My Making Life

In Her Studio

Aug 30, 2018Aug 30, 2018 missleela83

Hello Lovelies!

Hope you are well and enjoying the best possible creative life? I’ve popped by to share something super exciting with you.

For a long time, ever since I found my making niche and started my little handmade business, it has been a goal of mine to be published in a Craft or Making magazine. I have long been interested in writing for magazines. Initially when I was studying Interior Design I thought very seriously of going down the publishing road, writing articles for decorating magazines and putting products together etc. Recently my interest has shifted to writing editorial pieces for craft magazines, hence one of the reasons why I decided to start a blog again.

As well as writing, I have a keen interest in styling photos for craft magazines and other publications. I really enjoy putting scenes together, or flat lays of crafty things as well as handmade items and interior décor pieces.

All these dreams and ideas lead to one day a few months ago when I received a message by an editor from the Stampington Publishing Company. She had seen an image of my Studio Space on Instagram and was keen to showcase it in a new magazine they were publishing called ‘In Her Studio’. Of course, I’m sure you can imagine that upon reading this message I became immediately excited of the possibility of being published! The idea that someone wanted to share my studio space with the crafting community world-wide was quite head-spinning.

After learning about all the details, I received an email with a list of question prompts and begun to write my article. I discuss how my creative journey began, a little about my back ground and where I’m from and of course the nitty gritty details of my studio, how I use it, how I set it up, and my tips for creating your own studio space. I also shared in my article my top ten podcasts.

Then there came the photography. Never has my studio looked so spick and span than it did for my photo shoot! I took all the photos myself on my SLR camera and then edited them all in Photoshop Elements. I enjoyed taking the photos, trying to find interesting angles to show the bits and pieces in my studio.

I am immensely proud of my studio space and extremely grateful for it. I know it is a luxury to have such a large room that I can dedicate to my making space…I am very lucky indeed. I wish I was able to spend more time in my studio. I am away at my day job as an Interior Designer four days of the week, and then when I am home there is housework to do. Being a mum to a toddler also makes finding studio a little difficult. I savour the time I can spend in my studio. I have set up a small table in a corner our Living Room where I can sit and sew or crochet whilst still interact with Tilly and my Husband. It also helps to keep needles, scissors and my paper piecing away from little fingers!

Writing this article has settled in my mind that publishing is definitely something I would like to pursue. Watch this space!

Happy Making,

Miss Leela x

You can purchase a copy of the Premiere Issue of ‘In Her Studio’ from the Stampington Website.

Podcast Show Notes

Show Notes – Podcast Ep 9

Oct 6, 2018 missleela83

Hello! Please find bellow show notes for Episode 9 of the Miss Leela Podcast. You can watch the latest episode here.

Finished Items!

¼” Hexie Hexagon Flower Mini Quilt

You can read all about and see lots of photos of my Flower Power Mini Quilt in my blog post.

Makes in Progress

Tilly’s Scarf – Hand dyed yarn from Jazzy Makes. Cast on 30 sitches, size 4.5 needles

100% Superwash Merino, Worsted 4ply, 100g, 200m

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/jazzymakes?ref=ss_profile

For Keeps Shawl – Pattern by the Velvet Acorn, Yarn by Wren and Ollie

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/605756454/crochet-pattern-for-keeps-shawl-small?ref=shop_home_active_9

https://www.wrenandollie.com/

Liberty Mosaic Mini Quilt 3 – Liberty fabric from Westwood Acres Liberty Monthly Club. Hex and diamond size ¾”

https://www.westwoodacresfabric.com/

Stash & Crafty Adventures

Yarn from Skein Sisters https://www.skeinsisters.com.au/

Wren and Ollie – Spin DK 100% Superwash Merino, 115g, 230m, Colours Parfait and Smitten Kitten

https://www.wrenandollie.com/

Hedgehog Fibres – Skinny Singles, 100% Merino Wool, 100g, 366m, Colour Beach Bunny

