Another bundle

Leading on from the last post, here is my second bloggers bundle -

My Kinda Folk

And dont forget my giveaway, its going to end tomorrow so get entering if you want to win some lovely Denyse Schmidt fat quarters!

Bloggers Bundles

Have you seen Katy's competition? Its making up bloggers bundles using Pink Castle Fabrics, and you can enter as many times as you want! I really enjoyed making up my own bloggers bundles when quokka quilts held a similar competition (except it really makes me want to spend money!)

So here is my first bundle - Im calling it Grey and Pink Castle

Hopefully if you click on the images it will take you to the fabrics (fingers crossed, not sure if I did it right)

Second Bundle coming up in next post!

And dont forget my giveaway, its going to end tomorrow so get entering if you want to win some lovely Denyse Schmidt fat quarters!

There may have been no sewing....

but instead there has been some fabric shopping!
I'm making myself an hst quilt out of solids. I've cut the hst's pretty small so I needed a bit more fabric. It's from Spotlight, it feels ok but I've been warned the colours may run so this is going to need some serious colour catchers in the first few washes (when I eventually get to that stage!)


These were just too cute to pass by in the Spotlight sale


I think they would make such a cute little girls skirt or jacket lining (just need a little girl now!)

I'm trying to persuade my MIL to make loads of children's clothes and sell them at some lovely markets. I bought this voile thinking I could make up a few scarves to sell, this will be used in my prototype and will decide whether I should!


Hopefully some sewing will get done soon. Once we get our own place I will be able to be productive again, until then we are still enjoying the sunshine and beach











And digging sand!

Internet connection!

I'm struggling to get my laptop to connect to the Internet today, my phone likes it but my laptop doesn't! This is extremely annoying as all the info I need for today's Sunday Sewing Space is on the laptop!
I think it may have to wait until next Sunday, sorry! Check back then for a peak into the space of lovely Laura from Needles Pins and Baking Tins.
I in the mean time will be looking for a good cafe that offers wifi!!!
P.S don't forget to enter my giveaway for some great DS fabric


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A late one but a good one!

You may well remember that I promised a giveaway a while ago, I promptly forgot about it what with the move and everything but now I have remembered and have organised some goodies. Some pretty nice goodies even if I do say so myself!
So as I'm now in Australia and there is a Spotlight down the road, I thought it only fair to share some of my latest purchase with you.
So who fancies winning some Denyse Schmidt? 5 fat quarters to be exact


Isn't it pretty
Ok so who wants to know how you can win some? You do? Ok here goes
1) This giveaway is to celebrate over 200 followers and over 100 posts but to enter then just leave a comment- simple! If you want to tell me something specific, tell me what you've been doing on your blog recently.
2) This giveaway is celebrating my followers so followers get a second entry
3) I'm loving twitter at the mo so tweet about this giveaway or follow me on there and get a third entry @lawsonandlotti

Don't forget to leave separate comments for each and good luck!
This will be open for 1 week, a winner will be drawn next weekend Australia time!
Here's a little reminder of the prize

Meow

Not much sewing has been being done round here lately, hoping that will change soon!
I have been trying to catch up on bee blocks though, today I've been working on Marchs Piece Bee With You block (I still need to finish Feb's too!!!
It's not finished yet but here it is so far, the theme was cats, I think she's kinda cute so far!



Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday

Do you Instagram?

Do you? It's only for i products unfortunately but I love it. I discovered it just before I ran over my iPhone last year and have rekindled my love affair with it now that I have finally got a new iPhone.
Here are the photos of my Sew Bee Joyful bee blocks that I took with it



February's blocks


March's blocks

And a few other things I've been snapping on Instagram


















If you have an iPhone or iPad then you should definitely get it. I'm on as Lawson and Lotti if you want to see what I'm snapping

Sunday's sewing space - my temporary one!

Well I thought that today I would just give you a very quick peak at my current and temporary space! It's actually my Mother In Laws studio and it's full to the brim of her things, she used to own a quilting shop and so she has heaps of things left from back then.
So when I manage to get a bit of sewing done, this is where I'm doing it



It's in need of a massive sort out so don't mind the mess (I will be the one to sort it as I can't work like this!)



Every colour cotton under the rainbow pretty much, so handy


Craft magazines!


Craft books. No excuses for not having any inspiration!


MIL's sewing machine, it's ok but I'm not getting on with it as well as my Janome, I may have to get her old one out, we will see.


Such a great sized space


Just a tiny part of her stash!!!


Now the exciting part - my fabric I brought with me. Boxes of fabric will be sent over at some point but this little suitcase contains what I brought over on the plane. My favourite things!


Can't go anywhere without a Kona colour chart!


Pretties! Some text fabrics and lovelies to use in the Sew Out Loud QAL when I find some time to get back to it


Lovely Lu Summers screen printed gorgeousness


Dusted off my farmers wife fabrics, I need to get the farmers wife back in my life


I packed in as much as I could!


