All About Me

A work colleague and good friend Jennifer Farquharson has just launched her own range of handmade greetings cards. Jennifer says her "All About Me" cards are unique, hand made and lovingly created to give you a greeting card suitable for all occasions. Each of her individual designs are inspired by 'Me" but without the ego. She has just opened her folksy shop here and you can check out her Facebook page here. I love them, so cute and some really nice colours and paper combinations - nice work Jen!

Crib Quilt Completed

So here it is, my first crib sized quilt is complete and I love it which means this will be a picture heavy post haha!

I love the colours and the quilted circles and the quilted wiggly lines and the fabric!!! It measures roughly 75cm x 100cm so was a great size to quilt up without getting lost under a whole load of fabric and tangled up at the machine. I think it would look pretty good as a wall hanging too if I added some loops to the top. Would love to know what you think since I'm still pretty new to this quilting malarkey. 

Can't wait to start the next one now.....

Charley Harper Fabric - Oh My!

This is like a dream come true - Charley Harper designs on fabric, oh my goodness - swoon. Birch fabrics are about to bring out this range so hopefully there will be a UK supplier before the end of the year or else the import tax may bankrupt me as i need to have some in my life!!! If you spot it anywhere please let me know.

PS if you want to check out the Birch fabric Facebook page you can do so here.

Little Quilt Eared Elephant

Firstly apologies for the lighting on the photograph but I didn't find enough hours in the day today to whip up this wee fella and take a pic of him too! Isn't he a cutie, he's even got a little squeaker inside him (found them in the cupboard whilst on the search for some toy stuffing). I didn't find a needle though so I'm going to have to go out and get one tomorrow to finish sewing him up - his poor little eyes are just pinned in place just now. 

Bunting Bunting Bunting

Tonight is project bunting night!

 I've been wanting to make some for ages but seemed to take me forever to go ahead and get some bias binding ordered to complete it. Last night I set about cutting out many many triangles and sewing them together, the part I dreaded most was the ironing, that was finished this morning whilst Sam had a quick 20 minute snooze, nice of him to give me some time. So tonight I just had to add the flags to the binding and sew it all together, add loops to the ends and sit back with a bit of cake and cup of tea. Need to get some made up for Sam's room - love the robot fabric, there really is some great fabric for boys out there too. 

Hope you like! 

A Walk in the Sun

Isn't it lovely when the sun shines for a change. Getting out this morning for a nice stroll with Sam in the pram was great. I'm also lucky to live in such a brilliant location with great views to take in - just a shame I left the house so early that I couldn't get an ice cream!!! 

The Finished Article

Right, here we go...... I am refreshed after my cup of tea and ready to show off my finished quilt! I really tried my hardest not to be too lazy and i started to quilt between all the triangles (Of course I regretted it after the first row but glad I stuck with it as I like the look overall).

The backing fabric is covered in little robots, spacemen and spaceships and is so cute for Sam. I'm going to have to get some more of it, it's so great! And look at this next picture, after reading up on many, many blogs and tutorials about how to make and bind a quilt I did it, my proudest moment haha! 

So that's it, my first finished quilt! A huge thanks to Shannon aka (Auntie Cookie) for the quilt-a-long, it's been a great learning curve, got me being slightly creative again and I think I've got the bug - I'm going to try another quilt, maybe even to my own pattern - watch this space. 

Oh and if you want to see everyone else's quilts then take a look at the Flickr group here. 

Quilt Progress

So in my usual blogging fashion I have been a bit lazy and missed out loads about the Quilt-a-long. I am now finished the quilt and I couldn't be happier with the result - don't think it's turned out too shabby considering it is the first quilt I have ever made.

The fabrics were picked to suit my little boy's room and the quilt fits his cotbed perfectly so I'm hoping it lasts a few years (perhaps putting a bit too much faith in my sewing skills!).

I also surprised myself by keeping up with the timescales for the project and snatched whatever time I could between Sam's naps and after his bedtime, think it would've turned out to be another of my great unfinished craft projects otherwise! 

I managed to do patchwork, quilting and even binding all on my own - feeling a bit smug that I managed haha. I will pop on some pics of the finished article for you to see too, after a cuppa though! 

Quilt-A-Long

Aunty Cookie is having a Quilt-A-Long! I am a big late with the blogging of this project but once again it's a case of better late than never, right?

So the plan for everyone involved is to get the "Fly the Flag" quilt pattern from Aunty Cookie (it can be found here if you want to give it a shot!) then week by week complete a stage of the project and end up with a great quilt. I thought it would be a good one to start with, the deadlines each week might keep me up to date and actually mean i finish something and the pattern is just so cute.

Below is the schedule, we are pretty far into it but will list anyway and hopefully post some photos of my work so far later on when i've got a bit more time on my hands.

Week 1. (Finish by 16 August 2013) Pick it! Fabric selections – in a show us your flags kind of way.

Week 2. (Finish by 23 August 2013) Cutting it! cutting out & making the flags – ideas for personalizing flags, tips on making it fancy.

Week 3. (Finish by 30 August 2013) Sewing it! yes that would be sewing it all together.

Week 4. (Finish by 6 Sept 2013) Quilt it! ideas and inspirations and techniques.

Week 5. (Finish by 13 Sept 2013) Bind it! And lets perve at your finished quilt….

Week 6. (Finish by 20 Sept 2013) QAL Wrap up & the awarding of awesomeness.

Ps Its now week 4 and i am actually up-to-date...... just a bit more quilting to finish - go me!

(Photos credited to Aunty Cookie's blog here).

A Morning Stroll

Isn't it lovely when the sun is out and you don't feel trapped inside anymore. This morning I took Sam out in the pram and has a great little walk the town. We certainly made the right decision in moving house here, such brilliant views to take in and enjoy - just a shame it was too early for ice cream! 

Some More Photographs

Some more photographs from sunny Saturday. Another photo-heavy post with no real text to it but it's all time will allow me at the moment I'm afraid. I Just loved the vivid colour of these flowers against the white wall in the background, makes for quite a striking image.

A Sunny Day

The sun came out yesterday - probably just for one day only but that's what we get for living in Scotland!!! I took the opportunity to dust off the old macro lens and take a few snaps of plants and flowers around the garden, one of my favourite things to do. I'll post a few of them just now and maybe a few more later on. Lets start with the pink blossom - always so pretty.

Over a Year - Shame on Me!

Well it would appear that i have neglected this blog for over a year now - how did that happen?

A lot has happened in the last year, too much for me to talk about on here and probably most of it pretty dull day-to-day life stuff. Who knows maybe i can resurrect the blog a bit and start posting (hopefully slightly more regularly than once per year).

So a quick pic to get us started again - Meet Sam. Our  little miracle Sam was born on 19th April and is amazing, pretty hilarious and I cannot quite believe how lucky we are to have him. x