KEEPING DOLLY COZY

Quilted Sleeping Bag

Quilted Sleeping Bag Tutorial:

1.When your baby sister asks Santa for 'blankets for Dolly' you do what you can to help the big guy out! There are several ways this can be done, this is simply the way I made them and thought you may find it useful if you have small people who also want to keep their Dolly warm.

Cutting:

All squares are 2.5 inches the amount you need will vary depending on the dimensions of the doll you are making for. Dolly is 18 inches tall and is similar to the American Girl type dolls so the below is what I needed to accommodate her size and dimensions.

Front Panel

56 squares for top

Binding (1) 2.5" x 15"

Backing (1) 18" x 16"

Wadding (1) 18" x 16"

Back Panel

77 squares for top

Binding (1) 2.5" x 75"

Backing (1) 24" x 16"

Wadding (1) 24" x 16"

I wanted a scrappy look to mine so I raided my stash and found fabrics I knew the small person would like and would be appropriate for Dolly. You can literally use anything to make these.

Assembly:

1. Sew the squares together using a quarter inch seam, I alternate pressing my seams to the left or right for each row which makes it easier to nest my seams. You can use whichever method you prefer.

2. If you are using 2.5" squares and making the same size I am, your Front Panel should measure 16" x 14" once the rows (I did 7 rows by 8) have been sewn together. The Back Panel should measure 22" x 14" once the rows (I did 11 rows by 7) have been sewn together.

3. Layer the Front Panel with the wadding and backing and quilt as desired. Repeat for the Back Panel. 

Personally I use pins and NOT glue to baste as it gets stuck in the needle and machine parts - obviously use whichever method you prefer.

I kept my quilting simple by doing straight lines on either side of each seam line, keeping them 1/4 inch apart by using my 1/4 inch foot. There is a mini tutorial on this in my Instagram Guides.

4. Trim down the Front Panel to your desired finished size, for me this was 16" x 14", using the binding strip 2.5" x 15" bind one short edge of this panel leaving 1/2" hanging over each side.

Putting the sleeping bag together:

1. Trim down the Back Panel to your desired size, for me this was 22" x 14" and then place it right side DOWN so your patchwork/top will be against your worksurface. Place the Front Panel right side UP on top of the Back Panel.

 

2. Match up the bottom corners on both panels and pin in place. 

3. At this stage you can either sew an 1/8" stich line around the whole of the sleeping bag to hold the panels together and then bind as normal OR as I did, pin the panels in place and go straight to binding them together.

Both methods work in the same way, so it makes no difference how you finish off this step, it depends how confident you feel.

Repeat to make as many sleeping bags for Dolly as needed! 

If you need any help working out sizes or number of squares for a different doll, please get in touch and I'll do my best to help you.

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

Especially when you get Great Presents!

It's no secret I have an addiction to fabric - so this is always a sure win when buying a present for me, but as a quilter I quite often get asked what 'good presents' to buy are. So I thought I'd put together a little list of things that have caught my eye recently or that I generally can't do with out in case anyone was struggling with what to buy for the quilter/sewer/crafter in their life.

This is not sponsored or affiliated in any way, simply my opinions on things I like, thing I use regularly and things I would recommend to others.

1. Wonder Clips/Clover Clips/Quilt Clips

I'll be honest I was quite late to the party with these and had been quilting for around 6 years before I actually bought some of these to see what the fuss was about - game changer! I honestly don't know why I didn't see sense sooner, they really are a 'wonder' when binding and make the job so much easier. You can pick them up from just about anywhere.

2. Wool Pressing Mat

This was one of my new purchases this year, I love it and it's permanently set up in my sewing room. They come in a variety of sizes so you can get whichever would suit your needs - my advice would be to get the biggest one you can accommodate on your work table! Far easier and much less cumbersome than having to set up the ironing board all the time. Again these can be purchased from several places, but I got mine here.

3. 1/4 Inch Quilting Foot with Guide

This is an absolute God send and one of the very first things I treated myself to when I first started patchwork and quilting 'properly' - most brands of sewing machine have them but they are brand/machine specific. You will need to know the exact sewing machine the person you're buying for has, to make sure it'll fit the machine and work properly.

4. A Block of the Month Program

There are so many out there, it can be really tough deciding which one to go for so my advice is think about what you want to gain from it - do you want to learn or try something new or do you want to expand a certain set of skills? Then have a look what is out there that'll help you achieve that goal. I've looked at so many at one point they all blurred together but for next year I've decided on The Pattern Club by Quiet Play.

