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!