And finally this pile is my first purchase from spotlight. Solids for a little something I have in mind. I wanted to buy the new DS range but need to wait until funds allow, I've seen it and it's so pretty!!!

So there is a peak for you, sorry about the photos they are all iPhone ones and not that hot!

Hopefully back with some sewing very soon!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sundays Sewing Space - Ayumi from Pink Penguin

Wow have I got a treat in store for you today. Ayumi has kindly agreed to show us around her space and I think everyone is going to be totally jealous of the amazing fabric stash and wonderful eye candy that Ayumi has in her work space. I know that I am!

Over to Ayumi -

Where is your Sewing Space?

My teeny sewing space is shared with my husband's gigantic computer. I think the room is split fairly - 50/50, but he clearly has a different perspective on this. This is what he has to say:

"My small computer desk is shoved into the corner of the room, with all my electronics either on top of the desk or under the desk. So the only space I take is the desk itself and my small wooden chair. My feet have to rest on top of electrical cables and speakers.  The rest of the room is used entirely for sewing stuff. The walls have finished projects hanging off of them. The floor is covered with half finished projects. There is fabric hanging off of chairs, tables, and cupboards. Sewing books are stacked on random surfaces, including the floor. I've tried to make a stand and declare my small corner off limits to fabric related stuff, but I am losing that battle. If I leave for any amount of time, slowly but surely the fabric jungle will start to grow over my area. fabric will be hanging off of my chair, or random pieces of fabric stacked where my mouse used to be. It doesn't matter if I raise a fuss over my area being encroached upon; Ayumi will silently and swiftly come and take her craft stuff away, killing any chance I have to make a point. As soon as I leave, it will return."

What 3 words do you feel best describes it?

Hmmm.. I would love to use nice words to describe it, but in reality my sewing space is in a serious chaos most of the time. Obviously I worked really hard to make my stash look nice and organized this past few days for this blogpost. (Thanks for this opportunity, Charlotte!) It is usually a huge mess, and I know many of you reading this can relate and easily imagine how it must look like usually! So three appropriate words would be " Messy", "Disorganized" and "Chaotic."

What are your most important things in there?

Handmade gifts from friends. I just love, love, love it when my friends make personal handmade gifts for me. My space is filled with lovely lovely things made by my virtual and real friends. Every time I look at them, I feel loved, cared for, and cherished. I do know how much time and thought it takes to make a single gift because I too sew to make gifts. Each of these items sent by my friends (mostly surprise gifts!) speaks to me the reason behind the choices of fabric and patterns (yes I love pink! yes I love penguins, etc) and I just feel so warm and fuzzy inside, imagining my friends making things for me. I can be my worst critic, but I can't find a single flaw in handmade gifts whipped up for me from friends. Receiving handmade gifts is such a therapeutic part of my crafty life partly because this gives me the best time to think about "what sewing can do to your life". Quite often I find myself being pretty frustrated due to my projects being not perfect enough. Sewing not be about aiming perfection or competing against anything, but sometimes I need a reminder. I can't think of anything other than handmade gifts from friends that can remind me of the true joy of sewing. OK, I don't mean to sound so dramatic, but my point is.. I just love looking at things whipped up for me from lovely friends ;)

How is the room laid out?

I have two tables, each at a corner of the room so I get a great sunlight! (This, my husband doesn't have too much problem with, because his computer has to stay away from the heat. Thank goodness to the technology!

What sort of sewing machine do you have and how do you feel about it?

I have Janome DS4030 which I bought directly from a sewing machine store for approximately $500 US. It has every function I usually need, so I am satisfied with it. I hope my next sewing machine will be a bit fancier and larger so that quilting large quilts will be easier. I also would love it if my next one is a bit quieter so that my husband won't have a hard time sleeping while I sew.

Do you have anything in the room for inspiration?

Gifts from friends!

Where do you keep your fabric stash and how do you organise it?

I have several places I store my fabric stash. 

These are the shelves in the sewing room where I store smaller pieces of fabrics (most of them are smaller than fat quarters) that I used for my recent projects. I don't call a fabric piece a scrap until they are smaller than 2" at one edge. Anything larger than that is folded nicely and stored in these shelves. I sort them by colors

White section. I have a big stash with white as a background color. This section was growing so fast I recently divided the stash into two groups: light white and beige-ish white. 

I have lots of pink fabrics and moderate amount of red fabrics.

This is a space for yellow and orange, but as you can see I have very few fabric with orange as a base color. I think I need to start building orange stash some more.

I love brown, especially chocolate brown, but I don't have very many brown fabrics.

 Next to our sewing/computer room is a Japanese style room with Tatami mats on the ground. In the room, there is a closet called Oshiire which is supposed to be used to store Japanese style futon, clothing, etc, but guess what it is that is using up 90% of the space. Ya, you got it!

