Button Love

I got home today to find a lovely parcel waiting for me on the doormat.  I signed up to Noodlebubble's button swap a couple of weeks ago and was paired up with the lovely Jane of A pocket full of daisys.  I received these gorgeous buttons from Jane and I totally love them!  She included a lovely selection of really bright colours - thank you Jane! x

Jane has blogged about the swap here, so why not head over and have a read.

A touch of colour

I talked cee pea into taking the Bust Yo! Scraps quilt I made with her when she headed across the fields with Alfie and her camera last Saturday, and this is what I got in return - I love it!

I found out who my swap partner will be for Noodlebubble's button swap.  I'll be swapping with Jane of A pocket full of daisys and after reading her blog and seeing how much she loves buttons I really hope she'll like the ones I've got ready to send her.



I got chance one night last week to make a couple of simple pillowcase dresses for the Dress A Girl Around The World project.  I read about this on Sew Scrumptious' blog; Louise not only makes these dresses herself, but also collects dresses from other people and arranges for them to be sent to the children who need them.  She's just exceeded 1000 dresses and her blog is full of pictures of the amazing dresses which have been made.  These two dresses will be sent to Louise soon, and as soon as I've found some more pieces of fabric big enough there will be more to follow.

A great week.......and a button swap!

This week has been a busy one, mainly in a ace way.  I took a day off work on Friday and spent most of it hanging out with Kate, bouncing creative ideas around and drooling on her new fabrics when she wasn't looking.  Kate had been planning some new 'tape measure' accessories for a while, and it was great to be there to help her with her first few broaches.  Want a sneak peek?  Oh go on then......








How cute!

On Saturday we went to Sheffield to the Reetsweet fair.  It was held in the Millennium Gallery in the city centre, which is a pretty perfect venue for this event.  The fair was, as expected, full of an amazing amount of talent, and it was great to wander round taking in the range of handmade goods there.  I know it's not nice to have a favourite but I did, so there; Molly's Mum 's stall was packed with the cutest textiles, all of an amazing quality and cuteness.  Their website has the cutest waving bear too - go have a look! 

After the fair we made out way to Meadowhall and, after a lovely dinner, spent an indecent amount of time in Paperchase.  Cee pea and I are used to being persuaded, bribed and eventually dragged out of that shop, but as Kate loves it just as much as we do we were allowed to ooh and ahh at everything; and ended up leaving with big bags of happiness!

Today has been spent mainly not doing the must do things on my to-do list, which I already know will result in chaos in the morning - c'est la vie!  Instead of doing sensible things I spent time playing with the amazing map print paper I picked up yesterday.

I saw this paper on my last trip to Paperchase a few months ago, but as much as I loved it I really had no reason to buy it.  Then a couple of lovely work colleagues picked this mini shelf unit (on the right) up for me from a charity stall at work, and I just knew how I wanted to decorate them.  The shelves on the left with the little drawers I've had for a few years, and I think they were ready for a makeover.  I've no idea what either of these are going to be used for as they are both pretty small, but I'm happy with the way they've turned out and I really enjoyed spending time doing them.



I've ordered these cute red and white Scandinavian print fabrics for a quilt I want to make for my friends baby who is due in a couple of months.  I found some gorgeous pale aqua cotton to go with them while I was out on Friday, which I hope will be a nice contrast.  I had underestimated how hard it is choosing colours when you don't know the sex of the baby, but I'm definitely not complaining as I love the surprise!




And last but not least...I've joined my first swap!!!  NoodleBubble is hosting a button swap and I jumped at the chance to join as soon as I read about it.  My button addiction is getting harder to hide...most people have fires in their fireplaces, but I have...

 
...some* of my button collection!

* I don't want to confess to how many more I have in case I'm declared insane and forced to attend weekly meetings in a bid to stop the madness.

I'm really pleased to have signed up to this swap, as it means I can send some of my most loved buttons to someone who will hopefully love them too!  You can sign up to the swap until 14th March, so come sign up too!
x

These are a few of my favourite things...

Last Saturday was officially the best.  I spent the day with my mum, dad and cee pea in Horncastle, rummaging through the antiques shops in my element!  We had originally planned this trip for the beginning of February but the weather postponed it, so it was great to get to drive out there and hunt for some treasures.

I totally fell in love with this 1960's coffee service and, despite cee pea trying to reason that we neither drink coffee nor have anywhere for it to live, I knew it had to come home with us!  I love both the shape of the coffee pot and the gorgeously retro blue and grey flowers, but my absolute favourite part of the set is the milk jug; it's just so cute!  When my mum told me that her and my dad had received the same milk jug and sugar bowl in an orange and brown colourway as a wedding gift, it sealed the deal.





For now I've re homed the set on some small shelves in the kitchen, and am successfully ignoring the things that have been unceremoniously evicted from them which will now need to find somewhere to live....a minor detail, right?



Sewing wise I've been busy working on something big, but it's a secret project for now so as much as I'd love to share some photos of the progress I've been making I can't.  It hasn't all been secret sewing though, I was asked recently to make a personalised apron so I spent some time on it at the weekend.  I was so pleased to be asked to make this; it's for a lady who's son had received one as a gift for Christmas, so the fact she wanted to give one away as a gift herself was lovely.



I had no plain blue fabric left in my stash, so I went shopping and found this lovely soft cotton, and picked up some more of this blue spotty fabric for trim.  Like the apron's I made for the Christmas Fayre I did last year, I used the trim on the pocket, apron top and the ends of the waist ties.  I also put press studs on the bottom of the apron so that it can be made 3 different lengths, hopefully meaning it can get longer use from a no doubt fast growing boy!

I spent some time after work yesterday playing around with ideas for packaging, and finally came up with this simple paper envelope.  The thick blue paper is held together with simple stitches, and the flap is held down with eyelets and a piece of ribbon.  I'm really pleased with the way this turned out, although at some point I'll pick up a roll of brown paper and butchers twine and will make some more.

I'm excited about the rest of this week...I'm taking the day off work on Friday to hang out with the lovely Kate of Helter Skelter to do some productive crafting and no doubt a lot of laughing.  On Saturday Kate and I are going over to Sheffield to visit the Reetsweet fair at the Millennium Gallery, and we're both stupidly excited about it! x