Purple crafting and some recent purchases...

About a month ago I was contacted by Rebecca from BecIam asking whether I would be interested in taking part in a 'Purple swap' to raise awareness for Epilepsy. March the 26th is designated Purple day and we were asked to make anything purple for our partners and have it posted to reach them by this date. 

It is always hard in a swap trying to decide what your partner might like and what their tastes are but having the colour already chosen definitely made this swap easier and I enjoyed thinking up things to make. The pillow I made is pretty much the same as the green bubble cushion I made and posted about here. I'm not sure if my partner sews but I made a little birdie pincushion for her because they are nice as just a little ornament too and of course it was a great excuse to make another one :-) The little zippered pouch is loosely based on this tutorial but I boxed the bottom corners so it would sit on its own and used 2 fabrics for the outer.

I did a simple 3 button enclosure on the back using 3 different purple fabrics.  I do hope my partner is pleased with her purple parcel when it arrives!

On Tuesday I had a day out shopping in Tauranga mainly due to Spotlight having a 30% off everything in store sale. I really like going to the Tauranga Spotlight store too as it's still fairly new and tidy and just seems to have different stock to older stores. I was very pleased to spot this print in their quilting fabrics section by Andover Fabrics. Spotlight definitely seems to be stocking  better quality items recently. I have a few of  these prints from this 'Early bird' collection and have them all put aside to make a new quilt for my parents bed so finding this print at $12.95 per metre was a bonus.

A few doors up from Spotlight is a large kitchen store that had a window display of these beautiful prints made up in tea towels, aprons and oven gloves. I think they are way too pretty to be used as tea towels, don't you? They are 100% cotton and are almost decor weight.  I can't wait to create something with them and have already pulled out fabrics to coordinate!

It's in the details...

Okay just one finish this week but I'm pretty pleased with this one. My original plan was to have some little yo-yo's in the centre but they just didn't look right. Too much pattern I think no matter what I did with them and then I remembered a 3D fabric pinwheel I had leftover from this fabric wreath I made.

I think it looks quite perfect framed with some pale aqua ric-rac that I found in my  ric-rac stash. It is quilted  in diagonal lines with some variegated thread.

 

This is the back which I love as much as the front. I used this tutorial that I had pinned ages ago. I love it when I actually use ideas that I've pinned. Makes me feel that all that time that I spend on Pinterest is not completely wasted.

The fabric covered buttons are totally handmade. I was going to purchase a covered button kit but my local craft shop only had one size stocked and of course it wasn't the size I wanted. Luckily I knew how to make my own thanks to the very clever Michele. Here's a link to the tutorial here!

These buttons do take a bit longer to make but are worth the extra effort just to get that satisfying feeling of having made some entirely from scratch.

I've added this cushion to my shop even though I'm sure I could find a home for it in one of my daughters rooms.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend!

Been busy just you know doing stuff like....

...reading Jodi Picoult's books, a slight addiction here as this is my 4th one in about 2 months....

...I finished making this pillow last week and today has been the first day that the weather has been good enough to take photos. I've always wanted to make a bolster pillow and I love how this one turned out. It is made from 4 leftover blocks and yoyo's from my Bliss quilt and can be purchased here. 

And here's a sneek peek of another wee project I'm working on with some more Bliss fabric:)

And I've finally bought myself one of these Clover yoyo makers. Yes I've been doing it the old fashioned way in the past but I'm sure this will make, making yoyo's quicker and more enjoyable especially when I start this quilt along.

I have also been kept busy with teaching my youngest daughter Caitlin and her friend how to sew. They have been working hard on a rather ambitious project for beginner sewers but when they are both finished I shall share what they have produced.

I don't know why it is when people ask me what I have been doing that I can often never think of exactly what I have been working on. My mind seems to go blank somehow....

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!

Spots, dots and circles...

My latest cushion is full of spots, dots and appliqued circles.  There's something about these shapes that I seem drawn to at the moment. It was a fun cushion to make especially going through my fabric scraps picking out all the spotty, dotty mainly green prints.

Using my walking foot I quilted some random wavy lines around all the circles.

Here's a more close-up shot of the quilting....I used a blue/green/yellow variegated thread for both the applique and the quilting which I just  love the look of.

And we have more polka dots on the back teamed with a small scale blue and white gingham. I did the same tied backing that I learned how to do on this cushion.

Another cushion I'd like to keep but this one is also available for purchase in my shop.

I've been making..........

....little handmade buttons from Michelle's tutorial except instead of a ribbon shank I made a loop with the embroidery threads then stitched over the loop with a blanket stitch.

The buttons were made for these bright and fresh cushions that were inspired by the cushion I made for Deb here. I had some left over half square triangles which I added to, then played around with some designs and ended up with 2 cushions.

A zig-zag design....

and this one with alternate colours. They are both simply machine quilted with straight lines echoing the patchwork design.

I used up some scraps for the backs which I like as the fronts.

Although I'm sure I could find a place for them in my home they are up for sale in my etsy shop here.

Some green goodness.....

I can finally reveal the cushion I created specially for Renee who was the second winner of my giveaway a while back. Renee is a young Mum of Charlotte (nearly 2!) and is a kiwi living in Australia. Looking around her blog I decided that she might like something with a bit of a modern twist to it. My starting point was the green floral square I had received in a scrap swap earlier in the year and I decided it deserved to be framed but slightly off centre.

Included in the random log pattern are a couple of Heather Bailey fabrics from her Pop Garden and Bijoux range.

