It's a girl!

No, before you ask, I'm not expecting!!!

Remember my last post (from a month ago - must blog more regularly) where I said, I was waiting to hear about my other friend....... Well, later that day on the 18th March she had another wee girl.  A happy, contented little thing, who I've had lovely cuddles from.

So, in time honoured tradition, baby gifts were bought and what better receptacle to put them in than a Noodlehead divided basket? I picked colours sympathetic to the nursery so went with Essex linen in flax for the outside and grabbed some pink, blue, green floral fabric from my stash for the inside. I felt more confident doing this a second time round but I feel the outside is a bit plain as I omitted the optional outer pocket. Hey ho.

I also had to make big sister a gift and as she is being kicked out of the nursery soon, I made a cushion to go in her new Minnie mouse themed big girl room.

I made the mouse template myself and used a fancy applique stitch on my machine to attach it to the background. I also fused the back to some vilene (interfacing) as I find it stops the edges from fraying so much. The bow was added in the same way and I did a simple envelope back for quickness.

Big sister shouted Minnie when she opened her present and I enjoyed a lovely cuddle from her too!

Oh baby!

All of my friends are having babies! First ones, second ones and all at the same time it would seem. Rather selfishly they are keeping the "flavour" to themselves until the new arrival, well, arrives..... (disclaimer: some of them are, whilst others choose not to find out) ..... which means I can't do flavour specific sewing until bubba arrives ��

Anyhoo I digress. One of my school chums had her second wee girl a couple of weeks ago and I went to visit them last week. So of course the day before (nothing like a deadline to get over procraftination!) I got to sewing for the new arrival and her big sister.

I'd bought the noodlehead divided basket pattern some time ago and thought it would make a good gift when filled with muslin's, wipes and the like. The pattern was really easy apart from when it came to joining the divider to the lining. The pattern requires you to sew in a straight line towards a dot (marked on pattern piece) and then pivot with needle down on that dot. Simples! Well if I'd measured the distance from the edge of the pattern to the dot before I'd started, yes. Instead, I was relying on the pattern instructions to tell me that the seam allowance would change here from the previously required quarter inch to the now required half inch. It didn't btw.  Hey ho. We live and learn eh? And I've now written it on the pattern for future reference as the finished basket is amazing and I want to make 20 more! Just as well I have lots more preggo friends......

After dinner I started and finished the lovely owl cushion for new big sister as I didn't want her to feel left out. Thanks to Lynz for bringing the pattern (from etsy) to my attention. It was a fairly quick and easy pattern to whip up.

The photo is rubbish and doesn't do the fabric justice. The background is the pink from Sweetwater noteworthy. So a much more bright pink irl.

Both gifts have been given and I got some  awesome snuggly baby cuddles last week (aww) and as I write this I'm eagerly awaiting news from another friend who went in this morning to have her baby �� so expect to see more baby related sewing here soon!

LBQB Flickr Silence

This blog post is for the members of the Little Blog Quilt Bee but if you're not a member and want to find out more about me then feel free to read on.

I've been having a few issues with Flickr and can't at present join our little group. The lovely Vanessa is trying to rectify this for me but it means that I'm unable to post comments onto group discussions. I've seen you've all been introducing yourselves so thought would post mine here so you don't think I'm being rude and ignorant!

Hi, I'm Claire. I've been sewing for a little over 18 months now. I mainly do patchwork but also sew bags, pouches, fabric baskets, cushions and the like. I'm a member of a lovely little guild, with Sheila, and enjoy attending sewing/quilting related events.

I'm married with 2 fur babies and live on a farm in the countryside in Scotland near to St Andrews. I hail from Edinburgh originally and moved to fife 10 years ago when Edinburgh property prices got the better of us!

I trained at university to be a primary teacher but didn't go into that profession and so spent the next 12 years working in financial services, in Edinburgh, in various different roles - customer service, sales, training & compliance then 7 years in marketing. I now work part time but was fortunate enough to have over a year off in between, where I started sewing.

I started blogging to talk about my sewing achievements and disasters and enjoy reading other blogs too, although I find instagram has led to fewer blog posts (from myself and others).

Anyhoo that's enough from me for just now :-)

Buzzing!

I've joined a bee! A British bee.  For people with little blogs*

The fantastic Lou came up with the idea and is doing a cracking job of getting us all organised! 

Month's have been assigned, I'm queen in July and naturally we are kicking off in March with Lou being queen.  She has chosen the wonky star block and we are all eager to get started.

Here's a note of all my fellow hive mates and where they blog (hopefully all the links work), do pop over and say hi if you get the chance!

Louise- http://imstudiolou.wordpress.com

Alison- http://www.patchworkalley.blogspot.co.uk

Gina- http://occasionalquilter.blogspot.co.uk

Nessa- http://www.nessahux.blogspot.co.uk

Jenny- http://www.notetofollowsew.blogspot.com

Joanna- http://www.myquiltsetal.blogspot.co.uk

Natalie- http://www.lovenatalieuk.blogspot.co.uk

Celine- http://www.espritpatch.blogspot.co.uk

Rosanne- http://notafloralgirl.blogspot.co.uk

Shelia- http://www.mindfulquilter.blogspot.co.uk

Heidee- http://handmadesomethings.wordpress.com

* Just as a side note, does anyone know how we now track how many blog followers we have? I know i don't have many but with the demise of Google reader and the sudden rush to adopt Feedly or Bloglovin or A N Other reader type device, how can we actually tell?  I know that I now follow blogs using my new reader which I don't think shows up in your stats.  How annoying!

I'd certainly be interested in hearing your thoughts on this! 

Hello, Kitty!

Having had my eye on these for a while,  the perfect excuse came along earlier this week and with 40% off it would have been rude not to!!! 

Hello Kitty and Liberty, what's not to love?!

Q1 FAL List - its all about the stars

Linking up with Katy for this bunch of WIPs that I hope to get finished during Q1.

(apologies in advance for poor photo placement but the blogger app doesn't seem to allow you to add photos mid post!)

1. Giant star quilt top. Started last August and got the top finished in a couple of days. I even basted it and started quilting which killed my old machine :-( .  Quilting has been removed and top is ready to be re basted and quilted.

2. Katherine's wheel star quilt top. Needs a backing made and to be basted and quilted. I started this in October 2012 after winning the Nel Whatmore fabric and got the top finished last summer. As I plan to hand quilt it, its not progressed any since then!

3. Wonky stars giant cushion. Started summer 2013 following the simply solids sew solid crew stash club pattern. Needs a small piece added to one of the backing panels and re bound.

That feels enough for now given I have some must do sewing projects too!

Blogged - a Christmas finish (well sort of)

A finish! Whoop!

My sew-jo is severely lacking at the minute. Don't get me wrong I'm still thinking about sewing things and lusting after fabric online but the thought of sitting in front of my machine and sewing, well, just isn't appealing.

I had a move around of my sewing room a wee while ago and the space doesn't feel "right" somehow. Maybe I need to shift it all about again.

Anyhoo on to the finish :-) a lovely lap sized quilt for my mum and dad. Technically this was mostly finished and gifted at Christmas. All that needed doing was the binding sewn down on the back. Had I pulled my finger out it could have been done in 2013 but *meh*.  So queue a visit from the folks and their imminent departure this afternoon and lo and behold, I finished sewing the binding down last night and joined the ends this morning! Last minute, moi??!!

Quilt stats:
Made using an in from the cold layer cake and some kona snow, with kona holly for the binding.
Finished size approx 60 inches sq
Backed with good old Ikea britten numbers.