Monday, December 15, 2008

More Xmas Pressie Crafting.....

I'm so happy that I've finally finished the quilts I had planned for Miss Connie and DH for Xmas this year..... With the count down to Xmas now only 10 more sleeps and Bub #2's due date fast approaching I never thought I was going to get either of them finished.
DH's is a denim rag quilt made out of 8 pairs of his old favourite jeans that no longer fit....I've never made a rag quilt before and am so happy with how this one turned out.... I had no pattern just some basic instructions I'd found on the web. I cut the old jeans into 6" squares and sewed 2 of these together at a time wrong sides facing on the diagonal. Once I had all of my 6" squares sewn together I than had to sew my strips to start making the quilt. I used a generous 1/4" seam allowance when sewing it all together. This was all easy enough and I went for a checker board look like on this denim rag quilt. The trickiest part of the whole quilt was cutting the seams to make the rag's.... I had to cut through 4 layers of denim and my poor old scissors really couldn't handle the pressure so I opted for a butchers knife instead and that was much less painful on my hands not to mention the scissors.....

Miss Connie's quilt is a raggy square quilt that I roughly followed this tutorial for.....

I just used what ever purple fabric I had on hand for this one and some extra thick polyester wadding as I wanted it to resemble a doona, nice and fat and fluffy..... It was really hard to quilt with the extra thick wadding as it kept wanting to pucker up, any tips as to how to stop this from happening next time would be great... :) I'm so glad that I used the extra thick stuff though, it definitely gave me the effect I was looking for... The fabric frayed really nicely after the first wash and I didn't need to trim many threads at all...

I also managed to whip up a little snuggle bunny for bub #2 last night using some lovely soft and fluffy fairy floss yarn that I got a while back from here.....The pattern was a freebie when I bought the yarn and was a little bit confusing. You had to knit the front and back of the head at the same time and than stuff it at the end but once I finished I could barely fit any stuffing in the head.... Very strange????? Maybe I need to make another one just to make sure I was reading the pattern correctly.....

The button eyes look a bit freaky in these pics but I promise it's very cute in real life... LOL!!! I have almost finished all of my Xmas crafting now thank goodness.... I will have to post a lot of my pressy pics after Xmas though as many of the people receiving these gifts often pop in to have a read of my blog.... How's your Xmas crafting coming along????

Take Care :)

18 comments:

  1. I like them all. I love your Hills Hoist too, I like the older ones better than the new ones.

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  2. Love the quilts. The purple one is so nice. I like the little toy bunny too, very sweet.

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  3. You have done a wonderful job on your quilts!!
    Hope all goes well with the baby, not long now I guess!

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  4. I've been wanting to make a ragggedy quilt for ages but I still ahven't gotten around to it.
    I love the effect that you get on the purple one with the patches sewn on top of each other and then left to fray around the edges.

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  5. Oh heavens I just realised that you are due very close to Chrissy!! My second son was born on the 29th,2 days after we got back from Dunlop where my very nervous parents entertained us for Christmas(i think Mum was glad to see me gone,LOL)
    Love the quilts!!

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  6. What great quilts! I don't know how you have gotten it all done! Good for you.

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  7. Wow you have been busy Jodie!! Love your denim quilt and the purple one for Connie is so sweet.

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  8. Oh, such lovely quilts! and such a sweet toy bunny!

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  9. I love the denim quilt. What a lovely way to preserve the old jeans.

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  10. wow your quilts are beautiful Jodie I have been wanting to do a rag quilt for a few years now!!!

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  11. WOW.!! your Going Great Guns Jodie...Love both Quilts and the little Bunny Hug is so cute I've never seen one like this before...
    are you Slowing down Yet.??
    Take care...

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  12. Love the quilts, they look great!

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  13. I love your denim quilt!!!
    looks great.well done.

    the bunny is cute tooo.LOL on the instructions!!!

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  14. I am making a quilt using that tutorial as well. Mine is pinks and greens and I think it's going to be beautiful. I used low-loft batting--yours with high loft looks great, but I shudder to think about how hard it was to quilt!

    Katie in New Mexico, USA

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  15. WOW! Loved how your denim rug turned out.... Must get mine finished now.....

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  16. I love the denim rag quilt... might have to try making one of those with the many extra pairs of jeans I have lying around! I love "free" reusing craft!! :)

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  17. I love your quilts.

    I also made a rag quilt but having no old jeans to use I bought new denim. I like that you stitched across the blocks, I was going to do it too but had wanted to get 2 quilts made in the week before Christmas so left it off.

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  18. Hello Jodie,

    Found your site when looking for denim quilt ideas. I was wondering what type of thread you used...just regular? or a more heavy-duty? I am also curious as to who it stood up to washings in the machine? Lastly I have made several flannel "rag" quilts and I find it hard to cut the fabric to make the fringe. How did you survive doing this with the denim? Any tips?
    Glad I stumbled upon your blog, lots of gorgeous wares!

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