Sssshh don't tell but I have something to celebrate!

So a few days ago the lovely Susan pointed out to me that I had passed a rather celebratory milestone, 100 followers!

And then today a timely parcel arrived from Indie,

How cool?!

 I am sure she could whip you some up if you ask her! Today I had a lovely friend visiting, we went to University together but don't often get to spend time together. She doesn't do much sewing but that didn't stop me dragging her into my sewing room to play with the new fabric. In no time at all we had cut 3 pouches and sewn up two. 

Then I had to drop my friend back to the station and found a little time when I got back to sew up the last one (my one)

So I sent one home with my friend as her Easter gift

She picked the fabrics and how she wanted them set out and I sewed that little beauty of a pouch up. I sent her off home with the suggestion that she should immediately fill it with a bag of mini creme eggs!

I also made one for myself out of the DS scraps left from my Sew.Happy.Geek QAL.

Who is the third one for I hear you ask?.....Maybe you!

I have an almost Jubilee Britannia colour theme going on with this one, it was my test pouch and the zip ends are no where near perfect on this one, but if you love it it can be yours.

As a special thank you to all my lovely followers I am going to send this to one of you, I just ask one small favour. Leave a comment below, I'd like to know a quilt pattern you recommend for using up charm squares. I seem to have an abundance of rainbow charms (can't think how that came about) and want a good pattern to use them up.

The pouch is only on offer to my current followers, I'd love it if you are new here and want to start following me but I am not doing this as a means of gaining new followers but a way of thanking those who have been with me over the last few months.

Phew, that felt good - what with all the sickness in our house I haven't sewn in over a week, I'm glad I got it out of my system! Hoping for a little more sewing time this weekend and perhaps even a trip to the local quilt festival if I can persuade my husband ;-)

EDITED TO ADD:

I will leave the comments open until Thursday 5th April 9pm my time, then I will draw a winner at random. Good luck!

Shes back hurrah, lets celebrate fugly style!

I have been reunited with my lovely Miss Pfaff, about time too! I think my darling husband may miss out on Tuesday as I shut myself away with her on Valentines (and every other day this week) to catch up on all my to-do sewing. The time we spent apart made me realise how lucky I am, how much I take for granted and how  much I think about it, yes I am still talking about my machine and sewing, not my husband!

I seriously have so much to do, I didn't realise how much sewing I do in a fortnight, but it has been backing up. With Mouthy Stitches and the For The Love of Solids swap partly started, 2 QAL's and a Strawberry Patch order waiting I am going off radar for a few days but wanted to sweeten you all with some lovely fugly fabric.


I'm calling it the fairly late and fugly ugly fabric swapaway! I am linking up to Lucys Fugly Fabric Party and I have a seriously ugly bundle for you

The large piece is a half yard, and rather psychedelic! It is Nuance by Paula Nadelstern Design. The others are various sizes, originally fq's that have been cut into. The are FREE to anyone who can send me something with text on, It could be interesting selvedges, text print fabric or ribbon, I really don't mind! Any size will do as long as its about 5" square minimum. I will pay shipping within the UK. If you are overseas and desperate for my fuglies we can work something out i'm sure.

So now I am going to sit back and wait for the requests to roll in, not! Hahahhaha! Enjoy whats left of the weekend, i;m off to put on some Barry White and mood lighting and spend some quality time with my sewing machine husband.

Rainbow Charm Swap Space Avaliable

SPACE NOW FILLED!

There is a space available in round one of the Rainbow Charm swap. Here is just a small selection of the prints in this round, you can see more in the flikr group here.

If you fancy some of these fantastic charms then all you need to do is get yourself a meter of orange fabric, cut it into 56 5" charm squares and send it to me. If you are interested in the space please comment below (make sure to leave your email if you are a no-reply blogger) 

I am looking for someone who can send their fabric pretty much immediately as all the other ladies have sent in their charms and are waiting for me to send them back out. Unfortunately some-one has dropped out at the last minute and I will be looking to fill this space quickly.

Perhaps you could be the lucky person who ends up with a happy stack of rainbow charms?!

Pouchy Love

Wow, where did the last 9 days go? Well I think it went in a flurry of parcel opening and sewing and nursing poorly children, there may have been a bit of a grown up sleepover with friends thrown in at the weekend, thank goodness!

