Quilted Gift

Recently we attended a 21st of one of our Son's closest friends. The lovely Jen has been friends with our Son Dylan ever since his first day in his new school way back in year 3. It's always hard to change schools, but worse when it is mid term. Jen was an angel that day, and made our worries as parents much easier, knowing that he had a friend on that hard first day. I would never have guessed that 12 years later they would still be as close as ever. 

When it comes to quilts, a big part of my heart goes into each and every one I make. I recently started selling them. Which is really hard to part with them. But I do love making them. Obviously there is more love stitched in one that is going to be given as a gift, I didn't think twice when Dylan was deciding what to give as a gift to Jen, to offer a quilt. So after some pattern deciding, I took him shopping to help select the colours. Purple he says is Jens favourite colour.... and he helped me choose a simple geometric design. Which I thought I could replica from an image after a few hours of struggling with the math.... I searched the web till I found the same design in pattern form, happier still it was a downloadable PDF. I love the internet. The Pattern we have used is Modern Rose Garden by Carolina patchworks.

I really love how the colours came together.

I did play with some new product that I am now selling as well. An iron on wadding....it does make sandwiching and quilting quicker. - if you are interested it is Sew Easy Double Sided 100% cotton Batting. 100 inches wide or 252 mm for those that prefer metric and it is $25/m + postage. pop me an email if you are after it. I found it was a struggle but much easier than pinning a quilt and it worked a treat whilst I hand quilted this quilt as it was on the larger side and I don't have a long arm quilting machine.

Of course there wouldn't be a  quilt that my little miss didn't help me work on....my please put down the needle and just love me.

My label, has a great verse on it

"if you ask me how long I'll be your friend? My answer will be, I don't know 'cause I really don't know which one is longer Forever or Always."

The birthday girl obliged me and managed to pop me a few photos, as I didn't snap any at the time of it's completion., on the line and also on her bed, perfect bed topper.

Pram Blanket completed

Creating rainbows, well this weather certainly needs some brightening up of late. But anyway, I loved this rainbow selection of yarn that I purchased way back in the beginning of the year. I purchased way more (as you do) than i needed and I made a sweet little gift for the lovely Mia with the rainbow scarf from this post.

 

 With another gift needed for a upcoming baby, I started on a cute little pram blanket - in a wonderful stitch inspired by this pin on my pinterest handmade with yarn board. Last week saw me complete it with a simple single/and half crochet border - I was very pleased to wrap and gift it on.

It was great to hear that little Baby Darcy and his Mummy were very pleased indeed.

Portable Tea Party & Lavender scented play teabags

Well having a God Daughter means so many things to me, and one of those is that I get to shop for Little Girly gifts.  Last year I purchased a beautiful China Tea Set, but alas my Baby Girl (23) reminded me that my little God Daughter @ 1 would be to tiny for it....so....

When I saw this wooden High Tea Set I knew it would be this years Birthday Gift, but it weighed a ton, so it was going to be a delivery gift (extra bonus means I have to visit) YES!!!

So with two tea sets ready to give, I knew I wanted to make something that was a little more me to go with it....so I was thinking Fabric,  then I searched Pinterest and well the mine field opened up.

I pinned 2 items that I knew I would make and make I did....and I love it so sew so cute!!!

First item was this pin for Tiny Tea Bags, loved them and how cute they look in the cups. I filled them with lavender, so they smell good too.

Then came a tablecloth, that could store all the extras - I was a mum who liked the games put away that belonged together.  So when I found this pin  I was on to it.

It was a rather simple project, and I of course has to add my twist, the little tabs are just a cute addition I think. - sorry no clear photo of that.....but oh did my little god-daughter love it - she sure did....and was constantly making me little cups of tea and bringing my the cloth napkins with a slice a cake...oh I love giving a gift that just hits the mark....

September Stitch A Long completed as a gift

Well it's our last month in the Stitch A Long, I am sad that it is ended, but also happy as it means that Christmas Swap time has come and it's time to work on learning who my swap partner is and make her something special.

But anyway Septembers item was a needle case from the Some Kind of Wonderful Book by Anni Downs. I loved it, but I really wanted my item to be more suited to my recipient and so it morphed with the aid of this pin

I love how it turned out and it has space for all the things needed for a spot of stitching when travelling

So did the Birthday Girl, Happy Early Birthday Janet!!!!

Handmade with love

Early January was a busy stitching time for me. I am hoping that it will continue in this fashion all year, I've loved being at the machine again.

It's taken a long time in the making well the process of purchasing the pattern and fabric in February 2011, on a visit to my soul sista! So now I put up my hand and admit that I'm a cut and go girl preferring to design my own patterns, as working from a pattern scares me. The actual bag only took a couple of hours to make! But the procrastinating from me regarding the pattern!