https://shop.hedgehogfibres.com/

Primrose Yarn Co – Adelaide Single Ply Fingering Yarn, 100% Superwash Merino, 115g, 435yd, Colours Soda Pop and Sassy

https://primroseyarnco.com/

Fabric from Hunter’s Hill Quilt Show

https://www.huntershillquilters.org/

https://www.facebook.com/huntershillquiltersnsw/

Material Obsession – https://www.materialobsession.com.au/

In Other News

In her Studio article

https://stampington.com/in-her-studio-volume-1

Great British Quilter Instagram Challenge

Run by @sarahashfordstudio and @verykerryberry

https://www.instagram.com/sarahashfordstudio/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/verykerryberry/?hl=en

#greatbritishquilter

Sunday Scrap-along

You can read all of the details and the guidelines for the Sunday Scrap Along here.

Shout Outs – Podcasts

Sandy by the Lakeside – thank you for sharing me!

https://www.instagram.com/sandybythelakeside/?hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf02Pxr-ClYXI9xQwV4nNzw

https://bythelakeside.com/

Love to Sew – Caroline and Helen

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrM2rUcNsc12RK3XbWrjH0w/videos

https://www.instagram.com/carolinelovetosew/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/florahoneypot/?hl=en

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/LovetoSewUK

https://lovetosewbyc.co.uk/

Sweet Sparrow Knits – Julie

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs3psQSaomOUZEDBh9e1NHA

https://www.instagram.com/sweetsparrowknits/?hl=en

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetSparrowYarns

Chit Chat

The importance of finding crafty friends: My lovely new Creative Soul Sister Madeline of Ecolier Kids, shop her gorgeous children’s clothes at:

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/EcolierKids?ref=ss_profile

Thank you for watching xx

making

Flower Power Mini Quilt

Sep 28, 2018Sep 28, 2018 missleela83

Sometime after finishing my first Miniature Quilt ‘Garden of Patience’ I started what would turn out to be a long term quarter inch hexie project. I decided that I wanted to make a giant hexagon flower. Each petal would be a different colour of the rainbow and would be pieced from quarter inch hexies. Now I didn’t record the date I started this insane idea, but I’m taking a guess that it was approximately seven or so years ago.

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-27 — Piecing the petals.

This year I decided that I was going to finish all of my English Paper Piecing WIP’s because I have quite a few of them! I had a rummage through my WIP basket and came across a couple of finished and half-finished petals for my hexagon flower quilt. Straight away I knew this was one that I had to get finished. Over the next few months I pieced together the individual petals, finishing the ones I had already started and starting the colours I hadn’t yet begun. At last I had all seven petals pieced.

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-26 — Piecing the petals to the center

The project gained steam now as I could start to see it coming together. The petals pieced I began to sew them together, first attaching each petal to the centre white pieced hexagon, and then piecing the sides between each petal. That done I needed to decide how I was going to finish off the flower. Did I want to leave it as just the centre and petals? Did I want to square it off and add in a multi-coloured arrangement of quarter inch hexie flowers with borders? I spent a bit of time weighing up my options before settling on adding diamond shaped blocks pieced from more quarter inch hexies in white and cream fabrics. This allowed me to create one giant pieced hexagon shape with six straight edges.

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-25 — Petals are all pieced to the center, time to piece the petal sides together

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-30 — Piecing on the diamond corner blocks

The piecing complete, it was time to attach it to backing fabric. I did some stash diving and settled on a neutral pale cream cotton fabric. I used a large square of visafix to adhere the piecing to the backing. I then also did some thread basting along the sides to help keep the work in place and to try and avoid distorting the backing fabric while I hand appliqued around the six sides of the piecing on to the backing.

