Warning: Fabric diets are bad for you.

Officials (i.e me) have confirmed a fabric diet is bad for you. Perhaps I just didnt know when to stop, perhaps I didnt have enough to start dieting in the first place, but running out of my basics means I now have to stock up on these staples rather then splash out on something a bit more special, and that list of special fabrics is beginning to grow...fast.

All the time Im not sewing, Im helping myself to goodies from the treat cupboard, granted, I'm curling up with sewing books so Im learning lots but I'm also a lot colder, all that pressing fabric keeps me warm you know!

Starting my diet before Christmas wasnt such a good idea, as the money I may have saved from not buying fabric was getting spent on Christmas, rather then getting put into savings, which is what I should have done instead but I always go OTT at Christmas!

I also failed to plan for the unexpected...I decided I wanted, no, needed a new sewing machine, but I seem to have.. whats the expression - champagne taste but lemonade money.

I'm looking at a few different models and have made a spreadsheet of all my requirements and have narrowed it down to:

Bernina Aurora 440QE -(but the throat space, expensive accessories and lots of tlc the machine needs has put me off somewhat)

Pfaff Quilt Expression 4 -(which seems to have everything I want but has terrible reviews all over the web),

Janome Horizon - which I think is probably what I want most but the...

Janome Memory Craft 6600 - is probably what I will end up getting, as its more affordable then the Horizon and has many wonderful reviews.

So, new sewing machine or new fabric?. Im trying to achieve both but I'm finding it hard as patience was never my strong point... I have 3 projects on the go at once, but I have half the materials for each of them so am unable to actually finish any of them! and its not looking likely that I can start finishing them until the beginning of March....I hope all the saving for the machine will be worth it, I should hopefully be able to get it in August with a little help from my husband:-)

Quilting is definitely not a cheap hobby, but while I havnt been able to craft as much, I have been drowning myself in books and blogs, taking in inspiration and drafting out ideas. I'm also stocking up on equipment and notions and discovering new things that will help me all the time so I guess its not be all bad but I certainly wouldnt turn my nose up at a lottery win right now!

Where can I get a pastel Pink mini Iron for pressing applique?

I know I've seen one on someones blog ages ago saying they bought one for this purpose, It was pastel pink and kind of retro looking. I want one and google has been no help! and I cant rememeber whos blog it was.. If you have one or know where to get one please comment xx

Happy new year!

I am feeling pretty positive about this coming year. In the past I have felt a little blue after Christmas but I'm not feeling that way this year. The kitchen is almost done (I will show pictures when its fully finished.) The conservatory is being built as I type and I have a holiday to look forward to in May. My little boy should be coming out of the terible twos as well which is the thing I am most looking forward to! (hes a little handful but I love him to bits)





These were my secret santa gifts. I want to say a huge THANKYOU to Alison from hillandvale.blogspot.com for sending me such thoughtful gifts. The picture is minus the two candycanes for the children which they have since devoured but amazingly I have still managed to hold on to the chocolate!! I love it all especially the fabric (which I have been dying to get hold of) and the pins. Alison very thoughtfully gave a cute egg cosy to my son and a little mirror for my little girl aswell. You are so kind- thankyou..and I look forward to reading your blog :-)

Look what arrived today:



My first lot of fabric of 2011. I have a VERY important project up ahead of me. My sister has asked me to make her a quilt as a wedding present, she is getting married in 2012 so I have quite a while to think about the design. I'm also hoping to get a sewing machine upgrade this year so that will hopefully meen I can make the finish look a little more professional, and I have plenty of time to practice. If anyone sees a wonderful quilt design that screams "wedding quilt" please let me know. My sister is very specific in her likes so its a huge risk and I really hope she likes the end result.

xx

retromummy: flower sugar giveaway

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Im just about wrapped up on blog posts for the festive season so I Just wanted to thank you all for your comments and encouragement over the last few months and to wish you all a very merry Christmas.

I also wanted to share retromummys fab giveway for some lovely fabric, check it out.


retromummy: flower sugar giveaway

xx

My tree, a win and more!

Firstly, I won a prize for this little fella I made. This is my sock Santa and I won lots of lovely bath goodies for a Christmas decoration competition I entered. I was very surprised and pleased.

Keeping with the Christmas theme, I thought I would share a picture of my tree.



Want to take a closer look?...

This spikey one I made from gold wrapping paper:



I also have some new decorations this year. The bronzy swirley one in the picture above is new this year as is this bobbly white one I got both from my local garden centre:



Whilst seeing santa with the children at Harrods this year ( a new tradition I have set) I also picked up the gold birdy in the above picture.

