• ways to upcycle Shopkins - the gingerbread house
    kawaii - Kids crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    How to upcycle Shopkins

    May 30, 2015 - By 

    Have you heard of Shopkins? They are cute, collectable characters from your favourite shops and my 5 year old is obsessed with them. Every Friday he loves to go to our local toy shop and buy a Shopkins basket with his pocket money and add a couple more Shopkins to his collection. They are quite sweet little toys, all different products you would expect to find at the supermarket, and you can collect the different categories and buy playsets for them. They are very kawaii with their happy little faces and remind me of the cute characters I have stitched…

  • Christmas - handmade - kawaii - sewing

    A snowflake-shaped table mat

    December 17, 2014 - By 

    I was hoping to make some seasonal doll quilts for my quilt gallery wall but I’ve only managed to make one. However it’s one I’m really pleased with. A few weeks ago I finished the final seasonal stitching club from Mollie Johanson – the Winter Stitching Club. As usual each week a new embroidery pattern was introduced. They were all fun seasonal patterns like this sweet thermos flask. I enjoyed stitching them so they came together really quickly. Each hexagon became a puffy hexie. I used fabric from Moda’s “In From the Cold” which is so pretty. There was plenty…

  • felt busy bag gingerbread house
    Christmas - gingerbread house - Handmade gifts - Kids crafts

    Felt busy bag gingerbread house

    November 20, 2014 - By 

    I’m sure you’ve noticed my obsession with gingerbread house but it really comes to life at this time of year. In the last week we’ve made a gingerbread tree, gingerbread biscuits, the gingerbread man story stones and today I wanted to share our felt busy bag gingerbread house. The gingerbread house appears in the well-known fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a witch living in the deep dark forest in a house constructed of gingerbread and sweets. The two children survive by outwitting her. Aspects of the story are a…

  • Autumn - handmade - kawaii - sewing

    Autumn Stitching Club cushion finished!

    August 23, 2014 - By 

    Due to the Summer holidays I’ve been blogging a lot less than normal (for me). I love spending time with my children and have really enjoyed picking up some sewing in the evenings rather than my laptop. My latest project is Wild Olive’s Autumn Stitching Club project. This was quite simple compared to the Spring Stitching Club quilt I recently finished. There were only 13 hexagons to make but they were all really enjoyable to stitch. I love the Pumpkin Spice Latte, Caramel Apple and this pretty hexies of potted mums. I used a Moda Posh Pumpkins charm pack for…

  • Dolls quilts - handmade - kawaii - Patchwork & Quilting - sewing

    Wild Olive’s Summer Stitching Club doll quilt

    August 16, 2014 - By 

    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.…

  • crafts - kawaii - Patchwork & Quilting - sewing - Spring

    Spring Stitching Club quilt – finished!

    July 9, 2014 - By 

    Over the past couple of months I’ve been slowly embroidering hexagons for Wild Olive’s Spring Stitching Club quilt, a fun weekly stitching club. I finished the embroidered panel but needed to put the quilt together. I’m not great at finishing projects so I blogged about my progress in the hope it would encourage me to complete it. I’m pretty pleased to say I finished my quilt over the weekend! It’s lovely to see it finished after working on small hexagons for weeks. It’s actually come together quite quickly and I really love it (as does my 4 year old). After I…

  • crafts - kawaii - sewing

    Wild Olive’s Spring Stitching Club

    June 22, 2014 - By 

    I like nothing more than having a couple of sewing projects on the go. I’ve been working on Wild Olive’s Spring Stitching Club for a while and thought I’d write about my progress to spur me on to finish it. The Stitching Club in a Seasonal sewing club where you receive a weekly email with an embroidery pattern. Over the weeks the individual pieces are made into something bigger, such as a doll quilt or cushion cover. So far I’ve only completed the Summer Stitching Club but I have the Autumn and Winter patterns too which I will get round…