Fresh Sewing Day

Amazingly this is the first time that I've linked up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts.

I've been very busy this month so my mosaic contains lots of goodies mainly for various swaps but also for Christmas.

Left to right: Cool Britannia (Based on Lynne's Double Fat Jack) for Christmas present, Manly cushion for Christmas present, Countdown to Christmas tree skirt for our tree, Echo framed quilt, Scrappy Christmas Tree Skirt for Savvy Seasons Swap, Snowman in his Winter Woolies (variation of Kerry's pattern) mini tote for Christmas present, Echino frame purse for Christmas present, Santa's little helper apron for Savvy Seasons Swap and Stargazer Crystal cushion for Brit Quilt Swap.

I said I was busy!!! I've still got plenty of Christmas makes to be getting on with so another busy month coming up :) Catch you very soon with exciting news of my Savvy Seasons Swap!!

In need of a change

As much as I am loving the Christmas tree skirts, the binding is driving me mad! Scallop-edged binding is nuts! This little beauty for my Savvy Seasons Swap partner is patiently waiting for me to quilt it and that may happen tomorrow.

Today, however, in search of sanity I turned to this little pile of goodies. They are also for the Savvy Seasons Swap. Their transformation is almost complete but I wonder if you can guess what these will become?

Catch you soon x

Scandinavian Christmas

Slightly later than I intended I can show you the fabulous goodies I received in the Savvy Seasons Swap! My partner was the very fabulous Laura (Needles, Pins and Baking Tins) and I can't tell you how delighted I was to receive from her!! As soon as Laura's goodies showed up in the flickr swap pool I was desperate for them to be mine! Unusually Laura was also the recipient of my Savvy Seasons goodies so it was doubly exciting to receive from her :) So now to the bit you're interested in....the haul!! Just look at all that yumminess!!

There was a beautiful embroidered hoop, 3 fabulous little house decorations, a string of felt decorations...

a mugrug with a groovy triangular quilting design

and a gorgeous wall hanging!! Laura used some of the fabrics from the Countdown to Christmas range in her goodies so I will be very co-ordinated this Christmas when I put out the tree skirt :) Look at all the work in this, just amazing!

Laura also stamped a label on the rear of the hoop and the wall-hanging, which I just love! I love this Scandinavian print from Ikea!

So once again I've been blessed with a fabulous swap partner! Lucky me :) Thank you Laura for making such gorgeous goodies just for me xx

I'll leave you with a rather tenuous link to the title of this post, in the form of gratuitous shots of half naked Scandinavian men! I'm off to snuggle under a quilt to chase away the disgusting cough I brought back with me from my weekend away. It was worth it though.... Reckless Love rock!!

Catch you soon x

I've been practising...

Things have been ticking over very slowly here since my op but I'm steadily feeling more like sewing. I've finished one item for the SavVy Seasons Swap, a table runner, and I'm hoping to be able to do a few small extras to go with it. I was very excited to be able to use some of Aneela Hoey's fabulous Christmas fabric for my swap partner.

I've been practising my crochet skills and I'm now happy enough to post photographic evidence. It's very addictive and I don't get anywhere near as upset about unravelling yarn as I do about unpicking thread in quilts!

I've made a few blocks for the Fresh Modern Bee 2 on flickr and I'm looking forward to taking part in another flickr swap this week, The Scrappy {Hoops} - modern swap. It should be quick and fun to do...I hope!

Still here

It's been a while but I'm back. Last week it was my birthday and dear hubby gave me this fabulous stack of goodness!! Typically the colours are much better in person or if you want to see a better photo this is the place to go :) It is so lovely to have all these yummy solids at hand so I can just grab one when I feel an injection of solid colour is required :)

There has been quite a bit of sewing activity around here but I'm not able to show you just yet...soon though :)

I've joined another swap which I could probably have done without, as I'm planning on a handmade Christmas again this year, but I couldn't resist the Savvy Seasons Swap after the first round was such fun!! Partners have just been allocated and I'm beyond excited to be making for my partner :) I've just had a few new craft books and this one in particular is perfect for both me and my partner. There are so many lovely projects in this book...if you need some inspiration or just enjoy pretty craft books I recommend this one strongly! This evening I have been channelling the Scandinavian vibe and in particular, bunting. The huge wad of perle threads I bought a while back after reading Jan's blog will be in action and I know my partner will approve :)

