Revealing - part four

I almost forgot the final pressie to be revealed!

This one was a joint effort between myself and Mr X. My sister has a birthday directly after Christmas, so I wanted to make her something useful using her son's creative talents.

He printed out an alphabet of some weird font and traced Mum and her name onto the fabric using fabric markers, and drew the heart around it (which of course I thought was really cute). I drew the flowers (surprise surprise).

Unfortunately there was a little bit of fabric crinkle when I heat-set the fabric markers, but I'm hoping that it just adds to the handmade charm.

My sister really liked it which was all that mattered!

* There is actually a little loop at the top to hang it near the stove, but it's been cut off in the photo - whoops.

The Wonky K and the Loot Glorious Loot Grand Finale

I suddenly remembered yesterday morning that I hadn't organised a mothers day pressie for my mum, so a quick flick through the ever mounting stash, and I found that I still had some of this lovely kitchen themed fabric that I received from Ingrid, and insulbright from Liesl.

So I whipped up a quick potholder and quilted (very haphazardly) a very wonky K.

I hope she likes it!

Then yesterday afternoon, all of the lovely Thornbury Craft Bonanza ladies came over to visit.

Liesl arrived bearing Loot! This beautiful tealight candle housewarming pressie with a battery operated candle (perfect for me because then I can't burn the house down)!

There was a bit of sketching, cutting, collaging, sewing, quilting, brooch making, crochet... I think we ended up convering nearly every category of craft over the afternoon - all washed down with lovely crafty conversation and yummy food. There was also planning for our upcoming crafty weekend away at Sewjourn!

PS - I'm not sure who left behind an entire packet of unopened tim tams but thankyou!

Serena took Charles and Di off to their new home in her kitchen, where I'm sure they'll be very happy...

Now, I'm off to have a cup of tea and one of Liesl's leftover cupcakes...

Off to the fete

It's that time of the year again..... the primary school fete!

My nephews' school is looking for donations of homewares this year, so it was the perfect opportunity to donate some handmade goodies. I don't have a photographer in the house anymore, so the pool fence had been relegated back to modelling duty.


I whipped up a floral apron, with red spotty bias trim.....

....and finally, I have actually managed to make a not quite so wonky potholder.

I have to say that the potholder is a team effort. I received the fabulous Janome Walking Foot from Sarah and Liesl sent me a huge piece of Insul-bright to make it properly heat proof (you still need to add a layer of padding in the middle as well).

Insul-Bright: Ideal for Pot Holders, Table Pads, Oven MitsConsists of hollow Polyester fibers needlepunched through Mylar. The hollow fibers resist conductive heat while the Mylar resists radiant heat.

The walking foot is amazing.... no more slipping and sliding of the layers, and it made it much easier to machine sew the binding too.

I can see more non-wonky pot holders in the future.

Lovely Mail

I had a lovely unexpected suprise when I checked the mailbox thisafternoon!
A gorgeous quilted potholder from Nicola at Nicola's Daisies all the way from New Zealand...

I'd completely forgotten that she was going to send me a Pay It Forward gift.
Look at that beautiful hand stitched binding......I haven't had the patience to try hand stitching a binding yet but this may just give the inspiration to have a go!


There's also beautiful hand stitching on the applique and also around each of the petals.
Thankyou so much Nicola, I love it!