Moses basket

When a good friend of mine found out she was having a girl she asked me if I would give her moses basket from her previous children (boys) a bit of a makeover. I'm always up for a challenge so I said yes. So lots of pink ruffles later it looked like this:

I even made a little quilt that matches as the perfect finishing touch. 

And here is a photo of my son holding the new baby at just one day old. 

New shoes

So what do you think of my cool new shoes?? I had just gotten these pink ballet flats comfortable when a deep scratch appeared on the front that even shoe polish wouldn't cover. I didn't want to throw them out but I couldn't really wear them as they were (this photo makes it look a lot less obvious than it actually was). Then I remembered seeing a pin on pinterest where they had covered the shoes in buttons and I decided to give it a go. I bought a pack of small assorted colours buttons from Tesco for £2 and set about slowly sewing on a few buttons a day when my hands were ok and in no time I had these amazing one of a kind shoes. 

A few people have called me crazy sewing on that many buttons but for me it was worth it. What do you think?

wedding gift

A very good friend of mine who I think of as the baby sister I never had got married in September. As they had lived together for a while they didn't really need any traditional wedding gifts and she insisted she didn't want a gift anyway just for us to be there. 

Doesn't she look beautiful! And my two gorgeous nephews. 

And I couldn't resist sharing this photo of my Sammy looking handsome and grown up in his suit. I really must figure out how to edit the photo and get rid of the strange light shining on his trousers. 

I decided to repeat the trapunto effect wall hanging I made for my friend last Christmas. This time I chose a celtic knot design for the top and bottom

I then chose a smaller celtic heart design for the centre panels and alternated them with squares embroidered with their names and wedding date. The deep red is the colour she had chosen for bridesmaids so I made it to match that. 

I'm pleased to say she was very happy with it. 

Sweet pouch swap - my parcel

So last week I shared my parcel I sent Jaime for the sweet pouch swap. Now it's time to share the amazing parcel that Jaime sent me. This big box arrived and I couldn't wait to open it! It took all my self control to open slowly and take photos rather than just diving straight in there. 

Jaime had done a little cyber stalking and seen my ongoing hexagon project and my quest to collect fabric scraps from people all over the world to add to my quilt's story. She enclosed some fabric scraps for my collection and by pure coincidence the Beatles fabric was special to me as I spent three years at university in Liverpool which is the home of the Beatles. 

Then of course there were the sweetie goodies 

But it doesn't stop there! I had the most amazing swap gift ever! 

Jaime had made me a folding hexagon travel kit! Of course it's pink which is very me and it showed how well she had cyber stalked me. It has pockets for fabric, a pocket for a pen, a mini pocket for a seam ripper and a little pin cushion. She even included some beautiful contents in my kit. I got a charm pack of fabric, a pack of paper hexagon templates, a pack of paper apple core templates, a heat erasable pen, a seam ripper and a pack of pink flower head pins. 

Aren't I the luckiest!! 

Sweet pouch swap - Jaime's parcel

A few months back I signed up for a sweet pouch swap. I was paired with the wonderful Jaime from Utah. After a little cyber stalking I decided on a scrappy striped pouch with this lovely neon pink and white striped fabric lining. 

So I filled it with some lovely sweet goodies that I consider typically British 

A bar of the very British Cadbury chocolate. I chose caramel as she had mentioned in her lists of likes that she liked caramel. She had also requested the turkish delight as had heard it mentioned in the lion the witch and the wardrobe books and couldn't get it in the US. 

Then as a little extra treat I added this Welsh magnet

And this 2012 olympics souvenir tin of mints

She says she loved them so I'm very happy :-) 

Sewing birthday presents

This year I tried to make as many birthday presents as I could. I made this tissue box cover for my father in law who loves liquorice allsorts. 

Sam and I made this bag together for my mum's birthday. Dod (pronounced door d) was what Sam called her when he was a toddler and for some reason it stuck so that is what he still calls her now. He chose the fabric (it was my quilt cover when I was a teenager) and chose the colour felt for the letters. He helped trace the letter templates and cut out the letters too. 

Then it was time for the sewing. I stitched around the letters then sam stitched all the straight seams himself. It is so much easier for him now that I have the new machine that works without the foot pedal and he loves to sew things. 

Sewing for myself

During the summer holidays I finally made some time to do some sewing for myself. First I made a lanyard for my keys using this lovely Amy Butler fabric that I had been saving for ages

And then I made a matching lanyard for my timer 

They are lovely and so pretty. I think I need to make more time for sewing for myself.