Finger Pin Cushion Tute

Towards the end of September, I got together with Susie, my friends, Ivete and Andrea, owners of the brand new online fabric store Gotham Quilts - (if you haven't visited their website, I highly recommend you head over there, as soon as you've finished reading this of course!) and Nancy to celebrate Nancy's birthday. Anyone who frequents The City Quilter knows Nancy - she's the store's resident fabric guru, doll maker and felting genius; in fact, there's not much that's crafty she's not a guru on!

Here's a pic of me with Nancy at Rhinebeck New York State Sheep and Wool Festival enjoying apple pie!

We decided we'd all make handmade gifts for Nancy, and I came up with the idea of making 3 small items using some of the French General Petite Odile fabric I had left from making my Daddy's Little Girl sampler quilt.

So, I made a tiny fabric pot using my own Stacking Basket tute;

I trimmed a hand towel with this fussy cut section of Petite Odile fabric - don't you just love the vintage costumes and toys? and

I made this finger-pin cushion.

Nancy loved her gifts, especially the finger pin cushion - in fact, everyone loved the finger pin cushion, so I wanted to share how to make one; they're sooooo easy - like 15 mins max!

Finger Pin Cushion Tute

• 1 x 4.5" fabric square

• Right sides together fold in half diagonally.

• Using a 1/4" seam stitch along two raw edges leaving a small gap for turning and stuffing.

• Turn and stuff and hand stitch gap closed.

• Pull the two longest points round to meet each other and overlap slightly - good to try on your finger at this point to see how far to overlap these two points. You can custom make a perfect fit though it's not essential, it can be a kind of 'one size fits most' project.

• Hand stitch overlapped points into place.

Go on, make a whole bunch, and see if you get the 'I have to have one' reaction I did!

Happy Birthday, Nancy :D

I also made another one - small prints are so cute on these finger pincushions. You can see more pics here.

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'Daddy's Little Girl' - A French General Sampler Quilt

Exactly one year ago I made a quilt and for one reason and another never blogged about it - so finally here it is:

my Daddy's Little Girl sampler quilt

Lots of pics, the usual specs but no words.

 

Quilt top fabrics - Petite Odile by French General Layer Cake for Moda

Quilt back fabrics - La Petite Ecole by French General for Moda

Quilting Thread - Aurifil 50/2 - 2905 Army Green

Finished quilt size - approx 62" x 46"

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A Bit Different - Mine's an 11-22-11-22

I've been tagged in a fun blogging game - in fact I've been tagged twice!!!  

Just over a week ago Cynthia at A Quilter by Night tagged me to play along with the 11-11-11-11 blogging game that's doing the rounds.  That was great but then it was Thanksgiving and I took my time getting my act together to answer Cynthia's questions during which time I was also tagged by Lisa at Hilltop House Creative Works.  Well the game sounds like fun so I've decided to give it a go but I'll be answering the 22 questions that the girls have asked me and tagging 22 blogs which makes mine more of an 11-22-11-22 but I like being a bit different.

Here are the rules:

- every tagged person has to tell 11 things about themselves
- the person who tagged you asked 11 questions, answer them
- ask 11 questions of the 11 blogs you're going to tag (the people you tag should have less than 200 followers)
- mention the blog that tagged you but don't tag them back

Let's get started -11 things about me:

1.  Born in St Helens, England.
2.  I'm an eldest child.
3.  I have 3 children, 2 sons aged 23 and 22 and 1 daughter who is 18.
4.  I have lived in 7 houses in 4 locations.
5.  I used to be an interior designer.
6.  I trained as a hairdresser as my Saturday job when I was at school.
7.  My first career was as a secretary and I use shorthand every day to write notes for myself.
8.  In the 80s I sold Avon, Tupperware, Betterware and Amway as well as having my day job.
9.  My first car was a red mini
10.  Chrissie is my quilting/blogging name
11.  I've lost 42 lbs in weight since last Christmas and a total of 80 lbs so far by not eating sugar.

Now here are the 11 questions I was asked by Cynthia:

1.  What was the first quilt you ever made?  

My first quilt was a sampler quilt that I made for my daughter, Flicky.

2.  Who taught you how to quilt?  

The wonderful Christine Janove at my LQS in Manhattan.

3.  Do you label your quilts?  

I'm a member of the Quilt Alliance so we're very keen for quilters to SOS 'Save Our Stories' so that future generations can know more about where, why and when quilts were created.  I always hand write labels for my personal quilts using Archival Ink pens such as Pigma Micron.  I include the quilt name, date, my name, where I made the quilt, who I made it for, why I made it and the fabric details and care instructions.  The quilts that I am currently making to sell in my future Etsy store (I'm sure one day my green card will actually arrive!!!) aren't labelled in such a detailed personal way - they have a printed label with my company logo and care instructions.

