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.

Stencilled morsbags using the handle in the design

I was prepared for the 8th International Morsbagging Sunday, organised by I bag you, and had 26 kits cut and and ready to be sewn.

Here are the finished bags! The material is from 4 single sheets from my childhood. There wasn't quite enough for them all to have matching handles, so I decided that some of them would get one black handle which would then work into a design. Much like the red lemur bag!

Next came the planning stage. This involved lots of quick sketches to get some inspiration. I ended up with 17 bags to stencil! So far, I've managed...

A snake bag...

A hanging monkey bag (with one skinny ankle)....

A power cord bag (with sparks - first time I've used colour fabric paint)...

An umbrella bag...

A cat bag (I used a photo to design this one, hence its realism)...


And last but not least, a fatty fatty boombah bag. As you can see, realistic anatomy is not my strong point, unless copied from a photo!

There's a bit of go-go-gadget arm action happening there. And some cankles. And boy is that ape one fatty boombah. No more bananas for you!

Six down, eleven to go... If you have any ideas, please share!

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!

Constance bunny from tollipop

Just the other day, I had the surreal experience of visiting tollipop and seeing my name staring back at me... I'd won the Constance bunny giveaway!

Here's Constance bunny, next to Clementine. I do hope that cup of tea is for me. There are so many lovely prints & originals available from the tollipop etsy shop.


It's so cute, I immediately wanted to make a little stuffed Constance bunny toy. I sketched a quick design or two, and we'll see if I find the time/energy to whip it up!

If you're quick, there's another tollipop giveway going at the moment! So head on over if you'd like a wee original for yourself. Especially if you like bunnies and icecream...

Toy Society Drop: No llores, Lorretta!

I wasn't in the best frame of mind when I got home from work. So I decided to make a toy for a Toy Society Drop (#1179).

Flicking through my sketch book, I found this illustration, inspired by Llorie the bipolar cloud in the plush-o-rama book.

I didn't trace the sketch or anything, I just winged it... hence the clover-shaped hands! The cheeks & tear were an afterthought. It was therapeutic hand-stitching and stuffing the toy. And trying to do a drop-off without getting spotted is always exciting!

I left Lorretta attached to a tree outside the old bus depot markets (Canberra, Australia) around 5pm. When I passed by the tree again around 9pm she was still hanging there..!

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Related post: Free toy pattern: Lorretta

A gold monocle and a seedy moustache

Meet Sir Reginald Walter, the most eligible bachelor in the dotee world, created for The Bachelor Dotee swap on swap-bot. He has a seedy moustache and a gold monocle! His hankie coordinates with his stripey blue tie! He has a slick part in his full head of hair! He looks a bit like the Monopoly man! He is refined and wordly! And he brought flowers... I'm sure you can see why he drives all the dotee girls wild.


Unlike Dotee Dad USB, where I cut around the countour of the head, here I decided to have a background. I think it worked well. As an added bonus, I used up some cute scraps and a cute button I acquired from the local op-shop.

Once again, I felt compelled to have the back of the dotee mirror the front.

It took several hours to make, and I did the felt in layers. The final dimensions were: 4" tall, 2" tail, 2.5" hanger. Because of the small size, I didn't use real buttons, but instead worked the gold thread into french knots.


I sketched the dotee while having a coffee at my favourite local café. I set up a blank template & was happy enough with the first sketch to go with it. Sir Reginald Walter may have lost the walking stick, but he remained pretty true to the sketch!

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Related posts:

• Incoming: bachelor dotee
• Dotee Dad USB

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....

Christmas Dotees

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope you all enjoy it, however you choose to celebrate this occasion.

Who could that handsome fellow be?


The countdown to Christmas has transformed crafting from a relaxing pastime to a frantic race against the clock for me. This is compounded by sending to people in other states and having to rely on the postal system.... a postal system that is experiencing strikes at the moment.

Having little choice, I bought an overnight satchel. So there I was at 5:55pm (the deadline is 6pm), trying to stuff my satchel in the special yellow post bin, unable to get it in. A man sitting on a bench nearby watched on with wry amusement. He mentioned that there were a few workers still in the office. I pleaded with them through the glass, but they shook their head and ignored me. Seeing me re-emerge with the parcel, the man from the bench helped me somehow squeeze the parcel through the slot. I love helpful strangers!

