Sewing a birthday presents....

It's my brother's birthday on the 7th April and every year I struggle with what to buy him.  I always say that he has more clothes than Marks and Spencers and because he has learning difficulties, he is unable to read or use a computer.  He loves the Carry On films but has all those, and a person can only have so many pairs of slippers, can't they!!!  So I generally send vouchers for the local theatre and he and my mum go and see a show as John particularly likes musicals.

However, this year I thought I'd do something completely different.  John has a nautical themed bedroom so I thought I'd make a small 'quilt' for him.  I had some ideas in my head and went to the local haberdashers to get some supplies. I bought some thick beige linen, some natural thick undyed cotton (I think there is a name for this but I can't think what it is) and some fabric for the back.  And I also bought something which I think is called 'batting' a sort of thick stuff for in between the two outside fabrics.

I bought a set of ten 'nautical' themed embroidery patterns on line, downloaded them and made a start.  I didn't use the suggested colours for each design as they were all a little bit dull, instead choosing various colours that I thought would work well.  

When I got to this point, I wasn't quite sure where I should go from here, having never made anything remotely like a quilt before!!!  And it took me ages to realise that I had to use a damp cloth to make the batting stuff 'fuse' to the fabric!!!!  I wondered what on earth was going wrong when I'd stood for more than half an hour ironing it only to find each time that it hadn't fused!

And then I just winged it.  I made all the embroidered 'motifs' into the same size and then I sewed them by hand onto the linen using running stitches.....now please don't laugh, my hand stitching is not very good but I thought the running stitches looked quite effective!!!  After that I started just sewing straight lines all over the place!  And then I attached everything together and this is the end result. 

If you click on the photos they will enlarge and you can see the details better.

This is the fabric I chose for the back, I thought, being of old maps, it suited the theme quite well.

I really really wanted to mitre the corners but I just couldn't do it so in the end I just made them overlap.  I sewed on this tiny metal 'made with love' tag on to one corner....

Hanging on the fence to dry after all the steam ironing!

The finished size is 112cm wide by 56cm deep.  And it's quite heavy.  I cannot imagine how someone could sew a full sized quilt on a home sewing machine, but know that lots of people do it and I really admire them!

I'm not sure I will do another too soon but might consider doing something for my mum for her 80th birthday later this year.  But this time I hope to start sooner and not try to make it all in 3 days. 

It's not perfect, but I'm very happy with how it came out and hope my brother will love it too!

Thanks for visiting.  I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter weekend and that the week ahead is great for each of you!