Divided....

Yes, I am in another swap.  This one is the Fabric Basket Swap.  Here is what I made for my secret partner:

Front and back with a bit of a fluke fussy cutting!!

Yes, I made a Divided Basket from the awesome Noodlehead pattern.  If you buy one pattern this year, make it this one!  Brilliant pattern and all the while I was sewing it, I kept wondering how she can be so clever to come up with the method to sew this!!  I am in awe of her!

Anyways, back to the Fabric Basket Swap.  My partner wanted a "happy, lovely, flower, romantic basket".  Do you think this fabric fits that brief?  Hope so.  Pink isn't normally my thing but I've been making lots of things with pink recently (for other people I may add!).  Weird but somewhat satisfying at the same time!    

 

I love making baskets and buckets.  Here are just a few I have made in the past:

A Cuppa and a Catch Up Nesting Bowls

Bucket pattern from 1/4" Mark

Basket pattern from Pink Penguin

A Cuppa and a Catch Up pattern

Hopefully my partner likes her floral basket so I can get it into the post!  If she doesn't, I have more fabric that I can make a another one.

Gone in three...

No words necessary...  except maybe the word YUM...

Caramel macroons were my absolute favourite.  This shop is a definite MUST SEE when in Paris. Oh and if you go there, bring me a macroon back, will you?  Cheers! 

Giveaway Day winner announced!

Thank you everyone for your fantastic comments about what you do with your scraps!  I will eventually get through my pile of scraps so thank you for more inspiration!  A scrap vomit quilt (aka Postage Stamp quilt) is already on my to-do list!!  I also want to give you all a HUGE thank you for entering my Giveaway Day giveaway! 

Don't forget to enter my other giveaway HERE too and see my 'It's for the Birds' blog hop project.  That giveaway ends on 16th May and is of course open internationally.  I am celebrating my birthday month so join me in the fun!

So, who won who won??  Congratulations to Joanne who said:

joanne has left a new comment on your post "Giveaway Day - May 6th":

Great giveaway!  I save my small scraps for paper piecing , 

medium scraps get chopped into 2.5" squares for a future (God knowns 
when!!) Scrap Vomit and larger bits get stuffed in a drawer 
to be used in random projects!

Joanne I hope you enjoy the fabrics - happy sewing!!  I will email you soon for your snail mail address!

It's for the Birds + giveaway

[Looking for my Giveaway Day giveaway?  Press here and enter.  Draw closes Friday midnight UK time.  Today's giveaway is at the bottom of this post.]

When I saw that Mdm Samm was having a blog hop called 'It's for the Birds', I had to join!!  Thank you to Mdm Samm and our cheerleader Mary from I Piece 2 Mary for being our feathery friends, coordinators and cheerleaders all in one!

My favourite birds are the quirky and cute ones as you will see from what I made.  Here are the other 'chicks' participating today:

Friday, May 10

http://ssparrowinflight.blogspot.com
http://Hillvalleyquilter.blogspot.se
http://mcsqrd.blogspot.com
http://loveitsewit.blogspot.com
http://piecepeacenc.blogspot.com
http://grammieq.blogspot.com
http://meadowbrook-Kristen.blogspot.com
http://scrapbook-ChickADoodle.blogspot.com
www.craftyshenanigans.blogspot.co.uk
http://Stitchingbythebeach.blogspot.com
www.thebusybeequiltshop.blogspot.com
http://morestarsincomanche.blogspot.com
http://lesquilts.blogspot.ca
http://suebeesworld.blogspot.com
http://mtnmommy2.blogspot.com
www.thatlookslikeitneedsstitches.blogspot.com
http://www.freshcutquilts.com

Before I show you what I have created for the hop today, here are just a few projects I have created in the past with some feathery friends:

I love making birds and projects with birds on them - they are just so quirky and cute!  What have I made for today's blog hop?  Another quirky bird of course!  This one is three-dimensional and wobbles!  

I adore birds as you may already know and I have only shown you a few of my creations in the mosaic! The pattern for this 3-dimensional bird can be found here and I highly recommend it as it was so easy to sew together.

For his legs, I used pipe cleaners and just cut as much of the fuzz off as I could.  As soon as I find the right thickness of wire, I will make more of these little birds!  For his body, I used an upholstery fabric sample from John Lewis that I had in my stash and the frayed edges add to the quirkiness and character of the little bird!  I used beads for his eyes.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today!  I am also having a giveaway!  Up for grabs is a piece of my very own handprinted fabric on Kona, Coats thread, a fabric tape measure, three marble-y fq's and some British candy!  Why such a crazy selection of things?  Well because I am a quirky 'bird' of course!  

It's For the Birds giveaway - a little bit of a 'warm' selection!

To enter, please leave any comment on this post.  Winner will be drawn on the 16th of May by RNG or similar and contacted by email so be sure that I can reach you!  Feel free to follow me by Bloglovin' for a second chance!  Open worldwide!

Happy chirping flying hopping!

Giveaway Day - May 6th

Welcome to GIVEAWAY day!  

[GIVEAWAY CLOSED]

Let's celebrate my birthday month!!  Giveaway Day, hosted by Sew Mama Sew, is now a 5 day event with hundreds of blogs giving away either handmade items or supplies in several different categories.  

This is my 3rd or 4th time participating and I love it!  I love finding new blogs to follow and love having the opportunity to win something!

So, up for grabs is a piece of Ikea number print [approximately 36" x 29"] and three Moda fat quarters - one  'Marbles', one 'Essential Dots' and one 'Kate Spain Terrain'.  These fours fabrics still have their selvages on which I love - hope you do too!