4.  What is your favourite city?  

Of everywhere I've ever visited there were only 2 places that I knew I wanted to return to one day - the first was Iceland and the second was New York.  Years later my dream came true but soooo much bigger than I could ever have imagined and I still can't believe that I now live here.  Nothing's changed, it's still my favourite city in the world.

View from my roof garden

 5.  Do you have a favourite museum?  

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London - you can lose yourself in there for days with something for everyone.  My favourite section is the floor dedicated to Ceramics, oh I'm drooling just thinking about it!

6.  What was/is your favourite subject in high school/college?  

At secondary school (for the Brits reading this)/high school (for Americans reading this)/big school (for English Northeners reading this) my favourite subject was always English, especially when I got to write a story - I don't need asking twice to be able to pour words out onto paper and in this modern age on to a blog!

7.  What is one of your favouite easy dinners to make?  

Lamb Chops and Pea Puree with Crispy Pancetta by Ainsley Harriott - takes 10 minutes max and is restaurant quality.  If you're interested in the recipe post me a comment and I'll email it to you.

8.  What was your first celebrity crush?  

I want to say Donny Osmond but I wouldn't be telling the truth - my crush was on his older brother Merrill, who isn't looking as good for his age these days as Donny is!  Did anyone else have the Osmond's album 'The Plan' - I still have it, though it is so worn out from playing over and over with the arm back on the record player to make it repeat.

9.  What are three things you are thankful for?  

Besides the obvious answer of 'my kids' I'm thankful: 

that I got back to England in time to spend a few hours with my Dad before he died earlier this year;

that my dog, Tatty is so laid back, friendly and doesn't bite - those who have known me for a number of years will understand exactly why this is something for me to be thankful for!; and

that I found quilting and blogging otherwise I don't know how I would have got through this last year. 

10.  What are your views on Downton Abbey? 

I love it and have just cried my way through the third series.  Unfortunately I think it's moving very quickly now and I can't help feeling that Julian Fellowes is forcing the writing for filming deadlines and around actors who chose to leave the show and somehow it's losing something there but I can't quite put my finger on it.  I think that for an ITV production it's excellent, they've pulled all the stops out and who doesn't love watching Dame Maggie Smith though I don't think you can ever beat a BBC period costume drama.

11.  How would you describe your quilting style in three words?

Colourful, Fun and Contemporary.

Next are the 11 questions I was asked by Lisa:

1.  What is the most memorable book you have read?
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks - both of my grandfathers fought in and survived WWI and this book helped me to understand something about that time, what they went through and the longer term effect it has had on my family.

2.  What are you reading right now?  Would you recommend it?  

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn  I'm not sure yet if I'd recommend it - I was really enjoying it and I'm now about two thirds of the way through but I've just been disappointed to discover that very early on I saw right through the plot.  I'm hoping there'll be another twist (that I don't guess) before the end or it's all been a bit too predictable for me.

3.  If you could have any job in the world it would be ...?  

I'd like to be a Mum with my 3 grown children small once more so I could do it all over again, maybe changing a few bits here and there but enjoying it all a lot more without worrying so much.

4.  The song/group playing in your music player (ipod, car cd player, itunes, etc) right now is?  

Katy Perry radio on Pandora on my TV.

5.  Favourite animal and why?
Dogs - for their faithfulness, unconditional love and friendship and all the pleasure they bring.

How could you not love Tatty?

6.  Why do you like to quilt?  

It occupies my hands and my head at the same time - and that takes quite some doing.  It has helped me through a very difficult year.  A huge bonus is all those projects that I'm then able to pass on to family and the pleasure this gives them and me.  Not to mention all the friends I've made along the way through my LQS shop/courses, the NYC Metro Quilt Guild and the Quilternet.

7.  Favourite meal to cook and for whom?

Full English Breakfast for my family - who doesn't love a full English?!!!

8.  What was the last thing you learned?  

How to use my new phone - the Samsung Galaxy Note II - I only got it on Thursday this week and it's a total revelation to me as my previous phone could only make calls and send texts, it didn't even have a camera in it.  My head's spinning as I'm on the steepest learning curve ever but I think I might be a little bit in love with it!

9.  What was the last thing you taught someone? 

Does toilet training my dog, Tatty, count?!

10. Your favourite colour is ... ?  

I think that will have to be lime green - I love to use it in small amounts alongside other colour combinations - it really makes colours sing.

11.  Tell us about your best trip/vacation ever or one that you would like to go on.  

Visiting my 2 sons wherever they are living in the world are the best trips for me.  You can't go wrong when they're living in beautiful destinations such as San Diego and Paris and now I might get to see Seville too.

Now here are my questions for the blogs I'm tagging:

1. Are you in a Quilt Guild, if you are then tell us about it?
2. What's the longest you've lived somewhere and where was it?
3. What's your favourite item that you've ever made and why?
4. What books do you have by your bed?
5. What do your friends and family think about you quilting?
6. Where are you spending Christmas Day this year and who with?
7. When did you buy your first sewing machine?
8. Why did you start blogging?
9. Who is your favourite actor/actress and what's the best role you've seen them in?
10. How/where do you store your fabric?
11. What's the best hair style you've ever had and why?