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-15 — Appliquing on to the backing fabric

The applique complete I then had to decide how to quilt it. I knew I didn’t want to do any kind of visible quilting over the top of the pieced quarter inch hexies as I thought it would detract from the overall look and design. I didn’t want all of my painstakingly pieced hexies to be hidden under quilting stitches! In the end I decided to hand quilt very tiny stitches along the sides of each petal. I’m going to try and explain this as best I can. I would do a very small stitch in the corner of an individual quarter inch hexie piece, then bring my needle up in the next corner of the hexie piece. I would continue in this manner along the edges of each petal joint. What it created was virtually invisible stitches on the front and larger stitches on the back. It has had the desired affect though. The piece is not interrupted by quilt stitches, but it has done the job in connecting the front of the quilt through the wadding to the back of the quilt.

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-28 — Sewing tiny quilting stitches

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-29 — Quilting along the edge

I then decided to hand quilt small visible quilt stitches following the outline of the whole pieced hexagon. That done the whole project sat for two months waiting for me to come back and finish it off properly. I had left a border of the backing fabric so I needed to decide how I was going to quilt that. I decided to machine quilt it and drew three lines of quilting following the hexagon sides and radiating out. The first quilt line measure a quarter inch out from the piecing, the next line measure half an inch from the first quilting line, and the third measures three quarter inch from the second quilting line. This has then left me with about a half inch of border fabric before the binding which measures quarter inch. I was pretty pleased with how that symmetry worked out.

The binding is hand sewn on to the back. I stash dived for both the backing and binding fabrics. I trialled a couple of different binding fabrics before settling on the neutral taupe colour.

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-22 — The back

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-23 — Hanging sleeve for rod and ribbon loops to hang on wall hooks

And just like that my ‘Flower Power Mini Quilt’ is finished. I love it! It brings such a happy burst of loveliness to my studio wall. It feels great to finally get this piece finished. It’s really quite satisfying to see all the time and effort that goes into something for it to then bloom in front of your very eyes.

Without further ado, here are the quilt Stats:

Finished Quilt Size: Each hexagon side = 11.5” Width = 23” x Height = 20”

Finished Pieced Size: Each hexagon side = 8.5” Width = 17.5” x Height = 15.25”

Binding Size: ¼”

Hexagon piece size = 1/$”

Hexagon Centre and Petal individual hexie count = 127

Total Count (7 Petal Blocks) = 889

Diamond individual hexie count = 42

Total Count (6 diamond blocks) = 252

Grand Total Quarter Inch Hexie Count = 1,141

Time

Hexie Prep = 7.5hrs (cutting out and basting the hexie pieces) (that’s pretty conservative really, probably a lot more time than that!)

Hexie Flower Piecing: Individual Petal = 15hrs Total for 7 petals = 105hrs

Piecing Petals together = 8.5hrs

Piecing the diamond borders on = 24.5hrs

Applique = 4.5hrs

Quilting = 4hrs

Finishing and Binding = 4hrs

Grand Total time to make = 158hrs

Flower-Power-Mini-Quilt---Miss-Leela-18 — What the back of all that piecing looks like!

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making

The Sunday Scrap-along 2018

Aug 26, 2018Aug 26, 2018 missleela83

Hello lovely makers!

I totally forgot to write about my first Make-Along that I’m running on Instagram and Ravelry! How remiss of me. I did mention it on my last podcast, and of course if you follow me on Instagram you will have heard all about it (incidentally I am most active on Instagram so that is the best place to stay up to date with Miss Leela happenings).

I have been wanting to start a make-along for a while and I thought a scrappy project make-along would be perfect since I love scrappy makes.

So join me in my first ever make-along…The Sunday Scrap-Along!

