Spring is in the air!

Spring has arrived!  I even got chance to sit in the garden last weekend for an hour or so to do some hand sewing!  I was finishing off the baby quilt for one of my lovely friends whose baby is due in a couple of months.  I won't post a full picture of the quilt in case she looks, but you can have a sneak preview!  I'm loving these colours together, and I've quilted it with a thin batting, so it's really light but still snuggly.

Brenda at Just A Bit Frayed has now opened the linky party for the Bust Yo! Scraps quilt-a-long, so that everyone who took part can upload a photo of their finished quilts.  I used this photo that cee pea took for me as, although I know it doesn't show the quilt up close and personal, it's a pretty special photo to me.




I also had a sort through my fabric last week and managed to find enough to make another couple of pillowcase dresses for the Dress a Girl Around The World project.  These dresses are so quick and easy to make, and knowing that they're going to children who really need, and will love wearing, them makes it even more enjoyable.   I sent all four dresses off to Louise at Sew Scrumptious; she does an amazing job collecting these dresses and making sure they get to where they need to be.





Talking of amazing........I read this post on Lilly's Quilts blog a couple of days ago and instantly knew I'd like to be involved.  Siblings together is a charity which provides opportunities for contact between siblings who have been separated by care.  This organisation arranges camps where separated siblings between 7 and 17 years old get to spend quality time together.  Lynne's idea is to get enough quilts donated so that each child leaving camp this summer will take their own home with them, with a label on it which their sibling(s) have written a special message on for them.  Pretty awesome right!  This Flickr group has been set up for everyone to share ideas and support, and I am truly amazed at the generosity of fellow quilters!  I know that I can find enough time to make a quilt, but don't currently have enough fabric - cue lovely people!  Some people are offering fabric to those people who need it (like the lovely Bessiemae who is sending me some fab purple scraps to use), others are organising group projects so that people can make as many blocks as they can and they will turn them all into quilts, and others are donating quilts that they have already, or are planning to make.  There are therefore loads of ways to be involved!  So, can I tempt you to join in too?

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.

Birthday Treats and Squidgy Quilts

Anyone who knows me can tell you that while I get overly excited about celebrating other people's birthday I actually hate my own.  Having said that, this year my birthday was lovely!  The arrival of snow put an end to the planned trip to Horncastle, for a good rummage through the antiques shops for vintage treasures, but instead we went to a local-ish garden centre which has both a lovely restaurant and a big selection of crafty/gifty goodies to peruse.  My lovely daughter, cee pea, had splashed out on a new SLR camera for her college course the day before, so brought it with her and spent time testing it out...beautiful huh!?

Pressie wise I was totally spoilt!  Among the crafty pressies I received were Sarah Fielke's 'Quilting from little things' book and this amazing London notebook from cee pea...









and one of these amazing tape measure bracelet's and a cross stitch tote bag from my lovely friend Kate.  My birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so I took the following Monday off work and spent it at Kate's house, cooing over her craft supplies and planning future projects.  We have another craft day planned soon and I can't wait!

All the sewing round here recently has been about quilts, and both the Tula Pink Prince Charming design roll quilt and Bust Yo! Scraps quilts are now finished! 

The Prince Charming quilt is heavily quilted.  I never planned it to be when I started, but the quilting pattern sort of just 'happened' as I went along.  I love this about it, especially as washing and drying the quilt resulted in it shrinking just enough to wrinkle nicely with the quilting.

I chose a plain cream cotton for the backing, which was actually a double sheet I found in the January sales.  I had originally planned to piece a backing, but in the end I just didn't want to take away from the simplicity of the design, and as it happens I really like the way the quilting pattern shows up on the plain back.  I pieced the binding from the remains of the jelly roll, and doubled the batting under the backing as I hand sewed it down to make it nice and squidgy. 











I'm a little bit in love with this quilt: I love the colours and designs of the Prince Charming fabric, but I do wish I'd made it a little bigger.  At 45" x 55" it's a small lap size which is fine for me cos I'm pretty diddy and tend to curl up on the sofa, but the bigger people in the house have put in complaints that it's not long enough!

I'm very proud of the self restraint I had with my Bust Yo! Scraps quilt.  I promised myself I would spend no money on this (except for the batting), and despite many wobbles and fabric browsing I stuck to my word.  The only cotton I had enough of for the background colour was this slate grey/blue, which I wasn't convinced would look okay but which has ultimately grown on me.  I think it balances out the pink in the scraps and is probably much more sensible than using white or cream as I'd initially intended. 

After much rummaging through my fabric cupboard I found an old single duvet cover which I used for the backing.  As it wasn't wide enough I decided to add a wide border all the way round, which breaks up the business of the patterned middle. 











The quilting on this quilt is much simpler than the Prince Charming, a mix of single and triple diagonal lines, and again I used a scrappy pieced, squidgy binding to finish it off.  If I'd had more of the blue background fabric I think I'd have given it a plain border, but hey I can live with it.







And so, it would seem, can Alfie who has taken ownership of both quilts at the first opportunity!  Well, they were freshly washed and dried for his benefit, right?

Happy New Year!  Yeah I know; far too late to be typing that, but I've been very slack and haven't posted anything since Christmas!

So winter seems to have finally found us, which means I've had chance to wear these!

Cute huh!  I got these gorgeous owl mittens for Christmas, and they're super snugly!

I haven't blogged because I've been really busy, both with boring worky stuff which I won't bore anyone with, and some much more exciting projects...

Firstly I was asked to make a gift for a newborn baby girl, and was given free reign to choose what to do.  I made these two bibs.  I used some of my favourite fabrics in these and backed them in a lovely soft pink fleece so that they're comfy to wear as well as absorbent. 

It was a very special birthday this week, and I wanted to make something cute to go with the present we'd bought her. I decided to try making my first ever clip purse, and personalised it with a little initial bead on it.

I've spent the rest of my 'sewing time' this year working on a couple of quilts. I ordered a jelly roll of Tula Pink's Prince Charming just before Christmas and it arrived on Christmas Eve - super fast! I already had an idea of how I waned the quilt to look; a simple design with blocks of pattern to really show of each the fantastic fabrics. Because they were so simple, the blocks came together quite quickly, and it wasn't too long before the whole quilt top was finished. I chose a soft taupe/beige cotton for the background, and backed in a simple cream cotton.  It's taken a lot of hours to quilt, mainly because I only and my basic machine and standard foot to use, but I think it was worth the effort.  Its in the washing machine as I type, with 3 colour catchers and a heap of good luck thoughts!  Here it was going in....

I've also been working on my Bust Yo Scraps quilt which has involved a lot of fabric sorting, cutting and flying geese....and which I've totally loved!  I promised myself I wouldn't buy any fabric for this quilt, which was harder than I thought to stick to!  The only plain fabric I had enough of for the main pieces was a slate grey/blue colour, and I really wasn't convinced it would look okay.  Despite trying to talk myself into buying some white or cream fabric, I stuck to my original 'no buying fabric' plan, and I must say that now its put together I actually quite like it!  I've nearly finished piecing the blocks together and I have a couple of options for backing fabric, but I think it'll be a while before I get chance to get it basted and quilted.

And what's Alfie been up to while I've been busy.....He found a nice pile of laundry to get comfy on!  Well, you may as well be nice and comfy while your supervising, eh!