Zakka Messenger Bag Shall go to the Ball!

Well, the retreat in London anyway!

Hurrah!

I was so pleased to come home from a day at work today (yay for a bonus shift, more spending pennies for London!) to find the hardware had arrived for my bag.

Dinner and children to bed and I whizzed on with it to get photos just as the sun was setting. I am SO pleased with it. It took me AGES to make, compared to the quilt which I finished in under a day, this took me 3 days! I did dither over the fabric selection for the leaves for a LONG time though!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I don't even mind the little constriction mistakes, I am very proud that it looks just like something you would buy in a shop, not something handmade. So I will be hoping to set myself aside from the crowd of 241 totes this weekend, lovely as they are (and I do have it on my to-make list), with my fab Zakka bag.

SMS Giveaway Winner!

Well, as you probably gathered my new laptop lead arrived yesterday, phew!

So without further ado (and because I have much to do if I am going to leave this house on Friday with a well packed bag and a tidy house for the husband and kids to mess up whilst I am gone) I announce the winner of the SMS giveaway is

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:21Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Lucy @ Charm About You said...

Oh I LOVE this and would help clear up my mess of a sewing space!
I also love zippit!

Congratulations Lucy, I will bring it along with me on Saturday if that's ok with you! 

Thank you all so much for all the great ideas and suggestions. I had such a fun time for my first go at the SMS giveaway I will definatly do it again.

I am exhausted today, after a very hot and busy day. I spent the morning playing with a needle of a different kind, I got two new tattoos *grin*. I am over the moon in love with them and I am so impressed with the amazing Studio I went to. A long drive and a long wait for an appointment but well worth it. 

The afternoon was spent trying to find the last few supplies needed for the weekend and running my husband around on errands. Despite having slightly tender arms I have managed to pack this

In there is my sewing machine, 2 siblings together quilts, 3 lots of class supplies and my tools. I am a little worried about how crinkly the quilts will be when they get there and also how much my things will rattle around on the way home without them. I have decided I'd best do some shopping to rectify that on Monday before I come home ;-)

All I really have to do now is pack my clothes (always the hardest bit for me!). I would REALLY like to finish my Zakka Messenger bag in time to bring it but I am waiting on the hardware arriving. It is all sewn up waiting to be assembled, we will see! 

FQ Retreat 2012- I AM GOING!!!!!!

Wow 5 days! I am pee-my-pant-can't-stop-talking-to-everyone-about-it-mega-excited!

So I am Emily, 30-something, live in South Devon in a gorgeous old farmhouse in the middle of no-where with my husband, 2 daughters (two and seven), dog, cat and 6 chickens. This is me

I am doing my 'Little House on The Prairie' impression, man I used to love that on a Sunday morning, with the smell of Mum's roast dinner wafting around the house :-)

I have been sewing since my Mum would let me on the machine, so I guess about 12ish? I took Textiles as a GCSE but then moved onto 'proper' subjects at A-Level/Uni. I guess I never even thought about whether I could make a living from sewing, no-one told me I could, even though I loved it. So now after several 'boring proper jobs' I am using the pretence of being a stay at home Mum to sew manically and make a few pennies from it along the way. I only started quilting just over a year ago and wish I had started 20 years ago, there is SO much I want to do!

At the retreat I will be easy to recognise, my boobs may be starting at you when I wear this, they mean no harm I assure you!

And when I am not wearing that I will most likely be wearing this

My newest clothing make, the selvedge skirt! OK so it isn't as great as the vision in my head, but that's cool as it is a just a precursor to this project, IF I can get enough selvedges together! Expect to see me in the dress at FQ 2022 at the rate I am going!

And of course I wont be taking this off all weekend!

My gorgeous name tag from Hadley (notice the subtle colour co-ordination of my chosen retreat clothing with the name tag, THAT'S how much I heart it!)

