Small Blog Meet

March already?  How did that happen?!  February has certainly been a busy month, with lots of makes, mainly of the bunting variety as I have been working to fulfil orders from my website.

 

But thankfully there was time to work on a quilt or two, and also a little gift for my husband for Valentines Day. 

 

So without further ado, here is a little collage of makes for February.

 

 

From top left, clockwise.  1. French General Quilt top finished and awaiting basting, ready for hand quilting. 2. 'P' monogram on my husband's fluffy new bath towel.  3. One of several sets of dinosaur bunting 4. One of several sets of Pirate bunting 5. One of several sets of cupcake bunting 

 

I am also working on a new design for a quilt using these gorgeous fabrics, Out to Sea, by Sarah Jane.

 

 

 

I've completed the central panel and all I need now is some daylight to take a decent photo so that I can share it with you.  Fingers crossed for some sunshine tomorrow!

 Linking up with Lily's Quilts:

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

 

Sarah x

 

 

 

 

A Bit more Bunting

The weekend has been a characteristically busy one but fortunately there has been just a little bit of time for sewing.  

I purchased this gorgeous Urban Zoology dinosaur print a while back and I knew it would make gorgeous bunting. (And a quilt too, but that's one for another day.) 

Anyway, I finally got around to making it, and here it is.

Zane is indeed the lucky recipient of this particular set of bunting, having celebrated his 3rd birthday with a party this very afternoon. But I shall be making it available on my website here.

I am about to order the backing for my French General Quilt, having finished the top well over a week ago.

I am going to go with the gorgeous red alphabet print for the back, and also have the same for the binding to really frame the quilt nicely.  

So while I am waiting for the fabric to arrive I am going to put pen to paper and hopefully fabric to machine, as I work on a new quilt that I have been pondering for months...can't wait to share progess on this one soon!  

Linking up with http://betteroffthread.com/2013/02/24/lets-get-acquainted-monday-link-up-single-girl-quilt/

Sarah x

A Terrible Week and A lovely day

It's not been the best of weeks.  My daughter has been off pre-school sick for 3 out of the 5 days so all activities and socialising of any kind has gone on hold.  For me that's tough!  (I would just like to point out that she is much better now).

 

So yesterday, in a bid to banish cabin fever and enjoy the continuing blue skies, I went for a little drive, and with the children asleep in the back, I stopped along the way to take a few photos. 

 

 

 

 

Thank fully the week has ended well.  More than well in fact because for the first time ever, I have met one of my blogging friends in *real life.* Sue of Just Sew Sue happens to live a mere 15 mins away, and having met through our respective blogs, we thought it high time we met in person. 

 

Well I am so glad we did.  We had such a lovely time chatting about quilting and fabrics, and blogs and designers and shops...the time just flew by.  I was lucky enough to see Sue's long arm quilting machine, as well as lots of examples of her beautiful work.  Damn I should have taken pictures!  Do hop over to her blog and take a look. 

 

So now that my mental well being has been restored, I feel better equiped to face the day tomorrow with the children while my husband has to go into work. 

 

Oh and I finally managed to print out some labels, and they aligned themselves correctly first time - it really was a better day!

 

 

 

Sarah x

 

PS I did actually have a little sewing finish as well.  But I shall share that over the weekend, once I've had a chance to photograph it in the garden :-)

 

Feeling Brighter

In the last blog post I said I would share with you the little gift that I made for my husband for Valentines day.  Since then, the whole family, myself included have been hit by none other than the sick bug!  It relentlessly spread itself from one family member to the other, and I seemed to have it worst of all.  Suffice to say, not a lot of sewing or blogging for that matter, took place over the weekend :-(

But here we are now on Monday morning; I'm feeling better, my daughter has returned to pre-school, my son is asleep and the sun is shining.  All in all things are looking up.  

So where was I?  Oh yes, the Valentines gift.  This is what I gave my husband, I personalised a new, fluffy, giant bath sheet. 

 No more too small scratchy towels for him! 

And before illness struck, I was able to photograph a couple of the sets of commissioned bunting that i made last week.

Doesn't the sunshine and blue sky do wonders for photographs?! 

On Sunday, after a weekend of confinement, the only decent thing to do was to go for a little drive round the island and get some much needed fresh air.  I am so glad that we did because the views were stunning.  

Overlooking St Ouens Bay

The Lighthouse at Corbiere

It really feels like Spring has arrived.  I hope to get out and photograph more of beautiful Jersey in the Spring, it's days like this that I feel even luckier to live here.  

