My lucky streak continues….

It seems like my lucky streak is continuing. A few weeks ago I entered a giveaway on Sarah (Pings & Needles) blog. Sadly I didn’t win but then a few days later I received a mail from Sarah to say that the lady who had won had kindly asked Sarah to ‘in the spirit of paying forward’ split her prize in half and give the other half away…and you guessed it I was the lucky winner!!

http://www.pingsandneedles.com/2011/06/ooh-i-won-and-ooooh-one-of-you-won-too.html

The comedy element is that of course Sarah was also the lovely lady who made my Brit Quilt so most of my lucky streak has come from her!

Anyway, what did I win? I won two fat quarters of Ruby Star Rising donated by the Eternal Maker. If you haven’t checked out their shop you should do as they have some really great fabrics. http://www.eternalmaker.com/

My lovely little give away bundle arrived this week and I cant wait to start making something with it – maybe a little bag for my imminent holiday in Cornwall.

Quilting and some Royal Wedding Fever

Yesterday I finally posted off my DSQ10 quilt to my secret partner. I went with my original idea of the zig zag quilt made from Anna Maria Horners Good Folks fabrics. It seemed to be the most popular and having checked in to my partners likes again I think they would like it best.

The next big dilemma has been what to send as extras with the quilt……some peoples extras are more amazing than their quilts!! Most people seem to think you should send something related to your country so after some thinking I decided that as I live in England and my blog is called Patchwork Palace there was only one choice ….Royal Wedding memorabilia!!

I went into my local Waterstones book store and spotted the William & Kate dress up doll book and I just couldn’t resist it – I know its tacky but I don’t think it should all be taken too seriously. Look at some of the outfits to dress up the dolls…..

I also added a piece of the official William & Catherine wedding fabric plus some British themed stickers.

I really hope my partner likes the extras….it certainly shows something about my country….lets wait and see.

Check back in later in the week for a Royal themed giveaway to celebrate the Patchwork Palace blogs first birthday!

Liberty fun…

A couple of weeks ago we all went on a trip to London and the girls took the opportunity to sneak off and visit the Liberty store!! I had to share some gratuitous Liberty photos because it really can’t be missed……

Like a scene from Absolutely Fabulous......

Gorgeous fabric

Fabulous VV Rouleaux ribbon

Beautiful hankerchief

2011 sewing has started……scrappy mug rugs

The start of this year involved far, far too much work which left me no time at all for sewing. I did however do some late night surfing and signed myself up for some more great swaps so that I had plenty to do when the sewing machine came back out.

The first of these swaps was Scrappy Mug Rug Swap 3. I have seen so many people posting photos of the amazing mug rugs that they were making for the previous 2 rounds of the swap and I thought it would be a good to get in with the crowd!!! Take a look…http://www.flickr.com/groups/1533394@N22/

I have been rather poorly for the past few days with a cold/flu so as I was off work lying in my bed I had some time to think of ideas. We each have a secret partner and we are provided with their likes/dislikes and links to their flickr photostream and blog. This enables you to look around and get an idea of what they might like. There are also lots of discussions going on within the group that give you an insight into what they like.

I thought that as I was in bed and getting rather bored it might be good to have something that I could do while in bed. First I made a really simple block using some fabrics in my stash – including some precious good folk fabric from Anna Maria Horner. (I popped downstairs for half an hour to do this but the sewing machine set off my headache again. I had to dose up on nurofen and go back to bed for a couple of hours - that is payback for not listening to my family and staying in bed!!). 

This morning I lay on the sofa and added some hand quilting and embellishments – which wasn’t particularly taxing on the brain. I did get the sewing machine back out to add the binding but it was only for 10 minutes and there have been no ill effects yet!

I am really pleased with the finished mug rug. I think it is really pretty but of course it isn’t for me so I just hope my partner likes it. I added a button in the middle as I think it enhances the embroidery but my partner can snip it off if they don’t like it.

Finished mug rug

I may make some more as I quite enjoy making these little projects – it will depend on what time I have.

