Destash -- part 2

Hello again!!

Thank you to everyone who has sent get well wishes to Jax.  He is now home but still not 100%.  He has been picking at some boiled chicken and plain rice and drinking water so at least he is (hopefully) on the mend.  A week of prescribed antibiotics should help too.  Fingers crossed he improves each day. #ilovemydog

I am continuing my destash!  Please let me know in the comments if there is something here that you would like to buy.  I will reply to you and give you my Paypal address for you to Friends & Family paypal me.  Happy shopping!

Here we go: 
Pearl Bracelets - LIGHT BLUE 
£2.90 plus 61p UK postage



Pearl Bracelets ELECTRIC BLUE - Fat quarters - 2 available
£2.90 each plus 61p UK postage each
 

Pezzy Prints BLUE/AQUA - Half metre
£4.50 plus 80p UK postage

Pezzy Prints NAVY - Half metre
£4.50 plus 80p postage

Pearl Bracelets NAVY - Fat quarters - 2 available
£2.90 each plus 61p UK postage each

Pearl Bracelets Aqua-like BLUE - Fat quarter
£2.90 plus 61p UK postage 

Oops-A-Daisy by Keiki for Moda - 1 yard
£7.50 plus £1.06 UK postage


Thank you for looking!!  I am happy to post internationally too - just leave a comment WHERE in the world you are and I will get back to you with postage costs.

Destashing (for Jax's vet bill)

In September, I started a challenge to myself and called it #amysMinimalistChallenge.  I set a goal of ten things to do and they ranged from clearing out the coat and shoe closet, getting the garden in order and parting with fabric in my stash that I will probably never use or have fallen out of love with.

Today I am continuing that challenge and having another clear out because poor little Jax went to the vet yesterday and spent the night on an intravenous drip to get him rehydrated and his glucose levels back up.  I just spoke with the vet and he needs to stay in another night.  I hate to see him so poorly and I myself nearly fainted when I saw the £ bill and there is no way I will be able to afford it unless I do a destash!

If you are interested in anything listed below, please let me know in the comments and I will get back to you ASAP.  I am open to offers as well!  For payment, please "Friends & Family Paypal" me - I will give you my Paypal address in my reply.

If you are not in the UK and are interested, let me know and I can let you know postage to another country.

Here are the items I hope to sell:

Birch Avalon by Jay-Cyn ORGANIC - Half metre with selvage
£4 plus 61p UK postage

 GeoGrand by Daisy Janie - 5 ORGANIC fat quarters
£14 plus £1.06 UK postage

GeoGrand by Daisy Janie - 1 metre of ORGANIC Ogee
£9.00 plus £1.06 UK postage

Briar Rose by Heather Ross - 20 fat quarters
£54 plus £2.90 UK postage

  

Dear Stella Purple Dot - Half yard piece with selvage
SOLD £4 plus 61p UK postage

Geisha in Bliss by Pat Bravo Indie Collection ART GALLERY FABRICS - one 1.5 metre piece with selvage writing!
SOLD £12 plus 1.06 UK postage

Timeless Treasures Sketch - Half yard with selvage (coordinates perfectly with the Geisha fabric shown above - just sayin') 
SOLD £4 plus 61p UK postage

 

More later folks!!!!  Thanks for looking!

Polar Bear

The amazing and talented Kristy of Quiet Play has been releasing her Zoo Animals Block of the Month patterns over the past few months and March is the Polar Bear!

I was lucky enough to test the Polar Bear pattern a few months ago  and I am so happy to finally share it with you!!

And guess what?  This pattern is FREE for the month of March!  Grab it quick!



I hope you sew one up - just imagine this guy as a cushion, a tote bag or as a part of a quilt - brrrrilliant!!

Where Are You Now?

I am in my living room, packing for QuiltCon 2015 and I am listening to Mumford & Sons.  I thought that I would share the lyrics to my (current) favourite song.

Where are you Now?

Mumford & Sons/Babel

It came to the end it seems you had heard.
As we walked the city streets,
You never said a word.

When we finally sat down
Your eyes were full of spite.
I was desperate, I was weak
I could not put up a fight.

