Sew Justine Sew

Fairytale finish...

2012-01-23T15:05:00.000+01:00

At last the Fairytale quilt has been finished and handed to my niece!! Her face was a picture when she saw it, excited doesn't even come close!!

The quilting was completed in simple organic straight lines and when washed and dried the quilt measured up at approx. 48" square. The fairytale pictures are cut from a panel by Alexander Henry, surrounded by pastel coloured strips from a Bella Solids jelly roll. The top and bottom sashing is scallop stripes called Caitlin I think, again from Alexander Henry and the side sashing is cute sausage dogs and I really can't remember who they're by - sorry!

Here it is on the sofa as it was really bad weather outside!!

And here's one of my niece snuggled underneath her quilt:

Apologies for the poor picture quality, we really couldn't get a photo shoot set up outside due to the weather so these were taken on my SIL mobile and sent to me later that evening as I'd completely forgot to take my proper camera!!

I also came home with this rocking chair that my SIL had thrifted for me earlier in the month:

picture taken using Instagram App for iPhone with Nashville filter

It just needs a lick of grey paint and a comfy cushion making for it and it'll be perfect for when the baby arrives, who was also lucky enough to receive this in the post over the weekend too:

picture taken using Instagram app for iPhone with Toaster filter

Its a beautiful Cashmere bear from my talented friend Beth of The Linen Cat. If you haven't heard of her before please do go and check out her website as her work is fabulous - we're huge fans here!!

Finally for today (after a busy weekend that included Saturday's day out to Bridlington visiting family and Sunday spent at Ikea, swimming lessons, erecting wardrobes and laying a new kitchen floor, phew), we decided to have an easy tea at Pizza Hut. Here's a brilliant snap of my gang:

picture taken on iPhone with no filter

Hope you all have a great week - I'm going to be doing lots of sewing!! What about you?

unexpected gifts....

2012-01-21T08:03:00.000+01:00

Last week sometime my friend Jen who blogs here, made a fabulous cape for one of her boys! Her blogging of this coincided nicely with 'Master M' bringing home this terms topic homework, what should be on there but make a costume for a prince or princess.....

I tweeted Jen and asked where she got the pattern and being the kind gal she is she not only photocopied the pattern for me but sent me the pattern on pattern paper too!

I was so surprised when I opened my package that she had also included these lovely goodies too:

photo taken using Instagram App on iPhone

There was a yummy lavender bag, hair clips for 'Little Miss H' and a crayon roll too! As I'm sure you can imagine I'm now only left with a lavender bag!!!!

This last couple of days has also seen me piece my 1st Swoon block:

photo taken using Instagram App on iPhone

And last night I finished the Fairytale Quilt ready for delivery today! It's in the wash as I type!!

photo taken using Instagram App on iPhone

I'll do a full Ta Dah! post on the quilt when I have some better pictures and all the statistics sorted out!!

stacks & stacks

2012-01-18T12:23:00.001+01:00

Well this year is whizzing by me in a daze! I can't keep up there's that much going on!

I had fully intended to blog over the weekend but 'Little Miss H' ended up in hospital with a nasty Urinary Tract Infection, she was having terrors, refusing to wee and drink and it was all very stressful. The stress then caused me to have a case of serious Braxton Hicks and by Sunday evening I was convinced this baby was going to appear!!! Anyway, he hasn't and 'Little Miss H' is on the mend thank goodness!!

I've spent all this week cutting fabric for the silly amount of quilts I'm making. First up is my nearly completely cut stack for the Swoonalong on Katy's blog.

I'm hoping to get 1 or 2 of the blocks pieced this afternoon - excited about that I am!

Then I have cut 180 3.5" squares for the Made in Cherry QAL plus 20 3.7/8" squares that were turned into 40 triangles!

Next up are the 284 2.5" squares for the Bust Yo Scraps QAL. I must confess I cheated here and just raided Katy's pre-cut stash of squares as I could not face any more cutting - my poor pregnant back!

I've also started the cutting of 10" squares for a lap quilt for 'Master M' in Dr. Seuss fabrics, he's been begging me for so long I kinda feel guilty I've been neglecting his needs.

I've had to get organised in my storage of all these projects!!

Even my yarn projects come neatly stacked these days....

Well all I need to do now is decide how I'm going to divvy up my sewing time!! Should I just work on a quilt until its finished then start the next one or have a dedicated time per week for each project??

Let me know what you'd do!!!

QAL's, Fabric & Crochet

2012-01-08T14:25:00.000+01:00

In all honesty I've not quite got my sewing thing on yet this year. I'm finding it hard been so tired and pregnant so instead I've been stalking the postie waiting for my pre-Christmas fabric orders to arrive!!

Here they are in all their glory. I just love me some fabric shopping!

I've also decided that I need to use up my stash of Creative Cotton Rico yarns and make the baby a blanket for when Hunter arrives! I've decided on a simple granny square blanket and I used this tutorial to help me along. I'm using the gorgeous lined drawstring bag that Katy made me for christmas to store my supplies in for this project and I take it everywhere with me, just in case I get chance for some hooky!

In order to help with my sewing mojo I let that Katy talk me into joining not one but two quilt-a-longs!!

The first is here and is making the fabulous 'Made in Cherry' quilt by Sarah Fielke with options to make a 60", 80" or 90" quilt - exciting eh??

The lovely Chelsea will be posting the first official post on the 13th January and you can also find the Flickr group here.

The second is here and is making the very popular and gorgeous Swoon quilt top by Camille Roskelly.

So if you're like me and in need of inspiration - hop on board too because as we all know 'the more the merrier!'

Hello 2012

2011-12-31T09:26:00.000+01:00

Blimey it's New Years Eve! I can't believe how fast this year has gone, can you?

2011 was a pretty good year for me both personally and in terms of creative production and I intend to make 2012 even more so.

Here's a mosaic of my favourite makes of 2011

There are still 3 WIPs that I need to finish before the end of January and then it is onto pastures new!

I've decided not to set myself any resolutions as such for 2012 as having a baby due in March I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. I'm most certainly going to be making more quilts from my stash fabrics and I will definitely be doing more knitting and crochet!!

Finally one last surprise happened for us yesterday when we went for a 3D scan of our baby - it appears baby Honey is indeed baby Hunter!!! We were told at our 20wk NHS scan that the baby was a girl, good job we treated ourselves and splashed out on a private 3D scan as the baby is definitely a boy, we have photographic evidence of his wedding tackle so to speak!!!

I was very reassured by the scan as it showed he's doing great and is already 2.5lb at 28wks!! I'm having another private scan at 35wk as Hunter is currently breech and I want to check he's got himself into the correct position for the birth!

So this is me saying farewell to 2011 and welcoming in 2012 with open arms!

I hope you and yours have a really lovely New Year and may 2012 be happy, peaceful and prosperous wherever you are.

XXXXXX

sewing up a xmas frenzy!

2011-12-19T17:01:00.001+01:00

What a lot I've got to show you today - a veritable feast of handmade loveliness for your eyes!!

First up are my goodies that I received from the lovely Brioni on Friday. Really I should have posted about these over the weekend but I was ground to a halt with a nasty head cold that left me asleep on the sofa for the best part of the weekend!! Now I'm feeling a bit better I've got lots to catch up on!

If you're a regular reader you'll know that myself, Lynne, Mandy, Katy & Brioni have regular sew-ups where we chat, chat, eat, laugh, oh and sew (sometimes), it's like our own mini sewing guild and I love it!! Anyhow we decided to do a Secret Santa for our last meeting of 2011 and so we got Tacha to decide who we were all gifting to, I got Mandy to give to and Brioni to receive from!! Woop Woop!!

Here's the hoop bag I made for Mandy, it was filled with an embroidery hoop, threads and pattern, as well as chocolates!

I was so excited to get Brioni as her work is amazing and scares me quite frankly, she's one of those people who loves intricate complicated quilts that are just so far out of my league right now, I can but wish! Anyway here's the loot I received from her.

I got a thread catcher which is something I've been wanting for yonks! I actually nearly pee'd myself when I opened it!! A very cute hearts fob that will hang in my sewing room, a crochet set and some yummy chocolate! Brioni nailed it with this lot let me tell you, she remembered my ranting about 'needing' a cute thread catcher and she remembered a random conversation we had ages ago about me wanting to develop my crochet skills - that's a good friend for you isn't it?

Anyhow I'm in super sewing mode now to catch up on my essential Christmas sewing that I still need to do. I whipped up these two cute lined drawstring bags that will be filled with goodies before been gifted at the weekend.

And I'm well on my way with an iPad case for 'Little Miss H'.

Here's a cute sewing jar I picked up as a gift over the weekend and a really cute drawstring bag that Katy made for 'Little Miss H'to store all her hair stuff in!!

Speak soon and hope all your sewing plans are coming together in time for the big day!!

handmade christmas

2011-12-12T14:00:00.000+01:00

I love handmade presents and I try to include some each festive season. Now that doesn't always mean I make everything myself, I like to support other crafty folk too and buy their wares to give as presents!

Something that is becoming a bit of a tradition in our house is the giving of Linen Cat mice to 'Master M' and 'Little Miss H'. Remember these from last year?

Well this year Beth has surpassed herself and designed these beauties, I absolutely adore them and know my kids will too!

I also bought these three baking kits from a designer children's wear shop local to me. They have been hand made and were a snip at only £14 each, filled with a handmade apron, bun cases, baking utensils and a cookie cutter. Perfect for my 2 little nephews and niece!

I've also bought cute little handmade sewing kits as stocking fillers for my two.

I got the idea from Louise who blogs at Sew Scrumptious, she did a post a couple of weeks ago on stocking fillers which is excellent, you must go read it!
Finally yesterday I made another pair of Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Trousers from her book, Handmade Beginnings. These are a gift for my friend Kyleigh's baby girl, Nella.

Now I'll be sewing up some more gifts this next few days as well as receiving some more handmade goodies in the post - hopefully! Does Christmas post scare you like it scares me???

holidays are coming...

2011-12-09T10:55:00.000+01:00

I seem to be disappearing under a pile of Christmas crafting just now!! Which is all well and good as it's great to try and give handmade gifts isn't it?? I'm just not that good at recording what the heck I've been up to on this little old blog of mine!!!

So in no particular order here are the goodies made so far:

Mini coin purses in Melody Miller fabric. I used this bakeshop tutorial for these cuties and they came together really easily and most important quickly!

A couple of Grinch cushions/pillows (depends which side of the pond you live I suppose!) These are personalised for 'Master M' and 'Little Miss H' who both love the Grinch enormously. I'm just waiting on delivery of some plain Christmas red fabric so I can bind them. The Fat Quarter stack I used to make these is lovely warm flannel so these are cosy cushions for sure!

Speaking of flannel I've also made up a mahoosive flannel quilt top from Anna Maria Horner Loulouthi flannels. You may recognise the pattern as I blatantly stole/borrowed from Katy whose quilt is here!

Anyhow I was going to make a simple patchwork squares top and she said 'No No No' have a go at a turning twenty block, it's so easy and I guarantee it'll be faster than squares to piece. Well been the instant gratification kinda girl I am I said 'Ok' and I swear this huge quilt was cut in approx 2 hrs and pieced in a morning. No joke. I'm sending this one out to the longarm quilter as it's way too big for me to quilt so I'll show it again when it comes home.

I've also finished piecing another smaller quilt top using at last my Sherbet Pips by Aneela. I've followed the 'Confetti' pattern from Fat Quarterly Issue 5 but added my own twist!! I've taken a section of the stacked coins out and inserted a piece of coordinating Bella Solids Grey on which I am going to embroider the girl on a swing pattern, again from Aneela. This is proving harder than I anticipated with not much light to allow me to transfer the pattern!!

