Fit for a princess!

This post has been a long time coming but finally I can share some photos of  my daughter Amelia's newly decorated room. Her old room was upstairs on the top floor of our house but we decided to redecorate what  used to be our spare room and move her in there which pleased her greatly. We painted the window frames white and Amelia chose the turquoise blue wallpaper, the charcoal curtains. and the new light fittings herself. I'm really pleased with how this room turned out. It is nice and bright and perfectly stylish for a nearly 14 year old girl and she now has way more storage space than she used to.  

 She has a wardrobe with shelving which she never had in her old room and a door to slam shut if she feels the need :) In her old room she just had curtains across the entrance.

The dressing table used to be mine when I was her age and hanging next to it is the wall hanging I made her to match this quilt.

A garland of hearts made in a crazy patchwork style with scraps from the frock quilt.

She now has room and a place to display all those essential girl things.

Her cushions I made her here and here are now nicely displayed on her bed.

Above her bed is a new light fitting and her dream catcher plus you can see the pretty swirls at the ends of the new curtain rails which match the swirls in the curtains.

The wreath I made her here also hangs above her bed.

Some favourite things on her bedside table.

Her new desk with a pink Swiss ball as her chair and the memo board I made for her last Christmas. The turquoise blue in the Heather Bailey fabric used on the memo board was the inspiration for the bedrooms wall colour.

And finally this little bird house and bird has been hers since she was about 2 and now hangs above her desk. Moving into her new room also meant being able to have a good clean out and deciding what she did and didn't want to keep. A lot of stuff was thrown out or passed onto her sister but I'm so glad she wanted to keep this birdhouse which was the starting point to decorating her first room with a garden theme.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Amelia's newly decorated room. I'm still working away on my Bliss quilt top but hoping to finish it within the next 2 days!

Happy Monday!

Handmade Christmas - a fabric wreath

We had a rather cool and very wet day today as you can see from the rain on the windows in these photos. As they say "good for the garden" and I say good for some creativity in my sewing attic!

Everything I used to make this wreath is what I had on hand. I love it when I can make something entirely from my stash! Leftover scraps of  batting wrapped around the cane base, then leftover ends of bias binding were used to cover the batting. A couple of yoyos and a fabric flower leftover from previous projects.

The big red flower is one created by my clever Mother and was the perfect match for the colours on the wreath base. I have quite a few of these lovely knitted flowers just waiting for the right project to be matched with. Thanks Mum!

I added more yoyo's made from scraps and finished with various buttons from my button stash. The little Christmas tree is a ceramic button that I got a few years ago and thought I would never use. And for a little sparkle I added a few beads when I sewed on the buttons

So there you go another inexpensive and easy Christmas decoration and something bright and cheery to lift a dull rainy day.

A Spring Flower Wreath...

Although it is definitely Autumn here this wreath reminds me of spring. I decided a couple of months ago to make Amelia a wreath to hang in her bedroom but had originally thought of just covering it with yoyo's which if I'd stuck to that idea it would have been finished a lot quicker. Somehow along the way I decided that fabric flowers would make a pretty feminine wreath and it evolved from there. 

I added a felt butterfly studded with pink beads.

I love using  buttons on small projects and have acquired quite a collection now. Before I throw out clothes I always take the buttons off to reuse and save those extra buttons you get with some clothes. 

These little butterfly buttons were bought on a whim a while back. I have jazzed them up by adding some beaded antennae.

The ladybugs are buttons that were originally on a jumper Amelia and then Caitlin had when they were babies.

I made this wreath using a plain cane wreath bought from Spotlight and covered it by wrapping around some leftover batting then some bias binding. This provides a bit of bulk and a nice soft base to sew embellishments onto.

I ended up making more flowers than I needed. I think I used about 25 small and large flowers. I have some other ideas for the flowers I have left which I will share with you soon so watch this space.

I'm adding this to Amylouwho's sew'n'tell this week so click on the button and check out all the other finishs for this week!

In honour of Valentines Day....

This is what I've been working on every night for the last week while watching TV ( I hate to have idle hands!). I started off with a basic wooden heart purchased on a whim from Spotlight with no fixed idea how I was going to decorate it. I found some leftover red bias binding with tiny white hearts and wound it all the way around. Got out some red and white fabrics plus a little pink and started adding some yo yo flowers with buttons on one side. 

Then on the other side I made some felt beaded flowers and another with fabric, felt and a button centre.

To finish it off I made a felt heart ornament studded with beads to hang in the centre.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out and it was fun to make. We don't exchange Valentines gifts anymore but when my husband packed his bag to go away this week I snuck in a little surprise present for him. Sometimes its the little gestures that mean more. What did you do for Valentines this year??

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.