Caitlin's little Christmas houses!

This is the outcome of the paper crafting Caitlin was working on over the weekend. There are 20 little houses all made out of one yes just one tissue box. I bought some pretty diamante stickers and 3 different colours of glitter glue and let her decorate to her hearts content. A couple of weeks ago Michelle challenged her readers to see how many houses we could make out of one tissue box aka "The great tissue box challenge". To join in on this challenge was a no-brainer for me as Caitlin loves to  create something from empty cardboard boxes in general but tissue boxes are her favourite. I guess she really is a cheap child to keep entertained :)

Lots of swirls and a heart...

This little red roofed one is one of my favourites.

Michelle has a great little pattern for making these houses over here. This is a great craft activity for kids and I think they would look great hanging on a Christmas tree.

We quite like them lined up like this. It reminds me of a street at night-time with all the houses covered in Christmas lights.

You can check out all the the other tissue box houses over here on Michelle's blog.

A new crochet bag...

I whipped up this bag to hold my crochet in on Friday. I got the pattern from the Spring issue of 'Stitch' magazine but made a few modifications to suit my needs. I increased the length and width by 2 inches and also lined it and added 2 layers of fusible interfacing to make it more durable and 1 layer of fusible batting to make sure it stood on its own.

I also added a pocket inside to hold my crochet needle case, scissors and tape measure. I used some batik fabrics from my stash in my favourite colour combo of blue and green which also matches the colour scheme in our lounge where it will live most of the time. The navy blue bias binding trim was a purchased one I had in my stash which I think gives a nice finished look to it. Really happy with how this bag turned out  and it looks much better than the plastic supermarket bag and knitting bag that I was using!

I took it to a friends place in the hope of getting a little crochet done this weekend but we were too busy catching up that I didn't pick it up once. I did however do some paper crafting with Caitlin of which I will reveal tomorrow. She just has a few little finishing touches to make before we take some photos. 

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend out there!

Making me happy...

I bought this lovely bunch of flowers home from my parents on Sunday. They bring a smile to my face every time I pass them which is often since they are brightening up my dining table.

My parents are both blessed with green thumbs and have always had lovely gardens where ever they have lived and at this time of the year it is filled with colourful blooms for picking. One of life's simple pleasures to me is to be able to pick flowers from your own garden.

Pink Gerberas

Iceland Poppies, one of my favourite picking flowers because I love how they magically appear each morning from their buds like ...

...... these ones and I love their furry wiggly stems too.

And these are my first stitches using the Perle cotton. I do love the look its brings to these little wonky houses but man is it hard to pull through the layers sometimes. Unfortunately because I pieced the back with lots of  strips there are many layers to stitch through in places.  I went through 3 needles before I found one that was sharp enough to pierce the layers but with an eye big enough for the Perle cotton to fit through. I do like a good challenge though!

Some quilting progress....

At last I finally have something to share of what I've been working on these last few days. This quilt top was finished last year about this time of the year and it's taken me till now to finally start quilting it mainly because I could not decide on how to quilt it. So it has been sitting patiently waiting for me to get inspiration. This swirly free motion quilting is my third attempt. Yes I've definitely had issue's with quilting this quilt plus my sewing machine was not playing ball as well. I tried free motion quilting it twice but the top layer was moving and puckering so I then decided I would straight line quilt it with my walking foot but hated the look so unpicked it all and re-pinned it. Realised  that when I pinned it together I had forgotten to tape the quilt top to the floor to keep it straight and taunt and just went ahead and pinned it. Now that it is all pinned properly  I have had no issues with the layers moving. My swirls are far from perfect and my stitches are definitely not an even size but practice makes perfect right?

I have some white space to fill on this quilt also and thought I would do some hand quilting with some Perle cotton. I somehow managed to buy the right colours even though I had forgotten to bring some fabric samples with me. Can't wait to start using these!

White flowers in my late spring garden.....

A humble succulent flower

A lily of the valley bush

A pretty ground cover called 'Wedding bells'

Not sure about this one as it just invited itself into my garden but it is pretty.

And last but not lest are these flowers on one of our New Zealand cabbage trees that are in flower.

And when I'm not enjoying the lovely sunshine in our garden I've been working on a pieced quilt back, trying to use up scraps from the actual quilt top and also fabrics in my stash that aren't quite 'me' anymore. Doesn't it feel good to use up what you have in your stash.