Seasons greetin's.....

Molly Christmas

and a 

Nappy New Year!   

xxx

1,2,3,4 and done!

Sorry this is a bit late, stressful time of year!  I  used the random thingy and did the draws, we have some winners!

First up, the mini charm packs go to Jan of Isisjem.

Next up we have the winner of the cushion, Helen aka Archie the wonderdog!

Now to the hoop....  which will be embroidered to say "not all who wander are lost', its Flo of Butterfly Quilting!

And last, but by no means least, the winner of the Fancy Moon gift voucher.....

goes to the lovely Katy of The Littlest Thistle!  Yay!  

Commisserations to the rest of you, thank you so much for all the comments xxx

Four years / Day Four

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Welcome to day four of my four years four day giveaway!

If you are here for the first time today please have a nosey, a wee read at other posts, and hopefully a wee bitty of a giggle too.
Today I am so excited to bring you what is, in my opinion, an absolutely amazing giveaway!
I am so pleased to be able to celebrate my Four Years blogging in style.

Some of you I know will be familiar with this shop, and I'm hoping that if you weren't before, you'll enjoy a good browse today!

Fancy Moon Fabrics rock.
You know me, you know I love my fabric.  What I also love, is to find SOMETHING DIFFERENT! And there is no shortage of that here!

I'm loving these Dragons....

And who doesnt love Unicorns and Rainbows?!

And Kitties... such cute cute wee kitties...

And for the less sugary, how about one of the latest Ghastlie prints from Alexander Henry?  I am such a Ghastlies addict!

If anyone fancies making a tote for me that Home Sewing II is jsut screaming out to me... so loud it may yet reignite my long, long lost bag mojo...  Then again, I could just stretch some over a canvas when I get my new sewing room wall.... oooh now there's a plan.

The Golden Garden Oriental is just beautiful, I love the teal especially.

Ooooh and dressmakers, how about a 1950' circle skirt (did I mention they do sewing patterns?) in Paola Floral or Melody Millers Skates?

As well as a wonderful range of sewing patterns they also stock some quality notions and batting too.  Blimey where did the last hour go?!

Well now its your turn.  Fancy Moon are offering one lucky winner £50 to spend!  


The rules and regs.

All I ask is that you "Like" their facebook page, and or  "follow" them on Twitter @fancymoonfabrics.  Come back and leave me ONE comment telling me which you did.   I'd love to hear what you'd fancy putting in your basket too if you have the time!  (I'd totally be filling it with ALL of their Fabric Treasure Scrap Packs!)

Fancymoon fabrics have very generously agreed to ship worldwide, so this giveaway is open to one and all!
YOU MUST CHECK YOU ARE NOT A NO REPLY BLOGGER!  If I cannot contact you, you wont win.  My non sleeping no Molly time is limited, I'm not spending hours chasing you.  If you win and I dont get a response from you by christmas, I'll redraw.  Honestly, I'm that mean.  I've said this each giveaway and still I've had over a dozen no-reply entries.  It makes me feel bad...  Dont make me feel bad.....

Giveaway will run til December 18th.

GOOD LUCK!!!

*********EDITED 10TH DEC***********

I'm aware many are having problems with facebook.  I am not, and neither is the shop owner, so we are unable to help :-(
If you cannot facebook or twitter, please still enter - just visit the shop and tell me what takes your fancy!

Four years / day three

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Welcome to day three of my four years four days of giveaways!
 (this post contains bad language, NSFWorKids)

In my third year of blogging, I fulfilled my Spiderweb dream...  or at least I designed the block I wanted, did a tutorial and asked my bee mates to make it!  Lets just say it was met with mixed reception, but everyone did send me blocks, I even got a couple from friends outside of the bee.
Well, for a March 2013 start, we have a November 2014 finish!

Instead of signature blocks I stamped the name and blog name of each contributor on a strip in their blocks, and I love that, I can see right away all my friends names jumping out at me!
Its free motioned in the solid, and I did 2 or 3 rings of hand quilting in various bright perle cottons in each web.  And I bloomin love it!!!


