gone campin'...

This weekend i'm away camping with 50! cubs!! it's going to be a noisy weekend, but oh so much fun. we were told not to bring a pillow, but me being the rule-breaker i am just had to bring a pillow, enter the caravan pillow (get it? caravan, camping, clever huh?) it is massive finishing at 27 inches. it won't be getting slept on, the cubs and young leaders have already decided to do all nighters haha. so here's to a noisy weekend and is it bad that i'm sort of hoping for rain :)

rachael x

p.s my brother saw this and asked why i made a big poke-ball *sigh* boys! but i do have to agree with him now that he has said it!

linking up with crazy mom quilts

p.p.s pattern by bee in bonnet

up in the sky - bloggers quilt festival

this is my first time entering the bloggers quilt festival over at amys creative side! there are soo many amazing quilts linked up, you should go and check them out!

the quilt i am linking up is my 'up in the sky' quilt (which i started almost a year ago!) are you ready for lots of pictures?!

i fell in love with the low volume look and jumped on the bandwagon after seeing rita @ red pepper quilts, low volume quilts. i wanted to keep it simple and went with 5inch square patchwork. i used one of westwood acres amazing low volume fabric bundles and added in my favourite pink fabrics, including a much hoarded square of heather ross fabric!

i have to say when i had finished piecing the top i fell a little out of love with it, and it sat and sat for months being neglected, then one random day i decided to baste it with this backing fabric and start quilting 1/4" on each side of the seam, it was all going well, then i got distracted by other pretty projects and it got neglected again!

after months of it staring at me i decided this week to finally finish it! and i decided to have some fun with the thread, there are 4 different colours used, variegated red, pink, sea foam blue and navy (all aurifil of course)

and ta-dah! here it is in all its (i should stop referring to it as 'it') glory

i have now fallen back in love with my pink quilt! and will be bringing it to cub camp with me next weekend! i bound it with a navy joel dewberry print, even though i was told it would't work, but then i like things that don't necessarily work.

i love this little bunny print and wish i knew what it was. the finished size is 61"x70" the perfect size for snuggling under.

so that is the story of my 'up in the sky' quilt, my longest ever work in progress, but i'm soo glad i finished it!

rachael x 

sew mama sew giveaway winner!

thank-you! to everyone that entered my little giveaway and thank-you to all my new followers! and now i have lots of new movies to watch, yay!

so the winner of the retro butterfly mini quilt is...

number 67! who is vicki h

well done! i'll send you an email in a mo! and get your prize in the post to you this week! again a big THANK-YOU to everyone that entered.

rachael x

four flutterbys flying

i didn't have my foot this past week, which meant no sewing. i am taking judiths amazing retro butterflies class and luckily there was just a little bit of trimming to do, so the past week was spent trimming a gazillion drunkards paths, yay! i got my foot back just in time for class and all that trimming meant i could sew some blocks together.

i now have four pretty, fluttery butterflies finished! and wow were they a struggle to get to this stage, me and my seam ripper are super best friends now! only because i didn't read the instructions and merrily sewed away with a 1/4" seam instead of a 3/8" seam, even after i found out i had to use a 3/8" seam i didn't move my needle over enough and had to get the seam ripper out again!

even with all the seam ripping and perhaps just a few naughty words, i love how the blocks turned out! i am using all my bonnie and camille fabric from most of their past collections, it's been fun mixing them all together! i don't really have a plan for this quilt, i keep going between colour blocking and scrappy, so i guess it's going to be a mixture of both!

oh and we had a visitor today, meet storm he is just a big gentle giant and oh so fluffy! and as you can see everybody that comes to the house leaves with thread on them!

rachael x


p.s thanks for all the entries on my giveaway post and for telling me your favourite movies, i now have a very long list of movies to watch and i can't wait!

sew mama sew giveaway day! *giveaway closed*

hello! and welcome to my little blog, feel free to have a look around!
it's sew mama sew giveaway day! yay! and today i'm giving away a dreamin' vintage, retro butterfly mini quilt

it really is mini, it measures 13.5 inches. it is quilted with a circular flower (because it's a butterfly and butterflies like flowers)

a little pieced back! and look it even has corners so it is able to hang up on your wall :)

ok enough pretty pictures you came here for the giveaway not to hear me talk :)

how to enter!
to enter just leave me a comment telling if you have a favourite movie and what it is! followers (old and new) leave another comment and get a second entry :)*

if you are a no reply blogger make sure to leave your email address. giveaway will close on friday 16th. the winner will be picked by mr. random! (open worldwide)

good luck x

small projects

i'm working on a few 'big' projects at the minute, which means no finishes, so yesterday when the postman loudly rang the bell outside and woke me up from my lovely sleep to deliver my bundle of dreamin' vintage by jeni baker, i knew exactly what i wanted to make! a nice, small project.

is this not just the most best-est fabric you've ever seen? i think this may be my favourite fabric line, and you will be seeing it in a lot of projects! there is not one print which i don't love! 

anyhoo onto the project. i have this shelf in the toyroom sewing room just above my cutting table and basically everything gets put up there, scraps of fabric, receipts, pins, letters, envelopes, really anything that is sitting around, it goes on the shelf. 

see! isn't it just so messy and icky looking? i obviously had to fix that and make it all pretty and quilty, enter my bundle of fabric and some linen and ta-dah!

pretty boxes to hold all the messy 'things' that were on the shelf, they're still messy inside but on the outside its pretty and tidy, yay! they measure just under 8inches and are really roomy to hold all my crap stuff.

i choose 4 different designs so as not to make them all the same, but still be co-ordinating. first up just big squares and some stippling, a combo that can never go wrong in my opinion

a star block, which i think i may have to make a quilt from. i think the background fabric is a really good basic to have and goes with so many fabrics.

this one is my favourite! and would not have been made without the maths whizz that is judith after many, many hours trying to figure out to make a 8inch log cabin, i put a request out on IG for help, and judith came to the rescue, thank-you!!!

and lastly small patchwork and 1/4inch quilting on each side of the seam, another combo that you just cannot go wrong with.

i think that one of the best parts of being able to sew/quilt is to be able to create something useful that fulfils a purpose, while also being pretty at the same time. small projects are so great because they're quick and you get the satisfaction of a finish, win win!

would anybody like a tutorial to make your own pretty, fabric boxes?

rachael x

linking up with crazy mom quilts