Making Waves

 It is reveal day for this quarter's Endeavourers Challenge, this time the theme for the Challenge was "The Sea".

 

I have called my piece "Making Waves", it is made with strips of upcycled denim for the waves with quilting cotton scraps for the island in the distance. 

 

 Over the years I have amassed a store of cast-off denim jeans that my sons either grew out of or decided were no longer their style, so I was delighted to have the perfect excuse to dig them out and start cutting into them. 

 

 This is the view from my sewing room window, so I didn't have to look very far for inspiration for this piece.I wanted to depict the sea on a windy, stormy day though, which is a fairer reflection of the usual conditions here on the West Coast of Scotland! 

This is the view today! 

I pinned the strips of denim and cotton to a cotton backing before stitching them down. 

Then placed the stitched piece on wadding and backing and machine quilted waves adding strips of lace and pieces of voile fabric between the strips of denim in places to represent the crest of the waves.

On the day that I started putting this piece together I noticed some movement out in the water, and when I went out to investigate I saw this little chap frolicking amidst the waves.

So, naturally I had to include him in my piece too!

I embroidered a stumpwork slip of a seal head, adding a bead for the eye and then attached the head to the denim background before stitching some beads for bubbles behind him. 

The hills on the island were defined with satin stitch and I added some French knots for sheep too.

Tucked away skimming the waves, almost out of sight, there is a windsurfer too, and can you believe that today, when even the ferry was not running, someone was daft/brave enough to be out windsurfing in that very spot! 

Of course, it wouldn't be right to make a seascape quilt without taking a photograph of it in front of that very seascape, so in between waves crashing over the seafront here is my brave assistant (OH) desperately holding on to my quilt! 

 

As ever with the Endeavourers Challenges the piece that I finally submit is very different to the piece that I originally envisaged making! I really enjoy these challenges even when, as with this one, I leave it all to the last minute :)

Find out my fellow Endeavourers projects for this quarter's challenge here. 

 

Small changes

Living by the sea it is hard to ignore the obvious signs of plastic pollution that washes up on the shore here.

We hear about the longevity of plastic straws

and plastic bottles and it is not difficult to find examples of them nestling amongst the rocks and seaweed of our shoreline.

Just before Christmas our youngest son's partner spent a happy couple of hours rifling through my stash cutting up fabrics that she plans to turn into beeswax food wraps. So, inspired by her I thought that I too could use some of that stash to make a part of my daily routine a little more environmentally friendly.

I have made some reusable cotton make up remover pads to replace the cotton wool pads that I have been using previously.

The source fabrics for these reusable pads were a waffle cotton dressing gown that has seen better days and a cotton business shirt that is no longer needed.

I simply put the two fabrics together and stitched them together with the overlocker. I had great difficulty stitching the circular shape in the overlocker, so next time I will make life a lot simpler for myself and make them square!

Our grandsons will be visiting us in a couple of months time so I am also thinking of making bigger pads for the little one's nappy changes but I will check that with his mum first :)

Have you made any small changes to your routines to help the environment I would love to know what else I could try?

A bit of housekeeping

One of the joys of my sewing room (yes it is almost finished!!!) is the pull-out ironing board set in to a cupboard. I know I am easy to please :)

Given the punishment ironing boards take around here I wanted to make a cover for it to make sure that the nice, fawn surface wouldn't get ruined when I inadvertently iron fusible wadding the wrong way round!

So, I grabbed an old shirt of my DH's cut one side out of it and added a part of a sleeve to give me the length that I needed. A rough  measurement of the dimensions of the opened out ironing board gave me the pattern and I then stitched a 0.5" channel all around for the drawstring. Job done :)

The ironing board folds over on itself, then swivels to slide back on the runners for storage. The cover stays on throughout that manoeuvre thanks to the drawstring tie.

I am happy now that any ironing mistakes will not result in a ruined board and happier still that the whole thing was put together from my (large) stash of shirts for recycling - win-win!

By Request

Our son and his wife moved into a new flat recently, and on their first visit back home they had a couple of requests for their mum and her sewing machine!

First up, could I make one of those key holder things that I had made before for their brother?

Well, of course I could!

I upcycled some denim from an old pair of jeans (possibly belonging to the same son!) and some scraps of fabric. I quilted this with an Aurifil thread from a pack that I won in the December Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day.