Here are the details and guidelines:

The make-along will run from Sunday the 5th of August to Sunday the 30th December – a nice long make-along.
Join in every **Sunday** and work on a scrap project.
Your scrap project can be of any craft discipline, so it can be sewing, patchwork, embroidery, knitting, crochet, weaving, felting, spinning, paper craft etc.
At least 70% of your project must be made using scraps, so scrap fabric, scrap yarn, basically the left over bits & pieces and remnants from other projects.
Use the hashtag #sundayscrapalong2018
Join in on Ravelry and over on Instagram – feel free to tag me in your posts @missleela_handmade.
There will be two threads on Ravelry to participate in – a Chatter thread and a Finished objects thread.
I will be drawing random prize winners from both Instagram & the two Ravelry threads throughout the make-along.
WIP’S can be included
Lastly have fun and get your scrap on!

I do hope you’ll join me. I intend to make a lot of progress on my scrappy 1” hexagon quilt. It still is a way to go to fit my queen bed!

Happy Stitching!

Miss Leela x

Podcast Show Notes

Podcast Episode 8 – Shownotes

Aug 17, 2018Aug 17, 2018 missleela83

Hello! Here are the show notes for Podcast Episode 8!

You can view the podcast here. Thanks for watching.

Finished Makes

Tilly’s Baby Doll Blanket – not pattern, treble stitches in rows, simple shell scallop edge. Yarn Rico Baby So Soft Print dk, Farbe 002 / Partie 770

Tilly’s Headwarmer – Braelyn Headwarmer by Velvet Acorn

Yarn – Shiver, Moda Vera, colour 38. White wool yarn, green yarn from stash – buttons from Dailylike

Wrist Warmers – Soul Soothing Mitts by Sandra of Cherry Heart. Made for the Cherry Heart Makealong. Yarn by The Australian Wool Store, 100% Superwash Merino, colour Strawberry Malt.

Liberty Mosaic Mini Quilt 1 – see an in-depth blog post here.

Liberty Mosaic Quilt 2 – ¾” Octogons and squares – see an in-depth blog post here.

Liberty fabric from Westwood Acres ( @westwood_acres by @a.crafty.fox ) Liberty Fat 16^th Monthly Subscription. Pattern design by me. I plan on writing up this pattern & also doing paper piece kits in the near future.

Mini pin pennant & pincushion – Using Liberty scraps for the @ava_and_neve #libertyscrapchallenge. Hexies are 3/8”.

Makes in Progress

Learning to knit

Pincushions

Fabric gift tags

Flossie Teacakes Guide to English Paper Piecing by Florence Knapp

See my book review here. Find Florence’s Blog here.

Sydney Quilt and Craft Fair – Goodies!

Yarnish

Mary Maxim Prism, Colour 2013 Seascape, 100% acrylic
Scheepjes Whirl, Watermelon Hell Raiser, 60% cotton 40% acrlic

Material Obsession – Travel Threads, Heart by Wendy Williams

Hatched and Patched

Nature’s Pace Ipad Cases
Ceramic Dish
Wool fabric cuts

The Strawberry Theif

Liberty solid fabrics
Cotton bundle
Liberty fat 16ths

The Bay Window

CGT Threads Perle – Apricot Ice 1101, Apple Strudel 2305, 2202 Tutu, Mabel 1306
Valdani Pearl Cotton – 12 & 8

The Crewel Gobelin

Rustic Wool Moire, colour 443

Can Do Books

The Home Sewer’s Guide to Practical Stitches, by Nicole Vasbinder
Knit It, by Melissa Leapman

Other Goodies!

Project Bag from Quiltkween @quiltkween

Stitch Markers from Mark my Stitches

Willow Basket Bag from The Ivory Fawn @theivroyfawn.co

Happy Making!

Miss Leela x

making

Liberty Mosaic Miniature Quilt Two

Aug 10, 2018Aug 10, 2018 missleela83

Hello!

I do hope you have been well. It has been a little while since my last post, but I’m here today to share with you my finished Liberty Mosaic Miniature Quilt Two.

I am really happy with how this quilt has come together. I started with the June Liberty Subscription club bundle I received from Westwood Acres.