In Oshiire, I have multiple plastic shelves. These above are used to store larger pieces of my fabrics, again sorted by colors. I thought these would give me enough space to store fabrics, but how could that be possible? I ended up buying two more similar shelves AND am thinking about getting one more. (Don't tell Joe about it!)

In the other side of ohiire is a place for fabrics for sale. I occasionally list Japanese fabrics in my etsy shop as I find unusual fabrics locally. My inventory is quite small, so I have these two shelves for it.

Do you have any top tips to do with work spaces?

Hmmm... I wish I had cool top tips, but the only thing I can think of is to clean up the space each time you use it. If you are anything like me, you have tendency to wait until it's a real chaos to start cleaning up. My mom hates it when rooms are in mess, because she thinks how clean your room is reflects how clean your heart is. I'm starting to understand what she means by this. The cleaner my place is, more clearly I can think about things and I just feel happier. Sewing space should be a very welcoming place that encourages us to have a lot of fun sewing. I am not succeeding in keeping my space nice and organized (in fact, I'm probably closer to failing according to Joe), but keeping the space nice is one of the top tips I've learned so far.

What would your ideal workspace look like?

Oh my goodness I can think of so many! I have been heavily inspired by Jessie of Messy Jesse's workspace recently. I keep going back to this post and see how I can make my space look like hers. (Ya I have a lot to work on, haha!)

Thank you so much for sharing Ayumi, your space and fabric collection are amazing and you must have some wonderful friends to have such beautiful works on your walls.

In Oz

We have arrived safely in Oz, hopefully got over the jet lag, and already been down to the beach



The weather is lovely and warm but windy! The skies are blue and the sea is aqua green and gorgeous.

No sewing yet but hopefully soon

Ok lets try again!

I know I said I wouldnt be posting for a while but that didnt seem to happen did it! I do mean it this time though, we fly tomorrow so things will be quiet for the next week or so. I havent had a chance to line up lots of scheduled posts, so everything will be put on hold (just for a little bit)

Thanks everyone for all the best wishes. I look forward from writing my next post from Australia!

London Baby!

Jennifers Modern Mini Challenge came at an interesting time for me. I had just made my first ever mini quilt which was for my swap partner in For The Love Of Solids. I had so much fun making it and also because I have been looking at the amazing mini quilts on peoples walls in Sundays Sewing Space, I decided that I could easily become addicted to mini quilts.

On the other hand I am smack bang in the middle of moving from one side of the world to the other and really needed to pack. I hate packing to move and will do anything to put it off so the modern mini challenge became my distraction.

I have loved this project so much and thought I would share a bit about the process with you rather than just the end product.

I mentioned in an earlier post that im finding muted colours in art and illustration really inspiring at the moment. I love illustration and have been pinning loads recently so I knew I wanted a mini quilt that looked like  an illustration or poster. These are just a few of the things that I love

Source: etsy.com via LawsonandLotti on Pinterest

I love the muted colours in this

Source: rebelform.shop.textalk.se via LawsonandLotti on Pinterest

These houses are cute and the colours are fab

Source: etsy.com via LawsonandLotti on Pinterest

I think this colour pallette is really cool

Source: iheartprintsandpatterns.blogspot.com via LawsonandLotti on Pinterest

Source: modcloth.com via LawsonandLotti on Pinterest

I love these illustrations and so a plan began to form. A quilt version of the above illustration but featuring a place that I love.

I decided on fabrics, I wanted mainly solids to give it that illustration look

I chose my size, cut out my applique and ironed in place. I machine stitched everything in place and then stood back and looked. Then I began to question myself. The colour was all down one side, things didnt look balanced, should I have done everything in muted blues, greens and greys? Oh well too late now. I would have to add extra colour, this is when I added the phone box and the sun peaking from behind the cloud.

This made me much happier. So what to do next? How to quilt it? I asked my family what they thought of as quintessentially British and decided maybe I could stitch some extra things in.

I drew up this very quick terrible rough sketch.

The pen shows the applique and the pencil shows some quilting ideas

Then I decided I wanted it to look like I had just sat and doodled but I wanted it to be subtle. So I chose a thread the same colour as the background, and I started doodling with my machine!

A couple of my ideas were a bit complex to just doodle (the crown and the lamp post) so I used an embroidery pen to lightly sketch them on first, The rest I did free hand. I then decided I wanted to put London on it. I originally thought that I would FMQ this like I had been doing, but then changed my mind and appliqued it. I FMQ'd a few british sayings though.

And the last dilemma was how to bind it. I considered using the background fabric or doing an invisible binding but then I realised that posters frequently have white borders, so I went with skinny white sides and a deeper white top and bottom.

And here it is - London baby! (was anyone else ever obsessed with Friends?)

Im so pleased with how it turned out. Its going to go on the wall of my new studio and remind me of home.
Thanks Jennifer for holding this fab challenge, I have loved every minute of it