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

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!

Tis the season to be jolly

Merry Christmas everyone!  Hope you've all had a lovely time and that you're still enjoying the festivities.  Christmas here was fairly quiet and lovely, with plenty of cooking, films and family.  In order to claim the dining table back my sewing machine and fabrics have been temporarily moved upstairs, but it hasn't stopped me planning my next projects....






A few weeks ago my great uncle sent me a couple of his old suits.  The quality of them is amazing - heavy wool fabric tailored beautifully.  As he no longer has any need for the suits he wondered if I could re-purpose the fabric - I think I may have actually squealed when my mum showed me!  I'm hoping here will be enough fabric to make a couple of skirts for work - I never normally wear skirts but I'm not sure why and I think it's about time for a change!  Unfortunately there isn't enough fabric to use the pattern I had in mind, but I just need to find (or draft) another pattern and then I can get on with sewing.  I know the fabric will be a dream to sew!

I also found a few minutes to do a little on-line fabric shopping - well I had to cure my textile withdrawal somehow!  Fat Quarter Shop had some fab offers on during the run up to Christmas, and I managed to pick up a design roll of Tula Pink's Prince Charming at half price.  I possibly shouldn't be quite so excited, but I've admired this range for ages and this is the first time I've bought fabric like this just for me!  I plan to make a quilt with it to live on my sofa, for anyone to have a lovely snuggle under it when they fancy, and no doubt for Alfie to claim as his own and to have little naps on.  We've watched a lot of films over Christmas and, despite there always being a fleece blanket in the living room, my daughter keeps dragging her bright blue sleeping bag downstairs to make herself cosy on the sofa.  I'm hoping that making a lovely quilt out of gorgeous fabric will render the need for me to keep carrying the sleeping bag back upstairs!  I've never made a quilt larger than a cot size before, but it's something I've wanted to do for a really long time. 

Which leads me to my final 'to do' project for the new year....



This quilt along will be another first for me; I think that may be a theme for 2012...I have piles of fabric sitting around, and I think I'll want this quilt to be as scrappy as possible so I'm going to try to be very inclusive of the fabrics I'm using and not get drawn into worrying about how it's going to come together.  So...do you fancy joining the Bust Yo Scraps quilt along?