So that's it for today and I promise I'll post again soon with more Christmas makes!

handmade lovelies

2011-11-19T12:28:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post to show you some of the lovely hand crafted goodies I have bought of late!

First up is Cupcakes for Clara. I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am with Laura's customer service. I ordered myself some cute post it notes and when doing so noticed the fab paper dolls Laura has created. Thinking they would be an ideal stocking filler for 'Little Miss H', I contacted Laura to see if she could print them a bigger size as Holly's fine motor skills are quite poor, I figured a bigger doll and clothes would be easier for her to manipulate.

My wish was Laura's command and within a week we received these beauties and a little cardboard box for 'Little Miss H' to store them in. Perfect.

The packaging Laura has devised is brilliant, I love excellent packaging don't you?

Secondly I ordered a print from my lovely friend Kristy who is endlessly raising money for Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. They nursed one of her daughters back to health earlier this year when she suffered a life threatening bowel problem - very scary, trust me.

The print is so retro and funky I love it! I'm going to frame it and hang it in the kitchen, when the hubs has finally finished painting it of course!! If you'd like a print of your own (it comes in 2 colourways and 2 sizes) just contact Kristy via Twitter or her blog. It'll be the best £10 you spent promise!

We also got this fab zipped pouch for a stocking filler for 'Master M' from the lovely FionaT over on Folksy. Her free motion embroidery of Ninja's and Zombies really should be admired don't you think?? Perfect for my own little Ninja warrior!!

Finally I got surprise mail yesterday when this little lot plopped through the letterbox.

Yes you got it its a package of the yet to be released latest fabric line from Aneela Hoey 'Walk In The Woods', sent to me by Aneela herself. I nearly wet myself.

whizzing through the wip's

2011-11-14T10:02:00.001+01:00

I feel like I've achieved quite a bit this last few days!

I've completed Ethan's baby quilt for a start. I've finished sewing up and blocking my too small for me now tank top!!!

I've made great progress on the Birdie BOM quilt that I started at the beginning of the year!! I'd only completed 2 blocks but this week I completed another 2 and my target is 2 per week as I want to gift the finished quilt to my Mother-In-Law for her Christmas present. Here are the 2 blocks I completed.

I've also made a pair of Anna Maria Horner's quick change trousers from her book Handmade Beginning's. These are a gift for a friend and I have another pair to make this week too for another friend - it's all good practice for when I start making them for my baby!!

I've also made a start on a quick quilt for our sofa, it's John's Confetti Quilt from Issue 5 of Fat Quarterly. Like John I'm using my stash of Sherbet Pips for the quilt - perfect for the wintertime!

I've also sewn up my knitted tank top and blocked it, it just needs the last few ends weaving in now which is something I hate doing!!

And finally for today 'Little Miss H' wanted a picture of her on the blog in all her dirty faced Saturday morning glory!! Look at that dried up chocolate milkshake.....really I do wash her. Sometimes!

Stripey Love

2011-11-14T09:47:00.001+01:00

Ta Dah! It's another quilt finish - get me!!

This time it's a baby quilt for my friend's 5 month old baby boy, Ethan.

I decided to just pull from my stash and go with a riot of the blues and greens, toned down by some solids in grey, blue and green too.It's bound in a pale blue as again this helps to bring the colour palette together.

When I quilted this one I experimented by trying out some of the different stitches on my very basic machine (please Santa bring me a super duper new machine, I've been really good!). I like the very wrinkly effect it's given the quilt, it looks so inviting doesn't it? Perfect for a curious baby that's just starting to try and get on the move!

The quilt measures approx 40" x 40" and has a hand embroidered label on the back.

NB: Apologies for rubbish photo quality the light is poor round these parts and the weeks weather forecast doesn't hold much hope of it getting any better!

Super Sale Alert

2011-11-12T11:22:00.001+01:00

Morning folks! I've got a Super Sale Alert for you all!!!

The lovely Mandy over at Simply Solids is having a sale......

11% off for 11 days starting on the 11th November.

She's got the usual fab Kona solids but she's just taken delivery of some great Moda pre-cuts including Bonnie & Camille's Ruby & Aneela Hooey's Little Apples.

She'll also be loading onto the site this weekend the much awaited Echo. If like me you're loving this much sought after line you'll be very excited by that!!

update update

2011-11-09T13:35:00.000+01:00

Remember a little while ago I told you about Rockfords Rock Opera??

Here's the post.

Well they've just contacted me to let me know that all parts of the opera are now available as Apps for the iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch. How cool is that??

Rockford's Rock Opera is currently No.6 in the App Book charts and is currently challenging the mega players such as Disney in the popularity stakes. Woo Hoo for British I say!

So here are the links to the Apps::

Part One is FREE and is over an hour long

Part Two is £2.99

Part Three is £2.99

Part Four is £2.99

We've already downloaded them and they are just fantastic, we all love them not just the little people!!

Rumour has it that the success of Rockfords Rock Opera has been brought to the attention of some huge names in the USA with a celebrity version thought to be in production featuring some well known names......WATCH THIS SPACE!

sewing everyday

2011-11-05T12:35:00.000+01:00

Well for the first time in months I appear to have done some sewing everyday this week. Get me, I'm finishing off all my WIPs and sewing up a storm of handmade goodies ready for Christmas gifts!

First up I've finished quilting this baby quilt and am just sewing the binding on. There will be a full reveal post another time after I've given it to my friend next week sometime, baby Ethan's 5 months old now so it's not that late!!!

I've also made some neckerchief dribble bibs and after many failures and ruined bibs, I've also mastered adding on popper stud fastenings!! A couple of these are off to my friend Kyleigh for her little girl to road test and some are going to friends!

At last I've managed to make me a little purse from the Easy Peasy Purse pattern available from the lovely Lisa at U-Handbag. I've had the pattern and kit stashed for a while but really needed to have a go at making the purse as I want to make a couple more of these and fill them with goodies for
Christmas gifts!

I've also finally finished my first ever knitting project, this fab tank top for me. Unfortunately it will have to be put away until next Autumn as I'm a little large for it just now!! I think this is why I lost interest in knitting it. My mum bless her came to the rescue and finished it off for me in just a couple of hours and I've just got to sew it together when my darning needles arrive!!

I learnt lots from knitting this tank top, especially pattern reading!! I knitted a whole section too big as I'd misread the pattern and it was only when I went into my LYS, which is where I took the beginner knitting course, that the lovely owner went through the pattern with me and I realised what I'd done wrong!!

Over the weekend I'm hoping to get a bit more knitting done on 'Little Miss H's' cardigan, the one that I blogged about the other day, as well as making a knitting needle roll for my needles and a couple of pairs of baby trousers.

What are your plans for the weekend??

Amazing crafty friend....

2011-11-01T17:12:00.003+01:00

Let me introduce you to my amazing paper crafty friend Kyleigh! Kyleigh does the most amazing papercuts and I'm a lucky gal to own one!

Kyleigh and I were put in touch by a mutual Twitter buddy when I tweeted a help request for gift ideas for my hubby for our 1st wedding anniversary. As the gift should be paper related, a papercut was perfect! Ideas were banded about and the design was finalised, a reminder of our fab wedding in Florida.

Here are some more of Kyleigh's designs, all available via her website in her Not On The High Street Store. Alternatively contact her via the website or twitter regarding a comissioned piece.

All photo's courtesy of Kyleigh's Papercuts

As Kyleigh had seen my quilts she asked if I'd be interested in doing a swapsie, a baby quilt for her daughter in return for a papercut for my hubby! Perfect! Once again we banded ideas around about the style and most importantly the fabric, the quilt is the one I recently blogged so I'll just leave you with a quick picture of it.

Kyleigh's Quilt

Don't you just love Twitter and the way it connects people? I do!

Ta Dah! Another Quilt...

2011-10-28T13:01:00.000+02:00

I think that I can safely say that this is by far my favourite quilt make to date!

Peek a Boo M!

I love how fresh it looks, the colour scheme and especially the fabric! I love love love this Denyse Schmidt range of fabrics for Joann's stores (USA). I was so lucky that I had a stateside buddy who could send me some!

The pattern is one I have used in baby quilts before and is an I-Spy quilt pattern that I bought from the lovely Amy some time ago. This time I improvised a bit and instead of making the squares in the centre 3.5" I made them 2.5". I've backed the quilt in some Momo I had sat in my stash.

This quilt seems to have taken me an age to complete and I must be honest but I do feel relieved that it is now on it's way to it's new owner! I totally lost my sewing mojo in early pregnancy and the quilt just sat half pieced for months before guilt took over and forced me to get off my ass and get this beauty finished!!

Hand embroidered label

I also made some matching bunting for the recipient's nursery too! How cute is that?

The measures approx 36" x 36" and is quilted with wonky straight lines - it's my speciality you know!!

I've also decided that this quilt will be my entry into this years Bloggers Quilt Festival, hosted as ever by the lovely Amy.

Please click on the image to take you to the link up party for the festival!

If you've never entered you should as it's a great way to get oodles of inspiration, see new blogs and generate traffic to your blog too!! A win win all round I think!!

A bit of this and that

2011-10-25T18:21:00.000+02:00

I got the knitting bug again this last few weeks and here's what I've been working on.

The pattern is a Sublime one and the beautiful goes with anything sage coloured yarn is Soya Cotton DK also by Sublime. Its so silky and soft to the touch 'Little Miss H' is going to feel so cozy when she wears this little beauty!

So far I've completed the back and have nearly completed one of the front pieces too - I'm such a slow knitter but I enjoy the process I really do! You know what they say.....practice makes perfect!

On the sewing front I'm on the home stretch with this fab baby quilt which just needs the binding hand sewing down, I'm hoping to get this in the post on Thursday!

I also received this great piece of fabric from Katy. Its Anna Maria Horner and has the pattern on it for you to cross stitch, I love it! I'm hoping to pair this with some of her Loulouthi range and make a cushion for my rocking chair. Those night feeds will be upon me before I know it!!! I also treated myself and Katy to some of this super cute bunting fabric by Michael Miller. I got it from Seamstar.

Again on the receiving front I also got this Echino iPad case from my lovely friend Amanda! I thought that the hubs needed something stylish to store his new gadget in.

This week I want to get some smaller fun sewing done, an easy peasy purse, some baby bibs and burp cloths and some toddler bandana bibs and hopefully a new knitting needle roll! Wish me luck!!

Belated Wonky Stars!

2011-10-03T10:47:00.003+02:00

So here at last is a very belated post about this too cute (well 'Little Miss H' thinks so!) lap quilt I finished up at the start of the summer.

I followed the Wonky Star Quilt-A-Long over at Kerry's blog and then added a scrappy border to make the quilt just the right size for 'Little Miss H'.

It's backed in a black and white bird fabric from Ikea and bound in Kona bubblegum. I quilted it by shadow outlining all the stars and quilting in the ditch around the stars inner squares. I then quilted either side of the seams around the scrappy border.

Those of you who can remember me blogging about the making of this quilt will surely remember a disaster I had when the quilt top was scorched by the lightbulb on my sewing machine. Here's how I fixed the damage:

That's right a cute hand appliqued heart over the top of the scorched area, I cut out the burnt wadding to stop it smelling too!

The quilt measures approximately 45" x45".

I'm really pleased with this quilt and it's used daily by anyone who is sat on the sofa. 'Little Miss H' loves looking at all the different fabrics and tells me what she can see, who'd have thought a quilt could develop her language skills too!!

Rockfords Rock Opera

2011-09-28T16:13:00.000+02:00

Just before the beginning of the summer holidays I was asked if I'd like to review a CD package of Rockfords Rock Opera. It was described as a fun modern musical for children so I agreed!

