Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love

I am super excited to be part of Kerry's blog hop for her fantastic new book Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love

I knew as soon as Kerry asked me if I wanted to be part of the blog hop I was in! I just love a little fairy tale and have two girls who feel exactly the same!

Kerry is sweet and she rounded up the most amazing box of goodies from fantastic sponsers, they were so generous and they gave us some wonderful tools and notions to be able to make whatever we wanted from the book to showcase to you. Being a quilter this was brilliant for me as I didn't own any of these tools. But they are so cheap and simple and make the world of difference to ease of construction and your finished look.

Photo Courtesy of Kerry Goulder

So a huge thanks to the really generous sponsors!

What with the book being packed choc full of amazing projects and having all the tools I needed to make them, narrowing it down to one to show you was looking like a pretty hard task!

But after looking though the book I just knew it had to be Drifter the Orca. Both my girls adore sealife, we are regular visitors to our local aquarium and one of their favorite bedtime stories is The Snail and The Whale by Julia Donaldson. And my eldest daughter decided she wanted to help make him.

Despite the shaping on the whale he was incredibly easy to construct, Kerrys instructions are so clear and concise that my daughter was able to follow them herself, needing only a little help from me on the sewing machine. Aside from the hand stitching and a bit of help guiding it around the curves through the machine she made it all herself. She had a whale of a time (harharhahr!!)

So here is Eloise's Orca, named Dipper. We can't wait to take him with us on our next trip to the aquarium and of course he will be a happy prop during bedtime stories!

I on the other hand am scheming when I can set aside some free time to make up more projects from the book, they are too cute to resit!

Today is the last day of the blog hop, but head on over to Kerrys blog where she is giving away a copy of the book and one of the amazing goodie boxes from the sponsors! She also has some really cute extra projects not featured in the book for each day of the blog hop. I know I am most definitely going to be sewing up a little fur cape!

: : : : A huge thank you to Kerry and the Sponsors for giving me the chance to take part and for the             wonderful goodies, Elosie and I have had a magical time stitching up our own little sewing tale : : : :

A Birthday Pony for My Little Girl

My children can often be heard chanting the sterotypical 'Daddy, can I have a pony?'

They adore them, when we visited London earlier this year we treated the girls to a trip to Covent Garden Build a Bear store where my youngest chose a My Little Pony. That poor pony has been dragged hither and thither and is looking a little worse for wear! So I decided it was time to give her a break and make something new for my daughter to obsess over.

A couple of weeks ago I made a last minute birthday gift for a good friends lovely little boy

Probably the most challenging paper pieced project I've done to date, actually if it hadn't of been a last minute rush I would have probably thought more about it and not even attempted it!

But I am glad I did because its really helped my confidence and I knew I wanted to do something similar for Juliettes birthday. You may remember I shared this little fabric pull with you a while ago

Almost every pink solid from my stash and a little Tilda for the background, thank goodness for my Simply Solids So Solids Crew subscription!

And I turned them into this, using this fab free pattern from Liljabs. Originally sewn up on Liljabs as Rainbow Dash I decided to change mine to Pinkie Pie to tie in with my daughters Little Pony toy.

All that was left was to turn it into a cushion cover, cue sweet little pink scrappy patchwork with her favorite things, mermaids, owls, strawberries, and many more.

Then add an invisible zip, new new favorite closure for cushions, and the perfect vintage sheet fq from my stash (originally from Mary, check out her shop for more amazing vintage fabrics!)

I think Balloon the Pony approves don't you? My daughter did too, the cushion has not left her side since her birthday, she even wanted to take it in the bath!

(note: Mater pattern is also available on the same Liljabs page as the My Little Pony)

Playing around

Whilst I'm in the midst of the youngest's multiple birthday celebrations this weekend (seriously I'd love to be 4 again and get to celebrate over several days!) why not go and check out my latest tutroial on The Daily Stitch over at The Village Haberdashery. I've made a sweet hexagon playmat that doubles as a bag to clear away those toys in a jiffy! It is also very friendly to the frugal quilter, using just 6 fat quarters (with practically no waste!) and a little yardage for the backing but still gives you a generously sized playmat.

Go and check it out! I'm off to blow up balloons and make a pass the parcel!