I did think that the thread was a bit thicker than normal, but the variegation, no 4669 if you are interested, was perfect against the denim. Only later did I discover that 12wt Aurifil thread, which this was, is recommended for hand-sewing, oops! It still worked a treat though :)

The second request was more substantial. Apparently a draught of North wind proportions blows through their back door, so a draught excluder was called for.

Given the need, a quick make was also on the cards, so cutting into my cast-off denims again I came up with this for them.

The last draught excluder I made for our youngest son, when he was living in a draughty flat North of the Border, had embroidered fire-breathing dragons to ward away the cold. This time I decided to invoke a summer beach scene to chase away those cold North winds.

The beach huts are free-machine appliqued to the denim along with a yellow felt sun and, because we are in the North East of Britain, a couple of clouds for realism :)

Thankfully they are delighted with both of the makes and the draught excluder is doing sterling service already keeping their toes warm.

Isn't it nice when family have such faith in your abilities to deliver just what they need? If only all requests were so easily met :)

(Edited to add: you can find a tutorial for the draught excluder here )

Linking up to

Say it with Flowers

Welcome to my stop on the

I am delighted to be taking part in another of Madame Samm's inspiring Blog Hops. This time round our super-efficient cheerleader is Carol of Just Let Me Quilt, now that is a sentiment I can relate to :)

If you are new here, please feel free to take a look around and explore my little corner of Blogland.

When I signed up for this Blog Hop I thought that I hadn't actually completed many projects that were flower-related, but it turns out that I am more of a floral girl than I realised. I hope my DH is taking note of that as it is our wedding anniversary today, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am not the only member of the family "saying it with flowers" today :)


So here are some of the flower-themed projects I had forgotten about

The flower back of the summer quilt made for the Curved Seams Challenge blogged  here

Origami fabric flowers from a tutorial and kit by Knotted Cotton

1. Completed Fabric bag, 2. Colourful Clutch, 3. Pretty Purple Pinafore, 4. Amy Butler Origami bags, 5. Summertime Blues Bag, 6. Garden party bag, 7. Hearts and Flowers Bag, 8. Marimekko Highbrow Hobo Bag, 9. Ruffled wristlet clutch

Lots of floral bags! 

1. Beaded wirework brooch, 2. Linen and scrap pouches, 3. Mae's Tulip, 4. Star of Africa Block 1, 5. Crochet Flowers, 6. Fleur Bleu

Bee blocks and brooches.

My favourite flower projects though have been the Dresden plate Sunflowers that started as cushions 

 

Then progressed to a quilt

And now as my project for the Say it with Flowers Blog Hop have been incorporated into a bag :)

I know it is not yellow, so technically not a sunflower, but you get my drift. The fabric for the body of this bag came from this pair of my son's shorts!

 

Regular readers know by now that my sons and husband's wardrobes are frequently raided for my projects :) The ripped shorts were no use to him, but the cotton/linen mix fabric was ideal for my bag body. 

I used the Scalloped Dresden Bag pattern available free at During Quiet Time for the bag, and was delighted with how easily it all went together. The fabric for the scallops was part of a package I received from the lovely Jan in a Friendship Bag Swap, so it was a very economical bag to make.

 

My version of the bag is slightly different from the original pattern as I wanted to have interchangeable bag straps, rather than the cross-body fabric straps of the original. So, instead of adding straps I added a strap loop with a split ring to each side of the bag. The heavier strap above is actually a necklace that had a broken catch, whilst the lighter chain in the first photo was an extra chain that came with a clutch bag bought in a sale. Very little goes to waste in our household :)

Now that I have my flower bag all I need is the opportunity to go out somewhere smart with it. Fingers crossed that as well as saying it with flowers, DH takes the hint and will be whisking us off somewhere nice to celebrate this evening!

Don't forget to check out all the inspiring posts from fellow Blog Hoppers today at

May 30^th

A Quilt Lady

The House On The Side Of The Hill

Ella & Nesta’s Little Room

CLF by Nailaa

Atelier De Handwerktuin

Life, Quilts, and A Cat Too

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Celtic Thistle

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Dreaming In Patchwork

Around The Homestead

There will be loads of amazing projects for you to drool over I am sure!

If you have used a Dresden ruler or made a bag for the first time this month, or tried anything new to you this month there is still time to link up to 

The link up will close at 12.00 p.m. GMT on May 31st so you can still sneak a link in to tell us what you have tried out in May.

Linking up to