comfortstitching

This little quilt went to market - part 2

Do you remember this quilt?

Well, this little quilt went with me to quilt market last spring and promptly got picked up!

That's picked up as in by Better Homes and Gardens 'Quilts and More' magazine.  At last you can find the pattern for this little baby sandwiched in amongst the pages of the Spring 2012 issue (it's one bumper packed issue, crammed to the staples with patterns by the likes of Kate Spain, Monica Solorio-Snow, Vanessa Christenson, Joanna Figueroa, Camille Roskelley and more).

I'm kind of more than a little super excited about this because it's my first time having a pattern published in a big time US quilting magazine :))))

Today is going to be a tough day to beat, now excuse me whilst I go gush some more.

The princess in the pouch

This little sewing pouch is probably one of the most satisfying projects I've ever made.  I managed to get it all sorted and stitched in half an afternoon which includes the time spent deciding exactly which fabrics to use (and you know how long that can take).  My eldest daughter has been trying to swipe it ever since telling me I'm too old for princesses and it's perfect for her but I'm not convinced.

I love the way the little princess looks like she is sleeping in this bed of a pincushion (so she has lots of pins sticking in her too but they are flower pins).

This slouchy pouchy is perfect for keeping my current petal project in progress stashed in (BTW thank you for all your tips on how to keep those pressed edges in shape on my hello petal post, I'm eager to try those out :)))

Fabrics used are from Far Far Away 2 by Heather Ross, Bliss by Bonnie and Camille and Sherbet Pips (by me!).

This is another project from the above book which I have used before and currently have a huge long list of what to make from it next (after I make my daughter a little red riding hood version of the above to stop her nagging that is).

hello petal

I started sewing up some of these petals into something finished and made up this cute runner for my table.  I wanted a quickie project to see how I would get on with appliqueing these and I'm glad I started small.  I made the mistake of pressing the petals into shape, removing the papers and then pinning them all at once onto the background.  Not a good idea, as this took a lot of re-pinning as the sides gradually lose their pressed edges.  Next time, I will deffo be remove papers and pin as I go, lesson learned.

I have lots more petal-ling planned as these are a perfect pick up and put down evening project for when you really want to pull your sewing machine out but you know the family will start moaning about you being obsessed with sewing and you don't really want them reminding you because you know it's true anyway.

I did a little echo quilting around the applique which looks quite fanciful since it's curved but was super easy to do.

I love how the quilting pattern looks kind of ripple-y.  Yes I planned that.

I'm pretending spring is here even though it is dreary and rainy outside.  Inside my house (and my head) it is blooming.

monday habits

I finished sewing the binding on a couple more mini quilts to hang up behind my computer, the block used for the one above is called ducks foot and I will definitely be playing with this one again.

This one is the good old shoofly, I've never shooflied before but I definitely want to shoofly again too.

I loved playing around with the quilting on this one, I really wish I had a bigger sewing table so I could do this kind of thing on larger quilts without the palaver.

Here they are hanging out with the other minis, nothing really goes together with anything else but somehow that's the point.

My little work cubby is looking so much cosier, which is a good job because I'm spending most of my day here today catching up after my little bug holiday.

Keeping me company today, is this little box of fabric scraps.  I always need to be in whiffing distance of fabric especially if I can't sew all day, it keeps me working hard so I can earn a little sewing time later this week.

I'd much rather be sat here though beside my new daffs on MY sofa - do you do the MY sofa thing in your house too?  you know the one the kiddies must vacate if you walk in the room with a cup of tea ready to sit down?

Lastly, on Friday I had to grit my teeth and take a deep breath whilst I frogged about 20 rows of this baby.  I'd messed up a few rows earlier on and they were becoming more and more obvious the more I progressed.  Luckily things went smoothly and my little cowl is looking so much healthier.  A few more days and I should be done :)

cowl-ing

Thank you for the well wishes from yesterday's post:) thankfully I am feeling much better today (when armed with paracetomol at least).  I've been knitting away at my cowl in progress - there has been a gentle background tune of click, clack, cough for the past few days and I've managed to make only a couple of mistakes whilst knitting so far.  Which I'm hoping will be hidden in the slouchiness of the finished piece (thank heavens for them slouches).

So far I have only one concern with this cowl.  When I bought the yarn online I thought it would be a great colour to pick.  Now that I have been knitting it for a while, I have come to the conclusion that because it pretty much resembles the same shade as my hair, this cowl is going to end up looking like a big old beard when strewn across my neck....

Time will tell.

(and I promise to show you the photo's).

tuesday

Today I am sitting in my workspace not feeling quite with it due to the company of a few unfriendly ailments from the land of lurgy.  I'm attempting to ignore my flakiness due to illness and am determined to get stuff done, hence the messy-ish piles of paper and books, calculations being checked, sums worked out, to do lists being crossed off, new to do lists being written up even faster (all in very scruffy hand writing).

Brightening up my day today is my growing wall of mini's on the wall behind my computer screen, including a new addition!

A little 'a is for apple' mini from amanda's project in this book (made from Little Apples of course and a couple of comprades).  I knew I wanted to make this quilt from my fabric as soon as I saw it in the book, just took me a little time to, you know get there.

