• pattern PDF v3 (US letter)
  

This pattern makes a cap with roughly a 62cm (24.4") circumference.

If you want to edit the pattern directly in Inkscape or an equivalent program, here is the original design file:

• pattern SVG v3 (A4)
• pattern SVG v3 (US letter)
  

One day I plan to write up a proper tutorial on how to make the cap reversible and adjust the pattern size for different heads.

The basic idea is that you cut out 8 cap pieces and 2 brim pieces. You sew up the middle seam of each cap piece, then sew the cap pieces together in pairs. Next, grab two double cap pieces and join them. Check size against your head, adjust seams in as necessary. Repeat with the two remaining double cap pieces.

Next, take the two brim pieces and sew them together. Insert the plastic piece, sew around the edge of the brim (through the plastic) to keep in it place and sew the opening shut. Finally, put the two cap pieces together (right sides facing) and sandwich the brim piece between the two. Sew around the edge, leaving an opening at the back through which you then pull the cap right-side-out.

Fold under the sides of the opening and put some elastic in if you like. To finish it off, top-stitch all the way around the bottom of the cap, thus closing the opening and making sure both sides of the cap sit correctly.

Stamp carving with Brown Owls

I hadn't been to a Brown Owls meeting in such a long time, so it was great to be back and crafting with other people again.

This month's activity was stamp carving, and there are some great tutorials listed for it if you're interested. I'd been a little disheartened by my attempt to carve lino, but carving erasers was a much nicer experience!

It's nice to be able to give it a go, ink it, and then make adjustments. For instance, I had to get rid of a bit in the corner of the robo-postbox one. Also, don't forget to reverse things like writing if you are drawing directly on to the stamp... that's how I ended up with an exclamation mark before the envelope!


These are the sketches I worked from... and I'd love to think up some more. These will be great for stamping envelopes with. Check out the meet's stamping round-up for some great inspiration!

1950s Cheerleading costume

That, my friends, is what happens when you try to take an action shot of yourself using the 10-second timer on a cheap camera balanced on a cereal box, on a chair, with no natural light left in the day.

Recently, a friend hosted a murder mystery party. It was good fun because I could reminisce about the ones I went to when I was at school... and because dress-ups are always fun!

I was told my character was a 1950s cheerleader. A quick google image search revealed that the 1950s cheerleading outfits were pretty chaste! Of course I left making the costume to the day of the party, so I had to work fast, with materials I already had!

I had a bunch of plain green fabric, so I whipped up a really simple skirt using Gosgrain's fabulous 20-minute skirt tutorial. It turned out too long (my fault!), but I was too lazy to hem it up as the bottom of the skirt was the selvedge... best idea ever!

I chose one of my white shirts to wear, and traced an R onto a sheet of cheap green acrylic felt. I cut it out and stuck it on with double-sided sticky tape which easily lasted the night and didn't leave any marks on my shirt!

For the pom-poms, I just tore long thin strips of green and white fabric. For each one, I took a bunch of strips, doubled them over and tied the middle off with an elastic band, leaving enough room for a finger to loop through it.

It was a fun night, though I must confess I didn't guess the murderer...

I'm looking forward to making a more flattering skirt with the tutorial soon!

Morsbag winner & discussion on plastic bags

I decided to be a little silly when it came to drawing the winner for the blue/brown Morsbag (pictured above). I felt like adding a human element!


First I chose three pink pencils and and labelled them 1-3.

Then, I randomised the entrants, thus associating each one with a pencil.


Last but not least, when my sister came around I asked her to pick a pencil (without explaining why). Then I got her to answer the same question I asked the contestants.

She picked #3, so congratulations darkpurplemoon! The parcel is on the way.

Thanks to all who entered! To finish off, I'd like to discuss the answers I received to the question

What is the single biggest obstacle to your living without plastic bags?

• Lack of time! I confess I use disposable nappies (for my babies - it's not a weird sort of confession), and I dispose of them in plastic bags. But I always try to remember my ecobags for the shopping! (Anna Bartlett)

• It is so hard to get things without plastic when you work full time. I am investigating getting things delivered from the local organic delivery service, but I grow a lot of my veg and I don't want to get things I already have. Our local farmers market is on a wednesday and friday. Er, yeah. Thanks for that! (darkpurplemoon)
  

• I started sewing morsbags in October 2007 and since then I've drastically reduced the use of plastic bags. The main problem for me at the moment is how to dispose garbage. Depending on the garbage sometimes it might be difficult without a plastic bag... but I'm working on it! ;o) (I bag you)
  

• I would miss being able to wrap dodgy containers with liquid - in case they spill/condense (My sister)
  

I agree with Anna & I bag you that garbage always seems to involve plastic bags... wrapping certain waste, lining bins... We always decline bags and we manage to cut down on the number of bags we use by trying to avoid excess packaging & composting vegetable scraps, but we line our bins nonetheless (our plastic bag stash will run out one day...), and some things just come packaged in certain sizes... as darkpurplemoon pointed out, farmers markets can be hard to get to on a busy schedule. I also agree with my sister. I bring my lunch in a cotton bag so condensation doesn't bother me, but spills do... I keep meaning to make some nice, plastic-lined, washable lunch bags!

