brian.

brian the sewing machine 2007-2013

well my sewing machine arrived back from london and i am afraid to say that he did not make it intact and he is no longer with us. what should have been a very happy day, very quickly turned sad, when brian of only 6 years was taken from this earth far too early. all i can say is brian you were a brilliant machine and shall be very dearly missed. 

now imagine 'i will remember you' playing quietly in the background and a montage of photos of me and my sewing machine laughing and smiling, haha.

rachael x

c the goose

well this past weekend i was at the fat quarterly retreat *insert excited squeals here* and i didn't take any pictures, not even one! bad rachael!!

it was amazing! meeting so many great bloggers and the best part all the accents, it was brilliant. actually every bit of the weekend was the best part. you know how at like a dinner party you're asked what 3 famous people you would want to meet? well i got to meet 1 of mine, the very talented katy,which i have to say was scary, she's like a proper celebrity, ahhh!! it was also great meeting all the other *celebrity* bloggers :)

i took part in the sample swap, and got like super lucky with the group i got

aren't they just lovely?! from left to right: pincushion from mary. fabric basket from sue. pezzy pouch from metro quilter and liberty pincushion from hadley!!!

i was soo excited to be in hadleys group, cause it means i got a liberty pincushion. aahhh! it's so, wow! that was another great part of the weekend, meeting hadley :)

now onto the classes 

stamp carving with tacha, which is actually harder than it looks. as you can see i made a smiley cloud, cause everyone needs a smiley cloud stamp haha

portholes with lu summers, oh she is such a hoot, i absolutely loved this class and will definetly be making lots of portholes cause really they're like almost magic, really they are! and because i have to be different i decided to make a cloud (yes i like clouds)

but it sorta turned out like a deformed flower / amoeba thingy, but i'm hoping to turn it into a raindrop and cloud quilt.

and because i just couldn't stay away from lu, i also took her hand-quilting class, cause i love all her hand-quilted quilts, they're a.m.a.z.i.n.g. my stitches are a tad wonky but that just adds to the handmade look and i'm hooked i think i'll be hand-quilting everything now :)

i also did the jammie bottoms class, but they're not finished, as soon as they are you'll be the first to know!

this is only part 1 of 2, so yaayy!! there's another post coming, but right now i'm declaring war on a moth in my bedroom...

rachael x

take your teeth out, tell me what's wrong.

it's too warm to sleep! so i'll tell you a story about my curtains :)

for ages i had pink checked curtains cause i love pink and i have a pink bedroom but they let the light and like even when it was pitch black outside, my room was never dark. i finally decided to get new curtains, black-out ones (ooohhhh) so off i went, searching and found baby blue polka dot curtains, perfect!! and they totally go with my room (which is now red, purple, white, black, pink and now blue as well) only problem is i sleep with the light on, cause yanno i'm scared of the boogey monster, you know the one that comes out and dances around your room? yea him. well anyway so i'm totally confused about my curtains, cause if i wake up in the middle of the night i just assume its daytime (because the curtains are daylight coloured) and then i'm utterly confused because i think it's daytime when in reality it's 3am and then i can't get back to sleep!

and there you have it the story of the confusing curtains :)

rachael x

linking up with random thursday

the day at the ducks...

what absolutely, positively glorious weather we are having! and while out enjoying the marvelous weather (i was sunbathing) i get ambushed by mr. frog that was obviously my cue to go and get some work done.

on saturday i just took the notion that i had to make a swoon block like right away! by sunday afternoon i had a cute little quilt.

i got to get my wooden ladder out for a wee photo shoot this afternoon :) it's the small things that make you happy :) i'm a little bit smitten with this quilt. i had tried making a swoon block once before, and well it was a disaster! but this time i used camilles craftsy class and all my points lined up, yay!

they really are massive blocks, finishing at 24 inches, i added two borders to make it the perfect quilt size. i also did my loopy quilting again, this may be my new favourite way to quilt.

i even did a pieced backing which i might start doing on all my quilts, because it's sooo pretty! well in my humble opinion haha.

i'm already planning on making a full sized swoon quilt when i'm not as busy now i just have to pick out the perfect fabric. i feel like a quilter now, for making a swoon block haha

and on a completely random note, this is what happens when you find a spider, you throw your basket of fabric out the front door while screaming loudly and hoping the spider hasn't somehow crawled onto you!

rachael x

linking up with lets get acquainted at plum and june

jellytots!

this is me! as you can see i'm rachael :) and i'm going to the fat quarterly retreat or the FQR for those people in the know haha. i think i'm going to be the baby of the group as i'm only 21 (which is like really old, i'm practically an adult, ahhh!) i come from sunny belfast and this will be my first time at the retreat annnddd the first time flying by myself, oohhh!!

i shall be wearing this fantabulous name tag made by the wonderful trudi you should seriously see the itty-bitty quilting, it's just soo totally wow!!

i'm doing the pj's class, portholes and handquilting with lucie summers and stamp carving, i'll be awestruck in every class cause it'll be like meeting celebrities!! i'm really looking forward to the pj's class, mine are going to be pink! the best colour ever :)

i'm really shy like really, really shy but i'm sure after about 10 minutes i'll be my giggly self :) (just warning you now i've been told i have quite a loud laugh and have even been known to snort haha)

oohh i'm sooo excited but as equally nervous, aahhh it'll be soo fun!!! :)

rachael x

penelope the dinosaur

another craft fair finished and i have to say i LOVED it, it really was a brilliant day!! i just love the whole craft fair experience!
this was a new market the fine and dandy market and it will be held in the crescent arts centre on the last sunday of each month. it was run by the amazing kelli, she was just fantastic and created such a lovely fair.
everyone you meet is so wonderful at craft fairs, it's not even about selling (well it is haha) but that's only half of it, it's about the other crafters that you get to talk with and to learn new stuff.
actually that's not entirely true the absolute best thing about doing a craft fair is all the items you get to buy when you're there.

pretty fabric!

first up is my absolutely, totally fan-dabby-dosey picture from Smudge Illustrations i fell in love with her work in st. georges market in belfast and i just had to commission an original, you should go and visit Ciara at st. georges to see how brilliant her work is!! i even think i'll have to buy another original  :)

and penelope the dinosaur from the lovely Pictureofgrace. now i'm 21 and don't really need a purple dinosaur but she was just too cute to not come home with me. penelope is my sewing room buddy and you'll find her wandering around all the fabric :)

i also had the nicest vanilla cupcakes from the little cupcakery ni i didn't get a picture of them because they were so delicious i just had to eat them straight away!!

i'll be back at the fine and dandy market next month too! yaaayyy!!

rachael x