CHARM ABOUT YOU

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:

Pink Chalk Studio are having a link about 'where I sew'


 so I thought I'd join in...

I sew in the corner of our dining room. It's a tiny space that's blocks the door from the hall but we have an open plan living/dining room so we can still get in the room!


I don't have a sewing room of my own, or really enough space to manage all the crap sewing supplies that I amass, hence all the boxes next to and under the desk. The desk was a great find on gumtree and it extends as well, although that can't happen in my little corner!

I'm surrounded by beautiful makes from blogging friends (see if you can spot something you've made!) and I love the hanging organiser made by Emily, now next to my small "design wall" - ha!

And yes I know it's a mess but I've got so many projects on the go... here's some of what I've been doing:

working on the next rose star block

mmm... any guesses?! ;)

Next up I've finished the ET phone home block cushion front! Thanks for all the encouragement and suggestions regarding my mistake... thankfully it's all been for the best and I really, really love it now!


I hand quilting using Anchor perle 8, a pale green around the triangles:


and a cream in the border:


I'll get more pictures once I've finished the cushion. I look forward to getting this done, it's likely to be one of my favourites and I'm going to call it 'ET turn up the volume!'

Also linking to:

Over the weekend I finished my last two little stitchings for the Fat Quarterly Retreat swap so just need to get these pretties on some teatowels



I also managed to get my Blogger's BOM blocks done for March and April:


On a roll I just finished these two blocks for charity Bee Blessed:


Hope they're ok Judith! They're like a boy and a girl converging corners!

It was fun making them and I was glad to dip into my scrap bin giant bag because it looks like this:


Serendipitous then that Sana should post about joining a bee that is using scraps and asking for followers! It's called Scrappy? Sew bee it! (great name!!) and is being run by the delightful May over at Confessions of a fabraholic. She is so sweet, incredibly organised and very helpful - I've gleaned all that just from emailing her today so I'll be happy to get to know her and the other bee members better!
If you'd like to join there's still room so go see May and sign up :)

I've never been in a bee before but already I'm enjoying it and so glad I joined on a whim!!

In other fun news, the gorgeous Katie is starting a fun link party each week for hand stitched items. This is such a great idea and I can't wait to see what hand sewing there is around blogland!



Check out her great blog There & Back then get to hand sewing something and I'll see you there on Friday! Maybe with some progress on this:

http://www.sewsweetness.com/2012/05/tutorial-embroidery-to-go-bag.html

The icing on the cake today had to be the wonderful news that the lovely Cindy of Fluffy Sheep Quilting has opened her online shop!

I've never made a mini quilt and if I'm honest I'm not entirely sure of their purpose... until I got my hands on these!


An Easter treat to myself! These were from The Village Haberdashery, I've just checked and they no longer have the typewriter bundles, but they have clocks, coffeepots and other yummy bundles!

I was probably influenced by all the mini quilts being made in blogland and I'm in love with this one over at Sew Allegorical. Also I can not add another quilt to the list but I want to sit and look at that typewriter fabric ALL day!! And isn't a simple little wall hanging the perfect way to do that?

I'd seen this tutorial for Polaroid quilt blocks, which I love but the typewriters are bigger than the small dimensions and even though I hate math I decided to adapt it. Turns out I'm no good at that!! So I guestimated and just went with what looked right! I made a trial block (not something I normally bother doing but then I don't make things up very often), which I turned into a little doll quilt for my daughter:


Once that was done I held my breath and cut out a typewriter, using the coordinating solids I cut the borders and kept things simple. I embroidered my blog name and the year on it because I always wrote on my Polaroid pictures!






I did some very basic quilting, learnt how to sleeve it, stuck some chopsticks in it and now I sit and stare at it.


If you have the typewriter fabric or something a similar size it's super easy to do, here's the dimensions I used for mine. You can add borders of any size, I just slashed mine and made it slightly wonky. This could really easily (with a border) become a 12.5" unfinished block to add to a quilt.


Cut a 6" square of any fabric you chose. For the frame of the Polaroid I'd seriously only use a white solid unless you don't want it to look like a Polaroid picture (see the doll quilt above!).

From the white cut two 1.5 x 6" pieces and, using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew this to either side of your square of fabric. Press the seams (open or to the side, doesn't matter!).

Again from the white cut one 1.5 x 8" and one 3 x 8" strip. Sew the thinner one to the top and the wider one to the bottom, press and ta-dah!! A big Polaroid!

You can chose to add any borders you like and can make the blocks any size depending on the width of the borders, you can add straight borders or cut them at an angle to make it wonky. A scrappy border would look really nice too. So many possibilities!

I think this is a great way to showcase a special fabric that you love. Let me know if you make one or use a Big Polaroid in any of your fabulous projects :)

Polaroids must have stuck in my brain because I only just realised I used the same design element for the Fugly Fabric Party button! More details on that VERY soon :)


I'm linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF, which is magical this week over at The Peony Teacup




Also linking up to