I'll try to be more talkative this week :) Catch you soon x

Busy bees

The last week or so have been very busy, hence the silence. Amongst the daily activities associated with family life I've been creating a pin-cushion for the Scrappy Pincushion Swap Round 2, trying to finish the Crosses quilt, trying to progress the Nicey Jane quilt and preparing for the SavVy Seasons swap.....oh and altering a bridesmaid's dress. Frustratingly the only project I have managed to finish from this list, so far, is the Pincushion. I am pleased with how it has turned out though so that does give me some cheer.

My attempts to finish the Crosses quilt have been thwarted so far by the seemingly unending hunger for thread that the cross quilting design demonstrates. To add to my frustration I had decided to use a clear thread as I thought it would be more forgiving of my wobbly quilting, alas the thread is prone to snapping without notice and being clear I don't always realise that I have quilted nothing. To top it off I had foolishly added clear thread to a bobbin that had a small amount of white thread left on it.....I'm sure you can guess what happened. Yep, that's right the top thread picked up the white thread and being on the back of the quilt I didn't notice until I came to the end of a run! NIGHTMARE!! Cue 4 hours of unpicking. Not a happy bunny! Any way, all moaning aside, I have now bought masses of clear thread to complete the quilting over the weekend. I hope to be able to post a picture of the finished quilt very soon.

Yvonne has been very busy also and has finished her quilt for June, after suffering similar heart-ache from the quilting. Her next project has been inspired by Rosemarie's Cancer Killin' Quilt. Yvonne plans to create a quilt/wall-hanging to be auctioned in aid of CLIC, a UK charity for children with cancer. Keep an eye out for photos of her progress in the coming weeks.

Well I think that's about all for now. I'm hoping for more progress on my list of projects in the next week so please check back soon. Happy sewing all.

Starting on the seasonal swap.

Well I've been a very good girl this week and finished the bridesmaid's dress alterations and the quilting of the Crosses quilt! As a reward for being a good girl I've started work on my SavVy Seasons Swap item. I'm hoping that my partner will be pleased with the finished article. So far it is coming together quite nicely but working without a pattern I'm expecting trouble at some point :-)

Here's a sneaky peek at the early stages of the project.

I'm so happy to have finally finished the quilting of the crosses quilt and it is now awaiting the binding. Maybe this weekend....

Wouldn't you know it?

I finished the Echo framed quilt in enough time to get some photos in decent light!!

I have to admit I love it! It feels very modern and funky to me. Here are some close-ups of the details. I bound with a print from Innocent Crush.

Backed with a house print from Ikea.

Straight-line quilted with a mustard/gold thread.

Then, wouldn't you know it...claimed by the teenager!! Darn, I felt certain this would be far too colourful for her tastes but apparently not. It now resides in her pit room!

I also finished the tree skirts today! Woohoo! This rather dodgy picture shows the tree skirt for my Savvy Seasons Swap partner.

I bound it with green and white twill ribbon which was marginally easier than with bias-binding. I cheated by sewing it on by machine. The binding is far from perfect but I hope my partner will appreciate how flipping difficult it was and forgive my inadequacy in that area ;)

Then for contrast, here's my finished tree skirt. I love how Carol's pattern translates so beautifully regardless of the fabrics used!

Tomorrow I'd better crack on with some of the items from the Christmas makes list! Catch you soon x

Christmas is a coming :)

I finished the Echo Framed II quilt last night and was amazed to have blue sky today for the obligatory washing line shot! It will begin it's journey to USA tomorrow barring disaster ;)

With this finish under my belt I was able to get on with the Christmas decorating. The first thing to go up was the fabric wreath (it's actually been up for a few days but I hadn't got around to taking photos of it). This was on my 'must make' list for a year or so and I finally got around to making it last weekend. I love the cheeriness that it brings to the hallway.