But back to the free stuff!
For day three, I'd like to giveaway an embroidered hoop.

Yes, its empty just now, to win just tell me what you'd like it to say! Here's a wee reminder of some I've done already.

Again, giveaway is open to one and all, just make sure you are not a NO REPLY BLOGGER, I am not chasing you, I need to be able to contact you!  Giveaway will run til the 18th December.

Four years / Day two

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Welcome to day two of my four years / four giveaways!

My second year of blogging had my Stained Quilt along amongst other things, and I still cant believe so many people wanted to make my quilt!  Freakin AMAZING!  But not quite as amazing as the first ever Fat Quarterly Retreat in London.  I met so many wonderful people.  I'm so lucky to be able to call so many of them dear friends!

It was also in my second year of blogging that I started a project with some stripey vintage sheets.  July, I think, was when it was first mentioned.  Well, it was finished last week!

Makes me think of Brighton, seaside, deckchairs and Mods and Rockers!  Quilted by the lovely Troodles.

But back to the giveaway...

When I got the mini charm packs for day one, I got an extra Happy Go Lucky pack.  I LOVE this line.  Its fabulously retro, I love the bright colours, its just gorgeous!

Today I would like to giveaway this cushion (pillow for USA!) , which I made with my mini charms.  Hope you like it!

Its nothing fancy, I kept it plain and simple to show off the prints and to show how quick and easy the charms can become something, I think, quite lovely.

Its quilted in crosshatch on the front and the reverse is a pillow closure in one of my favourite prints from the line, quilted in straight lines.  It takes an 18" insert.

Again, giveaway is open to all, but I'll not include the insert outside of UK for postage reasons, I hope you dont mind.
Leave a comment to win, make sure you are not a NO REPLY blogger, I'm not chasing after winners, I need to be able to contact you.
Giveaway open til December 18th.

Four Years / Day one

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Welcome to day one!

Today we start small, and I have some Mini Charm Packs to give away.

The mini charms are so cute, and I was thinking you could mix the whole lot if you wanted to do something scrappy.  I love them for fitting so perfectly over 1 1/2" hexi papers...

I've been reminding myself what I did in my first year, and I'm shocked at how much I got done!  I'm proud of the Single Girl Quilt, that was some labour of love.

 I think my favourite make of the first year blogging has to be the Pob Doll.  A caricature of my brother in doll form...

To win the charms, just leave a comment!

Make sure you are not a NO REPLY BLOGGER as I'm not chasing winners, I need to be able to contact you.
Giveaway is open to all, and will run til 18th December.

How long?

I started blogging four years ago.

My working life had come to a forced end, I was learning to deal with the reality of my limitations health wise, and you know what?  I was lonely.  Going from a job you absolutely love to suddenly staying at home on your own every day kinda sucks!  I was so relieved to rediscover my passion for sewing and crafting, and so excited to discover a whole online community who were as nuts (about it) as I am!

I found Blogs, I found flickr (sadly missed) and later Instagram, and its all so much fun.  I took part in Quilt alongs, Charm Swaps, I hosted my own Charm Swap, my own Quilt-along, I did an assortment of mini quilt and pillow swaps, the Finish-along, I really got stuck in!

(Tissues out) Quite honestly, my life has been made so much the richer for it all.  For all of you.

Thank you.  

In the back of my head I was always going to see if it lasted 5 years before I did the whole "lets celebrate" jazz hands, but really, the fact that I'm still managing to pop in the odd blog this year astounds me!  I mean, wowza.  Motherhood.  Did not think that was coming at all....  And here we are.  You cheer me on through it all, and I want you to know it's truly appreciated!

So, I've been plotting and planning, and I've come up with this.

The FOUR YEARS / FOUR DAY GIVEAWAY!  

Come back tomorrow for day one...

