sewing everyday

Well for the first time in months I appear to have done some sewing everyday this week. Get me, I'm finishing off all my WIPs and sewing up a storm of handmade goodies ready for Christmas gifts! 


First up I've finished quilting this baby quilt and am just sewing the binding on. There will be a full reveal post another time after I've given it to my friend next week sometime, baby Ethan's 5 months old now so it's not that late!!!

I've also made some neckerchief dribble bibs and after many failures and ruined bibs, I've also mastered adding on popper stud fastenings!! A couple of these are off to my friend Kyleigh for her little girl to road test and some are going to friends! 

At last I've managed to make me a little purse from the Easy Peasy Purse pattern available from the lovely Lisa at U-Handbag. I've had the pattern and kit stashed for a while but really needed to have a go at making the purse as I want to make a couple more of these and fill them with goodies for 
Christmas gifts!

I've also finally finished my first ever knitting project, this fab tank top for me. Unfortunately it will have to be put away until next Autumn as I'm a little large for it just now!! I think this is why I lost interest in knitting it. My mum bless her came to the rescue and finished it off for me in just a couple of hours and I've just got to sew it together when my darning needles arrive!!

I learnt lots from knitting this tank top, especially pattern reading!! I knitted a whole section too big as I'd misread the pattern and it was only when I went into my LYS, which is where I took the beginner knitting course, that the lovely owner went through the pattern with me and I realised what I'd done wrong!!


Over the weekend I'm hoping to get a bit more knitting done on 'Little Miss H's' cardigan, the one that I blogged about the other day, as well as making a knitting needle roll for my needles and a couple of pairs of baby trousers.


What are your plans for the weekend??

Amazing crafty friend....

Let me introduce you to my amazing paper crafty friend Kyleigh! Kyleigh does the most amazing papercuts and I'm a lucky gal to own one!


Kyleigh and I were put in touch by a mutual Twitter buddy when I tweeted a help request for gift ideas for my hubby for our 1st wedding anniversary. As the gift should be paper related, a papercut was perfect! Ideas were banded about and the design was finalised, a reminder of our fab wedding in Florida.

Here are some more of Kyleigh's designs, all available via her website in her Not On The High Street Store. Alternatively contact her via the website or twitter regarding a comissioned piece.

All photo's courtesy of Kyleigh's Papercuts

As Kyleigh had seen my quilts she asked if I'd be interested in doing a swapsie, a baby quilt for her daughter in return for a papercut for my hubby! Perfect! Once again we banded ideas around about the style and most importantly the fabric, the quilt is the one I recently blogged so I'll just leave you with a quick picture of it.

Kyleigh's Quilt

Don't you just love Twitter and the way it connects people? I do!

Ta Dah! Another Quilt...

I think that I can safely say that this is by far my favourite quilt make to date!

Peek a Boo M!

I love how fresh it looks, the colour scheme and especially the fabric! I love love love this Denyse Schmidt range of fabrics for Joann's stores (USA). I was so lucky that I had a stateside buddy who could send me some!

The pattern is one I have used in baby quilts before and is an I-Spy quilt pattern that I bought from the lovely Amy some time ago. This time I improvised a bit and instead of making the squares in the centre 3.5" I made them 2.5". I've backed the quilt in some Momo I had sat in my stash. 

This quilt seems to have taken me an age to complete and I must be honest but I do feel relieved that it is now on it's way to it's new owner! I totally lost my sewing mojo in early pregnancy and the quilt just sat half pieced for months before guilt took over and forced me to get off my ass and get this beauty finished!!

Hand embroidered label

I also made some matching bunting for the recipient's nursery too! How cute is that?

The measures approx 36" x 36" and is quilted with wonky straight lines - it's my speciality you know!!

I've also decided that this quilt will be my entry into this years Bloggers Quilt Festival, hosted as ever by the lovely Amy. 

Please click on the image to take you to the link up party for the festival!

If you've never entered you should as it's a great way to get oodles of inspiration, see new blogs and generate traffic to your blog too!! A win win all round I think!!

A bit of this and that

I got the knitting bug again this last few weeks and here's what I've been working on.

The pattern is a Sublime one and the beautiful goes with anything sage coloured yarn is Soya Cotton DK also by Sublime. Its so silky and soft to the touch 'Little Miss H' is going to feel so cozy when she wears this little beauty!

So far I've completed the back and have nearly completed one of the front pieces too - I'm such a slow knitter but I enjoy the process I really do! You know what they say.....practice makes perfect!

On the sewing front I'm on the home stretch with this fab baby quilt which just needs the binding hand sewing down, I'm hoping to get this in the post on Thursday!

