Nursery Versery cushions

 The lovely Annie from The Village Haberdashery sent me some of Heather Ross's fantastic new line Nursery Versery to play with. I fell head over heels with these gorgeous little mice when I first saw the preview on Heather's blog.

Annie sent me some co-ordinating solids with the mice and I stitched up a couple of cushions to show off those sweet prints.

I added a covered zip to the back of the cushions and there's a little tutorial of how I did it, over on the Village Haberdashery blog today if you're interested.

My daughter has already bagsied one of the cushions for her bed, and I suspect Annie's daughter may be laying claim to the other one, so I think I might stitch up a little pin cushion for myself :)

It was those two lady mice in the picture above that really captured me. They remind me of me and my sister :)

Happy Wednesday
Fiona x

Rows and Borders

I've finished the quilt top that I showed the other day. I can officially say that I love borders!!!!

Here it is on my garden fence this morning. I had to stop adding borders because it's pretty big already at 76" x 84" and if it gets any bigger I can't lay it out anywhere in my house to get it ready for hand quilting. I'm itching to add some more, but I'm telling myself that some binding will finish off framing it nicely. I think it would look better if there was a bit more contrast between some of the borders, but I was using what I have. I'm thinking the hand quilting in strong coloured perle is the way to go.

After I posted the other day I saw this on Flickr, and that was the end of my no-more-quilt-alongs resolution. I had been resisting the Row Along by Lori Holt but after seeing a couple of rows in American Jane I was a lost cause! Two days later and I'm caught up :)

I decided that this was worth cutting into my little stack of Wee Play by American Jane (I didn't think I would EVER be able to do that!)

I think those butterflies are a whole new level of pretty!

Can't wait for the next row! I've learned loads already just doing these 2 rows!

Have a great weekend
Fiona x

Some old projects and some swaps

Things have been a bit quiet around these parts recently. Life has taken over a bit and I haven't been doing as much sewing as usual, but I thought I'd pop in and say Hello, and show a couple of older projects that I've been working on recently.

First of all is my Recess quilt. I found a pile of American Jane Recess charm packs in my local quilt shop a while back and decided to make a simple charm quilt out of them as part of the lovely Kelly's My Precious QAL. I made a good start but got distracted by other things until I saw this beautiful quilt on the Nana Company blog a few weeks ago and fell in love! I had already been thinking about trying a quilt with lots of borders after looking through my new-to-me Sandy Klop book, and seeing the beautiful quilts that evolved in the Round Robin group in the Around the Bend quilt group on Flickr, and after receiving some gorgeous American Jane fabric from some lovely generous people, I decided to get my borders on! I love it so far! Trouble is it's already pretty big so I'm going to have to stop adding borders soon.

I've also been doing a bit more on my Scrap Vomit Quilt that I started around October 2010! This was always a project that I kept wanting to work on, but it always got pushed down the list. Despite Murphy's best attempts at distracting me, I have now got all those blocks sewn together, and I have a bunch of new 2.5" squares thanks to to a swap that Katy set up in the Scrap Vomit flickr group. I love making these blocks. It's a lot of fun to grab squares randomly and chain piece them all and see what the block turns out like. Fun mindless sewing :)

The scrap vomit square swap tempted me off my no-more-swaps-ban, and I have signed up to two swaps on Flickr. First of all the Mouthy Stitches swap. I managed to resist this one the first time round, but those clever mamas decided that the swap item this time was a Tote Bag. Who can resist a tote bag? Not me!

Here is the inspiration mosaic I have made.

Then along came round 9 of the Pillow Talk {Swap} on Flickr. This is my favourite swap. It was the very first Flickr swap I participated in, way before I started this blog. I've done 3 rounds, but missed the last few rounds, and I'm really looking forward to playing again.

Above is my Pillow Talk Swap inspiration, and below is the pillow I received in the first round I did. It is my favourite cushion, and the kids call it "Mummy's precious cushion" It has a teeny tiny hexagon featuring a picture of my first dog Poppy printed onto silk. Amazing!

The Mouthy Stitches sign-ups are closed, but the Pillow Talk Swap sign ups are open now, if anyone fancies joining in, even if you don't, the inspiration mosaics alone are worth a visit. Prepare to lose an hour of two while you enjoy looking at them ;)

Happy wednesday!
Fiona x

handstitched hexie goodness

 It feels like a long time since I've actually finished a project.

