Patchwork sewing case

I wanted to give my cousin a little something handmade along with her other bought birthday presents. She has her sewing machine with her at uni, so I thought a little sewing/mending kit would come in quite handy and it's something she can keep forever. I had completely forgot that my auntie was making her something quite similar, so she now has two of the same king of thing! But they say it's the thought that counts anyway!  :-)

I found a brilliant tutorial on Pinterest, for once I actually Made something I pinned on there rather than just continually pinning hundred's of things that I'm never actually going to have the time to make!

Here is the link to the tutorial, there is also an option for a tutorial on how to make the patchwork style cover, it was the first time I had sewn together any mini patchwork squares and aren't they fiddly! They look so simple but it's actually quite difficult trying to line up every one of the seams, I think it's much easier if you have a special foot on the sewing machine. I managed to match up the majority of the seams, but like everything I think it takes practise so next time my seams may be a little neater!

It'd a brilliant little project for using up scraps of fabric, I used fabric that I had got given to me by family and friends.. some that I had bought new and also a few little bits I had found in charity shops.

I filled the little case with a few bits and bobs, I found such a gorgeous pair of embroidery scissors... so cute!

It's a busy day today...

I took Rose for her 10-12 month review this morning and found it strangely quite nerve-wracking! I think it's because of being aware that the health visitor isn't just checking Rose,she's also judging you on your parenting skills. Well it felt like that anyway... She seemed incredibly shocked that I was still breast feeding Rose. In a good way though, she was really impressed but to me it's just the easier/cheaper option! I don't know when I'll carry on until but I spose we'll just see how it goes..!

She has her immunisations this afternoon at 4pm and I'm Really not looking forward to it. It's a lot easier when they're still a small baby and aren't really aware of much!

I hope everyone's having a good monday, it's lovely and sunny here today but freezing! I don't think it'll be long before we have some snow...

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Saturday round-up.

We've been visiting Ray's parents today and because of it being a new environment for Rose to explore, it means I can get a lot more knitting done than usual! I'm knitting Rose a dress at the moment, I know... the colour looks pretty boring but I want it to be a nice plain wintry dress to go over bright long-sleeve tops and colourful tights.

It's pretty much gone to plan so far but I'm still really hoping I don't get stuck on the pattern. I attempted to start knitting this the other night but kept going wrong on the 10th row and so after Four failed attempts I gave up. I was getting so frustrated with myself because I Lovvvee that particular shawl and really want to knit something a bit more complicated, plus it's marked down as easy! So feeling completely rubbish about my lack of knitting skills, I changed my plan and started knitted a simple dress for Rose.

Our first red rose of the year has flowered in the garden and looks just beautiful. The garden was so forgotten about and unruly when we moved in but it had only one colourful thing growing in it at the time... a rose plant. It seems such a funny coincidence now that we ended up choosing Rose for our daughter's name. I cannot believe it, she is now a big grown-up 1 year old! We had a really lovely time back in Dorset for her birthday but I have a lot of photo's and things to talk about so I will leave that for another post.

We have been making more and more trips to the park these day's, as soon as Rose spots the swings her face completely lights up. :-)

I had enjoyed a very indulgent hot chocolate at a lovely cafe in town, whipped cream and everything!! (...notice a certain little ladies hand reaching for it...)

Ray and I enjoyed a delicious dinner together tonight, of course it was all the more delicious because he cooked it all himself! Doesn't food taste so much nicer when someone else has gone to the effort of cooking it for you!?

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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...)

I need help!!

Right... well I have just wasted about an hour fiddling with the settings on my blog. It's times like these when I really wish I'd paid a Lot more attention in my IT lesson's at school because I have absolutely No idea what I'm doing!

I reallllyy want to be able to make the photo's on my blog posts bigger, as they are so tiny at the moment and you can't really see that well what's going on in them. I want to have a much plainer background so that the photo's really 'pop' out at you! But at the moment it just looks a bit plain and boring because the photo's are so tiny.

 Can anyone give me a helping hand and explain to me how I can change this, it's driving me crazy! I'd be so so grateful...

I may need to go and make a cup of tea now just to get over the stress of it all...! :-)
Thank you
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Oh, I almost forgot to say... I've just joined the Universal craft blog directory. It's a brilliant place for finding a whole lotta new craft blogs... not that I'm already following hundreds or anything...

