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

* ~ Preparing for Christmas ~*

Wowzers, wheres the time gone?. Well, I feel like I should offer some sort of explanation as to what I've been doing the past few weeks. After my daughter started school, I decided that enough was enough and I needed to loose some weight and my incentive was that I wasnt allowed to do any sewing until I'd shifted that last half stone.(Shock horror!) Well, here I am almost a whole stone lighter so Im feeling much better about myself. However, Its not been without its efforts! Exercising 5 times a week, two hours at a time, and focusing on my diet leaves very little time for much else between housework and the school run.

Nevertheless I'm back, and raring to begin my mission on Christmas crafting! So the first thing I did was rustle these decorations up. Now I'm very finicky as to what gos on my tree each year. I have a strict Gisela Graham only rule with white, brown, gold and bronze on the tree and the round baubles have to be as big as possible!

So, these have been made for my daughter, Im going to get her, her very own tree this year, and what has inspired this decision?

None other then this magazine!




and this picture:




My daughter loves all things pink and this would be right up her street. The trouble is, im not sure if it would fit in her room, so I might have to find a smaller one.

Now what in here?



Fabric ofcourse!, not just any fabric, Christmas fabric, and I wont spoil it to much by showing you my stash, but I will say that I am making another quilt. Im not yet sure if it will be a mat that will be used to sit on whilst opening presents every year but the idea is that I want it to be featured in all my future Christmas photographs, so that when the children look back at them and still have the quilt, they will feel nostalgic and comforted, much like I am when my mother gets out my old baby blanket that always came out when I was lying on the sofa poorly and off school.

Right, well in between me writing this post, the Tescos man arrived and has brought me this:



Ooo I just love Christmas magazines! They really pick me up! so Im going to sit down with a cup of herbal tea and my favourite biscuits of all time (Foxes melts, incase you were wondering!) and get inspired!

Completed Quilted blanket (at last!)

In honour of my daughter starting big school this year, here is her "ready for school" quilt. I hope it will keep her cosy through the winter months and comfort her if she gets poorly. This is my first ever attempt at making a quilt and I decided to stick to quilting in the ditch.



It took me a little longer then anticipated, purely because I spent some time trying to find some coordinating backing fabric.



I eventually ended up with a lovely kona cotton in carnation from fabric rehab. I strongly recommend asking for samples as colour matching on screen is extremely hit and miss, the colour on their website looked like it wouldnt match at all but when it arrived it was perfect.



Another reason for the delay in posting is that we are currently looking into getting a knock through and making our kitchen into a kitchen/diner. We will also be getting a conservatory so much of my spare time has been spent getting quotes and researching appliances as everything has to go!



To finish off the quilt I made a quilt label. I simply used some basting spray on the back of my fabric and stuck it on to some ordinary printer paper and ran it through the printer. I then set the ink by pressing the fabric (using no steam) I'm not sure how many washes this will be able to take, but I can always embroider over it when it begins to fade.



The quilt is far to big for my daughters toddler bed, but this will be replaced in a couple of years for a standard single sized bed, and I really want this quilt to last, which is why I made it bigger.

My next project?....for once I'm not sure but its got to be something Christmas related, I will have to get my thinking cap on. xxx

Quilt Progress....a sneaky peak

Tomorrow marks the official end of summertime....boo! This reminds me of the picture I took at the start of the month of my hanging quilt peices which I hung on my curtain rail. It's sad to think these were the last few sunrays of the summer!



...the quilt is now fully pieced together, and quilted but I still havnt found a suitable backing fabric. Here's my problem:

My daughter loves the minky dot I used for my sons blanket, but I'm not sure if I could bind it due to the bulk of it.(Anyone know?/tried it?/seen it?) I've thought about self binding it with the minky but I think I'd prefer a seperate binding is I prefer the finish, but Im concerned as I have a stripy binding and think it might look too busy with all the textures and prints.

If anyone has any thoughts on using a seperate binding with minky dot, id love to hear them. I do wonder if a plain cotton backing would be longer lasting as both minky and fleece (which I previously considered) tend to look tired after a few washes.

So far I have had only one hitch. I pin basted this time, which I found a lot more succesful, but the drawback in doing this was a tear I found, and ofcourse I only found it once it had already been partially quilted!!!I have no idea how this happened, I can only think one of the quilting pins must have got caught on something, as it looks like a rip. Here is the offending square:



As you can probably see from the state of it, I tried to zig zag across it to fix it, but there is just no way I would have been happy with leaving it that way so I had to take the plunge and replace the square...not a very easy task but it would have kept looking at me and bugging me if I'd left it, so it had to go.

I'm aiming for this quilt to be ready by the time my daughter begins school on the 13th September so i still have a couple of weeks to mull this over.

Its been a wonderful month with the children. I wont lie, it was made A LOT easier because my husband took three weeks off every couple of weeks. I have really got back into going to the gym and as a result have lost half a stone which I'm really pleased about as I gained it just before Christmas and have found it quite difficult to shift. (now all I need to do is loose another half stone in preperation for this Christmas so Ill be back to normal for the new year!)

Right, im off to catch up on the 900+ posts I have missed out on during this month!
xx

Holiday project

Well, we are one week into the school holidays. My husband took a week off work and we have had a lovely time with the children. In between buying school shoes and uniform as well as household chores we have been to Bath to visit friends and family, visited legoland, and went to the cinema to see Toy Story 3. All of which didnt leave me much time for sewing, but my head is still buzzing with thoughts of new makes.

