Memory quilt, some advice needed.

I was handed a huge bag full of clothes at the weekend. They are clothes filled with memories. A year ago my oldest friend had a little baby girl. When she was 3 months old that little girls daddy sadly and very suddenly died. So when her mother asked me to make her little girl a quilt from her daddys old clothes, the answer was a very definate yes.

I have been given free reign as to the design. I have even been told that I can add fabrics to make it more girly. There is fleece, denimn, shirt fabric and t shirts. I have not quilted with anything but 100% cotton before so I'm a bit worried as to how it will turn out and am terrified that I will go wrong. I have been assured that it dosnt have to be perfect or intricate. If anyone has any advice for me on quilting with such fabrics, please, please get in touch. The last thing I would want is to ruin the quilt as these clothes mean a lot to my friend.

I have managed to squeeze in a bit of sewing and have began my dresden quilt. I'm surprised at how simple it is. The book said that it was in the advanced category so I'm waiting for the tricky part to rear its head. I have only got as far as making a few of the plates.



It's week 3 of the advent swop and Julie has given me the most wonderful gift:



A beautiful pin to add to my ever growing collection of pinks and needles pins:



It fits in nicely with the rest, dont you think?



Thanks Julie!...not sure I can wait till next week for the next one!

dx

Thank you!

Firstly, thank you all for posting pictures of all your Christmas trees on your blogs. Its really got me into the festive season (like I needed the nudge lol) and brightened my day. So heres a picture of my tree to be part of the fun.

Also, a big thankyou to Julie for my second advent parcel. Hubby and I hid away from this kids this afternoon and shared them.- Yummy!

..and a huge thanks to Lynda from Hookin' With Laalaa who organised the advent swop. Lynda is hosting a great giveaway (the link is on my sidebar) so do stop by her blog, and dont forget to say congratulations as she has just got married, congratulations Lynda!!!


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Happy 1st day of December everyone!

I've been busy making these quilted decorations out of wired ribbon. I'm not sure why they are called quilted decorations as there is no sewing involved.



I have to say thankyou to Julie for my wonderful gifts which I opened this morning, what a treat!, The ferreros have already been devoured and I've wanted this book since I saw another blogger making the fawn on the front cover. The decoration, which I love, is now hanging proudly on my tree. You have spoilt me Julie and on the first day of advent too!! Thank you x

I'll be looking for some good quality felt to make some of these lovely toys so If anyone can recommend someone, do pass on their details to me. p.s Julie I hope you dont mind me using the ribbons from the presents for my decorations...I just couldnt resist!!



I hope all your Christmas preperations are going well. I bought myself the coveted Heston Blumenthals Christmas pudding this morning. I simply had to know what the big fuss was about as these are apparently flying off the shelves and selling for stupid money on ebay, and I love his puff pastry mince pies with pine scented icing sugar, give them a try people!

I am away this weekend as the Christmas party season has begun so it means I'v simply had to put up the tree early (thats my excuse ands I'm sticking to it!.) Plus the strike yesterday meant I had the kids to myself so it was perfect timing for the tree to go up.

xxx p.s Dosn't that John Lewis Christmas advert bring a tear to your eye?

Chrildren at Play Quilt

Phew! I dont know why this quilt took me so long! I think I lost my mojo after it was pieced, I did the right thing by waiting till it I'd got it back as I took great care with this quilt and am beginning to perfect the art of quilt making.



This is my first quilt that has been entirely stippled. I can't beleive how much quicker this process is then straight line quilting, it took no time at all. I was very nervous at first due to the size of the quilt but my trusty QE4 managed this with ease. The harp space really is wonderful for this type of project. The practice on the placemats really paid off. I had next to no nasty eyelashes on the back and just a tiny bit of puckering which I managed to fix. Thankfully it was close to the edges, making the process of unpicking much easier. So I will learn to place more pins around the edges in future.



I dont think the results would have been as good if it hadnt been for my supreme slider. Thanks to Leah Day and her advice on not dropping my feed dogs I was able to free motion without much trouble at all.

Here is a picture of the pieced back. I love the Kona snow, it compliments the children at play fabric beautifully as its not as stark as white and adds warmth to the blue fabrics.



My dark cloud has lifted and I am beginning to feel the love for these fabrics once more:



These fabrics will be part of a new project which I hope to finish some time in the new year.

On to some Christmasy related news...

I have received my advent swop from Julie from "A Tale From Toadstool House"




Dosent it look exiting!

Julie and I decided to do 5 different gifts one for each week of advent starting from the 1st. I really enjoyed doing this advent swop even though Julie and I are in to different crafts. Julie was naughty and included one of her gorgeous crochet decorations as a tag which was unwrapped. I love it and it will have pride of place on my tree. Now bring on the 1st December so I can get it on my tree!! I just I hope she will enjoy her gifts from me :-)

TTFN

Turning practice into something useful

I am one of those mad people who woke up at 5.30am to go to the Sainsburys half price toy sale, so I'm flagging a little and could do with being tucked up in bed.

