CHARM ABOUT YOU

I had a little time to myself this morning and of course I had to sew. In a fun mood I decided to finally do something with my paper pieced donkey that I made from Kristy's pattern and after seeing her gorgeous donkey basket I knew I wanted to do the same.

I used this tutorial by 1/4"mark and it came together really easily! I added some machine stitching to the donkey to liven it up a bit and some fmq, then gathered some lovely DS scraps (practical can be pretty too!) and free motion quilted a scallop pattern.



This has been adopted by my little girl to stuff all her toys in and carry around :) I will have to make another for my son obviously.


So that's one more project to link up with the Donktober party which starts tomorrow. There's still time to make yourself something Donkified as the linky stays open until Friday 16th November, go check out all the fabulous projects you could make!


I also managed to get a couple of bee blocks (Scrappy? Sew Bee It!) done for the lovely Rosa:

She asked us for these Red Pepper Quilts blocks using this tutorial. I think it's going to be gorgeous!

Finally I've finished a little project for the Sew Seasonal Blog Hop...


come back tomorrow to see what I made and make sure you visit all the other participating blogs, just click the button below to see the list:

The kids are on half term this week, though we've been hit by a horrible tummy bug :(
To keep things fun we've been crafting a lot and in the spirit of our paper/cardboard makes we've another treat for you:


This is a fantastic articulated papercraft skull by Noah of Skull-A-Day. The kids adore them and had fun colouring and writing on them while I was cutting the others out!


They'd make cute decorations too. It was easy to put together, I've not constructed anything like this since I was a kid making paper fortune tellers and other stuff. The picture was clear and the guide made total sense once you are putting it together. I had run out of glue and had no double sided tape so I just folded little bits of sellotape and they work fine!! I also printed the template on thick paper but thin card would have been better. I could make these ALL DAY. such fun!

And just in case that looks a little too professional... here's some spiders we made yesterday:


The ingredients were an egg carton, some sticky eyes and black Klona cotton from Abakhan. Spooky, fantastic and hours of freaking mummy out!

In sewing news there has been some little bits here and there, I had a blogging break last week and I don't have time to get too much done at the moment or indeed think about what needs doing!

I made a couple more rose stars:

I stitched up this gorgeous Donkey after Erin gave the link to these adorable patterns - I plan on doing some more for the baby's room and displaying the hoops:



Of course I had to make the Donkey purple in homage to the fun that is Donktober! You should definitely check out all the great Donkey projects and you still have time to make some of your own and link up for some really fantastic prizes:



Finally I have been working on some more tooth fairy cushions, all the prep is done at least:


I also managed to finish my friend's baby quilt but you'll have to come back on Friday to see it - I'm hosting TGIFF this week :)

Tonight I shall mostly be totally avoiding the television because I HATE horror films and being scared in general, which is odd since I love Halloween! This is about as spooky as I get, dancing skeletons!! hilarious.


Linking up:

I finished sewing on the binding on the Girly Garden Quilt last night. It's a gift for my daughter's friend who will be 3 next week.


It's made entirely from my stash. I already had the charms cut out, some left from other projects, and it has a planned but scrappy look that I really like!


All of the fabrics are from Prints To Polka Dots and I mostly got them from the fab sale section (with FQs from £1.35 you can't refuse!).


More stash fabric for the back and quilted it with straight lines using a lilac thread.
I also tried out 'The Binding Tool' by TQM Products that I won from the lovely Jenniffier and, once I got my head round it, it worked perfectly! I will use this every time now. It means that you literally can't tell where the binding ends because it matches the seams in the binding strips and there's NO bulk.

I made a couple more presents for my son's friends who are having their birthday parties this weekend:


I used an adorable mini charm pack of Aneela Hooey's 'Walk in the Woods' and had two squares left over!


On the other side I appliqued the girls' names and used my newly discovered 'baseball' stitch on my machine:



And now the winner of my Donktober giveaway:


Congratulations Jan! I've emailed you. I hope you'll enjoy the pressie from me and I look forward to seeing what you make with the donkey fabric! Erin's cute finish this week might give you inspiration :)

If you missed out make sure you're following along with the Donktober blog hop because there's more gorgeous fabric being given away on Monday


Linking up to:

Over the weekend I finished this tooth fairy cushion that a friend had commissioned for her son. He's a little bit older and the monster one I made for his younger brother didn't quite have the cool factor he would want so I designed something a bit different.


The inspiration for the cushion came from Boo Davis' 'Basket Case' quilt in the book Dare To Be Square. I modified the skull design so it could be appliqued and made the jaw into a little pocket.


I used some gorgeous Oakshott cotton for the background and a lovely grey slightly thicker weight fabric for the back.


It was fun to design something with a little edge!

A couple of weeks ago I got to test a paper pieced pattern for Kristy of Quiet Play. If you don't already know it's Donktober this month and Erin of Missy Mac Creations has us celebrating all things Ridonkulous!!


This was quick and relatively easy to piece - I did get my colours mixed up once or twice but I'm still a beginner. Kristy suggested colouring in the paper to be sure what goes where and I will definitely do that next time I'm paper piecing.

You can get Kristy's free pattern and a brilliant tutorial HERE. I can't decide whether to make my donkey into a cushion or a pouch, what do you think?

I will be hosting Donktober this Wednesday Friday (doh!!) so check back then for an easy upcycling tutorial, a couple of embroidery patterns and a giveaway!


Recently I got some wonderful post. This morning I got these fab packs of Aurifil from the lovely Alyssa at Pile O'Fabric:



If you are in need of some fabric goodness hop over and take a look at her shop Westwood Acres, they have all kinds of lovelies.

As if that wasn't tempting enough Randi is having a sale on Bella over at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics!


Linking up:

I love Autumn and Winter and am so happy we're really getting our horrible British weather back (not that we had much sun!!), even my daughter recently exclaimed, 'rain is great. It helps the flowers grow!'

I love wrapping up warm; lots of layers, jumpers and my new scarves!

Also that mean it's getting closer to Halloween :)

Here's what I managed to make in September...


Granny squares, Infinity scarves (pattern by Making Rebecca Lynne - hurry she's having a GIVEAWAY and you can get the pattern here), Spinning Stars Quilt, Monster tooth fairy cushions and the Sailor Mouth Swap (not shown here in full due to bad language).


And worked on blocks for these (see buttons on the right):

How Far Will You Go? QAL
Vintage Holiday QAL
Retro Flower QAL
Rose Stars
and Scrappy? Sew Bee It

Speaking of Sew Bee It, you might remember a sneak peek I showed you of a project I was working on... well it turned into this (and more to come!):


I decided to ask the Scrappy? Sew Bee It bunch to make me some feathers from the 'Feather Bed Quilt' Anna Maria Horner pattern, available free here. It's my turn to be queen bee and I really adore this quilt.  It's not a traditional 12.5" block but one feather measures approximately 9" x 18" so I'm hoping that'll be ok with the bee. They are easier to make than I thought they'd be and I just adore the pattern. I'm looking forward to receiving my feathers in the post!

I also have plans to join in Donktober later this month, it's starting today over at Missy Mac Creations!!




Finally a winner for the Kona giveaway sponsored by Fluffy Sheep Quilting:



I realise that says 126 but trust me it's 326, the numbers just start again on a new page.

Congratulations sarahleigh! Look out for an email from me.
Huge thanks to Cindy for a great giveaway!


Linking up to: