Feelgood Friday...

I have so many Thank You emails and replies to send, so I have to make this quick!  (2 Explores in a week - has the world gone crazy?).

Today's mail included these...

Do you want my twisted logic?  Goldfish - stupid money (but I love them too much), doggies - not so much; 2 FQs, add them together, a good price for a 1/2 yard (well, sort of!).  And I have used way more than a 1/2 yard of stash so far this year!  I got mine here.

This evening I turned these...

... into HSTs for my Mouthy Stitches partner; they still need to be trimmed, but that's a job for tomorrow, after a trip to Bluewater.

I started cutting the background fabric for the Cherry Star... but more on that over the weekend.

I also got my first Fat Quarterly on Subscription - thank you Mum & Dad (if you knew I had a blog!),  there are so many awesome things to make, and Kerry has made me so want a teapot!

And finally, check this out!  Be chuffed Bee ladies xxx

If I had a hammer...

OK, I do, and I'm going to use it!

This morning's task, (other than washing, ironing and a trip to Tesco), is to complete some change trays to give to my Mum later; a couple of her friends have requested some for their daughters for Christmas.

So in those brief spare minutes recently, I have been stitching up the squares and starting to get those tricky poppers on.

So far I have made 3 large, 2 medium and a pair of matching smaller ones and have just four more to hammer this morning.  They actually don't want that many, but I figured whichever they don't choose can be put aside for Teaching Assistant Christmas gifts and the like.

For those not hanging round these parts when I last had a travel tray blitz, here's the 'how'.

Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes for dear Hubby yesterday - he loves his quilt, so quit asking for it!!  I even got a Flickr Explore for a picture of the front!

I didn't get to catch up an all things bloggy yesterday, and doubt I'll get a chance again today as the hubs and I are out to a concert tonight, so have a great rest of the weekend, and I'll catch you all tomorrow x

241 Tote!

Yesterday, interspersed with feeding children, (why do they need that?), doing laundry and refereeing squabbles, I managed to complete my first 241 Tote; oh there will be more, I have ordered fabric!

I love this bag, the pattern is brilliant, in fact drop by any blog where the bag has appeared, you will hear the same thing.  I don't really 'do' patterns, too impatient, bits either look too easy to bother reading properly, or too difficult, so corners can be cut.  Well not this one.  It all worked out pretty perfectly, even top-stitching the awkward curved side seams, which I was convinced was impossible.

OK, so my execution still leaves a little to be desired, but I have surprised myself with how good it looks.

I have an A side, the safe side...

This is the middle section of the Ruby Star Spring Buzz print, and the pockets are fussy cut from the same.

And a Bee side...

I had to increase the pattern size to 105% to fit the star of the show on better; due to the luck of the cut of my half meter of Bee, the optimum cutting angle of the actual Bee couldn't quite be achieved, however I think I pulled it off.

I have won round Twin1 with my Bee love, but as my 'top insect' (OK, not like I actually have a list or anything!) is the dragonfly, I am so happy to have one of those on there too.

The sides and handle are the Bloom print; I added the selvedge to the underside of the strap, just because I could!  I was considering adding it to the top of the inner pocket, then, oh so timely I read this...  decision made!  I also extended the length by a couple of inches, just as a bit of taste and fancy.

The whole bag is lined with the pale lilac Kona that works really well, no darkness to eat my keys and wallet here.

The cotton-linen Kokka is so lovely to work with, I have never used interfacing on such large expanses of fabric, nor magnetic snaps or lined anything before, and it is not as difficult as I had feared - no stopping me now!  Maybe I will try the zipper version too!

I also found out yesterday that I am through to the second stage of brilliant Pings' Japanese Scrap Bag Challenge!  Now don't get too excited saying I can have your vote, as my, and probably your friend Sarah is now a rival, along with 8 others including Ali from Very Berry Handmade!  So join up to the flickr group to follow our progress, and see what we get up to over the next month or so.

Needle Case Swap

Yesterday was full of family walks, a trip to the local church with the girls to look at 'wedding dresses through the ages', (mostly the 1980s, so many puffy sleeves!) and back home to make my needle case for the Sewn Spaces Swap.

We can post these here, on flickr and put our goodies in the mail any time before the end of the month, so once I receive a secret little extra I have ordered for my partner, this will be winging its way to...

... someone who requested 'Yellow'. 

An inspiriation mosaic and a colour choice are all the secret partners have to go on, other than general stalking and lurking to make something we truly believe our partners would want.

So although I am pretty sure my partner doesn't read my blog, this is what I made for her...

I hope I got her 'right'!  This is the first time I have attempted to make anything like this, so I am rather pleased that it turned out how I envisaged.

I kind of cobbled together the pattern from a few I had seen on flickr, it measures 3"x 4 6/8" closed.  The fabrics are Feedsack - Yellow Blossoms by Sara Morgan and Alexander Henry's Farmdale Orchard print, both from last week's M is for Make haul, and topped with a couple of mother of pearl buttons from the local antique shop.

Job. Done.

