Shopping Spree...

I have been on a birthday-fuelled shopping spree of late, both online ℅ a Village Haberdashey gift certificate coupled with the sale discount, means lots of lovelies coming my way soon, and today was actual, in-the-shop time, and the shop in question being John Lewis.

I was incredibly restrained, well after the new HD, everything is going to be restrained for a while, but I took advantage of their sale, and came home with this little selection…

Wide home dec cotton/linen @£3.50/m, one meter then please, a little Tula Pink, and a gorgeous sliver of a Hemingway Design print, plus some needles and pins so I don't show myself up at Retreat with my usual collection of bent and random sharps!

And whilst hubby and I avoided the rain at Bluewater, the kids were entertaining the Grands…

Good day all round x

Playing Shop...

Sunday morning, whilst still in bed, I was pondering my next Hadley quilt, you know, the Denyse Schmidt one, and I got all panicky that I wouldn't be able to back it with something worthy; some things just need more than the IKEA numbers.

So then I searched out an eBay seller from my dreams!  If you are in the UK, take a look here, and I dare you to resist - you want a bargain, trust me, I am the one to find you one...

One of my favourite Chicopee prints - a whole bolt!!!

Yup, a bolt, my first (and probably last, in reality), for a ridiculous price (for us in the UK at least!).  I know we moan all the time, but with a meter now coming in at about £14 here, and with the exchange rate, mailing costs and dreaded import duty-sting, it makes bulk US shopping almost as expensive.  So to buy 8m for £5/m and free delivery, of something you actually want, nay, need, I had palpitations.

So half of it is earmarked for the quilt, and the other half will be cropping up frequently, I have plans for my FQR swapsies and a few other bits and pieces that I need to make.  Hope you don't get bored of seeing it non-stop for the next 6 months!

Right, must fly.  The clock is ticking and Jack only has 24hrs to save the world!

Plastic, elastic, fantastic...

We were in Brighton at 10am, by 10.15 I had spent my Mother's Day voucher on a dress in Debenhams; I so rarely get that love-at-first-sight for clothing, especially when I have the money in my purse, so it's worth documenting!  No photo though, sorry.

Anyways, hubby had a replacement iPod, we had shopped the Lego store, Build a Bear, and the toy shop, grabbed a drink and a bun and got back in the car one minute before the 2 hour parking charge ticked over to another £!!!

I grabbed some interfacing on the way through the village, and spent this afternoon doing stuff!

There was a lot of elastic band action, and we all now have some of these...

And then I got to sew.  Proper 12" blocks.  Feels like ages since I stitched a pair; these are for Annabella's Stitch Tease quilt...

Love how they turned out, and I see a whole quilt of my own in the future, but more on that another day.

Tomorrow should see some gardening action, watching the London Marathon from the comfort of the sofa, and hopefully a bit more sewing.  I want to get on with my Sidekick tote, but I think I should clear a few more obligations before I do.  All good x

Swings and Roundabouts...

Today has been full of mood swings, about-turns and back tracking.  Taking the good with the bad.

Most importantly my consultant confirmed that with a cocktail of pills and a diet more suited to a 3 year old, I should be able to get my stomach acid and associated pain under control and on the mend at last - wish me luck!

Before my hospital appointment I took a detour via The Eternal Maker, buying some necessary Aurifil and pink Sweetwater Sunkissed gingham, and maybe not so necessary, but couldn't be left on the shelf, yarn dyed Essex Linen...

And finally I have a cushion ready to finish binding.

On the flipside, I spent about 3 hours trying to get the binding on the aforementioned cushion with a velvet backing.  You can only imagine the mess, fraying and swearing that accompanied the unpicking, seam ripping and thread pulling that went on there.  I was not happy.

But after chopping off the offending backing and binding, it took about an hour to totally remaster a new back and get the binding on, but now I have a smile on my face.

So no pain no gain is probably my mantra of the day, but the gains totally outnumber the pains for a change, long may it last xxx

Wednesday Wow!

Yesterday afternoon I had a brainwave, (OK, quit the faux-fainting/laughter); and with a quick google for custom-printed ribbon, I landed on this cute little website.

I spent an obsessive's amount of time pondering the beautiful combos of cotton, linen and fonts before hitting the Buy Now button at 2 minutes to 3 - I know this, because I really should have been heading out the door to collect the kids, but I have my priorities!