The CDs were delivered in time for our long drive to Cornwall and so we listened to the 1st CD on the way down. It was amazing! In fact it was so amazing the kids told me to turn it off as they couldn't hear it properly in the car and wanted to listen on a CD player so they didn't miss anything!

Since our return from holiday the kids have listened to the CDs before bed and ask for them playing regularly! This is great as it's very relaxing for them, oh and me too!

What is it?

Its a story about a boy and his dog called Rockford who go to a mystical island called Infinity. Infinity is a place that homes the last one of all the extinct creatures of the world and they have a secret to tell.....

The package comes with the story split over 3 CDs and great illustrated story booklets that have the lyrics for the songs as well fab illustrations. The CDs have music, sound effects and narration and are fantastic for all ages to listen to.

The story itself is so endearing and has led to many 'what if' conversations with my children, the characters are so lovely and the kids adore Rockford!!

In addition the website has lots of extras and brings the illustrations to life, my little boy (7) particularly enjoys this aspect of Rockfords Rock Opera.

Listen!

That's my advice!! You can download the 1st CD for free here:

http://www.rockfordsrockopera.com/account/login-register.asp

When you're hooked you can then go ahead and buy the CDs!!!

NB: I received a free copy of the CDs in return for my review.

Hello anyone out there?

2011-09-12T20:34:00.002+02:00

I'm crap I know that! If Blogger had an award for the most irregular blogger I'd win, hands down. For sure.

This summer has been mostly spent sleeping, seriously. I haven't sewn a thing in months and was actually contemplating giving up the ghost. Some of you who tweet with me will already know the reason for this extreme tiredness, those of you who don't know I promise it's a whole post on its own!

Anyhow today I've felt better, almost human so I dusted the old girl down and did a bit of sewing. It was great!

This is a tumbler pillow that I started on Friday following instructions from the lovely Katy who needed to practice a workshop she's running next week at Patch Fabrics. I think there are some spaces left if you'd like to make your own gorgeous cushion like mine! Just get in touch with the lovely Claire at Patch and she'll let you know!

For my cushion I used the very girly Flower Sugar to go with 'Little Miss H's' bedroom decor as that's where the pillow will live! I only had the binding to make and sew on today and it was an easy finish of a gorgeous project!!

Now this little lap quilt for 'Little Miss H' has been completed for a while now but I don't think I've blogged the Ta Dah! moment!! It was too windy today to get a good outdoor shot but when I can I'll show you it properly - promise!

Finally I managed to complete this little shrug over the summer which is heading my neice's way as it's not really big enough for 'Little Miss H'. Ooops!

Thanks for bearing with me and I promise I'll try and blog a bit more regularly. But then you've heard it all before ;)

rain rain rain

2011-07-26T18:41:00.000+02:00

Yep you guessed it, that's all it did whilst we were on holiday in Cornwall last week. Extremely disappointing but kind of to be expected, this is the Great British weather we're talking about!

Anyhow a few (loads really!) pictures of our week away::

The week started off in a Yurt which was lovely, it would have been so much better if it had been dry and warm though. 'Little Miss H' was hysterical during the night because of the noise from the gale force winds and torrential rain pouring down us, by night three we had booked into a hotel!!!

Whilst on the campsite we met a great Dutch family, 'Master M' found a great friend in the son and they exchanged addresses so they can be penpals. Cute eh?

We had lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen on Watergate Bay which was delicious and scrummy and yummy and I can't recommend it enough.

We spent a fresh afternoon on the beach after eating at Fifteen, it was lovely.

Most importantly we had some much needed downtime as a family and rediscovered our love of Cornwall. 'Master M' is dying to give surfing a go and 'Little Miss H' loves getting her hair braided and glittery tattoo's!!

We've already booked a swish cottage near Padstow for a couple of weeks in August next year!!!

Treat After Treat After Treat....

2011-07-13T08:28:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post as I wanted to show you some lovely hand crafted things that I've bought lately!

In this picture we have a simply gorgeous rose coloured floral brooch from the very talented Beth over at the Linen Cat. This one was a treat for little old me! There's also a fab floral fabric tub that was purchased from Jen over on her site A Crafty Hen. This is perfect for storing all the clothes for my Blythe dolls!! I also got a lovely gift set for a christening we attended a few weeks ago but in my usual style I forgot to take a picture and so I have nicked (with permission) this one from Jen's site!!

photo courtesy of A Crafty Hen

The little tags are from a lady I met at a craft fair in Saltaire a few weeks ago, she upcycles all kings of things and sells on Etsy too, her shop is called SwirlyArts.

I've also acquired some great fabrics over the last few weeks too. This selection all came from the lovely Kerri and her shop SewDeerlyLoved.

The first picture is a pink & aqua FQ stack of Riley Blakes Sew Cherry Red and the second picture is a charm pack of Riley Blakes Doodle Bugs Christmas Candy, Joel Dewberry's Dogwood Bloom & some Lecien Ticking Stripes in Red & Aqua.

Now this little lot is a stack of yummy coordinating fabrics that I've bought for the Zig & A Zag QAL that is happening over on Angela's blog. I want to make a quilt for 'Master M's' bed and so the red & aqua combination is a hit!! I got them from Sew Fresh Fabrics and the service they offered in making sure the colours worked together was amazing! Thanks Ladies!

Finally I raided a fellow sewing friends de-stash and came away with this little lot!!

On the sewing front I've done lots this week but I can't show you as it was for a swap and I want to make sure that the recipient has received it before I blog about it!!! I'll leave you with this pencil case I whipped up yesterday for my lovely new pencil crayons!!!

I promise I'll be back before the weekend with some more finishes!!

52 Lists...

2011-07-10T16:30:00.002+02:00

I saw this great idea over on Kellie's gorgeous blog a little while ago. Since I am an avid list maker I thought it would be great fun to join in!

The idea is you get yourself a cute little notebook and with Kellie's weekly prompts you create yourself a fab notebook of 52 lists in 52 weeks. That's heaven to me that is.

It's week 6 this week and since I'm playing catch up I'll be showing a couple of lists a week.

Cool yes? Well the nerd in me thinks so!! If you like lists too you can hop over the Kel's blog and join in the fun.

Hopefully I'll see you there?

(By the way I'm tweaking my blog at the moment so my side bars are a bit of a mess, the lovely Tia of Who Ate My Crayons will be sorting me more graphics in the coming weeks, please bear with us!!)

52 Lists...

2011-07-10T16:30:00.000+02:00

I saw this great idea over on Kellie's gorgeous blog a little while ago. Since I am an avid list maker I thought it would be great fun to join in!

The idea is you get yourself a cute little notebook and with Kellie's weekly prompts you create yourself a fab notebook of 52 lists in 52 weeks. That's heaven to me that is.

It's week 6 this week and since I'm playing catch up I'll be showing a couple of lists a week.

Hello! Still here?

2011-07-06T19:36:00.001+02:00

Blimey it's been a while!

As usual work, more work, poorly little people, 'Master M's' two, yes that's right two new hobbies all seem to have been eating into my sewing time. I won't bore you with the details but I have been trying to get some stuff done inbetween.

Anyhow I received this beauty in the post this week:

How gorgeous is it?? It was made for me by Amanda as part of the Brit Quilt Swap. I'm running late (as usual) with my quilt for the swap but here's a teaser of what it looked like when I was prepping it:

I've also managed to get some knitting done this week and have made good progress on 'Little Miss H's' shrug. I've just got the back and tiny little sleeves to knit now.

So here's where we are with the WIP list:

1. ~~Little Apples Cushion~~
2. Lap Quilt for Little Miss H
3. Baby Boy quilt
4. Cross Stitch
5. Crochet Blanket
6. Knitted Tank Top
7. Knitted Shrug for 'Little Miss H' - Progress
8. Lily's QAL
9. Fairytale Quilt
10.Love Quilt

So not much accomplished this last week from the WIP list but hey ho! Onwards and upwards!!

How's your sewing coming along??

Progress.

2011-06-25T17:29:00.000+02:00

It seems listing my WIP's is working as I am now tackling them as opposed to hiding them!

This week has seen me cross the secret project off the list as it was turned into:

A cute little cushion using the Little Apples range by Aneela.

So to remind me here's where I stand with the list.

1. ~~Little Apples Project~~

2. Lap Quilt for 'Little Miss H' - Progress (binding nearly sewn on)

3. Baby Boy Quilt

4. Cross Stitch

5. Crochet Blanket - Progress (another square completed)

6. Knitted Tank Top

7. Knitted Shrug

8. Lily's QAL

9. Fairytale Lap Quilt

10. Love Quilt - Progress (another square made)

If I'm been totally honest I would have liked to have completed more blocks on the 'Love' quilt but hey ho!

Other sewing has included this bunting:

This has been made for a twitter friend using the fairly new line by Denyse Schmidt that was a US & Australian release only. There will be a lap quilt to match very soon!! I'm very excited about these goodies as they are technically my first 'paid' for work - more about that another time.

This week has been a good mail week too! By that I mean 'ahem' fabric week

From left to right we have some cute apples from Seamstar, fab Monaluna foxes from Fabricworm, Sherbet Pips again from Fabricworm and a lovely cross hatch again from Fabricworm.

I also treated myself to a lovely new cushion cover which I got from the talented Leila. Her Etsy store is full of fab handmade goodies for the home, all in her great scrappy style. Love it!

Finally for now I also splurged and got some of this stunning line:

Yes it's some of the great Habitat by Jay McCarroll I really love the quilts that I have seen using this line and can't wait to make one for myself.

I'm working the next couple of days so it'll be quiet around here but hopefully I'll be back to some sewing on Tuesday!

WIP......

2011-06-20T12:56:00.000+02:00

So in an attempt to make myself crack on and get my WIP's actually completed, I've decided to join in the WIP fun over on Meg's blog! Basically you blog your WIP list and then give weekly updates as you check the items off your list. In theory.

So here goes, my dreaded list that I WILL complete over the summer!!

1. Secret Project - this little fun project using Aneela's new line needs to be finished first.

2. Lap Quilt - this is for 'Little Miss H' and is just waiting on the binding been hand sewn on and a few little appliques to the front to cover the disastorous burn mark :(

3. Baby Boy Quilt - This quilt top is 3/4 pieced and needs finishing as soon as possible so it can be given to it's new owner.

4. Cross stitch - cute little super-hero project for 'Master M'

5. Crochet blanket - Ongoing project from the lovely Dottie Angel blog that needs finishing before I start another crochet blanket!!

6. Knitted tank top - for moi!

7. Knitted shrug - For 'Little Miss H'

8. Lily's Quilts QAL - this will be a picnic rug when finished and is made using the Hideaway collection, so cute!

9. Fairytale Lap Quilt - this is going to be for my neice

10. Love Quilt - this is made using the blocks from my month in Fresh Modern Bee 2. Modified Bento blocks using Amy Butler's Love range, a king size for our bed. Massive!

Wish me luck!!!

Playing with Dolls.....

2011-06-15T22:58:00.000+02:00

So you all know I have four girls right? And by girls I mean Blythe dollies yes?!

I'm relatively new to collecting dollies but very quickly I gathered four beauties just before last Christmas. And there it stopped. I'd spent way over my intended budget and holy moly the clothes are just so expensive!

Until today my poor girls have simply sat on a shelf spooking the hell out of my hubby! That is until I called at my friend Katy's for a quick coffee after the school run this morning.

You know how it is, I mentioned my girls were neglected, Katy said she's decided to sell some of her collection for the same reason (seriously it was huge anyway!) and so I said if she's ever selling clothes or accessories to let me look before listing it anywhere else. The rest you can guess!

