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!

A Spring Quilty Adventure

I'm linking up to Quilt Story for there Fabric Tuesdays.  Be sure to look at some of the other wonderful projects that are out there.  I hope they won't mind that this is a WIP (work in progress).  It's just it's the most on a single project I've ever done in one day and I'm really excited with how it's coming along and would love to have some feedback.

Now...

Last weekend I went to visit my dear friend Kirsty (her blog = Fatty Unbound) in Brighton for some quality girlie catch up time, oodles of crafting and lots of pootling.  There was even time for an ice cream on the beach!

Now Kirsty isn't a quilter but when I'd found the shop Quilty Pleasures online. I knew I wanted to visit, as I'd never been to a *just* modern quilting shop before.  Kirsty was happy to pander to my crafting desires as we tend to encourage each other with our various crafts.  Anyways whilst I was there, I fell in love with the Hideaway line by Lauren and Jessi Jung. I bought myself a charm pack and 0.75m of the circles on snow.  Now despite this small purchase of the line (I keep wondering why I didn't go for the layer cake), I decided that I wanted to make myself a lap quilt using these fabrics.  There was no specific date or timeline to work on this project because I have several other things on the go.  But... yesterday was so perfectly spring-like, the colours in the fabric spoke to me and inspiration struck.

A view of the tree that is in front of my kitchen window.  It makes washing up feel less of a chore.

I decided to take this inspiration and see what would happen.  I didn't plan. I didn't design.  I just pulled out some co-ordinating solids (Kona Robin's Egg Blue and Lemon, plus Klona grass green and white) and wanted to see what would happen when I let myself loose with the blocks and fabric.  It's a first for me.  Here are a few progress shots that show the beginning of the day (afternoon):

Testing out fabric combinations and playing.

Blocks beginning to form

From these two photos it is difficult to tell how the project will look once the blocks are formed, sashing put in place and the colours allowed to settle together.  However I did take a few more photos of the blocks laid out in various layout ideas: 

Several blocks laid out on top of the backing fabric

However the above photo was taken before my quilting mission was finished.  I ended the day of 8+ hours of cutting & sewing with 14 blocks made (each = 8"), a design for the rest of the quilt, the backing figured out and it was all coming together happily.  Before I launch into sewing all the pieces together I laid them out on my bed (apologies for the wrinkled duvet!) and I think I'm happy with how it looks:

Now I've just another 6 more blocks to make to go along the top and bottom of the quilt.  These will be like the one that sits on its own with the 4 little squares in it.  Simple design but oh so fun.  The sashing will be bands of the solids and then a border in the Hideaway Egg.  Hurrah!

FYI:

- I've changed the comments from Disqus back to Blogger, so I can reply to people via email.  This does mean that I've just lost a chunk of comments.