Gnashers and other gnews

Wow.  Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my last post, the fabric post...  I was so anxious writing it.  It was wonderful to see folks purchases popping up on IG and stuff too, really made me smile!  I took the plunge and spent my whole birthday fabric money in one go.  Typically as soon as I did I had palpitations.   But, thats a lot of fabric... and I'm not able to sew much right now... and its all gone, what if I make something and find I need an extra bit of something, I wont have my voucher to use!  My man and my mum promptly told me to go read my own blog again!
So, this is what I got!

Some Doe, and some Cotton and Steel Blenders. LOVE the Cotton and Steel blenders.  Would have bought more if they'd all been in stock!

Its been a busy old time for me lately, and it wont be news to most of you that business means massive amount of sleepiness too.   A house to sell, a house to find and buy.  All went well though, amazingly enough we managed to squeeze it all in.  Man is back to sea now (leaving me with the boring paperwork and utilities and what not to sort - pooooo) so it wont be until sometime next spring that we start any kind of move.  Cant believe we managed to get it all done though, so pleased with that.

I was immensely lucky and managed to get away for a very special weekend too.  I'm sure some of you will have read all about it ages ago, but I'm going to brag away anyway cos it was SO. FREAKIN. AWESOME...
We had the first (hopefully of many) Brit Bee Weekender retreat!  So much fun.  So much cake.  So much sewing.  So much laughing.  So much talking.  So much eating.  So much love too, they really are the most fabulous of ladies.  A few members were missing, and missed sorely, but stonkingly good fun was had by all there.  I even got a wee bitty sewing done.  Borrowing first Katys then Trudi's fabulous machines I got the free motion quilting done that I wanted to fill in the solid part of my spider web quilt.  I'm trying to hand quilt the webs now.  Averaging one or two a week, I might get there by Christmas...

My main creation however, Molly moo (well I had to slip that in, what with finishes being so sparse at the moment!) is, as always, taking most of my time.  She has 5 teeth now, feeds herself (and the floor), crawls (on one knee and one foot bizarrely) and stands up as much as possible.  So, we cant take our eyes off her for a second right now!  She's so funny though, and has such ridiculous faces.  (top right there admittedly not one of them)

I dont mind so much the lack of finishes.  Not when there's the off chance of getting a moo kiss or two.  They're something special.  She grabs my hair with each sticky hand, pulls me in, and plants a wide open mouth on me, gnashers and all.  Quite painful all round!  Meantime there are quite a few things I'm trying to work on, a few things close to completion.  And I have some special things for you hidden up my sleeve that I'm bursting to mention, but all in good time....  I'll spill the beans soon, you'll like, I'm quite sure!  There's no hidden gnashers or sticky paws.  Til next time (sooner than last time, promise) and watch this space!

A is for...

N.B.  This post is not to criticise anyone, we all do things our own way and if you're happy I'm happy.  This post is not making light of people with genuine problems.  This photo is not to brag!  If I offend anyone, I'm sorry, I'm really not trying to.  

I have read quite a few blog posts and articles recently regarding one thing.  Stash.  The one thing these posts all had in common was to tell you how to buy fabric, in order to not overbuy and to keep your stash basic and workable.  Lots of advice, lots of what not to do etc.  All seeming to concentrate on encouraging you NOT to buy fabric.  

I've also seen lots of "have you got a problem" and "key symptoms to look for" and "if you do half or more of these things then you have a problem".  And here is where my gripe lies...

To begin with, I read these posts and thought "oh.  That sounds familiar."  Then it was "yes, I do that too".  Then it became "Oh dear, that does sound like me."  Eventually it was "Oh wow.  You're right.  I do have a problem."  

Now this has been on my mind now for quite a while.  We've all done the "fabric diet".  We've all tried the "not buying for 6 months" etc.  And lots of us have come out and declared 

I am a Fabric Addict.

Now if this is you, and you're happy with all this, thats fine with me.  I have no problem with anyone else.  You do whats good for you.  I want to do whats good for me.  And thats what this post is about.  I have a declaration for you.  

