Patchwork dog and basket

Had a super day out on Friday in Lewes (East Sussex).  Good food, good company (mother-in-law and Felix!) and good fabric!   Seriously, it's a lovely town with lots of independent shops including the most marvellous patchwork and quilting shop. I'd already spotted "The Patchwork dog and basket" in a magazine before we went there so we hunted it down in a lovely crafty/antique centre called the Needlemakers.  They have everything, from the modern fabrics I love to use, to more traditional quilting cottons, plus polka spots in a rainbow of colours and a great sale section.   Sue obligingly entertained Felix so I could have a proper nose around and I left the building a very happy girl....

Three sales fabrics that I have no idea what I'm going to do with, but I couldn't resist:

Two Michael Miller prints that caught my eye, bikes and dogs - love it!

Toadstools

This gorgeous flower print that would actually make a lovely top

and, last but by no means least, a Moda fabric from the Basicgrey range - this is printed like the lines of an old exercise book and I'm just itching to print onto it  (scan is not doing this one justice I'm afraid!)

Oh, and to top it all, the fabric came in this stylish recycled newspaper bag - felt like I'd got a free gift!

It's not been all buying and no making - I've finally finished the table runner I mentioned in an earlier post (hand binding that was a labour of love!) but the picture will have to wait until there's better light!  Instead I leave you with an image of Jane's garden room with my cushions in situ - fortunately she likes them!

xx

Shamed into action!

I've been following a few sewing blogs and recently a number of sewing goddesses have been revamping their sewing spaces. Tilly and the buttons, Handmade Jane and Hayley goes handmade have all shown their lovely, organised spaces and really put me to shame!  I'm lucky enough to have a devoted sewing room in the basement (one of the benefits of living in Hastings is that the property is cheapish!) however, I've let it get so messy that I've moved my machine to the kitchen and my stash is also gradually migrating up the stairs! See below for evidence! (the kettle belongs to our builder who has taken to using the room as his tea room!)

To be fair one reason for doing this was so that I could still sew whilst hanging out with James in the evenings, but the kitchen table take-over is not ideal! Having being shamed by all the lovely spaces, I resolve to get organised in the basement, give me one month and I shall report back!

The gorgeous Felix has been poorly, her first real cold I think :( so I have been a bit slow in production this week.  My latest project is a table runner for a small cottage.  The brief is modern, blues, lime greens and grey, and it needs to be about 1.2m long.  So far I have a front (see below) which uses that lovely IKEA fabric from Nikki I mentioned in an earlier post as well as some Amy Butler and some Moda plus various other fabrics from the stash.

I have also completed a reverse in plain colour blocks with the odd piece of patterned fabric which all needs to come together with appropriate binding.  Still haven't decided whether to quilt it or not...will come back to you with the finished product shortly (I hope!)

x