And finally, here are the blogs I'm tagging:

I'm not going to contact the people I've tagged - if they see the post and want to join in that's up to them, I don't want to turn it into a chain letter type of thing. I also took advantage of being tagged twice and picked 2 x 11 blogs to tag and maybe not everyone will join in anyway.  So here's a list of some of the bloggers that follow my blog, who have been actively blogging in November and who I don't think have already been tagged.

1. Celebrate Quilts and More 
2. Crafternoon Delight
3. Dancing Moon
4. Fabric Engineer
5. Foster Reviews It
6. Handmade by Farah Lin
7. HelenNoBlog
8. Kati's Quilting and Sewing
9. Kinda Quilty
10. Knotted Cotton 
11. Little Bunny Quilts 
12. My Life in Binding
13. Quilt Candy
14. Quilter in the Closet
15. Quilting for England
16. red raspberry
17. St Victor Quilts
18. The Agitprop Quilter
19. The Knitting Quilter
20. The Red Headed Mermaid
21. Ullhrvan
22. Weekend Doings

I hope you've enjoyed finding out more about me.

My Very First Ever Quilt

That's me putting my first ever basting pin into my quilt at CQ
- the other ladies in the class then helped to baste the quilt

Before I arrived in the States in August 2011, I knew once I got here I wanted to continue my studies into Textile Arts alongside taking the opportunity to make new friends.  I searched and searched the internet but Textile Art courses, of the type that is becoming more and more available in England, just weren't happening out here.  Well, at least, they were few and far between and hard to get to when I was looking for something that I could just jump on the subway and go to for a couple of hours once a week.  A lot of the courses seemed more, what in America, you call retreats - 3-5 days in some remote location, that only a plane journey and/or car ride can get you to, oh and bring your own sewing machine!

I quickly discovered though that what you do have in America is quilting.  Quilting didn't interest me, not in the slightest - it's for frumpy old women and who wants a boring old quilt anyway (please bear with me at this point, I will be proved wrong!)?  Searching for an outlet for my love of sewing showed me that I didn't really have a choice - it was quilting or clothes making or nothing.  So with great trepidation (and my husband, S, and daughter, F, on my arm for moral support and to stop me backing out) one Sunday afternoon in August, we ventured out to The City Quilter in Manhattan.  We weren't even sure that we wanted to go in at the door, but we rang the bell and were buzzed in.

We were all looking at each other not sure that we liked this place and not knowing what to do and then a really friendly young lady (now fellow guild member and friend, Karen Haynes) asked if she could help.  I told her I was new to the country and new to quilting and wanted to sign up for a course to learn to quilt.  She told me that she'd done the same course, Introduction to Patchwork By Machine and that I'd learn so much and meet great people and she said that the instructor, Christine Janove, was amazing - by the time she'd finished I was feeling much more comfortable with the idea of learning this new skill, quilting, in what was then my strange new world, America.

At the end of the 6-week course,
I'm proudly holding up my sampler quilt for a CQ photo

By the 6 October (2011) I was eager for the class to start but who'd have thought that this day would completely change the course of my life?  The class was amazing, a great bunch of women eager to learn, to share our limited knowledge and to encourage each other.  The tutor, Christine is an absolute treasure - she knows so much and shares it all in her softly spoken, positive and encouraging way, I'm so lucky that she was my first quilting tutor.  And I did make some really good friends in this class, particularly W and D.

I quickly learned more and more about quilting and realised that it's not an old-fashioned technique for grandmas, what's gone before is an incredible passed on tradition with so much skill and artistry and now there's a whole new wave of quilters coming through taking this skill forward, learning the 'rules', following and breaking them in modern, contemporary ways that are artsy and fun.  People love quilts, and now my family and I know why - they keep you warm when you're cold, they are cool when you're hot, they're lightweight and fold up smaller and neater than you'd ever imagine, they can be customised, personalised and make great gifts, you can sit on them, lie under them, cry into them, hide inside them and snuggle up with them, they hold memories of people and places that we love and have loved and they become so personal to you that you cherish them ... it's your quilt, it's part of you to be used, hugged and treasured and eventually handed on to the next generation - who'd have thought all that about a quilt!

And here is what I made, my very first ever quilt - it's a Sampler Quilt made for my daughter, F, and from the moment she reluctantly held it, she fell in love with it - and now, at those times when the quilt starts to crawl to the washing machine all on its own, it's reached those dizzy realms of "if you're washing it, it has to be dry in time for me to go to bed tonight?", and that's true love!

 

So that's it, I'm hooked - 9 months on and I'm using quilts, making quilts, blogging about quilts and building my life around quilts - what was that I said about quilting " it's for frumpy old women and who wants a boring old quilt anyway?" - well, what did I know and WOW, wasn't I proved wrong!

Disclaimer: 

This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.