I've been away (i don't know if anyone noticed at all!)
I had to go to Seattle for work and took the opportunity to visit some different fabric shops.
I went to Undercover Quilts which had lots of fab fabric and some fantastic quilts
I also ended up in stitches, the ladies in there are fantastic, in fact i went twice!
I also did the space needle and the glass gardens
 |
| space needle |
There were some native fabrics in the glass exhibition (kept me happy, along with all the coffee!)
I have a great time but now I'm pooped (i don't do jet lag very well at all!)
I don't know if I'll get to blog again before Easter but I'll leave you with the thought that next time i blog I'll show you pictures of me in the dress i made for the conference!
TTFN
Last night instead of working on my dress i made cake. My lad needed some for school toady - red nose day cake sale.
I made 27 of these for him
(cakes that is not plates!)Hope they all sell and make lots of money
Well last week was book day, my lad was a pirate complete with dodgy beard and cardboard shoe buckles, and tiny was puss in boot!
I'm quite glad they had dressing up on different days as it ment they could share a hat!
Other than fake beards i've been making a dress for me. I'm off on a conference soon and, for the last few, i've done my presentation wearing a homemade frock so thought i should carry on the tradition!
I've gone for this fabric (a liberty print i believe)
and so far it looks like this! (not sure why tiny or fat tulip needed to be in the pictures!)
Over the weekend i recieved a prize i won in a giveaway by the lovely christine
Tiny finally wore her cat frock
and it snowed (in march!)
TTFN!
Made Tiny yet another frock!
This time its a Halloween fabric, but as far as she is concerned it is purple and has cats on it!
I went for a bit of a bodge job, i love the top of peasant dresses but Tiny is really skinny so the just look like a sac (I've done one before for her and ended up putting elastic round the middle tinys dress) so i added a straighter skirt.
It required me to pop a zip in the back or she'd never get it on, but i think its come out OK.
A few weeks ago the lovely people at vive books gave some of us crafty bloggers the chance to review one of their books. Vive books is the downloady bit of rainbow books who produce quality books from top authers, in digital format.
I chose this one
I've
been wanting to try some quilting for ages but a whole quilt always
seems daunting. I thought this would help introduce me to it alittle.
The purchase process was very easy and had wonderful communication with Vivienne Wells who runs the site.
the
book itself has a handy 'how to use this book' guide at the front for
those of use who have never really used e-books before.
It
contains a varity of projects, suitable for people who normally quilt
but want something quick and easy to use up scraps/use as presents and
for beginners like me.
The projects included are a needlecase, bags, mini quilts, cushions, tablemats, a door stop and a pencil case.
For
each there is a full but easy to follow set of instructions and if
templates are needed they are provided. For any of the projects that
have slightly more complex techinques in (flying ducks, Amish stars etc)
there is a guide at the back of the book which gives more in depth
detail on how to achieve this. Its easy to print out if thats your
prefered way to work, it tells you what pages to print for each project
so you don't have to flip though working it out for yourself.
The
only thing i'm missing as a beginner is a section on how to quilt,
although the instructions are great i felt i could have done with a
section in the techniques pages about 'how to quilt', basic hints and
tips.
I
did try a project from the book and i really enjoyed it. I didn't make
it quite to instructions as i had to work with what i had in my smaller
bits of fabric pile. I went for the pencil case which is suposed to look
like this
I
did in the red, with blue and yellow triangles and quilted in green. I
also went for a spot of upcycling, using cut up bits of an old fleece
jacket as the wadding (totally staying in the using up my stash theme).
The instuctions were easy to follow, my main problem was that my printer
is currently playing up and missed half the instructions out!
This is my end result. Quite proud of it really. My lad has claimed it for school and Tiny now wants one but in pink!
I
would happily recommend this book, it has some lovely scrap stash
busting ideas but think its not a book for total sewing beginners.
Tomorrow i shall 'book review' but for today - here are some more eggs from mine and Tiny's big egg hunt.
If your in liverpool, manchester, glasgow or london (or visiting those places) then you too can join in with the big egg hunt and find all 101 of them!
Howdy!
I have been as unproductive as an unproductive thing that's having a day off to do nothing!
This week i have managed to play far too many games of monopoly (the doctor who version! its half term) and put some poppers/press studs on the skate dresses!
It the first time I've tried the 'smack with a hammer' sort and I'm quite chuffed with them. They can't be too hard to do if i managed it but I'm still chuffed none the less.
In theory this means that should Tiny decide to wear her dress she can get out of it by herself - thus she can go for a wee without having to find someone to undo her dress!
Other than discovering that the lad has magical hotel buying skills in monopoly (i hope he's that good when he's older - he can keep me in a style to which i am NOT accustomed) I've noticed eggs popping up around Birmingham
I've seen these 2
they are part of an Easter egg hunt organised by Lindt and action for children. there is 101 eggs and they are in brum until Monday, then they visit Liverpool, Manchester,Glasgow and return to London (they have been there already). May have to see which others we can find!
