The most beautiful cuppa!

Today I got to have the most beautiful cuppa ever! Look what the lovely Kat from Diary of a Flutter.Kat sent me in the Goodie Swap on Flickr!!!!! Some scraps of one of my favourite lines, a gorgeous little pouch, and the most stunning Mug Rug ever!

From what I can tell Kat should become an international spy because she has clearly been snooping around inside my head without me knowing it!

Just how beautiful are the fabrics she has used? She's so sweet and thoughtful, she stalked me a lot before deciding we had very similar tastes and used her most favourite fabrics to make me something she would love. Then she quickly packaged it and sent it to me within 2 hours of finishing because she loved it so much she was worried she wouldn't be able to let it go!

And here is my beautiful cuppa again just so you can admire one more time!

I know this Mug Rug is too beautiful to use - but I am going to use it because I really really love it to bits and want to enjoy it (but I will be very very careful!) Thankyou so much Kat - you really made my day!

Just in case anyone is still interested, I still have one spot left in my Pay It Forward. You can find the details here

Fiona x

Gorgeous gift, and would anybody like a wee handmade pressie from me?

 Last week I received the prettiest little handmade cushion from the lovely Reene at Nellies Nicities. I was one of the 3 lucky people who played in her Pay it Forward event on her blog. She sent me this really sweet little cushion and some lovely scraps including some a favourite line - Snippets by American Jane :)

I held off posting this because Reene also sent a goodie to Jan, and I wanted to let her fill her PIF spaces, and I think we share a lot of the same bloggy pals :) I think she's filled all her spots now so.......

I know a lot of you may already have signed up with someone else for Pay it Forward, but hopefully there's 3 people out there that would like me to make them a wee handmade gift in the next year.

Here is how it works:

I will make a little something for the first 3 people who comment on this post and say they want to play. It will be a surprise and it will arrive when you least expect it.
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 to 3 readers of your blog (but remember you will have 365 days to make and send it too). It doesn't have to be quilty - just handmade.
You must have a blog.
Once you receive your "little something", you must post about your Pay it Forward on your blog to keep the fun going - be sure to use the Pay It Forward badge.

Thank you so much Reene! I love my little cushion :) I feel like you've been really spoiling me lately!

If you do want to play with me, remember you have a whole year to make your items (it might take me a while to get mine made!) and please tell me you would like to play in a comment.


Edited!
I almost forgot to mention that if you are living in the UK and Ireland, Emily over at Strawberry Patch is setting up a charm square swap. Each participant buys one metre of Christmas fabric - and puts it on the Flickr group so everyone knows what has already been purchased - and then cuts it up into 56 5" squares. We send that off to Emily and she divides all the squares between all 28 participants. You get back 2 squares each of 28 different fabrics. So a lovely unique festive charm pack with 56 squares :)

 Only we need 28 people to take part for it to work. We are looking for modern/cool Christmas fabric.

Recently Cindy at Fluffy Sheep organised a Japanese charm swap and it was fantastic! I've ended up with the most gorgeous charm pack of cool Japanese prints!

Go on - it doesn't take long to chop up a metre of fabric!

Edited Again!!!
Think I need another cup of coffee! I also forgot to mention that my lovely pal Susan from Canadian Abroad has organised a Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap on Flickr. This looks like it's going to be a lot of festive fun! Pop over to the Flickr group and take a look at some of the inspiration mosaics posted there - There's some gorgeous festive inspiration going on there!
The swap is open internationally, so you don't have to be in the UK or Ireland for this one :)

Thanks
Fiona x

Dressing a Girl

I don't have much to post about this week because I've put my back out and can hardly walk, let alone sit at my sewing machine, but ibuprofen is my friend and I think I'm on the mend.

Anyway, I thought I show you this sweet little dress that my daughter Hannah helped me make for the lovely Louise at Sew Scrumptious. She is on a mission to dress as many girls as she can, by encouraging crafters around the UK to make a simple little Pillowcase Dress for the Dress a Girl around the world charity. I think it's such a great idea, and had planned on getting all 3 of my kids involved in making dresses during the summer holidays. However the holidays came and went and dresses didn't get made.