So a couple of hours later and I'm back home with a stash of new clothes and accessories for my girls! Let me tell you even at mates rates it's cost me a pretty penny. Oh well, you can't take it with you as my Nan says. Good blinkin job 'Mr. G' would say!

So here are my girls Boo, Betty, Lexi & Queenie wearing what I think is an eclectic collection of clothing to see them through the summer festival period! Check out those Hunter wellies and that baseball cap! I've definitely fallen back in love with them and have even put Betty on the waiting list for a customisation by the very talented Milky Robot. Out of the four dollies she's the one that isn't clicking just now, she needs some serious funking up!!!

I'll leave you with a little sneak of a nearly finished project.

It should be finished by the weekend and I guarantee it will be cute!!

A dress made from couches?

2011-06-10T10:29:00.000+02:00

I always seem to be playing catch up! Do you?

I've not really blogged for the last week and now I've got so much to say I don't know where to start. Unusual for me I know!

I think the best place to start would be by showwing you guys all the things that have kept me from blogging! First up is a fantastic ball that 'Little Miss H' and I attended last weekend. Here she is with her friend Nina:

The ball was organised by the local suport group for families of childern with Down Syndrome and it was a proper black tie do with a meal and a band and a disco. It was brilliant!

Everyone had so much fun and it was great to see all the young people with DS partying away. My pictures only really show the younger end of the kids there as 'Little Miss H' was the youngest attendee but let me tell you there were gorgeous looking teenagers too. And snogging!!

It was way too loud for 'Little Miss H' most of the time but she got used to it. Have you noticed her dress? Fab isn't it? Its a one off number made by my lovely friend Amanda. She blogged it here where you can get the low down!

I've also attended a local craft fair recently and scored these beauties:

We just love badges and brooches at our house and managed to pick up a great selection, along with a pot holder for our camping trip and a cute screen printed hoop to add to our collection!

On the sewing front I am so determined to finish off my WIP's it's untrue. I've nearly completed the Wonky Star lap quilt:

It's quilted and the binding is machine stitched on one side, I just need to hand sew the rest of it down and fix that blinking burnt patch with some applique! Hopefully it will be a Ta Dah! moment soon.

I've made some progress on my Modified Bento Love Quilt blocks:

I thought I was nearly complete with this but when I laid the 1st row of sewn blocks across the bed I realised it wasn't wide enough and needed 2 more blocks per row to give a good overhang! Argghh!

I've been losing motivation with it as I find cutting the fabric and sewing the blocks for this one a wee tedious so I've decided to just make 1 block per day and take my time with it. I'll still have the quilt top finished within 2 weeks so that's OK by me!

Check out this lovely yarn my postie delivered yesterday:

Its a Peruvian wool called Cascade 220 and I bought it here (which was by far the cheapest place online I found it!) It's been bought to make a start on the lovely crochet blanket in Issue 2 of Mollie Makes so watch this space!

Finally I'll leave you with this:

Oh yeah! We were that close. And I'm going again tonight!

It was going so well.....

2011-06-02T10:17:00.000+02:00

Remember the lovely wonky star quilt top I finished a while ago for 'Little Miss H'?

Yeah? Well last night I basted it and began quilting it, it was looking good even if I do say so myself!! I quit at around midnight, dreamt about the quilt all night (sad I know) and so was up early to do some more quilting this morning, you know before the little peeps woke up!!!

So there I am happily quilting away when 'Mr. G' rings me, I stopped, leaving said quilt under machine and had a 5-10min chat with the hubby. When I returned to the quilt I could smell burning? I switched the machine off and checked round the house to make sure we weren't on fire and couldn't find anything??? Curious I thought, switched the machine back on, rotated the quilt and saw it.........

It appears the light bulb has burnt the quilt top whilst it was scrunched up under the machine. Its entirely my fault as I was sewing without the cover on that bit of the machine, which I'd taken off to make it easier to attach the walking foot.....then being lazy I didn't re-attach. Pap.

So what to do? I'm thinking hand applique some circles of fabric onto the top, one of which will cover the burn mark??? Any ideas greatly appreciated!!

Here is a close up of my favourite star on the quilt, quilted of course:

This is my favourite quilt I've made so far, just need to sort that burn out. Damn.

Fresh Sewing Day #3

2011-06-01T13:45:00.000+02:00

Hello! I'm back!

Seen as it's the 1st of the month I'm linking up with Lynne of Lily's Quilts and her monthly feature 'Fresh Sewing'. Basically it's a chance to show off what you've been sewing up and also lets you see what everyone else has been doing too! I love a good blog hop don't you?

So without further ado here's what's been keeping me busy the last few days.

I've made some adjustments to this cute top I made 'Little Miss H' a while ago. I've taken the length off the sleeves and added elastic to what remains as well as adding a pocket. I'm much happier with the top now and so is the little lady!

I've resewn and trimmed my Modified Bento Blocks, I just need to make 6 more blocks and sew them all up!

I've got until the weekend to do this as I'm entering the finished quilt top into the naked bed challenge, organised by fabric designer and quilter extrodinaire Sarah Fielke. Wish me luck!!!

Finally I've pieced this baby boy strip quilt for my friend:

Now it's all pieced I've realised I need to add some strips about another 15" to make a 42" square baby quilt.

So what have you been sewing???

this, that & the other

2011-05-24T15:49:00.000+02:00

What a busy few days I seem to have just had! So much for getting in some sewing time!

The little bit of sewing that I have managed is:

This is what I've made up so far from the 'Little Apples' package that Katy brought me back from quilt market, I'm hoping to get this finished by the weekend and below is the layout of the baby quilt I'm making for my friend's surprise baby boy!

If you remember I was waiting on the solids to arrive so I could get the layout, the quilt will be the full width of fabric from the bolt, backed in grey and bound in the green. Bold and bright, just the way I like it!

Over the weekend we were really busy with family time which is always good. We headed to Harewood House again on Sunday for the Kite Festival - it was soooo windy, perfect for flying kites.

Here are 'Little Miss H' and 'Master M' rolling down the grass banking, always good fun!

Squeeling with delight at feeding the ducks!

Playing in the adventure playground.

This was a rare smile from the little lady! She hates the wind and it was very windy, so windy I couldn't even capture the kites flying!!

And my fave picture from the day of my boy. Did you run your hands across railings as a child? I know I did!

On a sad note now we lost both our bunnies yesterday. I found Troy dead in the cage and Roger was in a real bad way, he had to be put to sleep when we got him to the vets. Here's a gorgeous picture of him shortly after he passed

It looks like some awful viral thing had got to them over the weekend, it really is very sad and the kids and I are feeling it, the bunnies were such a part of our lives.

Tomorrow sees a girly day of sewing with my fab friends Katy, Mandy & Lynne - to say I can't wait would be an understatement!

Slightly Distracted? What Me?

2011-05-20T21:59:00.000+02:00

I was doing so well on the quilt front, yet somehow I've kinda got waylaid with some yarn love this last couple of days?

It started when I saw this gorgeous yarn in my local yarn shop. Helen who owns the shop then showed me the ideal pattern for a little shrug type cardigan for 'Little Miss H' and I just knew it would look great over a vest top in the summer months. So I bought it. Its from an Italian company called Adriafil, the line is Knitcol and its 100% Merino wool.

Like many other crafters the nation over I've also whipped up these from the fab new craft lifestyle magazine Mollie Makes:

How cute are these? Crochet apple jackets to protect your snack from getting bruised. Genious!

All this has meant that not much has happened on the sewing front since my last post, I have however visited your friend and mine, the lovely Katy of I'm A Ginger Monkey. She filled me in all the Quilt Market gossip from Salt Lake City where she also got me this lovely little package::

I squealed with delight as it's a little craft pack of the coveted, yet to be released Little Apples by British designer Aneela of Comfort Stitching. I'll be making up this little project over the weekend and will show you the result soon. Promise!

Finally another fabric treat::

Yep, that's right they are a pair of limited edition Nike & Liberty Tom Jet Skinny Premium Dunks. I almost died when I first saw these online and really can't believe I've managed to get some. I failed miserably trying to get them online on the release day so mega big thanks to Mr. I'm A Ginger Monkey who spotted them whilst shopping in the big smoke last week and remembered I NEEDED them. God love him.

A Mere Flurry of Quilts

2011-05-16T22:14:00.000+02:00

Today has been about this:

And this:

The top picture is a selection of fabric that I've pulled from my stash to make a baby boy strip quilt!

My friend gave birth to a boy last night (quite unexpectedly, she'd been told at 2 scans that he was a she!) and in doing so sent my well made plans right up the swanny! I'd bought a great Cloud 9 fabric girl quilt kit from Saints and Pinners which I was going to sew up this week, instead I've hit the stash and am now awaiting some coordianting solids that will hopefully pull the whole quilt together! It will of course be a fun and scrappy quilt in shades of blue, green and grey.

The second picture shows some Fairy Tale blocks that I've been whizzing up to make my neice a lap quilt. We'll be going to visit during half term at the end of this month and I'll be taking the quilt with me.

I've also personalised and filled my newly made hoop bag and yesterday I did a little cross stitch:

I pulled my back really badly on Saturday night and so yesterday I was immobile! I spent much of the day in bed stitching and sleeping, oh and tweeting and reading! To be honest I'm only mobile ish today thanks to the power of mega pain killers!

The cross-stitch is a Wee Wonderfuls pattern and is of four superheroes, I plan to make it the centre piece of a cushion for 'Master M's' bedroom.

Bloggers Quilt Festival 2011

2011-05-14T10:10:00.000+02:00

Oooo I think I may be a tad nervous! I've decided to jump right in and enter one of my first quilts, for the first time, into Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.

There's nothing brain smackingly ingenious about the how's and why's of this quilt but it has led the way in terms of my quilt making!

Some of you may recognise the pattern as the Vintage I-Spy designed by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter fame! Amy's was one of the first quilting blogs I came across a little over a year ago when my fabric & sewing obsession was in its infancy! I purchased a quilt kit from Amy that had the fabric to make the quilt top and binding as well as the pattern in pdf form and there it all sat in my stash for months! Seriously.

Just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2010 I decided that I really needed to stop procastinating and actually make some of the quilts I'd purchased the fabric for. So with a little help from my talented friend Katy of I'm A Ginger Monkey & Fat Quarterly fame I made this lovely lap quilt for my nephew. Here's the quilt being basted with Katy's cat trying it out for size!

The quilt is around 42" x 42" and was backed in a fun hippo print from Ikea:

The quilt wasn't completed in time for a Christmas gift but when my nephew received it just a couple of weeks later he loved it! My SIL informs me it is used everyday which is great isn't it?

So the making of this quilt taught me lots technically in terms of quilting but most importantly it has given me the confidence (I'm now on my 3rd quilt) to dig into my stash and make all the quilts I bought the fabric for but didn't dare cut into!

To link up your quilt and to check out the other quilt entries simply click on the button:

Here's to a lifetime of making quilts!

A little Sewing...

2011-05-12T10:04:00.000+02:00

Thank goodness my machine works and I remembered how! I dusted my faithful friend down yesterday and actually did some sewing. Woop wooop I hear you cry!

So here's what I whipped up and oh how they make my heart sing. I adore them. There's one for me and one for a friend. They are the most fantabulous Hoop Travel Bags, made from a very easy to follow pattern by the very talented Amanda of The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery:

These little beauties are easy to make and ideal for storing all sorts of on the go crafty business. Each one measures approx. 13" x 13" and is lovely and padded to protect its precious cargo.

I also completed another bee block for the online Bee I'm in: Fresh Modern Bee 2. This block is March's and is for Allison, made using her own pattern. Can't wait to see the finished quilt.