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Related post: 50 Morsbags = a giveaway!

Padded external hard drive organiser

My little sister just turned 21. She likes to write stories. She also just lost her primary USB, with data on it which she didn't have saved anywhere else (partly because she had run out of space on her laptop).

From there, the idea for her present blossomed (and then reached fruition very quickly.... ahh, deadlines!)

First of all, I bought her a 320GB external hard drive. I promptly decided that she needed a pretty case to keep it & the cable in, and a pen & pad for spontaneous writing.... I was happy to finally have a project to use my Little Red Riding Hood FQ from Kokka.

I was inspired by all the handy organising rolls I had seen floating around. Here are some links to such tutorials, in no particular order, in case you want to make your own:

• Roll-up crochet hook case tutorial @ PlanetJune
  
• Crochet project roll tutorial @ Sew,Mama,Sew! by Thornberry
• Passport organiser @ Dollar Store Crafts
• Take-along placemat @ Patchwork and other sewing projects
• Fold-up crayon pouch @ Nested
• Keep on rollin' @ Skip to my Lou
• (Sewing) Class roll @ You Sew, Girl!
  

I didn't end up using any of them in particular... I just winged it. First of all I played around with some fabric & pins, sketching possible layouts at the same time.


I decided I wanted the hard drive & accessories to sit neatly in a row, whereas I wanted the book to be able to be opened without needing to take it out. I guesstimated some dimensions for all the pieces I'd need.

As I would only have one shot at the cutting & assembling, I took the unprecedented step (for me!) of testing my pattern with some scrap material first (in this case an old sheet). I cut and pinned and uhmed and ahhed and finally adjusted the final pattern piece sizes.


As you can see, I decided to have a huge top flap to stop the hard drive from falling out. I also decided to sew in a layer of bamboo batting to protect it a little bit form bumps and scratches.


My original design had a thin strip of fabric running through the spirals of the book and clipping at the top - this would stop the book from moving around too much. In the end though, the pocket was tight enough that it wasn't necessary.


I had planned to have the roll close using a pair of cute wooden buttons. Two disastrous button-hole attempts later, and I gave up on that idea. Hello, velcro!


Luckily I'd made the closing strap extra long, and I simply trimmed it back after each attempt, folded under the new raw edge and sewed it shut again. Velcro is far easier to use anyway... though it's not as pretty having the extra sew line for it showing on the strap.

Also, sewing the second piece of velcro onto the main part (behind the pocket where the external drive is) was pretty difficult as I'd already sewn everything up. It had to be done mostly by hand.

My sister loved it, and I wouldn't mind having something similar myself. Why is my hard drive roaming around somewhere, getting scratched & losing its cable? Why don't I ever make things for myself? I seem to get most creative when creating for others. And now that I've "done" the external drive case, I'm sure I'll be looking to try something new for my next project....

Pin cushion from Ivory Blush Roses

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During the great lucky streak of '09, I picked up this gorgeous pin cushion from a give-away over at Ivory Blush Roses. I love it & use it all the time... it's a great size & the colours remind me of a grassy knoll. So cute!

She has a great tutorial on how to make your own pincushions, using CDs as bases! I love the fact that old CDs have been used in this piece, and have a secret urge to peek inside and see what CDs are in there.

I first stumbled upon Ivory Blush Roses through her crazy quilting.

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This jellyfish, in particular, tickled my fancy!

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I like the chocolate creams in this piece too. There are many many more examples of crazy-quilted blocks over on her site.

Other lovely photographs from her site include:

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Yarn that looks good enough to eat, and...

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...sweet collections like the crocks and shells pictured above.

If you pop over to say hi, don't forget to check out her other tutorials too!

Modified buttercup bag

I've had Rae's Free Buttercup Bag sewing pattern in my crafty bookmarks folder since it came out in February. A friend's birthday was the perfect excuse to give the pattern a go. I had a 18"x20" piece of Peter Alexander's Bird Seed fabric in my stash. A little too small to do anything with - or so I thought!

I was determined to complete the bag with materials I had on hand, which didn't include a magnetic clasp. I modified the pattern a little bit to add a zip, as I have recently acquired an enormous quantity of them & I'm trying to use them in as many projects as possible. It also meant I could line the bag with yellow polkadot material while a classy "white" look when the zip is shut.

It was satisfying to put the sum of knowledge I've been acquiring through recent projects to use.

To install the zipper, I used techniques I learned in cindylou's How to make a lined zipper pouch tutorial. I made the handle using bunny bum's technique she uses in her market tote tutorial. I inserted the handle between the outside & the lining using the method I learned from cindylou's tutorial for a simple reversible totebag.

I skipped the decorative buttons, as I decided that this fabric didn't need it. I also added a little zipper pull because the zip is a fair bit down & the top of the bag curves.


It worked pretty well, although the zipper was still a bit crooked. Next time I'll sew down the seamline a bit, between the handle & the zipper to anchor the lining to the outside fabric to stop them separating when the zip is pulled open/shut.

It's a small bag, but perfect for a small wallet, phone & keys if you're going out. And a great use for pretty fat quarters!

I plan to make one for myself sometime, and will try and document my modifications so I can make a mini tutorial. In case you're interested, Sarah has already put together an alternate way to sew recessed zippers.