Yellow potpourri and a mini quilt

Well first off I have to apologise about the photo quality, my ability to use my camera and the weather, but here we go anyway!

You may have noticed that I love scrappy bright quilts and this one is no exception. It was an utter pain in the butt to quilt on my little home sewing machine but after needles being put in the wrong way, tension going funny and breaking my walking foot (Story for another time!) I got there in the end. It's straight line quilted top to bottom. The backing fabric, which I love, didn't help. It's curtain fabric of all things but I loved them when I bought them, then I moved house and they were miles too big for my little windows so I think the term is upcycled!

So Kaffe Fasset Yellow potpourri pattern is rather large! I didn't add the inner frame or the top and bottom line of squares, just the side ones. This photo is taken out in my back yard I was trying to take advantage of some sunshine but it hid behind rather large clouds when it saw me coming.

So I wandered over to my mums, quilt and child in hand and asked if I could photograph it in her sitting room 

Only to discover that the aperture of my camera couldn't deal with it unless I stood on some steps - Not going to happen at my mums!

Heres a quick look at the back and binding 

Very pleased with the binding for a change.

This big girl was a total stash buster quilt made mostly from scrap packs that I've been almost obsessively buying *Blush* 

I'm so pleased I've finally made a dent in my fabric supplies though, gives me a good reason to hit Hawthorn threads again :)

So moving onto the mini quilt/wall hanging/doodad thingymajig!

It's cute and has a hanging bit so even if I don't know what on earth I've made I rather like it :D 

And a close up of the Heather Ross print (Just because I love it soooo much!)

I hope you've enjoyed hearing about my quilts and my photographic challenges :)

Have a great week

Spoonflower :)

Hello Peeps!
I'm rather excited here, I'm sitting waiting for my samples to come back from Spoonflower so I thought I'd share a sneak peek (Dancing_crow is my Spoonflower user name, Loooong story!)

This is one of the prints called Floating poppy, once I have all of my swatches back I'll make them public and let you guys know so you can feel free to have a look and see what you think. In the meantime feel free to leave feedback regarding this print in the comments, but be gentle this is the first time I've shown off my paintings to anyone other than family since I left school - Half a life time ago now! (Ouch feeling old!)

Other news, I've finally finished the Kaffe Fasset quilt! WOOPWOOP!!! Unfortunately the heavens opened on me as I opened my front door quilt in hand to go outside to take pics, so I will do a show and tell tomorrow as it's meant to be quite sunny (Hope I've not just jinxed it!)
Also, with some trepidation, I have cut into my Far Far Away II fabric to make a wall hanging. It only needs it's binding on and then it will be fully clothed for pictures :)

All in all I think tomorrow may well be a picture heavy post!

I've been AWOL again!

Hello Gang!
Sorry I've been MIA for a while (Again!) if I'm being honest and without any over share I've been having a few problems with the new tenant downstairs from me and it's been keeping me rather busy!
My WIP list is still as long as ever, but what the heck I've got a life time to work through them :)

One thing I did have the joy of making last week was a baby quilt, got to love baby quilts! The family down the street brought home their new baby boy from the hospital, so whats a girl to do but whip up a quilt for them. This is my first real go at free motion quilting on a quilt that wasn't staying with me so I kept it simple with one big zig-zag all of the way up the quilt then echoed it out towards the sides.

From memory the quilt is 33"x33" so should do fine in a stroller once the family are out and about with the little one.

Sorry about the picture quality - for it being the longest day of the year up here we've seen hardly any sun for the last three weeks!

Anyway hope your all having fun and I'll post again soon (Hopefully with another finished quilt!)

Pay it forward Giveaway!

Hi everyone!
I had a wander over to Fiber of all sorts blog last night and came across the "pay it forward giveaway"  Now I've read Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde and loved it, so when I came across the idea in the form of a giveaway I had to join in :)

These are from Fiber of all sorts so here we go -

It's a simple game. Here's how it works (I copied this from Cotton Addiction who gleaned from both Clover & Violet and Quilter in the Gap):

1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people who comment on this post. It will be a surprise and it will arrive when you least expect it. You have to give me someway to contact you. Make sure you have your email associated with your comment. Make sure you're NOT a no-reply blogger - you can see how to tag your comments with your email HERE.

2. I will have 365 days to do it in. What's the catch? To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something for 3 readers of your blog. It doesn't have to be quilty - just handmade.

3. You must have a blog. {This is where I'll draw inspiration}

4. Once you comment here, you must post about your Pay It Forward on your blog to keep the fun going with the Pay It Forward badge

I hope everyone that reads will join in - we need more niceness in the world :D

A no picture post!

