I wouldnt be British...

If I didnt do a post about Will and Kates wedding!. I am such a cryer when it comes to weddings, the second I woke up the T.V went on and I was addicted! As soon as I saw those cars driving to the church I got all emotional and had to hold back the tears and then I just had to get my own wedding photo album out and relive the day.

And what about her evening dress!!! just gorgeous.

I also wanted to say thankyou for all the comments I got on yesterdays post. I agree with Megs comment about confidence in crafting being work in process and I think that for me, it will be something that improves the more I keep at it.

I have also realised that crafting is subjective. Take for instance my chunky binding. I remember what sparked my negative thoughts about this.

I read on a blog that someone had taken part in a doll quilt swop and they viewed all of the chunky binding as a waste of fabric and they had said it looked far to heavy for a dolls quilt and proceeded to give a tutorial on single fold binding as for them, it looked much better.

This made me question my own binding and immediatly deem it as wrong. This person had much more experience then me so I made the assumption that they were right and I was wrong.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, its ok for things to turn out a little bit differnt then what you might have wanted. See the beauty, the time and the effort that its taken you to make. If need be, put it away for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes and when you are in a better frame of mind. Learn and grow and be proud, because a little part of you was sewn into it.

What makes you confident in your own creativity?

A few people have told me that they think I should sell my quilts and other tidbits that i've made in the past. This always make me cringe as I really dont think they are good enough to sell. I tend to feel people are just being nice as they dont know what else to say! I then worry that if I were to sell something, would the buyer want to send it back if they thought it was poorly made or didnt look good enough when they got it?. I think that would massivly knock my confidence, and it's really got me thinking about my own self esteem, and how crytical I am of my own work and how some of that has shifted since I began crafting.



Remember this quilt I made last year?

Well, I decided to make a matching dolls quilt for munckin no 1. I made this last year aswell but completely forgot to blog about it.



Its funny because today I can see the binding is far to chunky for a dolls quilt, but at the time I thought it looked ok. It could also do with being a little bigger. I can feel my crytical eye change with every quilt I make, but I still feel its important to show imperfections as its part of the creative process.

Although some things that used to bother me, for example, the placement of two of the same peices of fabric next to each other, no longer seem important. I can see how some mistakes can add to the charm of a quilt. I always manage to see it better in other peoples quilts, where as I still get annoyed at my own imperfections!

I guess its made me realise that Im not all that confident in what I make and thats probably another reason I blog. It's a way for me to show what I've made without seeing the look on someones face of hiding how awful they think it might be!. Only my family and two close friends know I craft, my mum is probably my biggest fan and thats probably because she used to make bridesmaid dresses and sew quite a bit herself.

So I was wondering, what makes you confident in your own creativity? Do you think its something that your born with? Does it develop over time or are you lucky enough to be surrounded by people who tell you how talented you are and it slowly seeps in?. Do you etsy/folksy/ebay sellers just like to throw caution to the wind and see what happends? or, before you list something to sell, do you sometimes have a little loss of confidence and get lots of advice from other people first on if they think your wares are good enough?

I would love to know your secret so I can work out how to be a bit more positive and believe in myself a little more.

x

A little glimpse of a recent purchase...and a little rant about fabric shopping.

After managing to get hold of the now very elusive Heather Ross Far far away 1, I simply had to get my mits of some of the rest of the line. Now this is getting very hard to find but I fell in love with the lightweight double gauze fabric and just had to make a quilt, so where there is a will there is a way!

Far far away 2 is lovely aswell, but for me, the delicate illustrations seem to get lost in the heaviness of the cotton/linen mix, and the tones are a little more muted, although I have no doubt it is far more practical to work with so it will be one to think about buying in future. Check out Heathers blog for information about her new far far away 3 line for more fabric lovliness.

I just have the sashing to go and to find a suitable backing and binding.

Talking of backing fabric, My Kona card has been a fantastic tool in helping me decide which colour to go for, I cant recommend buying one enough. It's such a time saver, who wants to constantly ask for samples to be sent, right? I got mine from Simply Solids
I would definitely broaden my solid using horizons if Kaffe Fassett sold a solid colour card for his shot solids. I would love to buy a whole chunk of these one day, they look like they are the inbetween colours of the Kona solids, just gorgeous.

Talking of colours. One of my pet peeves is when online fabric shops seem to brighten up their fabrics (a lot) to the point where the fabric you receive looks a completely different colour.

Exibit A: Anna Maria Horner fabric in Filgree Plum...not looking very plum like in this picture is it?

and this is a little closer to what I actually received:

..and this is what I actually received:

Granted, most websites will say that they cant guarantee the colour will be an accurate representation, and the reason?. Some have said it is a process that is fraught with difficulties, some have blamed our computer moniters, but I have found other websites which manage it and I would much rather see a real life photo, or at least the choice of looking at a real life photo to see what I will actually get. I dont have the time to email and ask for a sample or to send things back (at my own expence)... Fabric stores take note.

So its for this reason, that I recommend you google the fabric your interested in buying first and click on images, because you are more then likely to find a true likeness in real photographs, or at least see if you will be get roughly the colour you want.

Thats all for now x

Happy Easter

What a glorious day its been, and apart from being Easter Sunday, its also my Birthday. Can you guess where I went?




no?, What about now?




Off to see the wizard of course!



Anyone who knows me well knows that i'm simply obsessed with the Wizard of Oz (and still havnt quite forgiven Harrods for having run out of official wizard of oz size 6 ruby red slippers a few Christmases ago)

I have been dying to see the performance since I'd heard it was going on stage. The Wizard of oz is my all time favourite film, that I must have watched at least a gazzilion times in my youth and at least 3 or 4 more times since I made my daughter get into it. my daughter got into it.

This was a slightly adapted version with a few new songs. It did have some great effects though, and although I did feel like correcting the cast members on some of their lines (as a fan of the film I wanted to see the exact script word for word)it was a wonderful performance and I did have to stop myself form shedding a tear on several occasions.

As well as the exitment of all that, ofcourse its Easter, and I couldnt help but make this little Easter themed skirt for my daughter.

.

I will leave you with a picture of my latest fabric stash, with which I hope to make something very special indeed. (and not even a little bit of pink in sight, are you proud of me?)



toodles!

xx

Lilly Pilly

Here is another one of my finished projects. I just love Kellies patterns and simply had to make this into a double sized quilt for the guest room. I would have had it for my own bedroom but a superking sized quilt, I felt, was a little to ambitious for my skills. No matter how hard I try I just cant free motion to a high enough standard so I decided to stick with one inch lines for the background. It gives the quilt a wonderful crinkled look and its the first time I have made what I would call a "proper" quilt i.e quilted through to the back rather then add a seperate backing which is what I did with previous quilts.

I probably could have added a border but I didnt want to detract attention from the tree and this gives the room a lovely focal point yet dosnt make my head spin with busy patterns.

Hope your all having a lovely sunny day, its nice weather here (for once!) xx