Swooning!

I've been Swooning over the weekend.

Can you believe that it was a lovely sunny morning when I took these photos?

And because of the wonderful sunshine that we had for the weekend this is all that I did...which isn't bad, I know.

Another two blocks are cut and ready to sew.  Don't know when though.

Erin

So Much Soul Blossom

I'm a real sucker for Amy Butler Fabric.

She was my first designer that I really knew and was all that I bought when I started out two years ago.

When this line of her fabric came out I was quite excited.   

 I loved the bright colours but when I received the parcel in the mail, I was a bit taken back,  It was a lot brighter than I thought so it was tucked away in the back of the cupboard for a few months. 

I had seen Amy's quilt on her web site and although loved the craziness of it, it meant that I would have to buy a second FQ bundle (that's 33 FQ's) so after some deliberation, should I, shouldn't I...well you know... I did just that.

Has the quilt got made....no. And would be the main reason why I stopped myself going out and buying her latest fabric line because I couldn't justify it when I hadn't used this up first.

I think though after pulling the fabric out a few weeks ago  to try and make some i pod covers, and discovered that I have got that excitement back again about this fabric line.

When Ginger Monkey started her Swoon - a - Long early this year, I though about using it and would it work or would it be too bright or large a print for the design of the quilt, hence I have been left behind on that project but

I was flicking through my quilting books and found in Elizabeth Hartman's book a quilt called Kitchen Window.  Maybe this could use a bit of Soul Blossom to make this.

I am now just waiting for a parcel...(only one) to start cutting my strips of Kona Slate...

and we'll be ready to sew.

I did look at the Stained Glass Window QAL with Sarah at narcoleptic in a cupboard maybe after this.  I'm sure that I will have ample amounts left.

As for the Swoon....I think it will be a goer, just need to start it...

Oh the thought of cutting all those blocks.

(Have I just decided to do three quilts?)

 Erin

You're it!

Dear Lucy, Toni, Emily, Irina

I'm really bad at getting organised and writing a blog when an award gets sent to me.  It sometimes takes me a few weeks and then I realise that the blogger that I am about to pass on the award to have received it from some one else.  Man what do I do then...

I have been tagged and awarded a few times now so I better get my skates on and do something about it.

Seen this lately?

I was actually chuffed that there maybe someone out there that thought my blog deserves this.

Emily from Strawberry Patch had me on her list of favourite blogs she likes to read. I was really touched what she wrote about me. Thanks Emily!
But then today I was awarded it by Irina at el petit taller...ah shucks!

There is so many beautiful blogs out there that are kept up to date with lovely handmade projects.

Sometime it takes me a few weeks for me to get through them all so I don't get to write on them every time they blog about a project that they are working on.

A few of my blogger friends (Sana and Nicky) have got this award already in the past few weeks so I'm going to spread it around to some others that I like just as much.

The rules are: I am to pass on this award to 5 other bloggers that I love to read and are inspirational to me. They are all to have under 200 followers.

So my chosen ones are:

Carla @ Grace and Favour
Erin @ Missy Mac Creations.
Laurie @ Dodging the Butterfly.
Helen @ Archie the wonder dog

Catherine @ Sew Wonderful Life.

Now I was tagged by Lucy and Toni today so girls here are my answers to your questions. 

I am really sorry there is a lot of text and no photos.

Lucy here are your questions answered!

1. What's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?
I went out and bought a pair of Manolo Blanhik's with my hubby's credit card....Well he did give it to me for the day to go shopping!

2. What is your favourite time of day?
Cuppa time.

3. Which colour of fabric do you use the most? 
I don't know if I have any particular colour, I do love Sage and Sea foam in the Kona Solids though.

4. Did you have a toy/blanket that you took to bed when you were little? 
Just 3... A teddy bear, a puppy and my knitted penguin

5. What song always gets stuck in your head?
Heads and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes.  Heads and shoulders, knees and toes.....let's all clap hands together.....Is it in your heads yet!!!!  Heads and shoulders........

6. What's the best concert you've ever been to? 
Rolling Stones at Slane, or would it be with 300,000 others dancing to Robbie Williams at Phoenix Park.  Wait a minute, I saw Tony Bennett at Vicar St.  What a Legend. 

7. What did you want to be when you grew up? 
Mmm a teacher...Is that what I am though?  Ha I still catch myself saying when I grow up I want to do......

8. Camping or a hotel? 
I love the great outdoors, but I do love the smell of starched fresh white sheets and big beds in hotels.

9. Do you have a nickname?
 'Esmay'...oh and 'Francis the Mule'....(all given to me from my lovely brothers and sisters)

10. Can you play any instruments?
The Triangle! DING!

11. Would you rather call/text/email or write a letter? 
Oh  write a letter or is it receiving a letter in the mail.

Now Toni's Questions.

What is your least favorite color?

Oh no I like all colours... in moderation that is.

