Patchwork Quilt

 I finally finished my first 'proper' patchwork quilt! I started this back in October, following a quilting book Ash gave me as a present. This block pattern is an Ohio Star (nine patch with quarter-square triangles)

I kept to red, pink & light green for the colours. The paisley fabric is Cath Kidston, and the pink binding is an old skirt that's recycled here. All the rest of the fabric came from ebay.

Bathroom Makeover

Shelf unit from Ikea

Our bathroom makeover was finally finished this weekend. Last year when we returned from holiday in Italy we came home to a wreaked bathroom - the ceiling had fallen in due to water damage - nightmare!

Canvas print made from my original photo of St Ives

The original bathroom was a hideous peach colour. Once we'd replaced the ceiling and painted it white the rest of the bathroom needed freshening up too. We used tile paint to create a fresh white high gloss finish, and went for plain white on the walls as well. 

The blue mosaic laminate flooring came from B&Q.

The white drawer unit provides storage for towels and toiletries. It was an unfinished wood Rast chest of drawers from Ikea. I painted it in the left over white wall paint & replaced the handles to make it look a bit more vintage. 

Baby Knits

Some more baby booties & hat that I've knitted from the Knitty Gritty book. I think I'm getting the hang of it now!

I tried to make these gender neutral as my friend who's expecting isn't finding out the sex of the baby. 

Building a Fabric Stash

I have a lot of fabric squirrelled away in my house. Some would say too much. (They are of course wrong!) I like knowing that if I decide to start a sewing project there & then I will have fabric to use. If a friend's birthday suddenly sneaks up on me I can make them something pretty without having to drive to the nearest craft shop. 

Patchwork bag I made for Ash's niece Isabella using scraps left over from my patchwork quilt

I keep my fabric by the metre stored in baskets in the sideboard in the sunroom/ sewing room. I used to keep all the scrappy offcuts in small baskets, but my stash was growing too much. So I decided to use this lovely vintage suitcase to store all the off cuts and odds & ends I've built up over the years. 

I keep all the small bits lefts over from my sewing projects. I also keep old clothes that have ripped or no longer fit, as long as it's a fabric I like. I also have friends who donate things to me - old curtains, bed sets, clothing. All of these things get a second lease of life in my fabric stash. 

Now that I've started quilting this stash is really going to come into it's own!

Tilda Bunny

Today I made a very thrifty sewing project - the pattern was free & the fabric was all from scraps!

The pattern for this bunny toy came from Sew magazine's website. My brother gave me a subscription for my birthday & when I was on the website printing off that month's free pattern I had a browse through the other free patterns on there and came across this cute bunny. 

It's called Tilda bunny because the designer used Tilda fabrics to make her toy. I love Tilda fabrics, but I find them a bit expensive. I used an old vintage dress that had ripped to make the bunny - the lining is the plain blue fabric and the dress itself is the floral. I then used scraps that had originally come from old clothes of mine to make the shorts & tunic. And so a truly recycled little bunny was born!

Machine Embroidery

Today I did a course in machine embroidery at The Makery in Bath. I'd never done a sewing course before - my Mum taught me to sew from a pattern - so I was a little nervous. I needn't have been, the atmosphere was really relaxed, and our teacher Susi made everything really clear and let us be as creative as we wanted to be. 

The day also involved some applique, so it was really like two courses in one. There was so much fabric to chose from, I was in heaven! 

After running through the basics and having a bit of a play to get used to the technique I decided to have a go at embroidering a picture of Bronwyn freehand. I'm pretty thrilled with the results!

I then made two applique pictures, one for Ash for Valentine's Day, both of which should look great hanging in our home. I'm going to frame them in embroidery hoops like we used when working on them as I think this will look really good. 

I highly recommend a visit to The Makery - they have a shop also in Bath and the workshop space on Walcot Street. Take a look at their website for the other courses they run. 

http://www.themakeryonline.co.uk/