I think April may hold the record for speeding by the quickest. It seems like only yesterday I was turning over a new page of our monthly calender, a Minion one in case you were wondering. This month I’ve managed a little bit of sewing, mainly for the two swaps I participated in. First there was the UK Mini Swap for a sweet little quilt which I wrote about here. There was also Round 6 of the Fabric ATC swap organised by Very Berry Handmade. The ATC measured only 2.5 x3.5 inches and I made a tiny row of terraced…
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A few days ago we made some little Miffy figures from air drying clay and our Miffy cookie cutters. We love crafting with air drying clay as it’s so easy to use and pretty kid friendly. We left them to dry overnight. The next day the children decorated them with acrylic paint and colouring pens. The other day we covered some matchboxes with pretty papers and my 3 year old wanted to use them to make a Miffy matchbox bed. I added eyelets and small lengths of ricrac to one end to make it easier for her little fingers to…
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Yesterday I received the most amazing mini quilt in the post. Late last year I signed up for a mini quilt swap and today I can write a mini quilt swap reveal post. I love sewing and patchwork and thought it would be a fun challenge to make something for someone else. The only requirement was that the quilt had to be a minimum of 15 inches on both sides, and maximum of 24 inches. We were paired up and sent links to inspiration boards to gather ideas. I chose a gorgeous patchwork heart which I loved making. There were…
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Two new quilts have been added to my quilt gallery wall. Over the Christmas holiday I re-arranged some of the pieces to include my Wild Olive Winter Stitching Club piece which was a snowflake shaped quilted mat. I love the colours and unusual shape. I have also added my finished ticker tape quilt. Last year I wrote about the Hand Quilting workshop with Charlotte Newland I attended. We had to bring an unfinished quilt to work on and this little quilt was stuffed in my sewing box. Since I messed up the binding I just didn’t wanted to finish it off…
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I’ve been naughty and bought another vintage dolls bed for my daughter. We were out shopping in Pinner last week and I spotted a beautiful vintage dolls bed in an RSPCA charity shop. I have to admit that my daughter already has a couple of doll beds. In fact she has two she plays with, and there’s another two waiting to be painted in the spare room! Another vintage dolls bed I was trying to be good so I looked at it, thought it was very sweet in its original state, then walked way. We had lunch and I thought…
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One of my favourite craft books is pretty in patchwork doll quilts. I’ve already made one of the quilts from it (the I Spy quilt) but I’ve also had my eye on the really pretty ticker tape doll quilt by Cathy Gaubert for my daughter. So over a year ago, yep you read that correctly, I bought a colourful rainbow of fabric from an Etsy store and it wasn’t until a few months ago that I got it out again. It felt strange finally cutting into each piece but now I have at least I’ll be able to use the…
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I think I’ve mentioned that the only room in desperate need of a makeover is our living room/dining room. It’s a long room which runs the length of the house and is lovely and light. We’re in the process of deciding on a new sofa so hopefully that will influence a colour scheme soon or vice versa. You know I love to make doll quilts. They are pretty wasted on my 2 year so I’ve gradually been sneaking them away from her and washing them with the idea of hanging them and having my own quilt gallery wall. It was…
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So I’m blogging about doll quilts a lot at the moment. I love making them and trying out different techniques. One of my favourites was the Grandmother’s Garden doll quilt. I really enjoyed working on it although the shape gave me a few headaches over how to finish it. However, finishing off the Summer Stitching quilt gave me a few ideas which helped. Grandmother’s Garden Doll Quilt Firstly, I added a couple of green hexagons to the short sides of the quilt to make it into a rectangle. I spent a weekend unpicking all the basting stitches and removing the…
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I love joining in with Wild Olive’s seasonal stitching clubs. I like to share my progress too but it seems that I often forget! Last summer I took part in Wild Olive’s Summer Stitching Club. You get sent a pattern each week and it builds into a cute little doll quilt or cushion cover using English Paper Piecing and hexagons – my two favourite things. This was the first I took part in and to be honest I found it hard to set aside the time but had a big push and made the bulk of it over one weekend.…
