i love a week that...

finishes with an extra unexpected bit of sewing time.

i don't get to spend a lot of time sitting in the living room watching tv but being the French Open this week meant i had crept in there a little more than usual...

...long enough to notice an old scuzzy looking cushion cover in there that needed addressing pronto. it was only a little cushion and only needed a simple cover so it was relatively easy to creep off for an hour and produce something new and clean that was no longer offending my sensibilities.

job done, satisfaction achieved and a week ending pretty much as well as it had started...

as long as you ignore the fact that the boys have just chased each other into a glass door and shattered the glass to smithereens all over the landing...

maybe not such a great week after all.

i love a week that...

...involves spending time working on a new product...

and finding out it works.

i love a week that includes some sewing time for others (hope you like your bee a brit stingy block Collette)

i love a week that includes lots of printing time...

loving the colours that this week's customers have ordered...

just right for our current sunshine ;-)

and most of all i love a week that includes time to try something that's been in my head for a while...

and i particularly love a week where that experiment worked!

and what's more...it's still only thursday...a lot can still happen.

hope you are having a love filled week x

fabrics have landed...

i have had a fun printing and photography sesh and am delighted to show you my results here...

 and the good news is they are in the Etsy shop now!

lots of luscious serene summery sorbet colours, perfect for summer crafting.

paid to play...

 you have heard me say it before and you will doubtlessly hear me say it again...

I LOVE MY JOB!!

what's not to love? people pay me proper money to play with fabrics - money i can spend in shops, money i can barter for goods we need, money i can pay bills with...PROPER money!

the latest playing i have been paid to do is this disappearing 9 patch baby quilt.

i am a little bit in love with the disappearing 9 patch and having made my pillow for the pillow talk swap in it recently i wanted to give a quilt a try. i thought it was a perfect block for busier fabrics. 

 i know i am a little bit late to the D9P party - only by about 3 or 4 years - but it is such a great block it definitely needs a revival.

i love the randomness of D9P. i love how you can pick any 9 blocks, sew them together, cut them up, repeat repeat again and shuffle all the mini blocks around and have something that works.

back to the job bit...

the customer wanted a mix of jewel, liberty type fabrics and was happy for a big mix up so this layout was perfect.

there is repetition with the majority of the fabrics, which in the midst of all the craziness gives a cohesive feel, but i included a few snippets of my favourite fabrics that i had enough for just one square in the whole quilt. i put in my absolute favourite piece that had been sitting on my desk. it is a little sample square that Ayumi had sent me with a recent order. sadly she didn't have any more, so that's it now, gone.

i so enjoyed making this quilt and piecing a D9P. i am most definitely going to put it on the list of throws to make for us. it won't pay me in money but it certainly will in joy, which is almost as good...almost.

i am going to leave you with a question which i would love you to link to...

did you do D9P back in the day? if so would you share a link to your makes? i would love to see. if you didn't is there another quilting pattern you have recently discovered where you feel you are a bit late to the party?

if i knew how to do one of those clever linky things at the bottom of the post here i would, but i can't, so please leave your links in the comments and can't wait to see!

shopping take 1...and 2...

in further preparation for saltaire makers fair at the weekend i went to our local fabric mecca in search of some much needed supplies.

i wasn't sure i would get what i needed as it's a bit of an aladdin's cave and can be hit and miss. i knew what i wanted to make but quite what i would come home with to make it was all part of the thrill.

i came home with this pile of beauties...amongst other things...ahem. 

the denim is the most wonderfully soft indigo denim by designer paul smith no less. i wanted it to make some of these and originally bought it thinking i would be screen printing on it but actually when i had made a couple up i thought it didn't need anything adding.

i did however get some screen printing action going with item number 2 from the denim...

bistro aprons.

i did a little IG survey...knee length or thigh? 

the overwhelming consensus was thigh.

this surprised me somewhat as i originally made them thigh but thought it a bit short so made one knee (or slightly above)

personally i thought this was better...

more coverage...

but apparently not.

we'll see what the punters at the weekend say.

by the end of play yesterday and doing my usual IG posting as i made, i had already sold all those i had made...whoops, none for the fair.

so today it was back to fabworks for...

and boy was i glad i did!

check out this gorgeous emerald green braid and liberty-esque fabric...i was in love!

more denim was acquired, the emerald bag was constructed and boy oh boy i was in love!

i'm not entirely sure this one will make it to the fair either...i think i'll be claiming it as mine...but the good news is that shopping take 2 consisted of enough to make a fair few more of this one...phew ;-)

swoon...

 being the world's best starter and the world's worst finisher it will come as no surprise that i have started yet another quilt.

to be fair i am on a mission to make a quilt for our bed. i keep thinking i have found the perfect quilt design but then as i get going on it it doesn't seem quite as perfect as i thought so i give up.

i really thought this low volume scrappy trip along above was going to be just right...

...wrong! even though it is low volume there is just too much going on.

the same happened with the + and x quilt below.

way too busy!

it was back to the drawing board but not before i made myself sew up these scrappy and plus blocks into squares big enough to make cosy floor cushions.

now i can relatively guiltlessly get on with the job in hand of making the right quilt and i actually think i am there this time.

i had bought camille's lovely swoon pattern a while ago and had a lightbulb moment of thinking this would be just the right quilt, particularly if i kept it simple.

the first block i made at the top went pretty straight forwardly. i used my 2 favourite fabrics of the moment - architextures' crosshatch in grey and pb&j's raspberry jam in picnic. the background is the crosshatch in white...plain but with a little added interest.

i was really pleased with the result of this first block and started pulling fabrics for the rest of the quilt.  whilst our room has a strong Orla Kiely wallpaper with a shot of chartreusy yellow i initially wanted to keep the quilt neutral.

not according to my sub conscience as before i knew it i'd dragged out some yellows. looks like it was going to have yellow in it after all.

just to make sure yellow was going to work i made up another block. 

nice...

i was liking...

but now i have a dilemma...a big dilemma...

i laid the blocks out on the bed just to see if it was working for me and boom how good do the blocks look as pillow covers??

aaaghhh!

do i stop at these 2 blocks and do something else for the quilt?

but what else would work in this room?

what would you do??

adventure and fun times...

 i'm a little bit distracted by a new app that is suddenly all over instagram. 

have you seen it?

it's called #abeautifulmess by the beautiful bloggers of the same name.

it is so darn addictive! 

the app has all sorts of cute doodles, fonts and fun phrases to name just some of it's features that you can use to customise your photos. 

hours and hours of unadulterated fun!

as well as customising your own photos, like the 2 above, you can choose from several cool backgrounds and create your own pics like the one i did below.

this one below is quite poignant as it turns out. i've been waiting for a VIE - very important email - for several days and whilst at the orthodontist with number 2 son this morning i was playing about with the app and doodled this pic.

i got home a little bit later to find the VIE in my inbox, the contents of which means i am about to go on a big metaphorical adventure with fun times ahead.

cryptic i know, but that's all i can say for now. all i can say is not all doodling turns out to be unadulterated and there is always a reason to what we do. 

that's my excuse anyway...

want your own excuse to doodle away? go see more about the app here from the makers themselves and if you haven't already downloaded it, you must...it will be the best 69p you'll spend today!