As my daughter will be starting big school in September, I'm using this as an opportunity to spend lots of time with her which means I will be slowing down on my sewing until the new term. (and then no doubt I will be getting exited about Christmas!) It is for this reason that I have decided to focus on just one project for the next month. I've decided that my project for the summer is going to be a quilt for my daughter.

Now I know I've mentioned before that I havnt really been inspired by the patchwork books I've read but a few of the more modern books have helped me come up with an idea that will help me use up my fabric scraps without the end result looking to mismatched what with all the different fabrics I'll be using.

So today, I have been getting to know my rotary cutter and mat. I want to keep this project really simple as it will be the first time I will be making a large quilt that will be going under my machine so I'v decided to stick to squares. The project will be for a single bed which my daughter dosnt yet have but I wanted to get a little more use from this quilt, hence the bigger size. Im hoping it wont drown her toddler bed to much before we end up buying a single.

Hope your all enjoying the holidays.

x

New pin cushion and some Tilda makes

The house is quite today. Both the Cheebies are at my parents in law and I cant believe how productive my day has been as a result! I have a clean house, I have hoovered mopped and ironed, and I managed to squeeze in making this little pin cushion from my book.

I have quite a few of those terrible ill fitting over pants that go with little girls dresses. I can understand the need for them for babys but they still seem to come with older girls dresses. My daughter has never worn them and so I picked a pair apart for its fabric- thats the flower/butterfly fabric I used for this pin cushion.



I thought I would post these tilda makes as Kandi had reminded me ThatI still have them. The goose is from the crafting springtime gifts book and the dog and bear is from the homestyle book. I made the bunny too but ended up giving that away as a gift so I dont have a photo of that one.








Right, im off for tea and cake before I have a noisy house again.
x

Box bag tutorial link and Applique tshirts

I've been scouring the internet to try and find the best box bag tutorial.This one was both well written and had great photos which helped explain everything.



I then decided to have a play around with the dimensions.



Heres a peak at the lining:



Just the right size for storing fat quarters!

Keen to address the balance between makes for both my children, I made these tshirts at the weekend for my son, and ofcourse I had to make sure it matched the shorts I made him a few weeks ago.





It was boden that inspired me. They have such beautiful clothes but the prices are so inflated I really cannot justify spending so much on a tshirt. I got the plain white tshirts from Primark at just £1.50 for two and decided to raid my scrap tin to make the applique.

Thats all for now
x

My Quilted Cushion Cover

...is finally complete!

In between my sons birthday a few days ago and our wedding anniversary today I managed to finish the long awaited pillow.

I have never been keen on the idea of making a quilt. A lot of the ones I have seen in books are old fashioned and mismatched and I was never really all that inspired by them...until a few months ago when I found a new blog that completely changed my mind.

Kellies modern and quirky applique designs are a breath of fresh air, the detail and the finish are just perfect. Being completely new to quilting I had to make sure the project was achievable for me. Not something that was to time consuming but something that fulfilled my need to recreate some of Kellies work.

I really fell in love with one of her designs in her shop called Lilly Pilly, but I thought it might be a bit to big for my first attempt, so the free flower garden pillow tutorial on her blog seemed to fit the bill perfectly. She has since added more designs to her shop and I love them all! I would love to be able to make one of her larger quilts one day but I think a proper quilting machine will be in order as I had a lot of trouble with quilting a pillow alone on my standard machine.

So here it is, the finished result:





There are several things I would have done differently, but you'll have to see my next attempt to see if those things will make an improvement. For now, to satisfy my quick fix, I will be making a few speedier items and once I feel the urge for another challenge I will certainly be visiting Kellies blog again.

Beth from sew mama sew, contacted me yesterday to ask if she could feature my ironing board cover image on her Amy Butler/Kaffe fassett highlights post, being a big fan of sew mama sew ofcourse I was honoured!

Its my wedding anniversary today to we went down the pub for lunch. I actually managed to get a non blurred shot of my little boy. It was his birthday a few days ago and I didnt get many good photos.

I'll leave you with a picture of my son (wearing one of the bibs I finally finished) out with us for our anniversary lunch, delighted with his efforts at tracing his own hand (with the help of daddy)

Unfinished business...

I've made these bibs using up the last of my boy fabric and minky which were super quick and easy to do. They arnt finished yet as I cant seem to find anywhere that sells large covered popppers. So Im posting this to find out if anyone knows where I can get them from??. I really dont want to use velcro, not only because my son can pull them off but because I really dislike having to remember to do them up before I wash them so all the velcro sticks to everything else in the machine...not a good look!

Please please, if you know where I can get them from (in the U.K) let me know!!

Apart from that, Im really pleased how easy and quick they were to make. I just cut my own pattern, used some fleece lining and backed with minky. I think these would make great gifts.



I also made another pencil roll. whoever said these were addictive was right!!...well I couldnt leave my daughter out now could I?!





I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the fat quarterly blog/ezine. But I was approached and asked if I would be interested in featuring on there agony aunt section due to the issues I blogged about having with my quilted pillow (which should be ready in a few weeks- promise!)

I had some really helpful advice that I thought I would share here.

Bye for now
x