 

Colds, cakes and my 100th post!

Rose has got one stinker of a cold at the moment and is feeling rather sorry for herself. So instead of going out anywhere this morning, we I had a lazy morning in our pyjama's and did some baking! I did have to go to the dentist at 11:45, so the laziness didn't last long I'm afraid...!

I got this book for the bargain price of £4.99 the other day in W.H.Smith, I really don't need another recipe book but there were sooo many beautiful photo's of yummy treats inside, it was just too tempting! 

So anyway, I had all of the ingredients to bake the sticky gingerbread cupcakes in the book, so we were busy in the kitchen even before Rose and I had got dressed! She's got to the stage now where she's not happy just playing on the kitchen floor while I get on with whatever I'm doing, she wants to oversee Everything that is going on! So, in the high-chair she went with a little bread and jam to keep her happy! :-)

 

Ray came home to watch Rose whilst I went for my check-up at the dentist (everything was fine - phew!) and then I iced the cupcakes when Rose was having her afternoon nap. I was really happy with them because I've never piped icing before today, I thought I'd better get in some practise before I have to Rose's cake next week. They were delicious... far too delicious in fact, I've eaten 3 today!

I'm trying to lose my post-Christmas weight at the moment and I just know I won't be able to resist scoffing more of them tomorrow...

So, I'm sending the rest of them in to work with Ray tomorrow. He seems very happy to do so... I think he thinks it's going to make him the popular guy at work for the day! haha

This is my 100th post! Woohoo!

I plan to get a giveaway sorted fairly soon-ish, I just need more hours in the day please!

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Lucky me!

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway a few day's ago over at Kandi Pandi's and my parcel arrived this morning. The package looked wonderful with some lovely stickers on the outside, very exciting!

Inside the package was the latest issue of Cross Stitcher magazine and a few older copies too, the latest issue is full of beautiful patterns and some are of a lovely vintage style. I can't wait to try something out when I get a chance. :-) She also gave me a few cards and supplies ready to fill with some pretty cross-stitch.

As an added surprise, she also included this beautiful pin-cushion ring for me. Isn't the rose just gorgeous!? It's such a clever little make. Thank you very much Kandi xXx

I've just realised that my next post will actually be my 100th post! I'd better get my act together and sort out a giveaway of my own!

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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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It most definitely is Friday the 13th!!

I was supposed to be meeting my friend for coffee at 9:30am this morning at the leisure centre cafe before we took the kids to their different baby classes, as usual I was running late and was running out the door at gone 9:25am. Luckily we live about a 5 minute drive away (yes, I do usually walk but it was freezing cold and I wasn't organised enough with Rose to get out the door in time...) but it takes about that long to just bundle ourselves into the car trying not to forget anything.

I blipped the doors open with the key fob and opened the front drivers-side door, chucked the changing bag with everything in it on the seat and put the key in the ignition ready to go! I shut the door as it's a very narrow pavement outside our house and rushed round to put Rose in her car seat. As I just pushed the door to shut, the car only went and LOCKED ITSELF!!

I didn't think it would have Actually locked me out of the car! But when I went to try and open Rose's door, I screamed out in panic when it just wouldn't budge. Luckily my good friend lives a couple of doors down from us and her partner was just coming out of the house with their two children and so I called out for some help. The poor guy didn't have a clue how to get into the car obviously and was walking around the car looking a bit worried so with that, I promptly burst into tears. At that point Rose was still grinning at us out of the windows thinking it was all a funny game..

He rushed and got some friends that live round the corner that were mechanics to try and break into the car but they couldn't get in. Whilst all this was happening, my friend had come to stand with me with her two children in the buggy and she wasn't very well so I felt guilty with her standing out in the cold with me. Then there was talk about maybe having to break a window and if so, which one so that the glass wouldn't fly towards Rose. She by this point was screaming her head off and hyperventilating! (She was due a nap which was why she was so upset and after about 15 minutes of crying she fell asleep thank goodness, for my sanity as well!) It was The worst feeling being locked out of the car, with her so upset and not being able to get to her to calm her down...