2. What is your dream vacation, and would you take anyone with you?

I would love to see the Galapagos Islands, Easter Island and the Christmas Island...One day.  Hubby will be dragged along, I know that secretly he will love it.

3. What was your first car?

I still have it, Opel Corsa.  She is called Red Robin.

4. How did you meet your current partner/ love interest?

In a pub, I told him to rack off a few years before and look us now..

5. What is the worst injury you've ever had?

Never had one, have dodgy knees though.  I get frustrated when I try and run.

6. What is your favorite snack?

I love anything savory and then I love chocolate....Belgium chocolate.

7. Besides quilting, do you have any other hobbies?

I love landscape photography and film, pin hole photography.

8. What is your least favorite household chore?

Mate it's all of it! 

9. How close do you live to the place you grew up?

I'm far far away...the Wimmera, Victoria, Australia is where I grew up!

10. If you had to pick a favorite quilt, which one would it be?

This is hard.  I love to see what every one's interpretation designs are.

11. Do you have any pet peeves that you don't mind sharing?

I cannot understand how women can doll them selves up and look fabulous and then forget to take the sticky tags off the bottoms of their shoes/heals.....ah HELLO!!!!!  it's a tag and we can all see it.  Hubby laughs at me because he know this is the first thing that I look at when someone is walking past me in the pub.

 

 

 Seeing that we are all getting tagged left right and centre and some of us getting awards too.... I'm going to break with tradition and rules and now say that you can blog about these questions  or answer them below...(ah then I will know who read my blog)...

 

 

1.Do you really tell your partner or your credit card how much you spend on fabric each month?

2.On average how many hours do you spend a week looking at blogs, flickr, pintrest?....be honest now!

3. What is your favourite show on telly at the moment?

4. If you could run away for the weekend would the sewing machine come with you?

5.  How many candles do you have in the house?  Come on...all of them!

OK That's it...  Anyone want to respond?

A new quilt for Me, Me, Me!

A long, long time ago.....

I got a bundle of lovely fabric in the mail.

Echo by Lotta Jansdotter..

You may remember that I couldn't wait to get stuck into this fabric and cut it up straight away into HST's  I threw in a few Kona solids with it and this is what came about.

It got to this stage just before Christmas and then with the crazy season and a holiday, it just got put away and although I was eager to finish it, I was a little hesitant on how to finish the quilt off.

So some umming and ahhing, this is what came about.

Straight stitching used about 1/2 an inch apart. 

I think there were 13 rows for each block and 8 blocks across....you do the maths?

There were many, many rows and many, many bobbins and many, many hours and even some un- stitching from time to time.

 

The back shows off the quilting much more and sometimes I just can't decide which side I like the best.

(I couldn't see these HST's going to waste so I had to find a place for them in the quilt.)

Even looks great folded up!

As you can see I'm very happy with my quilt and have had some chill out time cuddling up under it.

Fabric Line: Echo  By Lotta Jansdotter.

A bit of Kona White, Sage, Coffee and Ash to splash it up!
I did want to put some Kona Yarrow in but couldn't find anyone that stocked it.

 

Great line of fabric and wish I did buy some more now...ah well, I still have some scraps to make another quilt from.
But until then, this will be staying with me.

Rhonda .  I'm finished all my Finish a Long!

Going Green



Happy St Patrick's Day!

Croagh Patrick, Clew Bay.  Co. Mayo

If you ever get the chance make sure you climb this mountain...The view from the top is magnificent.

Croagh Patrick,   Co. Mayo

How anyone does the walk to the top each year in bare feet....(yes I did say bare feet) is beyond me!

It was a 5 hour trip up and back down but the knowledge that there was a pub that could make me a hot whiskey at the bottom was what kept me going...

Sorry photos of my time up on top was when there was only film,

(This photo was a road trip last year.)

Now to the other gals out there in Ireland, enjoy your weekend and the extra day off on Monday....mmm some sewing is planned already. Happy days!

Erin

Why has it taken me so long to get an iPod Touch.

My hubby was going to buy me another handbag for my birthday. 

I didn't really need another one quite yet so I suggested a iPod Touch instead. 

(Thanks Kira for the idea)

T is very happy about this as it is so much easier to give me what I would like rather than surprising me. (the first time I asked for a handbag, I got a set of golf clubs....which I do love T...honestly!)

So with my new iPod Touch in my hand, I realised that it wouldn't be around for long unless I got a cover/cozy for it.

Sarah's phone cozy  tutorial came in handy alright. 

Cut out all the fabric on Friday night and whipped them up yesterday. 

 (Sarah I haven't been stalking your blog at all, just needed to go back and check I was doing everything right)

Amy Butler Soul Blossom fabric (which I have a mountain of) and Kona medium grey.  Oh and these were the only buttons I could find in my country town on Saturday morning.

Yes there are two, and am offering Kira one if she wants it.

