I-Spy Quilt

This week I completed the i-spy quilt that I've been working on.  Friday I took it to the twins nursery & handed it over as a gift for them from Hannah & Robert.  All were pleased with it & shocked that   a) I'd made it myself &   b) that I could bare to part with it.

I hope future children at the nursery will have fun with it.

Quilt Front:

 Quilt Back:

Happy stitching :)

My First Quilt & An Exhibition

It occured to me the other day that I never did share with you my finished first ever quilt. This was a sampler quilt that I did at an evening class at a LNS at the beginning of this year. Some of the stitching is not the best but I'm really proud of this quilt. It's for my baby boy.



The other thing about this quilt is that i'm going to be entering it into an exhibition :-) It'll be the first time I've entered anything into an exhibition so I'm quite excited. I have two entries, the other one is the christmas table runner in the post below this one. Just in case anyone happens to be in the area... details of the exhibition are as follows.

Shirley Quilters Exhibition
Saturday 9th October 2010
10.00am to 4.00pm
Entrance £2.50 Programme 50p
Shirley Methodist Church, Eldon Avenue, Shirley, CR0 8SD
www.shirleyquilters.co.uk

Maybe I'll see you there.

Happy Stitching :-)

Quilt Catch Up

Another two parts of my Sampler Quilt are now finished. Both are versions of Layering & Slashing. The first is three layers with sections cut back to reveal the lower layers.
The second is a Chenille style of Layering & Slashing. An extra layer of fabric has been put into this one to make the chenille extra soft & fluffy feeling. One of my stitching lines went slightly wonky on this one & I was going to unpick it to have another go but have instead decided to leave it. This is my first quilt so maybe it'll be nice to one day look back at the imperfections.
This week I'm already making great progress on Roberts Sweet Dreams sampler. Bless him, he is feeling much better & is back to a lovely 12 hour night time sleep :-) Hopefully the coughs & colds will be over soon & Spring will finally be with us!

My Race For Life sponsorship is going well & I'm hoping to get some serious training in... just as soon as it stops snowing. Of course it does mean that I'm going to have to stitch the wonderful Lizzie*Kate design Peace, Love & A Cure... what luck... I just happen to have all the threads I need :-)

Happy Stitching everyone, Sweet Dreams update soon.

News from me.

OMG. how long has it been since I ventured into the world of Blog?? I completely missed the month of March & almost the month of April too.

Well lots has been going on. At home the bathroom has been done so thats another huge job out the way. The shop sale is finally complete so I no longer own a Needlecraft shop. The biggest news of all, we've booked our wedding (there goes the money from the sale of the shop!!!). It's very exciting & the closer it gets, the more exciting it gets :-)

My mum has started cross stitching birth samplers for the babies. Gave up on a twin one, they just don't seem to exsist. Instead I've chosen two Historical Sampler Company Birth Samplers, Animal Patchwork for Robert & Sugar & Spice Patchwork for Hannah. I shall keep you updated on their progress.

That will have to do me for now, my friend is due any minute for dinner which the bloke has just gone out to fetch :-)

Time to....

.... get a grip & stop dicking around!!!!!


The babies are now 4 & a half months old & to be honest I probably still look like I'm about 5 months pregnant (with a singleton of course as nothing could compare to the size I actually was!). It's getting beyond a joke. I have about 3 pair of trousers that I can actually wear, a hand full of tops & that's it. It's getting on my bloody nerves but I know that the only one that can do anything about it me.

I've been a person that has struggled with weight all my life & to loose the amount that I did & be as happy as larry for such a long time was a dream come true. I certainly wouldn't be without my babies (sorry that should be OUR babies) but my god did I gain some weight. It's been heart wrenching to open my wardrobe & see all the lovely clothes that I can't actually wear. I've been refusing to buy hardly anything in my new size as I just see this as temporary & if one more person says to me "it took your body 9 months to get that big so it'll take just as long to get it back to how it was".... I think I'll be looking at murder in the 1st!!!!!

Well this week sees the start of something new..... watch this space :-)

Oh yeah & in the meantime I hope you enjoyed seeing what I consider to be the greatest photo ever taken... until we get another greatest that is ;-) xx

Wow!! .........