I don't know about you but I'm rather anal when it comes to Christmas tree decorating. I like things just so....I blame Mum! In our house we have 2 trees to combat the stress that is associated with other people 'helping' me decorate. Hubby and Jess decorate the tree in the family room and I do the tree in the living room. This year Jess wanted a hand-made and Scandinavian theme for the family room tree. Here it is almost finished:

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot the Countdown to Christmas skirt and some of my Savvy Seasons swap goodies from Laura. There's also a freshly made felt heart (near the top)that Jess crafted this morning! Here's the tree illuminated.

Here's the tree I decorated in the living room. I've gone for clear, gold and blue decorations again this year. Jess topped the tree with an angel that promptly fell off head first causing many giggles :) Safely reinstated she(the angel)'s keeping a watch over the tree to make sure the other decorations behave!

I dug out last year's bunting and other bits and pieces for the fireplace. The new addition here is a printed Christmas tree of words in the frame behind the candles. I found it on Pinterest and just had to have it for myself! You can find the printable sheet here.

So now I'm totally exhausted again but at least the house is looking more festive. This time next week it'll be almost over and I'll be desperate to take the tree and everything else down as I am a bit of a humbug. Before then I've still got quite a bit of wrapping and sewing to do! Hope you've all had a good weekend. Catch you soon x

Relentless

Today our post-person narrowly avoided a premature death, for waking me before 9am, by delivering me 2 packages of yummy fabrics! The first package contained these yummy hand screen printed fabrics from Karen (Blueberry Park). I really love Karen's style as you may have seen here and here. The package also contained two handmade notebooks in the same designs which are fabulous and excellent value! I'm not on commission I just think Karen's work is beautiful and think you should check it out if you haven't already :)

The second package came all the way from the USA and contained LARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm beyond delighted to have this in my possession!! Amy Butler's done it again,a fabulous range of fabrics and I think there are more winners in this little lot than in the Soul Blossoms collection. When Christmas sewing commitments are out the way I will be playing with these!

Once I'd finished stroking my new fabrics and recovered from my early wake-up I got on with the Christmas tree skirt for my Savvy Seasons swap partner. I was a bit reticent about making another one so soon after making my own but my partner is worth it and actually the process hasn't been anywhere near as relentless as I thought it would be. The general consensus was for a more scrappy feel than my own Countdown to Christmas skirt. I dug through my scraps and found that in general they are quite bright and not very Christmassy. Let's just say I was beginning to panic about whether my partner would wish they'd kept their mouth shut about scrappy.

I made up the first tree to see if I felt any more confident about the scrappiness and the answer was no, still not confident.

Oh well, never mind I'll battle on and see how it goes.... Finally this evening I am much happier with the scrappiness! The reds have really pulled the whole thing together for me and I'm confident that my partner will like it too. This hideous photo shows progress to date.

I'm hoping for a delivery tomorrow that will enable me to finish this and my own skirt and then I will be a happy crafter :) Catch you soon x

Ugly children

Today I have been adding details to the street scene that I started for the SavVy Seasons Swap. I decided to be clever and embroider the detail but unfortunately when it comes to faces I am rubbish and as a result I have the beginnings of a street of ugly children! See for yourself!

Thankfully in real life I have been blessed with a very beautiful child :)

Apologies in advance if it's a little quiet round here for a while, I have a busy time ahead. Please don't think we've run off and abandoned you :)

Prepare to be jealous!

I am beside myself with excitement today as I received an absolutely fabulous package this morning from the US of A!! My SavVy Seasons swap package from the amazingly talented Caroline of Trilliumdesign! You have been warned.....prepare to be jealous!

I am totally blown away by Caroline's attention to detail. Each one of those tiny stockings are lined and attached by ricrac to the cute buttons! The quilting is exquisite!! The fruit ornaments are just so neat and will look fabulous in my basket by the fire at Christmas. I am so lucky! Flickr swaps are amazing, I'm so glad I happened across them!

Even though I don't normally allow talk of Christmas before my birthday in November I couldn't resist the seasonal photo opportunity and am now thinking Christmas in this household will be rather fabulous!