By the time we got home, I had the shipping notice, and when I got back from work today, my beautiful ribbon was waiting on the doormat!

Unfortunately, this is for a secretive brainwave, so you are going to have to wait until the beginning of March for the reveal, but honestly, this must have been the most perfect online shopping experience ever!

I am now trying to think of more uses/excuses to buy more.

Time out...

Hubby and I had a nice quiet couple of hours yesterday whilst the kids went off to shout at Robin Hood and his merry men.  With fabric shopping not on the cards in Sevenoaks, I went for the next best thing... stationary.

I love Paperchase, I love a bargain; I could have spent a fortune in the sale, but I only wanted a 2014 diary, so this little lot was as restrained as it gets!

For Christmas though, my sister did send me an Eclectic Maker gift certificate, so I will be having a good think about what to spend that on in the New Year.

However I am hoping that 2014 is going to be the year of the stash - not complete fabric abstention, oh how I really would love to have the discipline to sign up to Jess and Rebecca's Fabriholics Anonymous, but it would never happen!!  But I really am going to try and be a more discerning shopper; a healthy fabric diet, so to speak!  

Stop sniggering ;)

Not my favourite way to start the weekend...

Well I was still awake as the clock struck Saturday, as one poor little girl succumbed to the sickness bug that had been storming through their class all week, and then stormed all over her bedding, oh joy...

A calm day for her in front of the TV and iPad, and thankfully no repetitions, means we are just listening out for those tell-tale noises from the other two this evening... bleugh.

After the rounds and rounds of washing, I escaped to the village with the healthier twin.  I was hoping to get a few bits of birthday and Christmas shopping, it wasn't terrifically successful; but in the pop-up Rotary Club bookshop I did find this little gem for a couple of pounds...

I won't be making anything immediately, more than enough on my saucer at the moment, but when the hoo-haa of the season is over, there are plenty of pretties to ponder over.

I hope your weekend got off to a better start, and you maybe got some stitching time.  I am hoping tomorrow will be a little more fabric-friendly x

Black Friday...

Well I have to admit to having taken a teensy advantage of Black Friday-related shenanigans, but with no broken bones in sight!

Annie jumped the gun at the beginning of the week, with 25% off Sale fabric over at The Village Haberdashery; so I  snapped up a few stash FQs, which will help those frustrating Bee-moments when nothing seems to work, and I also loaded up with some bolt ends of voile; I feel a pre-Christmas scarf making session coming on...

Last night Ali was offering 20% off orders at her Very Berry Fabrics Folksy shop, so a Maxi Bag of Liberty Scraps is heading my way; and then today more voile from Saints and Pinners and a bit of Sketch from Justine at Simply Solids.  All things I needed, obviously.  I'll be sure to show you when they come.

I deliberately kept my shopping within the UK, as on balance, the discount prices, along with minimal postage and quick delivery, definitely outweighed the slightly cheaper fabric plus postal price; but the potential for falling foul of extended Christmas scrutiny and a nice Customs and handling charge is not something I want in the equation.  Ho Ho Ho.

So I am done.  Do not let me buy any more fabric this year; I really don't need it!

Round Up...

Whilst on the quiet, I received a nice number parcels to cheer my days up a bit; bee blocks, bee fabric, some shopping and prizes.

I gave some insta-thanks, but I am aware that some of you won't have seen.

Some cute Christmas fabric from the lovely Pin It and Stitch ladies...

Prize fabrics and a few more from Alyce - Blossom Heart Quilts, (well if a parcel is coming from Japan, it would have been rude not to)...

A bunch of stash essentials, plus wadding taking advantage of Justine's Simply Solids super discount weekend...

More prize goodies from Leila...

Blocks from Jennifer- Knotted Thread for my Stitch Tease LV Scrap Vomit - I am almost at the top-piecing stage - woo hoo...

And fabric from Sonia for the Siblings Together Bee, which I am pleased to say I have already made up into a mega-block earlier this evening, pics tomorrow...

So I believe that is everything now duly reported and recorded for prosperity.

Back at work was uncomfortable today, but I made it through my hours, and will be back tomorrow with my portholes cushion again; I may even take it to an important meeting!

Quick!

My computer is working again, but if the last 48hrs or so are anything to go by, it could be quite a short-lived experience!

So here's a quickie...

The kids went to the synthetic ice rink this morning and were the only ones on the first session - so a good time was had by all.