In other news it was 'Little Miss H's' 8th birthday this week and the poor little lamb had to spend it in hospital having yet more eye surgery. Pah! The celebrations continued though with a special visit from the Clown Doctors:

photographed with iPhone using Instagram app

And here's the fabby cupcake tower my mum made her, complete with sweeties:

photographed with iPhone using Instagram app

And finally here's the birthday girl with her fave present so far! Its a Treefall Design handmade Princess and the Pea playset - gorgeous it is!

photographed with iPhone using Instagram app

Now if you got to here well done! This was supposed to be the end of the post but Blogger was down when I hit post so after much feet stomping and cursing (oh yeah did I ever mention that I swear. Lots. Not in front of the children though!) and twitter moaning I found out that Blogger were doing some essential maintainence work.

So what's a girl to do whilst waiting? That's right sew of course!!!
Here's what I made:

It's a new lunch bag for moi. Made using a pattern and fabric from my fave UK fabric store Seamstar. The fabric is of course the gorgeous Echino and the bag is lined in some yummy Kona solid in grape. Et Voila! (Yes I agree its a large lunch bag but I work 14hr shifts don't you know??!!)

Another day out!!

2011-05-08T19:03:00.000+02:00

Time is just whizzing by and I'm certainly not getting my creativity hit but I am certainly getting some fab family time instead!

Last Monday saw us head off to Harewood House, Leeds for the annual Children's Festival. We packed a picnic (well my mum did as I had worked nights all weekend and was heading to the festival instead of sleeping!) and we had a really great day out!

There were these lovely ladies:

Who were driving around with old school dance music blaring out causing much comotion and hilarity, very very funny!

We saw these great characters from Ben 10 and of course the beloved Peppa Pig!

But it was this guy who was the main attraction:

That's right Justin Fletcher aka. Mr. Tumble. Over 20,000 people turned out to see him do a 45 minute show and to fight for a meet & greet space!

Fortunately for us 'Little Miss H's' Down Syndrome has its advantages and we got straight to the front along with many other disabled children!

This guy is a legend for us, his show on CBeebies, Something Special has just thrown signing and disabled children straight into the mainstream arena and for that I cannot thank him enough. Honestly I was welling up he was so nice, he bent down to hold 'Little Miss H's' hand and to say 'Hello'! She was beside herself, especially when he signed an autograph for her too!!

Here she is going crazy watching his show earlier:

After the excitement of Justin we relaxed with more food and watched the very talented Team Extreme dudes before heading off home.

I'm hoping that now the mega run of bank holidays is over I might, just might get some sewing time!!

Sewing {Confessions}

2011-04-26T09:28:00.000+02:00

At last a little sewing!!

I whipped these two mug rugs up last week when I was in need of a quick project to kick my lost mojo's ass! I used some of my tiny stash of Flea Market Fancy on one and the gorgeous Lecien Flower Sugar on the other. One of the rugs is clearly still in need of binding but that will be done today. Promise. Here are the backs::

Though I haven't done much sewing lately. I have *squirms in seat* apparently done plenty of fabric buying. Ooops!

The above are all from Fabric Rehab here in the UK and have been bought with specific small sewing projects in mind. The solids are really gorgeous and I can see me going back for more of them.

This little lot is from Fabricworm in the USA. They tempted me with 30% of AMH voile which I've bought to make me a scarf and I just figured I should get me some pips before they are no more!! I was paying the postage anyway.

This bounty is from my lovely friend Kerri who has a great fabric shop on Etsy called SewDeerlyLoved. Kerri is my first port of call when I'm looking for fabric that's not available in the UK. The yardage of Hideaway to the left of the shot is to back a quilt I'm making as a picnic rug using the dresden circles QAL on Lily's Quilts, I'm using a Hideaway Layer Cake for the front. Now I'm sure you'll all be thinking 'but Hideaway is available in the UK' wich it is but its between £10-£12/m and I paid just £5/yd from the USA. Ridiculous I know. Again as I was already paying the postage I ordered some stash builders as well.

Now this next haul was pure genius. Trust me. Having moved house last year and being the lazy people we are, 'Mr. G' and I finally opened and looked in the last packing box that was unpacked in our bedroom. Clearly we were expecting clothes we could charity shop (come on we hadn't missed them for a year!) What we found in and amongst were these:

It gets better. The following shots are of yardage. There's at least 3m of each!

Can you beleive I had 3m of Momo I had forgotten about?? It was like Christmas, I was screaming with joy. 'Mr. G' was amused, the kids thought I was mental. Confession over!

Easter Family Fun...

2011-04-24T20:00:00.000+02:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Seen as I worked Good Friday and yesterday and especially considering me and the kids were away on holiday for the best part of last week, I had in my mind, planned to spend this morning washing & cleaning the house. Yuk. This would of course have left me free to reacquaint myself with my neglected sewing machine this afternoon. Yeah right!

'Mr. G' got his backside out of bed late and then demanded I find an outdoor activity that we could do today. After much debating about whether anywhere would be open on Easter Sunday we stumbled across (with the help of google) the falconry centre in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. One phone call to establish they were open and off we went.

Here's my gang waiting in the sunshine for the falconry display to start. (And yes that is a chocolate milk moustache 'Little Miss H' is sporting!)

Now Ethel & Boris what can I say - I'm in love. Ethel the White Headed Vulture was the cutest, funniest dangerous bird I've ever seen. Period. It really was a great day out that I can highly recommend. The little people and 'Mr. G' all had their turns handling birds.

The weather was glorious and a great day out was had, we'll definitley be visiting this little gem again.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

2011-04-20T10:08:00.000+02:00

Sorry its been a while but we're on a little spontaneous unplanned holiday! Woo Hoo!

Seen as the weather forecast was sooo good for this week we decided (that is me and the kids decided) we were packing up and coming to Bridlington for some much needed rest and relaxation. We're camping out at my neices house and having a ball with her my sister-in-law and all our kids.

'Little Miss H' enjoying a ham 'sand' wich on the beach yesterday!

Trust mine to be the one that gets soaked through!! This is 'Master M' with my SIL's foster kids.

Here's 'Little Miss H' with my neice's daughter Carys in front and my SIL's foster daughter Demi. This was taken on the cliff tops at Sewerby on Monday.

Finally here's 'Master M' and Demi hand in hand walking home. So cute! They've been inseperable this week and are a good influence on each other which has meant for a calm week so far!

So we're heading home tomorrow as I'm working on Friday and Saturday. Normal crafting will resume as soon as I'm home. Boy I'm missing my sewing machine...

The Definitive 5 : {Listography}

2011-04-15T08:30:00.000+02:00

This is a really fun post inspired by Kate over on a new (to me) blog I came across just yesterday!

Its my definitive 5, you know the list that I would if the opportunity arose, 'Mr. G' is well aware of this list, in fact he has his own definitive 5!!

The idea is taken from the Friends episode where Ross has his own laminated list of 5! Ross being Ross takes into account the likelihood of bumping into his 5, I haven't, they're simply my all time fave 5 (for now of course!).

So here goes people - prepare to swoon!!!

1. Aidan Turner
This guy is just hot. Simple.


Courtesy of tvmag.com

courtesy of geekygirlslovescifi.blogspot.com

2. Jason Orange
He always been my favourite member of Take That. Since they formed. So there.

courtesy of hello magazine

courtesy of insomniacmummy.blogspot.com

3. Edward Cullen
I am so Team Edward it's untrue. Yes I am aware he's a tad young. But what?!

courtesy of photobucket

courtesy of fantasy books & movies.com

4. Channing Tatum
Again a tad young but my word he's pretty. And he can dance. Enough said.

5. Marcus Mumford
I love Mumford & Sons and this guy, can't put my finger on it! His voice & musical ability probably!!

So there you have it. Listography!!! Join in the fun over at Kates blog!!

The Final Call

2011-04-12T16:07:00.000+02:00

So yesterday saw 'Little Miss H' perform for the final time in her drama club.

This is no ordinary drama club, this is a club especially for children with Down syndrome. This is a place where children with Down syndrome can grow in confidence, develop their speech and acting skills but most importantly it is a place where they can have fun and make friends that are like them.

This drama club has had to close because of lack of funding. Typical. Bids are in to various places to secure more funding but the group has closed until at least September. Poo. Poo.

So last night was a chance for parents to watch what happens behind the closed doors of the 'Up Club'. Trust me this was an amazing thing to see. 'Little Miss H' has been going to 'Up club' for a year and never, I mean NEVER have we seen what happens! We only know that our little girl has grown lots, since taking classes here.

So here they all are warming up. That's my two there with their backs to the camera - oh I forgot to say last night siblings were able to join in too, 'Master M' was most pleased!

Oh dear! A touch of stage fright. This is why the club usually runs behind closed doors, she doesn't do this if we're not there.

Singing the 'Up Club' song with some assistance by Kim who runs the theatre group. Again this eyes closed and hiding business is all because I'm there! I've heard 'Little Miss H' through a closed door belting this song out at previous sessions!!

'Master M' really enjoyed his turn at singing!

The night for me though was made by a miming piece that 'Little Miss H' and one of her friends did entitled 'The Park Bench'.

Can you see the book is upside down?? Her mask had slipped and she couldn't see!!! She carried on regardless though in the true spirit of acting.

The story unfolded as 'Little Miss H's' character sat reading on the park bench. A gardener who was sweeping up near her kept leaving things on the bench that she picked up and put in her basket. The final thing was a lovely red engagement ring and off the couple trotted into the sunset. Very lovely as well as highly hilarious due to 'Little Miss H' not been able to see properly and having to feel for the love tokens on the bench!!!!

We're all really saddened that the club has had to close for now. It feels like those who need funding the most are losing it left right and centre at the moment with all the current cut-backs.

It's difficult for disabled kids to access main stream groups as there is just a huge lack of understanding and support and often their self-esteem takes a knock as they simply can't keep up. Groups like this offer disabled kids a chance to be themselves in a setting where they can succeed. There should be more of this, not less.

This, That & The Other

2011-04-06T21:33:00.001+02:00

There's not been that much sewing going on around here this last couple of weeks, I really feel like I've lost my mojo. I don't like the feeling of not being able to be bothered to sew - I've even gone so far as getting my trusty machine out and still nothing. I'm putting it down to grief and the stress from work (which has been awful this last couple of weeks, on top of the grief and emotions I'm still trying to work out after my friend died)
.
Anyhow today I felt much brighter and am going to sew this evening when the little people are asleep. To show you that I haven't completely lost the plot here are a few snaps of what I've been up to::

'Master M' and I are really getting into this baking business. We've baked every week for the last month, I even had to buy new cake tins to store it all in!

From the same shop I also bought this lovely jug::

It's a local shop and is just great for shabby chic styled home goods, I get lots of goodies there!! On the spending front I also seem to have acquired some more stash::

This little lot are from Fabric Rehab which is really good for quirky prints and japanese stuff. From the bottom is: Little Red Robot from Kokka, Vintage Sewing Patch, a linen/cotton mix again from Kokka and the top two are just so cute! They are from a Moda collection called Max & Whiskers and I love them! I love them so much I just ordered more in a different colourway!!

This little lot is mainly from Fabric Worm, USA. The Hello Kitty is to die for and was bought to back a quilt I'm making for my neice and the FQ stack is Robotics by Ingrid Slyder which I got to use in a quilt for 'Master M'. The final fabric is called Happy Hills and is from Fabric Rehab, I just thought this was cute!!

I've also been making good progress with this::

The back of my tank top is nearly complete. I'd never have dreamed in a million years I could knit but thanks to Helen who owns my LYS - I can!! Even better I'm meeting the girls who were on the beginners knitting course with me, at said yarn shop for a knit and a natter over coffee tomorrow morning - perfect!!

