a sweet sew illustrated card

I am starting out the year slowly with a easy little project:

a sew illustrated card.

I have really enjoyed doing a lot of sew illustrated projects over the last 2 years, like the pincushions

the baskets

and the many mug rugs....


This year, I received this book from Minki Kim for Christmas:

 more inspirations and more little sewing!

I sewed these little flowers on linen with purple thread (lighter than black)

and a mix of print, so little fabric is needed!

The finish appliqued is then machine stitched it to a watercolor card

with hand quilting thread and a large needle

(that I reserved for sewing on paper)

The perfect happy first project of the year! 

Happy sewing!

a sew illustrated basket for all the pincushions....

Here is the basket for the cute pincushions I have been making.

It is the perfect container to store and display them.

The pattern is from Minki Kim's book: Sew Illustrated.

I chose to skip the patchwork pieces for some "solid" print,

all related to sewing.

I stitched a spool and scissor combo, a seam reaper and a jar with a wood cupcake button (brought back from France last fall)

The handles are made of that weird paper that looks like leather, easy to sew by machine and hand.

The little front pocket is perfect for the scissors. It turned out cute enough that I will make one for myself. My mom received that one with the pincushions...
Happy sewing!

ninth anniversary and a sew illustrated scooter

Today marks the ninth anniversary for this little blog, 9 years, it seems impossible. It has not grown much (which suits me just fine) it is like a "petite" blog (with 717 posts so far!) still a place where I share most of my creations.
So here is today's work:

another sew illustrated picture, from the book "Diary in stitches" by Minki Kim  just like the card I made earlier this year:

I had had seen the scooter on Instagram, so I knew I wanted to make it  right away:

I followed the pattern, using a mix of prints, and a border of Liberty of London.
It makes me feel like winter will be over soon....
Happy sewing!

a sew illustrated basket, take II

After spending a good part of early spring fixing Brick Master's bedroom, it is nice to do some girly sewing:
I sewed a sew illustrated basket for myself!

And it looks perfect with the sweet Liberty of London pin cushions

I made earlier.

For this basket, I use this collections of prints

I found at my local quilt store:

They are regular cotton prints, the collection is Garden Delights, not Liberty of London, even if their floweriness seems familiar.
And unlike the previous basket I made for my mom,

where I used plain pieces of fabric for the sides, this time I followed the instructions and sewed 4 patch  and 2 patch pieces for the sides.

But I took a shortcut by stamping one of the image instead of stitching it! I also did not add the handles, I think it is just perfect as is.


Happy sewing!

more illustrated pincushions? yes please!

After making my first set of pincushions

which I am guilty keeping for myself...,

I made another set for my mom.

This time I used white linen and a mixture of prints, not just Liberty of London.

Changing the fabric really change the feel of the image.
Some of the illustrations are from the same pattern, other (like the sewing machine) is from the book "Sew Illustrated".

It was fun to look for a small image for the sewing machine. It looks challenging but it is a fairly forgiving technique, I was just stitching around the shape.
So here is the new set of pincushions:

I kept them simple, just one of them has a little tag.
But I could not stop there, and made something else to keep them together:

which I will share next time!
Happy sewing!

A spring wall hanging

While Spring is not officially here, it is getting warmer. So it is fitting that I sewed a cute little wall hanging with cute spring flowers:

It is a mix of quilting fabric, linen, felt, machine applique and hand embroidery. It is again a pattern from Bustle and Sew magazine, like my polar bear tea cosy:

For the pot and the frame, I used some Liberty of London quilting fabrics, purchased from my local quilt store:

They are as cute as the other Liberty of London prints, just not the same kind of fabric, it is just regular cotton not Tana Lawn, so it is not as fine or as soft but it is probably better for quilting, they are also priced similarly to other quilting fabrics, instead of 2 or 3 times more expensive.

I really like applique by machine, using a dark thread and going around twice,  just like on my many sew illustrated pin cushions:

Have you ever tried it?
Happy sewing!