By Stephie, on Saturday 21st May, 2011 at 06:46 am
 For Yazmin So here it is, the result of last weekend’s crafty session. These pictures are un-sulled by death and mutilation (see last post!), so if you need a burst of life and colour, rest assured these pictures are full of it!! As I mentioned before, this was a gift for my young niece. She loves butterflies and I was lucky enough to find this colourful butterfly fabric by Kona at my local shop. I really like the simplicity of the modern grid design, but I couldn’t help adding some floral Kaffe Fasset and Amy Butler fabrics to the mix. Despite the trials and tribulations with my sewing machine, I’m quite pleased with the results really. But my favourite part of the process was probably making the button loop closure, which I did by hand!
During the week I’ve been trying to make headway with the lacy jumper but, until now, it’s been growing slowly as I’ve had to rip out a fair bit of it (the perils of not being able to count properly!!!). Not having had enough time to make things recently has been driving me insane, but it looks as though this weekend will be sparse too – I have a date to make a fence round the chicken coup. What will you be up too, have you got anything exciting planned?
 Sleep Tight  The back  A candy stripe button? Tasty!  I love making these hand-made button loops  Appliqued flutterby Have a lovely weekend. See you soon! Stephie x
By Stephie, on Wednesday 2nd February, 2011 at 11:07 am
My stash that is! It’s not very big though really is it, not when you compare it to the room-fulls of fabric some quilters hoard. These are my favourites and as you’d expect there’s plenty of Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler and Philip Jacobs. Well, ok I’ll admit it, there’s plenty of Kaffe Fassett. I normally buy just one fat-quarter a week to add to my stash (can’t afford to do it any other way), but this week I blew the budget and splashed out on 1.5m of fabric because there was 30% off (in a shop that’s usually cheaper than my local one in the first place). As it’s such a horribly grey miserable day here today, I thought I’d cheer us up by looking at the gorgeous, joyous colours I seem to have randomly collected!
 A small stack  with a big colourful impact!  This week's bargain no. 1: 1m Kaffe Fassett for £7.00  And this weeks bargain no. 2: 1/2m of Kaffe Fasset for £3.50 There doesn’t that feel better? If a bit of juicy colour doesn’t do it for you, I don’t know what will! Now, I’ve got an impromptu, unplanned trip in to town to make in a few minutes, so should I count this week’s bargains as a bonus and go and choose my usual weekly fat quarter, or shall I be good?!! What would you do?
Back soon for a coffee!
love Stephie x
By Stephie, on Sunday 21st November, 2010 at 00:47 am
 Kim's favourite leaf painting A November birthday: a gift was required for the occasion. I sincerely believe that the best gifts are handmade Continue reading Gift of a story
By Stephie, on Monday 12th April, 2010 at 14:55 pm
GIVEAWAY DATE EXTENDED – THE DRAW WILL NOW BE MADE AT MIDNIGHT ON WEDNESDAY 21st APRIL, just leave a comment to enter!
(The draw will be made on Thursday 22nd and the winner announced on Friday 23rd)
‘Giveaway ‘is when you give something lovely to one of your special readers isn’t it? Just checking, ‘cos I’m new to this you know! This blog is four years old on Friday and this is the first wee giveaway I’ve done. That’s for several reasons: 1. I’ve never had enough readers to make it worthwhile (Less than 5? Erm, maybe that hasn’t changed, but the quality of reader definitely has!!); 2. I never thought anyone would be even remotely interested in what i make! But you, lovely reader/s (!), have persuaded me otherwise! And I really do think I should honour loyalty, as it’s something I truly value. It makes me feel all warm inside when I realise that I have a regular reader or two.
So what shall I give? Well, I thought this:
 I called this one 'Curves', I thought that was original too!  It's a striking fabric this one isn't it? I love the colour, it makes me think of all things warm. I’ve had some very positive comments about this cushion (pillow to our American friends), so I thought it would be ideal to get the ball rolling. As you might remember it’s machine pieced and hand quilted. There are some Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett fabrics included, along with the odd bit of Moda, so it’s 100% cotton (with 100% polyester wadding) and easily washable. It will fit a 16″ cushion. I’ll send just the cover, as it seems a bit mad to try and fit the inner in the post box too.
 All folded up and ready to be packaged for you! So what do you have to do to win it? Well, I thought long and hard about this (he, he) and came up with the idea that you could tell me what you think is the best bit about this blog (hopefully there’ll be something!). Just leave your thoughts and your name in a comment and you’ll be entered into the draw, woohoo! I’ll make the draw on Monday 19th Thursday 22nd April at midnight!, so don’t forget – and feel free to spread the word too.
