Sew sew sew

Lucy and I have a number of sewing projects on the go at the moment, we have teamed up because she loves the start of the process, the designing and the fabric cutting, and I love the sewing and seeing the project become a finished 'thing'.

Vikki's daughter Olivia, Livvi to her friends, turns 1 on the 4th July and its a bit of a poignant birthday for me, never mind for Vikki, or Livvi or their family! I've known Vikki since Barney (her son) and Niamh (same age) were babies, but for whatever reason it was the arrival of Livvi that sealed our friendship and I realised just how amazing she is and how much I enjoy spending time with her.

Anyway. I wanted to give Livvi something that I had invested a lot of time in, something that she could keep and something that was personal. Cue a blanket. Lucy helped me with kickstarting the project and then it just kind of grew and grew into this squishy bundle of rectangular warmth. Whilst it was time consuming - I handstitched the quote and binding - it was relatively simple. It is ridiculously imperfect, some of the mistakes in it are glaring, but I think it turned out ok and I am THRILLED with it.

Cut your squares, sew them together, then using bondaweb cut out your 'picture' and iron it into place.

Then you just need to applique around the images.

Vikki got a commemorative tatoo for Livvi, back in March (see here - Elle and Vikki had a tatoo sesh and Elle blogged about it.) and she chose a quote 'And though she be but little, she is fierce' with a little mouse. So it was a no brainer to incorporate the quote and mouse theme into the blanket.

I pin everything to within an inch of its life - and I use giant safety pins for the actual quilting.

Once you get onto the hand stitching part, you can take the sewing anywhere with you - even swimming whilst you wait for the biglets to have their lessons!

 

Happy birthday Olivia Georgina Ann Cross!