{derby}

well i am back at uni and settling into somewhat of a routine, a few early mornings and a couple of late nights :) a few weeks ago my parents came over to visit me and see my house and where i go to school uni! it was so fun showing them around this wee city! although i think i tired them out with all the walking :)

we went exploring to the peak district (and i got the cutest little sign from flossy teacake, seriously her shop is soo cute!) the weather was on our side (by which i mean it didn't rain and it was slightly warm, good ol' british weather!) we had a great couple of days. one of our trips brought us to bakewell, a quaint little village, which you probably guessed, is known for bakewell tarts...

but i dont like bakewell tarts, so i had a yummy gingerbread man :) it was nice just having a dander around and watching the ducks while eating our scrummy buys from the bakery!

on their last day here we had a late breakfast and then we went on a mammoth walk to walk off our big breakfast :) around darley park. a really lovely park in derby and it was a perfect way to spend the last day, although we may all have been slightly knackered after our 'lovely' walk.

and i do still sew! my mum has been asking me since june for a tablerunner! so being the queen of last minute, i pulled some fabrics the day before they arrived :) i was going for a summer into autumn feel with my fabric pull, also i used a tea-towel as my main inspiration (my love for tea-towels is going to get it's own post!) i just wanted to keep the design simple, so i with stripes in varying widths, something quick but also pretty!

and here is the finished tablerunner :) it is double sided, and i just made it with no wadding in between, also i have to say i absolutely LOVE pom-pom trim and think i will be adding it to all my projects for the foreseeable future! my mum loved it, phew! :) and it looks lovely on the kitchen table, if i do say so myself :)

I have also been reading lots, i joined the local library and re-discovered my love for reading, this was my pile of books and i have since moved on to my next pile. i love it and would welcome any book suggestion :)

last year when i moved over to derby i made myself some pretty pillowcases for my bed, well it's become a bit of a tradition, so i had to do it this year too! i was dithering over fabric so much and then i just decided to go for it and use my liberty fabric! yes, i have liberty fabric pillowcases :)

they are soo soft, and soo nice to sleep on! it felt weird cutting into the fabrics, but also good at the same time. im glad i used them and that i'm not just staring at them and stroking them occasionally haha

well that was quite a long and rambly post, so well done if you made it to the end! i'll not have to leave it as long next time!

rachael x 

{festival of quilts}

has it really been a month since i was at the festival of quilts? a lot as happened since then and i am back in derby to start my third (and final) year of uni :) so yes the festival of quilts, WOW! was it amazing! so many beautiful quilts to gaze at and so much fabric to tempt you haha. it was my first time at the festival of quilts and it was way beyond my expectations! it is just so big and i have to admit i did get lost just a little bit :)

it was soo amazing to see all the quilts, to see them in real life rather than on my screen! the quilting on the quilts was breathtaking! there were soo many to see and im quite sure i didnt see all of them. i was also so in awe of the quilts i didnt take that many pictures (i only took like 80-90 pictures!) these were just some of my favourites! and looking at them all has made me really want to try hand quilting and hand piecing, to really take time over my quilts and enjoy all of the stitches. i think that the quilting world is all going a bit fast and i want to slow down in my work :) i think my absolute favourite quilt was the white and red one above! i'm already looking forward to going next year, and of course i did just a tad of fabric buying, well it would have been rude not to!

i think i was quite restrained, dont you? i love all the fabric i bought and some have already been cut into :) it's just really nice to be able to see fabric and not just always on your screen, looking at my purchases it is quite obvious i have a thing for animal fabrics! i treated myself to two special little bundles, one from worn and washed fabrics i have seen them before and this time i just had to treat myself! they are all reclaimed fabrics, from old shirts to bed sheets, they are soo soft, i think they're going to become a cushion! and my second treat was a little bundle of printed linen from cowslip workshop. they are soo cute and i have a thing for linen :)

my favourite fabric is the swans and it has a story! while i was waiting for my lift i was scrolling through instagram and saw that one of the exhibitors had it, the show was closing soon but i ran back in and got a half meter, best decision ever, it's been used in lots of my projects so far :)

have you been to the festival of quilts? if you haven't been you really have to go! :)

rachael x

linking up with sunday stash

{a house for my sewing machine}

i have spent today recovering from an AMAZING day at the festival of quilts yesterday! and today i am going to share my most recent finish, a house for my sewing machine :)

I have had my sewing machine for 3 or 4 years and i have never covered it or had a cover for it, i know! tut, tut! so when kerri's book lovely little patchwork arrived i was soo excited! and love all the projects in it, but one project jumped out at me immediately!