But where are you now?
Where are you now?
Do you ever think of me
In the quiet, in the crowd?

You were strangely less in pain
Than you were cold.
Triumphant in your mind
Of the logic that you hold.

You said no one would ever know
The love that we had shared.
As I took my leave to go
It was clear you didn't care.

And where are you now?
Where are you now?
Do you ever think of me
In the quiet, in the crowd?

But where are you now?
Where are you now?
Do you ever think of me
In the quiet, in the crowd?

And I hear of your coming
And your going in the town.
I hear stories of your smile,
I hear stories of your frown.

And the darkness can descend,
We can relish all the pain.
But I know that's what you love,
'Cause you know I love the same.

But where are you now?
Where are you now?
Do you ever think of me
In the quiet, in the crowd?

But where are you now?
Where are you now?
Do you ever think of me
In the quiet, in the crowd?

But where are you now?
Where are you now?
Do you ever think of me
In the quiet, in the crowd?

Songwriters
MUMFORD, MARCUS OLIVER JOHNSTONE / DWANE, EDWARD JAMES MILTON / LOVETT, BENJAMIN WALTER DAVID / MARSHALL, WINSTON AUBREY ALADAR

QuiltCon2015 prep

In a mad moment in June last summer, I decided that I would book my place at QuiltCon 2015.  I spent the first day of my holiday at my sister's house on her computer desperately TRYING to get the classes and Super Volunteer slots that I wanted.  I think I must have hit the refresh button a million times in an hour!  

Fast forward to today, and I find myself frantically packing odd bits and pieces for a week-long sewing vacation in TEXAS!  

So far I have booked a taxi to the airport, looked at what films I will watch on my 10 hour and 20 minute flight (best choices are The Hundred-Foot Journey, The Maze Runner, Gone Girl, Paddington and Mr. Turner) and have dyed some of my rather boring brown hair purple!  As you do.  I'm obviously dealing with the important things first!

I am so excited to be heading to Austin because I am going to be hanging out with Charlotte and Nathalie as well as seeing a few of my Canadian pals from the Ottawa MQG and the Vancouver MQG.  I also get to meet people in person who I have been following on-line since I started quilting in 2009.  Exciting stuff!

And of course I am looking forward to the food.  This is TEXAS people - I will be eating some Tex-Mex food!  And steak.  And probably more steak!  And hopefully some Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp.

There will be some shopping to do as well.  I love picking up things I am not able to get very easily here in the UK.  Things like Twizzlers, cake mixes and Cheez Whiz.  There will be a variety of fabric and haberdashery vendors at QuiltCon as well so fingers crossed I can be a good girl and keep my #sewyourstash2015 promise and not buy anything much.  

For those of you not attending -- I wish you were!

For those of you who are -- TRAVEL SAFELY. 




#quiltcon2015
#QuiltConEh
#quiltconprep


 

Simple Hanging Tea Towel - tutorial link

Today I am over at the 'Daily Stitch' with my tutorial for a Simple Hanging Tea Towel.   Check it out!!!  I hope you make one or two - and if you do, feel free to tag me over on Instagram @amyscraftyshenanigans.

Happy sewing!

2015 1st Quarter FAL

I love doing these public declarations of what I think I can accomplish over a three month period.  I am always wayyyy too ambitious but at least I am aware of how many things I need/must do!

So this brings me to my 1st Quarter 2015 FAL Goal list.  I hope to complete the following things:

1.  Simply Solids Amaranth bee quilt - baste, quilt, bind, label

2.  HST Quilt - add another border (?), baste, quilt, bind, label

3. Aneela Hoey's Fold Over pouch - interface, sew together, send to lucky recipient!

Image borrowed from www.comfortstitching

4.  Nat's Sew Together bag - everything is cut and ready to sew together
 [picture to follow]

5.  Fresh Lemon Quilts inspired Poinsettia  table topper - finish sewing together, baste, quilt, bind, label

6.  Lizzy House Meadow quilt - baste, quilt bind, label

 7.  Cherry Charm quilt - baste, quilt, bind, label

 8.  FIVE Michelle Pattern Grocery bags - all cut out and ready to sew since August!!

Picture borrowed from Michelle Patterns

9.  Tea Wallets - fabric cut to make 10, need to cut interfacing, adhere, sew together, add buttons and tea

 

