It might be too early for Christmas, but as I’ll be away over the holidays I feel a sense of urgency to get all my presents ready before I go. I usually try to make the presents myself, so I always start as early as possible so I’m not in a panic.
I don’t usually have any problems when it comes to getting presents for adults but it’s different for children. I think the reason is that children are honest and you can immediately tell if they like a present or not, whereas adults usually lie out of sympathy (before it gets given to the charity shop!)
The present is for a little girl who loves craft-y items. I made her a dress a couple of years ago and soon realised that block patterns for children are not very accurate, so I decided to make her a quilt.
I’d been in Liberty looking at the quilts they have on display and I saw a very pretty one made out of strips of fabric with a circular quilting. Being the lazy person I am, I decided that this was the best pattern to use, as cutting the fabric seemed simple and so did the sewing. I went home and planned out the size of the quilt and the dimensions of the strips. Once I had the yardage for the fabrics, I bought a plain red cotton fabric and two different shades of a printed desserts/sweets fabric.
This took me a couple of week to finish as I was only able to sew the quilt when I had time. When it was finished, I was quite happy with the way it looked.
I also used a batting made out of bamboo fibres. They keep in the warmth well and as a bonus are also anti-bacterial!
The circular quilting was achieved by drawing a circle (in my case a bowl) and then using the guide on my walking foot to continuously sew more circles concentrically out from the initial circle. I did almost all of the sewing with a walking foot and can honestly say that it’s the one of the best tools for a sewing machine.
I really hope the present goes down well. I feel inspired to make more, although I have to say I prefer sewing garments to making quilts. It’s probably because of the huge effort that goes into making quilts!
Stephen Yong 