The back is made up of the scraps from the front and I've also done some straight line quilting with the same blue/green/yellow variegated thread I used on the front. It was the perfect colours to match all the different fabrics and just happened to be in my thread stash, perfect! Oh and of course I added my favourite covered buttons.

And doesn't it look good with my circle cushion on our green sofa! Really didn't want to give  this one away but it has gone to a good home.

Pillow talk - take 4 and some mail!

A couple of weeks ago I won a giveaway on Georgie's blog 'All things Crafty'. She is giving away a craft book a week and I won the above book "Handmade Bags" which I was really pleased about because I do enjoy making bags. She also sneaked in some pretty little crochet flowers. Thanks so much Georgie!!

Now this is my latest cushion! I started it last week along with another I have finished but can't show you yet. I've had this circle cushion idea written down in one of my notebooks for a while now and got the urge to make it when I saw the green "Erin McMorris" print in my stash with the circles of green leaves. I pulled out some more green prints from my stash and scrap basket and just had fun creating the different sized circles and placing them randomly on a base of pale green fabric.

I then decided to practice my free motion machine quilting. I initially tried doing loose swirls but quickly switched to a pebble design which I think suits the random circle design more. It's far from perfect but I just really love it and it looks great on my green couch although I think it needs some friends!

I used this bold green and white polka dot with the circles for the back and isn't that green button in the middle the perfect match. Such a shame I didn't have 3. Can't tell you what this print is as I've thrown out the selvage.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A pillow full of 'polka dots"

I can now reveal the full photos of this cushion which I finished earlier in the week. It was made especially for Deb of The Angel and the Pukeko. She was one of the winners on my recent giveaway and it was my challenge to snoop around her blog and find out what her tastes were. She did give me a huge help by saying she liked the 'shabby chic' look and polka dots which I had picked up on her blog as well.  So I went through my stash and scraps and found some polka dot fabrics in various colours and then matched up some fresh florals.  I cut out 5" squares then put those in coordinating pairs and made up half square triangles which is the same method used to make my 'zig-zag quilt'.

For the quilting I machine stitched in the ditch of the vertical and horizontal seams then 1/4 inch on each side of all the diagonal seams.

For the back I chose this pretty red floral which has a watercolour look to it and the aqua and red polka dot print. I love this aqua and red colour combo!

A few days ago I read on Sandi's blog Portobellopixie about the one word one week challenge she is doing with 2 other bloggers. It is open to everyone to participate and you can share your creations on this flickr page. This weeks word is "polka dot" and I think this pillow perfectly suits this challenge. I did have another idea but don't think it will be finished in time.

I am also linking up with Amy's Sew'n'tell friday . I haven't been able to do this for a few weeks now so I happy to be able to finally take part again this week. Do go on over and check out all the lovely inspiring sewing finishes this week.

Pillow talk , take one

As promised here is the pillow I've been working on using some lovely vibrant batik fabrics. I had very nearly finished it yesterday afternoon but wasn't entirely happy with the way it looked and it's still not 100% perfect in my eyes but despite it's slight imperfections I do love the look of it and it goes perfectly with my batik quilt.

The main problem I had with this pillow was getting it stuffed well without it losing its shape. I ended up taking it apart this morning and applying a double layer of interfacing to the sides and iron-on batting and a few quilting lines to the base to give it a more structured look and stop any distortion.

My inspiration for this pillow was the flower I've sewn to the centre. I made this flower a few months ago but it ended bigger than intended so its been sitting patiently waiting to adorn the perfect project. I think it makes this pillow look 'pretty' in a bohemian sort of way.

I put in an invisible zipper on the side which turned out pretty much perfect thanks to this great tutorial.

I had intended to put this pillow in my shop but with what I've learnt with this one I shall make another more perfect  one with maybe a large covered button in the centre. Besides it's looks quite at home in my big vintage cane armchair with its matching quilt.

Spring giveaway and an Announcement!

So you may have noticed that I have finally opened up an "Etsy Shop"!! I'm very excited about this and thought I'd celebrate my shop opening with a  "Spring Giveaway " as it's also the first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere today. First of all I want to tell you about my shop and what you will find in it so far. I have made a couple of  needlecases, as shown in the above photo. One is made with scraps of Wonderland by Momo fabrics and the other from scraps 'Sweet' by Urban Chiks .  These needlecases open like a book but from either side.

I have just added 2 of these hexagon sewing boxes. This box is what I've been working on this past week and I have been photographing each step so I can make up kits to sell for those that would like to make up their own sewing box.

 

This one is made up in Sandi Henderson's Farmers Market fabrics and I've got to say this box came together much quicker than the first one I put together.

There are some pretty flower brooches like this one ..............

........and this one

...............embroidered patchwork heart decoration

and a pretty fabric flower garland, perfect for adorning a girls room.

You can have a good look at all these things by clicking on my shop in the left hand side bar.

So to help celebrate spring and spread the word of my humble little shop I thought a giveaway was in order! The next items I'm planning on making to sell are some pretty pillows and I would like to give maybe one or two of these pillows away. What I will do is make one to order for the winner according to their tastes. I will snoop around their blogs and/or flickr pages to see what they like. And as with all my other giveaways I will add some extra sewing supplies to the package as well.

So if you would like to enter all you have to do is leave me some sweet comments about my shop maybe some hints about what you'd like to see in it. I'm all open to ideas so don't be shy!

You can gain extra entries by either:

1. 
   
   Spreading the word about my shop on your blog.
2. 
   
   "Heart" my etsy shop.

I will be leaving this giveaway open till next Wednesday when I will pick a winner or maybe two !

***Please make sure I can contact you by having your email attached to your profile :)***