Oliver's cushion

This is Oliver's Cushion.

I am Oliver R. I am Steph's son. I am 6.

Me and my mum made this cushion as fast as we could. I chose where the fabric went, I wrote the writing, and I drew the pictures. Mum sewed it all together. She embroidered the words and pictures. I am proud of it. I play with it, throw it about and bounce on it.

Oliver's Cushion

10 months since I last posted!

Thanks to le-challenge for the boost to get me to blog again. This months theme is space.

I had great anticipation for getting a bit more crafty time and head space this year; my Little One was in nursery every morning until the summer, then in school from September and my Big Boy was turning 6, surely he would be more independent than ever!

The theory was great, in fact life has got in the way. My husband got made redundant and I took on one bit of overtime on my part time job, then increased my days again, then took on even more so I've been working 5 days and trying to fit in life with kids, family, friends and work.

Space for me and crafting have took a back seat.

Life for 2016 is not looking like it's going to run any smoother, but space to be my creative self is important too, and this month I reclaimed a bit. I've finished off my lovely sunny butterfly mini quilt.

The pattern is English Paper Piecing from mud, pies and pins. The fabric is from a moda scrap pack, plus a few scraps from my stash. The hand quilting and piecing is all mine!

It's been my first proper go at hand quilted in all that negative space too. The line loops and meanders as if tracing the butterfly's flight path. I wish the photo showed if better!

Crochet Morning

This week it was my turn to host a crochet morning for a few local mums. Now I'm not much of a crocheter really, but there was zero interest in a quilting morning and a get together with company, coffee, cake and crafty is a lovely way to spend a morning. Especially now my little one's at nursery 5 mornings a week and the house feels like a ghost ship. So, crochet morning it was.

So Monday morning I dropped in to the local wool shop and let my daughter pick out some yarn, and by Saturday night I had the finished article.

The company was good, the cake was pretty good and best of all, my little girl loves them.

Linking up to

A Quick Finish

I've had one of those moments where I've realised how far I've come in the last year on quilting.

My neighbour's had to go into hospital for surgery and is expecting to be in a few weeks. While I think the NHS is amazing and I'm incredibly grateful for the life saving work of the workers, there's no doubt that they are pretty dismal places to stay in, even for a few days.

I wanted to make something to make the place a bit less clinical for her, so grabbed some soft lilacs from my stash and in under a week have pressed, cut, sewn, basted, quilted and bound the quilt.

While a tumbler pattern and the quilting may be basic, I like the balance of the quilt, the corners meet beautifully and the quilting's got decent tension throughout, with only a few tiny puckers on the back. All of which would have been a real challenge this time last year and would have taken 3 or 4 times the time.

It's not life changing, it's never going to set the blogosphere alight, but it's a real pleasure to be able to take a small stack of fabric and make something for a really warm and friendly woman who's having tough time.

Here comes 2015

It's hit that part of the year I always struggle with - all the hectic lead up to Christmas and the warm fuzziness has gone, and now we've got to get back to normal and get through to spring. Added to this year by the loss of my great auntie Lucy at 91 and my husband's grandma, Edith at 88 over the holidays. Sad times.

Both women loved family occasions, and so despite the losses we carried on with enjoying time with family, near and far. But this years Christmas celebrations were interlaced with sadness and fond memories.

Surprisingly I did get some seasonal sewing was done on time for once,  Early December was a finish for Advent Calanders for the kids, and a table runner for my Sister-in-Law:

Then late December was a quilt for my niece that's taken over a year from start to end!

(I am super pleased with how the free motion quilting came out - check out the bubble quilting:

And since then a big fat nothing. Blergh. My daughter is now at nursery 5 mornings a week, so in theory I have 3 mornings to sort the house and let my creative juices run free. In fact I have 2 days working 3 days doing a double school run - 2 hours walking a day for me, 1 hour 30 for my 3 year old and 1 hour for my 5 year old. We're all a bit tired. And I'm really missing my girl. So maybe I'm not doing too badly.


Blogloving has come to the rescue today - Le Challenge for January is up, and this month's theme is Dots. Surely I can get something started, done and dusted by mid Feb?  Hopefuly it'll kickstart my crafting year.

Hunting through the last month's pictures for this has already cheered me up no end - Here are my lovely little ones, very proud of having decorated trees and iced cakes.

They're the best thing about any new year!

Monday Makers:

It's not a fancy bit of sewing, but I wanted a quick make this week - I've got some advent calendars to make and needed something to protect the kitchen worktop so I can press all those fiddly pockets. 10 minutes later and, Hey presto, - a nice cheery fabric pressing mat

with a reverse that doubles a a design wall (for very teeny projects)

It's already been put to good use and a festive table runner for my sister in law...


and the first of those advent calendars for my little ones are well on their way

Linking up:

Crocheted Baby Blanket

Started last winter, I finally got around to finishing of my crochet baby blanket last month. Lovely little Georgia arrived safe and sound on Bonfire Night and is doing well. So here's a snap of the finished article.

All the blocks are from Eatons 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afgans. A great book it you want to try out crochet and are totally new to it like me. They have a nice reminder of what the stitches are in the back, along with edgings and how to change yarn colour.



At the start I was relying on youtube videos for each stitch too, but by the end I had the confidence to try for a wavy edge with no pattern at all! It's a real learning journey of a blanket, so I won't worry too much about the blocks that came out a little too small of the massively uneven tension in places!

Hope it keeps some little toes and finger snug and warm through the winter.

Linking up to Finish it up Friday