10.  Arrows bee quilt - baste, quilt, bind, label

And those are the items I plan on completing.  Wish me luck!!  Linking up to:

 

Amaranth

Several months ago I decided to tackle my Simply Solids bee quilt at one of our #nintendo guild meet-ups.  This was just the right motivation to get me to complete the top.  Yes - I finally got my 'Amaranth group' Simply Solids Bee quilt TOP completed!

If you were in the Amaranth group and kindly made me a block - thank you!!   To make the top a little bit bigger, I decided to add sashing and corner stones to help define each block but now I am not so sure that was a good idea.  Sashing should be straight and knowing me it will look all wobbly and  that is not a good look!  Fingers crossed it turns out straight looking once quilted!

The next issue:  how should I quilt it?!!

Happy days - this only took two and a bit years to get to this stage but now that it is now a flimsy, I can do the happy dance [and discretely add it to the pile of unfinished quilt tops].

Catching up with my belated thank you's

I certainly have neglected my blog for a while now.  Sorry for that!  I am attempting to get caught up and share with you all the things that have been going on recently but these things take time...apparently!  I blame Instagram!!  And the full moon in September!

• Thank you to Lisa of In the Boon Docks and Fat Quarter Shop for sending me an awesome "Sew What" pink t-shirt and 4 mini charm packs from a giveaway on Lisa's blog!!  I WILL eventually get a picture of me in the t-shirt - I promise!

• Carrie of believemagic sent me a wonderful mini quilt called Disco Girl.  I won this in her Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day/Week along with a Creative Girl Art Quilt and pattern pack.

Picture from www.believemagic.com/journal

Picture from www.believmagic.com/journal

• Rachel of mammafairy sews, a fellow HipBee member, threw me a lifeline when I posted about my sewing difficulties at making a Burda tunic.  She offered to save the day and finish my tunic for me!  I had truly abandoned it thinking it would be the most expensive sewing fail to date, so I took up her offer in a flash!  Rachel finished it beautifully - and returned it to me with a pincushion and some needles too!   So very kind - thank you Rachel.  [picture will be added soon]

• Lucy of Charm About You drew my name for a £100 gift certificate to Wayfair several months ago  Thank you so much!  I managed to spend my certificate on this realllly cool storage thing!

Picture from Wayfair

• Thank you Heather and Megan of  Quilt Story for the three baby patterns sent to me in September - I am going to be very busy once I get my sew-jo back, sewing all these amazing things! 

• Speaking of patterns - thank you to crazymomquilts for sending me her Waiting Quilt pattern in her draw celebrating 250 quilts! 

• In the A Lovely Year of Finishes July, I won a Clover & Violet Lucy Hobo purse pattern - thank you so much!

• July was a lucky month because I also won the Celestial Star pattern.  I watched Diane's sew-along with interest and plan to make my own Celestial Star one day!

So, here we are in 2015 and I am just starting to get a bit of a sewing done.  Feels really good to be making a mess again!  I will catch up with what I accomplished October, November and December SOON!

Happy New Year!

4th quarter FAL recap

Here is my original goal post.  Guess what!?  I was completely and utterly unrealistic - again!!  I thought that I would be able to accomplish 10 things in three months.  However, I hadn't factored in losing my sew-jo in September.  The full moon knocked me off course and I never fully recovered from that!

So, I only managed to accomplish two things.  Here is my absolute favourite finish:

4 Things quilt - Love Affection, Attention and Praise
(quilted by Trudi Woods)

4 Things quilt by Amy Cavanagh

Over on Instagram, CurlyBoy hosted the #IGMiniSwap.  I was in Flossys Group and this is the mini I made for my partner:

I made one mini swoon block for the centre (pattern by Camille Roskelly) and gave it a Goosed Border (pattern by Jeliquilts).  I picked three of my favourite colours (green, aqua and navy) as my partner liked those colours too!  Paper pieced, hand quilted, hand bound and washed to become crinkly, I wanted to keep this one for myself!