Linking up with:

Sarah x

Sewing on the Edge

It's been a particularly busy week because it's half term at the moment.  So day time blog reading and posting, email sending, internet surfing and fabric browsing have come almost to a grinding halt.  All quilting and sewing related activities have been undertaken late into the evening, and the midnight oil has been burning rather too frequently.

But the good news is I have finally finished my French General quilt top.

I thought I would add cute little squares at the corners to tie in with the floral print inside the stars, and I think it was a good move as it breaks up what otherwise might be a rather plain border.

Next I have to decide on the fabric for the back, as the one I was originally going to use is far too dark.  But that will have to wait until another day, as I have had lots of orders on my website for my personalised cherry cupcake bunting,

and personalised pirate bunting.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you a little something I made for my husband for Valentines Day.  I'm going to leave it out for him to find in the morning, I hope he likes it!  Have you made anything this year for the man/woman in your life?

Linking up with:

Sarah x

I Spy Baby Bunting

I have been thinking of bunting ideas for website for some time now, in between working on various quilts and all the other things that I try to fit into my already very busy life.  

And there is nothing like a bit of online 'fabric browsing' to get some inspiration.  Well, it didn't take long for me to find the perfect fabric, something that would be suitable for both boys and girls, for a new nursery perhaps...and this is what I came up with.

I've decided to call it simply 'The Circus' (does what it says on the tin and all that).  I just adore the gorgeous little lion and the elephant. 

 And isn't this giraffe so cute!

I think the bunting on the bunting is really fun, and it works well to break up the yellow prints.

I loved this owl so much, that I couldn't resist a little applique and give him a flag all to himself.

Well if the owl had his own flag, then the lion had to have one as well, right?  He is king of the jungle after all.

And this teddy is the perfect circus train driver.  I really like the small dot print that you can see in the corner of this photo too.

I've had great fun making this bunting and I hope to make a quilt from these fabrics some time too.  For once I have been sensible and bought this fabric and lots of coordinates in large quantities, to avoid  the fabric shortages I have been experiencing while making my French General quilt.  Definitely a good move!

I have now listed this bunting on my website in my online shop.

Linking up with Plum and June's Monday Link up

Thank you so much for stopping by :-)

Sarah x

The Stars are Expanding

So the good news is, my new fabric arrived in a timely fashion, so I was able to carry on with building up the stars.  If you missed my post on Monday, this is where I was up to.

And now the stars are expanding.

I am glad I went with the red for the outer most star, I think it gives it cohesion and adds some much needed brightness to a rather muted pallet of colours.  It was worth the wait for the postman.

It's nearly big enough now to be a baby quilt.  But I think it needs a border, as I wouldn't want my binding to eat into the delicate points of the star.  I have been auctioning fabrics for the border, considering a scrappy border and also a darker version of the grey flower fabric, which I had originally planned for the back and have in great abundance.  But the dark flower fabric is just too dark. Even for the back.  And I like the scraps idea, but guess what, I just don't have enough!

So it was back to the online store for me, and I've ordered 2 more fat quarters of the cream with red circles, which will give me enough either to do the border in its entirety, or to make a scrappy border with another fat quarter of a different design that I have not yet used.  I shall go with my instincts when I have the fabrics in front of me.  

More waiting for the postman :-(  Perhaps I should open up a fabric shop in Jersey...that would avoid this problem altogether!  

Sarah x

Fabric Frustrations

Over the last few days I have finally cut into the delicious Petite Odile fabrics by French General.

Here is my progress so far;

I have designed this quilt myself, with the idea being a feature panel in the middle surrounded by a series of concentric stars.

As you can see from the first photo, I bought a series of fat quarters for this project.  It's what I tend to do, and then I'll purchase a metre or more of my favourite print for the backing fabric and some more for the binding.  But this time I have a problem.  

I really like the red alphabet print and I want to use it in the next 'star'.  However, I am fast running out of this print and I know I will never have enough for all those HSTs that I will need to go around the edge of this quilt :-(  So I have just had to order in some more.  Which is frustrating because I have to wait a couple of days for it to arrive...just when I am in the creative flow...don't you hate it when that happens!

But I guess that is one of the drawbacks of coming up with your own design.  Particularly if with like this quilt, it's a kind of design-as-you-go type thing.  I hadn't realised just how much I was going to love the alphabet print, and it really works well against the more muted tones of the other fabrics. 

I am looking forward to reporting on progress on this one soon.

And I shall be hand quilting it too with pearle cotton.  I can't wait to settle down with a good film and get started!

Linking up with Plum and June's Monday Link Up

Sarah x