After that was a painful (literally and metaphorically) shopping trip to get the girls some birthday outfits; they went from wanting the same but different to simply the same in the end, unprompted; so they are now happy, and I never want to see the Next changing room ever again!

On the sewing front, I have been working on my Midnight At The Oasis quilt, and all things being equal I'll get some photos in the next couple of days to show you.

I will attempt to reply to some emails and comments later, but that will be in the hands of the temperamental Mac Gods; so until next time xxx

Saturday quickie...

Well it was a day of shopping, cleaning and sewing - one of those unfussy Saturdays.

I will show you part of what I was up to in tomorrow's post, although you may have seen already on Instagram, but for tonight's quick one, a postal smile that I got yesterday, which I forgot to show in the FAL hubbub.

When you get a parcel with a warning on, you know you won't be disappointed...

I totally hadn't felt the need to avail myself of any mirror ball dots until I started thinking a bit more about Christmas, and then I had to have some!  Plush Addict, (new to me, but likely to be on first name terms soon enough), had a great selection and decent postage, so I had to!

... and they are gorgeous!!

And like many others, I got my first subscription copy of Love Quilting & Patchwork in the mail...

It looks wonderful; I only hope after the last modern quilting magazine debacle that this will run and run!

So for once I am hoping the weatherman is right with his forecast of stay-at-home, don't-venture-out rain for tomorrow, I am feeling all kind of creative!

Getting stuff done...

Today was a good day to get stuff done.

By the time we had our Sunday roast for lunch, (yes it is officially winter!), I had cleaned the house, changed, washed and tumbled all the bedding, done all the weekend's ironing and basted my Holiday Memories mini quilt.  Rough with the smooth.

I quilted my mini this afternoon, and will get the binding on in a bit; I am just waiting for a paper-cut to stop bleeding, as the binding, and much of my mini are white, and that's not a good combo!

As promised, a quickie-piccy of yesterday's Eternal Maker haul, minus the wadding...

The multi-coloured bag is a scrap bag of wool felt, with some excellent sized pieces and lovely colours which will be perfect for a bunch of needle books and the like.  I used the Aurifil 40wt for the quilting today, just for a little more definition; 2021 I heart you, no matter what you weigh!

And because I am so kind, as to be honest, I would really really love to win, if you are in the UK, please pop over to my friend Verity's blog, as she has the most amazing birthday giveaway going on right now.

If you do decide to enter, and why the heck wouldn't you? - please mention my name (or I will track you down), thank you.

So that has been my day, but now can we have some sunshine again?  I am done with all this indoor stuff for a bit!

Presented...

Well I managed to get one present finished and the other half way there last night, before I needed to snuggle on the sofa with a cup of tea; I finished the second one this morning...

I didn't do anything fancy with the zipper tabs, and they worked pretty well...

I think I used 8" zips, and Vilene H630, which means these are really lightweight and finish at about 9" x 7".

Purse one, the Laurie Wisbrun chairs, was handed over this afternoon, after the girls and I had popped to Eternal Maker to get what I needed; Aurifil, wadding and some 1" webbing.  Then once they were re-shod, and ready to bowl, I went back for a peaceful potter and a little extra shopping, because I could, which I will show you next time.

The promised storms have not yet arrived, but I have my rainy day plans for tomorrow of the Holiday Memories variety, and no plans whatsoever to leave the house.

Hope your weekend is going well, and that you get to do a little of what you fancy too xxx

Making the most of it...

Time is ticking until I have to go back to work.  Today I worked with the girls on their Out & About books, scrapbooks of their summer; their teacher is going to get complete deja vu when she looks at the second one, but they look pretty good and the girls are chuffed to bits with them, although they had gone to bed by the time I remembered to take a picture...

There was also time in the sunshine, as it looks like Autumn is coming knocking on Friday, and I am not ready for that either.

I meant to take some photos of my shopping from yesterday to show you, but the clothes have been put away, did I mention that I got a Cath Kidston pirate scarf?!

I also got myself a lunchbox - the kids all have their new ones, and as I am on a healthy-eating, lose-weight mission, I thought having a nice coolbag would entice me to take good food with me, not pick on biscuits and other crap all morning...

... we'll see.

Lastly, I managed to finish my first Architextures cushion this evening...

I machine quilted in 28wt Aurifil, and it looks and feels amazing, I'll get some finished pictures tomorrow.  I am aiming for the big one to be complete by the weekend, here's hoping. xxx

Typically British Bank Holiday Weekend...

