Pretty things all in a row...

Like my buddy Helen, I got a parcel of complete and utter loveliness today!

I am such an Aneela Hoey 'fan', you may have noticed, she has!  Aneela was the inspiration for my Happy Scrappy quilt, I have my Sherbet Pips Confetti quilt, and she designed the Around the Corner 'Man Quilt' pattern; my hexie sewing bag is predominantly Pips, I am working on a Pips hexie cushion during all those ballet lessons and I have a stash of Little Apples waiting to ripen.  So you could easily guess that A Walk in The Woods is just a tad eagerly waited, oh, and pre-ordered already!

But looky look at these apparent scraps (although I beg to differ!)...

I was sooooooooooooooooo over the moon to find these waiting for me when I got home from work today; stacking them into piles of the different prints was so therapeutic after 5 hours of database interrogation.

Aneela is such a lovely, funny, generous and super talented designer and maker, and a Brit!  This line might just be my favourite so far, Little Red is the cutest.  (Did I miss anything out Aneela?!).  I am so chuffed, even the pain of the Nativity cannot wipe the smile off my face.

Wise Man update:

I hate gold thread even more than I imagined I would - so it has been banished, having been unpicked again and again!  The 'slinky look' from the first fitting this morning has been rectified this evening with the addition of a full length pleat down the back; gold ribbon and a nasty button have blinged it up a bit, and hopefully I will be able to entice the wise one to try it on again tomorrow for a photo or two!

Oh and before I go, Noodlehead-Anna is having a 2 day sale, offering $2 off all her patterns, including the 241 tote, so for less than £4, you could get that, or, as I did, the Go Anywhere Bag pattern.  Woo hoo!

The full picture...

Remember this?

And this?

Well now I can reveal all, as they have now arrived with their rightful owner!

This secret partner was a sneeky madam!   I will obviously forgive her, as the goodies I received from her were totally wonderful, and the reason why I did not think for a second that she was making for me too!!  Now you can see why I couldn't show you more, if we were all going to have a surprise, it only seemed fair that I should repay the compliment.

So we have an Echino mug rug, as I was going for the all things bright and beautiful theme as requested, I am not a total loose cannon!  The x&+ block is one of my absolute favourites, so it seemed befitting...

The 'goodie' was not so much about the colours but the Froggy Prince, as my stalkerly ways/elephant brain remembered that this lovely lady loves frogs!  The angst waiting for the fabric to arrive from the US of A was tortuous!

Anywho, a mini 241 Tote in Tula Pink's Prince Charming was the outcome!

As soon as I saw this post I knew a 'mini' would be a great goodie gift some day!

I may have also popped in a brooch and a few other goodies in the cornflake box for our wonderful swap mama, because without her, there would have been no swap!!

Thank you Cindy for being so great to make for!  I am so happy that you are so happy!

Partner 2 where are you?  Or rather, where is your parcel?  Judging by other's postal times, it should be with you any day now, so keep stalking that postman!

Partner's Choice...

Thank you kind folks who alerted me to my Ruby Star Spring 241 Tote picture appearing over at Quilt Dad's today - how completely chuffed am I!  The man's a genius, and I'm not just saying that!

Well I didn't get to pull all the fabric I'd planned last night, but I was able to narrow things down a bit.   Then using my new 'hour of peace' between work and school run, I am now able to give one of my Goodie Swap partners a bit of a choice.

So which do you reckon?

I need to get a move on though, as some people are all ready to mail.  Some of my potential fabric is still mid-Atlantic, so if it doesn't come soon, it'll be Plan B for one partner!

This weekend I am determined to get rid of this cough and cold that has been bugging me for the last couple of weeks, hopefully go to the Sheep Fair, weather permitting and catch up on some ironing, oh lucky me!  I hope there'll be time and energy for sewing, lots of sewing x

Awesome August!

A whole month of school holidays passed by in a flash!  So here I am again linking up with Lily's Quilts and Fresh Sewing Day.

We took a week away near Weymouth and had another week of family time, but I still managed to clock up a few finishes in August.

Firstly, I was able to reveal the mini-quilt prize I made for Rhonda at the end of July...

There were Bee blocks for Sarah...

... and also an eventual finish with a zip! ...

Phone cases...

Hexies...

... and a little Mystery...

A mini prezzie for Lizzie...

FWQAL blocks at long last...

... and my first 241 Tote...

I was lucky enough to win some lovely fabric from both Lizzie and Renee & Yvonne, plus a Jelly Roll from Mandy at Simply Solids; I got a spot on Rhonda's podcast and Cindy's Name Game, and also won a place in Pings' Japanese Scrap Bag Challenge!!

Some wonderful pressies came my way too...

There was the start of the Across the Sea QAL...

... and also a little shopping and behind the scenes preparation for my November Bee blocks (Mwaah ha ha - so excited!), and quite a bit of secrecy with Project 51, which I am so proud to say can be revealed really soon.

Oh, and this bargain baby...

I have to admit that even I am surprised at how much I was able to fit in!

September is going to be an even busier month, with Goodie swaping, QALs and the competition to make for.  School will be back and the girls will be starting for the first time on Tuesday!  I go back to work next week too and I'm shattered just thinking about it. 

Anyone got any energy going spare, I think I am going to need extra!

One step ahead...

Soon the Mug Rug and Goodie Swap will be in full flow, with partners being allocated as we speak; so last night, after Doctor Who, I got to sorting through this little selection of fabrics...

The flickr group is filling up with lovely inspirational mosaics, and I'm still not sure if I am surprised or not that many of those favourites turn up time and again in people's selections.  Looking at the page of thumbnails, they all look pretty similar.

So, with my blank sheet, and sharpened pencil...

I did a bit of sketching and calculating to see what I would be able to create with what I have. 

I'm considering about half a dozen ideas which are currently knocking about in my head, hoping I will be able to narrow them down to match my actual partners' tastes; but for now, it was fun just getting to lay a load of fabric all over the living room floor and play for a while before the pressure is on!

Thank you all again for the wonderful comments on my 241 Tote; I truly am overwhelmed by all your kind responses, you guys know how to make me smile  xx

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.

Cutting it up a bit!

No sewing at all yesterday; there was some digging, mosaic, pottery, cave painting and colouring-in at the village museum though.

It was Junior Archaeology Day, so we went along and had a play, just as the sun came out.  A good time was had by all, and then we had a quick look in the actual 'museum'.

I don't know if there is an official minimum 'size' for a museum, but this one is probably up/down there in the 'tiniest' category, probably no bigger than our lounge (our lounge is not huge), but out of all the things they could have displayed, they chose to display this...

And look closely...

I am so easily impressed!

The museum is also home, (probably not unsurprisingly then), to the Storrington Quilters...

Who knew?!

And then there was the cutting, a lot of cutting.  I cut all the background fabric for the Across The Sea QAL top, to add to the Greek cross pieces I prepared the other evening...

... then I cut the pattern pieces and interfacing for my 241 tote that I am planning to get on with today...

I need another finish!