Last chance saloon...

Firstly heart-felt thanks for all the lovely responses to the completed Happy Scrappy quilt - I don't think I will be able to better it for a long while!

OK, to business.  I will post this on flickr too, to cover all the bases, but Brit Swap Partner this is your last chance to scream 'Halt' before I get chopping into these!

The Melody Miller is for the backing (or if you don't fancy the front much, you can always turn it over!!).  I may add in or take away some of the prints depending on how they look in the mosaic, but I think it is 99% sorted.

The colours in the photo are slightly out, as it was taken during the 5 minutes of sunshine we had this afternoon, it makes the conservatory glow nicely, and your complexion look healthy, but not so good for true colour definition!  But you get the gist.  Now to think of a name...

Wow!!

I cannot believe the reaction to my little scrappy quilt!!  Over 200 views on flickr so far, and all your lovely comments, I am in shock, I really wasn't expecting that; thank you so much.  I hope that I won't disappoint you with the backing!

So here is the final block I made this evening for the back ...

I bought the rest of the backing fabric this afternoon but I'm not going to show you just yet! 

Frustratingly the shop had run out of my thread, so eBay to the rescue (wished I'd thought of that on Saturday, it would have arrived today, but nevermind); however awaiting me when I got home were these Layer Cake beauties...

I got them from Maggie at The Fabric Frieze.  She's one of those people who are just so great to do business with that I will definitely be a repeat shopper; I'll let you know when her non-eBay shop goes live too, as I have a feeling I'll be popping back. 

Before you start wagging your fingers and pointing to the 'To Do List', these have a very important purpose, my November Bee blocks!  OK I am being, perhaps, a little over-zealous, but I have found the perfect pattern and it requires 2 LCs, so I had to get them!

Last night I also received my Brit Quilt Swap partner info and I am totally over the moon with who I am making my mini quilt for, and I can't wait to start posting teasing pics and stalking more... so watch out lady... I have plans for you!  More on that soon...

Instructions for block 2 of the Mystery Quilt have now been posted; some paper-piecing fun; I'm going to save that for the weekend Sheila, I hope you don't mind!

To celebrate all this awesomeness, I cracked open the bags of dried fruit I had bought in a moment of madness before Christmas, (homemade Christmas cake or pudding - what was I thinking!?!), and with the trusted Nigella Rocky Road recipe, swapping biscuits for fruit, its the perfect choccy treat and its one of my '5 a day' too!

All this sunshine is making me itch!

I love the sunshine; my idea of heaven, until recently, would be lying on a sun-lounger with a good book.  But something crafty has taken over and now I am torn.  I want to make the most of this glorious weather, but I also want to be inside, sat at my sewing machine attempting to make beautiful things!

I know the weather won't last, but I've got a feeling this sewing malarkey will!

It's going to be crazy for the next twelve months at least as I have signed up for my first quilting Bee!!  Very nervous, excited and looking forward to a year of madness!

Today's scrappy blocks, in green and purple bring the total to 14; I'm aiming for 25 in all.

And for all UK-based quilters, why not join the new Brit Quilt group on Flickr for fun and fabric-related chat, (well OK sometimes we deviate from the point a little!), and if you are not a 'Brit' there appears to be a non-UK based splinter group developing from the Lily's Quilts group too.

Finally a huge big thank you and apology if you have commented here or on flickr and haven't received a reply - I am overwhelmed with the reactions I've had to my recent makings and my Inbox is overflowing with your much appreciated words!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The postman always rings...

The postmen were extra busy today, a new catalogue from Clothkits full of beautiful and wacky things to make arrived first, the second came with my long-coverted Material Obsession and Material Obsession Two books - I have only skimmed through the pictures so far but WOW! And the final knock of the day was my Kona charm packs.

A quick trip to the shops and school uniform for next term all bought and ready to be name-taped, and it's only day 2 of the holidays!

I have booked seats to see Toy Story 3 in 3D on thursday, so that should be fun for dear son and I; I will also be able to get my wadding from the fabric shop in town at the same time, and get cracking again. I have ordered some red polka dot fabric for the binding, so hopefully everything will all fall into place by the end of the week.

I am also hoping to pop into some of the Worthing Open Homes this weekend, for a bit of a beak and inspiration. Hopefully the hosts will all be happy to have photos taken so I can report back.

I've had a couple more lovely posts on flickr about my quilt - a boost I'd recommend to anyone!

It's all good x

A Sunny Saturday

Nursery summer fair, eaten too many cakes, sat in the sun, submitted my quilt picture to the Sew Hip flickr group and watched a Tommy Lee Jones film. Very relaxing day.

The children are wanting sock monkeys, so daddy better guard his drawers!

Long, but constructive day...

Up before 6am, Next sale, post office and home, all before breakfast. I have sewn up most of the strips for the first quilt, learnt the hard way that the remnants of sticky labels burn very quickly, and had enough time and energy left to set up my Flickr account, upload a few piccies from my 40th birthday trip to London, and now I have a date with Stephanie Plum. Night night.