CHARM ABOUT YOU

I happily finished this quilt today, just in time to give it to one of my dearest friends at her baby shower tomorrow :)

I used Lynne's wonderful pattern Hexagon Park and used the great fabric Just Wing It, which I won a layer cake of from the talented Maureen. Thanks to these amazing ladies! Also huge thanks to Laura for suggesting I put the two together, you have such great taste (and have become one of my idols)! I'm pleased with how it turned out. For a special baby girl my 'Wing It to Hexagon Park' quilt:


I didn't put the border on from the pattern but I think it works well without it and since this is a gift for baby and mummy it's just big enough! The backing is one of the sheets that belonged to my Great Aunt and the binding is Kona ice frappe (a contender for the backing for my Rose Stars but not the final choice!!)



I did big loopy quilting, which reminded me I must do fmq practice!! It's not too bad though and I'm glad I did it large because it's kept the quilt nice and soft. I just hope she loves it.


In other news it's been an amazing fabric week! Thank you so much to everyone that joined in and supported the Stale Stash Swap, I got some awesomeness as a result and hope you did too!

First up from the lovely Kerry at PennyDog these delights, the one on the right is her own fabulous design!


She also very kindly sent these cute charms and brilliant buttons (that I had to wrangle away from my daughter!!)


I got these lovely prints from the fabulous Jess at The Elven Garden. I've been a bad blogger recently but I just went over there and she's working on some gorgeous projects, she has such a great eye for creating fabric combinations! I will be using the Habitat (on the right) in my Rose Star quilt


Then some scrummy DS from my wonderful friend Susan at Patchwork n Play



If you haven't seen it already you have to check out her AMAZING farmer's wive quilt, Sunnybrook Farm, which incorporates these yummy fabrics and more! It's spectacular!

I also got half a yard of this Spirographix from the talented and hilarious Danny at Mommy For Reals


I'm honestly in love with it!! The colours are so gorgeous, more so in real life. Now just thinking how to put this to good use :)

Finally I had a conundrum recently when I found out I was the very lucky winner of a fat quarter bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop, thanks to their great St. Patrick's Day giveaway on the Jolly Jabber as part of the Quilting Gallery's blog hop. Why the conundrum? Because I had to chose my prize!! I know, I know, what a tough job!! It was really hard though, they have so much choice and so many great lines. I was thinking with my head though. I have so many projects on my To Sew List and a stash of fabric to make them with. I like buying fabric for a project or knowing what I'm doing with fabric as soon as I've bought it!! So aside from this stash of fabric I have accumulated that is already assigned to quilts I'm going to make, I don't have much else. Really I didn't need another set of prints, although there's so many scrummy ones, so I was sensible (??) and got this:


An utterly delicious FQ bundle of Pure Organic Kona Cotton Solids. It so gorgeous!! Thank you so much to the Fat Quarter shop team for the great giveaway and the amazing customer service as always :)

Out of general nosiness what bundle would you have picked??

So there's some seriously fast paced swapping going on!! Fabric is going like hot cakes!

If you've not joined in the Stale Stash Swap yet you really should, remember you can give a shout out for something you need and it's perfectly fine to decline a swap if you don't see anything on offer you fancy - we all have different taste! It's also a great chance to go and visit some other blogs, so check out the links :)

I also happen to know (yes I did it!) that there are swaps going on behind closed doors, via email - sometimes people are willing to stash raid a bit further if you have something they really want ;)

If you're not able to join in this time don't worry I may do it again in the future! Although I would be very grateful if you'd help spread the word now and stick the button in a post or on your sidebars because the link is open for another week yet :)

<div align="center"><a href="http://charmaboutyou.blogspot.com/p/stale-stash-swap.html" title="Charm About You"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6786409246_6c136ef5ff_m.jpg" alt="Charm About You" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

So less fabric and more sewing news... although there's not a whole lot going on, which is where the required shouting comes in!

completed

 - a little embroidery to go in my son's room


- mother's day gifts


ongoing

- I only did one Rose Star block this week, you can see it here. This is genuinely my favourite thing to sew and I have 4 more blocks cut out so I'm hoping for more progress next week.

- Name swap. Following all the comments when I showed the secret swap badge for the Fat Quarterly retreat, I wanted to offer some options of thread (well not much - I'm desperate to use this perle!), so can you please tell me honestly which thread you prefer. Personally I'm still inclined to go with the blue, it pops more and will be read more easily - you have to bear in mind that it's not going to be thick embroidery so the name will quite thin. Here's an idea:



So which one would you want your name written in?? Tell me!

no progress

- Only one block made for the Stained QAL created by the fabulous Sarah at Narcoleptic in a Cupboard. Since everyone (finger's crossed) is nearly back to full health in our house I'm hoping things will ease up a little bit and I'll be able to sew.

I also have 2 baby quilts that need making. I know it's not going to take me long to sew the Stained top so can you all shout at me for the next few days??! And I'm asking you to so it's ok ;)

I've requested you do three things so I think that's enough or you'll all think I'm bossy!

