Homemade Mother's Day Treats

In the UK today is Mother's Day, so I thought I'd be a good daughter and come up to visit my Mum.  I had the joys of helping Scott (my step-dad type person) prepare a dinner for the family.  This year me, my mum, her mum, Scott and my step-brother were there for dinner.  My main contribution for dinner was doing the sugar topping on the creme brulee.  I think they've come out rather well, don't you?

Scott made the body of the creme brulee complete with proper vanilla pods.  It was served with raspberries and strawberries.  Yumtastic!  I'll be trying to make it again.

Anyways... I really wanted to show you all pictures of the Tea-cosy I made for my mum using Liberty Art Prints fabric that I found in John Lewis, Oxford Street.  

Isn't it bright? A friend said it made her think of a summer in Greece.  Ideal for the rainy day here.

It was a bit of an adventure for me because I had no pattern, so I designed one!  I'm noticing this to be a bit of a habit of mine.  I love sitting there with an image in my head, figuring out how to make the item and then launching ahead.  

Basted and ready to quilt!

It fitted together beautifully in the end.  I used a simple cross-hatch quilting in a sage coloured Coats cotton thread and the bottom trim is Kona Solids in Sage.  I had that fabric in my stash anyway.  Enough talking, here is the picture:

Taken in my mum's 'garden room'!

When I gave it to Mum yesterday she was thrilled because I'd taken the time to make it for her.  She was impressed that I designed it too.  She was particularly impressed because I only learnt to use a sewing machine at the end of November.  How things are coming along!

I've linked this up to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.  Please click on the button at the side to have a look at their loverly blog that showcases a variety of modern quilt designers!

My First Quilt Preparation

I'm not sure if I'm ready (in terms of skills) to tackle an entire single-bed sized quilt (c.130cm x 170cm) but I figure that I'd like to and I've found some fabric that I'd love to use, so why not give it a go.  Also I went to the John Lewis on Oxford Street today where it was the second to last day of their sale.  Most of last season's Amy Butler fabric were at 50% off, so I bought 3.5m of green/martini Opal Sky colourway of Midwest Modern, which is going to be the backing fabric for my quilt.  I'm focusing on blues/greens/limes with a hint of purple.  The main dominant fabrics on the front are Zoo Menagerie animals.

I'm trying to decide whether the multi-coloured lions will be *too* much.  But then I really like them and they think they could be a good feature fabric.  The spots is from Amy Butler's love collection and is the stone path/ ivory spots from soul colourway.  It was an 82cm remnant in Liberty*.

There will be sashing in cream (free spirit cream solid £7/m in Liberty) so that it isn't too over-powering.  I am making this quilt just for me to snuggle up under in my living room.  A joy of living in a flat that is converted from an Edwardian house is that it's beautiful but a peril is that it's drafty.  This seems to me like the perfect compromise.

* Liberty in London. Wow!  How had I never been before today?!  I say this because I've lived in London for the past 3 years.  The store itself is beautiful but the fabric selection is phenomenal.  All of the beautiful silks, home decor weight, quilting weight.  I was particularly enthralled with the range of Kaffe Fasset fabric (loving his colour combinations) and Free Spirit fabrics.

I'm now going to head back to my sketchbook to figure out the design of this quilt. Wish me luck!