And if you get me in the sample swap, this is what you'll be getting

Some of you may already know what a 'struggle' it was for me to get my ticket, I won't re-tell the story here but suffice to say if it wasn't for the likes of good friends and lovely people such as Nicky, Lucy, and Fiona I simply wouldn't be coming on Saturday. Thank you all so much, if I haven't mentioned your name please still talk to me this weekend!

I will be raring to go in Kerry's class early on Saturday morning. I have met her VERY briefly before, I will still be the raving loon going 'I know her, she's famous' ;-) OK, so I promise not to let my behaviour get out of hand, I wouldn't want to get carted away for stalker type behaviour and miss the hoot that is going to be Mrs Hoey's Saturday afternoon embroidery class. Seriously, there are so many of my chums in there I can see Aneela is going to end up with a giggly back row in the class, advance apologies to the queen of cute fabrics for any naughty disruptive behaviour, I seriously respect you, I just may not be able to control my excitement!

Sunday I am EPP-ing and porthole-ing, gee sounds like an extreme adventure sports weekend! The rest of the time I hope to be meeting some really lovely friends in the flesh, spending time with my brother and his wife, who I am staying with, and who I never get to see enough of, and generally enjoying a long weekend of being Emily, not just Mum!

BTW, despite me sounding marginally mad as a hatter, I am really a very shy nervous person (that is without the use of alcohol) so please come and poke me in the ribs and say Hi, I will love you for it!

Oh and this is my 100th post to boot!

Zakka Block Quilt Finish!

And a one day finish at that!

Started at 8am yesterday and in the washing machine by 2pm, no wonder I had a headache last night, it was intense sewing!

Warning, photo overload now commences!

Quilt Details:

Zakka Block Quilt Design

Top pieced with Curious Nature Parson Grey and Charcoal Textured Cotton

Backed with Blue Polycotton

Hobbs 80/20 batting single layer

Quilted in Random straight lines

As usual I am linking up to the Zakka Style Sew Along, loving seeing all the different interpretations!

My Sew Mama Sew Giveaway is still running here, and it will be open a little longer than intended! My naughty pooch has chewed through the laptop power lead so I am waiting on a new one to be delivered, I will be offline until it arrives so I will have to delay the random number selection until then. I will close the giveaway on Tuesday 29th at 8pm (hope royal mail are speedy!) so there is still time to enter!

In the meantime I had better get off here, get my Mum's power lead back to her house before my Dad notice's its missing *wink*

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway

this time last year I was hopping about all over blogland, amazed at the wonderful generosity of the sewing community. A year later I have my own little blog and I have learnt that that generosity runs deep and true amoungst the friends I have made online.

I cannot wait to meet some of you in less than 2 weeks at the retreat!

So to say thanks to everyone I wanted to join in with the giveaway day, but as I am currently snowed under working through commissions trying to get pennies together for the big London trip I haven't had time to make something especially for the giveaway. What I do have is a sample piece I made for the recent FTLOS swap. I was so pleased with how the sample came out, I really could have sent it to my partner, had it been in her colours. It has been hanging in my sewing room waiting for a new home, I hope you can love it!

Two large storage pockets with space at the bottom for pinning notes and ideas

Button closure on large top pocket

Entry is open to UK residents only due to postage costs, sorry (unless you will be at the fq retreat, in which case I will happily bring it along)

To enter you must be a follower and do the following:

• Leave a comment, Id love it if you tell me what sewing hardware you love and where you get it, ie zippers, key fobs etc
• For an extra entry like my Facebook page

Good luck! I will draw a winner at 8pm gmt on the 25th May 2012. For more chances to win head over to the Sew Mama Sew page.

New Specs!

Before we go any further with this, you need to promise not to laugh! I mean REALLY promise! I am no model and my sultry 'stare off into the distance' pose always ends up looking more like I am having a moody huff! But I assure you it is still way better than my smiling pose! So we'll go with moody ok?!