Hannah had a day off school last week and she suggested we make a dress while it was just the two of us hanging out. She chose the fabric, cut out the pieces, supervised me sewing and pressing, and decided that any girl needs a couple of pockets in a dress. She's really proud of the little dress and I am too!
I hope a little girl somewhere in the world loves it as much as Hannah :)

I am planning to make a couple more dresses, my boys are keen, and Hannah thinks there may be a little boy in need of some trousers. If any one else wants to join in, you should visit Sew Scrumptious and look at all the beautiful dresses that she has received so far.

Have a nice weekend
Fiona x

Across The Sea

My weekday mornings always follow the same pattern, chaotic hullabaloo as I get myself and 3 children ready for school, then we walk to nursery and on to school, with me hustling and chiding them along. Once they are all safely deposited at school/nursery, I hurry home, put the kettle on, make some porridge while I tidy the kitchen, get the laundry on, then I settle down at the computer and enjoy my cuppa and porridge whilst I read blogs and stuff. Very often the whole morning disappears before I know it, and it's time to pick up my youngest from nursery again.

Not this morning! Thanks to Hadley's post about her bumper-bonanza-super-sewing-day yesterday I gulped my coffee, scoffed my porridge, switched off the computer, and got out my sewing machine :)

I pulled out my Across The Sea quilt blocks and I managed to get all the blocks sewn together, and both borders on before I went to nursery! I even managed to get a couple of pictures of it before I dashed out the door :)

TaDa!!!

Edited to add:
Fabric is Heirloom by Joel Dewberry, the Ruby Palette bought from the lovely Brenda at Pink Castle Fabric
And Klona Grey bought from the lovely Alice at Backstitch


Thanks Hadley!
Fiona x

Little Clutches

I've been making little gifts the last couple of days. Sometimes it's really nice to sew up something quick and easy, especially after lots of quilting, and I've been really enjoying making these little Key Chain Clutches, using a sweet little pattern by Keyka Lou.

The pink one is for my secret Partner #2 in the Goodie Swap, and the yellow one is a surprise for a friend. I'm really enjoying the Goodie Swap, there's a great bunch of ladies all having a laugh in the discussions. Mind you some ladies are quieter than others (Hint, hint Partner #1, speak up and play along! It's much more fun when you participate!)

I'm also playing in the {Pillow} Talk Swap on Flickr at the moment. This is one of my favourite swaps on Flickr :) It was the very first swap I ever did (talk about jumping in at the deep end - you should see some of the talent in there!)

Here are the pillows I made (left) and received (right) in my first round

And here are the ones I made (left) and received (right) in my second round

I'm itching to get sewing for this round :) I'm really enjoying my partner. He/she is pretty cool :)
Here is what I have come up with so far

Happy Wednesday!
Fiona x

Decision made!

Thankyou so much for all your suggestions on quilting my Loulouthi Quilt! At first all your great suggestions confused me even more, but last night I laid it out in the living room and stared at it for about 20 minutes, and it all became clear :)

It looked like a big beautiful garden, with gorgeous flowers and foliage and the butterflies in one of the prints got me thinking......
So, I'm going to do a mix of quilting. Handstitches in bright perle cotton in the linen and solid areas, and to pick out some of the flowers, and then in the areas where the patterns are busier I'm going to try FMQ (eeeek!)
I'm going to do quite a large loopy pattern with butterflies. I'm hoping it will look like the butterflies are fluttering around the garden :)

What do you think? I'm soooooooo excited about it! I really, really love the prints in this fabric and want to admire them and play with them while I'm quilting :)

I've decided to properly introduce Ava, our dog.

She came to live with us just before New Year (a few months before we said goodbye to Poppy). She's not a puppy, she's 4 and was a breeding bitch, but her owners were no longer able to look after her. Now her days of having babies are over and she gets to snuggle on our sofa all day if she wants.

She's very very cute, sweet and loving, but she's not the sharpest tool in the box. She got lost the other day.... upstairs in our house..... there's only 3 bedrooms and a bathroom up there..... and she's lived here 8 months..... Bless!

Hope you have a great weekend!
Fiona x

As Requested, and some more advice needed...

