Giveaway on Simply Solids blog

Mandy at Simply Solids is having an Accuquilt Go! cutter giveaway. Head on over there for 3 chances to win!

Busy, busy, busy

I've been ever so busy again the last few days with my black thread. I've finished the woodland scene for My favourite little quilt swap on flickr and have only got to bind it now! Hopefully it will be to somebody's taste as people have to vote for their favourite and I'd hate to think of it being the billy-no-mates at the bottom of the pile :(

Hopefully you can get the general idea of how this looks in real life. The light is still totally duff here. I'm thinking I may need to get up earlier in the day to catch some of the rays for photographs....nah, stupid idea!

I have also been very honoured to test out 2 embroidery patterns for Michele (Delightful Disarray on flickr). True to form I was in a hurry to get them done so I did them on the sewing machine in my current favourite black thread. The first one I did was a tricycle. I stitched it on a scrap of Nicey Jane fabric and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

The second pattern is a cute little girl in the rain. I decided to add a spot of colour to this one so hand stitched the rain, puddles and detailing on her coat. I thought she would look cute on Bliss and I'm now deciding how best to incorporate her into something larger.

I'd like to thank Michele for allowing me to experiment with her patterns and if you'd like to have a go yourself you can find them in Michele's Etsy Shop.

Look what I got...

In the post this morning I received a fabulous pressie in the form of my Scrappy Hoop swap item. I am so lucky to have been partnered with the fantastic Jamie (maricopafabrics) who clearly read my mind when preparing her hoop for me!!

The light is so poor at the moment for photo taking so you can't really see the beauty of the colours but take it from me they are gorgeous! I'm already mulling over where to hang it this Christmas. Have you ever seen such a stylish wreath? Seriously lucky me!

Progress...

I've been glad of the distraction of sewing this week and it's only Tuesday! I've totally over-committed myself to loads of stuff on flickr and I'm loving it :)

I thought I'd let you see how I've been getting on with the Babette blanket and the woodland scene I started last week. I've been really surprised how quickly the Babette blanket has been coming together in my inexperienced crochet hands (if there is such a thing). I'm afraid you'll have to excuse the rather unimaginative photography...it's too blooming cold to go faffing around outside looking for interesting vistas!

I'm really pleased with how it is looking and I'm hoping I don't run out of wool. True to form I didn't check pattern requirements before purchasing the wool so I'll be crossing my fingers.

The woodland scene is also taking shape nicely. I'm totally loving free-hand machine embroidering things at the moment and love the new dimension it adds to the applique. It also fits in with my need to complete projects quickly before I get bored :)

So this is how it's looking. What do you think? I love to hear your comments so don't be shy :)

This may take some time

I've definitely confirmed that I am not of sound mind :) I saw this amazing quilt on flickr and thought "Wow". On closer inspection this fabulous quilt is crocheted! I completely love it so in my 'wisdom' I've decided to make one. I searched the internet for a pattern and came upon this one, called the Babette blanket, which is fairly similar. Now, I am relatively new to crochet and this is a mammoth task so I've decided to let my online friends know that I'm going to tackle this project so that I have proper motivation to keep going and not assign this project to a dusty corner. I've done one very large square and 2 little ones so far, only 123 squares to go :)

I've also joined another swap on flickr called My favourite little quilt swap hosted by Kendra. I've made a start on a little woodland scene for my offering. Not sure how it will look when it's finished yet but hopefully someone will like it. Here's a rather dodgy taster pic.

Scrappy hoop ready to go :)

I've finally cracked on with the Scrappy hoop that I started a little while ago. I decided to embellish the background with a hat on a stand. I'm rubbish at drawing so I traced a card-topper that I 'borrowed' from Yvonne (you'll have it back soon, I promise!), then machine embroidered round the tracing with a really short stitch length to aid in removal of paper after I'd finished. I'm really pleased with the end result so I just hope my partner likes it now.

I backed the hoop with the paisley Amy Butler fabric and added a hand written label. To finish the hoop I just machined a blanket stitch round the edge. It looks rather rustic but that will add to it's charm....or at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)

21 again!

I've turned 21 again today and my very lovely Mum, Yvonne, created me a fabulous wall-hanging. It's beautiful and will soon be gracing my landing wall.

You'll probably recognise the pickledish design from Aneela's quilt-along . It's amazing how different this design looks when different colours are used in its' makeup. I love the way these Amy Butler fabrics look next to the Kona solid and just check out the hand-quilting!

So much fabric-y goodness! I'm a lucky girl! Thank you Mum.