Ta-dah! Mini quilt for my Nan x

Finally I have finished the mini quilt made for my Nan's birthday and it's in the post to her, so she should get it today when they return from having a few day's away.

I hope she likes it, I've sewn a few mini curtain/blind rings on the back for her to hang it up somewhere. I've said she can put it up somewhere that people won't have to look at it too much if she wants! 

I used a paper-piecing template that my auntie gave to me and used fabric that I had bought at The Make Lounge, it did take quite a while... but that was solely down to me being lazy and putting it aside about a hundred times!

I did my best at embroidering a label to go on the back of the quilt for her but the handwriting wasn't as neat as I would have liked but then again, I'm not a very experienced embroiderer!

Rose is becoming a bit of a bean-pole, she seems to be getting taller and taller every day. She's already the same height as my friends little girl that is over two now. I always remember being quite tall when I was a child though so she'll probably end up the same as myself. We had a bit of a disturbed night's sleep last night, as she seems to have caught a bad cold. There was a Lot of runny noses at the Wednesday toddler group that we go to, so I suppose she was bound to catch it off of somebody there..!

Right, I'm off to package up some parcels. I've been having a bit of a clear-out and have sold a load of clothes and things on eBay to raise some funds. But now it's the boring bit of having to get everything ready to post... not my favourite job in the world I have to say!

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A quick peek at what I'm working on...

It's my Nan's birthday soon and I've been busy trying to finish her present in time, I just don't seem to have as much 'get up and go' at the moment and sometimes struggle to find the motivation to get working on things. I have so many WIP's at the moment that I need to get finished!

I started this paper-pieced patchwork quite a while ago now from a template that was given to me by my auntie, I'm making my first mini quilt to hang up on the wall and am struggling to decide how I will quilt it all together.. hhmm...

My friend has just had a beautiful baby and myself with a couple of other friends went round to hers for lunch. I was to provide something sweet for an after lunch treat and I made a chocolate fridge cake... and I have to say it went down Very well! I'm in denial about how many pieces I had myself but it's not I eat it everrryy day.. I would if I could get away with it though! Yum yum... :-)

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend..?! It was a nice sunny one here which makes a change to the Constant rain we've been coping with!

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What a beautiful day!

When Rose went back down for her morning nap this morning, I didn't do what I probably Should have done which would have been to get dressed! Instead I finished off hand-quilting this pretty patchwork bib.. I'm really chuffed with it as it's a first attempt and I already have another in the making! Addictive!

So, I finally got dressed rather late this morning... thankfully no one knocked on the door! Thursday's we don't have much planned, so it was actually really lovely to just take it easy and relax with my crafty bits and bobs whilst Rose slept upstairs. The front of the baby bib is made up with lots of cotton patchwork squares and the bib is backed with a really pretty polka dot brushed cotton, I'm really glad I hand quilted it, I think it makes it look a bit more delicate...

I've popped it in my shop here. To anyone else that has their own Etsy shop... I'm Very new at all of this and would be so so grateful for any advice or tips you can pass on my way. How do I get people to even look at what I have for sale..? !Thank you Jooles for your emails xx

What a beautiful day it's been here in West Sussex, it felt like early summer! Ray was on-call but had a bit of free time so we packed up to go to the park with a flask of coffee and my knitting in-tow. Reallllyy annoyingly he was called pretty much as soon as we got to the park but it didn't matter too much because Rose and I still had a great time on the swings. Then after we had moved out onto the main grassy area of the  park with our picnic blanket, my friend came to join us with her little girl so Rose had someone to play with.

In between getting up Multiple times to sprint after Rose (those little legs of hers sure move quickly!), I squeezed in some knitting time. I'm working on the second base now of the tea cosies I've been asked to make, something quite simple to work on while 99% of my attention was on the whereabouts of my little munchkin!

The sky was brilliant blue, just gorgeous.

I managed to quickly get a photo of her in the first two minutes of us getting out into the park.. after that it was impossible for me to get a shot of her. Let alone a photo where Rose was actually looking at the camera!

I'm off to carry on with my mission of removing these bl**dy acrylic nails! I got them done when visiting Josie in London, a spur of the moment decision but they're now getting in the way of my crafting so I'd like to remove them... except they just won't come off! Extremely frustrating...

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Granny square blocks & some Etsy bits.

The other night when I was browsing through my Twitter on my phone I came across a link to this tutorial, it's been a while since I've come across a tutorial and just though 'I Have to make this!' but the blocks are so pretty and apparently quite simple, so I thought why not!? I might as well give it a shot!

