My, my, my Delilah!

Today I've been busy singing Tom Jones songs in my head.  I blame the Delilah quilt.  It was a lovely sunny day so I tried to take some photos.  I say tried to but the wind wasn't playing fair.  Loads of shots perfectly set up and then whoosh!  I gave in and put the quilt top on the floor for the last picture.

The quilt is now basted and sat ready for me to start quilting.  It's been hanging around for a while now and my SIL's wedding is in 2 weeks time so I need to get it done asap!  I think I'm gonna be busy this week.

In other sewing news I managed to make some more keyrings to replace the 3 I gave as pressies last week.  A colleague has also asked for 3 for her daughter's teachers, this has made me happy to think that someone else likes them as much as I do.  She asked me how much I wanted for them and this is where I had a slight problem as I haven't got a clue.  £5 each seemed too steep, £2 too cheap so I haven't decided, I think I'll see how much she thinks they are worth tomorrow when I take them into school for her to choose from the selection.  Quick question, if you make and sell things how do you manage to price your items?

Last minute gifts

I've been planning on making gifts for teachers this year instead of the usual bottle of wine or box of chocolate.  Something a bit different from the run of the mill teachers gifts out there in the shops.  Over the years I have been very lucky and I have had many lovely pressies from the children in my many classes but I still remember the year when I received 27 boxes of chocolates! (Needless to say it was my duty to eat every single chocolate in every single box during my 6 week holiday - and yes I was sick of it by the end of August!)

So armed with a selection of scraps, felt and a bit of linen along with some lobster claw key ring type things and some stuffing I have come up with these:

Now I know that little keyrings are not an entirely new idea, many people out there are making them in various forms but this is something new to me.  I usually like to work with larger pieces of fabric so working with small scraps and my machine embroidery foot caused a few choice words to slip from my lips.

This little bundle was meant for my youngest daughter's pre-school team, however on the way to Brownies last night the eldest informed me that it was the last one and when we arrived all the Brownies were bearing gifts for Wise Owl et al.  So a quick trip to the supermarket and a mad dash home to finish off 3 of the keyrings resulted in this:

So I now have to make 3 more and a little something for my eldest's teacher - though I'm not entirely sure what yet.   I have enjoyed working on these, something a little different to what I usually do and pushing my boundaries a bit more.

Lovelies!

Back from work today to find that the postie has been delivering for me.  A couple of parcels, which were immediately ripped to shreds opened very carefully, full of lovely fabrics!

The first one was the 5 FQs that I won on a giveaway from Saints and Pinners.  Lovely vibrant African prints and colours, both girls were immediately drawn to them and have been asking that I make something straight away. 

I'm not sure what to use them for but I think inspiration may strike when I look through a couple of books I have on small stash sewing projects.

The second parcel was an order from Alice over the weekend.  I was in need of a bit of colour and so I grabbed a bright bundle of FQs, various prints, and some Klona - the hurricane bundle, to complement each other.  It is my intention to use these in my BQS 3 mini quilt along with a bit of linen I already have to hand.

 I love both bundles and it is certainly the only rainbow I've seen all week! 

And finally.......my latest quilt, all finished and ready to be delivered to a teeny tiny lovely later this week.  Simply quilted with straight lines either side of the seams - seems like this is becoming a regular option for me.

I've just realised that I  haven't measured it - at a guess it is approx 44" x 50".  Off to measure it now!

Hmmmmmm.....

Not sure that I should even mention this giveaway as I would love to win this pile of goodies for myself.

But head over here if you fancy a chance to win them for yourself (if you do would you consider sharing them with me?  Please?? Pretty please with a cherry on the top???)

In other news.... I've just finished hand sewing the binding on to the 'Just wing it' baby quilt.  Pictures to follow! 

I now need to get on and baste and quilt the 'Delilah' quilt for my SIL's wedding pressie for some reason I've been putting it off until now.

So excited....

Seriously I am really excited about 3 things at the moment and they all involve fabric!!

1) Brit Quilt Swap 3 - I have received my partner details and I have began my stalking.....I already have a few ideas in mind but need to check out a few more things before I let you in on any of them.

2) I've just won a fabric giveaway - 5 African print FQs from here.  I have no idea what I will make with them yet but I'm looking forward to getting my mitts on them.  They remind me so much of some art work that I did at school (years ago) and a muliticultural arts education project with my school a few years back. 

But the best news this week is that our friends had a baby girl!  Yay!!  One girly baby quilt coming their way (even though said baby has appeared 4 weeks early weighing in at 4lbs 9oz and has caught me completely off guard in my best laid sewing plans).

This is what I've been up to the past couple of nights:

I've raided my stash and used up some of my Just wing it collection by Momo for Moda.  I love this fabric nearly as much as the It's a hoot range that came before it.  I had a couple of charm packs and a yard for the front and a pdf of a free Moda pattern, funnily enough called 2 charms plus 1 yard.  The back is more from the range and a few of the charms.  Really simple but just lovely and according to my eldest 'Beautiful!'.  I know that it will be treasured for many years to come.  I have a few days to get this one quilted before we go to see the new arrival.....so excited!