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!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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!

xxxxxxxxxx

A week away so time to catch-up.

We've been away for the week and only just seem to be getting back into routine now even though we got home on Sunday night! 

It doesn't help that Rose is suffering with teething at the moment (sorry if it seems like I'm constantly going on about it!), I swear she's got about 4 different teeth all trying to come through at the same time. I've tried all kinds of things to relieve some of the pain for her but nothing seems to make her much happier at night time. Someone suggested Anbesol but Boots is out of stock so we've ordered some online, desperate measures for desperate times! Last night she woken at almost exactly every hour and a half.. finger's crossed tonight is a different story.

This was my Mother's day present for my Mum, it's a bookmark in case anyone was wondering..!

She said she really liked it, so I was happy with that. My freehand sewing on the machine definitely needs some practise though!

I found this cute little red heart button in my button collection and think it makes it look quite cute.

These were my daffodils from Sarah which she gave to me before we went to Gems for lunch last Monday. Aren't they gorgeous?

I love the way daffodils seem to bring the Spring inside your home when you have a bunch of them in a vase somewhere and their such good value for money usually. 

I thought I'd show you the house plant my Nan gave me when she came to stay, isn't the colour lovely..?! I was very relieved to see it hadn't died on me when we arrived back home on Sunday night, fortunately I had remembered to water all of the plants well just before we left...

The garden's looking a lot more 'alive' these days, it's lovely having a bit more colour out there.. I'll miss this garden so much wherever we move next, I think it's just because it's my first proper outdoor space but according to Nan she's going to help me move Every possible plant with us to our next garden so at least I won't have to start our all over again! haha

Right, time for bed! I'd reallllyyy love a whole nights sleep, nothing would make me happier in fact!

The first of my catch-up posts and a lot of thank you's.

I've had a lot of lovely things through my post box recently... I've bought a couple of things and I've also been really really fortunate to win more than one giveaway in the last couple of weeks. I've never been a particularly lucky person but it seems that I've had luck on my side recently! :-)

I've never had anywhere proper to store my crochet hooks, I've just always chucked them all in a jam jar up until now and it's such a pain trying to find the right size hook when you need it. So when I saw that Messy Jesse had added this beautiful crochet hook cozy to her shop, I just Had to get it. It's perfectly stitched and the Cath Kidston fabric is just gorgeous.

Not only did I receive the crochet hook cozy, she also included some extra pieces of pretty fabric which I was happily surprised to get..! :-) Thank you! xx

Heather over at Pink Milk won my giveaway the other week and even though she really didn't need to, she sent me a little thank you gift which was a beautifully smelling scented candle. Thank you Heather xx

I was so lucky to win this beautiful pair of earrings in a giveaway over at Scented Sweetpea's. They are tiny silver hearts from Becky at Red Bird Jewellery and are just perfect because I struggle to wear dangly earrings these day's with Rose's little hands grabbing anything and everything in sight! Thank you to both of you :-) xx

I was also really fortunate to win the giveaway over at Rosie Hearts, I've won a machine embroidered glasses case and will show you some pictures when I receive it. Thank you Rosie xx

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...

xxxxxxxxxxxx

A really sweet gift arrived today, all the way from Australia and Rose's first 'proper' word!

We had a really brilliant morning today. I was feeling 100% back to normal (I managed to catch the tail end of Ray's bug he was suffering with over the weekend, so felt really lousy for a day or two) and we had a lovely time at our usual Wednesday toddler playgroup we go to every week. 

Rose said her first 'proper' word!

As usual, as soon as we entered the playgroup I didn't see Rose for about 15 minutes... she's definitely not a shy one that's for sure! She potters over just to check I'm still there every now and then but then loses interest and goes to play over the opposite end of the room again.

