Hello! Remember me??
Yes it has been a mighty 3 months since my last post but that doesn't mean I've not been busy.
Hopefully I'll get round to blogging about what I've been up to soon.
In the meantime, here's some of my makes from this year.
Thanks for your support in 2013. Best wishes to all for 2014!
I apologise in advance as this will be a small detour from the normal sewingy related posts. So feel free not to read any further.
The past couple of weeks have flown past in a blur. I've been extremely busy (for me) with the following:
* preparing for visitors,
* dealing with said visitors who were very hard work,
* making a flying 100 mile round trip to Edinburgh to look at sewing machines which saw me come home with a lovely new Janome Horizon 7700, still to be named.
* Joining a new quilt group and meeting some fantastic online friends IRL
* changing hours at work
* prepping for more visitors
* having a girly night out and possibly one too many sherbet lemonades (ahem)
* packing for our holiday up north, including meal planning and food shopping,
* being away on holiday,
* seeing to all the post holiday laundry and unpacking,
* shopping for a christening present,
* attending a christening in Edinburgh.
Phew.........
So today as I write this I'm still in my pj's having not got up til half 9. I have caught up on over 300 blog posts (i might not have read them all), done some very boring housework chores and made some soup.
This afternoon I'm looking fwd to getting back to some serious sewing with my new machine :-)
Just a quick note to let you know that The Stitch Gathering are holding another event on the 10th November.
Following on from the success of the day in August, a mini Christmas themed event has been scheduled for later this year. There are only 40 places so get your skates on if you want to come.
I have my ticket, will I be seeing you there?
More info, including how to get a ticket, can be found here.
So, its about time I wrote about the actual day rather than gushing on and on about the goodie bag, isn't it?!
I had an early start and headed off to Perth services to meet the lovely Vanessa who had very kindly offered people near her a lift in one of the Flickr discussion groups. I may have stretched the terms of "near" a bit ;-) but it was fantastic to get to know Vanessa on our journey through and most importantly it meant I wasn't walking into a room of strangers on my own. I get quite nervous and shy doing that sort of thing believe it or not!
Tea and coffee was on hand and Jo came over to greet us as we ended up sitting at a table with two of the teachers, Fiona & Julie
Goodie bags were distributed but I think I've covered that already!! Tickets were handed in and we were invited to find our nametag swap partners and have a chat. Rhona made my gorgeous name tag which rather spookily matched my outfit perfectly and I love the little needles and scissors that border my name.
Jo did a little welcome speech and we were split into our morning classes and led to the classrooms. The view from the rooms were stunning but unfortunately I was too busy gassing to take any pics!
I did Jo's cathedral window class in the morning. I'm not sure I would have been so calm and collected teaching to such a large group but Jo did a sterling job and we all learned the ninja origami fabric folding method required to make a cute wee Pincushion. (Disclaimer, mine isn't actually finished yet but I shall endeavor to finish it. Those that know me will know I'm not a keen hand sewer so I'll have to apply the little and often method to get it done).
Next came lunch. Lets just say there was enough to feed a small army and it was thoroughly deliscious.
After lunch there was an fq swap closely followed by a lucky dip and show and tell.
My afternoon class was foundation paper piecing with Katy. I really enjoyed it and after the initial bout of confusion I think I'm safe to say that I've mastered the technique and am adding a little bit to my unfinished class project each day. Some people did struggle in the class but Katy was on hand to offer help and support or even just a reassuring nod to signal we were on the right track. Oh and we even got cupcakes half way through the class to stop us flagging. Baked by Katy herself no less!
After classes finished we packed up and trooped round to Avery Homestore to have a last look at the Modern Quilt exhibition. Jo had bubbles and canapes ready for us as we wandered around chatting, shopping and voting for our favourite entries.
Closing speeches were had and prizes were given to the thoroughly well deserved winners. We retrieved our quilts and headed home.
Everyone agreed it was an absolutely amazing day and I know I'm waiting patiently (well sort of) to hear when the next one is!!!
So all weekend my bundle of Rock n Romance was taunting me from my studio. I just couldn't stop thinking about the lovely prints and knew it was time to do something with it.
I've had it for a while now and from time to time I take it off the shelf pat it, look at it, wonder what the hell I'm going to do with it then put it back on the shelf. (I probably should point out that I'd originally bought this for a BOM but couldnt bring myself to use it for that purpose) (I should also point out that I bought the whole line so still have around 12 fq's left)
I needed a pattern that was going to be big enough to show off the prints. Cutting them up into tiny bits wasn't going to do it for me and I was starting to wonder if inspiration would ever hit. Then last week whilst checking Twitter, someone mentioned this tutorial and I knew instantly that it would be perfect and very importantly, quick.
On Monday I cut out all the squares and halved those that needed to be. This took less than 2 hrs. I got a bit sidetracked yesterday meeting a friend for lunch so no progress was made. Today I've sewn all the hst's together, ironed and trimmed them and joined them together into rows. I've sewn 3 rows together but was rushing so have to unpick and redo one of them as well as add the final one on. This can wait til tomorrow now.
I got batting today and have ordered the binding fabric and the backing is going to be good old Ikea numbers text print. Hopefully I'll have a finished top tomorrow and a finished quilt sometime next week!
I thought it was about time I got round to blogging some of the projects I've been working on, starting with fabric storage baskets.
Last month I was invited to a baby shower. As is customary, you take along a present for the baby. I tend to prefer to wait until baby arrives safe and sound (and we know what 'flavour' it is) before giving a gift but at the same time, I couldn't turn up empty handed!
I'd gifted nappy cakes before, usually with clothes/baby grows added in once bump arrives, and on this occasion seemed like a good way to present a fairly inexpensive gift.
In addition I thought I'd make a storage basket for the nursery from some gender neutral noteworthy by Sweetwater. I trawled the interwebs looking for tutorials and came across lots! This one jumped out at me. It was easy peasy to do and I liked the way the contrasting lining looked when it was folded over. Also I'm thinking that you'll be able to easily adapt it to make a scrappier more patchworky version or smaller/larger versions as required.
I filled the basket with some disposable changing mats and muslins and added it in as a layer on the cake.
As its taken so long to write this up, little Freya Elizabeth has now arrived safely and is thriving!
I've since made 2 more, boy flavoured this time, again as pre birth baby gifts. This time I dug into my precious flea market fancy by Denise Schmidt and a random fq of orange polka dot from my stash. I think the bright colours work well together.
I'll definitely be making more of these and intend to make a couple for my sewing room to organise my bits n bobs.
I get asked about this recipe a lot so thought as I made it recently and took photo's I should probably blog about it and seeing as this blog will be primarily about my sewing adventures, what better to write about on random Thursday than baking!
I first came across this gorgeousness when I hosted a bake off type event at (my former) work and promptly asked the competitor for the recipe. Since then it's become a firm favourite amongst my friends and I get asked to bring it along to all sorts of events. (Note its also easily adaptable for Gluten Free diets)
Ingredients
100g butter
200g milk chocolate
3 tablespoons golden syrup
225g digestive biscuits
225g (2 large bags) mint areo bubbles, orange areo bubbles, or maltesers.
Method
Line an 8 x 8 (or as near as) tin or casserole with cling film or grease proof paper.
Finely crush the biscuits
Place butter, syrup and chocolate in a pan and melt on a low heat.
Add crushed biscuits and mix together
Add some of sweets and mix in
Pour mix into tin and smooth out to even thickness.
Place remainder of sweets on top and press in a bit.
Leave to cool before chilling and slicing. Chill in fridge for about 4 hrs.
Drizzle melted white choc over top before slicing (optional)
Et voila!
Enjoy