My goodness, I cant believe half of those toys were ever full price, people were goimg mad filling their trollys to the brim with overpriced plastic. I spent a grand total of £12, buying operation to play with the kids on Christmas day and a couple of packets of moon dough for their stockings as well as some bath squirters.

I havnt a clue what to get my 5 year old as her main present. Im very reluctant to get the latest vtech innotab, I'm not a big fan of introducing electronic games at such a young age and I'm reluctant to beleive its educational which is how its being marketed. Any ideas what you will be getting your kids this year?

As its half term, I havnt been able to craft much, but I did have a rare day off from the children yesterday so I managed to baste my children at play quilt and get in some much needed stippling practice before I commit to stippling the entire quilt.

So I decided to turn my practice peices into place mats for the kitchen as I havnt been able to find any plain ones. I now feel ready to stipple a quilt, wish me luck!

Would you buy something you could make?

I have just bought a quilt for my little girls room. I have admired it for a while. Its a simple design but I adore the subtle fabrics. I've even looked for similar fabrics with the idea of making one like it but its difficult to find good colour matches when buying online. Cost wise, I have to admit that I dont really tally up how much making a quilt costs me as I think I would be scared to know!

When I buy my fabrics, its normally over a period of time which is another reason I tend not to keep track of the cost. Considering how much I spend on the quilt top not to mention the backing fabric, buying this one new might work out around the same price...especially as I also had a 15% discount voucher... what do you think?

Here is the quilt in question. My daughters room has just been repainted. The colour is "hint of pashmina" which is a very very pale dusky pink. I think this quilt would be a great match for her room. We are also going to buy her a single bed in the new year.

The quilt looks much better in person, I just pulled these images from the White Company website.

Its so soft, and has the perfect loft and drape.It is delicately hand quilted with lots of space between each stitch. I've used all sorts of waddings in my quilts, cotton leaves a softer finish for sure, but this cotton wadding is both light in weight and gives great definition, perhaps if I keep it, it will be my quilt inspiration?!

Ordinarily, I probably wouldnt be so unsure about a purchase had I just not also bought my dream shoes!! I have always wanted a pair of glitzy red court shoes (think Ruby red slippers from the wizard of oz but for grown ups). Ok so these arnt red, but they are glitzy and they do have bows. I heart them!

While I'm in the buying mood (all this sunshine really has cheered me up) I spotted this lovely tea set which would be a great Christmas gift for my little girl. I couldnt get a large enough image so have included the clicky link.

I might just have to wait till payday to get her this though as my credit card is burning from all the use.

So whats on your wishlist this Christmas? My husband has asked me to make him a list although I think he may regret that once he sees it!

Do you suffer from the Winter Blues?

It's wonderful how an email from a friend can completely lift you when your feeling a little blue.

The shift from summer to autumn is always a bit of a struggle for me. I can never really pinpoint a specific problem, I just know I feel a little blue, get tired easily, find it difficult to wake up in the mornings and seem to have a lack of motivation. I seem to enter a negative mind space and it feels like a real effort to get out of it.

I got an email from the lovely Val, just to ask how I was, as I hadnt been blogging for a while. This really lifted my spirits, emails went back and fourth and I soon realised that I might not be the only person to feel this way.

Out came my research hat and I began googling the winter blues, and what I might do about it.

I learnt that as many as 60% of the population suffer from this and that there are things I can do to help myself. So this morning I swopped my gym workout for an hours walk. I felt great when I returned, although that could be down to the glass of mulled wine and Christmas cake I was given at my destination! I walked to a wonderful independant gift shop which had just opened its Christmas section and as I had walked all the way there I couldnt say no to the mulled wine:-). I came out with this lovely glass cake stand as well as some Christmas gifts for various advent and Christmas swops I'm taking part in.

I think being outside did me the world of good. My house is rather dark and has terrible lighting so I will be buying some full spectrum light bulbs this afternoon which should also help with my mood.

As well as trying to get outside a little more, I'm going to make some positive changes in my diet, eat more vitamin D rich foods such as eggs and fish.

If I'm honest I think the focus of Christmas at this time of year really helps me keep postive so I went to the opening of my local garden centres Christmas decoration section and came out with these lovelies by Gisela Graham. I adore Gisela Graham decorations and add to my collection each year. I always have to buy two of each so everythings matching!

I've also organised a Christmas party with some friends and have arranged some evenings out to give me something to look forward to.

So thats how I'm dealing with it. I would love to know if any of you suffer from this or have any tips/advice for me.

My Children at play quilt top has now been peiced and I have included a sneak peak above before it gets quilted. I'm now working on the peiced back and plan to try a meandering design. I'm not sure how confident I am with this yet but I have been practicing and I have to delve in a try it on a real project at some point.

Hope all is well with my fellow bloggers, I'm sorry for my lack of replys blogger is playing up again!