Monday 5 March 2018

Small, smaller,smallest blog hop

Welcome to the first day of the Small, smaller, smallest blog hop organised by Carol from Just let me quilt Thank you Carol for organising the hop, it has been fun creating the projects for it.  I really enjoy joining in with blog hops because it makes you get on and create something. I find it very easy to spend weeks considering what I could make and what fabrics and colours to use and never getting started. With a hop you have to plan and get on with it in order to complete your project in time.

I had planned to complete three items but I have only two that are finished. The instructions for the hop were to produce something small, nothing larger than a baby quilt. That instruction made life easy as I can do small very well.

My small project is to make a cover for my Elna sewing machine.




 We live in London and like all large cities a lot of dust gets into the house from all the activity going on outside. It gets worse in the summer months when you want to have the windows open and when Picasso is moulting his winter coat I find lots of his fur all over it if I leave it set up on the table as he likes to lie across it or lean against it. I had a look at several methods of making a cover on the internet and it all seemed very straight forward plus I had the perfect fabric for the job so no need to buy anything.

My first decision was not to make a hole in the top for the carry handle. The handle goes almost the full length of the machine and I felt that making a hole would distort the shape unless I added a fastening. In any case I have a carry bag for the machine should I want to take it anywhere and I just wanted a cover to prevent the dust and cat fur getting into it,



After careful measuring and cutting the pieces were basted to the wadding so I could quilt them



The picture part was quilted between the pictures and around the frames. The top of the cover and the sides was quilted with a meander. Attaching the side pieces was rather like setting in sleeves on a jacket or shirt.


I love the colours in the fabrics, they are just so cheerful.

My second piece is smaller and is also a cover but in this case it's a cover for a portable hard drive.



My older daughter is an art and design and textiles teacher at a secondary school (11 to 18 year old). She had been using a pen drive to take her PowerPoint presentations to school with the information about artists and their work but she realised that they are easy to lose and also get damaged quite easily. Her brother sourced a hard drive but she wanted a case to keep it in as the hard drive is in a plastic case which could break if dropped. I used this mad scientist and technology fabric to make a case that holds both the hard drive and the USB lead to connect to the computer. It's quilted with a small meander. The top is held closed by two velco spots



It all fits very nicely into the case and keeps it safe in her work bag. An added bonus was that this project used up the last bit of this fabric that I had left in my scrap pot.


The third item I was going to make was a small quilt for a bed in my doll's house. I have some lovely Liberty lawn that will do the job perfectly but my brain refused to do the maths on the size I needed to make. My doll's house is 1/12 scale so a reasonably easy calculation for a double bed size quilt but I wasn't sure if I'd worked it out right so put everything away until later. I'll make a start on that later this month. It will all be made by hand and I will have quite a bit of time to work on it when I travel to Reading by train on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Thank you for popping over to see my projects. Now you need to visit the blogs of all the other participants today.


Sew Many Yarns (You are here)

I can't wait to see all the projects. There are so many beautiful projects to see and I always get a lot of ideas for things to make in the future.

Lyndsey

35 comments:

  1. Great case for your daughter...such a nice mom! Your sewing machine cover has inspired me to make you - so adorable! Funny that you should think that living in the city gives you lots of dust; I live on a farm and we call dust a country accent!

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  2. Beautiful and so practical, love it 😍

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  3. What a lovely sewing machine cover! Very useful and a great eye catcher!
    Lucky daughter to get this sweet case, cute!

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  4. What a sweet cover for your quilt, so bright and cheerful. Your little bag is great too, what a fun fabric.

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  5. Wow!!! Your machine cover is gorgeous!!!!!!

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  6. Lyndsey your machine cover is awesome!
    I need to made one too to keep the dust off my treasured baby!
    Happy Small Blog Hopping!

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  7. Love your pretty and useful projects! Great minds must think alike, I am working on a 1/12 dollhouse quilt using Liberty too :) You must be going more elaborate though if you need maths, I am just using small squares!

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  8. The machine cover is beautiful and what a great idea not to worry about a hole for the handle. I rarely move mine so I wouldn't need a hole either. The fabrics are cute and bright! Helping your daughter out by making a protective cover was a great small project idea. Thanks for sharing and for hopping with us!

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  9. Your sewing machine cover is wonderful. It looks great and will provide great protection for your machine. I keep wanting to make one for my machine and haven’t done it yet. I’ll bet your daughter loves her cover too. Well done.

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  10. Great ideas, great outcomes. Looking forward to the small quilt in your future.

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  11. Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

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  12. That is the cutest cover. I love the fabrics you chose!

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  13. That is perfect! Love the little sewing icons, and the cheery side fabric. Bet your machine is very happy sporting that cover!

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  14. What a beautiful and perfect cover for your sewing machine.

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  15. Heya Lyndsey, This is Sew Cuuuuuute!!! Love the bright cover, absolutely fabulous!!!

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  16. Two small projects are more than fine. The machine cover is so cute - love the fabric. I continue to 'think' about a cover for my machines. Thanks for sharing your projects.

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  17. Two great finishes! You'll love your cover.

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  18. Great projects!! I love your sewing machine cover. I have thought about making one for awhile now but just have been too distracted. You went with practical and beautiful in both your projects. My hubby is on a plane to London right now. Last time he brought me back a little surprise "liberty of london" purchase! I should only be that lucky again, right!? I hope you get a lot of love from seeing your machine cover!

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  19. Two great projects and I need both of them. Thank you for the great inspiration!

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  20. Great projects. Love the fabric choices for both of them. Thanks for sharing.

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  21. Great projects. I need to make a pedal case....especially for my Featherweight!

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  22. What a beautiful sewing machine cover. Bravo!

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  23. Cute machine cover, and great idea for the hard drive. Love your fabrics.

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  24. Hi, Lyndsey, You reminded me that one of my projects to make SOON is a cover for my sewing machine. Yours turned out well. Did you use a pattern or designed one yourself?

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  25. Oh, what a perfect print for your sewing machine cover. No more dust kitties.

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  26. Your machine loves getting dressed up in her new cover! It's so bright and cheery and will indeed keep out the dust and hairs. I love it!

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  27. Your sewing machine cover is so fun! I love the fabric you used.

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  28. Nice projects! I particularly like your sewing machine cover--bright and cheery!

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  29. Btw, I had never heard of a sewing tidy till I read your post. Isn't it great to learn something new and of course, realize that I actually need one of them too!
    What perfect fabric for your sewing machine cover. With its tidy and this cover, you must have the poshest sewing machine around.

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  30. Love your sewing machine cover! Very nicely done!

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  31. Your sewing machine cover is so cute. I totally need to make myself a cover as well.

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  32. What a happy cover for your machine, and the hard drive cover looks really great, too!

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  33. Awesome! So nice to make things for ourselves right! Great job! Thanks for sharing!

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