It all started when I went spec shopping last week, fell in love with a pair of ray ban horn rimmed lovelies. I looked at the price tag and quickly put them back, coming home in the same old boring specs. Then I thought.......

I grabbed a boring plain tee from Asda, I moved the little chest pocket down to the hem and out came the bondaweb and some embroidery thread.....

It was still missing something, so I pulled out a huge heavy metal zipper I brought from the charity shop last year and added it to the back. I am really into big heavy exposed zips at the moment.

Um, hello moody lady...the camera's over here!

My favourite shot, guess why?!

Well, do I have specs appeal hahahaha???!!! Expect to see me in this at the retreat, I'll be easy to spot, I'll be the goofy one with all the glasses!

Still looking for my pot of gold

I've been busy this week, busy feeling sorry for myself with a heavy cold!

But although I haven't been blogging I have been very busy doing other 'work'. I have been selling off my Strawberry Patch Craft Fair stock and taking orders/commissions all in aid of filling my little penny purse for London in 2 weeks time.

To be honest I am exhausted but it was nice to take an hour out of the drudgery of money making sewing (which I never seem to enjoy!) to play with some more Zakka style, and my little magnets from last week were featured on LR Stitched this week here!

I went with the flock and abandoned the needle turn applique in favour or bondaweb and raw edge applique. My swirly free machine wind is there, I just couldn't get it to show too well on the photo. I was honestly going to try needle turn for the first time, after all this is a small project, but the desire to just get it done overwhelmed. So even though there is no pot of gold at the end of my rainbow, it is now sitting on my bedside table waiting to host tomorrow mornings cup of tea (and hide the cup rings at the same time!). I meanwhile am back to the grindstone to fill up that pocket money purse!

I love this little design, I am thinking of repeating it on a top....although tonight I am learning that embroidering onto jersey is no fun! I hope to overcome the slippery stretchy bad behaviour of jersey and have a new finished top to show you tomorrow...for now here is a sneek peek!

I've lost one

Whoops, where did you go?! I know it doesn't really matter but today I noticed I have lost a follower, sorry to see you go, perhaps I have bored you! Well, here is what you are missing!

Zakka Style Sew Along Week 6 - Quilt Magnets

What only 3 you say?! Um, yes, I like the little bit of sanity I have left and I have more important things to do (see below!) than make microscopic pieces of fabric into mini quilty magnets. That said they are SO CUTE I may just find the will to make the other 3 over the weekend. I have a great tip for sourcing the magnets, I brought magnetic photo 'paper'. It is actually like thick card, and it cost me just £1 for 2 A4 sheets in the local 'pound' shop (where oddly enough not many things are a pound!). So I actually have enough to make about a gazillion more if I wish.

Friendship Star

Pinwheel

Offset Log Cabin

I used some beautiful Liberty fabric, purchased here from Very Berry Fabrics, Ali's new venture. I brought a pack of 20 4" charms and used less than one charm for these magnets, very economical. Postage was free and the selection of prints are all beautiful. They sell out quickly though so keep an eye out for when Ali lists them and be quick!

A good friend of ours is moving to a new home tomorrow, it is a big new start for him and in between making quilt blocks for the borrowers I found a spare hour to whizz up a new home gift for him. I wanted to make something that not only made the new house a home but also reflected his personality and most importantly wasn't too girly! Not too hard a brief then!

Actually, I was rather excited about making something a bit different, I am a bit of a style schizophrenic and like all sorts. But I did have to keep this simple as I was really restricted on time.

Ah dear, I think this will be a wrestle to give away, I LOVE it!

So does a certain Little Miss, who INSISTED on being in the photo this morning (spot the vintage sheet pj's!)

I really enjoyed making these, I a secretly really proud of the 'Bang Bang' Gun and I'm thinking of a way to re-make this for myself, perhaps a notebook cover. I hope they find a good place in his new home!

