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!
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.