Finally I just wanted to mention a couple of important charity things that are happening out in blogland. Firstly there is Modern Relief::

This has been organised by some wonderfully talented quilters who have got together to raffle off a huge amount of quilts for the disaster efforts in Japan. It's a great opportunity to donate to a very needy cause and be in with the chance of winning an amazing quilt too! Please click on the icon to find out more and to buy your ticket.

My lovely friend Louise over at Sew Scrumptious is also coordinating efforts for a charity who deliver handmade pillowcase dresses for little girls living in poverty around the world. Basically we just need to use some of our silly amounts of fabric stash to make a simple yet beautiful dress for a little girl in need. Again please click on the link to take you to Louise's blog where you can find out more and hopefully sign up!

Girls in Haiti wearing their new dresses! Photo from dressagirlaroundtheworld.com

We Have A Winner!

2011-04-06T18:53:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post my lovlies to announce the winner of my Sherbet Pips & Fat Quarterly giveaway!!

Mr. Random Generator had to choose between no's 1 - 53 and he chose no 51.

51 MrsShilts said...: I love all the fabric from Seamstar so can't whittle it down to just one item. I do especially love the habdash section as you can get all your bits and bobs without leaving the comfort of your living room...fab!; 2 April 2011 23:31; Well done Mrs. Shilts - please get in touch with me as I need your email and postal addresses!!

Fresh Sewing Day......

2011-04-02T10:55:00.000+02:00

So my friend Lynne of the lovely 'Lily's Quilts' is having a sponsored feature on the 1st of each month where you can post about your favourite sewing project that month, there's also a chance to win a FQ stack from the sponsors - Woo Hoo!

For me March was all about Wonky Stars! I'm going at a slower pace than the QAL on Kerry's blog but the quilt top is very nearly complete and I hope to finish it this weekend.

I just have 2 more blocks to do to complete the top and then I can get the quilt finished for 'Little Miss H'.

In other news I've signed up for a couple more quilty type things that are happening in blogland!

First up is Naked Beds! This is been hosted by the very lovey Sarah Fielke and Cara (see button in side bar for more details) and basically gives you 2 months from April 2nd to get a quilt top pieced for your own bed. I'm going to use this as the kick up the backside I need to piece my blocks received from my month in Fresh Modern Bee 2.

Second up is another Mug Rug Swap - Yay!! This is been hosted by the lovely Brie of Little Creatables. The sign-ups are now closed but you can check out the flickr group to see what everyone's making over the next month.

Finally.... Have you seen the Bottled Rainbows QAL over on Rachel's lovely blog - Stitched in Colour? Check out the button in my side bar for more details. This is something on the back burner for me just now but I will definately be making one of these quilts later in the year!

**Oh & by the way please just ignore the rubbish look of my blog just now as it is currently undergoing a professional make-over which will be revealed in the next week or so!**

Bee Blocks & A Giveaway!!!

2011-03-28T11:35:00.001+02:00

That's right I'm giving away some Sherbet Pips!

My very lovely friend Courtney who also happens to own the very lovely online fabric store Seamstar has kindly donated a FULL COLLECTION charm pack (5" squares) of this not yet out, everyone wants fabric collection from British designer Aneela Hoey.

I was also intending to giveaway something I had made from the line along with this charm pack but as I'm sure you can appreciate my friend's death has put a hold on all things ceative round here :(

So instead I have decided to give the lucky winner a free copy of the next edition of FAT QUARTERLY!

The next edition of this fantabulous e-zine is due at the end of April and will wing its way to the winners inbox courtesy of moi!! Inside you'll find shed loads of inspiration and tutorials for many a quilt as well as lots of smaller sewing projects to keep the creative juices flowing!

To enter all you need to do is leave me SEPERATE comments telling me you've done the following::

1) Follow my blog
2) Go to Seamstar & come back to tell me your favourite thing for sale!
3) Blog about the giveaway
4) Tell me what your favourite quilt block is!

The Giveaway will close on Tuesday 5th April 2011- Midnight British Time!
Winner Announced on Weds 6th April 2011

Talking of quilt blocks here are a few I've completed over the last couple of weeks but not yet shown you!

My 3x6 bee blocks::

I decided to go for simple disappearing 9 blocks for this bee. All made from fabric in my stash in the colours specified by the peeps in my group! Simple.

And progress on my Wonky Star quilt using the Quilt-A-Long on the VeryKerryBerry blog!

This is the top section of the quilt all sewn together, the bottom three blocks are all ready to be sewn together and the centre block is complete too. This leaves me with only two blocks to make and the top will be complete - Yay!!

I'm still deciding on the backing but am thinking pink & girly for 'Little Miss H'.

Cheery Post on a Sad Day.....

2011-03-22T14:30:00.000+01:00

Nearly a year ago I posted this post about my lovely friend Nat.

Well last night I got the sad sad news that she had died. I'm truly gutted as it is a life wasted but I hope that she will now be at peace, 36 is no age to die is it? She leaves behind two beautiful children who I hope will now be able to remember the person their mum was, not the person whom she had become. Alcoholism is evil, this terrible journey we have all been on has scarred us all - I just hope they can come to terms with everything over time.

So feeling melancholy today I've not achieved much, I've mainly been thinking and crying to be honest. When the postman arrived however I was cheered up no end! He had an armful of parcels, clearly some I was expecting but one however I was not?!

Inside my surprise parcel was this::

Look at him - how cute is he??

He was sent by my lovely friend Beth at The Linen Cat. She showed these monster purses on her blog before Christmas when she made them for her boys. I commented saying if she ever made them to sell I'd like one for 'Master M'. So here he is. A total and utter surprise, she didn't tell me that they were available, she may have even just made a special one I don't know. What I do know is that I am delighted by Beth's thoughtfulness and kindness for sending one as a surprise!

I actually cried (I'm emotional just now!) when I saw this::

Isn't it just the little details that count??

I've also had an abundance of fabric delivered. Yay!! First up I got some de-stash bargains from another blog friend, Amanda.

These yummy prints are just to stash but I'm feeling a cushion coming from the middle one!! I also got this fab Alexander Henry print from Amanda too::

I missed out on this print last year when it was readily available so am delighted to have got my hands on this!! (I'd love it in the pink colourway if anyone knows where I can get some)

I've also had a little flurry at my fave UK fabric store Seamstar too!!

Though I'm not meant to be buying fabric (huhum) I COULD NOT resist this linen!! Can you see the ickle rabbits?? I adore it and so having learnt my lesson when I missed out on the thunderflower, I simply had to get some!! Now when I buy fabric I always check out the sale section, do you? You never know what is lurking to stash build with::

This is a Tina Givens print that I snapped up the last 0.5m at a bargainous price!! I also have the blue colourway and I think they'll make great cushion backs.

Finally I decided to get this lovely quilt kit from Saints & Pinners as my friend is due a baby girl soon and will be heading off on Mat leave in the next couple of weeks::

I'd seen it a while ago and kind of made a mental note to get it and its a good job I checked back as the blue colourway is already sold out!

Merry Legs Winner!

2011-03-17T10:58:00.000+01:00

Mr Random Generator again chose the lucky winner and he chose:

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 38 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

(As you can see I'm still having trouble getting the generator on my blog properly!)

Comment no. 38 was from Little Creatable - I've emailed you and will get Miss Merry Legs to you as soon as I have your address.

My final giveaway will be posted on Saturday - keep watching!

Giveaway No 2

2011-03-12T09:56:00.000+01:00

Better late than never eh??!!

My internet connection went down on Thursday with all the wind and then I worked a very long shift on the Neonatal Unit yesterday so now has been the 1st chance I've had to post my 2nd fab giveaway!!

So without further ado here's what you can win::

This is a very cute 'Merry Legs' doll hand made and then given to me by the very lovely Katy!

For those of you who don't know her, Katy blogs at I'm A Ginger Monkey and is also 1/4 of the very fabulous Fat Quarterly. I've followed Katy's blog for a long time now and about 6 months ago we realised we were virtually neighbours, living only a 30min car drive away from each other - woop woop I cried! Since that time Katy has become a good friend and a bit of a sewing mentor for me, she's helped me with quilting and binding and of course the obligatory consumption of copious amounts of coffee!!

The Merry Legs doll is one of Katy's original designs, if you remember back to December 2010 I made one of my own and sent it to Australia as part of a soft toy swap I was involved in. More recently I've used the embroidery pattern of Merry Legs on a pelmet for 'Little Miss H's' bedroom window.

If you'd like to make your own Merry Legs the pattern is available in the Special Holiday Edition 2010 of Fat Quarterly for the barginous price of only $5!

I'd urge anyone who hasn't seen the Fat Quarterly e-zine to hop over and check it out as it's amazing. Really. Lots of excellent quilting projects but also lots of smaller projects too, its great. Trust me. Inspiration galore.

So if you'd like to enter my giveaway here's what you have to do:

Please enter a seperate comment for each thing you do!!
1. Go read Katy's blog & come back to tell me your favourite thing she's made
2. Follow my blog or tell me you already do
3. Follow Katy's blog & come back to tell me you've done it
4. Blog/Tweet about this giveaway & come back to tell me you've done it

So you've got 4 chances to be entered into the giveaway that will close on Wednesday 16th March 2011 at Midnight (British Time)

The winner will be announced on Thursday 17th March.

Good Luck people!!!

We have a winner!!!

2011-03-10T15:39:00.000+01:00

As promised the random generator thingy has chosen a winner for my 1st giveaway! Yay!

So without further ado the winner was comment no. 5

Leila said::

Your giveaway is on the side bar of my blog under giveaways.

4 March 2011 15:24

Leila your goodies will be in the post over the weekend.

NB: I have no idea how to get a screen shot of the generator gadget on my blog so you'll just have to trust me this time! If you know how to get it on there please let me know too!!

Details of my 2nd giveaway will follow later today.........

100th Post Giveaway!!!

2011-03-04T14:18:00.001+01:00

At last we're here. My 100th post giveaway!! Edited to add - Giveaway now closed

To celebrate my 1st year of blogging and this wonderful community of creativity we have, I have collaborated with a few fellow bloggers and crafters (but most importantly they are my friends!) to bring you a little array of giveaways that will run over the next week, starting today!

Today's giveaway is for a trio of handcrafted scrumminess from three of my favourite bloggers. I have read their respective blogs since way before I took the plunge and started blogging myself and I'm happy to say that good friendships have ensued!!

So without further ado::

Up for grabs is a divine Lavender Birdie from the lovely Beth over at The Linen Cat. This was one of the first blogs I became addicted to, Beth's quality of work and style is just so beautiful and over the last year I have bought a number of pieces from her that are scattered around mine and my friends homes. There's also a fantastic pencil pouch from the very lovely Karen over at Blueberry Park. I found Karen via her online store where I've bought lots of lovely UK made gifts for my friends and family. As Karen is local to me we've met up a number of times and I've also attended 2 sewing workshops that she's run too. Her blog always has lots of sewing inspiration interjected with a wicked sense of humour! Finally, there is the most gorgeous handmade felt corsage from the very lovely Vanessa at Coco Rose Textiles. This blog is just awesome (as the kids would say of course), eye-candy to the max and actually makes me want to go live at her house!! Vanessa inspires me to try harder with my photography, oh and my baking and certainly at prettying my house up. She keeps trying to tell me the whole of her house isn't like the photos (she claims they're staged) but I'm not convinced!!

So how's that for the 1st giveaway, fantabulous don't you think? The generosity of my friends is amazing and this is just day 1.

