New Year Resolution

A couple of years ago I was introduced to Etsy, a brilliant website to buy and sell all things handmade. If you haven't already discovered it, I encourage you to have a look here. You can find a "local" section for the UK and Scotland and might just find a perfect gift for yourself or someone special.
Anyway, back then in 2008 I set a shop front up for myself but hadn't ever managed to list an item for sale. So I made myself a NY resolution to get my shop up and running in 2010 and I am really chuffed to announce that I have just listed my first two items.

These are both Kindle, or e-book covers and I was inspired to make them following our Kindle Christmas. I am hoping that they might provide a prettier option to the leather covers that are widely available. If you would like to have a look at my "shop" you will find my Etsy button at the top of the column to the right. I'd love to hear your comments..........

Poor Muzza

So far so good........

Last year at this time I was looking forward to a Sunday workshop - think it was the Crazy Patchwork one. The only downside at the time was that it clashed with the final of the Australian Open tennis final and Andy Murray had reached that very final. We coped with a few text updates.
This year I scheduled my workshops around the tennis schedule (!) and my plans so far have been worth it.
Andy has made it thro again - after an agonising to watch semi - so no sewing tomorrow morning!
If you read this post, be sure to send him some positive thoughts in the morning and let's hope he does it this time.

Sorry folks........

I thought I had already added last years Accidental Landscape pix to my flickr pool - I think perhaps they were just in the body of an old post.
Anyway, you cannow view all the wee landscapes by hitting the flickr button to the right.

Well I never............

On way home from class tonight I saw a man walking a ferret - it was on a lead.........................

I'm Free - are you?

So this month my classes are all starting a free machine quilting course. It's my intention that with some regular practice we can all build our confidence and expertise and maybe even explore new ways with the dogs down..
Some have already experienced my FMQ workshop, and much of the class content will reprise that but I will be adding some new stuff too.
I have added a new blog link, right, it's Patsy Thompson Designs. Nan lent me some of this lady's DVDs a while back and they were really inspiring. If you visit her blog there is a link to her website where you will find heaps of FREE downloadable designs that you can have a go at trying out on fabric.
She is also hosting some giveaways of "stuff" which has become surplus to her requirements - to try and win something, all you have to do is comment on her blog. Why don't you pop over and have a look.

Yippee!

Finally, we have a carpeted living room, yippee. We ordered a new carpet & sofa just before New Year. The carpet was fitted today, the sofa?...10 - 12 weeks, oops, not good forward planning. Ah well.

So - whilst the carpet fitters did their thing, I was sort of imprisoned in my sewing room (lol) and managed to finish the two cushion covers. I always opt for the easy envelope back for cushions but was worried that using fleece would result in a strethy, gaping back. So, I decided to bind the edges with cotton before adding the backing pieces. I did the same on both cushion backs, and for Evan's, I bound the pocket edge also. Maybe they will last a bit longer this way.

kijy6y6 (message from the cat, she just walked over the keyboard!!)

Anyway, let me know what you think..........

Thought you might like the close-up of the reading dragon (hoping Evan will think it's a dinosaur!) - was stitching this out the other day on my embroidery machine and the final part was the dragon's body. That was when I discoverd the bright green thread I had bought was in fact variegated. I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a go, result - a stripey dragon, quite funky??

As alway, if you click on an image you should get a bigger view.

A flurry of activity

I had quite a busy weekend in my sewing room.........I quilted Evan's cushion top,

and stopped myself going further until I had made a start on another project, a cushion cover for a floor cushion which I plan to give to my niece, Hope, who will be 13 at the end of this month. (before Evan's birthday) Now first of all let me show you what arrived in the post last month from my big sis in Oz..........

.........two packs of yummy Australian fabric, actually made in Australia. Now tempting as it was to leave it packaged and safely in a drawer, I made the brave decision to cut into it for Hope's cushion. You see, she was born in Australia and suddenly  the fabric / project / birthday all made perfect sense. I added a couple of plains and one non-Oz fabric.........

and then I embroidered a couple of plains............

then I joined the 6" patches, layered them up and did a bit of very quick quilting! I plan to use cerise pink fleece for the backing. Feeling quite pleased with my efforts, somtimes the simple stuff is very effective isn't it?

Meanwhile, have you noticed the extra features on the blog, like the instant link to YouTube? Have a go if you haven't tried it before, not just for kids, try typing in, e.g. Eleanor Burns and you will be rewarded with quilting demos.......such fun.

I can see from my counter that the blog gets quite regular traffic, but I would just love it if you joined me as a follower.................

leftovers...................

...................I expect you are all fed up with leftovers by now but thought I'd share my current "recipe" with you.

First of all, do you remember this wee guy?

 

"Scraps", birthday pressie for nephew Evan, last year.............

....so a few weeks ago, on somebody's blog, I read of a great boy project - a cushion with a couple of pockets, one for a book, and one for a torch. (Evan's mum, Lynn, is a great reader so I am sure will heartily approve of encouraging reading under the covers)

Have tried, in vain, to find that blog so am making it up as I go........

so far, the patchwork - I decided on 2" squares to use up as much leftover fabric as I could - thought I'd aim for an 18" cushion, wow, that meant 64 squares, just for a wee cushion - eek! Didn't really take all that long.
Next job, to quilt it and then add the pockets, think I will make a fleece back, maybe even fleece pockets.......watch this space.