Happy New Year

Good bye 2011

Welcome 2012!

Sewing flannel

Hands up who has never sewn flannel before?

I have always admired flannel, felt that soft, warm cotton and

dreamed of making myself a flannel quilt.

A little while (ahem.. two years) ago, I bought a flannel 'confetti' quilt kit at the Festival of Quilts, on the Seattle Quilt Company stand.

The kit has been sitting in my cupboard ever since, looked at, admired and put away again.

I had two problems:

1. I had never sewn flannel before and didn't want to make a mess of it!

2. I never had the time.

Ok, number two is a lame excuse,

so I have taken advantage of this holiday time to make a start on the quilt.

I have searched the internet for tips on sewing flannel,

some of these are very useful and then others are very contradictory.

HELP!

So far I have found that my fabric does not fray very much and I have opted to use a conventional 1/4" seam allowance (This is totally going against the majority of the advice out there that says to use a bigger seam allowance)

And starch? do I really need starch?

Well, not so far anyway!

anybody got any tips for me?

Holiday reading

Just before the Christmas holidays, I popped into my local library

and borrowed some books..

I was delighted to find a copy of the Liberty Book of Home Sewing -

I am only the second person to borrow it!

It has some beautiful projects for practical items,

I have fallen for a lovely rose inspired cushion which I will just have to have a go at making.

I have always wanted to learn to crochet, so I borrowed a couple of crochet books aswell!

After a quick flick through the books,

I think the 'Super Cute' one will have to wait until I have grasped the basics first!

On Christmas Eve the post man brought a lovely package of fabric - all the way from the USA!

I had won one of Laurie Wisbrun's 12 days of goodies giveaway, 8 fat quarters of her new fabric line 'Modern Whimsy' - its absolutely gorgeous and 100% organic! Those colours, along with the sheep and the rabbits are just screaming SPRING at me!

Anyone know any good crochet themed blogs?

Beginners standard of course!

Christmas baking

I've been busy baking mince pies..some for giving away..some for keeping..

As you can see I'm a messy cook :)

But they do taste really good!

What are you cooking up for the holidays?

Snowman Coffee Cosy

Blogger is playing up on me today, so I just hope this turns out OK!
Here is my last minute Christmas sewing project.
A Snowman coffee pot cosy.

I made it using the Go! Holiday Accessories die, and using felt meant that there were no edges to worry about.

Here are the instructions:
First of all measure around your coffee pot and measure the height aswell.
Mine measured approximately 14" x 6 1/2", so I cut out a two pieces of black fabric 14 1/2" x 7" to include seam allowances, one for the background and one for the backing.
I used my Accuquilt Go! Baby to cut out the snow men and accessories. The felt cuts perfectly and those snowballs were a dream to make!
Use embroidery thread and a running stitch to stitch the snowmen in place. I had some sparkly embroidery thread in my stash which worked out really well against the felt! (Although it doesn't show up so well in the photos!)

Next place the backing fabric on top of the snowmen, right sides together.

Sew around the outside using a 1/4" seam, leave a 6" gap in the bottom and trim the corners

Turn it inside out and place a piece of insulated wadding inside the cosy.

Pin the seam in place and hand sew up the gap in the cosy. Quilt around the outside of the snowmen, just to keep the wadding in place.

Cut out two strips of felt 1 1/4" x 4".
On both strips, make a button hole at one of the ends.
Sew the strips in place using buttons. Sew on two buttons on the opposite sides.


There you have it a speedy Snowman Coffee Cosy!

Just in time for Christmas..

I won too!

I have always loved entering giveaways and competitions.

I enter them regularly.

I don't often win, but I get to read some amazing blogs.

Recently I ordered some Anna Marie Horner Loulouthi fabric from River Fabrics,

a fabulous online fabric store.

I have been admiring this fabric for a long time and now have the

perfect excuse to use it in a new project!

Then about a week later I got a lovely surprise when I won a giveaway sponsored by River Fabrics on the needles and lemons blog.

Five yards of Kona solids and a spool of aurifil thread- oh lucky me!

It's like getting a lovely present - doesn't it make you feel good?

Giveaway winner!

Well, first of all a big big big thank-you,

to everyone who entered the Accuquilt Go! baby giveaway!

Without any further ado, I know you all just want to find out..

according to Mr Random number Generator, the winner is....

Sewconsult who said "I like Accuquilt FB page."

CONGRATULATIONS!

Please email me your details and your choice of dies.