Very happy with the result.

Got to get back and finish my last Finish - a -Long.

Erin 

Giveaway Winner

One of you is the winner of this lovely bundle of fabric

Thanks again to all of you that dropped by and entered. 

I wanted this giveaway to be for all my followers and let you know that I really appreciate you following me and taking the time to read my blog.

I love dropping by to you all as much as I can and see the great projects that you are all creating.

So  with out further to do....

 I plugged in the numbers of Random Number Generator, this is the answer I got.

Ah...13. 

 A lucky number for me but also lucky for.....

Congrats Toni...Can't wait to see what you will make out of these!

Thanks again all, and until next time.

Erin

Placemats finished and waiting to be used...

Mmm....Bundles of fabric...I'm such a sucker for them! 

When I saw these at Fabric Rehab, I instantly thought they would look great with some linen as place mats and I knew just the pattern to try them out on .

Although I did start with just three bundles of Cloud 9's Cut out and Keep, I did go back and buy a meters of three prints for the back of each place mat. A combination of Kona solids and some coloured linen were used for coordinating fabric.

The pattern was found when flicking through Handmade by Alissa blog one day and thought that here was a project that would be easy and I could whip them up over a weekend.....that was when I was only making four....it soon turned to 12.  Three sets.

I sort of got sick of making these and keep putting them off to finish but they did have to be finished and am happy to see that I can tick this off the list on the Finish A Long with Rhonda.

The top set was given to my sister for her table.

The second was for me.

And the third...may come in handy for a friends birthday.

I did be a bit more adventurous with the quilting on the last, and are still my favourite of all three sets.

Now I was being a bit adventurous and make coaster for each set but I made them to be binded and it was just too much fuss and they were not neat so I ditched them.  It was a pitty as I loved the little red ones. 

Whooo hooo.  Another project crossed off  my list of unfinished projects!

Now to Link up to Rhonda at the Quilter in the Gap.  She'll be sick of me by now.

Erin

For the past week....

DON'T FORGET MY GIVEAWAY HERE

I have been quite busy over the past few weeks, so I didn't really think that I could link this up to Lily's Quilts at the start of March...could I..   

A dinosaur cake was requested but a very special birthday boy, my nephew.

I actually forgot to take a photo before I packed him into the box for his journey up to Dublin.  But I did give him the window seat to check out the N7 scenery.  I think he is quite happy... Don't you?

The cake went down a treat andmy other 4 year old nephew has already put his order in for his cake in May.

So what else have I been up to?

Well I have had this book for some time.  I bought it in my Pound/Euro Store and thought it would come in handy if I was designing some projects . 

Grid on one side and a page for some notes.

 Cindy was linking up with Sarah @ FairyFace Designs for her {Sew} Get Started group. 

Book covers was her tutorial.

Made with linen and some scraps from my collection and some new scraps from Hadley's package last week and a little ribbon bought from Fabric Rehab....very Orla Kiely. 

Made up quickly if I read the whole tutorial through instead of just looking at the pictures....(a bad habit of mine,) but overall a great tutorial...thanks Cindy!

All I need to do now is start drawing my ideas into my new book.

I will be making some more of these soon, very handy!

Erin

It's time for a Giveaway.

Another Giveaway anyone?
NOW CLOSED

Who would have believed it, I have passed my 100 followers and thought it was time I get myself organised for a giveaway for you all.
I really appreciate all that drop by and even more when you leave me a message. 

It's great that I can just put up on my blog a query and receive some great responses and handy advice back.

So here is what I am offering in my giveaway....
Sparky & Marie, Piccadilly

There is a FQ bundle of 7 fabrics for one lucky follower.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

To be in the draw all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (please ensure that an email address is available on your profile or is included in your comment.)  If you would like to become a follower that's great too.
 
Only one comment per person will be eligible to enter the draw.

My 109 faithful followers receive a Bonus Entry. Just let me know if you are one these lucky people.

The giveaway runs until Friday 9th March at 9pm Irish time. GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
I will draw the winner using Random Number Generator and announce it over the weekend.

International visitors are very welcome to enter!

Good luck and thanks for dropping by.

Erin

Are you Jealous?

Parcel is sent and on it's way.

While there was an excitement of sending it off,  It was even more exciting when this was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday.

And this is what was inside.

My Mouthy Stitches Pouch made for ME, ME, ME!

I adored this when Hadley from Blind On A Rocket Cycle put thisup on the Flickr group.

 I fell in love with it straight away. 

I was in awe of these tiny little HST's and asked Hadley if she would write up a tutorial for the pouch.

 But I suppose she doesn't have to now as IT'S ALL MINE.......

 And I'm not giving it back!

Thank you very very much Hadley.  As you can see, I LOVE IT.

I didn't get a photo of my scraps this morning but just to let you know Hadley; Great selection and has already made me think about some other pouches.

Erin