Stitching for a cause...

When I read on Debs blog "Works in Progress" that she was asking for blocks to put together some quilts for people who had lost their homes in the recent earthquake in Christchurch I thought I could easily spare the time to whip up a couple of blocks to help her out. In actual fact I enjoyed making these block so much I have completed 4 to post on to her. She asked for blocks in either red or blue or a combination of both. So above is my red one....

....and here's my blue version.

This is my combination of both colours.

Then I thought I should really use up those leftover strips so here's a slightly scrappier version. As you can see I'm slightly hooked on the log cabin pattern after doing the cushions in my previous post.

If you'd like to help out Deb with this great cause here's her original post and here's her post with all the details of exactly what she's wanting. I'm sure she would welcome more blocks.

Hunky Dory Cushions!

Well we've had some really wild weather here over the last few days, lots of heavy rain and gale force winds which resulted in our town losing its power for a few hours a couple of times. Each time it went off I was just about to do this post about my latest cushions. The plus side of losing the power though is that I now have a lovely clean and organised kitchen! One of those things I had been meaning to do for a while but it never seemed to be the right time. Anyway now that the wind has died down here are the two cushions that I made out of my Hunky Dory fabrics that I bought that I bought at my new LQS.

I decided to go with a simple log cabin design and frame the large scale print in the middle. The blue dot fabric is a Michael Miller print.

Then I just did some straight line quilting down each log echoing the frames. This pink one also includes some pink 'Swirly buds' by Heather Bailey and a print from Sandi Henderson's 'Ginger Blossom'.

The prints on the back of the pink cushion are by Anna Griffin (butterflies) and Lila Tueller.

This striped fabric was a great find at Spotlight which seems to go with a lot of other prints I have.

And although I'm tempted to keep these myself I have them up for sale in my shop!

A little colour brightens my day...

On Sunday Mum and I went to the Quilt and Craft fair in Hamilton as we do every year. It was full of inspiring new ideas, notions and gadgets and its always good to see things in the flesh isn't it. I did a lot of admiring of the pretty fabrics, came very close to buying some Echino fabrics that I'd only seen online until then but I was extremely restrained and bought zilch. The reason being that my DH will be bringing some back from the US with him soon so couldn't really justify buying more now could I? I did enjoy looking at the lovely quilts on display and there was quite a few of them this time. Unlike last year I took not one single photo. There were no signs up saying no photography but I only saw one person taking photos. Last year when I was snapping away an older lady came up to me and asked if I was allowed to take photos and I replied that yes I was. Now I'm not so sure what the etiquette is about taking photos at a show when there are no signs saying not to. I'm interested to know what everyone else thinks about this issue??

While in Hamilton though we did have time to visit Spotlight and I found some more wool in different colours for my crochet project. The best bit was they were half the price I normally pay at my local craft shop!! Gotta love a bargain!

And look my pile of squares is getting bigger!

By the way if you live in or near Christchurch I highly recommend going to The Quilt and Craft show this weekend even if it is to just look and get inspired!



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.

A rather belated post.........

I know I promised to announce the winners of my little giveaway LAST Wednesday but somehow life got in the way. You know the old story, sick kids, real job, dishwasher leaking, chasing washing in between rain showers and general exhaustion from being a solo parent for too many weeks. So my sincere apologies for making you all wait. I did manage some small snippets of sewing to keep me sane though. The above photo is a cushion I've been working on and very very nearly finished today. I shall show you all tomorrow.

So my husband has been travelling around the USA these past few weeks leading a tour group across Route 66 (yes he gets all the fun jobs!). Anyway he was able to meet up with an old Canadian friend at one point who I've never met but she gave him some goodies for the girls and I which he posted on to us. The girls were pretty happy with all these mostly Canadian souvenirs.......

........and I was very happy with these lovely fabrics she purchased for me. I think a couple of them are from a Lila Tueller fabric line and one is from a Bonnie and Camille Roskelley first fabric line.

Now on to the TWO winners!

The first winner drawn is 'Renee' a kiwi girl living in Brisbane. Please visit her blog here and say HI!

and the second winner is 'Deb' of  "The Angel and the Pukeko" Deb lives in Christchurch, NZ. I hope this giveaway prize brings cheer to your earthquake frazzled nerves Deb!

Thank you all for entering and encouraging me with my etsy shop!!

Happy Father's Day!

We've had beautiful sunny but windy spring days this weekend, the kind that make you want to get outside in the garden but when you do you realise that the wind is still biting cold. A great excuse to stay inside and sew!

My garden is showing definite signs of spring with these dainty petticoat daffodils....

....and these cyclamens.

We celebrated Father's Day today by visiting my parents for lunch. I decided this year to start making my own cards, much cheaper and more personal than the bought ones plus being a scrapbooker I always have supplies at hand. This Father's day one for my Dad took me a couple of fun hours to do. Hopefully I'll get quicker at making them the more I do although I need to remind myself not to try and be creative when I really should be in bed. I got halfway through making this card and ran out of creative ideas but when I got up this morning I knew exactly how to finish it.

Golden orange muffins with cranberries and chocolate chips for lunch! Yum!!

And these are some fabrics I've been working with  this weekend. Some vibrant Balinese batiks which I'm making into a cushion or two.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway. Still 3 days to go!

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 :)***