Liberty Lovelies

So did I mention that I was not going to buy any more fabric? Did I mention that I was going to use all the fabric I have and finish all the projects I'm working on before I bought new fabric? No? Well that's alright then, because I happened to go into Liberty's yesterday and they had a big table full of 1 metre remnants. I just couldn't resist these two.

They are so pretty. I am going to make them into dresses for my niece. I can just picture how gorgeous she will look in them. Here they are in their full glory.

It's just a bad idea to not buy fabric, especially when buying such loveliness makes you happy.

Progress At Last!

Yay so finally some progress here!!!! First up I finished my January Blocks for Sew Bee Blissful. They were all half square triangles and quite a challenge, lots of sewing, pressing, squaring up, more pressing, pinning, sewing and quite a bit of unpicking too but they are all done now and I think they will make an amazing quilt.

Block 1 Large half square triangles

Block 2 small half square triangles

As well as those I finally finished the quilting on my mod-mosaic quilt that I made with the help of Around the World Modern Bee last year. It has taken me soooooo long to finish quilting it, now I just have to do the binding. I hope I won't take so long on that!

The picture isn't great but I have not been home in the daytime since I finished it to take it out to the sun. I'm so glad this is finally, nearly finished.

And as one quilt finishes another starts to grow, these are the blocks from my month in Sew Bee Blissful. It is so exciting to see these coming back now. I just hope it wont take a year for me to do this one too!

Bag Mania

This week I have been on an epic bag making mission. I have gone nuts making bags for myself, even though they are totally unecessary as I already have about 50. Sometimes I just see a fabric and can't resist making it into a bag for myself. So this is what I have been up to.

Runaround bag pattern from Noodlehead

I love this fabric so much and I just adore the little pleats where the handle is attached. I have more of this fabric left and I'm seriously considering making it into a top, I think it is so cute.

Next came the Pretty Pinafore Purse from Lisa Lam at Uhandbag

This is not a great photo :( I really should have modelled it to show just how lovely it is. I made it out of pink tweed after becoming obsessed by this fabric when I saw it on an armchair. The pattern is lovely and has a great zip on the top, not that I ever zip my bags up, but I know I should.

After that came the Lots of Pockets Tote from Keyka Lou. She has retired this pattern now but there are plenty of other lovely patterns in her shop.

I'd had that fabric for a while but was never sure what to do with it. I'm so glad I used this pattern it shows the fabric off so well.

Finally I picked up a metre remmnant of some laminated sanderson fabric in John Lewis. I think this is the coolest design but I DO NOT love sewing laminated fabric. I tried it with different feet and with paper but I still found it hard and had to force myself to finish it. I think I will be sticking to home decor fabrics from now on.

Garden Fence Quilt

This month is my month as Queen Bee over at Sew Bee Blissful. I've been collecting yellow and grey fabric for about a year for this quilt. I love the colour combination and it is not one I have ever used before. I'm trying to extend the range of colours I use as I tend to stick to blue, not just in quilting; my flat is painted in shades of blue, most of my furnishing fabrics are blue and my Dad calls me "blue shirt provider" as I keep buying him shirts in shades of blue for his birthdays. Anyhow this is a real change for me and I'm really excited to see the blocks as they are posted on flickr.

I started with this stash

Then added some other yellow and grey fabrics that I collected. I had so much fun cutting them up and arranging them in various combinations. Usually I find there is one combination that I like best but with these fabrics they seemed to look good however I arranged them.

I chose a garden fence block for the quilt. I made this for another Bee I am in, Sew Modern Quilt Bee and I loved the simplicity of it. It also has the added bonus of coming together quick and easy. The finished blocks look like this

I have posted a tutorial for this block on my tutorials page, the finished block is 10 1/2" square. I am going to sash my blocks with a 1 1/2" white sashing. Watch this space for the finished quilt.
My group is so efficient too can you believe I already have four blocks back and it is not even half way through the month??? Three cheers for the super-efficient Bee members!

