Sunday 24 June 2012

WiP

Hello,

this is another small quilt I am working on, have just finished the quilting and will have to bind it soon. It's a solids quilt using some Kona solids in jewel tones and black for the sashing and I used black velvet on the back. Not sure whether I can call it a baby quilt, .... but why not, babies could have stylish dark things, it doesn't always have to be baby pink, well, that's what I think anyway. But it would also work really well as a wallhanging or a table decoration. Will show you what it looks like when it's finished.

Lots of love,
Nadine xx

Saturday 23 June 2012

Red and Aqua Baby Quilt

Hello everyone,

here is my latest finished quilt. Sorry for the bad quality of the images but there is no way I could take outdoors picturs in this rain. I had to fiddle quite a bit with them to cut the background out when possible and lighten them.

I love this quilt and it's my first quilt with red velvet on the back. It's a lovely deep red and feels soft and snuggly.

I hope you like it.
Nadine






Wednesday 20 June 2012

My new logo

Here it is, finally. Thanks to my brilliant graphic designer OH it's exactly what I wanted and I am quite happy with it. I think it will be so convenient to just use that on stickers and labels, cards and such.

What do you think?

Lots of love,
Nadine


Sunday 17 June 2012

Mixed media paintings

Hello all,

I have finally had a chance to take some pictures (not perfect, but pretty much the best my camera can come up with) of my new mixed media paintings (now in the shop). All made with acrylics, scrapbook paper, chipboard for texture, rub-ons and stickers and a whole lotta love, ... and mod podge of course.

I adore these, they are so light, which is quite surprising considering how much stuff I used to make them and how many layers of papers and paints and other items there are.

Make sure to take a look at the close-ups to get an idea of the texture and 3D effect.


Up up and away ...









A girl can never have too many shoes




 



Birthday Cake







What do you think?

Lots of love,
Nadine

Friday 15 June 2012

How to stash the STASH?



Hello everyone,

I've finally gotten around taking some photos of my stash because I am currently trying to figure out how best to sort my stash. And I have to say, in real life my stash looks fairly tidy and sorted but in these photos it is a disgrace, it looks so messy and I really need to get this sorted. Ideally, we should win the lottery so we can actually finally buy a house rather than renting this shoe box, but this is all we have at the moment and we have to live with it.

My fabric collection is not extensive, at least I feel there is s lot more fabric I NEED but my craft room is tiny, and there is no space left for anything else, so I need to sort my fabric properly to make the most of the space I have.

I always tend to buy whole collections of designer fabrics (if I have saved up for them) and then I store them all together. But I find that when I make quilts I tend to use one whole collection rather than picking fabrics based on color or patterns.

I am a huge fan of Elisabeth Hartmann's quilts and she seems to store fabrics by color and she also tends to use a lot more monochromatic fabrics or strong colors with white patterns, while my fabrics are usually multicolored and patterned.

So I am determined to change the way I use my fabrics.

My designer collections are stored in these drawer towers


Backyard Baby and Woodland Tails


Some extra Patty Young


The Echo drawer that is so stuffed I can't actually open it


Patty Young Andalucia original and 2012


More Patty Young (think it's obvious I am obsessed with her fabrics), Lush


Patty Young Sanctuary and Tina Givens


More Patty Young Flora & Fauna


Some Heather Ross, Sandi Henderson and Jowel Dewberry


Pat Bravo drawer


Laura Gunn drawer


Hope Valley and a gorgeous collection of .... something I have completely forgotten


Amy Butler (plus Phillip Jacobs)


Loulouthi and FMF


Central Park, some Riley Blake and other jelly rolls or layer cakes


Stripes and some solids layer cakes


Tufted Tweets and Far Far Away

Jessica Levitt's Timber


The Echino drawer plus Far Far Away 2


Lots of Kaffe Fassett


And I have lots of fabrics in 2 plastic boxes when I didn't get the whole (or majority of) collection. And when I last looked it turns out most of those are dots and circles of some kind. (Think a circles quilt is in order.)

So now I need to decide whether I should sort my fabric by color instead. Not sure how that would work when many of the fabrics are multicolored. And as you can see I only have one shelf for fabrics and the rest has to be stored in my drawers.

Jeni from In color order blogs about her stash and how to choose fabrics. Especially this post on stash storage is really helpful. And there are more blogs and flickr groups etc on fabric storage, I'll add some later or write a separate blog post about them.

So how do you store your stash? Do you sort by color or by collection?

Any suggestions welcome. I need your help ladies (and lads).

Love, Nadine

Saturday 9 June 2012

Double Snuggle Baby Blanket


Hello all,

if you've been following my posts on Facebook you know I am trying to figure out new and cheaper products to make and have been working on smaller baby blankets. So this is the first of them, a small (ca. 20" x 26) baby snuggle blanket made with fluffy orange fleece on the back and Riley Blake Owl Flannell on the top (in the shop here). So it is soft and snuggly all over.



I decided to do some outline quilting and bound it by hand, I wasn't sure how to fold and sew the edges neatly enough so went with the more work intensive hand binding instead.



What do you think? Do you like it. Any more suggestions for more baby blankets?

Lots of love,
Nadine








Sunday 3 June 2012

Work in Progress - Lily Ashbury's Trade Winds

Look at these gorgeous fabrics. I just picked up a Jelly Roll of Lily Ashbury's "Trade Winds" for Moda from my LQS and decided to use the fabrics right away for the back of my book shelf QAYG project.








These fabrics are gorgeous and so varied too, so many different colors and designs. Here you can see some tea cups. How cute are they?






I am just making very simple blocks for the back. This will be the first proper reversible quilt I have made since the Windows Quilt. So let's see how I get on with my QAYG.

Have lovely Jubilee Bank Holiday.
Nadine

PS: Sorry for the bad quality pics, took them on my phone camera. My digital camera is not working very well anymore, blurry images whatever I do, even when using a tripod and remote.