Swooning on two counts

I'm so excited to be able to share with you my finished Swoon quilt!! It looks quite small on the washing line but in reality it is over 6 foot tall and wide. Just to recap, the background fabric is Medium grey kona. The prints in the Swoon blocks are from Ty Pennington's Impressions range and the coordinating solids are by Klona.

I backed the quilt with a print from Ikea framed with the medium grey kona.

I reaffirmed my new love for hand quilting with perle cottons and did quite extensive echo quilting in different shades to add a bit more interest.

I bound with a dusky pink herringbone print by Joel Dewberry (thanks to John Lewis and their mega sale). Here she is all pretty in place on our bed with the coordinating cushions I made for the Intrepid Thread newsletter. You can safely assume that I am chuffed to bits!

My other cause for Swooning was the fabulous Valentine gift hubby bestowed on me! If you read this you will know how much I longed for a Major Morgan as a child. Well, my lovely hubby only tracked down an original, boxed Major Morgan for me!!! I was instantly about 7 years old again when I started playing with it on Valentine's evening. Childhood dream fulfilled, thanks to hubby!

I couldn't resist showing you how fantastic he looks next to the amazing replica that Lynz made for me in the I heart the 80s swap last year. That girl has some serious skills!!

After all that swooning I need a lie down ;) Catch you soon x

Winners!

Thanks to all the brave folks who entered our celebratory giveaway! I'll cut to the chase and reveal the winners as chosen by Mr Random Number Generator :)

First up is Amorette! I'll be contacting you soon to find out what you'd like Yvonne to transform the Dresden panel into.

Next up is Angela (WandaFish)! I'll contact you soon to get your preferences for the customised item :)

Last and by no means least is Judith! I'll be sending you a package of mystery fabrics very soon :)

Congratulations ladies! Sorry that the rest of you couldn't all win a little something, maybe next time. Thanks again, catch you later x

With love

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. As promised a while ago it's time for a little bit of a giveaway! We're celebrating breaking the 100 followers barrier and my inclusion in Intrepid Thread's newsletter (out tomorrow!). We're easily excited around here ;) So what's on offer? There are 3 prizes this time around! We want this giveaway to be a thank you to our regular readers so we've done away with lots of fancy photos and left it to you to brave it!

The first winner will receive this rather lovely dresden plate that Yvonne has been hand-sewing up a storm (in between resting) It's made with the delicious A Walk In The Woods by Aneela Hoey and there's lots of stitchery goodness going on in the centre too :) It's not quite finished so the winner will get the chance to decide whether it should become a cushion or a wall-hanging!

A second winner will receive a customised item. I'll be happy to make a cushion, wall hanging or simple lap quilt in a colour scheme prescribed by the winner. This one requires a little trust from entrants as they won't know in advance what they'll be getting but I hope that you'd still be happy to enter having seen past offerings :)

The third and final winner will receive a mystery fabric pack. Again you'll have to trust us on this one. Regular readers will know our fabricaholic credentials so you can be assured that what comes your way will be worth the punt!

How to enter:

1. Leave a comment below, anything will do as long as you're not too insulting!

2. Followers new or old, just leave another comment saying "I'm a follower".

3. For an extra chance to win tell us an embarrassing tale. We do like a good chuckle at others misfortune ;)

The giveaway will be open until midday (GMT) on Sunday 19th February. Winners will be chosen by Mr Random Number Generator. Please make sure we can contact you or we will have to re-draw and that will be a shame.

Good luck all, catch you soon x

Weekend news

This weekend has been a very slow one but in between watching the rugby I've managed to finish the 4 seasons wall hanging. I love the way Lynne's trees look all in a row! I'm also really pleased with my first attempt at stamping on fabric. I used a dark blue ink which looks great in real life but fairly washed out in photos. You might just be able to make out the names of the seasons under each of the trees.

I decided to frame the trees to look like photos as they will be hanging up between to existing sets of prints. I used a brown Denyse Schmidt print, backed and bound with a brown linen and hey presto, finished wall-hanging. It just needs hanging in its new home now :)

Then, today, I managed to finish my Swoon top and I just love it!!!! Now to ponder how I'll quilt it. The actual swoon blocks have all been quilted so it's only the neutral space that needs filling. Originally my intention was to do lots of straight line quilting in various colours (Thanks to Kerry for her assistance with Aurifil goodies!) but I'm not sure that will really be the best route as I really don't want to detract from the Swoon blocks. Some head scratching will be taking place :) I will take more photos of this one in daylight but for now I was so excited to show you the progress.

If you look closely you might notice the co-ordinating cushions at the top of the bed. The ones with text on will be making an appearance in Intrepid Thread's newsletter this month which I do believe will be out very soon so if you'd like to see them in more detail and find out how to make your own then you'd better register for the newsletter pretty sharpish ;) It might also be worth your while calling back here on Valentine's day as there might be something in it for you...just saying... Catch you soon x

"Love hearts" inspired valentine

Today I've finished up a really quick little Valentine gift that I thought I'd share a brief "how to", for anyone else who fancies making a quick but cute gift. I love those yummy "Love hearts" sweets with the cute little sayings on them and this is kind of inspired by those. I used lots of scraps for this block which finishes up around 12" square.

For the block you will need: 2 - 12 .5" x 2.5" strips of white solid

4 - 4.5" x 2.5" strips of white solid

2 - 2.5" squares of white solid

4 - 2 7/8" squares of white solid

4 - 2 7/8" squares of red/pink fabric

3 - 4 6/8" x 2.5" strips of red/pink fabric

1. Prepare half square triangles. Match the white 2 7/8" squares to the red/pink 2 7/8" squares. Draw line diagonally corner to corner on the top square as a sewing guide. Sew with 1/4" seam allowance either side of the line. When finished cut along the drawn line to yield a total of 8 HST blocks. Press open and trim to 2.5" square.

2. Layout pieces as below with the addition of 2.5" squares in the gaps (I didn't photograph them in situ, sorry!)

3. Sew together in sections as shown below.

4. Sew short white strips to the sides of the heart block sections. (Again apologies for lack of photo for bottom section of heart.)

5. Attach long white strips to top and bottom of heart block.

6. Hey presto, one 12.5" block ready for quilting and binding.

7. The central rectangles provide the perfect place to stamp or embroider a little motto to your loved one just like on the sweets :) I'm afraid I can't show what I'm going to say on mine as hubby reads this blog and I'd like that at least to be a surprise ;)

I'd love to see your version if you try it out!! Catch you soon x

Four seasons

This month's issue of Fat Quarterly magazine (thanks Mum and Dad!) is chock full of fabulous paper piecing projects. Regular readers will know I have a new found love of paper piecing so this issue is very exciting! There are a few patterns that I have ear-marked for completion this year and this is the first one I'm tackling. Lynne designed a gorgeous cushion with these wonky trees and as I love all things Lynne it was obvious that I'd have to try this first ;)

I'm going to make a 4 seasons wall hanging with these. Not sure where it will live yet but I'm sure I'll find somewhere. The trees were a delight to make! Once I'd sussed out the first one I was able to chain construct the other three. My dilemma now is how to make the wall-hanging look cool and funky as opposed to naff and fuddy-duddy. I can't decide between stamping some words (which I've never done before) or embroidery....not helped by a particularly indecisive mood at the moment. Oh well, no rush, I'm sure it'll come good in the end. I'm off to watch the rugby now :) Catch you soon x