  

Also, on May 10th, I am having another giveaway to celebrate my stop on the "It's for the Birds" blog hop (and my birthday month) - so DO come back and see what I have made and enter my next giveaway!!  

Today's giveaway 'small print':

• My Giveaway Day giveaway is open worldwide!  
• Giveaway closes May 10th 2013 and I will email the winner by May 12th 2013.
• For one entry, submit a comment on this post telling me what you make with fabric scraps!
• For a second entry, follow my blog with Bloglovin' [see the Bloglovin' link near the top at the right hand side]! 

Good luck on my giveaway and happy giveaway entering/blog hopping!

P.S. I apologise in advance that I will not be able to reply to any comments as I will be travelling during this hop and will be without Internet.  I truly appreciate your comments and hope you come back again soon!

A Lovely May Finish - goal setting

Ok, what shall I finish in May?

I am going to try to finish the Whimsical Bird with wonky flying geese that I made on a whim ages and ages ago.  It is in the style of Syko Kajsa - one of my favourite textile people!

What should it become - a basket, a pouch, a mini quilt, an Ipad or Kindle cover?

Stay tuned to find out!
Linking to Fiber of All Sorts 

Giveaway Day - May 6th

I am participating in Giveaway Day - are you??



Be sure to come back and enter!

April - month in review

April showers bring May flowers -- so true!  I have tulips, pansies and daffodils growing happily in my garden, along with some stubborn but happy dandelions and other 'pretty' weeds.  I have planted a salad mix, parsnips, rhubarb, a tomato plant and have two types of chives growing.  The potatoes will be planted next week I think and I will also plant the carrots, green beans ad beetroot.  This time last year we had a hosepipe ban then it rained every single day for 4 months so I wonder what this year will bring?!!

So?  What did I grow sew in my sewing room in April?  Here is a mosaic of the shenanigans that I got up to:

My favourite blocks were my wonky churn dash blocks:

I LOVED making the tea wallets (Displacement Activity pattern):

And I can't believe I made a shirt that I can actually wear!

I am behind in sewing Bee blocks for two people (sorry guys) but I promise to catch up once I am back from my holiday.  May is a SUPER busy month for me with work, sewing projects (paid ones!!), bees, blog hops, swaps and giveaways so with luck I will get some things completed!

Hope you had a great April - here is to a fun (and busy) May!

Linking to:

Busy

What a busy weekend!  

I [nearly] completed this:

Just the hem left to do and then I can wear it!

I made three of these:

Drool bibs

I met up with:

Di, Moira, Liz and a few others from the Kinky Bee

Photo borrowed from Tuppence Ha'penny Quilt blog - thanks Pennie!

I sewed with:

Me, Pennie, Kelly, Amanda - plus Nathalie who was our host (no photo, sorry)

I received this:

100 charms from (Lee) May Chappell - thank you!!!

I also received this:

Cookbook from (Marion) My Quilt Diet - thank you!!

And yay I received this too:

My Fab Little Quilt Swap mini quilt from (Wendi) prsd4tim2.  Thank you!

I also tidied ... ok, not really... ok..maybe a tiny bit!!!

[no photo obviously!!]

And I did some gardening:
Rhubarb topped up with soil, lettuce planted, parsnips planted, potatoes chitting on
the windowsill and the tomato plant was planted.  I just hope there is no frost!

And now it is Monday evening Tuesday evening and I MUST get the house tidy for when dad and Debbie arrive!!  AND I need to get a couple of blog posts set to 'publish' by themselves while I am on holiday!
Fingers crossed my giveaway goes live as planned on May 6th.

Happy sewing!

Blogger...

Blogger is acting up AGAIN! I switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox a while ago because Blogger wouldn't let me attach pictures to my blog posts. Now it seems Blogger won't allow me to attach pictures using Firefox ether.

Anyone else experiencing this nightmare?

Any solutions?

HELP!!!

Fab Little Quilt Swap - sent

As you know, I'm a swap addict!!!  It truly is an addiction!  I do love a good swap and the Fab Little Quilt Swap Round 3 has been great! 

My partner had a great inspiration mosaic to draw ideas from.  After sketching several ideas in my graph paper notebook, I finally settled on a triple Wonky Churn Dash mini quilt.  It measures 18" x 18.5".  I learned that my partner loves green so I concentrated on green with aqua.  I am totally in love with what I made so I really really hope she loves it!  I will have to make myself one now since I have now have a churn dash addiction!!

I added some white on white hand stitching for a bit of texture in the largest white space which I am quite pleased with.  I am not a confident hand quilter so that part was nerve wracking for me!  A little stitch in the ditch helped hold it all down.  Here it is before ironing or washing:

The back is finished with some numbers print from Ikea and I know my partner likes text print.  I couldn't resist buying some after seeing so many yummy quilts with it!

Hanging corners were added and so was my label so she knew who it was from!  I also sent a few 'English' goodies - some Fox's boiled sweets (aka hard candies) which are a Limited Edition British Collection and are all delicious, I may add (I bought two packages since I had to test them first)!!  I also sent a Royal Navy baseball cap since I know she is a military wife/forces family.

And the most fun - I added a pack of homemade Heather Ross postcards in a homemade Heather Ross envelope using the software from the Heather Ross Prints book.

So there you have it - another swap completed.  I can't wait to see which mini comes through the letterbox for me!!  

This is one of my 2nd Quarter FAL goals - yay - done!

I hope you like it partner!!!