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.

2013

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!

No sewing here

I'm ashamed to say it but for the last month there has been very little sewing going on in Casa del Poppins. This comes with the revelation that I've had my lovely new machine for almost a month now and used it precisely 4 times! I'm slowly getting used to it and have a couple of projects lined up for next week to get me going again.

Just because I've not been doing any physical sewing doesn't mean I've not been thinking about it (almost always constantly), planning new projects, thinking about Christmas projects,  purchasing fabric and notions* and tidying up my sewing room including organising my stash!

Below are some photos of recent buys and the tidier than normal sewing space.  Enjoy!

* recent purchases include:

100 zips from Zipit on Etsy
Keyfob kit from everything ribbons on Etsy
Dresden pillow kit from Avery Homestore
Road Fifteen jelly roll from Simply Solids
Makower Reels fq from Very Crafty
New small quilting rule and thread scissors (for a travel sewing kit I'm making) from Very Crafty
Pre order of 500 Quilt Blocks by Kerry & Lynne
Pre order of Quilt-opedia by Laura Jane
Katy's book, 25 Patchwork Quilt Blocks (of which there are only 10 left on Amazon so be quick if you want one)
And of course a bumper order of fabric (yet to arrive) from Pink Castle Fabrics using their Fall30 coupon code

Aaaaand relax

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 :-)

Christmas Craft Day - I'm going, are you?

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.