The charms for the Rainbow swap rounds 1 & 2 have been flowing in! Its so lovely to have such wonderful fabric popping through the door almost every day. Some of the lovely ladies have been super generous and sent me thank you gifts for doing all the organising along with their charms.

See this pretty mug rug, made by the lovely Sarah at Chic Quilt Geek?

Well, its mine now! I am one lucky lady, especially after the cheeky fashion in which this arrived to me! Sarah very sweetly said if there was anything she could do to help me with the swap to let her know. I had just been looking through her photos and said she could send me the Lotta quilt she had made (I did say it was cheeky) I was kidding of course! But the wonderfully generous Sarah sat down and made this mug rug just for me! Thank you Sarah, I LOVE it!

Then another lovely Sarah, these Sarah's are very nice people, sent me a charm pack of Cape Ann!

 I just LOVE Cape Ann and its one that I keep putting in the online shopping basket and then taking out because I am trying 'to be good'. Sarah doesn't have a blog yet, but she should, especially with the lovely quilts in her flikr photostream! Hopefully there will be more soon using her charms from the rainbow swap when I sent them out.

I also got a few other goodies, I am a lucky lady, thank you all so much. I must say that it may be some time before I run another swap, they do take over with all the sorting, paperwork/speadsheets and postage payment collecting/organising. Hopefully the remainder of the charms will be here soon and I can have the two corners of my sewing room back! Plus it is a super test of will power having all that wonderful fabric within reach!

When I've had a few spare minutes I've been filling it with 'checking off the list sewing'

I made my blocks for the Sew.Happy.Quilt QAL and I am now up to date, hurrah!

And most importantly I have been practicing pouch quality control ready for my Mouthy Stitches swap. The wonderful Nicky set the ball rolling with her commission, that's right, I got a commission! She kindly commissioned me to make a pouch to go with the Needlebook I made her in Cindys goodie swap last year, all in aid of my Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat Fund, isn't she lovely!

So I set to work to make her the best pouch I could possibly ever make (hopefully)

Eeek, look at my horrible stained ironing board! Actually, don't! Just pretend you cant see it ;-) Look at that cute Dala horse instead! I knew Nicky loved Dala horses and I had the perfect Lecien fabric for her.

I filled the pouch full of thank you goodies for Nickys order and sent it on its way, I was very pleased that it was so well received and I'm hoping not only to meet Nicky in person at the retreat in June but to see her using her pouch and needlebook too!

No sooner had I sent my first commission out, I received another! This time the lovely Lucy at Charm About You commissioned me to make a pouch to celebrate the awesome Fugly Fabric Party she is hosting over at her blog - go and see it, you wont want to miss it and the fugly fun!

I had such a hard time making something with fugly fabric, I wanted it to be so fugly it was cool, but I worried if I didn't get it just right it would be just plain ugly!

There is a bit of fuglyness on the back too, apologies to anyone who has and loves any of these prints, to me they are fugly! Well except the black spotty with pink flowers, I couldn't help but let a little niceness creep in!

I hit the fugy jackpot when I found this lining lurking at the bottom of my stash, I have a bit left over which I may offer up in the fugly fabric party!

This one is off to Lucy and of course I have another to make for my secret swap partner, 3 pouches and not one to keep for myself, that won't do. So of course I made myself one!

I am really pleased with how it turned out AND I get to keep it! It also checks one of my boxes on the Finish Along  because I have been procrastinating on how to use this fabric panel I made last year for months now. I think that it why I love it so much, I am pleased I did the panel justice!

And on the back I used some of the lovely scraps (much nicer than what I have in my stash) I have been sent by bloggy friends in various swaps.

So now I just need to go off and plan out my partners pouch for the Mouthy Stitches swap, after a bit of serious stalking that is!

Rainbow Swap Kicks off, More Spaces avaliable in Round 2!

SWAP NOW FULL

(Edited 11.1.12)

Wow, what a busy weekend! We have been dry-stone walling, painting barn doors, gardening and a little sewing was squeezed in! I managed to make up my first two blocks for the Sew.Happy.Quilt QAL with my new Hope Valley fabric. Had to use it quick or it would have stayed on the shelf to be stroked!

