More Pouches

I may have mentioned before that I'm hoping to set up an Etsy shop. Well I decided I need to have a few more bits of stock first!
I started these before the morning sickness set in


(the farmers market olives were just a lovely snack whilst working out a plan of action)
Any way now the sickness is over I need to get some things done again so these soon got turned into zipper pouches to go in the shop (once I've set it up!)


So expect to see pouches of all different sizes in the shop amongst other things!

Better go make some more stock!

Another Pouch

I do apologise I've been showing you so many pouches recently. However this may be my favourite that I've made to date

It started with one of my Katherine Wheel centre pieces that I made ages ago with Pez

 I decided to pair it with a Japanese print that my lovely sis bought me for Christmas last year, text and birds, so pretty

 I used black Pez on the back and did a mixture of hand and machine quilting in straight lines. For the hand quilting I used the same colour threads as the Pez prints on the front of the pouch

 I made my first longer zip, finishing the end of with a pretty little bird

And lined it with some more Japanese fabric

I think im in love with this one, I had it in mind for someone else when I started sewing it but im not sure if I can part with it now!

DUDQS

Woohoo, my Down under Doll Quilt Swap is now finished. It's not my normal colours at all but I really like it. It's 16" square and I'm now thinking about making another one as a cushion cover. Might need to buy some fabric for what I have in mind though, possibly some Field Study!

Just need to sort out a few extras and I can package it up and send it off, I really hope my partner likes it

Addicted to Text - UK Charm Swap

Ok so you may have realised by now that I love a good text print and I think with their ever growing popularity its about time we had a good text print charm swap - dont you agree?

Well on that note I am going to run one, sadly it will be UK based only as I am going to be back in the UK for the end of the year.

Fancy joining in? I have 17 spaces out of 28 still up for grabs. Its going to involve buying a yard of great text print (once you have checked the flickr group to ensure no one has already bought that print), immediately uploading a pic onto the flickr group so that no one else buys the same. Getting it, cutting it into 56 charm squares, posting to me by the 1st Nov and then waiting for a lovely bundle of 56 text charms to arrive back on your doorstep! What could be better than that?

Now its going to be a tight one time wise, as soon as you join up you are going to need to get shopping so that we can get all those fabrics delivered, cut, posted to me, sorted and posted back to you asap.

Are you still on board?
If so then leave me a comment, tell me you want to join, leave me your flickr name and if there is still places when you comment then I will flickr you an invite so you know you can start shopping. If you want to join but are not confident at buying fabric then let me know and I can find some great fabrics and send you the links so you can still join in.

I already have some fab UK bloggers on board so jump in quick

Turn down the volume

We have plans to decorate our house but are rubbish at putting those plans into action. Our bedroom needs repainting and new curtains and bed linen and a complete make over really. It's going to be ages before we do it but I know how I want it.
It's quite dark so it needs light walls and with this in mind I'm going to keep the whole room neutral and low volume!
So I've gone ahead and picked some fabrics for a quilt (I can't be bothered to paint so I'll make a quilt instead!)



I've even designed a pattern for the fabrics, decided on size and everything


This was the start of drafting the pattern, and this is how it's ended up


You can see my foot in there to give a better idea of size!
Now that I've got this far I've put it to one side while I try to sew some of the more important things on my list. But I'm super excited about this, although I should quilt the 5 quilt tips I've got before starting another quilt! Oh well

Japanese Charm Swap

Woohoo I'm taking part in another Japanese Charm Swap and I'm so excited. I love these swaps, Japanese fabric is definitely high up there on my fav fabric list. I especially love Kumiko Fujita and Suzuko Koseki, they do such great fabrics and so fab for fussy cutting.
So the other day my lovely fabric order arrived


(obviously I couldn't just limit myself to only ordering my swap fabric)
It soon got turned into these


And is now winging its way to join up with all the other charms. Can't wait to see what I get back!
By the way it's a Kumiko Fujita fabric that I got from Blije Olifantje on Etsy, a fab seller with amazing often hard to find fabrics

Snazzy Stationery

I don't know about you but I love stationery, I'm such a sucker for a pretty notepad!
The other day on Instagram I saw a gorgeous notepad that Amanda from heyporkchop had jazzed up with some fabric (to be fair everything that girl does is gorgeous!).
I've got a possible up coming project in mind and decided it would need its own notebook. So with that in mind and with one plain boring notepad I thought I'd get to work giving it a funky make over

A bit of improv and a bit of embroidery later I have a new notebook


It really was simple, I made it like a slip cover then sewed it up as close to the notebook spine as I could get (I used the hand wheel instead of the foot peddle though as the cover was so thick I thought my needle would struggle)

Cute ends

I've been making zipper pouches. I've got absolutely loads that I need to be doing but Lawson has been pestering me for a purse to keep his money (and whatever he has his brother wants too!) so I quickly whipped them up a boy purse each


They have tiny little zips but luckily they only have tiny little hands to fit in them!
One of my fav parts of zipper pouches is choosing cute fabric for the zipper ends





I also quickly knocked this up for a blogging friend as a little thank you, hope she likes it





All in all quite a productive day, maybe if I set up some sort of production line system I could knock them out a bit faster though

Preparing

I'm ridiculously excited that my sister and her hubby are coming to stay with us soon. It's been over six months since we left the UK now and I'm desperate to see some family and watch them having fun with the boys.

Anyway our spare bedroom leaves a lot to be desired! So I have to make it liveable ASAP! I started today by taking down the very fetching lace curtains!



And quickly whipped up a very simple pair of nice neutral curtains instead





Excuse the crying child! Sorry this isn't a particularly exciting post but I'm so happy to be making this room liveable!

A Little Something for Me

I made myself this infinity scarf the other day



I had this lovely hummingbird voile but it was a bit pale for me so I brightened it up with a hot pink and turquoise strip and some hand stitching


I'm really pleased with it and it was so simple to whip up, love quick projects!

6 Years

6 Years ago I married my best friend, we had the best day of our lives and although he often drives me crazy I do adore him

You think I'd leave your side baby

                                                                              You know me better than that

You think I'd leave you down when you're down on your knees

I wouldn't do that

I'll tell you you're right when you want, 

And if only you could see into me

Oh when you're cold, 

I'll be there

Hold you tight, to me

When you're on the outside baby and you can't get in

I will show you, you're so much better than you know

When you're lost and you're alone and you can't get back again

I will find you, darling and I will bring you home

By Your Side - SADE - Our wedding Song

Sewing Again

The sickness is gone (fingers crossed it stays that way) and so I'm up to sewing again yay

I've joined the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr and have been busily sewing away

It started with this


And soon became this


Then became this


And this


And is now this


Waiting for me to hand see the binding on tonight.
For anyone out there wanting to do a folded star, I used the Moda Bakeshop folded star tutorial. I found it really good although I had to read it a couple of times and make some notes to keep me on track