I've got followers!!!!! plus (not much) WIP Wednesday

So I posted about trying to get some followers and just like magic I got some!

Hello and thank you to my two lovely followers! I am so excited  to know two people are following my blog.

 It pains me to confess I have not made much progress for the WIP Wednesday. I am queen bee this month over at Sew Bee Blissful so most of my time has been taken up with posting directions, cutting and mailing fabrics - that's my excuse and I am sticking with it!

Anyhow here is the round up of my current WIPs

Currently in Progress

Guinevere Gloves - 1 completed, 53 rows of the second one knitted

Runaround bag - Exterior sewn / pinned together, interior ready to sew

Mod Mosaic quilt - 5 / 12 blocks quilted

Amy Butler skirt - fabric cut ready to sew

No Progress this week

FMF quilt - 14 blocks completed

Punctuation quilt - 12 blocks completed

Star quilt - 2 blocks completed

Circle of Geese Pillow

New Projects

None I am going to finish some things up first before starting something new, ooops I did just sign up for the 4 x 5 bee again but that doesn't count 'cause it doesn't start unit 1st February.

Happy Wednesday!

New Year Resolutions

So my resolutions this year are to

1. Develop my blog - get some followers, do some more tutorials, take better photos, meet other bloggers and learn more about blogging
2. Sell something I have made on Etsy
3. Finish up at least some of my unfinished projects

Left to my own devices I would probably end up starting 20 new projects and doing nothing towards these goals. This is why I need to publicly state my intentions and then have some accountability to keep me on track.

This is where the small blog meet over at Lily's Quilts and WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced come in. Every Wednesday I am going to post my Works in Progress and link up to WIP Wednesday. On the first of each month I will link up to the small blog meet. The Small Blog Meet is for people with less than 50 followers, since I have none I think I am well qualified, perhaps even over-qualified!!!

Right so I am off to do some sewing so I have something completed for my first WIP Wednesday. Happy New Year to you all and good luck with all your New Year Resolutions.

New Year Knitting

A while back I went on a course at Loop with the lovely Stephanie Dosen to learn to make these Sweet Robin Wristees

Image from Tiny Owl Knits

I really loved them but after a while I decided that they were simply not long enough to keep my very cold wrists warm. I also decided I wanted two birdies rather than one bird and a nest. Over New Year I knitted them again and made some changes so they were just the way I wanted them. Here are the finished wristees

Yes, I admit it I put them on my hands and carry out little conversations between the robins. I love them, they make me feel absurdly happy when I wear them :)

Happy New Year

I always like New Years Day, I love the feeling of beginning a new slate and feeling so optimistic and full of hope about the year ahead. It's a bit like starting a new school year for me, so I feel compelled to have everything clean, tidy and ready for whatever is to come.

I was getting a bit fed up with my sewing space. Although it is lovely and I am very lucky to have such a space I had managed to acquire a lot of things that were cluttering up my desk and making it hard to sew large items like quilts. I wanted to keep my lovely things on display as some of them were made for me in flickr swaps and I love having them around so I decided a needed a shelf, only problem was where would I fit the shelf as I didn't want to get rid of the print above the desk (also a gift).

The Old Sewing Space (minus machine and clutter).

With machine and significantly less clutter than I have now.

After some thought I suddenly hit upon the idea of rearranging all the furniture, including moving the wardrobe full of clothes and linen so I could have the desk against an empty wall and put up a shelf.

This is the end result and the beginning of my new sewing year.

The desk is now in the corner where the wardrobe was.

With shelf and containers from IKEA.

Sewing and Swap treasures on my new shelf.

I then decided I needed some of those lovely hanging hoops for decoration. One with pockets and one to show off some of my favourite Liberty fabric, they were quick and easy to make and I'm really pleased with the result.

Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for a happy and creative 2012.