Changing table cushions

One thing I quickly noticed about T. soon after he was born is that he doesn't like to lay down flat! He was a massive wriggler on the changing table until I put a cushion under his head. Suddenly he could see a little more of me and what was going on and he was content to let me clean up those nasty poops!

But of course, a baby needs a cute changing table cushion cover, so I hand-stitched this from vintage Laura Ashley fabric during T.'s naps when he was a few weeks old:

Back of the cushion:

 And here's little man sitting up on his changing table with his cushion on it:

I added a zip in T.'s cushion, but for extra baby safety, this time I have created a fold at the bag to close the material together after inserting the cushion:

I sewed the patchwork by machine on this girly cushion but I hand stitched little missy's full name into it. The cushions measure 44 cm x 44cm, which I found to be a great general size for changing tables.

And here's little man still using his changing cushion at 15 months! Who'd have thought a bum change could be so much fun! :

If you'd like a changing table cushion, I'm making them for 15 Euros which includes the cushion insert and a hand-embroidered full name or initials. Just leave me a comment or email me if you'd like one!

An über-girly moses baket quilt (and a little plea for some advice!!)

After finding out that we were expecting a girl (yay!!!), I wanted to produce something really girly for her after spending 12 months looking at blue, brown, grey and green boys' clothes. I ordered a cupcake and strawberries, pink charm pack that I found on British Ebay (there are very few charm packs to choose from on German Ebay) and was delighted with the colours.

I never start out with a pattern when I'm sewing. I know this sounds ridiculous as I'm a beginner, but I love the creativity of just improvising and letting the work evolve. As a stay-at-homer, it's all too easy to become bogged down with the repetition of cooking, cleaning and doing laundry so sewing, to my own tune and as the fancy takes me, is very much my creative outlet. 

I'd recently seen a lovely hexagonal pattern on Laura's blog, http://www.needlespinsandbakingtins.com/ so I felt inspired to create this: 

I paper-pieced it and hand-stitched as I wanted it to have a special, personal feel to it and I used a long stitch for the first time to embroider the name we've chosen for DD. Do you like the name? I was quite pleased with the neatness:

After creating the hexagons, I thought of stitching lots more and sewing them all together but I love the look of simple, square patchwork, so I decided to applique the hexies onto a group of 10cm squares. 

Once I'd created a roughly 45 x 50 cm shape, I stitched the layers together using my sewing machine. I thought about creating the whole piece by hand, but my impatience to see the finished result got in the way :-D Do you think I managed to pick out the most girly material ever for the backing? That was my brief! 

My novice nerves got the better of me when it came to quilting! I wanted to use the machine to sew diagonal lines through each of the squares to stop the top layer from looking baggy or moving, but I daren't put the machine over it! Instead I handquilted 2 squares only, which lead to a less-than-perfect look at the back of the quilt. The underside of my stitches looks quite messy. HELP: What tips can you give me to keep hand-quilting stitches looking neat on the underside?? Could I perhaps just quilt the top layer and wadding together BEFORE adding the backing?

All-in-all, I'm quite pleased with my first attempt but I'd love to hear some tips from you pros out there please!

My first quilt!

I have a little obsession with patchwork at the moment, particularly English Paper Piecing. I cannot bear the idea of sewing patchwork pieces on a machine, so I torture myself with hand stitching and lots of paper piece cutting. 

I'm really excited to have just finsihed my first quilt (and equally as excited baout my first ever blog post!)! I made it for my baby son and originally intended it to be cot size. But the more I got sewing, the more it naturally evolved into a monstrous single bed duvet size, all 130cm x 180cm of it!! It's intended as a sort of heirloom piece, as it has my son's name embroidered on to it and a few motifs from his early clothes. The brown checked fabric is from a pair of Daddy's old pjs and the blue striped is from an old sundress of mine. I'm very much a novice to this sewing malarky, only picking it up once I started maternity leave as a lovely way to relax in the evenings once T. is in bed.

I'm really pleased with the outcome of the quilt. I love the vibrant blue border and the vintage farm animal materials. I hope T. will love it too!