So there you have it.  Two out of ten.  I'm ok with that!

Linking to Finish Along 2014.

Nesting Boxes

Aneela Hoey not only designs fabric but she creates patterns too!  She asked me if I would be a pattern tester (ages and ages ago) and I said YES PLEASE!! 

I made a set of Nesting Boxes and they turned out fabulous!!  What a clever pattern!!!  Very easy to follow with great diagrams.  This was my first time using Fast2Fuse and I loved the firm result!  Perfect for these boxes.

You can put ANYTHING in these boxes!  Spools of thread, Sharpie markers, pins, zippers, candy....

These would make perfect gifts for teachers, neighbours or for the hard-to-give-to men in your life.  They can be coin, cuff link and key catchers!  I made mine in gender neutral/masculine fabrics.

I am not sure what Aneela will be doing with her PDF patterns in her Etsy shop come January 1st 2015 when the EU VAT mess begins, so I recommend that you purchase this pattern ASAP if you want it! 

Thank you Aneela for letting me test this pattern - it is brilliant!!

Image from Etsy/comfortstitching

Jane's Little Boxy Bag

 Oooo look what I made!!

This is "Jane's Little Boxy Bag" by Projects By Jane.  What a clever pattern!  Thankfully the pattern had LOADS of pictures for me as I am a visual kind of gal!  Pictures are worth a thousand words so thank you Jane for all of the photos!  I think the hardest part of making this bag was picking the fabrics! 

This is a roomy bag.  I would describe it as 'boxy-petite'.  You can use it as a craft bag or even as a handbag!  Sturdy construction, jazzy shape - this is a fun bag!!

This bag is fully lined as well - I do love a  bag with a lining!  The only thing I would do differently next time is make longer tabs.

As hard as it was to give it away, I was happy to give it to a work colleague as a thank you present.  She was thrilled!!  I will definitely be making more of these!!

Jane has an Etsy shop - stop in and check her patterns out!!  I would highly recommend this pattern.  Thank you for being so clever Jane!  I really enjoyed this pattern. 

 

Blogger's Quilt Festival - 4 Things

Amy of Amy's Creative Side is once again hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I have decided to enter a second quilt - my "4 Things" quilt.

In-progress picture

This quilt is very special to me.  I had initially sketched how I wanted this quilt to look and I am so thrilled that it came alive and was better than I had hoped or even imagined!

Night-time picture of completed quilt - I will add a daytime picture tomorrow

I chose four words that mean a lot to me: LOVE; AFFECTION; ATTENTION and PRAISE.  I often feel these four things are the things I miss (and want most) from the people I love - especially from my mother who sadly passed away 14 years ago.  I miss her and I miss the simple things like an affectionate or comforting hug from her.   

Amazing quilting by Trudi Wood

My four favourite colours are red, aqua, green and navy blue, all represented in this "4 Things" quilt.  I also love these four things:  quirky birds; wonky houses and trees, plaid and wonky stars - all represented in this quilt!  I have included dragonflies, mushrooms, clouds and a May calendar - four more things that I love.  My favourite colours are repeated as little hints in the binding.

Hint of colour in the cross-hatch binding

Because this is such a special quilt to me, I decided that I would send it to be quilted by Trudi on her long arm frame.  She did a spectacular job and the four words repeated in the quilting is amazing.  You have to look closely to see them, which makes them even more special.

The four words re-appear in the quilt as subtle quilted words

The backing and another hint of colour on the binding

This very personal quilt means so much to me and I am happy to be able to share it here. 

Quilt stats:
Pattern:  Love, Affection and Praise were pieced free hand and the word Attention were letters from the Quilters Cache.  The bird is an adaptation of the McCalls bird pattern.
Fabrics:  A variety of low volume, text, solids, scraps, hand printed fabrics, Oakshott
Thread:  Aurifil
Size:  56 x 69"
Quilted by:  Trudi Wood

Entering this quilt into the Original Quilt Design category.
Thank you Amy for organising this amazing event!