Fudge.

That's my current favourite non-swear word, for those moments when you need to say something really *expressive* but it's not appropriate to say anything stronger.

You know when you're working on a project, and all you get is mistakes and problems the whole way through? I'm working on (murdering??) one of these at the minute.

I loved this charm pack when I first bought it, in fact it might have been my first ever fabric purchase, as I can't find a photo of it, and this was the first quilt that I ever "planned" (read threw together) and started.

So far, I've had to unpick the entire quilt, bar one row, due to the totally wonky seam allowances - nothing lined up! That took me *hours*, although I got quite quick by the end. I've now resewn the whole top, bar a few sashing strips. I then stood back and took a good look at it... can you see what I noticed?

Hence - FUDGE!

If you can't see it - look at the top row.........................

I'm trying to decide whether I should bother redoing it all again, or whether I can accept it as a "learning moment" as we call it at school. This is purely for me to cuddle with, when the mercury drops again, as I'm sure it will. If nothing else, Sports Day is in two weeks and we all know what that means! 

Not Quite A Blogoversary Giveaway....



In my attempt to become more organised, I decided that I wanted to hold a giveaway to stay thanks to everyone who has commented, emailed, offered me help, support, ideas etc, since I started sewing and blogging.

HOWEVER, I realised that the date of my first post coincides with my trip to Denmark this summer. So, instead of holding my giveaway on JULY 23rd, I thought I'd start it on JUNE 23rd instead (I thought about whether that was "allowed" - then I remembered, my blog, my rules!) That way,I have time to hold the giveaway, contact the winner and post out the prize before I go.

So, here's the prize:

Either one charm pack of Pezzy Prints

Or one charm pack of Fairytale Friends

Both pics from Fabric Rehab, where I bought the packs

Just to be clear, only one of these packs is available - I bought them both but can't decide which I like best!

To win, please leave me a comment telling me which you would like. I'd love if you were also a follower, as I'd like the giveaway to thank my followers.

Comments will close at 9pm on Sunday 1st July when I will pick one winner. Please make sure that you're not a no-reply blogger, or leave an address in your comment.

Summerville Chevron Pillow

As I've already mentioned, this pillow is for Danny at Mommyforreals for a charity that she works with.


I'm  really quite pleased with this, as it represents a few firsts for me. I haven't made more than two or three half square triangles before, and this was the first time that I had used them to "make" a design. It took a few doodles before I started to get the basic pattern straight in my head, but I got there in the end. I used 4 charm squares of different green patterns, four blue, one red (cut into quarters) for the corners and 8 black squares cut vertically in two to form the outer border. The solid I used was quite a bright white, but it was all that I had, and I'm pleased with the effect that it's created.



The back was pieced together using some larger pieces that I had left over from my wristlet - more on that when it's finished! I included some covered buttons made with scraps, because yet again I left a gape, oops!

Hope whoever receives this enjoys using it as a weapon and a shield, a comfort and a tear collector - and it's got wadding and quilting so should stand up to all of this!

IT - broked!

Ahhh, I tried to be clever and follow the Bold Good's excellent tutorial on using Powerpoint, linked from Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop (please check it out, it IS excellent)

HOWEVER - I'm a numpty, Hubs is working with an am-dram group after work this week, and I've messed it up! Does anyone know how to make it work please?

This is what it's supposed to look like - any feedback gratefully received!

Finished Kindle Cover

Well, it did rain quite a lot while we were in Cornwall, so I had time to finish my Kindle cover.

I used the pattern from Clover and Violet, and used some charm squares from Domestic Bliss to make the hexies (plus one little pink hexie on the back because I forgot to take enough fabric with me!) I used some HeatnBond on the back of the hexies to add a bit of stability, and quilted with straight(ish) diagonal lines.

Close up of the back - you can just see the little pink hexie at the bottom :)

The black elastic was a nightmare to find, I didn't take any to Cornwall with me, but we went into Plymouth for the day and found some in House of Fraser (with a lot of gorgeous fabric, couldn't browse though because my brother was moaning that he was hungry!) I used some cardboard to add strength to the pockets as I didn't have any plastic canvas (or know what it is!)

Proof that it didn't rain the whole time, as taken by my friend's three year old who was staying with us:

She finally learnt not to put her hands in front of the lens!

PS - please let me know what you think of the photos, I found my old digital camera, so used that instead of my phone camera, but it is quite an old digital - I think I got it in 2004 ish?

TRAC pillow

Danny at Mommyforreals put out a call for help last week, which I saw when I got back from Cornwall on Sunday (which was supercoolfun, more about that later.)

TRAC, an adventure camp for girls, has put out a request for pillowcases for presents - for more info, see her post here. After figuring out which type of pillowcase was needed (immediate thought was the British kind - what is the American word for that thing that you put your head on at night?), I came up with a plan...


Taadah!

Obviously, it's not yet complete but it is in progress and looking good (I think!) I'm not made chevrons before so it took a little patience to get everything in the right place.

I realised that I've not done any backstitching as I've gone along - any suggestions for how I can make this as sturdy as possible to stand up to the pillowfights!