A button or two...

There was much excitement at our house on Friday morning. 

Our first parcel arrived in the post, and it was the best kind of parcel a button loving girl could recieve.

Inside were all the fixings to make fabric covered buttons!

The dishes, vacuuming and ironing were quickly put aside and forgotten. 

And it wasn't long before the sweetest little red and white polka dot button appeared. 

He was soon joined by a matching friend. 

Who were also soon joined by even more friends. 

I'm hooked. 

*sigh*

A quilt for Holly

To me, the colours in this little cot quilt can't help but say, 'girly, pretty and summer.' The mix of the pinks, lemons and a touch of tangerine orange are bright, cheerful and happy. And I love putting  bright colours together with white. It's simple. It's fresh. And I like it. A lot.

This cot quilt was started all the way back in July, and was finally finished yesterday with the label being sewn on. My gorgeous cousin, Louise, who hails from South Australia, asked if I could make a quilt for her to give as a gift. Her youth pastors were expecting a baby girl, and Louise thought a quilt would be a perfect gift.

I mostly had free rein as to design and colours, but as long as some pink was used, and perhaps some birds.  And I had till the middle of November to have it done by. So, no rush! Well, baby came early! So, sadly the quilt wasn't ready in time for Hollys' delivery, but at least she won't know that!

I had a great time playing and perfecting pinwheels. Well, maybe not perfecting exactly. But at least, trying to perfect them. I found quite a few good tutorials online for pinwheels, and figured out some tricks on my own to get my points to match. The birds were appliqued using the blanket stitch on my Brother sewing machine. So much quicker and easier than doing it by hand.

The quilt was quilted by the wonderful and talented Clair on her long arm machine. She always does a brilliant job, though she doubts herself terribly! The quilt is bound with remaining scraps and white, because as most regular readers will know, I love a good scrappy binding.

All up, I'm rather pleased and happy with the final result. It's pretty. It's pink. And I hope Holly and her parents like it and get many years of enjoyment from it.

An aside note, I've been rather ill lately. First a flu, then a persistent tummy bug, and again, the tummy bug with headaches and immense exhaustion. For a week there I was in bed pretty much every afternoon, which is so unusual for me. Hopefully it won't last too long - it's taking up valuable sewing time!

Always love a swap!

Over the last few months, some fellow staff members and I from work have been participating in a swap. It was a paper bag swap (meaning, add some fabric into a paper bag, get someone elses bag at random, make them an item and hand it back. Etc.)

So I was quite happy when I recieved the lovely Jenny from work, as I knew instantly what I was going to make for her. She being a Bronwyn Hayes fan, I planned on doing a stitchery and putting it on a canvas.

Jennys two fabrics, from the Sophie range by Moda, were perfectly yummy for the task and everything came together beautifully. Well, except it ended up being a wall hanging and not a canvas, but nevermind! I think I much prefer it this way.
Plus, it gave me an excuse to do some random stipple quilting, which I always enjoy.

The stitchery was a free download from Brownwyns blog, featuring her trademark cat, Brutus. I coloured in the picture with my Prismacolour pencils, and then stitched around it. And from there I just built up the wall hanging till it was larger enough. I love it. And most importantly, Jenny loves it too!
I'll be back with some photos of what I recieved from the talented Maree - it's a fab bag!

My mother in law also loved it! So I stitched her another version, and popped it in a frame. Would make an ideal quick gift as I did the stitching in about 3 hours from start to finish.