Apples - November's challenge for the Across the Pond Sew Along

For the Across the Pond Sew Along Amy from Amy Made That! has chosen Apples as this month's theme. I love apples: eating them (!!!) and in design too. It's incredible how an apple can look really great in so many different designs. Recently I made the Yum-Yum apple bib for the Zakka Along Patchwork, Please.

Have a look at the Patchwork, Please Flickr group to see how many different versions of this bib were made!

Cropping up over Blogland, as Amy noticed, are the fantastic apples from Lori Holt's (Bee In My Bonnet) new book Quilty Fun. Are you following the Sew Along and Blog Tour? You mustn't miss Kerry's version of the apples at verykerryberry. She is hosting the first stop of the Quilty Fun Sew Along and Blog Tour. I'm very tempted to buy this book...

Kerry writes one of my favourite blogs, have a look yourself and you'll see why!

This photo is from her blog verykerryberry showing a detail of her version of the Quilty Fun blocks:

And have you seen this beautiful necklace? It's made by the talented Ingrid Figueras at Sewing Lab.

Take a look at the rest of her Fruta collection too... delicious!

I had better get working on my apple project then!

Fresh Sewing Day: goodbye October!

What has been going on here at Ella & Nesta's Little Room during October?

Skinny Pincushion for the Across the Pond Sew Along

The Maxi Trivet Patchwork Wheel inspired by September's Global Scrap Bee block

The last project for the super fun Patchwork, Please Zakka Along: Giant Prettified Pincushion!

Laura Armiraglio's Tutorial for making a Sew (Knit not) Wool Cowl Scarf

and then the challenge, joining the Blogger's Quilt Festival with these two entries:

The first entry for the Quilt Photographer category is my Phoenix Stealing Happy Hexagon Trivet

The second entry for the Art Quilts category is my Lago Maggiore Quilt:

You can read more about my Lago Maggiore Quilt in my post here.

If you would like to vote for my entries, you can in the Quilt Photographer category here and in the Art Quilts category here starting from the 1st of November until the 7th of November over at Amy's Creative Side. To vote click on the heart in the corner of the photo when you scroll over my entry!

Linking up with Lynne at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day

Skinny Pincushion - Across the Pond Sew Along

Another fun project this month for the Across the Pond Sew Along: Skinny Pincushions. I hadn't seen one yet until I read about them on Amy's blog Amy Made That! and on Susie's Sunroom. I went for Susie's solution of stuffing the pincushion with cat litter to weigh it down and sharpen my pins, it really works!

I decided to use the button fabric I recently bought. Love at first sight and it's quickly found a special home. To complement the fabric I added three vintage looking buttons which luckily match the colours in the fabric beautifully.

The "tape measure" linen ribbon is by East of India. They make very high quality ribbons and this one has a very pretty packaging. How can you not like the quote it has on the card? Would make a lovely gift for somebody who likes sewing. I bought mine at Temptation Gifts and over the years I have bought quite a few...ehm, ehm.

Linking up at TGIFF this week at Quokkaquilts, 
there's a great month of giveaways lined up!

Daisy Pinwheel block into Christmas Pinwheel Lollipop

It's very strange working on Christmas decorations when it's so hot outside, but Pinwheels make you feel fresh, don't they? So put Christmas and Pinwheels together and you have the Christmas Pinwheel Lollipop!

The centre of this Pinwheel didn't come as precise as I would of liked it to be and I was about to unstitch the whole thing when I remembered I had these pretty wooden heart shaped buttons. Sewed one in the middle and solved the problem in a flash!

These are the Daisy Pinwheel blocks I started off with, using a dark and a light coloured Christmas themed fabric to make the pinwheel more evident. 

More  Christmas Pinwheel Lollipops coming up. They can be used as decorations on the Christmas Tree if you add a tag at the back to hang them up. They're also a fancy decoration to add wrapping up a present: you can just use brown paper, a red ribbon and a Christmas Pinwheel Lollipop to make a present more special and personal. They'd make great place names for the Christmas table or an original substitute for a Christmas card just be adding a handwritten message on a plain ribbon, tied round the stick.

I'm joining the Flickr group for Across The Pond with the Christmas Pinwheel Lollipop. I've just realised I'm a bit cheating because with this project I'm covering last month's theme too, which was Christmas in July! I hope the Across the Pond Sew Along friends don't mind.

I'm also joining Summercrafter's Friday Night Block Party (late, as usual) because I discovered, thanks to Amy @ Amy Made That!, that this week theme is Pinwheels. I love, love, love Pinwheels!

Pinwheels for the Across the Pond Sew Along

I absolutely love Pinwheels, so when I saw that Pinwheels are this month's theme for the Across the Pond Sew Along I was jumping with joy. Amy's post at Amy Made That! is full of great examples of Pinwheel quilts. I am particularly intrigued with the 3D ones, they look great. This is what I've made in the past:


Adoro le girandole, così quando ho visto che le girandole erano il tema per questo mese per il Across the Pond Sew Along ho fatto i salti di gioia. Il post di Amy a Amy Made That! è pieno di esempi di quilt con girandole. Sono particolarmente attratta da quelle 3D, sono fantastiche. Questo è quello che ho creato in passato:

I made this hotpad using a template called Lil' Twister by The Country Schoolhouse. Really fun to use. Read more about it here and here.

Ho creato questa presina usando un righellino chaimato Lil' Twister di The Country Schoolhouse. Molto divertente da usare. Leggi altro su questo attrezzo qui e qui.


Using a disappearing nine patch I came up with this pincushion. I really like using linen and decided to cover a button with a tiny detail from some special linen I had in my stash. I had a little trouble with this because it was very fidgety!

Usando un blocco nove toppe a scomparsa ho creato questo puntaspilli. Mi piace tantissimo usare il lino ed ho deciso di ricoprire un bottone con un dettaglio piccolissimo prendendolo da un lino speciale che avevo già. Ho avuto qualche problema perché era molto piccolo!

Will soon be joining the Flickr group for Across The Pond with some photos of a new Pinwheel creation. How can I resist?

Voglio partecipare al Flickr group for Across The Pond con delle foto di una nuova creazione con girandole. Come posso resistere?

P.S. The beautiful photos are all by Daniele Di Ciccio.

P.S. Le bellissime foto sono tutte di Daniele Di Ciccio.