So there are a few ways of entering, you need to leave me a comment for each method telling me you've done it. Simple.

1. Leave a comment telling me your favourite blog & why
2. Become a follower or let me know you already are
3. Blog about the giveaway (I'll be checking!) & let me know you did it
4. Follow me on twitter & tweet the giveaway (don't forget to copy me in on the tweet) and let me know you've tweeted

The competition closes at midnight (British Time) on Wednesday 9th March 2011. The winner will be announced on Thursday 10th March 2011.

Good Luck People!!

Nearly Giveaway Time!!!

2011-03-03T15:09:00.000+01:00

So this is the post before my 100th post, which as I'm sure you've all realised will see the start of 3 huge giveaways on my blog (hell I've harped on enough about it)!

Just wanted to share a few makes with you before my blog gets taken over by giveaway posts!!

'Master M' and I baked these beauties last night! He adores baking and tries to get me to bake nearly everyday. Unfortunately for him baking/cooking is not my forte (hey we can't have it all!) but it's something I really want to try harder with. If any of you lovely people can recommend any good baking blogs and/or places to get toppings etc please drop me a line.

I've continued with the wonky stars blocks too::

I'm really liking the way these are turning out, that's 3 of 8 complete now so I'm getting there slowly. I've whipped up these handy pouches this morning::

This pouch is a lovely stripe linen lined with a blue floral Kaffe Fasset print, not sure what I'll use it for yet but pouches are just so handy aren't they?

Now this pouch is going to hold the feet and maintenance bits and bobs for my sewing machine. Its going to live on my sewing shelf with some other pouches and bags that hold 'stuff'. You know the 'stuff' that there's loads of but no good way to store it!!

Finally I got another craft book this week - ooops!

This one has been on my wish list for some time now and it hasn't disappointed. There are some great dolly projects inside that I will certainly be trying soon.

So back to the giveaway.

Come back tomorrow for PART 1 and see how you can enter to win 3 gorgeous hand-crafted items from 3 of my favourite bloggers!

See you then!

A Bit of This & That!

2011-03-01T18:41:00.000+01:00

Today I've been mainly continuing with my must get organised theme!

Its taking me lots of snippets of time here and there to make my fabric bolts using the comic board method I talked about here. I'm more than half way through my stash and the completed bolts are now living on different shelving on the top floor of the house.

The picture above shows my bolts that hold cuts of 0.5m or more and the one below shows FQ's.

The piles on the right of the picture still need turning into cute mini bolts and then all I have to do is organise the scraps!!

Whilst organising the two sets of shelves that housed my fabric I also had the pleasure of spending a little time with my girls! As you may or may not remember, towards the end of last year I toook the plunge and bought my first Blythe doll. Then another, and another and another!! They have been sadly neglected of late and so I've decided to formally introduce you to them, one at a time. (Girls form an orderly queue please)

First up we have the very pretty Tabi. She is my most recent acquisition and was a Christmas present to myself! I bought her from fellow Blythe fan Katy (yep that's right the one of FQ fame!) Tabi was a Casual Affair doll and has had a full customisation by the talented Milky Robot incluing a mohair re-root.

Tabi is very pretty and has the cutest freckles painted on her face!

I've also managed to get a little sewing in so far today and have made a start on the Wonky Star Quilt-A-Long. I've had the fabric cut for a while and so pieced my first block today.

This will be lap size for 'Little Miss H' and is a stash buster - Yay! I'm hoping to get this one fully pieced over the next week or so.

Finally I want to say thanks to Nadine and Jo who have both recently awarded me the Liebster blog award!

Basically this award is for small and upcoming blogs with less than 300 followers, I hope you agree its a great way to introduce great new blogs into the world of more established blogs. In order to accept I have to pass the award on to 3 of my favourite blogs again with less than 300 followers. In no particular order::

Sew Obsessed
Me and Ma
VeryKerryBerry

I love all these blogs so very much and read them regularly, hope you like them too! Anyway must dash, Mum's taxi is due on a Beaver's and Gymnastics run any time now!!

How Time Flies!

2011-02-28T11:54:00.000+01:00

I'm not getting the timing right at all on my blog posts! I'm either mega blogging or missing in action??!!

I've been hoping to blog at least twice weekly and up to last week I managed this, then I worked two horrendous night shifts and it threw me all out of synch. Sorry!

So here we are having to have a little catch up on what's been happening. First up I've managed to at last start my Quilt-As-You-Go quilt!! I've pieced two blocks so far:

The idea is to piece quilt blocks with scraps and then quilt each block individually before putting them altogether as a quilt top. I've deicided to piece a few blocks and then quilt them all at the same time to save changing needles on my machine - lazy, I know! I'm going to practice lots of different methods of quilting whilst making this quilt top.

I've also got the Flower Sugar in place in 'Little Miss H's' room. Did you guess what it was???

That's right a pelmet for her window!! It looks so cute and come summer will also hide a blackout blind too!

On Saturday I attended another Grey Circles Workshop, this time it was children's clothes making. We made gorgeous tunics, clearly mine was for 'Little Miss H' and we also part made some simple pull-on trousers. I made the trousers for 'Master M' and didn't quite finish them so will post a picture when I've finished them off!! Here's the tunic I made:

Its just so cute I love it! Now that I've tried it on her I've decided to make the sleeves shorter and lengthen it too! I'm going to use more of the stripey sleeve material around the bottom to lengthen it and then add some simple patch pockets to the front in a cute pink fabric from my stash.

Manda and Karen are just so good at teaching, even when they're not on their usual form - poor Manda was struggling with a cold and Karen is still in the midst of the grieving process having lost her Grandad recently. We were provided with patterns to bring home in all sizes from 6mths - 7yrs for the tunic and the trousers and all materials used were provided on the day too - oh and lets not forget the gorgeous homemade lunch! This time it was soup and tuna pasta bake, clearly we all had both! Another really excellent part of the day was that one of the other attendees was my friend Julie who blogs here. We started our blogging journey at a similar time and have become really good virtual friends, it was a huge and lovely surprise to be able to meet her in personas I had no idea she was going to be there, plus she had travelled all the way from Scotland!!

Yesterday was a really lovely day too, spent in York with the hubby and kids. 'Mr. G' bought me this book:

And we had tea at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen where we also got these:

How fab are they?? Ours will hold ketchup, brown sauce & salad cream!

Now as this is post 97 it means that my run of giveaways is fast approaching!! I will be having 3 giveaways of fabby prizes donated by some of my bestest bloggy friends starting on post 100!! Stay tuned over the next week to be in with a chance......

On fire.....

2011-02-17T13:53:00.001+01:00

Not literally of course as clearly I couldn't blog at the same time as being on fire! Now I wasn't scheduled to blog today, it deffo wasn't on the list for today but I'm just so excited that I had to share my morning with you!!

Ok so I embroidered the Merry Legs on the Flower Sugar as I said I would and I quilted in a shadow style a 1/4 inch either side of all the seams. I was then interuppted by the postie who was bringing me a box of goodies all the way from the USA!! It was my swap goodies from the Tim Burton-esque Valentines Swap organised by Apryl.

Look at the lovely things Deanna sent me, I'm so happy! The remit was something crafty, something handmade and some chocolate and we had to answer questions regarding our fave Tim Burton movie to help our partner, so you can guess mine yes??!

Deanna has clearly stalked my blog as she made me a new Kindle pouch and sent me a book to read too. Here's the fabric and chocolate she sent::

Its just so lovely! When I bit into the chocolate heart it was jelly inside. Yum Yum!!

So back to the Flower Sugar::

I've finished it and am so damn pleased with it. It looks awesome and will be great for 'Little Miss H'. Can you guess what it will be?? I'll have a Ta Dah! moment in a few days when it's in place and you'll be amazed - promise!

Now for some important news:: Within the next week I'll hit my 100th blog post. Wowser! So what's a girl to do to mark such an important occassion????

Thats right I'm having a giveaway!

Not just any old giveaway this one is sponsered and features at least one very sought after thing......keep checking back to find out more!!

On a roll.....

2011-02-16T14:40:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I stated that I hadn't done much on the home organisation front, bar doing a better job of keeping on top of the household chores!

Well I've been pondering that statement this morning whilst I've been doing a few bits (more on that later) and to be honest it was an utter lie!! Let me explain::

When I decided to get my proverbial arse into gear and get my home organisation sorted out (inspired by this), I got myself a notebook to do some lists. I feel much better when I have lists to work through, such an achievement crossing items off said list, don't you think?!

Inside my notebook looks like this::

Now I particularly like this notebook as it has a space at the top of each page for the date. Handy yes?. So I've wrote the date of the Monday for the week I'm working on and then I've listed 'Things to Acheive this Week' as the title followed by said list of tasks. I've then broken down the list into tasks to do each day. Genius. Anyhow, so far so good I'm getting more done than I ever have and am spending less time surfing the net which is an acheivement in itself!!!

Remember the Flower Sugar from yesterday??

From my list for today!!! I decided to add in a square of embroidery that I will do tonight whilst re-watching the Brit Awards with the kids. My kids love music as much as I do (yeah! she cheers) and 'Master M' especially loves Take That and the Beiber (honestly I had nothing to do with the Beiber, though I am overjoyed he loves TT!) The pattern for the embroidery is by my lovely friend Katy and was in the special Christmas Issue of Fat Quarterly. If you've not seen FQ before you need to pop onto their blog where you can view samples of this fab e-zine. Honestly there is sooooo much inspiration for quilt making and such like by a group of the most talented guy and his gals!!!!

I've also done this from todays tasks::

Again it just needs embroidering which I'll do sat in front of the TV over the next few nights.

Now I need to go do the boring cleaning jobs from the list before I go and collect the kids from school! Poo.

Catching Up......

2011-02-15T15:37:00.000+01:00

Now that things are getting back to normal here (well as normal as they're ever going to be at our house anyway!!!), I've been able to get a few bits of sewing and fabric prepping done here and there.

Firstly I've prepped my fabric for the Wonky Star Quilt-A-Long that Kerry is hosting on her blog.

This quilt is going to be large lap size and is for 'Little Miss H'! To be honest it wasn't in my grand scheme of quilting plans for 2011 but I did want to have a go at wonky stars and thought the opportunity was a good one, both in terms of busting some stash and learning how to do wonky stars! I'll be piecing a couple of blocks per week over the next few weeks and hopefully 'Hey Presto' a cute scrappy quilt will be born!

I've also finally sewn the binding down on my nephews quilt. I used a great book to help me 'The Pratical Guide to Patchwork' by Elizabeth Hartman of 'Oh Fransson!' fame - invaluable photo guide to all aspects of quilting - Love it!

I just need to hand sew the other side of the binding down and it will be ready to deliver next week when we go visiting!!

I've also been prepping another small project::

This again is for 'Little Miss H' and all should be revealed by the weekend! I've had this Flower Sugar from Lecien in my stash for a while. It was always meant for 'Little Miss H' but the projects (big & small) are now under way so you'll be seeing more and more of this great line over the next weeks and er months knowing me!!!

On the home organisation front I've not tackled anything new. I'm still waiting on the delivery of my comic boards so I can continue tackling my fabric stash, the hallway is still clutter free and I'm managing the general tidiness of the place a little better I think, we'll see!

Guess What????

2011-02-13T18:33:00.000+01:00

Just a couple of things I wanted to share now I've finished a hard couple of days at work!!

First up:: Tell me you already know that my lovely blogger/flickr friend Lynne of Lily's Quilts has had her first Moda Bake Shop quilt published today?? Nope, well here's what it looks like - gorgeous don't you think??

Lynne's also having a giveaway on her blog where you can win some of the much coveted 'Sherbert Pips' line from Aneela, so you can make your own Hexagon Park quilt.