To quilt, I topstitched around the apples and added a few mini rows of quilted circles (some are considerably messier than the one above).

I love this mini collection of mini's!  The more I make the more I want to make!!

feeling beachy

A cold January day seems to be a completely inappropriate time to be showing you this little Christmas gift I made last month inspired by sunny days at the beach.

I used 2.5 inch squares of Reunion by Sweetwater and Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket to make a sweet little sunny style table topper.  These two collections work really well together like they were made to kiss each other.

I had fun doing a little echo quilting using my seam guide tool on all the white fabric only.

And made up a little family of coordinating coasters.

Finally, I made up a beach hut version of those stuffed little houses I was addicted to making last month to add to the parcel before packing everything up to go and live in sunny Whitstable.

I could do with packing myself off to go live there right now too, brrrr! it is cold today.

delicious

Thank you all so much for your kind hearted and sweet comments on yesterday's post - you completely made my day!!! xxx

And also you make me feel a whole lot less guilty as I sit here writing this blog post whilst the to do list tick tocks away in the background.

Today's post is all about the guilt free - desserts! cross stitched ones!!!  When I heard Amanda tweet about her new Dessert of the month club last week, I put the strongest arm of my willpower to work but it took me mere seconds to cave in and sign up.  We are talking one years worth of guilt free and 100% dentist approved desserts for the princely sum of..................$10!!  (until tonight that is, so get your skates on if you fancy having your cross stitch cake and eating it).

This is my first ever attempt at cross stitch and I'm using stranded embroidery floss on 32 count Permin linen in natural  (bought here).

I love the way he turned out, turns any frown upside down when you look at those cute square eyes.

My eldest daughter who is 11 is stitching the desserts alongside me, as you can see she's stitching on Aida and going her own way with colour - I think her piece looks like one of those cute amigurumi's.  She loved working on this so much, she's already working on her next piece - toast!!!

Not to be outdone by her mother and sister, my youngest, aged 8 spent the weekend stitching away on Aida too.

I am in super love with her adorable square petalled flower, so quirky!!

Ok, back to reality and the to do list.

Have yourselves a great Tuesday xxx

three years well spent

Today marks three full years in the life of this little blog.  Three years that seem to have gone flashlike quick, yet sometimes I stagger with disbelief at all that has been crammed into a trio of 365's.

For starters, the quilts!  Above is a mosaic of some of them (you can call it an apertif, links to all these and more can be found on my Quilts page).  I started quilting 3 1/4 years ago and learned everything I know from Joelle Hoverson's 'Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts', online tutorials and endless google searches.

Then there's the mini quilts, I LOVE me a mini, most of the above were made for fun, some for swaps and one for a book.  

You can find all the links on my quilts page.

Much as I love quilts, now that I have something like 20 bed sized ones I am growing increasingly fond of using quilting and patchwork techniques to make pretty everyday items - bags, table runners, rugs, dolls, mail organizers, duvet and pillow covers, sewing machine cosies and more........  If I can think it up, I'll sew it up!

You can find links to posts on the above pics on my sewing page.

Also please don't forget my tutorials.

I had to give the cushions a mosaic of their very own I am that fond of my addiction for making them.

By far my favourite everday patchwork item I have ever made is,

my bliss patchwork table cover with matching coasters and placemats - I'm so glad I never made this into a quilt, it lives on my kitchen table and brightens up my day every day.

Then there's the embroidery, there's been a lot of that over the years and lots more to come.

For links, see my embroidery page.

By far, my most favourite embroidery I ever made was my Mendocino mermaid, like many of my favourites it was given away in a swap.  

Last but not least, the fabric, three lines already with more on the horizon.

The funny thing is when I think back to three years ago, I was adamant that I didn't want a computer in this house.  My daughter was very strategically trying to convince my husband that she needed one if she was ever to do well at school and I was dead set against having a pc and all its ugly wires cluttering up my front room.  Isn't life the funniest thing when you reflect back???  Of course once they got one and were all safely out of the house you couldn't keep me away from the thing.  I didn't know an upload from a download but it didn't stop me sitting down and pressing buttons until I got it to do what I wanted.

My entire family still laughs at this.

While I have myself a moment of reflection on my little anniversary, I want to take the time to say a big huge thanks (which comes with a massive hug and a little kiss) to each and every one of you who takes the time to pop along to my little bloggie.  You fill my heart with thanks each and every day and I would not feel the same way about my little space if it wasn't for you :))))))

xxxxxx from me to you.

burnt toffee

I got some yarn mail yesterday - Malabrigo in Chesnut and my first ever pair of circular needles, purchased from Loop - all ready to knit myself up an Eternity cowl.

I wasted no time and balled that wool right up.  So far it's only three attempts to cast on and knit the first row....

But I'm getting there with the help of of the dark stuff (you've got to love it when your choice of chocolate pick me up matches your project bag).

I'm feeling highly scatterbrained today so I'm definitely in need of a little burnt (yorkshire) toffee dark choco treat to get me through the next few rows.

Fancy a piece?