I also received this great piece of fabric from Katy. Its Anna Maria Horner and has the pattern on it for you to cross stitch, I love it! I'm hoping to pair this with some of her Loulouthi range and make a cushion for my rocking chair. Those night feeds will be upon me before I know it!!! I also treated myself and Katy to some of this super cute bunting fabric by Michael Miller. I got it from Seamstar.

Again on the receiving front I also got this Echino iPad case from my lovely friend Amanda! I thought that the hubs needed something stylish to store his new gadget in. 

This week I want to get some smaller fun sewing done, an easy peasy purse, some baby bibs and burp cloths and some toddler bandana bibs and hopefully a new knitting needle roll! Wish me luck!!

Belated Wonky Stars!

So here at last is a very belated post about this too cute (well 'Little Miss H' thinks so!) lap quilt I finished up at the start of the summer.

I followed the Wonky Star Quilt-A-Long over at Kerry's blog and then added a scrappy border to make the quilt just the right size for 'Little Miss H'. 

It's backed in a black and white bird fabric from Ikea and bound in Kona bubblegum. I quilted it by shadow outlining all the stars and quilting in the ditch around the stars inner squares. I then quilted either side of the seams around the scrappy border.

Those of you who can remember me blogging about the making of this quilt will surely remember a disaster I had when the quilt top was scorched by the lightbulb on my sewing machine. Here's how I fixed the damage:

That's right a cute hand appliqued heart over the top of the scorched area, I cut out the burnt wadding to stop it smelling too! 

The quilt measures approximately 45" x45".

I'm really pleased with this quilt and it's used daily by anyone who is sat on the sofa. 'Little Miss H' loves looking at all the different fabrics and tells me what she can see, who'd have thought a quilt could develop her language skills too!!

Rockfords Rock Opera

Just before the beginning of the summer holidays I was asked if I'd like to review a CD package of Rockfords Rock Opera. It was described as a fun modern musical for children so I agreed!


The CDs were delivered in time for our long drive to Cornwall and so we listened to the 1st CD on the way down. It was amazing! In fact it was so amazing the kids told me to turn it off as they couldn't hear it properly in the car and wanted to listen on a CD player so they didn't miss anything! 

Since our return from holiday the kids have listened to the CDs before bed and ask for them playing regularly! This is great as it's very relaxing for them, oh and me too!

What is it?

Its a story about a boy and his dog called Rockford who go to a mystical island called Infinity. Infinity is a place that homes the last one of all the extinct creatures of the world and they have a secret to tell.....

The package comes with the story split over 3 CDs and great illustrated story booklets that have the lyrics for the songs as well fab illustrations. The CDs have music, sound effects and narration and are fantastic for all ages to listen to.

The story itself is so endearing and has led to many 'what if' conversations with my children, the characters are so lovely and the kids adore Rockford!!

In addition the website has lots of extras and brings the illustrations to life, my little boy (7) particularly enjoys this aspect of Rockfords Rock Opera.

Listen!

That's my advice!! You can download the 1st CD for free here:

http://www.rockfordsrockopera.com/account/login-register.asp

When you're hooked you can then go ahead and buy the CDs!!!

NB: I received a free copy of the CDs in return for my review.

Hello anyone out there?

I'm crap I know that! If Blogger had an award for the most irregular blogger I'd win, hands down. For sure.


This summer has been mostly spent sleeping, seriously. I haven't sewn a thing in months and was actually contemplating giving up the ghost. Some of you who tweet with me will already know the reason for this extreme tiredness, those of you who don't know I promise it's a whole post on its own!


Anyhow today I've felt better, almost human so I dusted the old girl down and did a bit of sewing. It was great!

This is a tumbler pillow that I started on Friday following instructions from the lovely Katy who needed to practice a workshop she's running next week at Patch Fabrics. I think there are some spaces left if you'd like to make your own gorgeous cushion like mine! Just get in touch with the lovely Claire at Patch and she'll let you know! 


For my cushion I used the very girly Flower Sugar to go with 'Little Miss H's' bedroom decor as that's where the pillow will live! I only had the binding to make and sew on today and it was an easy finish of a gorgeous project!!

Now this little lap quilt for 'Little Miss H' has been completed for a while now but I don't think I've blogged the Ta Dah! moment!! It was too windy today to get a good outdoor shot but when I can I'll show you it properly - promise!

Finally I managed to complete this little shrug over the summer which is heading my neice's way as it's not really big enough for 'Little Miss H'. Ooops!


Thanks for bearing with me and I promise I'll try and blog a bit more regularly. But then you've heard it all before ;)