And Sew On... Something for me!

One of my new year resolutions was to make more things for myself when my husband pointed out that everything I make it for family and friends.

This Block of the Month project caught my eye. It would involve me learning paper piecing and at the end of 9 months, I'll have a fantastic sewing themed wall hanging to go above my desk. Some of the blocks look rather complicated, so it's going to be a real challenge!

I've now completed the first block and I'm rather pleased with it! It's not perfect, but as it's for me, who cares?!

Some of the other people taking part had fantastic tape measure fabric, but I had to make do with some slightly wonky hand embroidery. I really enjoyed choosing the fabrics, although the raised shiny pattern on the solid red fabric doesn't show up well in the picture.

I can't wait for February's block! I'll be posting a picture when it's finished.

Happy Stitching!

Nearly forgot to show you!

Ok, so it's January 12th now, but I thought I should finally show you some more of the Christmas presents I made for various people.

Who loves Moomins? Well I do and I found out my friend does as well, so I made her a notebook cover out of denim with a stencilled Moomintroll. He's having a little dance! To inspire her, I wrote a quote on the first page from Snufkin: "Today we must do something very special, for it will be a glorious day"

I made a felt applique house picture for my sister, thanks to this tutorial from sewmamasew. Although I made my house grey instead of pink as I thought her partner might complain about having a pink house on the wall!

I don't seem to have a picture of the finished wall hanging, but I made my brother a small 4 block picture with some crazy applique cats on! I'll get him to take a picture, but here's one of the cats in progress! Thanks to frantastic-stitchwitchery for the inspiration, but of course hers is much better than mine was!

And finally, I made this for my husband, who is always the lucky recipient of something cross stitched every Christmas! The kit was a Heritage Stitchcraft Margaret Sherry kit called 'Roly Purrly'.


I think that's everything for now. I'm currently working on a few things for me and my shop, so I hope to post some more pictures soon.

I hope 2013 is going well for you so far!

Another tick on the list!

I'm still busily stitching, but I'm pleased to announce that I've finished my daughters presents! As promised I'm posting pictures to show off my successes and failures!

I found these curtains in a charity shop with lots of different animals on which I thought would make a great mini quilted picture. I love recycling!

I found this cross stitch kit in a charity shop about a month ago for £2.99 and wanted to stitch it for her room straight away. I've been stitching into the early hours and was nearly finished when I realised I'd made a mistake and had to unpick some of the backstitch. Unfortunately it was one of those occasions when you can't just leave it and pretend it was supposed to be that way! The kit is 'Doll House Hutch' by Bucilla and I especially liked that it came with the frame.

I started this sock monster ages ago, but its been sitting around without a face poor thing. Now she's a happy sock monster!

And finally my first attempt at making some clothes for her. I made these 2 tops using some of my old clothes and following an online tutorial (can't remember which one now I'm afraid) and I think I went slightly wrong as the necklines are too big. Rather than try and alter them or throw them away, I'll keep them until she's a bit older and has a bigger head!


I love making things for her, even though at 20 months she doesn't care what she gets, it still means a lot to me!

I'll update with more present pictures when I have more to show. How many days left???????

Have yourself a merry little robot

I've finished all my Christmas stitching and can sit back, relax and enjoy this week........ in my dreams! 

I've still got lots to do and not many hours to do it in. Unfortunately my daughter is still too young to be helpful, or I would be using some child labour right about now!

I did manage to get my nephews presents sent off on time, so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures on here to try and motivate me to get everything else done. 

He's ended up with a robot theme, not sure why, but all little boys like robots right? If he doesn't he might be disappointed!

I made a small quilted picture (I'm still a learner, so excuse the wonky lines) and decided to embellish a t-shirt with a simple applique. Thanks to lemonwoodclock for the applique idea. I thought I'd better make him a smiley robot!

I'll post some more finished Christmas presents soon, I hope!!!!

Crafting for Boys

Good news! The crafting community has a new member!

My 6 year old nephew has suddenly decided he wants to be creative. He must get the crafty bug from our side of the family.

That's great of course, but now I'm a bit lost. What sort of crafts would a 6 year old boy be interested in? Most of the crafts I can think of might be considered a bit too girly (like sewing for instance)

Has anyone got any suggestions for a confused auntie?

As this post is for my nephew, I'll show you the card I've just made for him using felt with a stamped background. He likes Timmy Time on Cbeebies, so here's Paxton the pig having a party. Oink-tastic!

Toys for my daughter

I haven't been making much to sell recently, but I have been making a few things for my daughter which I wanted to show you!

 Owl family that make a crinkle sound when you squeeze them, made using a tutorial from craftstylish

 A stripey sock monster from my own imagination!

 A ragdoll made using a tutorial from make-baby-stuff 

A sock pig rattle made using a tutorial from homemadebyjill

I think I'm addicted to making her toys!

Please vote for me before 31st May!

I've entered a competition on the Crafter..oo! website. There were 4 different categories and I've entered 3 of them. I was aiming to make something for all the categories, but ran out of time!

If you have a minute to spare, I'd be very grateful if you could head over to Crafter..oo! and vote for my entries before the 31st May! I would also encourage you to have a look around at the forum, there's a lot of talented people with great ideas over there and they produce a quarterly online magazine to inspire us crafters!

I had great fun and here are my choices for entries:

My lovely beaded owl in the Air category

A crochet necklace in the Fire category

Finally my favourite hanging frog organiser in the Water category

Thank you!

UPDATED: If anyone did vote for me, thank you very much! I didn't win anything, but I had fun anyway!