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced

Happy Spring Equinox! What a better way to celebrate than swapping gorgeous fabric! :)


This is a fun linky fabric party concocted by the wonderful Krista at Krista Stitched and me.

Here are the rules:


You can either ask people if they have specific fabrics you want to swap for in your post or leave it open. When you see some you like let people know what number link you are and see if they want to swap for some of yours.

You can still play if you don't have a blog by checking out the links but you'll have to be able to email pictures or link to a flickr picture of the fabric if people don't know the fabric line already.

The link will stay open for a week so you can check back and offer to swap more if you see something that takes your fancy! It's up to you whether you're quick off the mark to accept swaps or bide your time to see what's out there!

Let's all play nice :)



Here's what I have to swap (I only have one fat quarter of each fabric, the pictures below don't do justice to the colours so you might want to google them! sorry.):





Just so we're clear these are fabrics I love, have and will use!! I just maybe had a bit too much.

If you want to swap with me for any of these fabrics let me know and show me what you've got, just leave a comment below! Also, I'm not promising, but if I have enough of any fabric I've used in a project you've seen on my blog that you like, ask me about it and I might be persuaded to swap for something lovely!

Happy Swapping!

I also got a nice bit of post, some stationery bits from Riky and Nina, how cute are these?! I even love the paper bag it came in



I have some things to make for Sunday and need to press on with the Stained QAL, my first block is hanging on my wall willing me to make it some friends!!

This weekend we'll mostly be celebrating St Patrick's Day, Mother's Day and my son's 4th birthday with friends and family so sewing might have to wait a little longer.

Top of the 'get it done' list though is cutting some FQs for the Stale Stash Swap, which starts on Tuesday!! :)

I have tonsillitis :( The kids are poorly too, although theirs is not bacterial.
So for me there's mostly been this:




I'm in the same boat as Kelli (read her post because I was basically going to say the same sort of stuff!!), I haven't been commenting although I have speed read some blogs but I just don't have the energy to be a good active blogger - so I'm sorry.

I've done the odd bit of hand sewing while lying on the sofa and I'll show you all when I can be bothered!!

There's just a couple of notices I wanted to share.

Firstly there's some great giveaways going on, some I meant to blog about last week so you might need to hurry but please check them all out if you get a chance:

- Duke Says Sew What is having a wonderful giveaway of fabric in one of my favourite colours, as well as some DS!
- Poppy Makes... is looking for a name for her adorable new puppy and giving away a charm pack to those that throw in their opinions :)
- Lori at Adventures in Fabric is celebrating her 50+ followers (now 75!!) by giving away a charm pack
- last but certainly not least the fabulous Canadian Abroad is having a sponsored giveaway from The Village Haberdashery (open to UK residents only)
** In my absence I failed to include the cute and generous giveaway from Suz at Patchwork n Play, so check that out too!!**

Once you've checked those out you might also want to go look at Prints To Polka Dots they have 20% off Flannels, 20% off Riley Blake, and a great clearance on haberdashery items, including felt, buttons and ric rac!

Finally a reminder that I'm having the fat quarter Stale Stash Swap in one week!! So get your fabric ready and think about what you want to offer to swap :) Please help spread the word so we can get as many swappers as possible



Ok as you were, I'm heading back to the sofa to watch more Transformers cartoons

Happy March everyone! It's a bright sunny day here (still cold) but I'm enjoying soaking up some vitamins :)

I'm linking up to the ever creative Rebecca's Thursday Think Tank and Lynne's fabulous Fresh Sewing Day, with a cute new button!




February was a month of celebrations here - my husband's birthday, our 5th wedding anniversary and the Fugly Fabric Party ;)

This month I'm hosting another link party and I'd love you to join in :) Click the button for more info and bear it in mind when Spring cleaning!



One of the things I love most about the Fresh Sewing Day is seeing what I've accomplished over the past month, it's always more than I thought!


I finished two quilts, the Not So Charming Rainbow Stars and the Johnny Cash quilt. I made 5 rose star blocks, a little bag for a friend and a fabric matching game for my kids.

I also worked on two more quilts (Pezzy and the Stained QAL) and started some embroidery.

Despite not finishing those projects yet I'm determined to get them done ASAP!

I am struggling a bit with my rose star project and would love some help. It's a long term project, I want to make a good sized quilt and I've only done 9 blocks so far so it'll be a while before it's done. Even so , I can't help thinking about what the background will be. I think I'd like to make some of the joining blocks alongside the rose star ones so I don't have to make them all at the end.

Anyway I'm still adding fabrics to the blocks themselves and it's a real mish mash!

No one fabric stands out as being a good choice for the background, I've had a play and here's some options:


The neutral and off white seem too blah to me.
I love the coral fabric but will use it for the backing.
The solid colours from the blocks looks way to ice cream sweet for my taste.
I like the mint, it seems fresh but I'd have to have a good think to remember what colour it actually is!! I only have a little bit of it I got on sale.
The prints from the blocks looks pretty cool but I don't have enough of the fabrics and it's going to be way too much isn't it!?

Maybe another pastel colour would look good?

So any bright ideas, good suggestions or opinions are very welcome!! It's bugging me that I don't know what to do.