Some pretty finishes......

 My eldest daughter has been in desperate need of a new pencil case for a while now so I whipped this one up for her on the last week of the holidays. She chose the fabrics, designer fabrics I might add :-) She definitely knows what she likes and doesn't like this girl  :-)

 I found the free pattern and tutorial over here at "A spoonful of sugar" I like the triangular shape because it's just a bit different to your everyday pencil case shape plus it sits nice and flat. The pattern is a little on the small side so I made it a couple of inches longer mainly to accommodate the larger zip that I had on hand.

 I also gave it more of a scrappy look and added some pretty machine embroidery stitches too.

 

And I finished covering this lampshade last week using up some of my scraps. It was a pretty quick and easy project plus I had fun putting all those gorgeous fabrics together :-)

I love how it turned out but I'm not quite sure where it's going to go yet. I think it would be perfect for a girls room so might have to look for a lamp-stand for it to go on.

And here's a sneak peak of a couple of cushion designs I'm working on this week. I spent yesterday morning brainstorming and sketching and now I have more ideas/designs than time which is a good thing really. 

My definition of satisfaction.

This week for Sew 'n' tell Friday I made another pencil case , this one is for Caitlin similar to the boxy pouch but it is round and probably large enough to be a small overnight toilet bag. It should fit all the pens and pencils etc she needs for school plus more. I also had a go at a crayon roll except for pens or pencils and thought it would be kinda cool for Amelia to put her gel pens in to take to school. I don't think Caitlin has seen it yet but I'm sure she will want one when she does. Hey even I want one! I'm thinking it would be an easy project for Amelia to tackle. I had both these items all cut out and ready to sew last Friday but ran out of time. Once they are cut out they take less than an hour to whip up. I like that quick satisfaction in a sewing project. You can find this quick and easy tutorial for the pencil/pen roll here. Don't forget to check out all the other Sew 'n' tell participants by clicking the button on the right hand side bar.

I got no sewing done over the weekend as I spent most of Saturday on my bike completing a 200km cycling event. This annual event is called the K2 and they say it is the toughest cycling race in the Southern hemisphere and yes it was pretty tough. It was a beautiful day here and perfect riding weather so that all helps. I have been training for this event for 6 months which was a big commitment but the satisfaction of completing a long ride like this was huge. You can check out the beautiful scenery that we rode past here. I spent Sunday not doing much but being kind to my body and letting it recover. I do find it hard to laze around and not do anything...I wonder if that puts me in the exercise addiction category. Maybe, because I've just signed up for another long cycle event in 3 weeks... the Lake Taupo Cycle challenge which is slightly shorter at 160kms. I know I'm a sucker for punishment !