You know you are a quilter when…

You receive a Christmas card and all you see are quilting designs! 

Just popping in to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and to thank you for all the support and friendship you have given me throughout the year!

Until next time...♥

Needlecase…

Last Tuesday my sewing group had an all day Christmas party and we all were given a lovely little project to work on throughout the day. It was a beautiful needle case and just the sort of thing that I would never make time to make, but because we were all there and all working on the same thing you felt compelled to join in.

What was interesting is that everybody added extra details or changed the design slightly to personalize it so they were all different.

I added leaves and the circles below my heart and leaves on the front of the with the flower.  I was keen to get it finished before I left and managed it with only 15 minutes to spare.  DH did the school run so I had a full day of stitching fun.  It was like been on retreat and I feel recharged and ready to tackle the rest of the Christmas rush.

Until next time...♥

Crafting It Forward…

Back in June I signed up to Amy's Craft it Forward (just like the Pay it Forward idea) and then promptly forgot all about it. Imagine my surprise when a lovely squishy envelope arrived last week with a sweet gift from Amy.

She sent me this darling heat pad that is the perfect size to hold a tea pot and will definitely get used around here. The colours match my kitchen perfectly as I have red accents including a new red kettle :o)

The best part is that I get to Craft in Forward to 5 lucky people.

Here are the rules:

1. I will make a crafty gift for the first five people to comment on this post and say that they would like to be a part of Craft it Forward! This little gift is a surprise, and will arrive to you anytime within the next 9 months.

2. To sign up to Craft it Forward, you need to commit to the project yourself. Once you receive the item from me, just post this (or something similar) on your blog so others can get involved. You then make them something and Craft it Forward continues on and on!

3. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite colour and that you want to participate in Craft it Forward. Also, please be sure that I have a way to contact you so I can get your postal address (do not leave your postal address in the comment!) so I can get your crafty gift in the mail.

Until next time...♥

Latest Quilt…

This weekend my cousin is celebrating her daughter's christening and as a gift I have made her a quilt. I just love how quick this came together. The nine patches were made with fabrics in my scrap bin, some of which are from my daughter’s dresses from their childhood.

I made all the star points with pretty pinks and tied the blocks together with light blue sashing and lime green corner stones. The border fabric has all those colours to tie to whole quilt together.

I decided to try a new-to-me product..Hobbs fusible wadding. I think it's my new favourite product in that it took me mere minutes to baste this 40" x 40" quilt together. I have seen two methods..one is to fuse the backing first and then fuse the front on after or you can layer all three and fuse the layers together all at once. The fusible isn't like heat 'n bond in that it is more of a sticky temporary bond and the layers can be peeled and repositioned as need be. Quilting the layers was so easy and the end result was a nice smooth quilt and NO pleats. The quilt washed well and came out of the dryer snuggly soft.

All quilts need a label and I used this opportunity to try yet another new-to-me product. I recently read about Posca paint pens by Uni and read that they are colourfast once they are heated with an iron. So after stamping the bunny in Versacraft ink, I coloured it in with the Posca paints. There was no bleeding and the colours were lovely and vibrant. I used a Pentel Fabric pen for the lettering. After my label was complete I set it with an iron. The label looks as good now after washing as it did before. A winner! (the only thing that isn’t a winner is that I stamped the “stitched together with love” upside down…oh well..proves it’s made by a real human! 

Until next time...♥

Cotswold Wildlife Park…

Last Saturday we braved the cold and went to the Cotswolds Wildlife Park with DD2 as a celebration for her upcoming birthday. Last year her birthday was postponed twice.. once because the stomach flu took out the majority of the guests...and twice because of a snowstorm! So it only made sense to seize the day and take full advantage of the sunny weather and give her her birthday gift early.

Along with a trip out DD2 has had a new camera for her birthday.  She caught the photography bug over half term when I let her use my old camera and it made sense to get her her own that she could use.  The wildlife park was the perfect venue to test it out and she very much wanted me to post her pictures for you to enjoy...so here they are.

We have the singing penguins..

The Vulcan Prairie Dogs (my mind to your mind...)

The Inquisitive Giraffe

The Sleeping Wolf

and my favourite picture of the day...the meerkat!

Until next time...♥