back to the basics

I've always loved quilts, and a few weeks ago I decided to enrol myself into a patchwork class to help me get started on my very first quilt. I'm starting with a baby quilt , for baby Megan who was born just last week (I'm running a little behind!). It was a little daunting at first but by the end of my first lesson, I could hand stitch a little four patch! It was nice to sit there and concentrate on sewing and fabrics for a couple of hours without any distractions and to chat away with other mums. Can't wait for the next lesson!

eliza's bag

We have a friend Eliza, who has always had an obsession with the colour yellow. At the age of two, she loves yellow clothes, yellow toys, yellow balloons, yellow jelly.......all things yellow! So when her mum mentioned that Eliza wanted a bag like mummy's I just had to make one of these, in yellow of course! (hope she doesn't mind a little bit of red)

..........and here are some buttons. I have a weakness for buttons in the shape of flowers!

a bit of history

I have been meaning to visit this store, ever since a friend mentioned their range of beautiful fabrics. When I arrived, I took the wrong entrance and found myself in a huge warehouse with hundreds of screens for hand printing (wish I had the camera!). Florence Broadhurst fabrics remind me of an era of extravagance and romance, with floor to ceiling wallpaper and vibrant and rich fabrics. The showroom has a selection of remnants which I managed to pick up at a fraction of the price, they have large pieces and smaller pieces, depending on what you prefer.

ta da!

I have finally finished a small surprise for my sister-in-law. It is a matching apron and oven mit as she is known for baking up delicious desserts! I hadn't tried piecing together bits of fabric together before and found that it was a lot trickier than I thought. I had been contemplating starting up my first quilt but decided to put it off for a little while and book myself into some patchwork classes first!

vintage button swap

I'm very excited about this vintage button swap! I have somehow managed to be entered into the swap twice (my dodgy email) but I don't mind at all. I'm putting together a little collection of buttons and have found a wonderful shop where I can easily spend hours in!

sewing again

Here are some oven mits, made for a couple of good friends. It was fun sewing them up, but a lot more fun wrapping them and passing them on! They are from denyse schmidt's quilts where I have been spending a lot of time flicking through the pages, wondering what I should sew up next.