red white and blue

Check out these very patriotic fabrics by Makower, not only perfect for the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics but absolutely perfect for my grandson Stephens' quilt! The fabric is 100% cotton and I bought another half metre of plain red cotton, again by Makower to complement the others.

Stephen is only seven and probably doesn't care whether his Nan makes him a quilt or not but having made one for the three girls it seemed churlish not to make one for him!

Can you believe it I am on the last bit of the cable and bobbles jacket I am knitting and  have run out of wool! I only have the left hand border to do and sewing up and it's finished. I ordered the wool online and had hoped to have it by the weekend but no such luck.Oh well it will be sewing this weekend, just have to remember to take the sewing machine and bits and bobs to Suffolk with me, that will be a challenge!

pink summer roses

It didn't take me long to decide which  dress pattern to use for this gorgeous vintage style fabric. It is 100% cotton with a lovely soft sheen.  The dusky  deep pink roses sit on a pale pink background ....mmm.... love it!

Patted myself on the back because I managed to fit the lining to the bodice no problem....must be getting the hang of it!

The fabric is so lovely and soft and easy to work with, but not so my first attempts at putting the zip in!  Guess what! I am such a numpty, I bought a zip and stitched it in. The zip was supposed to be concealed  and it certainly wasn't that! Not to be downhearted I took the zip out and put it in again, rubbish! the blooming thing was still not right! I wearily took it out again and abandoned it feeling very fed up.
 Eventually the the penny dropped! I needed a concealed zip! If you don't know you don't know!! (each day I learn something new!!!!) Et voila perfect!!

Its so pretty and drapes beautifully, come on summer I want to wear summer roses!

hearts for Rosie

At last I have finished Rosie's quilt, once I got started it didn't take too long! I have had the fabrics for ages it was just a case of cutting them into squares.

Once cut, they were sorted into rows and when I was happy with the arrangement it was simply a case of stitching the rows and then stitching them together.

I wanted to be a bit more adventuress in my quilt making , so I made four little hearts out of some pretty scraps of fabric and appliquéd them to the quilt. I decided to hand stitch  them with embroidery thread which gave the running stitch a nice chunky effect. I am really pleased with the result and think they look kinda cute! Next I attached the wadding, I used a 2oz weight, and the sheeting. The last two quilts I made I stitched the layers together using buttons, but this time I stitched in the 'ditch' which was much easier! The binding for the sides was made out of pretty sateen sheeting that I had left over from a previous project.

et voila! Rosie's quilt...made with love....I hope she likes it.

I  find lots of inspiration following fellow like minded bloggers and  look forward to each of their new contributions. I also like their links and can now find lots of lovely online shops which I couldn't find before although I was looking hard..honestly I was! I just love this vintage style dress fabric I bought  from Sew La La fabric online shop,

Just need to decide which dress pattern to use! Watch this space!