Woven Block

Snowball Block

The Rainbow Charm swap also filled up really quickly and by Friday I was giving the green light to all the ladies to go shopping for their very own little bit of rainbow.

In fact the response was more than I expected and I have several ladies who missed out on spots. Because they are all so keen to take part I have promised I will run a second swap group if we can fill the 28 spaces again. So If you missed out on the first group here is your chance! Comment to sign up, make sure if you are a no-reply blogger to leave your email.

Full swap details are in the original post here

You are more than welcome to take multiple spaces if you fancy getting yourself a bumper stack of rainbow charms, just remember you will need to purchase 1 meter for each space, so if you want 2 spaces and 112 charms you need to buy 2 meters in you assigned colours (each a different fabric).

Please help the ladies get round 2 off and running by spreading the word and blogging the swap. Im sure they'd be really grateful.

Calling blogger LILYSMUDGE !!

Hi Lilysmudge, you commented on the rainbow charm swap wanting to take part but you are a no reply blogger so I cant add you or contact you. If you do want to take part please email me (emilylevey @ yahoo . co . uk) so I can have your email address to send all the details too.

I have others wanting to take part in the swap waiting on standby so if you don't want to continue please let me know.

To everyone else, I'll be sending out your colour assignment very soon, keep your eye on your inbox and have your card ready to go and shop!

I love my postie!

Well, truth be told not my postie actually, just all the goodies he brings me. OK so he is not bringing them out of the goodness of his heart, it is his job AND I have paid for them myself :-)

It is like Christmas all over again here. I got this cute parcel from Saint and Pinners yesterday

Cute wrapping huh, just that alone would have had me happy but look what was inside....

Oh yeah, Hope Valley. It maketh me smile big time! I love this and plan on using it for the SEW.HAPPY.QUILT Along. Outstanding service too, this arrived only 2 days after I ordered it (which was on a Bank holiday too!).

Someone else who does fantastic service is M is for Make. More Hope Valley and a fq of Loulouthi Hugs and Kisses, all at great prices in the sale.

Then later in the day a lovely courier man brought me a huge parcel and the poor guy had been driving around for ages looking for the farm! I must get around to making up a sign for the house!

But look at the goodies he brought me!

I wouldn't normally count this in my list of shopping haunts but it all came from Abakhan. I was tempted to go there when The Sewing Directory posted on Facebook to say they had 70% off their daylight lamps and lighting. I scooted on over! I have always wondered if a daylight lamp would make hand embroidery easier, oh boy does it! It is fantastic! I would highly recommend it and at the sale price it was a really great buy (and meant I wasn't worried about wasting a LOT of money on a lamp if I didn't like it)

It is a neat little clip on lamp that has a long flexible neck, great for clamping on the table, on the sewing machine, anywhere you like in fact. Its a godsend in my new house, with its tiny sash windows and lack of natural light. I've taken a photo of it in use and you can see from the darkness around it, it certainly makes a difference! The bonus being there is no glare. And its arrival was very timely as I had just started to get on with my Birdie Stitches block for Rhonda's Finish Along.

So if you have a little money burning a hole in your pocket and a dark dingy house, head to Abakhan.

I also bagged a bag'o'zips for very little money indeed, lets hope they are all useful! A very cheap embroidery hoop and packet of embroidery cotton both for less than £1! Finally, a lovely piece of quilting cotton for only £1.15 a half meter, I wanted more to back my Hope Valley quilt but the website wouldn't let me, perhaps I had the last?

In other news, there are just 7 spaces left in the Rainbow charm swap!!! Get in quick if you want to take part, they are filling up fast.

Want an excuse to shop the sales? A Rainbow charm swap sign-up!

Here it is, all the deets on the Rainbow charm swap!

» BOTH ROUNDS OF THIS SWAP ARE NOW FULL «

The Modern Christmas Charm swap was such a blast I couldn't wait to organise another. I figure a new year should be bursting with fresh vibrant colours, what better than a rainbow swap.

1)  There will be 28 spaces, each person is to purchase a meter of 100% quilting weigh cotton in their assigned colour (red, pink, purple, blue, aqua, green, yellow, orange)

2) Post your photo in the flikr group (to avoid any doubling up of fabric choices between participants)
Please do not choose solids, make sure that that you choose something that reads as your assigned colour, ie when you look at it from a distance it is most definitely that colour. Pay attention to scale, large scale prints don't often work well as charms.

