Crafty Catch-up

Gee it's been ages since my last post...I have no excuses either as I've had the last couple of weeks off work for Easter and my birthday, so I've definitely had the time… tsk tsk! Now that I’ve told myself off lets begin…

- delicious birthday muffins from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Just after Easter I went to stay with some relatives in London. It was Luca's first trip to the big city and overall I think he liked it - his poor Dad and Uncle though were left with the challenge of carrying the pushchair up and down a gazillion steps to and from the tube - if nothing else they came back a lot fitter than when they went!

Luca at the V&A Museum* 

Whilst we were there I managed to drag everyone to my favourite fabric shop – Fabrics Galore. I didn’t go too mad with fabric buys…ahem...

I bought some lovely blue linen for a bag from this book. I thought it would be perfect for the summer - light weight and big enough to pack the suncream, a good book and even a small crafty project.

The only alteration I made was to add a small zip pocket inside, just so I don't have to keep rooting to the bottom for my lipbalm!

I also bought some beautiful bird fabric. It's medium weight cotton, perfect for making an apron. I'm really proud of how this turned out as I didn't follow a pattern, and usually when I don't follow a pattern things go slightly awry! After, I had just enough fabric left over to make a simple bag, which I lined with raspberry cotton.

Finally I'll leave you with pictures of a project I finally got around to starting. I've had a stack of Folksy Flannel on my sewing room side for a while now with the intention of making a simple blanket after seeing this one at Frontier Dreams.

Well I finally bit the bullet and cut it up!!

All that's left to do is sew a white border around each 9-patch, which I'll do using a brushed cotton sheet from ebay - bargain!

*If your heading to the V&A Museum before July 4th they have a Quilt exhibition which is well worth a visit.

And finally...

I finally finished Luca's gift this weekend, and not a moment too soon!! His birthday was on Monday, but luckily his party wasn't until today, so I had an extra 6 hours to get it finished! Phew!

I had the idea to make a blanket showing his first year, around Christmas time and since then I've been getting a little bit made here and there. Although it's not perfect, I'm chuffed with the finished blanket, and I'm pretty sure my sister liked it...oh and Luca too!

It's made up of patterned and plain squares; embroidered pieces and photographs, which I transferred onto fabric using Inkjet Iron On Transfers Paper, which I bought here. It was really easy to use, although I did have to rope Karl into the photoshop bit (cropping, reversing and printing the photographs!) - thanks honey!

-this is the back

- and as it is Luca's day, and I'm a smitten Auntie, here are some cute birthday boy pictures...

Iggle Piggle - sweet and sugary

Luca drooling over his birthday cake!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Crafty Weekend

Well it's been a very busy weekend, but for once it was full of fabric fun! I've been super lucky and have spent the whole weekend in my little craft room, sat with my fingers firmly hovering over the sewing machine. I managed to start many little projects, and one big project (most of which aren't finished yet as I'm not the quickest of stitchers!)

I recently spent a few days with my favourite Auntie whom kindly donated lots and lots of lovely fabric to my stash. She had wanted to make a patchwork blanket with it some years ago, but had never gotten round to it. So as a Christmas present, I thought I would attempt my first piece of patchwork and make the blanket myself! As you can see it's a simple pattern of rectangles, but it's been great practice for using my rotary cutter and ruler.

I've finished the patchwork part, and so all thats left to do is to attach it to some wadding and backing fabric...a job for another weekend!!

I've also made a new cover for a wheat bag I bought. It came with a blue fleece cover which wasn't particularly pretty, so I've used my newfound patchwork skills to make a colourful new one. Don't you think it looks lovely?! :o)