Nose Dived

It started on a high.

Christmas day was excellent, with 2 very excited boys who got everything I think that their minds could have hoped for!

It was a day spent in pj's, with not a care in the world. Even the turkey dinner went down without any major mishaps. J ate his way through a mound of cabbage declaring it to be the best thing he'd ever tasted!!! And A ate his way through a jar of cranberry sauce, well he would have if been allowed!!

Boxing Day continued in high spirits, with the boys choosing again to stay in pj's, this time spiderman pjs, a xmas present from my sister.

So far so good.

But then it nose dived. Holidays and illnesses go hand in hand in this house, so it came as no surprise when we started to fall!

The last couple of days have been spent visiting doctors, resulting in Mr D on antibiotics and 2 emergency appointments at different dentists across the region resulting in myself now being on penicillin . Not much fun for any of us. Though it is surprising how the boys can even find entertainment in a waiting room!!!

But finally this afternoon we've managed to get the caged animals out the house and to blow away the cobwebs with a walk in the woods and with a day out planned tomorrow,

I think we are finally on the mend!

Last minute

Never again, is what I'm saying to myself, though I know I'll probably be the same next year!



With the boys out fetching the turkey and the potatoes that I forgot in the shopping!
I've finally had the chance to finish my sister's present, and I'm really happy with the bag, in fact so happy that I've decided (in the new year of course!) to make myself one out of the fabric I have left.




Apart from some last minute wrapping I think we're finally prepared!!
Not sure how the boys are going to make it through the night as they are so excited especially J the 4 year old.
We must not J said, forget the beer (his words) and mince pie for Father Christmas and the carrot and water for the reindeer.
He would of course have it all ready for them now if we let him!!

A Happy Christmas to you all, keep warm, stay merry,
and I hope it's everything you wished for.

Festive Cheer

This is it, the xmas spirit has arrived - well nearly!
No more grumbling, no more visitors - yes they have all been and gone!
Christmas cards have all been sent, decorations are all up and snow is falling.
Pre-school has finished, J's first round of "education" is over,
and D has only 3 more days of work
I must stop worrying about J starting school
and start enjoying this festive time.



There's wrapping to be done last minute presents to be bought,
sewing projects to be finished,
Hot toddies to be drunk and mince pies to be eaten!
I want to stop saying every couple of minutes
"leave your brother alone"
and
"remember Father Christmas is watching you" !
And to start getting excited like the boys.
So I'm off to have fun in the snow.
Enjoy!

Ten days and counting

In ten days time Father Christmas will have been, fingers crossed!,
the lounge will be full of wrapping paper, the children will be playing with their new toys and Mr D and I will breathe a sigh of relief that xmas is nearly over!!!

That sounds terrible I know but right now I'm feeling just a little stressed. Apart from getting the tree up at the weekend little else was achieved. I spent most of the time recovering from mastitis, and then when the boiler broke Sunday afternoon leaving us with no heat or hot water until yesterday evening, the weekend was written off as a disaster!


But something strange happened yesterday afternoon I found myself with 2 sleeping children at the same time in the day, and with J at preschool it meant I finally got a chance to finish sewing on the binding on E's mini quilts.


So with two presents done does this mean I will get my sister's present sewn in time for xmas............
maybe, miracle's can happen!


Right now we're of to school to meet J's "new" teacher, sorry I mean "supply" teacher and he hasn't even started school yet, did I mention that I was stressed!
Oh well at least the sun is shinning!!!!

The eyes are watching you!

Are these the strangest xmas decorations you have ever seen!
I guess this is what you end up with when Mr D and the boys get together to make snowmen!

Parcel Time!

My favorite type of parcel arrived in the post yesterday, and yes it's taken me until now to show it to you!!!
I'm beginning to realize how everything just takes that little bit longer with an eight week old baby in the house. Oh I have so much I want to do! But for now I'll settle on showing you my latest fabric purchases.