Now I just have to try and guess which mug rug in the group is for me – I’m so looking forward to getting mine! I made an inspiration gallery with lots of cake themed pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/49053002@N02/5341840523/

I thought it would be good to look at lots of lovely cakes when I’m sitting at my desk – I just need to see what my partner comes up with.

An Autumn tree for Cat……

I have been trying to get my October sewing bee blocks finished today so I can get them in the post tomorrow …. I’ve been feeling particularly guilty about how late I was sending my September blocks back!

The project I have been working on is for the Fresh and Funky Quilting Bee. Cat asked us to make a tree block. Each of us received a different season and I got Autumn with lots of oranges and browns. Cat was inspired by a pattern in Material Obsession 2 but basically left us to do what we wanted except it needed to incorporate the following:

1. The trunk had to be an appliqued trunk made by drawing around our own hand.
2. Some of the owl fabric that she enclosed in the fabric pack must be used in the block.
3. Of course the most important  thing was that we had to have a tree on the block!

Cat provided us with an inspiration gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50374158@N02/galleries/72157624649197444/

So many of the blocks in the gallery are amazing…it was really hard to decide what to do. It wasn’t helped by the blocks members have already posted which are awesome. Anyway I’ve had a go……

I’m a bit worried it doesn’t look tree like but all my family say it does look a tree so hopefully I can get away with it. I suspect the quilting will be important as it can probably be used to make it look like there are more branches.

Cat said we could make any embellishments we wanted so I added some flowers under the tree. I kept the flower colour theme the same as the tree so they blended in and picked up on the green in the tree for the stem colour.

Overall I am pleased with how it came out….. I just hope Cat likes it too!

A snuggle rug for a poorly Cupcake Princess….

This weekend Cupcake Princess has come down with a horrible cold, sore throat and chest infection. To keep her busy I worked on a project using some fabrics we bought from a company called Worn and Washed a few weeks ago (http://www.wornandwashedfabrics.com/). The company specialises in fabric strips taken from old sheets etc…all nicely washed and cut up into usable strips. We mixed the Washed and Worn fabrics with some new fabrics (for some extra strength and colour) and made a snuggle rug (as CP calls it). Cupcake Princess has decided she would like to tell you all about the project so now I’m handing over to her…..

Here is my environmental friendly snuggle rug. Its made with reused flannelette sheets and the middle wadding is made with old green plastic bottles.

First we lade out the old flannelette strips and added some of the new strips to the quilt .

Laying out the strips....

Quilting in the stripes...

Next we sewed together the strips then we quilted the snuggle quilt so it would not be loose and baggy .

Finished off the quilting....

Add on some binding.....

When we finished quilting we did the difficult binding which mummy did because it needed precision. Mummy finished it after I went to bed when I got up I saw it straight away and tried it out on the sofa.

Do you like it? It is really snuggly and warm. My favourite pieces are the bright blue flowers. I also love the cute little chicks on the back because they are adorable.

Finished snuggle rug....front

Bird fabric on the back of the rug...

Wrapped up in my snuggle rug

Everyone needs a holiday bag…..

This week my mum (the Queen Mother) and dad (the Shed King) have gone on holiday to Devon. I also went to Devon on holiday this year BUT my mum and dad only returned from a holiday in Italy 2 weeks ago! They wouldn’t normally have so many holidays but they both retired over the summer and decided they deserved a break now they have nothing else to do…….(yes my mum will tell me off for saying that as she still has 5 grandchildren to babysit for her grateful children!).

A few weeks ago I went on a bit of a road trip with my parents to visit an elderly aunt and we popped into Arundel in Sussex for a little potter around the shops. We came across a fab little shop called Fabric, Buttons and Bead….the lady who owns the shop was on holiday but her mum was absolutely lovely and looked after us. There wasn’t a huge range of products but they had some bits and bobs that I have been trying to get for a little while……primarily some Clarke and Clarke fabric with scottie dogs. Talking to the nice lady she mentioned that the shop did a lot of courses which were becoming really popular. I have checked them out and even though I can’t go myself as it is a bit of a way away from me there is a link below for anyone who lives in the area….the childrens workshops look particularly good.