I may or may not be a Fabric Addict.  But either way,

I DONT CARE!

You know what?  No bills go unpaid, nobody goes hungry, no overdraft gets touched.  So, thank you, but no thank you, I dont have a problem.  

Its FUN to buy fabric.  

There's nothing wrong with the fact that IT MAKES ME HAPPY.  I do believe from reading the blogs I follow that I'm not alone here.  Life can be lonely, life can be stressful, or even just repetitive!

There is nothing wrong with looking forward to the post arriving and anticipating your purchase.  There's nothing wrong with a little cheer me up shopping.  People do it all the time.  Cake.  Wine.  Shoes!  

The popular online retailers who offer enticing discounts all the time are AWESOME because the regularity of their discounts dont force me to spend more all the time, they allow me to relax in the knowledge that I dont need to shop every time as there will be another one. 

There's nothing wrong with being able to recognise a print and know what its called and who designed it.  I like to think of it as a compliment to the designer that I know their name and even more so if I can spot their style.  Admittedly now I have Molly Moo my skills in this area have dissipated, but I still see nothing wrong with designer appreciation.  Regularly checking out what's new is fun.  How many read fashion mags to see what the latest trends will be?  Do these same people feel they have to have a brand new wardrobe every season?!  (seriously, do they?  I wouldnt know, I sit in pjs as much as decently possible.)  

When people blog and Instagram what they've bought, its fun to see what others are getting, and the pictures are pretty....  And so what if every now and again you get a bit of stash envy.  We're grown ups, arent we?  We know that we dont HAVE to have the same things.  Who amongst us wasn't taught that as a child?  "Just because they've got it doesnt mean you have to."  

I remember crying my eyes out to mum and dad because everyone one in my class had something and I didnt.  For the first and only time they caved and got me one too.  If only I'd listened to them I could have proudly stood up today and said "you know when you all looked like twats in shell suits?  I never wore one!"  But I cant...... D'oh!

So.  I'm sick and tired of hiding fabric.  I'm sick and tired of feeling like I should be ashamed of what I've got.  Good god, its fabric  -  its stuff that will be admired as it is, then used and loved and admired even more as warmth, as gifts, as homewares.  Its not drugs!  Jeez.  Anyone would think I bought hardcore porn the way I've been sneaking about and hiding it and fibbing about what's in the mail.  ITS JUST FABRIC.  

This is my stash.  And in the interest of honesty and my whole "no more shame" ethos, there are another 2 boxes in storage, along with a shoebox of japanese kawaii, and a shoebox of "my precious" Melody Miller, and a small box of equally precious Denyse Schmidt.  There are also some 1930s reproduction prints, and a bundle of solids on the table with my sewing machine, and 4 prints from Far, Far Away in a drawer.  Oh and my scraps.  I put my scraps in ziplock bags and we used them as packing material around breakables!  

Jeez, even as I sit with the photo uploaded I'm itching to tell you that barely 10% of all that was bought at full retail price.  I shop sales and special offers.  I'm canny.  And that's 5 years of quilting worth.  But there I go again, apologising for having it, feeling guilty I've got it, wanting to try and justify it, worrying you'll think less of me.  Why?!  Because it is more than I could feasably use in a year?  So what!  No more!  Publish and be damned....

Do, please do come out and join me.  Blog your stash, all of it, and be chuffed you have it!  Blog the last thing you bought, and dont feel you need to justify why you deserve or need it!!!  If I manage to get a space to do so, its going out on shelves where it can be seen until its used.

Lets make the A stand for Aficionado not Addict!

The Narcoleptic has left the cupboard....

*warning:  excessive wee hoose photys

Its been a stressful time of late in this wee narcoleptic's life.  Specifically leaving Molly Moo with Ganny and Gampa for a week (so painful!  I couldn't stop crying I missed her so much) and going back up to the hoose on the island to pack up and move out.  Two weeks work to squeeze into 7 days and naturally the island put its best weather face on to make us feel worse....

