All quiet on the blog front...

Hello lovely people,

I'm sorry its been a bit quiet on the blog front for a while. I did 4 night shifts last week and was really looking forward to my long weekend and had lot of ideas for my quilt and sewing... but I got poorly instead! I have just felt well enough to get up this evening so I have sat quietly and made some cards... nothing too taxing!! I use the scraps of fabric left over from other projects to make all of cards. Even teeny tiny scraps can be put to good use... just look how tiny that bunting is!! And I love the buttons for flowers... some of the buttons in my collection were even flower shaped, how convenient!!

xxx

Bristol Flea Market; my beautiful purchases.

I have had such a lovely sunday. The bristol Flea Market was held today, with more than 100 stalls selling a range of vintage and handmade goodies, from furniture to clothes and teacups to bunting. I was in my element and spent about 2 + 1/2 hours rummaging through the rails and in boxes of lovely old items. It was only a £2 entry fee and many of the sellers were willing to take offers so there were lots of deals to be done and bargains to be had. The first beautiful stall I stumbled across was a table full of beautiful tea cups and saucers and mix matched vintage china. I got two cups and saucers for £6, and one of them was beautifully hand painted so I know it is one of a kind! I have far too many mix and match pieces of china so I think my next plan is to make them into candles... but for now they look lovely as a centre piece to my table. 

Another of my favourite stalls was a vintage clothing stall. I spent about an hour rummaging through the rails. There were beautiful 60's dresses, wacky 70's blouses and hundreds of thick, fluffy jumpers. I fell in love with a knitted jumper with bunnies on it! it was amazing but didn't quite fit right, and I couldn't justify spending £20 on something I wont wear. I did however find a beautiful fluffy oversized cardigan with big buttons! i love it, and it was a steal at £10... much much cheaper than a similar one I tried on recently! 

Finally I bought a necklace with an intricate silver flower design, with a blue windmill centre. I don't think that describes it very well but have a look at the photo, it is beautiful and only cost £5. I bought the vintage flower fabric under the teacups for £1, another lovely bargain!

The Markets are held in monthly and the destination alternates each month between bristol and bath. All details are on the following website. http://www.bathfleamarket.co.uk/the-bristol-flea-market

xxx

cookie monster!!

Iv had this weekend off which has been blissful! Yesterday I watched the football with the boyfriend at the pub, and so in the spirit of balance I had a baking and sewing afternoon to bring a bit of 'girliness' back to my day! The boyfriend wanted a banana cake but I had a craving for cookies... so I made both!! :)
I have shared the banana cake recipe and photos here before so I wont bore you with that again. The cookie recipe came from the BBC good food:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6937/chocolate-chip-cookies

This recipe is really really easy! The key to a good recipe for me is 1. uses as few bowls as possible so I dont have to do loads of washing up!! and 2. to mostly consist of general items that you have in the cupboard... when I have a cookie craving I do not want to have to go to the shop and search for essence of this and spice of that! This recipe fits both of those criteria and the cookies are yummy!!

I love, love, love this cake stand. It is from Cath Kidston and was a present from my sister. It looks beautiful in my kitchen, especially with cookies on! Have a good weekend xx

Patchwork quilt! stage 1 completed

My current big project is to make my 1st ever quilt!! I have made a few small scale patchwork pieces before that have been made into cushions or wall hangings, but this is the first time I have taken on a full size quilt. I have to say I have loved picking out the fabrics, and managed to use a lovely combination of 2nd hand and vintage fabric combined with some lovely new fabric that I sighed and salivated over in the fabric shops! However my excitement and enthusiasm waned quickly as I started to cut out the patchwork pieces! And yes I am aware that this is a very simple quilt pattern, and that in relative terms I used much fewer pieces that generally used for other quilts... but after cutting out 120 pieces of fabric by hand I have had enough. So on that note I am looking forward to starting the sewing stage of my quilt. Sadly i still have to pin the pieces together and I am working night shifts for the rest of the week so the next stage may have to wait. I thought I would post some photos of the end of the first stage. I was a little worried that the red squares stood out a little too much from the general greens and pinks of my colour scheme, however now that I an see the whole quilt I am pleased with it!

Now that the quilt is laid out on my living room floor, I have decided that it looks good there!! maybe my next project should be a patchwork rug or wall hanging... 

xxx

Home sweet home...

Today I made some hanging fabric houses. I made one months ago for my Dad as a house warming gift and have been meaning to make more for months. Each house is made from remnants of fabric left over from my other projects, therefore each is a slightly different shape and size depending on what I had left.  No two houses are the same, as you can see not only are they made from different fabric, but they each have a different design, some have lace around the roof, others have buttons for windows or door handles, some have numbers on the doors, others have ribbon; this makes each little house completely unique. I do love a bit of interior design, but exterior design... I would LOVE to live in a house with a polka dot roof!! I am also experimenting with taking different types of photos for my blog. Usually I just do boring photographs of the cards on my table or the bunting on the wall etc, but today I have done a little bit of staging with the houses and some doodling in the background to make a street for my houses to reside on.  Who would like to live on this street, you could all be my fabric house neighbours... xxx

Some new cards today: 

To guide you home safely... 

And a bit late for valentines day... but why not say 'I love you' just because... 

xxx