http://www.fabricbuttonsandbeads.co.uk/index.php?p=1_4_Courses-and-Workshops

Anyway, back to the fabric. I bought some of the same fabric in a different colour way a months ago. I made a really nice shopping bag which I now use for carting around my picnic rug, plates etc. My mum has been very envious of this bag and has kept asking me to make her one so of course I had to buy the fabric when I found it and she was with me. She asked me if I could have the bag ready for her Italian holiday. I was a very bad daughter and didn’t do it. My mum phoned last week to say she was going to call in for a cup of tea on her way to Devon and I knew that meant I would have to get on and make her bag or else I would be in the really bad books!!

You would have laughed if you could have seen me at 8am last Friday frantically cutting and sewing away. Luckily I had it finished 15 minutes before my mum turned up.

I really love the fabric it is so cute and for all you Radley handbag fans out there it really is a must have…..

Outside of the scottie dog bag

Inside the scottie dog bag...with a pocket for a phone and purse.

My mum was really pleased with her bag mainly because I don’t think she was quite sure whether I would remember to do it. I was amused as she was leaving as she has a nice new Radley handbag and now she has my nice new scottie dog shopper which I am sure is much cheaper than the branded bags that are available……

Queen Mother proudly showing off her bag.....

Queen Mother with both her scottie dog bags.....

Haunted House Quilt……..

I have spent the last few days carrying on with my Christmas applique projects but decided that today would be dedicated to a bit of Halloween preperation.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had joined a new quilting bee…Calendar of Houses….and I have been thinking about what to do for an October block. I’m thinking it will be Halloween themed so it would be a good idea to look at which fabrics would go together.

I opted to make a Halloween mini quilt, using bits of the Halloween fabrics that I have stashed away. I am really pleased with how all the fabrics have worked together although I have a few criticisms of my design…primarily the shape of the house.

I used fabric from various ranges – Pungkin Peers (bats & orange sashing), Boo! to you (house and characters), Witchy Stitch Owl (owls) and Haunted Mansion (background).

See what you think…….

Ground floor of the house in the woods....

First floor of the house in the woods.....

The spooky house in the woods......

Spooky house in the haunted woods......

Perfect size for hanging over the fire place....

Fairies have finally got their wings!!

I have had a busy weekend working on getting Cupcake Princess’s Cornflower fairy quilt finished. You may recall that we started work on it a few weeks ago. Cupcake Princess pieced most of the top together….I just helped with the difficult bits.

http://patchworkpalace.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/fairies-fairies-everywhere-2/

When we were at the Festival of Quilts last week we picked up some more of the lovely fairy frost fabric to use the for the back. We also picked up a panel of smaller pictures of the blue/pink fairies which we thought we could incorporate into the back.

I was really struggling to think how to quilt this project as I didn’t want to detract from the fairy panel. I finally decided to have my first ever go at free motion quilting. It isn’t perfect as I have some pointy bits and areas where the stitches are longer than I would have liked but I think it is good for a first attempt!

Close up of the back

Close up of side panel

Close up of corner block

By this morning I had the quilted top and binding ready for me to get on with finishing the job.

The finished quilt has come put so well. I’m really pleased with it.

The Front.....

The back.....

It was really hard getting good pictures so here are some more which aren’t great but mean the quilting is visible….

Close up of the back panel

Office Break Treats

I am lucky enough to have a colleague who loves baking…and makes good cakes!! Last week she baked me a lovely raspberry and lemon cake for my birthday. I brought the cake home and the children loved it.

I obviously need to thank her for the treat…especially as last week I took in a little storage basket for the guy who she sits next to keep the team tea bags in – and she was jealous!

I’ve whipped up a storage basket for her using Robert Kauffman’s delightful Metro Market teapots fabric (bigger then I gave to her colleague to prevent any negative comparisons from her!):

Teapot storage basket

Next I made her a little bag for her to bring her lunchbox into work…or any little snacks she may want to smuggle past the rest of us!!

Cutlery bag

I’ll take them into the office with me tomorrow – I hope she likes them. I want more cakes in the future……