Paying it Forward

I survived this weekend's birthday celebrations, the rain, the thunder and the kids!! Thank you all so much for your kind birthday wishes, my boy had a blast.

I even managed to cram some sewing in and made three little gifts for my friends who in turn will pay it forward.

First up is Julianna, she told me she would like a potholder. I'd been wanting to try this potholder from Suzuko Koseki's latest book Natural Patchwork, so I decided to make one for her.

This type of binding was new to me, you just wrap scraps of fabric around the edges and sew them on.  I really enjoyed experimenting with this as it was trickier than I thought at first and you get a less 'clean' result than with normal binding. I so enjoy this type of messy patchwork, it's very liberating!
I imagine that with use this potholder may get some lovely stains for Julianna to patch up again and again. I can only dream of the kinds of wonderfulness in design that may bring!

Shannon said she loves zippered pouches, her favourites showed a love of blue and orange ..oh so tricky for me!!
So I settled on this little zippered coin purse in lovely Ruby Star Rising and Kokka prints.

It's perhaps a little more muted than what I've seen in your faves Shannon, but I hope this still fits the bill!

Suzanne said she would like anything so I thought she might enjoy a set of patchwork coasters. The inspiration for these also came from Suzuko Koseki's book.

As with the potholder I hope these coasters will get stained and patched up by Suzanne over time. Even though this design is quite different from Julianna's potholder I still think the coasters would look just as lovely all patched up!

All three will be in the post tomorrow.
I'm so looking forward to see how these lovely ladies will be paying it forward!!

x Leila

~Sunday Sewing~

Do you remember me babbling about wanting to make a slow quilt with my stack of Anna Maria Horner fabrics?
Well I didn't want to make just hexagons, I wanted something a little more fun so I went looking for inspiration on Flickr. Where I found this and I loved it! She said she got the pattern from paperpieces.com, but I could not find it there. Still it wasn't that difficult to figure out the pattern myself. I made 2" hexagons, so that meant I needed 2" squares and 2" triangles to make this circle shape. It looks a bit like a variation on the double wedding ring pattern, don't you think?

It was my friends birthday yesterday so I decided this was the perfect occasion to start cutting into some of my new fabrics! She just moved into her new house so I figured a nice new cushion would go well for a present.

I am so pleased with how this turned out it  really looks like it belongs on her couch!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend

x Leila

Fab Friday {double latte with whipped cream stash post}

First things first, I won Kaelin's give away from the plaid scottie fame and I couldn't be happier:-D If you have not had a chance to visit her blog I think you really should, she's making a wonderful Rain or Shine Quilt, super cute hexies for her bee, mouth watering pictures of her stash an much much more!
So what did I win, you ask? Meldoy Miller's Ruby Star Rising!!! Woop!!! {can you tell I am excited? lol}

I've also had some more fabrics from my fabric therapy shopping coming in this week. Some lovely Kokka linens I have had my eyes on for a while from Celtic Fusion

 I have spent every free minute glued to the couch, english paperpiecing and watching the Gilmore Girls on dvd! I feel a bit silly admitting to it, but there you have it, it's what I've done and I enjoyed it thoroughly :-) .

I was too lazy to take some progress shots even, but I will do soon - promise! It's coming along nicely and I think I have made the right decision in making a 'slow' quilt with my Anna Maria Horner fabrics. It will take me forever to finish!
Have any of you made a full sized handpieced quilt before? How long did it take you?

x Leila