I've always said its my man's house.  He bought it.  He had it before we met.  But you know what?  By the time it came to packing up I realised just how much it was MY home.  He may have wielded the chequebook and final say, but almost every room was filled by me.  With his work being at sea I spent more time there!  I got the workies in, I oversaw the jobs.  I made changes, I picked the fixtures.  And yes, I filled it full of crap accessorized it.  However much I moaned about the isolation I felt living there, I did love his house, my home.

The bedrooms (incredibly the cupboard was classed as a bedroom when he bought the house!)

I'm gutted we never got it finished (hall stairs to do, and some pointing on the front) and I really am gutted to leave my amazing bathroom and bloomin' perfect "laundry room".

Absolutely love these amazing rooms.  (Man neglected to photograph the entire wall of custom built wardrobe in the laundry room before he filled it with boxes.  Doh!)

I'm sad to leave my cosy living room, sadder still that I have no decent photos of it!  There really was no time to spare by the end of the week and that was the last room packed.  Also sad to leave my wee kitchen & the dining cupboard.

Ran out of time for a "dressed" photo of the dining room, huge pity.  

Me and the man met because I designed his kitchen.  Poor soul only went to the shop to keep his mate company but he ended up with a brand new kitchen and narcoleptic girlfriend!


I actually cried, and dammit I'm at it again just typing, to leave my sewing cupboard.  For such a tiny room it was a massive part of my life.

Before and after the packing....

The boxing up and de-cluttering (a couple o' dozen big black bags of all sorts to various charity shops and recycling centres, and god only knows how many van loads to the dump) was a nightmare.  My achey body is still in bits.  But we made it, just in time to get the ferry home to Moo.  The house will be on the market soon, and fingers and toes crossed it sells.  Meantime the house contents are in a lock up and we're with the ever wonderful Ganny and Gampa.  On the house hunting side, we haven't had much time as Man is on yet more work courses, but there is one we're considering.  A fair bit smaller than I'd have hoped for (no sewing cupboard!) but perfect in so many other more important (Molly) ways.  No time to act on it yet, but you never know, things might work out.  It'd be awffy nice if they did...


I'll sign off for now with the last quilt to go Island bound, the last commission for my  (ex) builder!  It was my challenge-yourself-and-use-brown quilt.  I think, after Emilys awesome quilting, it came out no' bad!

Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner and Moda Grunge Cocoa.  Cant remember where the pattern idea came from.  

Cheating

Why "cheating"?  

It kinda feels like it...showing all these pretty pictures of quilts that were made months ago and were beautifully quilted by Emily.  Really all I've done lately is sew on binding!

Hardly done any sewing at all in the last 6 weeks.  Molly has started insisting on rising between 5am and 7am and I just cant handle days started that bloody early!  I'm mostly falling into bed the second her eyes shut for the night (between 7 - 8 pm).  Its not her fault, the teething is worse although still no sign of gnashers, and - big news - she grew too big for her crib and we had to get the cotbed.  She is a BIG girl.  Not sumo big (as we never call her...honest) but just BIG!  And heavy, oh my word she's heavy.  Our imminent house hunting is taking a bit of a brutal reality check for me as we're thinking we'll now have to try and look mostly at bungalows, which I've never liked, since I cant really carry Moo up stairs very well now, and she'll only get bigger and my hip will only get crapper.  Phooey.  

Anyway.  My man is home now, for a while anyway, and I hope that in between house viewing and selling and stressing I might get some decent sewing time.  Fingers crossed!

Meantime, back to the pretty pictures!

I consider this giant triangles quilt made with Koi and purple solids to be a lesson in less is more pattern wise.  The plan was for giant triangles floating on the purple background.  Then I had the brainfart of hiding two stars amoungst the triangles in solid.  I like the quilt fine, but I dont think my pattern really worked.  I think the two ideas together almost cancel each other out.  Something else too.... I absolutely love every print in Koi, but.... well.... to be honest I'm not that keen on them all as a collective whole.  I'm wishing I'd broken my bundle up and added it to stash to use seperately.  I mean, there's not one print there that I dont wish I had more of, but however much I look at it all together here, something doesnt feel right.  

