shopping!

I made myself a bag the other day:

To take with me to the festival of quilts and fill with fabric of course!

Also, without wanting to give too much away for those of you yet to visit the F of Q may I warn you that the famous rabbit and bee quilt from last year has a new rival. You will know it when you see it. Oh yes.
I have also had a few lovely breaks away recently to Yorkshire, Devon and Wales so I am terribly behind on blog reading and replying to your comments. Apart from the occasional day trip we are now home for the rest of the summer break giving me the chance for some gardening, sewing and generally messing about with the children. What bliss!

at the seaside

Our holiday: surfing, sandcastles, fish and chips, rain, sunshine, family and Woolacombe beech!

block making

I have been busy making lots of bee blocks this week as you can see from the above photos!
These lovley blocks were sent to me for my eye spy quilt via the 3x6 mini bee:

Here is the quilt so far, with a new row added:


Have a fun week everyone - now I am on holiday I am off to Yorkshire for a few days to see family.

princess and unicorn

Made for a six year old using a tutorial from Fat Quarterly. Taken before the rain returned - the UK is back to its rainy self now, not that I am complaining too much, my allotment needed a really good water!

fabric and flowers

Here are my latest purchases - they all arrived in the post together so I had a lovely 10 minutes opening my parcels and stroking my new fabric!

The plains are from a new online shop Simply Solids. Finally the UK has got somewhere to buy Kona solids from! I also splashed out on a swatch card - a bit pricey at £12 but so worth it. It will earn its keep as I will no longer be wasting money buying plain fabrics only to discover the colour is wrong when they arrive.

My patterned fabrics are from Saints and Pinners and Fabric Rehab - two UK stores always guaranteed to have lots of lovely things to choose from. All in all we are starting to do pretty well as far as shops go. Lily's quilts (another UK blogger) has compiled a list of UK online fabric shops on her blog that is well worth a look - she had a few on her list I had not come across before. Her blog is fab as well!

Finally I picked these flowers on my allotment at 6:30 this morning on an adventure and raspberry munching walk with my two boys (they are both early risers). Some sweet peas, a few sprigs of herbs and wild flowers from my asparagus bed (it really needs a good weed if there are flowers in it!!) Enjoy your weekend!

dogs and robots

Two finishes in one week - wooh hoo! The quilt is full of some of my favourite fabrics and was a joy to make. It is destined to live in the back of the car along with this one for moments of snuggle on long journeys.


I am officially retiring my UFO list for a while as I have done most of the stuff on it and I have another birthday quilt to make by next Sunday. I am in the quilting zone at the moment and have already made a start on the new quilt. Have a great week everyone - my school is taking part in SHINE - basically a week when students are taken off their normal timetable for sports day, trips, concerts, special assemblies, charity fundraising and the like. It should be hectic but fun!

pink quilt goodness

Yay! I have finished the quilt for a three year old girl. As time was short I just went for big, bold pieces of as many pink/purple fabrics I could get my hands on. I am very happy with how it has turned out, helped by my new toy, a walking foot. For those of you who might not know, a walking foot helps stop fabric puckering especially when doing lots of straight lines. It is pretty pricy at £25 ish but it is SO worth the money! I wish I had bought one sooner and totally recommend it. I can notice a real difference in my quilting and there are no puckers and snags!
I combined the batting and backing in one and used a fleece quilt from IKEA. At around three quid it was a really cheap way of making the quilt, and is also very nice and snuggly for a little girl who loves all things fleecy. So all in all a big success - I just hope the birthday girl likes it!