Thankfully, a man that was working in a house a few doors down came over and said he had a mechanic friend (another one) that had a break-in kit and lived nearby. Luckily he was really close-by and was there within 10 minutes and they all got to work on trying to break into the car again... it was actually Ray that eventually managed to hook the keys out of the car using the break-in apparatus! I stupidly don't know his mobile number off by heart and had to ring 118 to get the number for where I thought he was working that day. I left a very panicky message with a slightly confused nurse who then left a message on his phone. He must have just thought... 'Oh noooo, what Has she done now!?!' Haha. Fortunately he was only 5 minutes away though, so he had come to see if he could do anything to help.

All that time I had been worrying myself silly thinking my friend would have thought I had just stood her up, I had completely forgotten that another girl was there as well, so she wasn't waiting on her own and they had both realised that something had probably happened...

So, yes... my morning was just ever so slightly stressful. Sorry for telling such a long-winded story but I think it's a kind of therapy for me to be able to talk about it!!

By the way, the pictures I've used for this post are of some gorgeous fabric goodies that I might just have happened to come by recently! :D

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Rosie posy tea cosy!

I've been working on this tea cosy for over a year. By that I really mean... I finished the plain green part of the tea cosy and then never got round to knitting all of the flowers and leaves to go on top. So as part of my 'finish all WIP's' new years resolution, I got my self motivated and got knitting!

I was inspired by Alice's spring explosion tea cosy over at Crochet with Raymond, you can see her patterns on Ravelry here.

I crocheted the large lilac rose and the red layered rose using my book Crochet Bouquet and the rest of the knitted swirly roses were made from one of my Christmas presents Really wild tea cosies.

I'm so pleased with it and so glad I finally got round to finishing it. It looks so fun and colourful and looks really pretty on my table so that I get to look at it all day long! 

It's all made with Stylecraft yarn that I had left over from other projects, so a really good project to do to use up old scraps that you have lying around.

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Rose has started doing a new thing today. She keeps pretending to have gotten herself stuck around the house in places like under chairs, next to the sofa, next to the table and then makes this fake whiny noise until one of us comes to her rescue! I purposefully don't go over to help her (obviously checking that she is Actually stuck!) and I even caught her peering round to see if I was looking! These cheeky nearly-one year olds! haha

Right, I'm off to decide what to get working on next!

I hope everyone's had a lovely Thursday.

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Just a few photo's and a bit of a natter.

I don't really have a better place to store all of my craft books so that they're out of Rose's reach, so this is what my front room ends up looking like pretty much Every day. I'm already using our tall book case to store all of my crafty bits and bobs and I definitely can't have that all in Rose's reach... Another reason to have my own craft room one day! Or at least a bigger house with some more shelves!

As you can probably tell, I've been having a play with my camera so I've taken quite a few photo's today!

I've just finished crocheting and knitting the flowers and leaves to sew onto my tea cosy, so it shouldn't be long before I have a FO to show you.

As you can see Rose gives a helping hand... well, just eats everything really!

I've finished all of my thank you cards from Christmas today and they're all in the post, off to friends and family. It's taken me a good three day's to get them done as it's a real 'sit-down' job and it's hard to get much done with a little one tugging at your leg... 

I've been admiring my paper garland in the utility room, it was a Christmas present from my best friend from home and I love it. I haven't seen her for such a long time now as she's living in Wales but we're going to be visiting them in March and I really can't wait. Rose and I may see her when we go back to Dorset for her birthday though which would be so lovely.

I can't believe it's now the 10th of January! Rose is nearly one and to be honest, I'm feeling a bit emotional about it all. The last year has just gone so so fast, it feels like only yesterday I was holding that brand new baby that smelt sooo amazing. I guess it's something to do with her being my first baby... did anyone else feel the same..?

 

Rose has been practicing her walking a Lot, staggering up and down the length of the kitchen over and over again... she looks like something between looking drunk and like a zombie. It's quite amusing to watch!

I had my friend who lives a couple doors down round for tea this morning and she brought her little girl who is 17 months with her. The two girls were enjoying playing with these crochet baby blocks, my Mum made them as a Christmas present for Rose and so far they've gone down very well! 

Right, off to cook Rose her dinner and then it's Slimming World time. I've been so bad at sticking to it this week and have eaten anything and everything! Tomorrow will hopefully be a completely fresh start... looks like the Haagen Daz ice cream in the freezer will have to be polished off tonight then!

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