So some of you requested that I show more of my Across The Sea QAL blocks. Yesterday I only posted a picture of one block because it was so rainy and gloomy here my blocks looked rubbish laid out on my living room floor with the flash from my iphone. I quickly taped one of the blocks to my window and got a picture with the gloomy light shining through.



This morning the sun popped out between the showers so I quickly herded my youngest son and dog out of the kitchen, spread the blocks out on the floor, and climbed on a chair to take a snap. To say that my kitchen is small, is an understatement, when I laid the blocks out there was about an inch or 2 between the edge of all the blocks and the cupboards, fridge, washing machine etc. I've cropped the picture a lot so you can't see the crumbs on the kitchen floor!!! (I'll sweep it up soon...promise!) The picture above is the best I can do for now :)

I've asked for quilting advice before and really appreciated all your suggestions, so I'm going to ask again....



I've finally basted my Loulouthi quilt top, using the last of my basting spray because my new basting pins haven't arrived yet. I've used a lovely soft gold coloured Mendocino print I got on sale as backing (it is so soft I can't wait to get this finished and snuggle under it now!) You can see it in the picture below.
Anyway, I was planning to quilt in the ditch and then do a bit of hand-quilting in bright perle cottons, to emphasise some of those lovely big prints and add a bit of pizazz to the solid and linen areas but now I'm not sure.



What do you think? How should I quilt it? I'm itching to start, but don't know what to do......

Thankyou
Fiona x

Doll Quilt Swap

I've realised that I never posted about the quilt I received in the Doll Quilt Swap! Bad Swapper!

I was so excited about this swap. I'm not a dolls type of girl, even as a child I would rather have been outside climbing trees with the boys, than playing with dolls, but the idea of a teeny tiny miniture bed quilt got me so excited I signed up right away and was lucky enough to be accepted.

Inspiration Mosaic for Doll quilt Swap you can see all the links by clicking here

I had so much fun making an inspiration mosaic for my partner, and made it no secret that I had developed an obsession with 1930s prints and traditional quilt blocks.

When I saw a photo of this beautiful quilt in the group it brought a big smile to my face, and when my postie delivered it to me I was actually dancing and skipping around like a crazy lady! My partner Sonia got it so perfectly right for me! I love everything about this little beauty! Just look at those cheery prints and colours, and her beautiful hand quilting!

Thankyou so much Sonia I absolutley LOVE it :) and the extras you sent me were perfect too, the charm pack has already been opened and is being transformed into hexagons for my hexagon quilt :)

Here is the quilt I made for my partner, and it has arrived safe and sound in it's new home :)

In other news, I've managed to make some progress in my Across the Sea QAL! All 20 of my blocks are now pieced, I just need to trim them and play about with the layout. I'm still a bit behind, but I'm hoping to be caught up soon :)

Also for those who have been wondering, the blocks I posted about for the top secret Project 51, they have been transformed into a fabulous quilt for a surprise gift for a very brave lady. The lovely Judith at Rags to Bags wrote a beautiful post about the quilt on her blog. You should have a wee look if you haven't already :)

 Photo By Trudi (the quilty Angel!) at Quilting Prolkifically :)

Fiona x

Single Girl

Thanks for all your lovely comments on the Baby Quilt I made for my friend. It has arrived safely and she loves it :)

I've been in a finishing things mood the last couple of days, and have managed to get a couple of quilt tops basted and have finally finished the Single Girl cushion that I started in January!

 I already made a non-identical twin cushion for my lovely partner in the last round of the Urban Home Goods Swap on Flickr.

 Pillow and zippy pouch made for Jules in the Urban Home Goods Swap on Flickr

But this poor Single Girl Circle has sat in a bag patiently waiting to be a cushion for me. I was planning to hand-quilt it in shocking pink, and there was going to be a zip in the back, and maybe piping, but at that rate it would be next January before it's finished!  

It's pretty huge at 24" and it has been declared the new favourite cushion. Here it how it has looked ever since I finished it - with a little bottom parked on it :)

Only problem is they all want one now. I've roped myself into making another 2 Giant cushions!!!

I made a quilt top during the Single Girl QAL too, but it's still sitting in the bag. I've run out of basting pins!!!

Happy September!
Fiona x