5. Replacement Rotary Cutter Blades

Never underestimate the power of a new blade! They really can make all the difference when a project requires lots of cutting, or even just replacing it if you've had the same one on for a little while - you'd be surprised how quickly they can become blunt. You will need to make sure the blades you buy are the correct size for the Rotary Cutter you've got/the person you're buying for has but you will find that they are widely available from a variety of places.

6. Seam Ripper and Stiletto Combo

The discovery of this is one of my favourite things to come out of 2020, I was able to shop small and support a local craftsman by purchasing this fantastic little device - they come in all manner of colours and designs all hand crafted and just beautiful! One side is a seam ripper, the other is a stiletto perfect for feeding tricking points and sample pieces through the sewing machine, both tuck neatly away to avoid any stabbing of fingers when not in use. Pencole Pens and Turnings is the place to go for one of these beauties.

7. Fabric Gift Vouchers

As I said I'm a fabric addict - you can never have enough and buying it is a totally separate hobby to actually using it! Pretty much everywhere does vouchers of some kind but some of may favourite smaller places to support are the following because I've always had excellent above and beyond customer service, super fast shipping and just general loveliness!

- Cow and Giraffe

- Olive and Flo Handcraft

- The Crafty Mastermind

- The Fabric Fox

- The Purple Stitches

- The Eternal Maker

So there you have it, a little guide of happy shopping for the Crafty person in your life. 

If you've got any recommendations for things you can't craft without I'd love to hear about them you can get in touch in the usual ways.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

SCRAP BUSTING

No Scrap Left Behind

This is something I actually started quite a while ago, the center or main body of the quilt is a simple Jelly Roll quilt but is a very effective and rather quick way to rustle up a fairly decent sized quilt in a couple of hours.

You will need a full Jelly Roll, unroll it and layout all the pairs of colours/prints so you can easily see what you've got to work with. Then sew every strip end to end so you have one extremely long, continuous length of fabric measuring 2.5" wide. Fold in half along the 'short' edge and sew all the way down one long(very long) side. Cut the short edge open along the fold so you can now open out your sewn jelly roll and lay it flat - it should now measure 4.5" wide. Repeat until your have reached your desired quilt top size/width.

It's dawned on me as I'm writing this that more pictures probably would have been useful - so I'll try to get a tutorial up here soon.

But back to Scrappy business and those border blocks. They are based on the concept of 15 Minutes of Play a brilliant idea by the fabulous Victoria Findlay Wolfe, she actually has an entire blog dedicated to it. 

It really is a great concept that is quick an easy, the results are practically instantaneous - something I particularly like! The idea is you start with a 5 sided shape, the wonkier the better, and then you add to each side almost in a Log Cabin style, growing your block one scrap at a time.

The starting shape doesn't always have to have 5 sides, as you can see from mine they all varied and each one took on a life of its own. 

No scrap was left behind, no matter how small! I found that this made the shapes, fabrics and colours far more interesting and really highlighted the 'scrappiness' of them.

I made 44 blocks in total all measuring 6.5" square for the borders of this quilt, then sewed them together in strips - 2 with 10 blocks each and 2 with 12 blocks each and attached them to each side making a happy scrappy border.

I then had the monstrous task of attaching the binding and finishing it off by hand, I wouldn't go as far as saying I enjoyed it but there does reach a point with sewing binding that becomes quite therapeutic.

This quilt was a present for my Gramps who turned 80 on Sunday, the scrappy blocks were made from fabric used in every quilt I've ever made for our family members, so he always has a piece of us with him.

If you follow me on Instagram you'll see a few more pictures of this quilt, along with all the other things I'm currently working on.

Feel free to get in touch, it's always lovely to hear from you all.

Happy Quilting
Kerry xx

STARTS AND FINISHES

Weekend Round-Up

It seems like only last week we had our monthly quilty catch up, but in reality I haven't seen my ladies in 2 months!! I can't believe how quickly that has gone and whilst I haven't been idol they have been stitching up a storm and I am in absolute awe of their talents.

Val has been working on her gorgeous version of Beside The Sea by Lesley Brankin for a little while now and today was the big reveal of the finished piece!

It is absolutely beautiful in the flesh, the amount of thought and detail Val put into her fabric choices really has paid off as has her patience at putting the whole thing together.

Regular readers may have noticed the beach huts! 

They are the same ones that I used in the quilt I made for my dad 2 years ago and the same pattern was used by Sue in a sampler she was making out of Salt Water by Tula Pink.