I consider this beauty to be a lesson in "fast and simple piecing isnt always actually fast and simple"....  Its a great pattern (not mine) and the instructions were simple enough, but wowza.  It took aeons of cutting.  Got a bit monotonous to be honest!  It was done in a chain piecing method, which you'd think right away would make it easier than hunners of 2.5" squares, but after each stage of chaining there just seemed to be soooooo much trimming.  

And finally, this one here is almost done.  It was my challenge myself quilt.  I love Anna Maria Horners "Innocent Crush".  Love it.  I've stashed it away for so long.  However my bundle seemed to be taunting me as it languished unappreciated in a drawer for years.  I just couldnt for the life of me settle of a pattern to use it in.  Or a background to use with it...  In the end, I went with a Moda Grunge brown.  Yep, BROWN... As I said.  Challenging myself, by going with a massive bit of my least favourite colour.  That said, the grunge is probably the nicest brown I've seen, it has touches of red and slate in it, so has a wonderful texture.  

So.  Its almost done.  Quilted, as usual these days, by the lovely Emily.  Just waiting for me to bind it, then I'll do a full reveal.  If we ever get a dry day again this year...  Tomorrow we're off for the day to check out some places to live, and would you believe it, today they were hit by massive flash flooding from the tail end of Hurricane Bertha.  I actually saw a house we had been considering on the news with a river running past the front door...  Wont be checking that one out then.....

Roll over tomboy...

Today I bring you my happiest finish of the year.  Apologies to those who have seen enough of it on instagram!!

This is my mini for my mini.  I've called it "hugs and kisses for Molly".  Yes, I'm getting a bit soppy.....

When I got my little girl my man hinted ever so subtly that I was perhaps a bit inclined to pick boyish or unisex stuff.  And thats fair enough, I dont really "do" girly.  I'm not much for dresses, I dont do heels.  But thats me, and wee Molly should get to choose things like that herself shouldnt she.  So I've been making the effort to find my inner girly....

I've bought a few dresses, for Moo obviously, I'm accepting the inevitability of most things being pink, I've even let granny put frilly bummed knickers on her!  What really surprised me  when I looked through my stash was how many bits (*ahem*) of Aneela Hooey prints I had.  Now you cant get more girly than that, surely?!

I'd loved seeing peoples scrappy economy blocks over the last few months, so I figured they'd be a great way to incorporate Aneelas lovely prints.  Somehow I managed to forget or overlook the fact that they involve triangles.  As my bestie said to me last weekend, "for someone who hates triangles so much, you use a lot of them".  Hmmmm. Why is it that so many of my favourite quilty patterns need triangles?!  What was to be a quilt very quickly became a mini....  

Just in case this isnt all sounding familiar enough for you, I managed to spill a cup of tea over half my cut triangles....

Not wanting to warp or fray the wee cuts I decided to sew and wash later.  To tell the truth, now its finished and has been through the washing machine, some of the tea hasnt come out in the wash yet.  Specifically in the whites, tea stains are showing up.  Thats a bit disappointing but I'm hopeful that a few more washes with stain removers will sort things out.

My first quilting plan had been to do a spiralling heart, but I was barely 2 hearts in when I spotted the quilt layers shifting a bit, and I couldnt be botherd with puckers.   Quilting plan number two was meant to be.  Hearts and kisses.  I finished off with a border round the edges of hearts, or my free motion attempt at hearts anyway!

I think its fairly safe to say I done girly!  I gave it to Mollymoo and amazingly enough she really likes it!  Honestly, she stares intently at each picture, strokes it softly, and then shoves it in her gob.   It's a hit!

I cant say I'm a convert, but I will make an effort to ensure that I make her girly stuff AND cool stuff I'd like in the future.   But no princesses.  Please god no princesses....