.... look how old my babies are already ^^^^^ only 4 more days & they'll be 4 months exactly. Please someone slow things down a little bit, they're growing so fast I can hardly keep up!

Life is so busy at the moment there is no time at all for stitching or craft of any kind for that matter. A brief update, we're in the process of selling our home & buying a new one....Hoorrahh! I've sold my little KA... awwwww! I think I'll miss my little KA, it was the start of a new life & I'd had the little thing from new & now it's gone forever, lets take a moment to reflect (pause for all of 2 seconds), ok thats over... NEXT!

I decided the other day that I would make fairy cakes, what a bloody disaster that was. To start with we have already boxed up lots of the baking things, then I find (slightly too late) that I have the wrong type of margerine for baking, oh it was just one thing after another so I've given up for the time being. Although saying that it didn't stop me buying new cake tins in Lakeland :-)

Yesterday we went for a visit to DG's place down near the coast, all plans to leave home at sensible times went completely out of the window. Babies are following a routine & the majority of the time it works perfect, maybe half hour or so out but for the most part it's working a treat & yesterday was no different, unfortunately sticking to a routine is one thing but actually taking ones feed (Hannah) & bringing up ones feed (Robert) are uncontrolable so we ended up leaving home late, then arriving when it felt like half the day had gone. I was most upset on the way there that we had left so late & felt it was slightly rude on our part not to arrive a little earlier but DG was understanding & I was easily relaxed in the families company. In the end it was a shame to leave, it's the kind of calm & tranquil place that you long for to keep you out of reality... that is until both babies scream the place down!!!

It's feeding time shortly so for now I will leave you with the most wonderful images of my smiling children who continue to bring tears of joy to my eyes as I wonder at lifes miracle that is............babies :-)

Sooooo cute!

Ahhhh, some of my fav pics of the babies together!!

Potty Training Already???

No... well not actual Potty Training, more like Potter Training!!!

A couple of weeks before the babies arrived I made it my mission to get hold of the complete works of Beatrix Potter & it had to be the little white book versions rather than all them stuffed into one large book, I wanted them to be close to "original" as they could get.

When I was younger I loved the Beatrix Potter stories but never quite managed to get the entire collection of 23 (think I only managed 4!!!!). I was also lucky enough to visit "The Home Of Beatrix Potter" in the Lake District. A lovely place that is full up with everything BP, Peter Rabbit, Tom Kitten etc.

My main issue was that these books RRP at around £120, ridiculous. It was of course possible to get them through the childrens book club at some ridiculous price of £9.99 + P&P but that meant signing up to so many books a year, editors choice.. etc.. etc. Both me & DP decided that it wasn't something we wanted to commit to as we'd rather purchase our childrens books as & when we see fit rather than almost being forced to by some club. Next came the ultimate in finding anything at a pretty good price.... Ebay!!! I manged to get the complete set for £40, incl postage believe it or not... bargain.

Now that the babies are starting to spend a little more time awake after their feeds we've started on the collection & every evening during/after the last feed (last meaning before midnight) we read a BP book so now I have to run as it's around the time that the babies need relocating to the bedroom, bums changed, milk warmed & we all settle in for story time.

Tonights book is number 8 in the series - The Tale Of Jemima Puddle-Duck

Two weeks on!!!

Well our babies are just over 2 weeks old now... for those of you that didn't know, they were born happy & healthy on Sunday 11th May.
Hannah Daisy weighed in at 5lb 9oz at 22.21 & Robert Gregory weighed in at 6lb exactly at 22.22.
They are extremely cute & at the moment sleep quite a bit, feed quite a bit & fill their nappies... quite a bit. They rarely cry (for now!) & we are living it hope that they stay that way :-)

Now we can get down to the serious bit... birth samplers.. hmmm, none for twins. I shall have to put in an email to Historical Sampler Co' & see exactly how far the ladies have got with the designing of their twin sampler. In the meantime I have picked a couple of little ones from Cinnamon Cat (who else?) & their "Kitten" range. I intend these ones to be more of a door hanger for their bedrooms (when they eventually get a room each) rather than a sampler to hang on the wall.

Will keep you posted on progress of both stitching & babies!!!