I bought most of these decorations about 3 years ago. I fell in love with a tree display at a garden centre and decided I needed to have all of them!:



I love the timeless colours which will go with any decor should I change it in the future and the variety of decorations which just make me want to stare at the tree all day!

I absolutely love adding foliage, flowers and glittery holly. About 85% of the decorations on my tree are by Gisela Graham.






Now whats this beneath my tree?



This is my parcel I received for the Secret Santa swop. It came all the way from Australia. Im afraid I had to open the card as I am taking part in several swops so needed to know which one it related to so I could do it justice and put it on my blog. So thankyou so much to my secret santa and I shall reveal their identity after Christmas when I open the beautifully wrapped gifts, and I need to add just how kind they are because they have also included a little something for my son and daughter, we are all very exited- Thankyou!

Well the snow here in the U.K has cause all sorts of havoc meaning I missed out on attending my husbands works Christmas party in Ireland. The good news is that we booked a local hotel to go to instead to have our own party. It was lovely and there were some gorgeous Christmas trees in the hotel. It was none other then the 5 star Four Seasons hotel in Hampshire, a mere 20 minutes from home. I new we were due snow the following day but I wasnt quite prepared for the images I woke up to and I never new I lived so close to such beauty.



Apologies for the dark photos but they were taken very early in the morning.



View from the breakfast room:



Is it possible to fall in love with a hotel? Here are some photos of all the trees in the hotel. Im sure there were more but I didnt have to much time to explore as we needed to get home before we got snowed in!

The tree at reception- My husband has promised me to get a real tree next year when we get our fireplace, I want it to be this type/shape of tree although I have no idea what it is!



This was the tree outside the breakfast room. I love that it had little tea cups hanging from it and I intend to emulate this next year and will definitely buy some childrens toy teacups and have a mini version for my kitchen:



This was the tree outside the entrance to the bistro:



I so wish we could have spent more time there and we fully intend to go back there one day. The food was out of this world and when we ordered room service we expected all three courses to be brought in on a tray but were wowed when they weeled in a 4 seater table with a heated cupboard to keep our main courses warm whilst we had our starters!

Speaking of food, our kitchen is almost complete, just a few finishing touches to be added and I will update you with photos. Never have I been to glad to see my washing machine, dishwasher, dryer and oven/hob!

xx

Its finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have called it "Pieces Of Christmas"



Time and time again, I read about mothers who can whip up a quilt in a matter of days. I am not this mother!...



They say how understanding their children are, for allowing them to take the time to quilt....I do not have their children....



This quilt has taken me a couple of months (at least) to complete. Apart from my very wonderful but very demanding children wanting me all to themselves I had to order a lot of the fabrics from the U.S as I just couldnt find them in this country.



I also had to wait for around 3 weeks for samples to arrive and backing fabric as the post here has been terrible...a word of advice, send EVERYTHING recorded delivery at this time of year. My receipients have faced a 3 week delay.:-( Im really hoping my secret santa has received their package as I've not heard anything on their blog, I hope they will post soon as this will help put my mind at rest.

Back to the quilt..

I decided to hand write the quilt label rather then printing it as I think it adds more of a personal touch. I wanted to use linen in this quilt as I've not worked with it before and I really think it breaks up the business of the prints which can otherwise look a bit heavy on the eye.

I would love some advice of accurate straight line quilting, I did mine using a disappearing ink pen but I still found it rather hard, I wonder if using a quilt guide would have been helpful?!

Looking forward to hearing your comments as always.

x

An update...

Well, my quilt is almost done!, I've just got the binding left to do so I should be able to post some pics up some time next week.

Im proud to say that my secret Santa parcel has been sent (I hope my partner received it ok!, I havnt received anything yet but post has been slow) All my gifts are bought and wrapped and now its just a waiting game. There is a reason why I'm a bit more organised this year...we are having major kitchen renovations. We are turning our kichen/dining room into a kitchen diner and the builders took out the wall in between what was the two rooms, last week.

Out living room now feels like a bedsit as all of our kitchen utensils, microwave, fridge frezzer e.c.t are in the one room. I've had a 5 day headache from all the fumes from the plastering, and the actual kitchen gets fitted on Tuesday, so I am very exited!

We have gone for white gloss handless kitchen cupboards and because this drank up a lot of our budget we decided not to bother with granite worktops and stick to laminate which we can change at a later date if we decide we dont like it.

Im really nervous about the whole project, mainly because we have invested a lot in this and Im not very good at picturing how it would look in my head.

All of this means I cant put the tree up on the 1st of December which is when I would normally do it because we just dont have the room :-(. I have, however bought a little tree for my daughters room so I will have to make some more decorations for it and put that up instead.

I've seen some wonderful Christmas makes from you all recently, keep up the good work its all very inspiring. xx