Speaking of Sue her efforts this week were focused on hand sewing the back binding strips of the gorgeous shabby chic style BOM she has been working on over the last couple of months based on Stonefields by Susan Smith. You can see the start of her journey here but for now lets just soak up the loveliness of all those hours of work.

And just a few more because I really couldn't resist this darling little Owl and The Pussy Cat block

Never one for making things easy Caroline was sewing the binding on her 'simple square' quilt, unfortunately it wasn't a simple square binding and caused all manner of blue smoke to emerge from Caroline's corner. 

That being said, she drafted the pattern herself and the outcome is lovely, looking like an English country garden in purples, blues and greens. 

Which just leaves me..... 

I have made a start on something new, it is in the beginning stages and at the moment is a load of drawings, scribbles and sellotaped pieces of paper but with any luck it is going to end up being a fabulous mini quilt for 1 of the 5 swaps I've got myself into.... oooops!!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

A JOURNEYS END

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Almost a year ago I started out on an epic journey, the journey of my first commission!!(whhaaatt?? someone wants me to make them a quilt, for money??) I was rather apprehensive as up until now I had only ever made things that I wanted to, blocks or patterns that appealed to me in colours and fabrics that called to me. Most of them end up as presents for other people, but still if you're going to spend hours on something its got to spark your interest right?

Suddenly to be faced with a very specific criteria put me in a flat spin, it wasn't a style I would naturally be drawn to, nor was the colour palette something I had worked in before but you know me, I love a good challenge!! You can read about the start of my African Adventure here.

Having made a sprinting start with lots of ideas and creativity flowing it got to around August/September time and I totally stalled, it was so sunny and bright, love was blooming (swoon Mr Keeble) and I just had no motivation to sit in doors sewing bits of fabric in brown and muted shades together. The more I knew I had to do it and was running out of time, the less I seemed able to motivate myself to do. I got a bit tangled up with it all, tried out a few experimental blocks that really really didn't work, so with my motivation and now my confidence totally down the pan I stopped altogether. I had a month off where I didn't even look at it, and then started doing lots of research into all the other projects I had seen being done by the wonderful people I follow on Instagram (you can find me on there as thatssewkerry) and that 1 month suddenly became 3 months - more on that later. Now it's January and I've got less than 7 weeks to get this monster done and dusted....panic mode!! 

Having spent a huge amount of time researching all sorts of blocks, designs, quilts you name it really over the last few months I went back through it all and found this particular block called 'Capital T'. 

Originally 6" I scaled it up to be the 18" I needed and set to work finishing off the African Star. You can find out how I made this block by having a look at my new Tutorials button at the top of the home page or by clicking here. 

Originally I made 4 of these blocks, 1 cream, 1 tan and 2 red with the intention of having them alternating along the bottom row, rather irritatingly 4 turned out to be to wide and would have resulted in me having to cut them in a funny position in order to get them to fit and as such the repeat pattern would have been lost, but of course 3 wasn't wide enough to complete the row ggrrrrrr!!! So back to the old faithful 2.5" strips to fill up the extra space, not a total loss as it reflects the top row where a similar totally planned design feature had happened!! 

Due to the size of these blocks there were several large areas of empty space so I tried to be more adventurous with my quilting, mostly just echoing the shapes being quilted such as squares and triangles but still and adventurous step for me. 

One of my New years quilting resolutions was/is to be braver when quilting my blocks and to try to add in more quilting opportunities to the blocks or quilts I am choosing to make. It's a baby step I'll grant you but I'm proud all the same.

The next stage is slightly less exciting but with all the blocks now done they had to be joined together, I opted for my old favourite quilt-as-you-go method, although I do now have the machine space and the table space to attempt whole quilting projects it's still not something I feel brave enough to attempt. Plus I really like the idea of working on smaller bits and then suddenly having a huge quilt to put together, there's a real sense of achievement in that somewhere for me - usually mixed in with a whole lot of madness.

Blocks become rows and then rows become quilts, soon there after there is a flourish of furious hand stitching to get all the back bindings attached and all those raw edges covered, all the while a lot of swearing and stabbed fingers is going on - I've never been able to get on with a thimble! Finally arriving at that very satisfying moment when that last stitch goes in and months and months of work turn into this......

Thank you to everyone who has offered me there thoughts, opinions, ideas and just general support throughout this epic adventure, it really means very much to me and I don't think I would have believed in myself enough to get it done without you all. Lets start the next one......

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx