{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

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

{a trip to pretty fabrics and trims}

yesterday i decided i needed a little treat, so i took myself off and went and visited the most cutest fabric shop! i drove for quite a while and only got lost a few times :) but finally i arrived at pretty fabrics and trims!

and let me tell you, this shop is adorable! and sarah and her mum are just soo lovely! and sarah was nice enough to let me take some pictures :) when you first walk in you're just greeted with the best sight- all the fabric!! it's wonderful and even more so because i haven't been fabric shopping since i came to derby! look at that rainbow, perfect!

most of the fabrics are colour co-ordinated! which makes it soo good to go to the exact colour you need and find just the 'right' fabric for your project or just because! 

look at all the colourful thread, they have every colour that you could ever need, i had to be good and stay away from them!

if you know me, you know i like (love) pink! so this was one of my favourite shelves, all the pink! 

see? so cute! there are lots of quilts dotted around the shop, and just look at that vintage picnic quilt *gasp* so pretty! it is such a lovely place full of fabric and quilt-y goodness, i think i will definetly be making another trip up (down?) there again :)

and of course i couldn't leave without a little treat! i seemed to be in a floral-y, vintage-y mood! that red floral on the bottom has been on my wish-list for quite a while! and i just decided to pick fabrics that i liked with no real plan, and i don't think these necessarily 'go' but i kinda like them altogether, i especially love the brown, it's soo hard to fond good browns these days! 

it was a really nice day out, and i really enjoyed my little fabric treat to myself! so if you're ever in the area, you must put it on your 'to visit' list!

rachael x

catch - up: summer

hello! i hope you all a had a lovely summer and spent some time sewing and enjoying the weather :) it is coming up to my favourite time of year, autumn! so before it arrives i thought i would share some snippets of what i have been up to this summer! 

{logo for yvonne} remember my little sort-of giveaway?  well yvonne at quilting jetgirl was the winner and here is the logo i made for her. she was absolutely excellent to work with (and i got a brilliant mark on my project *yay*) if you would like to read about the process yvonne wrote up a brilliant post here! after making the logo i decided my blog needed a little 'spruce up' so i re-did my header, i love that font!

{exploring} i loved getting out and about with my camera this summer and fell in love with all the flowers and gardens in the national trust parks about northern ireland, i took waayy too many pictures, that i will hopefully be using in a project soon :)

{decorating} i painted one of my bedroom walls with this patterned roller and it is AMAZING! once i figured out how to roll it the right way to make sure the animals where the right way round, it was a breeze and it's really pretty! (i got mine from doris and jeannie)

{fabric} there has been some fabric arriving to my house :) you know the fabrics that you see and you just 'have' to have them, well these are them. vintage market by tasha noel is soo adorable and has the sweetest little illustrations on them. and gooseberry! it comes out in october but i got a couple of early release charm packs, i didn't have a plan whenever i got them, but mum saw them and has requested a table-runner! 

{pretty trimmings} i have done lots and lots of trimming making half-square triangles (198 of them) in very muted colours, completely out of my comfort zone! 

{pinwheels} and all the half-square triangles turned into pinwheels, to make a quilt for a friend, instead of having it all just white i added in a couple of dotty backgrounds!

{patchwork curtains} last year we got an extension put onto the kitchen and new doors. my mum looked everywhere for new curtains, but didn't find any that just 'fit' queue me making curtains :) remember this bundle? well here is what it became, patchwork curtains

{flower-y backing} it was just like making a quilt top to make the curtains, and my mum picked out this floral-y fabric for the lining, a bit of measuring, some very long seams and they were done! i never thought i would be able to make curtains, but i am really please with them and mum loves them *yay*

{and finally} in just over a week i will be leaving home and going to university in derby to study illustration aahhhh! this has been one of my goals for a long time! i keep going between excited and scared haha but i am looking forward to it, it will be like an adventure! 

rachael x 

yellow, pink + aqua

the sun seems to have arrived and that means start a new project! it doesn't matter that i have many {many} unfinished quilts sitting in my sewing room, it should be a rule that when get it starts getting sunny you're allowed to start a new project!

i have seriously been crushing hard on the colours pink, yellow and aqua, they just go together perfectly! what started with just a couple of fabrics that i bought at the stitch and creative craft show (it's a show that happens twice a year and has lots of yummy fabrics you only ever see on the internet) turned into me diving into my fabric stash pulling all the yellows, pinks and aquas!

i didn't have a plan as to what i was going to make with them, i just knew i needed to make something! i looked through all my patterns and the one that jumped out at me was night sky by thimbleblossoms ahh perfect!

oh they're just so sweet, i am completely smitten and will be sewing away at this every moment i have! i've only made 4 blocks out of many, which is fine by me as i will never tire of this!

rachael x

linking up with wip wednesday

hattie the rabbit

do you ever make something and just fall madly in love with it? i am seriously in love with my latest finished project! 

so i'd like to introduce you to hattie the rabbit :) ooh isn't she just soo cute?! and i had soo much fun stitching her together. she is made with this pattern by alicia paulson

she is all hand-stitched, which if you know me i do not like hand-stitching at all! but hattie was worth it!

hattie loves to explore and loves playing with fabric (of course) she loves flowers and pretty dresses, she's not really girl-y but likes lots of girl-y stuff! but...

...her absolute favourite thing to do is climb trees and go on adventures, but she wishes she knew how to tie her shoe laces so she doesn't keep tripping over them on her adventures!

i used the kit to make her but instead of using the liberty fabric to make her dress and ears i used my absolute favourite print from wild and free by maureen cracknell i think i will be making many more dresses for her for all the seasons!

it wasn't one of the easier projects i've done, just because it's all hand sewn and i had to learn all the stitches (but seriously how fun is blanket stitch?) i'm glad i persevered and finished her, because she is just too cute to be left sitting in the big pile of all my other unfinished projects!

rachael x

linking up with fabric tuesday