Fabric shopping

So I finally went to Barry's Fabrics today to get something with which to make my Sureau. I loved it! So much fabric all under one roof. Although, I was a little bit baffled as I'm sure someone said to me that it was a three-storey shop when actually it's just one that's packed to the rafters. I must be going deaf(er) in my old age. I had to stop myself buying loads of material, especially when I saw some tartan brushed cotton - perfect for pyjamas. ("No, Sabs, don't start too many projects all at once, you'll never finish anything"). Oh, and how's this for coincidence? I bumped into Kelly from bakedo&mend who is also doing the sewalong!

Here's what I came away with:

Green jersey for perhaps a T-shirt and/or some knickers. I saw a lovely pair over on Roobedoo's blog and that made me think about attempting my own. Plus some navy something-or-other with an ever-so-slight stretch (it's slippery and drapey, feels lovely but is fairly heavy too) which I thought might be good for a Kelly skirt (the pattern is on my Xmas list - fingers crossed!)

Both of these were £1 a metre!!

Unfortunately the photograph above just doesn't do the colours justice. The green is a teal/dark turqoise and the blue is dark navy with an almost crossweavey pattern.

And here's what I chose for the Sureau:

 With a close up of the print itself:

It's a dark brown, printed cotton with a vintage feel. You can't see that well but the flowers are coral and dark yellow. I wanted more orangey tones but couldn't find anything that matched the picture in my head. This came the closest really. But it's autumn/wintery enough and I think (hope) it'll look good with woolly tights, brown boots and maybe a mustard or coral cardi.

All three fabrics have already been washed (as soon as I got in the door!) and are now drying.

I also splurged out a bit more and ordered some organic cotton dyed with natural herbs from Organic Cotton. There's a lot of thoughtful stuff there which makes choosing harder, but I finally chose kassam olive and pomegranite. I can't wait to see what they look like in real life.

So is it too early to cut out my pieces for the sew-along when the fabric's dry tomorrow...?

Autumnal lap quilt

I've been thinking about making an autumn inspired quilt since I started sewing last year - and Celebrate Colour (via Stitched in Color) has given me the perfect incentive!

The front

Back

I wanted to use browns and khakhi greens (being two of my favourite colours) and found some material in my stash that I thought would go well. The bird panel was a perfect match and I absolutely loved the apple fabric (although I'm not sure what it is, Metro Apples perhaps?).

For the back I still had a few scraps of the apple left...

I wanted the quilting to be fairly modern and so i did random straight lines, which were very fun to do. I haven't mastered free motion quilting yet - mainly because the sewing machine I have is a 1930s Singer with a hand-driven wheel so I only ever have my left hand to feed/move the quilt sandwich. Even still, I'm pretty pleased with the effect.

I used bright red fabric for the binding as I thought it brought out the colours of the panels really well.

I also put in one of my labels - based on my first ever cat Tybalt, who the blog is named after. Tybalt (or Tybly as he was affectionately nicknamed) got run over when he was only 13 months old earlier this year. He was my first ever pet and it was like losing my baby. I decided to remember him always in my sewing escapades through my labels.

A little bit rough around the edges! And please excuse the raindrop over "tybalt" - I wanted to photograph the quilt in the sun but it had just rained and I wasn't careful enough when laying the quilt out over the veg patch...(not sure why i even chose that location!)

Anyway, overall I'm really pleased with this - I actually wish I'd made it bigger rather than a lap quilt though. Oh well. I've entered it into the "home decor" category of the Celebrate Colour competition for September - check out the website at Stitched in Color. Fingers crossed, eh?

I'm giving this as a birthday present for my soon-to-be brother-in-law. Hope you like it too!