My latest obsession

Hexagons.  Little patches of prettiness, so quick and easy to make, they multiply like little flowers blooming from tatty scraps of leftover fabric - so simple and yet so lovely.  This is a new discovery for me; my fabulous friend Jane sent me a little package ages ago, containing the templates, a few cut pieces and few extra bits of fabric - all for the princely sum of £1.15.  I've researched a whole new world of hexagonal quilts on Pinterest and I think I have decided that I like the randomly pieced ones best, which has the added advantage of not having to plan how many of each fabric to prepare.  Eagle-eyed quilters our there will spot that I started tacking my fabric right through the paper, but then I saw this and it's soooo much easier! Hoping to make a small-ish quilt/throw for Dolly, although my lovely husband said he quite fancies one for his den.  The way I am going at the moment, it will be no problem to make two!

Pretty as a picture

A little while ago my rather clever daughter showed me her first attempt in many years at putting oil to canvas and I was over-the-moon-impressed. 

Well, guess what? I am now the VERY proud owner of my one of her original artworks, which I absolutely love because a) it is beautiful, b) my fabulous daughter painted it and c) it absoutely encapsulates everything I love about our Nova Scotian home-away-from-home.  

What a very lucky Mum I am.

Cute as a Cupcake

My lovely friend Karen's adorable daughter Alice had her 3rd birthday last week; I decided to make her an apron as a present, but after hours of searching t'internet for a pattern for the kind I had in mind, I did a makey-uppy newspaper pattern, which is definitely not my forté.  I got the vital measurements from children's clothing retail sites and went for it - the inital idea was to have no bows or buttons, but I ended up adding buttons in case too small to go over her head!  In fact the whole thing looked worryingly small when it was done but I hoped for the best and popped it in the post. 

I was rewarded with the most gorgeous video of Alice wearing the outfit and saying 'thank you' - with her Mum telling her to 'Say 'Bye! Wave!' to which of course Alice responded with 'Bye Wave!'. Bless.

Spring is for... picnics!

I planned on making a picnic rug for someone for Christmas but ran out of time - so with my best friend Holly's birthday looming, March seemed like a good time to get down to it.  Learning points: 1. patchwork laid out on the table looks bigger than the finished article (kinda obvious but I forgot about the seam allowances :)  2. Batting looks thinner in the store on a great big roll than when it's squished between fabric and backing  3. I don't like working out technicalities such as fixing ties to the backing which would like up when the rug is folded / rolled - hence the carry-bag instead!  So although it's a bit small, I think its just about big enough for Holly's gorgeous baby boys to sit their behinds on and enjoy a good old fashioned picnic.  And the bit that made me feel fabulous was stitching on my little label - printed on this amazing cotton a that you can just run through your printer.  Happy days.

And - a couple of weeks after writing this post, I received this - I do like a happy customer!