From the eleven patterns I was sent I think I only omitted three of them. I paired them up with some solid Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics.

I decided to try a new shape, the Octagon and paired it with squares to create a mosaic pattern. The size I used are ¾”. I printed out a pattern colour sheet and assigned each fabric print a colour pencil, I then coloured in my pattern with which fabric I wanted where. I find using colouring sheets like this very helpful.

Because these shapes were a bit larger than what I usually sew with, I was able to glue baste the fabrics to the papers using my trusty Sewline Glue Pen. Basting is so much quicker when using this method.

I really enjoyed piecing the octagons and squares together. The pieced front grew quite quickly and it was nice seeing the fabric prints and colours start to play with each other.

To square of the quilt I used triangles, again all hand sewn. I then created large paper strips to connect the border in the pale pink solid.

I decided to quilt this one on the machine. I used a very thin cotton batting rather than the iron on pellon I used in my previous mini quilt. I did a lot of quilting lines and I think this paired with the thin batting has created a really nice flat miniature quilt. The first Liberty Mosaic quilt I did looks a little puffy in areas which I think is from using the pellon and hand quilting it. I decided to go out of my comfort zone and did the quilting in a teal blue thread that matches the teal blue binding.

I dived in to my stash and found the blue and white patterned fabric for the back. I think the design of the backing quilt goes really well with the pieced front. I added a sleave for a hanging rod, as well as two ribbon loops. You can put a hanging rod through the sleave or loops, or you can hang it using the loops and hooks on the wall.

Here are some shots of the finished Mini Quilt.

Quilt Stats:

Design and preparing shapes – 5hrs

Piecing (by hand) – 19.5hrs

Hand piece borders – 4hrs

Machine quilting – 2hrs

Binding and finishing – 2.5hrs

Total of 28hrs

I really enjoyed working on this miniature quilt. I think it’s my favourite one to date. It reminds me of the Greek Islands for some reason, so as I sit and look at it hanging on my studio wall I am reminded of summertime, of azure blue seas, and warm breezes….and Gelato!

Happy Stitching,

Miss Leela x

making

Liberty Mosaic Mini Quilt One

Jul 6, 2018 missleela83

About a month ago I was delightfully surprised to be selected as a Westwood Acres brand rep for their Liberty Subscription Monthly Club. In return for some glorious Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics I was asked to, alongside some other very talented reps, use the fabrics to make some items and share on my Instagram feed.

Naturally I decided that I was going to make three hand pieced Miniature Quilts using English Paper Piecing. In my quilts I wanted to highlight the flexibility of quilt design that you can achieve from hand piecing, and of course the scale of the design and quilt was to be significantly reduced.

So, for my first design I chose a traditional star quilt block that consists of squares and triangles. I picked out my favourite five Liberty prints from the bundle of eleven I received and paired them with some cotton spot and plain fabrics that complemented the colour tones in the Liberty fabrics.

I used the program Electric Quilt 7 to design the layout and nominate what fabrics would form the blocks. Once my design was done I could move on to the fun part. I cut out and basted all the shapes using my trusty Sewline Glue Pen. If you’re new to EPP this is one of my must have tools!

For the piecing I started by piecing each individual block, then pieced all the blocks together. I made some border block papers and hand stitched them on last. Then it was time to quilt, by hand, and lastly sew on the binding. I’m not going to give too much away with the construction as I’m planning on writing this quilt up as pattern and kit!

I’m very pleased with the finished quilt and it looks lovely hanging on my studio wall. It will be a great addition to my sample Mini Quilts to showcase my range of EPP papers.

Here are the stats:

Quilt Size: 14.75” x 14.75”

Centre Pieced Size: 12” x 12”

Pieced Star Block Size: 4” x 4”

Time to design & prep shapes: 5.5hrs

Time to Piece: 23.5hrs

Time to quilt & bind: 20hrs

Total Hours: 49hrs

Happy Stitching,

Miss Leela x