Finally finished my Happy Houses quilt!

I finally got on and finished the quilting on what I call my Happy Houses quilt (started over a year ago). I did stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, and ended up with quite a padded look. It's not a true quilt, as there is no middle layer - just a top sewn onto a thick fleece blanket. We love it though - it is so soft!

Christmas things

I still love my good old Sizzix Gingerbread Man cutter!

Sparkly Pink Cupcakes

And finally in my little craft-catch-up, here are some cupcakes I made for the Macmillan Charity Coffee Morning, last week.

Sock Monkies!

I recently got the urge to make a sock monkey! My daughter, Lucy and I had bought a load of cheap socks a while ago, for that purpose, and then my brother showed me one he had made, and it spurred me on!

There are a few variations on how to make them - all fairly similar, using a pair of any kind of socks. There are tonnes of tutorials on YouTube.

 I think she is rather hip!

Then last week, Harry was off school recovering from a sick bug, and he wanted to make one too...
Meet Malcolm the (slightly lumpily stuffed) Monkey:

(Harry loves him.)

Quilt Show

A couple of weekends ago, I went to a local quilt show I had found out about from a friend's mother-in-law. I took my 5 year old with me, so I thought it would just be a flying visit, but on the door they asked Harry and I to pick our favourite quilt, and enter it in a secret ballot box. Harry then took great delight in going round each and every quilt to choose his favourite (He had about 13 favourites...)

This mini quilt most appealed to me.

The show was held in an old church.

Here's the quilt which Harry finally chose as his most favourite!

Oven Gloves

Earlier in the year I went to a Cath Kidston outlet shop, and bought some fabric which matches my kitchen nicely - I started making these oven gloves ages ago, and got round to finishing them off last month. I found doing the bias binding a bit tricky, but it's OK if no-one looks at them too closely!

Time to catch up! End of School Gifts

I have dismally neglected my blog - I know, but to be honest, I've been rather pre-occupied this year, and haven't actually done much crafting. (Not that that's stopped me acquiring craft books, mind you...) I'll catch up with what I have done anyway.

At the end of the school year in July, we decided to make all the teachers and teaching assistants some pencil cookies, which idea I got from one of my new books:They turned out quite cute, but I was there on the second to last day of term wondering why on earth I hadn't picked something simpler, instead of having to ice 80-odd pencils!

Kids' Cupcakes

The boys and I had fun after school yesterday decorating cupcakes...

Some more of my cupcakes

I was doing a class with some of the 12 and 13 year old girls from my church, and we did cupcake decorating. These were my example ones.

My picnic blanket quilt

I wanted a little picnic blanket to use this summer, without too much white in it... disguise the dirt, chocolate cake, and orange juice etc...
I saw {this tutorial on YouTube} which shows how to make blocks of diagonal stripes, cut from a tube. It is so easy and quick, and there are loads of possibilities for the final design. This is my version this time round.

A new hobby!

I've had a bit of a craft clear-out, and sold some stuff on ebay, but now seem to be consumed with a mad urge to get into decorating cupcakes. I bought a few bits and bobs, and spent yesterday having a good play around... what fun!! (If the pink pattern looks familiar to any cardmakers out there, it's probably because I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder to roll my icing over!)A card I made for a friend this week, based on a lovely one I saw on Lucy's Cards blog (Link is over on the right-hand side)A very quick card made this morning for my son's friend, using the wonderful Boys Will Be Boys Cricut Cartridge. I bought it not long ago, and am impressed with the simplicity of the designs, which are very easy to cut and layer up. It also came with this font, which I wasn't expecting.
One of the kids snapped this picture, this week... Harry junk modelling at one end of the table, and the starts of my new quilt. I'll post some pictures of it next week - I'm really chuffed with how you make the blocks - it is a very fast one!And finally... something which makes me smile every time I see it... I'd sent my old university friend a knitting book for her birthday, and this thank you note came in the post, with her first creation from the book attached to the front - my new little 'comb-over-man keyring'!! I love it!

Mini Quilt

A mini quilt I made recently for a friend.

I just discovered the blanket stitch on my sewing machine (which I did round the hearts), and I love it! I really should try out some more of the different stitches on my machine.

'Club Penguin' Cushion

Tom, our 8 year old is now the proud new owner of a Club Penguin cushion, which he designed, and I made this afternoon. He drew the design, based on one of the characters from his favourite computer game site, and I copied it exactly, appliqueing on the parts.

The back of the cushion is just some old curtain fabric, made into a simple overlap opening.

Finished 'Happy Houses' quilt top

This morning I'm doing fairly well - finished painting all the woodwork in my bedroom, and finished the quilt top of my Happy Houses quilt - all those little 2'' squares finally in one piece!
They didn't fit together 100% at the corners (a couple of the rows are narrower), but considering I did no measuring at all (except for the 2'' squares in the first place), I am really pleased with how the whole thing has gone together.
If you click on the pictures, you might be able to see the hand sewing round each of the doors and windows, and little buttons for door handles and apples... I had fun! I've got some of the same red fabric for binding the quilt with, but have no idea how I'm going to actually quilt it yet. Any ideas welcome!

A couple of cards

I made this card for my husband's birthday yesterday - the kids helped me choose the words to stamp on for each letter of his name!
Letters is also the theme for the week at Wednesday Stampers Challenge.

And a very quick one made this morning for my son's 5 year old friend.