I started this months ago, when I was planning my low volume quilt for my lovely Brit Bees. It was supposed to be just a small block, but I couldn't stop stitching and it grew into a 16" cushion cover.  It has been sitting waiting (all quilted and ready) to be made into a cushion/pillow for my bed.

I couldn't decide what to back it with, but in the end decided that my Granny's old course linen tablecloth was the only backing that would suit it. I was able to use the hem of it to make a covered zip. I can't explain how much I love this cushion. There are some very special (to me) fabrics scraps in there, and I loved the slow, quiet, relaxed pace of hand-stitching and hand-quilting it. 

Now that I've finally finished something, I can play with some of the goodies that my postie has been bringing me! 

These stunning Liberty Lifestyle prints came from the Village Haberdashery. I have been looking forward to getting my hands on these since I saw (and touched, drooled and fondled) them at the Fat Quarterly Retreat earlier this year. They are even more beautiful than I remember!

I also bought some Madrona Road. I only got the two prints at the front of the picture above, and I pulled from my stash to make a big happy pile-o-fabric for an autumnal quilt. I've got some more playing to do before I decide what pattern I'll use though :)

I've been wanting this book for ages and finally found a used copy for a great price. I don't actually think it's been used at all. It's pristine!

I think I might snuggle up with my new cushion tonight and have a good read, and plan some new quilts :)

Fiona x

Monday Fun

It's Monday. It's gloomy and pouring rain outside but I'm having a very fun Monday!

First I took some photos of the blocks I made yesterday (I had a fun day on Sunday too!)

Brit Bee Blocks for Katy

Swoon block for do.Good Stitches

Block 3 of the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery Block of the Month

Then I got started on a project I've been looking forward to for a long time. I finally found the perfect pattern for some Jelly Rolls I've been saving. I fell head-over-heels in love with Momo's It's a Hoot line when it first came out, and have finally found a reason to unravel them!

The pattern is called Merry Go Round by American Jane, and I LOVE it! I can't stop sewing.

Then the postie rang the doorbell and delivered this amazing pile of yumminess from the lovely Annie at The Village Haberdashery. I did a little project for her a while back and am lucky enough to be doing another one! When she told me I could pick whatever I wanted from the coming soon section I think I might have squealed a little bit because I have been desperate to get my hands on these Country Mice since Heather Ross first showed a sneak peak on her blog!

I think I'm going to find it very hard to go to bed at all tonight, when there is such an amazingly cute stack of fabric to play with!

Hope you are all having a great Monday!

Fiona x

A lovely little swap

I've finished my insane blocks! I really enjoyed making these and stayed up until 2am stitching those appliqué petals down, because I just didn't want to stop stitching!

The first one is a Honey Bee block. I fell in love with this gorgeous little block on Flickr and just had to make one. I added a little frame in turquoise and then decided to keep framing :)

The second is a postage stamp block. I can't believe I was crazy enough to sew 144 little squares together, but I really really enjoyed making it. Both blocks finished slightly bigger than planned at 13"

I made them for the lovely Jan. We decided to do a little block swap when we both discovered that we were planning very similar quilts. The plan was to make a couple blocks, each with a bright 6" traditional block on a soft and pretty low volume background.

These are the blocks Jan made me. Aren't they beautiful?! (Sorry Jan, I should have given them a quick press before I took a photo!)


My lovely Brit Bee girls have been busy making me blocks like these. Hopefully I'll have a whole quilt to show off soon!

Fiona x

Little pieces of insanity!

 I'm suspecting I might be a little bit, well, insane!

This is a 10" block. The plan is that it is to be a 12" block. At the moment there are 100 little squares in there. When it grows to 12"  there will be 144 squares in the block.

I am not making it for myself. This block and it's partner in crime are for a lovely bloggy friend

The partner in crime is a 6" block at the moment. It too will be a 12" block, once I finish the applique, and decide just how I will make it grow.

I am LOVING making these blocks! Does that make me a little bit insane?

Some of you have been asking how Murphy is. Here he is observing his Mum's insanity. He's back to his normal bouncy, happy, daft self again. I caught him eating more stones the other day. I think he's a bit insane too! :)

Just in case anybody is interested, the lovely Sarah from Narcoleptic in a Cupboard is hosting a Japanese Charm swap.  If you fancy joining in all the details are here.

Now I'm off to make a quick cuppa and get back to the applique. My little table doesn't look right without a cup of tea on it :)

Happy Wednesday

Fiona x