You know the fabric isn't going to disappoint when its wrapped so lovely.


I couldn't resist ordering some more fat quarters from Erin McMorris's Park Slope collection when I received an email from a great shop called Saints and Pinners offering 20% off.
As if a fabric junkie needed a better excuse to stock up on some more beautiful fabrics!
I have ordered from this shop a few times and have always been pleased with my purchases. They stock gorgeous fabrics and patterns and the service is excellent with parcels usually arriving the day after ordering, and if that wasn't enough they have a great blog with ideas on things to make with your purchases!

As for this fabric, well I have fallen in love!!
I can really imagine a skirt made out of these prints, though I think that can be a project for the spring!
If you would like to take advantage of the 20% off go to
www.saintsand pinners.co.uk and enter SP2 at the checkout.
Happy Shopping.

And All Was Quiet.........

Today has been one of those days. One where nothing much gets done even though you are surrounded by jobs.
The weekend was one of those weekends that passes in a blink of an eye. An excellent time was had catching up with good friends who had come to visit. But apart from entertaining little else got done.
So today I found myself swamped in laundry and house work, and with over tired children, which was hellish!!!
But now tonight all is quiet, food is cooking, toys have been put away and the boys are asleep dreaming of the little elves who come every night to put chocolate in their advent calendars!

Loving the ducks but need to return to the blues!

One of my favorite past times is selecting fabrics for my next project. And today has been no exception. The completion of my first quilt its a great reason to empty my fabric cupboard out and stare and admire (sad I know) my fabric stash.
I'm pretending my UFOs aren't piling up on my sewing table and have already selected a quilt pattern from Amy Butler's "Little stitches for little ones" for my next quilt project.
It calls for 4 different prints for the quilt front and as its going to be a play quilt for my little girl I've selected these 3 prints by Lizzy House from her "Red Letter Day" collection.
As for the fourth, well I can't decide. I like using brown with pink and love both Kei honeycomb in cocoa and Jennifer Moore Monaluna Circles in Espresso but I can't find them on a UK fabric site.


It can be frustrating trying to find fabric in the UK. There are some good online sites that do stock a good range of fabrics like Carolyn Gavin's Wild Thyme but very rarely do they seem to stock a full range of one collection and then there's the wait for the new collections to arrive in the UK. I have only ordered once from the US and was really pleased with both the fabrics and the service but naively forgot about custom charges and got stung quite heavily!
I must be brave and try again!!


Whenever I start pulling out my fabric I immediately get drawn to my pile of blue and green prints quickly followed by my browns. This I guess is my comfort zone and however much I'm looking forward to cutting up those ducks! I can't wait to get back to the blues!

A little sewing

I've finally finished sewing the binding on my first ever quilt!
And I feel quite proud. I've made mistakes which annoy me, but I have to keep reminding myself that as long as I learn from them, it doesn't matter.


I must slow down.
I got so carried away choosing the fabrics and making up the blocks that I didn't keep an eye on how straight I was doing the cutting or the sewing. It wasn't until I pieced the quilt top together that I realized just how wonky some of it was which made the quilting in the ditch more difficult than it should have been.
Don't look to closely!!


I struggle to draw in a straight line, let alone cut a straight line and even with a rotary blade and ruler I seem to have gone all wonky.
Practice makes perfect and I already have lots of ideas for my next quilt.



The quilt measures 22 x 27 and it was a great way of using up some Amy Butler scraps I had left over from another project and mixing them with some thrifted fabric. The backing is a part of a duvet cover that I picked up from a charity shop.
It's very satisfying to recycle material and to bring new life into something that somebody else no longer wants.
And as for the new owner, well she seems quite happy with it, faults and all!!

Smiling!