Finally I have spent the rest of today cleaning, hoovering and I am about to commence a mammoth pizza making session. All because I have my wonderful girlfriends coming over tonight for a pizza and pamper night! WhooooooooooHooooo for pampering! There will be 6 of us, LOADS of pizza and pringles and nibbles, a great chick flick (that we will of course talk through), a beautician coming to give us all manicures,  two foot spas, a load of face masks and these:

Sugar Mama Body Scrub, using this tutorial, for my lovely lovely friends. We all met when we had just had our babies, over 2 years later we have had lots of fun, tears and laughter and each one is a Sweet Mama in my mind!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Shopping!

Today I brought an Iron Transfer Pencil, for my class with Aneela Hoey at the FQ retreat, it made me happy....

AND I found 4 creme eggs hidden in a cupboard!

that is all!

 

Siblings take two

I have to be honest and say I finished up this quilt a couple of weeks ago really. I seem to have a habit of finishing projects and not blogging them!

This is my second quilt made from the fabrics donated by Jennifer and I had just enough batting from the parcel that Sarah sent me to quilt it too :-)

Again I have to admit that I wimped out and did a very simple block design and quilting pattern, just for speed really! I did fiddle with my block size so I could just squeeze those fussy cut birds in the centres, love them!

I am ever so slightly obsessed with striped binding at the moment!

Whoops, I think I need to get back to take the shot a little  quicker!

Here's a new one, I ditched the barn door in favour of the grotty back  door guttering! Don't worry, it was washed afterwards :-)

So of course that is another tick off my list. Meanwhile I have spent the bank holiday making a few pairs of jammy bottoms for my girls from vintage sheets. It seems I may have a few orders from friends for them now too (I do hope so, it will help my FQ Retreat pocket money!)

Jumping on the Zakka Train

I have A LOT of birthday presents to make over the next month so when I saw Zakka Style at The Book Depository for only £5.99 including postage I knew buying the book would make much more sense than buying presents!

It helped that I had been admiring all the cute projects being sewn up in the Zakka Style Blog Hop, everyone seemed to be making such cute things, I didn't want to be left out!

The lovely charm pack arrived on the same day - my prize in the first quarter finish-along sent by Clover and Violet Patterns, so pretty!

So first up we made the sewing pouch. I say we because this is a present for my 7 year old daughters friend and my daughter felt it only right that she make it up. I did all the measuring and cutting, she did the sewing. Very proud of her I am too!

I decided it just wouldn't be a Zakka pouch without the little bird so I made a quick lino cut and used that to stamp the pouch. I hope it is well received by the friend, she has a very keen interest in sewing and I know she is getting a machine for her birthday so hopefully this will tie in nicely.

Then today I got stuck into the next project in the book, a pencil case but as this is going to be a gift for my mother-in-laws birthday I determined it to be a spectacle case.

A very quick project to sew up

Luckily I have the same initials as my MIL so if she hates this I can keep it!

Oh how did that little lino birdie sneak on the back ;-)

I got word a couple of days ago that my FQ Retreat name tag arrived safely at its destination, so now I can reveal the front.

To my relief Jo was really pleased with it and not p***ed off that I had basically copied one of her embroidery designs! I was so taken with her wonderful woodland creatures hoop that I wanted her tag to have a bit of that unique and amazing design on it so everyone at the retreat would know what Jo was all about. You can see what she had to say about it here!

Before I go I just HAVE to show you this cute tape I picked up today in Totnes, I went on an impromptu outing with my Mum, she had the day off and came over, which hasn't happened since last July! We had a wonderful  morning looking in lots of pretty shops (Totnes is great if you love handmade, vintage and quirky). I fell in love with the Belle & Boo tape on the top and the pink tape has cute woodland creatures and even cuter packaging! Luckily my wonderful husband had given me a few pennies, they didn't stay in my purse for long.

Now to go and find things that need sticking together ;-)