The next evening I began cutting my 2.5inch square's... I'm rubbish at using a rotary cutter and it took me a longgg time and I managed to slice into the side of my wrist which also slowed down the process! *Ouch!*

I really liked the look of the green and red together, as they could be for either a girl or boy but now I'm looking at the photo's, they look far too Christmassy! This was not the look I was going for.. but I put So much effort into making them that I'm going to finish what I started. My plan is to make a baby quilt for my Etsy shop, even though no one might want to buy it until December!!

I've sewn two sets of fabric coasters also for my Etsy shop, hopefully I'll get them in the shop this evening if all goes well. I'm feeling all motivated now that I have 1 item actually for sale!

We've had a busy day so far today, we've been to the NCT nearly new sale and got a big load of bargains for Rose. She's over the moon with her new toys, she grows bored of toys so quickly but if we bought all of her toy's brand new it would cost a fortune! Why are toy's So expensive!? 

We've got quite a few new pieces of clothing for her as well. I found a gorgeous rose print Cath Kids dress age 2-3yrs and it was only £4! It's a few months before she can wear it but it's definitely a bargain!

*Just a reminder that my Giveaway finishes tomorrow evening at 8pm, so if you haven't already entered follow this link and have your chance at winning some goodies! :-)*

Right, off to carry on with my knitting. I've knitted the main body of one tea cosy, now onto the next one!

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Relaxing walks and using my time more productively!

After our snowy trip to the park on Friday, we went straight to buy a snow suit to keep Rose warm on our future trips out and about. We tried it on Saturday and if I do say so myself, she does look incredibly cute in it! It was the first time I had let her walk around by herself in the garden (I'm so scared of her falling on the concrete slabs out there..) and after I helped her walk down the step, she almost ran out into the garden. Obviously she was desperate for the freedom! 

I hadn't put her mittens on for this little trip out into the garden and the first thing she did was touch the snow on the flowerbeds, the look on her face was hilarious! I don't think she was expecting it to be quite so cold!

Ray and I decided to go for a walk  in the afternoon to stretch our legs and luckily we have a really pretty footpath just up the road from us. Rose had a little wander with her reins on up there but was exhausted so after about 10 minutes she was sound asleep in the pushchair..

Ray and I really enjoyed the peace and quiet though and it was nice to have some (not quite) alone time, I think you have much more meaningful conversations when out walking. It's so easy to just talk about the usual boring things like what needs to be done around the house when at home, so it's definitely nice to get out and get some fresh air!

I finished Ray's mum's birthday present yesterday evening and it's now wrapped up ready to give to her! I was so relieved from all the comments on my last post saying I Had actually sewn the pot holder together in the right order, thank you for that. :-) 

My hand quilting definitely isn't perfect but I guess it's not bad for a first attempt. The back looked quite nice as well which was also a big relief!

Rose has started to amuse herself a lot more these day's which is lovely, a few more minutes to myself are always welcome! It's incredibly sweet when she sits looking through her books on her own, I Love books but what is it about them that children love so much?!

I've decided I'm going to use my time more productively to make things that I can sell in my Etsy shop, as it would be so so lovely to have a few pennies of my own, even if it's not very much.

Okay, well speaking of making thing's... I've off to get busy with the sewing machine! :-)

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Patchwork, fabric and venturing outdoors.

This is the progress I've made on my dresden plate potholder today. It's all sewn together now, I just need to decide on how I'm going to hand quilt it.

It's going to be Ray's mum's 60th birthday present, I was planning on sewing her a tea cosy but that never materialised! I was instead inspired by Amy's dresden trivet's over at nanacompany and thought that something similar would be perfect for her to either use to place her teapot on or she could use it just for decoration or on a little table or something.

I now realised I should probably have hand quilted it before I sewed the back on as now the stitches will show all the way through, I'm really kicking myself as there's no way I'm going to un-pick it all as that would mean un-picking the centre circle as well.. What should I do!? Silly me...

My hyacinth bulbs are coming along nicely in the kitchen, it frustrates me the way they droop over every time though. I know they were just reaching out towards the sunlight, but now they look all lop-sided... well anyway they're now tied together with a little ribbon.

A little camera time today when Rose had just woken from her morning nap... I think it's my favourite part of the day to spend with her as she always wakes up from that nap incredibly bright, happy and with a big grin on her face. The mid-to-late afternoon nap is a wholeee other story though!

A little treat was popped through my letterbox this morning, a few pretty fat quarters from myfabrichouse. It's such a lovely website to have a browse through and the brilliant thing about it is, postage is completely free! :-)

See... so so pretty. Gorgeous!

