It's lovely Huw's birthday this week, and he is officially the hardest person to buy gifts for. He's very closely followed by a couple of people, but there is no doubt he wins the award (although I wouldn't know what to buy him for his prize which would make the whole award thing totally pointless...)
I started worrying thinking about what to get him for his birthday months ago, which is when the idea of The Beast started forming. Huw loves campervans, and a few years ago bought a VW T25 called Sunny and I thought it would be nice, and pretty darn practical, to make him a special Sunny quilt.
I bought the basic pattern for this quilt at Jukebox Quilts; it's called Another Day in Paradise. Remember when I made this quilt for Siblings Together I'd used left over pieces of cotton shirts? Well those shirts were tracked down for this quilt. As I needed so many different fabrics for this and no big pot of money to use I used a lot of re purposed fabrics as well as some favourites from my stash. I love giving fabric a new lease of life, and being made especially for Huw and his vintage van, full of history and memories, this project lends itself perfectly to the cause. I've spent a lot of hours putting this together, and the collection of fabrics can't help but make me smile: some of my favourite vintage fabrics alongside modern polka dots, left over project scraps next to remnants of old dresses, cuttings from garish surf shorts neighbouring vintage bandannas - it's all going on!
All 25 vans are intentionally different, and Sunny takes centre square, driving the opposite way to his friends. 50 buttons are sewn on for hub caps, with each van having their own unique set. This required a LOT of button shopping, which I managed to endure (read 'indulge in'). There are also pieces of ribbon, embroidery and a couple of teeny charms to decorate the vans.
There were a few swear words and a fairly substantial sulk in our house a few nights before the big day, when a red kayak bled colour onto two of the vans whilst being washed. As nothing would shift the dye, I ended up having to take part of the quilt to pieces to replace the ruined fabrics and put it back together again. Once finished me and Alfie headed out to the fields to take some photos. Well technically Alfie busied himself using the quilt as a tent, getting his bottom into most of the photos and getting totally lathered in mud, meaning he ended up in the bath as soon as we'd got home. He looked pretty pleased with himself post bath though!
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
