Saturday 24 November 2012

Appliqué for Men

Hi all! Long time, no see. Life's been busy. Anyway, today I bring you the Patchwork and Pins guide to 'what to do if someone else buys your husband the same present you'd bought him and gives it to him first'.

Step 1 (optional):
Get all worried/stressed/pull your hair out.

Step 2:
Put together the fact that your husband likes Lego and you like appliqué and start to come up with a master plan.

Step 3:
Remember that he needs new pyjamas. Develop the master plan.

Step 4:
Buy pyjamas. Optional extra - for bonus points - make pyjamas. Wasn't gonna happen for me!


Step 5:
a. Check fabric shops for bright yellow material.
b. Discover cheap fabric shop has bright yellow material, but it's very thin.
c. Assume expensive fabric shop will have bright yellow material and speed-walk across town after work to get to it before it closes.
d. Find expensive shop has no bright yellow material.
e. Run across town back to cheap fabric shop.
f. Buy material and matching thread.
Alternative method - go to cheap fabric shop and buy fabric and thread.

Step 6:
Create a Lego version of your husband's head using this website.


Step 7:
Do some satin stitch.

Step 8:
Remember how much you hate satin stitch.

Step 9:
Remeber how much you love your husband.

Step 10:
Do more satin stitch.


Step 10:
Appliqué lego head onto pyjama pocket. Realise this will sew up the pocket but decide not to worry as pyjama pockets not known for usefulness.


Step 11:
Spend a large amount of time searching the internet for a side-view of a square Lego block. Find none. Take your own photo.


Step 12:
Zoom in on the photo on your camera and measure the distances. Multiply by three to make lego brick template.

Step 13:
Appliqué lego block onto back of pyjamas.


Step 13:
Give pyjamas to husband. You now have a very happy husband!

 

Coming up next week: the Patchwork and Pins guide to 'how to buy a flat, get ready for Christmas, finish two quilts and hold down a full time job at the same time'. Well, if I figure out how to do it anyway...

See you soon!

ETA: Linking up to Made By You Monday :)

Thursday 8 November 2012

Hustle Hustle

Do you remember I signed up for Kelsey's 100 Day Hustle? Well, we're now half way through and it's time to check on progress. Here's how I'm doing!

1. Finish frog project
Lots and lots of progress made. Can't wait to show you guys, but this is a secret project! Here's a quick peek of some squares which will be joining my frog:


2. Start and finish London project
Only minimal progress made. This one's a 'definitely need to finish' project though, so it will get done.

3. Start and finish Mouthy Stitches bag and keyfob
Done! I very much enjoyed making the tote and keyring, and I'm very pleased that Sadie liked them.
Photos taken by Sadie

4. Pick out fabrics for a quilt for hubby and I
Discovering I much prefer choosing fabrics in a shop to picking them out online, so I need to plan in some shopping time.

5. Maybe make some little things for people for Christmas
It's only November; no way I've thought about this yet!

6. Make my Texting While Sewing block into a cushion
Hasn't happened yet, not completely convinced it will. We'll see :)


I'm not sure how much sewing time I'm going to get between now and Christmas because... hubby and I are buying a flat! It's all happened so suddenly, it's the first place we viewed, and now we might be trying to move in before Christmas. Eep! All of a sudden, evenings are filled with mortgages and solicitors and 'can we live with pink carpets or do we want to change them' rather than fabric and sewing. Sad times, eh? I'm still making progress on the (slightly epic) frog project every so often though :)

Anyway, off to bed for now, I'll be linking up to the half-way point of the hustle tomorrow :)

Monday 5 November 2012

How Exciting!

My Orla Kiely quilt has been nominated for Favourite Applique Quilt at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!


If you fancy popping over here to vote for me, that would be great! It's a bit less than half way down the page, search for 'Orla Kiely Quilt' to find it easily.

Thanks so much!


Pink Daisies

Do you remember I mentioned that I won a giveaway from Karen at Blueberry Park? Well, a package arrived two days after my birthday with these lovelies in!


Aren't they great? The main event is this lovely makeup bag:


I've been meaning to make myself a makeup bag for a while now, but it never quite made it to the top of my To-Do list. So it's really lovely that someone's made one for me :)

I love the little mini purse as well (you can never have two many mini purses), and look how cute the mirror is:


I'm a very happy bunny. Thanks so much Karen! If you'd like to buy some lovely things made by Karen, check out here shop here.