{ my sewing machine with no cover :( } 

it was the adorable sewing machine cover that looks like a house! like really how cute is that?! i set about choosing my fabrics and wanted a vintage-y feel to my house! the blue is from fleet and flourish and the brown (which i think looks like a thatched roof) is a 1930's repro fabric! 

my house cover is all flower-y just how i like it! if only it was a real house :) recently in my projects i have been mainly using collections, so i found it quite difficult to choose fabrics myself not from a collection. i am really happy with my fabric choices and feel more confident in me choosing my own palettes rather than using a whole collections (but i do really love using collections in my work!)

it is a really good and easy to follow pattern! and i had such fun making it. also i got to do some raw edge applique which i haven't done in ages! i really love my little sewing machine house, it is lined with a solid pink and i added some ribbon from my ribbon drawer, to tie it on the sides. 

the pattern suggests adding fussy cuts to all the windows, but i only added one, and adorable little sloth (if you didn't know i love sloths! i even have a sloth tattoo) i love my little sloth just chilling and hanging out in the house, watching over my sewing room :) 

i will be back soon to share lots of pictures from the festival of quilts and to show you all my purchases (there was quite a few *tehe*)

rachael x

linking up with thank goodness its finished friday

{forest floor} blog tour

hello! and welcome to my stop on the forest floor blog tour! i am a big fan of bonnie christines fabrics (you can see here and here) and it was an absolute delight to work with her forest floor fabrics, the designs are just as brilliant as ever!

in all my years of sewing i have never made a dresden plate before (i know!) so while drooling over and petting these fabrics i thought a dresden plate would be perfect and now i have a new mini quilt for my new bedroom :)

i just love that bunny! she will definetly be popping up in my other projects! the illustrations in this fabric line are soo sweet, it was hard choosing just four to play with :) i also think i will making a lot more dresden plates, it was super fun to make and it's great for fussy cutting the centres!  and me being me just had to add a little something more :) hence the doily! 

i absolutely adore these fabrics! and love the woodland-y feel that they have! i have some fabric left over that i am itching to make something else with :)

thank-you bonnie! for letting me play with some forest floor fabrics. make sure to have a look at all the amazing projects being made with this fabric here! and you should see the adorable quilt jayme made yesterday at finding sweetland and to stop by tomorrow to see what Maja Wlusek at Betyipiernaty has made :)

rachael x

{a holiday to cornwall}

i just got back from a lovely week in beautiful cornwall! i've always wanted to go and im soo glad i did, i absolutely loved it! we went exploring all around and we were very lucky with the weather.

it was a long way, driving over 900 miles in a week and sitting in traffic for 2 hours on the way down and way back which is fine when your singing loudly to taylor swift (probably much to the annoyance of the other drivers.) our view waking up every morning was blue skies and the sea (i didn't realise how much i missed the sea being in derby.)

the days were spent exploring the beaches, eating ice creams and pasties! i was there for 7 days and had 6 ice creams it was great, and just my opinion but roskillys ice cream is better than kellys! as for pasties i am not a fan, that was james's thing (he even brought them back with him :) in the week we went to kennack sands my favourite beach and one that we paddled in many times! a day in falmouth (where i might have got a little burnt) was brilliant, exploring the streets and eating ice cream on the beach (we did a lot of this.) st.michaels mount was amazing, being able to walk across the path that is covered by the sea most of the day was a great experience, and while people may laugh at crocs they were the best shoes to wear the whole week, being able to paddle at a moments notice! 

being in cornwall we couldn't not have a cornish cream tea! now i am not a fan of jam but it was delicious!  and we followed it up with an ice cream (are you seeing a recurring theme here?) this was in cadgwith the cutest little fishing village and where we spent our last day after visiting the seal sanctuary, spending the morning giggling at all the funny seals! we also visited st. ives a place i definetly want to go back to! cobbled streets, fish and chips, ice cream and seagulls, perfect! my little present to me from my holiday was the cute little seagull pouch from the poppy treffry shop in st. ives, i think it is the absolute perfect momento from my trip away! it was just what i needed a nice, relaxing trip away beside the sea with lots of ice cream :) and i definetly want to go again!

rachael x 

AGF Stitched - Palisades Quilt : :

hello! and welcome to my stop on the Palisades Quilt by Fat Quarter Shop and Art Gallery Fabrics. i say this about every quilt i make, but this quilt was sooo fun to make! and came together really quickly while looking like a really complicated pattern! 

i chose boardwalk delight by Dana Willard for my fabric, because it just screams summer and bright sunny days (and it really brightens up the grey days we've been having recently) it was a joy to work with and had me smiling while i was sewing away :)

the quilt pattern is brilliant and easy to follow! and while it does look complicated it really isn't and its such a fun quilt to make! it would be a great quilt to make for a new-ish beginner! 

it makes a nice, big quilt perfect for the long summer nights on the beach (one can dream!) or for cuddling under in our uk summertime :) the quilt is a free pattern so you can make it too! you can find the pattern here 

the fat quarter shop has also put together a fun video to help you make the quilt! i really like this quilt and it would look great in all different fabrics and how the fabrics really change the look of the whole quilt!

i still need to quilt and bind this quilt and cannot wait to have it finished i *think* it might be my new favourite, and i'll have to be careful because my mum has got her eye on it too :)

you should pop over and see all the other amazing quilts (they are totally awesome) 

Tina from Emily Ann's Kloset

Amy from Diary of a Quilter

Erica from Kitchen Table Quilting

 Melissa from Happy Quilting

Rachael from The Floral Suitcase

Amanda from Jedi Craft Girl

Megan from Quilt Story

Heather from Quilt Story

Melanie from Mostly Crafty

Brooke from Silly Mama Quilts

Afton from Quilting Mod

Lucy from Charm about You

rachael x