Another giveaway!

Here's another 2 chances to win some lovely batik fabric. This giveaway is being organised by this blog and is to celebrate the launching of a new website called SEWN. Click on the red SEWN button on the left to read more. I have 2 packs of 4 fat quarters, one with a pin cushion and one comes with one of my flower brooches. All you need to do is leave a comment telling me what you like about my blog ( I'm loving all this great feedback) and what you like to sew. You have until June 8th until comments close and the winner will be drawn randomly. Good luck and don't forget to check out the other blog giveaways.

Giveaway day is here!

OK, here is my giveaway, hope you like it. There is 8 fat quarters of batik fabrics plus one of my flower brooches and a cute little square pincushion . I also might include a couple of other little sewing notions if I'm feeling super generous and I like your feedback about my brand new blog.So what I want you to do if you want to be in the draw to win this giveaway is to tell me what you think of my blog and work so far (be kind I'm new to all this). Also what your working on at the moment. If your never worked with batiks before there is some projects on my blog for inspiration.Please make the time to visit my friend Deb's blog as she is also hosting a giveaway but got left off the list! SORRY COMMENTS CLOSED.

Pretty flowers all in a row or 3

I started making these flower brooches about 6 months ago, inspired and egged on by my friend Darlene. I ended up selling quite a few by commission. They are a great way to use up your scraps as they don't take much fabric just a bit of time. Most are made up of fabric, felt, fine tulle, beads and/or sequins plus a button for the centre. You can wear them in your hair attached to a headband or hair tie, on a handbag or of course on your clothing. Very versatile! Gosh maybe I should set up an Etsy shop. What do ya think?

Mayday giveaway

Have you noticed the May day giveaway icon on the left hand side. Sew Mama Sew is hosting a giveaway and I am participating with my first ever giveaway. There just might be some fabric involved given my rather large stash and another handmade gift. Please leave a comment if you are interested. Should be fun and I'm more than willing to ship internationally. Don't forget to come back on May 27th to enter the giveaway.

This little basket of goodies contains fabrics that my busy husband bought back for me on a trip to the States. Didn't he do well! I think he had those quilt shop ladies wrapped around his little finger helping him out.

Amelia's Quilt

This is my eldest daughters quilt which she got when she was 7. As you can see its full of bright sunshiny colours and whilst it doesn't have any fabrics from her clothes it does have a vintage fabric that my Aunt passed on to me. It's the yellow one with red apples near the bottom. Most of the other fabrics were in my stash except the border fabrics that were purchased. The backing is white calico that I hand dyed a lilac colour. I hand quilted this one with spirals and outlined the shapes. I like the look of hand quilting and find it a very calming thing to sit and do, plus its a great thing to do during winter. The quilt pattern is from the book Colourful Quilts for Kids by Kari Pearson.

Globe Mobile

I made this paper globe mobile using Heather Bailey's free tutorial. Very simple and satisfying. To make the mobile I made 3 different sizes of globes using pretty scrapbook papers and tied them on to doweling with some thin ribbon. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I still have a large globe leftover which I will make into something, maybe a topiary tree.

Batik Quilt

OK so I'm showing everything out of order on my blog but this is the batik quilt I made and had the leftover blocks which I made into the throw cushions. I used a Kaffe Fassett pattern from his book "Quilts in the sun". I wanted to use big pieces to show off the fabrics. It is all hand quilted in a swirling spiral pattern. I had thought I would make it to sell but gosh you just get attached to these quilts. I have enough batik fabrics to make another one so I could still sell if pressed to.

Caitlin's Quilt

My busy husband is home and we have sorted the computer glitch out . So here we have my youngest daughters quilt that was meant to be ready for her 7th birthday but she got it the Christmas after her 8th birthday. Never mind it is filled with love for her, that is, I loved every stage of making this quilt. When I asked what she wanted she said hearts and I had envisaged flowers and butterflies so it's a mixture of everything she likes including an image of "Felicity" from the "Felicity wishes books" and four girlfriends in a row. I got inspiration from all sorts of places, going through my magazines and books, picking out patterns that would fit the theme and had always wanted to try. I just kept on making different blocks until I thought I had enough. The most challenging part was fitting the blocks together as they were all different sizes. It is all hand quilted with lots of hearts and also has a little embroidery, some beading and some old buttons raided from my Mums button tin. I think it took about 6-7 months to do. I love the fact that some of the fabrics are from dresses or skirts I have made her.

Fabric wreath

I was going to post about my younger daughters quilt today but I'm having problems downloading the photos to my computer so here's a hint of what it looks like until I sort this computer problem out. ( So frustrating!) Anyway I ended up with lots of leftover scraps from her quilt ,as you do, and got inspired by a fabric wreath I had seen on Holland Fabrics . The bird is also featured on the quilt. Most of the fabrics were already in my stash, some I bought and some were leftover pieces from dresses or skirts I have made for the girls like the pink one featured on the bird.

Floor Cushions

I made these large floor cushions from leftover quilt blocks and even had enough backing fabric leftover to back them. I used fabric covered buttons for the enclosure. Covered buttons just make it look more professionally finished don't you think? The actual quilt blocks sat in my sewing attic for a few months before I finally got inspriation to finish them. That inspiration came when I decided to machine quilt them. I am a complete novice at machine quilting as I like to hand quilt so I needed the practice and I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out. Also knowing that TV cameras were going to be near our home was also a major reason to replace our previous tired looking floor cushions in our lounge.

Batik Cushions

These blocks are going to be cushions to go on my parents sofa. Mum and I go to the Hamilton Craft show every year and 2 years ago she picked out 5 fabrics to be made into cushions. Yes its taken a while for me to get around to it. Sorry Mum! We did have visions of my eldest daughter making a couple but that just hasn't happened. I'm still working on her, maybe encouraging her might be a better word to use. The top 2 blocks are based on Amy Butlers Daisy Chain

Strippy Quilt. The zig-zag blocks are based on a tutorial from this blog A quilt is nice. I am still working on some log cabin blocks. I added some more batik fabrics from my stash which I purchased in Bali a few years ago. Found a whole row of fabric shops near a large market place in Denpasar and I was in heaven!

Yummy basket of goodies

Here's a small snippet of my stash. This beautiful fabric was all purchased on our trip to the US last year. Lots of Amy Butler, Heather Bailey,and Sandi Henderson fabrics. Looks too good to cut into but I have made a summer halter- neck dress and some Amy Butler bags so far. I do feel the need to put them into a quilt one day soon but at the moment they are just looking pretty and inspiring in my sewing attic.