My great niece will become a big sister in July, so I asked her to look at my stash and choose some fabrics that she liked. She has a great eye, and, luckily for me, chose four fabrics (the butterfly print, pink, purple and teal that I used for the binding) that all worked together well. I choose a simple pattern to showcase the fabrics. This pattern, Town Square by Donna Robertson, was perfect for what I wanted. The blocks are large - finishing at 15" - and the quilt is a perfect sized 47" x 62". Doesn't the binding work well with these colours? I was pleased to have plenty of this 'mad ..read more

 Days 37 to 45 of my mini birds project - I'm making progress! I'm still having fun with different ways of creating the birds, and wondering about other styles too ..read more

.....when you can make more than one?!? I missed out on a Miniatures Group sewing evening recently, but when I saw the tricorne bowls that the other members had been making, I wanted some of that action! So, I jumped onto Little Patch Pockets website and ordered the Tricorne Bowl pattern. Simple to purchase, and the PDF was sent to me quite quickly. In not much time at all I'd read through it, cut out some fabrics and made my first bowl. Perfect for Easter treats, or at least, it would have been, if it hadn't been swiped by DD2 who liked the look of it! So, I set to and did some more cutting ..read more

The next nine! I'm really enjoying these little applique birds, as you can tell by the number of them that I've made. The machine sewn foundation pieced one (centre right) was more difficult, and I'm not sure that it came out just how I was imagining! Still, onwards and upwards - lots more birds still to make!   ..read more

 The next nine birds! I can see that I need to get better at making ones that face right!  Funny that I didn't notice as I was going along, it's only now that they are grouped together that my bias becomes obvious! Still, I'm pleased with days 10 to 18 ..read more

Surely everyone deals with their Christmas scraps in February?!?  No? Just me? There were lots and lots of scraps from DD1's fabric bag business - and it was time to deal with them all, in her effort to be as close to zero waste as possible. So, I drew up a stocking template on paper, and mounted it on some scrap cardboard. Roughly cut the shape out of some scrap fleece, and then added the fabric scraps / strips using the 'quilt as you go' method to the front. Then it was time to trim it and flip it over to admire it! Repeat that seven times, add fabric for the back and lining, sew t ..read more

When a girl might spontaneously stay away overnight, her mother thinks that there are some necessities that she should travel with - and a toothbrush and clean knickers come top of the list, with antiperspirant not fair behind. After discussion, DD1 also wanted to add in her own toothpaste and her preferred brand of shower gel, handily available in a travel size.  So, I grabbed a fun kitty print, made some pleated pockets, and produced an overnight roll for her.  With a hair elastic and a button to close it, it makes a neat roll to be dropped into a handbag, just in case 'plans c ..read more

I'm taking part in the Quilters Guild 'Imagine a Bird' - and they ask that full images aren't shared ahead of a particular post that they are going to make, so here are just some snippets. First of all, above, is the background that I've made for my piece.  A technique that I've seen other leading quilters use, layering up different neutrals, that I enjoyed creating. Then you can see little glimpses of my work in progress - the bird that I am going to applique onto this background. This was my first guess at a bird breast - but the colour wasn't working! I was much happier with my seco ..read more

A fun 'crafternoon' with Benta and Vicky led to me sewing these card toppers.   I had fun assembling pieces of felt with a selection of scraps, adding stitches to hold them together, and then finishing them with simple flowers. Have you seen flowers like this?  Mine were made with fabric circles that were about 2" diameter, then cut in half.  Then it was a simple matter of deciding how many petals to use in each flower (mostly I used six, but not always), and sewing a small running stitch across the straight edge of each petal, joining them onto the one length of thread.&n ..read more

 A little side trip into crafting this week - every now and then I make a batch of cards.  This time I had a few bits and pieces that I wanted to use up - sticker sheets that were almost finished, scraps of paper and cut outs - you know how these things accumulate when you aren't looking! So, with some of my older - again very random - cards, I made a few cards to tide me over until I next sit down with a good idea what I want to do! Always satisfying, and it makes life easy when you have a few handmade cards on hand ..read more