Inspired by Jo at Bearpaw, who’s celebrating her 50th post with a fantastic giveaway this week, I thought I’d offer another prize too. So I’ll enter any readers that make a link to my cushion cover giveaway on their blog, into a separate draw for a second prize! I’m going to keep the prize a secret though, ‘cos I thought that would be fun too (not because I don’t know what it is yet, cheeky  ). I’ll drop a few tantalizing hints over the next few days to keep you guessing, so don’t forget to come back! Just leave a note in a comment to let me know that you’d like to be entered for the ‘mystery prize’ too, along with a link to your post. Such a great way to discover new blogs, thanks Jo, you’re a genius!
Love Stephie x
By Stephie, on Monday 29th March, 2010 at 23:42 pm
I did say I had a few things to show you! Being away for a couple of weeks makes me want to run full pelt at the catch-up and bombard you with all the things I’ve been up to. The more savvy blogger, on the other hand, would realise they had a good couple of week’s worth of posts and would spread them out slowly and generously, giving you time to digest them and wait with baited breath for the next one. They would also realise that if nothing exciting were to happen in the coming week or so they would still have something interesting to post. Not me. Oh, no. I’m just in one of those ‘rip all the presents open in one go’ kind of moods, hope that’s ok with you? You don’t really mind do you? Go on, say it’s ok, because I really want to show you this cushion I made from the scraps from the Saffron Field quilt. I think I like it!
I called this one 'Curves', I thought that was original. I machine pieced the patchwork and then rather randomly hand quilted it. Most of the fabrics on the front are Amy Butler, but the brown is from Moda. The bright orange margin and back are Kaffe Fassett; anyone would think I didn’t like fabrics from any other designers. But, this is not true 
It's a striking fabric this one isn't it? I love the colour, it makes me think of all things warm and fuzzy. It’s a pity this colourway doesn’t match any of the furnishings I have at home. (My home is such a coordinated haven. NOT.) I think I may put it aside for sale in a possible Etsy shop I may one day bring into being. I’m seriously thinking about it. Along with thinking about the possible allotment. And the possible Liberty quilt I want to make next. And, and, and! I should probably stop now shouldn’t I? You can wait for the post on drawings can’t you? A day or two at least. Well, ok, tomorrow then if you insist!
Night night for now
Stephie x
By Stephie, on Monday 29th March, 2010 at 13:31 pm
I think I may have sorted out the upside down picture problem for the time being. Well, I say that. I think iPhoto is the problem, it’s only allowing me to upload the original photo and not the ‘corrected’ versions (ie the ones where I’ve turned the pictures up the right way). That’s what I think. At the moment. The other irritating thing is that I can’t find a way of viewing the actual images, rather than just a list with the names. So annoying because all the files are numerical rather than descriptive and therefore it takes an inordinate amount of time to find the right one. Well, I’m sure you don’t want to hear me waffling on about software do you? I know I would have found something else to read by now!
Let’s have a look at some pretty pictures instead shall we?! It was Mother’s Day recently, a couple of weeks ago now wasn’t it? Well, I made this, not for me, but for my mum. She knits a fair amount and I thought a big bright bag to keep her projects in would be fun. I made up the design myself. Actually I just made it up as I went along, didn’t make a pattern first or anything. Didn’t even use a tape measure! I used 2 coordinating fabrics from Amy Butler’s new Love range and added a large pattern and needle pocket inside and a smaller pocket on the outside for bits and pieces like pencils.
 Mother's day present for my mum!  Rowan in the bag, of course!  Yep, I went a bit dotty with the polka dot theme! My mum seemed to like it. She said I was very clever, which made me smile like the cheshire cat (age 10). I don’t think she’s ever called me that before. Usually the complete opposite. So, things are looking up!!!
What did you do for Mother’s Day, anything nice? I hope all you mummies received something lovely, or put your feet up and were waited on for the day Well, we can live in hope! I was taken for a picnic on the cliffs at Chapel Porth, make hay whilst the sun shines as they say! It was such a beautiful day.
 Mother's Day picnic spot I was also very fortunate to receive a lovely book along with a box of Thornton’s Turkish Delight – which Kim said he’d been waiting all week for me to open, ha, ha!!!!! But I am a good mummy and I did share them! Here’s the book I was given: (click on the image to take you to the Amazon page).
It’s very good, even though I don’t have an allotment! I’ve been thinking about applying for one for ages – the trouble is they’re all at least a couple of miles away and I’m told that the further away they are the less likely you are to use them… Still, I’ve already got lots of tips from the book for my little salad/veg patch in the garden. I’ve been digging out there, when the weather’s been ok, and I have to say I feel that spring is definitely in the air! Well I did until I went out this morning and was almost blown over by a freezing cold wind and soaked through by pelting rain.
On that cheery note, I’m off to raid the cupboard or the fridge, or both. It’s lunchtime and I’m soooo hungry!
Catch you later.
love Stephie x
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I'm running a 28 mile marathon in memory of Josie this February. Come and find out why.
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