Little piles of inspiration....

I have a wee project that I started last Friday afternoon which involves the above pile of bright and colourful scraps taken from my overflowing scrap basket. When I was searching through my scraps for the right mix of fabrics for this particular project I couldn't stop myself being inspired by the eclectic mix of fabrics I was sorting through so.......  

 .......here is another yummy and pretty pile of fabrics that I put together for a future project yet to be designed. Quite a few of these fabrics have been in my stash for a while so I think it's time they were brought out and made use of  :-)

This pile of green and pink fabrics have been gathered together, sitting on my sewing attic floor for a couple of months now whilst I finish other projects and decide what it is I'm going to turn them into. I'm thinking they would be perfect for a little girls quilt.....what do you think???

September in my garden

Yes my garden is in full spring bloom now that September is here. It really is my most favourite time to spend in the garden although I do need to get going now and plan and plant out my veggie garden which I guess I should have started on last month.
So now that spring is here it also means that Christmas is less than 4 months away which I was nicely reminded of when I read this post by Betz White who has just started a "Holiday Stitch-along Ornament Club". You can read all about it here or click on the button below or in my sidebar. It took me mere seconds to decide I was going to join up as I always like to have new ornaments to add to my Christmas tree each year and handmade ornaments are always that much more special, not to mention Betz White is one clever designer.

Journal covers in the making.....

I can't remember what my inspiration was when I started making these journal covers but I do know that I like to have pen/pencil and paper at the ready when inspiration strikes. I also know that I like to make plain, everyday items pretty and inspirational to look at. The above journal cover set was the first one I made and my good friend Darleen promptly purchased it as soon as I showed it to her so I guess that spurred me on to make more. 

Of course the best thing for me about making these journal covers or keepers is putting the fabric combinations together. Out of the 3 sets above I think my favourite would have to be the one on the right made from one of Heather Bailey's prints. I love her fresh modern retro vibe she has put into this fabric collection, the vibrant colours and the detail in the paisley motif. 

I have just added these sets to my shop this morning. The larger size fits an A5 journal and the smaller fits a A6 journal so the smaller one is perfect for on the go journalling/sketching down of ideas as they strike. The elastic bands holds everything together and the elastic pen holders ensures there is always a pen handy as well as the paper :-)

Buds of spring hope.....

I noticed this week that my garden is starting to show signs of spring. I picked this bunch of snowdrops, winter cheer and the first 2 daffodils to bloom to go on our dinning table yesterday. After noticing all the buds emerging here and there I had to take a few shots to share with you here.

 This has to be my favourite to emerge so far. I love the delicate pale pink of these petals. 

Can you see the bee hiding in one of these flowers?? I didn't notice it until I uploaded the photo on to my computer. I think the best thing about flowers at this time of the year is their beautiful fragrance.

We've just had two weeks of school holidays here and during the last week we did a girls road trip down to Wellington to catch up with friends that we hadn't seen for 3 years. Fortuitously for us they were house/dog sitting for family who just happened to have a lovely home in Paraparaumu right on the beach with the above view from the lounge of Kapiti island. 

I finished up these colourful zippered pouches before we went away. They were a custom order for a lady from church who wanted them for a stall to raise funds for Parkinsons disease. As you can see they are all made from scraps and embellished with a variety of machine embroidery stitches...so much fun to make and I love each one equally. 

 

I have some more sewing to show you and lots more planned in the coming months plus I'm looking forward to learning how to upholster furniture. I have plans to eventually do something like this, this and this!! 

For the babies.....

These bibs are the latest additions to my shop this week. I love working with such cute fabrics and they don't take at all long to whip up in an afternoon. Putting the fabrics together is of course my favourite part of the process and I keep finding further combinations that would look good together. I was challenged a couple of months ago by someone who has a couple of grandchildren due but was finding it hard to find suitable non-gender specific items to give before the babies arrived. When I looked at the baby items that I had already made I realised that they were definitely either for baby girls or boys so I have since been looking at my fabrics in a different light.

It is definitely more challenging to make non-gender specific items. I seem to have a lot of fabrics that are 'for the girls' because of the colours but also the motifs on them. The front 2 pairs of baby shoes in the above photo are what I came up with that I thought could be for either boy or girl. Most expectant parents seem to want to find out what they are having beforehand so it was refreshing to hear of parents wanting to wait until their bundle of joy arrived to find out whether they were having either a girls or a boy. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I kind of like the idea of a surprise at the end of all that pain of giving birth.

New cushion cover designs....

 I started these cushion covers a couple of weeks ago now but they had to go on the back-burner for a week while I worked on Amelia's ottoman in my last post. The blue/purple/green 'brick' design cover is just a simple pattern I have wanted to try for a wee while now. It is made up of some scraps leftover from making these memo boards for Caitlin's room. It always feels good to use up leftover scraps doesn't it. The big pink flower design is an idea that came to me while doing some design doodling one evening and I decided to make it while the inspiration was fresh in my mind. 

 The centre of the flower is made up of 3 different sized yo-yo's with button centres. I do seem to have a thing about yo-yo's I think :-) and yes they did take a little while of sitting in the sun to sew them all on.

 The blue brick design cushion cover is just simply quilted with some fairly random wavy lines to break up the straight lines of the piecing.

The backs are a simple slightly off centre envelope enclosure using some of my favourite buttons on each.

Available in my shop from tomorrow :-)

The Ottoman....

A few weeks back I posted a teaser of what I was working on....sorry about the delay in revealing exactly what it was I was making! My eldest daughter, Amelia, has just turned 16, making me wonder where all those years went so quickly :-) I have wanted to make one of these Ottoman's for a long time so I pulled out an assortment of mostly aquamarine blues to go with the predominate colour in Amelia's bedroom. As you can see from the above photo it has been given the seal of approval from Caitlin's cat who decided to rub up against it just as I was taking a photo.

I've had the large white pom-pom trim for a while now just waiting for the perfect project, and I love the element of fun it adds to this piece. 

Some aqua and white polka dot piping frames the bottom perimeter perfectly. As you may be able to tell it is quite a decent size. It took 54 5" squares to complete and an enormous amount of polyester stuffing to fill it properly. Amelia's cat in the background took no notice whatsoever in my photo shoot, seemingly more interested in taking in the view from her 'throne'.

Amelia celebrated her big birthday with a sleepover with 3 of her good friends,watching movies, chilling in the spa that I got going just for the occasion and eating lots of junk food as you do when you're 16! For her birthday cake I made her a 'red velvet cake' with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with pink coloured coconut, a recipe on my 'to do' list for a while now.
I have just this past week finished making a couple of items for my shop so hopefully I can find the time to show them here tomorrow :-)