Back to the dotees...


Santa's body is about 6.5cm (~2.75") and the angel's is about 8cm (~3.25"). It took a long time to settle on the Angel's body colour, and her wings were quite labour intensive. The charms are from last year's post-Christmas sales.

I always like to compare my final creations to their sketch-form. Let's take a peek...

• Santa's head got much larger, so the gloves had to go. Otherwise, he's pretty similar!
• The angel was originally going to have gold ringlets (see my previous itty bitty dotee to see what that looks like), but I went for a different look in the end. The blue body and black hair contrast more in real life. I probably should have stuck with stitching the star design on her body, but I'm having a bit of a love affair with felt!

Just for laughs, I left in little bits of other sketches of dotees... these were done by a friend who decided I was doing too many cutesy designs and should include some gore in the next batch. There's also the bottom of a snowman dotee which didn't end up being made... maybe next year!

To finish off, I'd like to take this chance to thank whoever invented the purple disappearing ink pens... it has made stitching faces so much easier!

Itty bitty dotee fever

In my last post, I mentioned that I was having to redo my doll for the Itty Bitty Dotee Swap on Swap-Bot due to fraying.

Well.... it's complete! Behold the complete wheat dotee! You'll notice that the hair changed completely from the original sketch - I still haven't worked out how to do yarn hair! I think the bullion ringlets are cute though, even though she now looks like she is called Helga and should be serving beers part of Oktoberfest! I managed to salvage the face off the first dotee, only redoing the french knots (one was loose)

The wheat is a little off-center, and the bottom a bit crooked - but it doesn't really matter!


Complete, Helga measures 4"... she has a 2" long torso (1 1/4" wide) and the hanger & tail measure about 1" each. I decided that that was not itty bitty enough! I'm sure my swap partner wouldn't mind, but I'm sending her an even ittier bittier one too anyway. It was so much fun to make!

I stuck with the nature theme again. Meet Lady Dotee Bug!


She's made entirely of felt (the ladybug is from a novelty printed felt square) and is truly tiny! She was much quicker to sew up, and I used blanket stitch around the edges. And she has french knot cheeks!

So just how much smaller is she?


She's about 2 1/4" tall in total. Her torso is just under 1 1/2" long (3/4" wide), her hanger is 1/2" long and her tail is just over 1/4" long.

Unless you count the pseudo-dotee pig, these are my first dotees! :)

So what's next? Not a dotee! For my next swap I have to make a flower-person ATC... we'll see how that goes!

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• Related post: Incoming: itty bitty dotee

One-Day Swap

I made this ATC for the One-Day Swap at swap-bot.

The original sketch was for a dotee doll, but I didn't have enough nice fabrics to pull it off. However, after spreading all of my craft supplies out all over the floor to take stock of my supplies (they're all still scattered about, ahem), I decided that I had enough appropriate paper scraps to give an ATC a go.

ATCs are a concept that, like dotees, I had not come across before joining swap-bot. So this is my very first ATC. I'm still not comfortable with my drawing skills, preferring to do simple collage-type things for now.

You can't really tell from the scanned image, but the ATC is layered:

• The red hat-band & dress are made from corrugated red cardboard
• The hat itself is made from textured black cardboard. The brim stands out, because I stuck a piece of felt under it.
• The "button" is a "flat" wooden bead
• The face is made of felt, with embroidered eyes & mouth.
• The fringe is also made from felt, but the hair that hangs down is braided embroidery thread (they move around freely)
• The shawl's fringe is green Yarn
• The shawl and hills are made from some scrapbooking paper & the sky was cut out of an advertising catalogue

I love all the different textures & recycling all the scraps of paper & material I have been hoarding for what feels like an eternity!

Glucksschwein swap

I made this pig for the Glucksschwein swap at swap-bot.

I made it from Runo's pattern, making it half-size. The colouring is inspired from a black and white potbellied pig.


I saw that my swap partner also likes Dotees. Having only just discovered them myself, and after looking through many galleries of them on Flickr, I decided to make my first one.

My housemate liked the pig toy I made, although it became known as the "cow-pig". I sketched a "cow-pig" dotee design and am happy with how it turned out!