3) Cut your meter into 56 5x5" charms. There is a great tute on how to do this over at Elizabeth Hartman's blog if you are nervous!

4) Mail your cut charms to me, please place them in a plastic bag along with the fabric info (ie designer, line, colourway) REMEMBER TO INCLUDE A PRE-PAID RETURN ENVELOPE. If you wish to participate and live over-seas please let me know and I will arrange a paypal invoice for your return postage costs.

5) I will work my rainbow magic and send you back your very own rainbow of 56 charms along with a complied list of all the fabrics, should you wish to purchase more.

So, who wants their very own rainbow? If you do just comment below and I'll sign you up. Remember if you are a no reply blogger you MUST leave your email address or I wont be able to contact you with the mailing details.

I cant wait to get going, here is what I will be making once I have my charms:

Ive been admiring this quilt from Netties blog A Quilt is Nice for an age now. Here Baby Stripes quilt tutorial inspired me to make my first ever quilt. I plan on using the rainbow charms to make the little panel in 2.5" squares and sash it in either white or grey solid. I'm both excited and nervous to try the circular quilting. It rocks! Then again, done badly by me, maybe not so much!

Remember to join the flikr group!

And grab yourself the button  from my blogpage (if I've got it working lol!)

Chocolates and tissues!

Phew, what a break I've had. Almost 2 weeks since I last blogged and practically as long since I last sat at the sewing machine. Christmas was lovely, so relaxing and peaceful, so nice to spend time settling into the new house.

The house looked beautiful with all its decorations, all warm and cosy. We barely left the house for a week except to walk the dog. Then new year arrived, along with the germs! It has worked its way through the children and then yesterday I was the next victim! I was so devastated. My darling husband spend the morning putting up new storage in the sewing room and no sooner had I unpacked and arranged and re-arranged my supplies than the runny nose and shivers started. No sewing for me :(

Today I managed to do a little sewing, but not much (I mostly ate chocolates!) and I used my extra spool holder on the machine to hold a toilet roll in case of cold related emergencies - no photo, sorry!

So without further ado, as greatly requested by my bloggy mate Cindy, here is my new sewing room. Before:

Not the best pictures, I kinda forgot to take photos before we started! Basically you get that it was a BIG room with not much furniture. I used an little folding table my MIL got me for craft fairs, it was rammed full with all my bits and they were not easy to get to or use. Also the table is only about 2 feet high so far too easy for little hands to get at.

That's better! We didn't decorate because a) I couldn't be bothered and b) there was nothing really wrong with the paintwork and magnolia works great if I decide to change the 'theme colours' in the room. Right now its a shabby chic kinda vibe because that's what I mostly had already. It was easier to add a few cheap shabby bits of furniture from the recycling centre for now to bulk my storage out.

The wall immediately behind the sewing machine (where you can just see my 'make do and mend' sign hanging) is going to be my design wall, eeeepppp! I cant believe my room is so big, I am mega lucky!

This is our favourite piece of furniture, I stole it for my room ha ha! Its a beautiful arts and crafts sideboard we picked up for a bargain price years ago and sitting on top is my wall unit I paid £20 for and restored. I just love that I have somewhere to display all my fq's. You can just see my little owls and bowl of selvedges. This is one of the little touches I've loved putting in. Ive always been 'squatting' and never really had my own room. It was so fun being able to make it stylish as well as purposeful!

This unit is my mega bargain! The base I picked up for £12 last week at the recycling centre, its missing its shelf but Hubby promises he will cut me one soon. I painted it cream as it was a rather dated 80's high gloss teak effect. The book shelving at the top is my display stand i made for taking to craft fairs. It is made from 4 pieces of old picket fence and 3 lengths of old skirting board. It cost nothing. I love it!

I am in love with this part of the room! This is an old coat rack I made for our first house together. It didn't have a home when we moved here because there were already big racks in the boot room. So, it was headed for the tip. But then yesterday I had a brainwave! OK so I don't really need storage for quilts I've made. And yes I did go around the house and steal them back just so I could hang them and look at them but why not?!

Doesn't it look cosy? The tree is now naked and waiting to be taken outside. I will miss it, having my own sewing room tree has made me feel very special indeed!