Hi there
So yes I have been zooming around the internet looking for tutorials for covering my Nana's chair, however on a major sidetrack tonight I've found a brilliant tutorial for a customised dressmakers form (remember what I said a few posts ago about me getting easily distracted!) I don't really like the duct tape models as I have an image in my mind of them getting all smooshed up and battered so this one ticked my mental boxes and I thought I would share - It's from Threads Magazine
It's now in my "Tutorials to try" folder and I hope someone out there in blog land finds it useful.

Have fun

More things I've forgotten to post about :)

My guy made these lovely decoupage letters to brighten up my room this weekend, I love them!

I had an empty spot on the sitting room wall and it's been bugging me for ages. I decided to use the last of my dogwood in aqua to recover an old frame print and popped it on the wall to brighten the place up.

This morning I made this wipe clean notice board - If Issabella hadn't been "helping" me it would have taken 10 minutes to put together as she was helping it took more like half an hour! 

Just a very cheap clip frame with Spring Street fabric behind the glass and a sharpie attached, because I can never find a pen. Here's the back - 

I basting sprayed the fabric to the back board then stapled the corners and popped the clips around the frame, really straight forward.

Another scrap busting effort, I promis I do have actual fabric not just scraps and I will prove it in a moment lol I sanded down the table and quickly gave it a coat of primer, let that dry and then PVA glued fabric all over it. I waited an age for it to dry, got impatient and used a hair dryer (Not a good idea, heat + pva glue = STINK!!!) then varnished it with a satin finish varnish.

The next decoupage challenge is the bookcase I keep my fabric on!

This little lot made it's way here from across the pond a while ago and I've been wondering what to make with them (See told you I have real fabric :) ) I'm thinking a mitred boxes quilt maybe in order soon.

Now this is where I need your help. On sunday I popped over to see my Nana (Grandmother to anyone thats not familiar with the term Nana) Now this little old lady rocks, she is the one that taught me to sew many many years ago and then topped the teaching me not so long ago by gifting me her sewing machine a Janome memory craft 7000. I love this machine and all of my sewing gets done on it! While we were over she asked me if I would like a chair (Random but thats family for you!) She had recovered it a good few years back but with a change in decor and her little dog using it as a perch to look out of the window it's looking a little worse for where. So it's now sitting in my flat looking a bit lost and needing to be recovered again :)

I have never recovered anything in my life, so if anyone has any tips to share or tutorials that you found to work please please let me know. Anyway heres a photo so you can see what I'm talking about - 

I love the shape and I love that it reminds me of family.

After a trip to see my Nana we wandered over to Hobbycraft and I picked up these books

For anyone in the Sew Modern Bee yup I gave in to the pin cushion love and bought seams to me by Anna Maria Horner. I'm thinking about enlarging the patterns in Zombie felties and making them in fabric instead, as I get annoyed with felt but these guys were to horribly cute to pass up!

Well thats me done for now, hope you have a great week and manage to squeeze lots of sewing in there somehow.

What I've been doing in my spare time this week

Take one big pile of scraps

Cut them into 1.5" squares

Iron them to death on light weight fusible 

Trim it down and basting sprayed them to bigger scraps of batting

Faux satin stitched (really really tight zig zag stitch) along all of the intersections

Discovered when drinking a glass of wine one does not sew in a very straight line reliably 

Found a big jar to keep the rest of them in until a later date (once the wine was gone!)

Hopefully these will turn into a wall hanging sometime soon :)

Busy Wednesday

Well...I've not got as much done as I thought and my kitchen is now on the WIP list too!
Anyway so far today I have finished the Kaffe Fassett quilt top - pic to follow once it's put together.

Sorry about the picture quality (Again!) These were all taken with my iphone.

I've ran off Flauns blocks for our Sewn Together Bee

Unfortunately I ran short on the sashing for the second block but she was very sweet about it :)

I made a monster, so to speak

I tried out a technique with this little guy that I've wanted to do for ages, you basically colour in the fabric then embroider it. I'm pleased with how he looks but feel he needs some friends.

Then I tried to use up some of my scrap pile, as I horde fabric I had loads of tiny bits so threw then into this block, it still needs squared up and sashed.

I still have 160 left to use up and not a clue what to make with them when they are done. Any ideas?

Fingers crossed for a more productive day tomorrow.

Mini post

It turns out I have the attention span of a fruit fly, I start one pretty thing then another shiny catches my eye and I'm off like a shot. This post has been inspired (and I've given myself a kick on the bum to get moving!) by Shanna's post. I am slightly ashamed to say sitting in my sitting room I can't actually remember all of my wip's so I'm going to spend today trying to finish some up and post tonight about what I've gotten done - I'm also banning myself from Pintrest until I have something to show for my day, I do love the site but it eats up my mornings something rotten!

Ok clocks ticking I'm off to go sew - back tonight with updates :)