It's been a good morning. J is feeling better and has been back in school this morning,
and the best thing is, he came out smiling!
Then time for a quick treat on sofa under his new blanket and then preschool.
His brother on the other hand is now poorly.
With the news that Mr D breaks up tonight for a long weekend, I'm dreaming of catching up on some sleep and hopefully getting a chance to get sewing.
Fingers crossed x

Adapting to Change

Sometimes it feels like we'll never settle into a routine that works for us all.
At the moment we're all having to adapt to the many changes that are going on around here.
The boys have thankfully got use to having a baby in the house very quickly. Especially the older one J who thinks his baby sister is lovely. Its really brought the caring side of his nature out for all to see. He is so proud of her!
It's J who has got the most changes going on in his life at the moment.
He started his induction mornings at his school he'll start in the new year, last Thursday. It's quite something I think for a 4 year old and we are all finding it hard.
You just hope that these sessions go well and that he enjoys it.
Unfortunately when I picked him up on Friday he looked awful, morning session hadn't gone well, and the teacher commented that she thought he might be a bit warm, well that was an understatement.
Eventually on Sunday after 2 days of high temperature and no improvement in the way he was feeling, we ended up seeing a doctor who confirmed he had conjunctivitis and an ear infection in both ears.
So this is what you get from attending school!!!
I spent most of Friday in tears.


And then just as I felt like curling up in a ball, J came back from the shops with his dad with these lovely flowers.


It was such a nice surprise to get the flowers that I burst out crying and then had to explain to J that mummy was crying out of happiness, not because I didn't like them, confusing the poor boy no end!!
What makes these flowers so special is that J choose them, telling dad that "mummy and baby E like these colours a lot." This surprised Mr D as mummy usually steers well away from pink but when they got home J pointed at the fabrics I was using for E's mini quilts and it all became clear.
"See" he said "the flowers match mummy's fabric, and he was right. His awareness constantly surprises us as do his drawings.

Xmas Mini Quilts

My "Presents to make" xmas list is going badly.
So badly in fact, that my xmas 2009 list is quickly becoming my xmas 2010 "to make" list!

As for my "presents I would like" xmas list, this is going very well!!!!

There is a theme, surprise, surprise. This year it is quilting.
I don't really know why its taken me so long to start quilting.
I guess I should have seen it coming . It started with making baby blankets, and spending far too much time on fabric sites which lead to me wondering just how difficult a quilt would be to make.
And now I few months later my "presents" xmas list consists mainly of quilting books!!



One of the things on my xmas to do list that I really want to achieve is a couple of mini quilts for my daughter, to be hung in her nursery.
Mini quilts have been a revelation to me. One of the things that put me off quilting was the idea of working on something so big, why I thought a quilt had to be large I'm not sure!
Then I stumbled across "Mini Quilt Monday" on flickr, which is a great place to find inspiration.
The idea of creating a small quilt to use as a piece of art. Something that hopefully won't take me too long to do from start to finish sounds the perfect place to start learning how to quilt.

So with my fascination for log cabin blocks, I have decided to do two mini quilts using Alexander Henry's Yui Kokeshi fabric. I bought the print in both black and pink quite a while ago and haven't been sure until now what to use them for. I think quilts out of these prints will be perfect for a girls room.



I've got as far as cutting the fabric for the first quilt, and selecting some of the fabric for the second so surely I can complete them before Christmas!!

Where To start?

Sewing takes over your life. It gets into your blood and as for fabric,
I close my eyes and can see colour and pattern and an idea for another creation,
you could say I have become obsessed!

There aren't enough hours in the day right now to make everything I want to.
Most of my time is taken up looking after my flock,
especially my youngest who is only 6 weeks old.
So why an earth do I want to start a blog when I struggle to find even a few minutes a week to go on my sewing machine?
A good question and one that maybe I should think about a bit more!
But why not.
I love looking at craft blogs and reading what people are up to, so I think it's only fair now to show a glimpse of what I find time to create and maybe share with you a bit of the madness that goes on around here.

So here goes.
Maybe if I can find inspiration in other peoples, someone can find inspiration from this blog -
I hope so.