We were welcomed back to the UK with a rainy, horrible Saturday; it was all I could do to muster the enthusiasm to nip to Waitrose so we could at least eat for the day.  No photos, you can just imagine the grey skies and miserable faces!

Yesterday we got up early and headed over to Brighton for school shoes.  We were in and out of Clarks in 20 minutes, all three shod ahead of the queues, huge bonus...

After a quick visit to the Lego shop, we put the bags in the car and headed down to the seafront.

Mentalists were in the sea, even though the sun came out, I bet it was bloody freezing!  Being a Bank Holiday, the Mods were in town too.  Most are now more Cocoon than Quadrophenia, but the scooters were fun to look at; mind you, with all those mirrors, you'd of thought they would sort out the worst haircuts in the world ever!

Today, we did the village Boot Fair after breakfast; I struck lucky with some shocking cushions (but with lovely feather inserts), and a duvet cover which will be added to my Vintage Star quilt collection, and change from a fiver...

Retro and real flowers, pretty.

I then took full advantage of the sunshine, despite the people over the road having their roof pressure cleaned, which took ALL DAY; the continuous generator and spraying noise was not the perfect soundtrack, but I got my vitamin D top up, some more Spring Carnival piecing done and maybe a nap, so not all bad.

Hubby is back to work tomorrow, and I really need to get some food in, so that'll be fun.  The washing is all done so now I have an ironing pile that I am finding hard to ignore.  So that's me.  Back to normality.  Hey ho xxx

Friendly Friday...

Yesterday was a good one.  Emily, Nicky and I made a date to meet at the Eternal Maker whilst we were at Retreat, and I'd been looking forward to it ever since!

Happy kids full of McStuff...

...friends from near and far...

... lots of fabric...

They had taken the good stuff to FoQ, but left ALL the brown!!!

...and gifts...

Thank you Emily, I love it xxx

I was very restrained...

... at first!

4 FQs for £10. Oh like you wouldn't have!

It was lovely getting together with the ladies, and the kids had a brilliant and extra-noisy time too...

Thank you for a fun few hours my friends xxx

Nice package...

With the kids beginning to make me crazy, and a hubby in bed with the man-flu, I received a timely parcel from the Fat Quarter Shop to make me smile today.

I used my FQR discount code, and shopped wisely!

These Chicopee prints were bolt ends, already reduced to silly money and with the 20% discount could not be ignored...

I had to get some of the best Briar Rose prints...

...and top up on some Sketch, with a charm pack of Sweetwater's Road 15 for luck...

Fabric always makes it better xxx

Fabric, fabric and a bit more fabric!

I went to Retreat with 40 of these...

... and after a bit of this...

Jan caught me in action!

...I came home with this...

... and I only bought this back as I felt a bit daft walking round with just one left!  Thank you again to every single one of you who helped me out!

Which was a good job really, because I had to supplement my spending money somewhat after my first foray to Shaukat...

A couple of half meters, and a quarter meter that even has brown in!!!  Considering the sheer amount of fabric to chose from, I think I was very restrained.

Not so restrained at the Saturday night quilt market though!

From top left...
A Pina Colada & Mojitos FQ bundle, selected by my lovely and dearly missed friend Sarah from Cindy's Fluffy Sheep Quilting stall...
A pair of Liberty button badges made by the blooming Ceri...
Two F8th bundles of Oakshott; Michael was even kind enough not to make me go back to my hotel to collect my £5 voucher I stooopidly left packed in my goodie bag...
A super star of Liberty Lifestyle FQs from Fabrics Galore; and why I didn't buy any of the Liberty Hello Kitty, I will never know!...
A pair of green Architextures FQs from Pin It & Stitch...
...and last but most certainly not least, my own bundle of Leanne Fanny scraps, they are so beautiful.

OK so I may also have come home with a Simply Solids pre-order too...

And also my FAL win from Justine...

Mary and I struck a deal a while back, I sent her my Retro Flowers/Drunkards path templates, and she has sorted me out with a couple of lovely vintage sheet FQs...

And that is almost all I came home with.

Tomorrow I will show you the gifts, as they deserve a post to themselves, and then on Friday I promise to show you what I actually made, because I wouldn't want you to think it was all about the shopping, socialising and having fun!

I am now on my summer break, the kids have broken up, so who knows, I may even get time to sew with some of these beauties!