Another brainwave, again pulled out of the pile for the tip! This time a seagrass CD rack, turned on its side and hung on the wall. Now home to my jars of buttons. Hubby is going to cut the feet off the bottom (on the left hand side) but for now I've hung tote bags from their that I've made so they may stay!

The little 'shroom hooks below it were only £1.50 and my only purchase for the sewing room other than the bookcase, so in all I spent a grand £13.50! Meaning that money my husband said I could have to kit the room out at the end of the month isn't needed. I wonder if I can convince him to let me use if for fabric to full up the new storage?

I'll leave you with a pic of some of my handmade Christmas gifty makes, not all got photographed in the mad dash to unpack, sew, wrap and gift! I'll be back soon with all the details for my rainbow charm swap and hopefully my link-up to Rhondas 2012 finish-along.

this blog post will read like the 6 o'clock news.....

...with lots of stories to tell, some of them you will be interested in, most I suspect you will not!

Firstly, the reason why I have been so absent this week:

Yes that's my eldest girl off to her school Halloween disco, no she is not ill, its face paint and yes, she has grown up faster than I can comprehend!

We have been busy this week putting together her outfit. I've also re-discovered what it is like to have a social life! I have been out no less than three evenings this week and another planned for tomorrow, oh my. Bring-a-dish Italian Dinner at a friends house on Monday night, Hosting the Meet and Make workshop on Wednesday night then an Ice-cream and foot spa night at one of my Besties last night.

All this gallivanting about has left little time for sewing. I did however have a major score last weekend. My wonderful husband took both the girls out on Saturday and Sunday leaving me to sew to my hearts content, and boy I did! I made a start on my Modern Christmas Table Runner for the Swap on Saturday and by Sunday I was all done!

I tell you what, I hope my partner loves it more than anything in the whole world because I am so mega mega pleased with this one. I think it is quite possibly the best thing I have ever made, I am in love with it.

In order to make the separation process easier I quickly made up an ornament to go with it today and got it wrapped and in its packet pronto before I could think of stashing it in some secret place behind the sofa for myself!

Another finish this week was my Sew Happy Geek Swap item, a wall hanging. This was a strange process for me, because I was trying so hard to make it perfect for my partner I went right out of my comfort zone and don't actually like the result! I do hope that means that I've got it just right for my partner, not that it is awful!

This too is sitting patiently in a jiffy bag, waiting for the mailing date.

With 2 big jobs crossed off my list I moved onto my weekly fix of free motion quilting, courtesy of Cindy's Free Motion Friday! This week we had to practice slate tiles. This is what it should look like

And this is what mine did look like: 

the back is not so great, I forgot to trim my threads at the start and one got pulled about but other than then just a very slight tension issue.

Whilst I was on a roll I had a go at next weeks 'Bright Star' but I will save that for next week ;-)

I seemed to get into a real productive run after that with a few makes for Christmas

The little hoop is inspired by one over at OCD and the stocking tutorial is over at Diary of a Quilter.

Lots of news too in the Christmas Fabric Swap department. With 22 of the 28 fabrics here I am sure it wont be long before I can send them back out. It seems that being a swap host can be quite a sweet number, that I never realised. My pal/partner for the goodie swap Nicky is a gem, not only did she send me her beautiful fabric but she also sent me this awesome mug rug!

She is rather clever isn't she! I am also one super lucky lady! I think know I actually went EEEEEEeeeeeppppp when I opened her parcel. Not only that but another wonderfully lovely present from Helen, a scrumptious lip balm (that lady must know I have the driest lips ever in winter)

I am certainly being spoilt, I thought all the work of organising the swap would be made worthwhile with a bounty of lovely fabric at the end, I never dreamed I would get presents too!

And in final news.... I seem to be having a design block when it comes to my Brit Quilt Pillow Fight swap! I had run up a test pillow top with a Dresden plate but I'm just not sure its right for my partner. Perhaps too autumnal?

So I thought Id make the most of that productive streak and have another go today. I was feeling in the mood for festiveness and saw this tutorial on Diary of a Quilter and used it as a jumping off point. Only problem is I appear to have made a festive ships wheel! Oh crikey, that is the least flakiest looking snowflake I have ever seen!

Back to the drawing board AGAIN, for the third time, that is unless by some miracle my partner likes festive ship's wheels??!!