Secondly:: Rita of Red Pepper Quilt fame has started a master list of quilting blogs. Have you added yours??

There are some great blogs to cruise including lots of new ones to me - Yay!!

Busy Busy Busy

2011-02-10T17:48:00.000+01:00

This is going to be the most random post ever!

After a flying start to the year I seem to have been knocked way off course this last couple of weeks and have acheived 'zilch' in the creativity department. I am really hacked off about this.

So in no particular order here's why the creating has had to take a back seat!!

One of our lovely rabbits has been very ill, so much so we nearly lost him. This meant he's had to be nursed inside for a week, medicine x3 per day and virtually hand fed = very time consuming, especially when hubby was away on holiday snowboarding and I was flying solo. I then had to purchase a new giant hutch 7.5ft long to accomodate his potential disability, we've got big rabbits!!

I've also been trying to sort out my somewhat wayward, out of control home organisation!! I've been following with interest Megan of MouseHouse as she tackles a home organisation issue each week and then blogs about it. It's a really cool idea, surely one project a week is do-able???

This is the first area of our house which needs organising::

How bad does that look?? Fortunately we don't use the front door and visitors to the house don't see this mess! We live in a 3 storey house with this been the bottom floor which is home to this hallway and has the washing machine and dryer under the stairs that come up to the middle floor. There is also a large unused bedroom and ensuite down there which will hopefully soon be my sewing room/guest bedroom!

So I've ventured down there and cleared out all the shoes that don't fit etc and given it a good tidy up. Here's what it looks like now::

There are no shoes strewn all over and the bench is cleared. All I need to do now is paint the bench white and add some cute little cushions to it.

The second area of home organisation that I need to work on is huhum my sewing stuff::

This area is on the middle floor of the house at the bottom of the stairs leading to the top floor. This area visitors can see *shame*

So I've been tackling this area a little each day, I've decided to move my supplies slowly but surely to some different shelving on the top floor of the house, these shelves are much wider and hence hold more of my fabric!!! I also decided to go with the comic board method of storing my fabric which I found out about here and here. I stole a few of said comic boards from Katy and have now used them all, here's my stash WIP::

All my 1/2 yds or more will be wrapped round comic boards and stored like a bolt of fabric and my FQ bundles are all stored in neat piles. I'm waiting on more comic boards being delivered so this project has stalled until they arrive.

As you've probably gathered I'm not the worlds most tidy person and keeping my home tidy is something I have to work on daily. It is something that I'm determined to do better as I'm sure the untidyness is hampering my creativity. Seriously!

I've managed these teeny tiny bits of creativity this week::

The beginnings of a little cross stitch for 'master M' and a little knitting! I've always wanted to learn to knit and my local yarn shop does lessons so I started my beginners class last night!!

Finally, the main reason for my lack lustre sewing is this::

Finally 'Miss H' has had her long awaited eye surgery. This picture is from today, I didn't take one on Monday when she'd had the surgery it was just too awful. She's feeling much better now and her eye is much improved already.

So I'm working Friday and Saturday and hopefully will collect my new car on Sunday. I'll be back then with pictures and hopefully a fresh start on the sewing front from then on!!

Tired. Tired. Tired.

2011-01-30T16:23:00.000+01:00

Afternoon, Morning - whatever it is!

Yep, you guessed it's my turn to work weekend nights this weekend so just a quickie post!!

First up, on Friday I managed to cut, package up and post out all my little fabric parcels for my fellow bee members in Fresh Modern Bee 2. Its my month in Feb and we're doing modified bento boxes using Amy Butlers 'Love' collection:

Thats about it on the sewing front for this weekend but on Saturday whilst we were in town I managed to pick up a couple of bargains I had to share!! First up some new Converse for 'Master M' in the sales::

How cool are these?? We're Seuss and Converse mad at our house and these had more than 50% off so were a real bargain!!! Second up I got lucky in the charity shop with this little beauty::

How super cute is this little jug? I love it!

Finally Mr. Postie brought me a couple of parcels on Friday too. First up some Cath Kidston lovelies from The Book Depositary::

I've been wanting the 'Stitch' book for some time now and thought I'd treat myself seen as though I was ordering the little mini journals!

Finally I ordered these lovely screenprinted fabrics from the lovely Lucie::

The colours are just so vibrant and the design so cute. Not sure what they're for yet but I know I'll use them soon! Check out Lucie Summersville here, she has great screenprinted items for sale!

Sewing Sweatshop!

2011-01-27T21:32:00.000+01:00

Today I've had a lovely day.

I feel lucky that I live quite near fellow quilter and blogger extrodinaire Katy, it means we can meet up and sew/drink coffee/surf blogs together on what's becoming a pretty regular basis.

Today we did just that.

I wanted to get my nephews quilt basted and quilted and as my walking foot hasn't arrived yet and I'm a tad nervous about the actual quilting bit (for fear of ruining the quilt!) I popped over to Katy's for some expert advice and to hog her sewing machine!

Here's said quilt having been basted with a huge kitty kat trying it out for size!
I managed to get it quilted too, under close supervision of course::

And here's a shot of Katy sewing miles and miles and miles of binding, you know just in case she needs some!

Another shot of my quilt being wiggly line quilted::

And to add to this lovely day, guess what the postie had delivered when I got home?? No? Not one but two lovely parcels::

This cute little coin purse which was stuffed full with the fabby scraps shown are my winnings from the lovely Cara! I entered a giveaway on her blog and I won!! YAY!! It's so cute, thanks Cara!

The second parcel was my much awaited gorgeous calendar from Sarah Jane Studios. I'd been hunting around for what seemed forever for the right calendar and when I came across Sarah Jane on Etsy I was sold! If you're still looking for the perfect calendar snap one up now as they've got 50% off! The calendar is so beautifully illustrated and is perfect for my sewing area. I'm planning on showing each months illustration as the year unfolds.

Finally a little spring cheer is in the air::

I just had to have these beauties when I spotted them on a recent trip to Ikea!

Blown Away....

2011-01-26T12:09:00.000+01:00

I've been a busy bee this week in the midst of some traumatic stuff going on as well!

I've pieced my nephews quilt top::

This will be basted today and then quilted and bound by the weekend - Yay!

I've also been busy cutting fabric for my next project::

On the left are some fairytale pieces that will make the block centres of my neices quilt. They were cut from an Alexander Henry panel and I got the inspiration for this quilt here and here.

On the right are some samples of 'Hideaway' that Courtney over at Seamstar kindly sent me. Here's a closer look::

The fabics on the left will certainly make their way into my stash and the ones on the right I'm a bit blah about so they probably won't!

Now those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that last week I wrote my car off on the M62. It's been really stressful sorting out all the insurance stuff and when the car was finally declared a total loss on Monday I had to go clear out all our belongings. I was shook up when I saw the state the car was in, we're lucky to be alive::

Luckily for me my faithful companion has been following me around and lying by my feet all week, she really destresses me::

Finally, this video on You Tube blew me away yesterday. I sent it to some people via email but I think you should all see it!! It made my heart sing, my face smile and my whole being feel proud::

I am the proud mum of a little girl with Down Syndrome.

Fabric?

2011-01-21T22:24:00.000+01:00

This week I have finished this::

A few of you guessed correctly when I showed this block last week minus the embroidery! Yep, its Little Miss Shabby's Birdie Block of the Month.It's a really cute block and was a breeze to make, can't wait to see what birdie is doing next month!

I've also made good progress on this::

This quilt top is practically pieced, I just need to add borders and it will be finished ready for basting by Sunday evening. Yay! This little beauty is heading my nephews way and will only be my 2nd ever quilt and my 1st of 2011.

Over the past few weeks I've not only been using my stash for projects (about time!) but I've also made yummy fabric purchases too (oops!) As I've only been sewing for around a year I think it would be unrealistic of me to pledge to use only my stash for makes. Frankly I'd fail. Fabric is my thing and as I don't like failing, I'm not promising!!!

Here are photo's of my recent yumminess::

This is my newest fabric bought from Seamstar just this week. I'm thinking 'Mr.G' would like a pouch for his iPad from it. I love it!

I decided just before Christmas that I 'needed' to get my mitts on Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks collection before it is no more. I'd seen a WIP (which must remain secret unfortunately) and it totally inspired me! I've always liked the 'Good Folks' collection, it was one of the reasons I began sewing, I used it to make 'Little Miss H's' and my neice's wedding outfits from if you remember? So I've got all but 2 of the prints in the collection and will be turning it into a quilt. Soon! I sourced Good Folks here, here and here.

I also got some of the whole of Lizzy House's Castle Peeps collection! This is only half of what I ordered, the rest is still in transit! Again this is for a specific quilt that I already have the pattern for. I got this little lot from Kerri's great little shop, if you don't already know of this etsy shop I urge you to try it out, I've had lots of great bundles and the service is exceptional!

Also from Etsy, I got this::

The seller of this little beauty is Christina whom I came across via this post on Angela's lovely blog 'Fussy Cuts'. I'm going to use it to make a cushion for the living room.

And these::

How cute are these little hearts?? I love them! 'Master M' and I are going to make them into a couple of cute garlands to decorate shelf edges with for Valentines. Get yours here.

Happy Weekend!

Catching Up!

2011-01-15T22:09:00.001+01:00

Had a bit of a busy week this week and to be honest next week is worse as I'm working lots. (Boo Hiss!) So advance apologies if I am a little quiet, though secretly you may of course cheer!!!

I had hoped to achieve a few things this past week, mainly to finish up the block I showed in my last post, make my brother another cushion and to start the quilt that I had cut the fabric for last week. Here's how I faired::

Great on the quilt front! I've pieced all the squares that make up the main body of the front, I just need to sew the rows together now which will be done this week!

And thats about it!! Seriously, no cushion for my brother (oops!) but the block is nearly finished and I'll be able to show that in my next post!

This week I received this lovely lot in the post from Simply Solids

A Kona colour card and some great solids that are to coordinate with the Amy Butler 'Love' line which I am using for my month (Feb) in the Fresh Modern Bee 2 I will of course post pictures about the little packages I send out to my fellow bees soon.

Today the four of us had a little jaunt out to the Trafford Centre in Manchester. It only takes about 30mins in the car and I wanted to go get some home decor inspiration!! To be honest 'Mr. G' and I had forgotten how great the homes sections were here and could have spent all day 'ooohing and aaghhing' but with the kids in tow it was quite stressful!!

We did however strike gold in Selfridges with this beauty coffee maker::

Its a Lavazza A Moda Mio and I am in love! Enough said. 'Master M' also thought he'd won the lottery when he spied these::

He was so excited that he ate them in the car on the way home! He discovered the joy of the Lucky charm when we were in the USA last year!!

More Echino......

2011-01-11T13:21:00.001+01:00

I'm on a roll! Did you guess?

I managed to have a really productive day yesterday and made another Echino cushion for my brother::

And here's the back::

I also did lots of prepararation for what will be the first quilt of 2011! I've had the fabric and pattern a while and was hoping to make it up for my nephew as part of his Christmas present but I really wasn't in the mood after I'd had the miscarriage. He got the lego he wanted instead and I'll deliver the quilt to his mummy when it's finished! I've got one for my niece to do as well.....

I also made this little block up. Can you guess what it is, there is something missing that I will reveal later in the week!

I couldn't decide which fabric to make my pieced border from so I decided to go with the red scrap pack that I bought from Manda at Treefall Design. I'll have to get a couple more I think to finish the project!

For the rest of the week I plan to complete the above block, make another Echino cushion and make a start on the prepped quilt. That's all.

Finally, it was my big weigh in last night at Slimming world and I lost 3lb. Woo Hoo!!