Of course make one mean's I do two with slight colour change! And then I can't stick to a pattern completely either so we have extra top stitching which I thinks helps to support the bag more.

Posting this blog post from Melbourne - I'm heading home with the below colour way of fabric for another version lets see how long that takes me :)

And then to complete my gift, matching accessories were needed - so the glasses case was made

Then it was iPad covers, matching for the gift, and mine is in the tilda fabrics I love

The completed matching gift set, bag, iPad cover and glasses pouch.

Secret Santa - gifts sent and received

I must apologise for my delay in this posting, but with Christmas crazy and the fact that when I did find time to sit and blog, from my NEW iPad, I realised that I had downloaded and started to blog but got interrupted and then I realised - yes still learning not all images are in my Icloud..... Then to  top it off I finally had a day to myself to sit and do what I needed to do, BLOG..... but, of course then the computer decided to beep and whir and sound like it was going to blow up and of course my images were on the PC of my sent items and my new iPad won't let me comment on blogs. but after a 48 hour fix it with Hubby, it seems I am back in the land of the PC and blogging, just a few days too late.

SO....Another year in the wonderful SSCS exchange, this year Chooky had 97 (if I counted those blog addies correctly) in our exchange.

The Ornament ready to hand on the tree, hand embroidered Joy Star.

So, back in October we all received our partners names/blog details. Then came the fun of stalking said blogs, to work out the perfect gifts for our recipients, and stalk I did. I stalked and stalked her blog till I was happy with my decision to make her a gift I would be happy to have. I can now reveal that I sent my my gifts to Josie in Scotland.

 I had lots of fun, stalking Josie's blog, and when I saw a selection of fabrics on a table that she was working on for her conservatory, I thought, that I had the perfect little project in mind, it also happened to come to me at the same time as I purchased,at the time the latest issue of Homespun magazine, with Lisa from Cubby House Craft Blog's project... Spring Time Symphony. I new that I wanted to make this in my newly purchased Tilda fabrics  - and of course I had to make two so we have matching runners.

 

What makes gift giving even more pleasurable is the response of a gift received and you can read Josie's excitement here in her blog post 

Now onto my excitement.......I received, a wonderful package of goodies all the way from Finland from Satu of Quilttales Blog 

Well, I was so excited, when I opened the post pak to see that Satu had obviously stalked my blog as much as I had Josie's how else could she have know that my love for stitching/fabric& papercraft was so mixed up..... I was blown away with her hand embroidered but sewn into paper gift tag. I was just itching to open that gift.

On opening, there was not only the above tag, but the below card as well.....that girl, did good...I love the mixed media of fabric and paper. I was in heaven.

I then opened the smaller, gift, and with each gift Satu, had graciously written on gorgeous postcards and explanation of each gift. this is Poppy Napkins, and they are famous in Finland, as is the little sweet cup, its a seasonal item for 2012 and will go on my little collections wall...its perfect size for my printers tray and will be a reminder of Satu and 2012's SSCS swap. - Yes Satu I may do a little poppy decoupage...so keep an eye out!!!

Then, came this wonderfully crocheted/quilted mug mat, its' sitting pride of place beside me as I type with my   icy cold beverage on it, keeping the condensation from creating a circle on my desk....another useful gift.!!

(really I felt like you spied on me, as I have a little fettish for fabric coasters

And that's not all..... this is where is get's really freaky......

Because if you didn't get the hint at the beginning of this post, I was totally spoilt by my family and they surprised me totally, with all their talk of NO iPad's in this house, androids are better, and then the secret squirrels they were plotting on the week before Christmas, and then they spilled the beans, that they were each buying each other an Android Tablet, but that it wouldn't be here till January as it was a new released item....I was sadly thinking nope not getting the iPad I had been hinting at, not even a tablet....but they got me....after opening a huge box of spoils...handbag, creams, potions, treats....yup big box, I felt totally spoiled and had forgotten my request for the Ipad.....but they pulled out another box, I thought it's a book...usually always get a book for my holiday reading.....so when I opened the iPad I was so surprised....and then.....

I opened Satu's gift....and WOW....OK Satu calls it an Idea Pouch, and it contained a sketch book, and assorted pieces of paper for crafting, BUT it fits my iPad and it's beautiful AND oh SO ME.... I LOVE IT!!!

So, that's a huge post, but I must say a big Thank You to Chooky for organising another amazing swap.... this is my fifth year, and I wouldn't miss it ever....can't wait for next year already!! Oops that's this year :)

Thank YOU Satu for spoiling and making me one very happy girl this Christmas...that's oh so Special!!

Thank YOU Josie, for joining this swap and allowing me to spoil you....and give me the warm and fuzzy's.

It's amazing to be connected to the other side of the world via a little screen in my office. It really is the most wonderful time of the year to be sharing with others. 

Now I have blogged, I can head off and do my blog commenting thank you's too.....