Rose and I took a walk to the local swing park this afternoon and there was still a scattering of snow around, she was fascinated by it all. I let her have a little walk in the snow as she was desperate to see what it all was when we got into the little park area but it wasn't long before she was too chilly. We managed a good session on the swings before we were straight in M&S buying her a snowsuit! Hopefully we'll have a little more snow tonight and she can be all snug tomorrow when exploring the white stuff!

Here are a couple of photo's from yesterday outdoor adventures. I met up with a friend with a little girl who's a week older than Rose and we went for a lovely walk all around Bosham. 

It's such a pretty scenic area and how amazing would it be to have that view out of your kitchen but it must become really busy in the summer... We were walking along the water's edge next to countless gigantic houses, they all had their curtains shut so I think they were all second homes. Lucky people! 

Okay, I'm off to carry on with my baby bootie knitting now. I'm trying to get some thing's made so I can get my Etsy shop up and running...

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Just a few snippets from my day...

It was lovely to have Ray home for longer than usual this morning which meant I had another pair of hands to help entertain Rose with. I made the most of that little amount of time and got to work on a few teeny tiny granny squares. I'm not entirely sure what I plan on making with them yet, maybe a small little lined case or maybe I'll just keep on going until I have a blanket! (That'll take a longgg time though, I'm not sure if I have enough sticking power...)

My stash of Stylecraft yarn is working out to be excellent value for money! I've already made two well-loved baby blankets with it and still have so much more to use up. :-)

We had quiche for lunch. I usually try to avoid this kind of food (the pastry kind!), as it's Really not helping me to keep off the pounds but I wanted to see if Rose would eat any for her lunch. She wasn't sure at first but did eventually take a few bites... she can be quite fussy. A lot of time I feel as if I just don't know enough options of food to give her, it can be so down heartening when I spend ages making her something new and then it gets chucked straight on the floor whilst she shakes her head from side to side. In some way's, I do really look forward to the day's when she can actually tell me what she feels like for breakfast/lunch/dinner!

Here's a sneaky peak of what I'm making as my homemade present for my cousin's birthday which is coming up. She has some shop-bought gifts as well but I have to have this finished along by the time we go to Dorset for Rose's birthday, as I'm sending it up to her in London with my Nan and Auntie... I need to double check that this is okay with them to do so..!

I never realised it was So hard to sew simple patchwork squares! Well I found it pretty tricky anyway... No matter how carefully I cut the squares, some of the seams just didn't want to match up. Very frustrating when your trying to get it done really quickly before Rose wakes up!!

Okay, I'm off to watch a film with Ray now and maybe have a little knitting on the go too. I find it so hard to just sit and watch the telly without doing some sort of crafting these day's... does anyone else have this problem too?!

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PS - (Thank you so so much for the helpful comment's that I received on my last post, I am working my way through replying to comments and emails... I just haven't had the chance yet today. As you can see.... I figured it out! Well I very much hope it's worked or this will look rather stupid...)

Thank goodness I've got it finished in time!

I think I've said before, but it's Rose's birthday on the 24th and I planned to finish making this quilt that I started ages ago for her. After almost an hour fiddling with the sewing machine on Friday night, I Finally got it to do the free-motion embroidery that I wanted it to do. I couldn't use the pretty pink quilting thread I had for it though, I think my machine just couldn't handle that particular thread very well... it is a very modest machine! I used a pale pink thread instead and I think it looks just as pretty...

In the end I stayed up until almost 1am to finish the FME as I was so scared that if I stopped, that it would decide to not work again in the morning. Plus it's quite hard to do that kind of sewing with Rose awake, I'm a complete beginner at this quilting malarky so it takes quite a bit of concentration!

Whilst she was having her morning nap on Saturday, I used this tutorial to make my own binding from some material that my auntie had given me and very quickly did the part that I need to use the sewing machine for. The tutorial was brilliant and the whole process was a lot less complicated than I thought it would be. We went going to Ray's parents house for the afternoon and I managed to hand-sew the binding onto the back of the quilt whilst we were there.

I'm sorry everybody but this post is very photo-heavy but I'm just really happy with my first proper sized quilt, well something bigger than a wall hanging anyway!

The quilt top is made from a jelly roll from Moda called Dogwood trail but I had plenty of material left over and I could maybe make something else for Rose to match her quilt. The backing is made from a vintage bed sheet which is from my auntie as well.

As you can tell, I've been having loads of fun with my new camera. I think my laptop's going to be under a lot of strain with the amount of new photo's that are going onto it!!

I've actually been attempting to write this post over the last 4 hours but the little madam has got another tooth poking through and hasn't been the happiest of babies today! Poor little girl, I think it's going to be another Calpol-fueled night tonight...

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