I was holding my friends little baby Fabian who's a few months old and after a while Rose appeared next to me, she never seems to get jealous when I hold another baby...  just becomes intrigued and tries to touch their little feet! She stood there looking very interested before babbling a bit and then saying 'baby'! It was repeated continuously a few times so wasn't as clear after a while.. but she still said it! Eeeeee! :-) 

Did anyone else get this excited about their babies first words?!

Anyway, after we got home after the group I realised I had received a parcel in the post. I almost missed it because it had been pushed behind the door when I came in the house.. For a moment I couldn't think what it could be until I saw the Australian post mark! I was sent the most lovely thoughtful gift by the lovely Ann and I am soooo thankful for it.

Ann has sent me a whole load of fabric, mainly Tilda fabric's... am I not the luckiest person!? 

It is so so kind of her as it must have cost her so much to post all the way from the other side of the world! 

I don't think I've actually ever received any post from Australia before, so it was rather exciting knowing it had come all that distance to now be included in my quite modest (now growing) fabric stash! :-)

Of course I just Had to take about a hundred photo's of all my favourites together..!

Thank you so so much Ann xx

I thought I would include a photo I took of Rose and myself this afternoon... obviously, she's trying to perfect her fake cheesy grin pose for the camera! haha (Please excuse the bags under my eye's... Rose was up twice during the night.. and for quite a long time!)

I've managed to list two new items on my Etsy, two sets of my pretty fabric coasters. I now have a grand total of Three (Wow!) items in my shop... it is gradually increasing though..!

I hope everyone is having a lovely week, only two more day's until the weekend! ...This doesn't actually make that big a difference to my usual day but it does mean that Ray's not at work, happy and relaxed at home instead. :-)

xxxxxxxxxxxx

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!

xxxxxxxxxx

When Rose and I went to London on a very busy train!

Rose and I went up to London by train on Thursday to see my cousin Josie who's at college there, I hadn't seen her since Christmas so it was lovely to have a good catch up and for her to see Rose now that she's up and walking. 

However... when I booked my train tickets I hadn't realised that it was the half term holiday's for the schools and so it was absolutely jam-packed there and back (I'm not down with the holiday dates yet! It's a few years before Rose will be home for the holiday's...) I luckily had a seat with Rose next to me in the buggy on the way there but I had to stand for the whole journey home which was very annoying... the journey was 1hr and 40mins long!  

I've been dying to go and visit The Make Lounge up in London for aggess but last time Rose and I travelled up to see Jose it was a Sunday, so sadly the shop wasn't open but on Thursday it was! It was lovvelllyy in there, So many beautiful fabrics to take in. I had thought there would be many more crafty things around the shop though but there were only a couple of baskets of wool and a lot of craft books spread out on the table, most of the books were for sewing clothes which I'm not really that interested in... for the moment anyway!

I was really impressed with the fabric section of the shop though, the bolts were arranged on a whole wall of  white shelves and I was able to buy as smaller cut of the fabric as I wanted which was great as it meant I could get a selection of different prints. We don't really have the money for me to be buying more crafty bits at the moment, but I just couldn't resist. I just Had to get some of the gorgeous fabric whilst I was there though! (Is it obvious I'm trying to justify myself right now...haha)

Rose coped brilliantly with all of the travelling and being in the buggy for a large section of the day, I thought she would have been more frustrated being strapped in now that she's Very mobile but she was happy to just take it all in really. The only really annoying thing about being in London though is 'Where do you go to change a nappy?!'  I suppose we could have gone and bought something in a cafe/restaurant to be able to use the loo but at that moment we had limited time and couldn't really do that... I have to say, I do love living in a Much smaller city where I know where everything is!

About a 15 minute walk from The Make Lounge was this shop and it was gorgeous inside. I didn't buy anything though as like I said before we don't really have the money at the moment and for one 50g ball of wool the average price was at least £15... Ouch!

I'm going to go and try to finish my Mum's birthday present now as I have to send it on Monday and I'm no where near finished yet! :S

xxxxxxxxxxxx

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...

xxxxxxxxxxx