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 

the sunday night feeling

last week was one of those weeks, the type where you just want to switch your clock off and hide and that is exactly what i did. the whole week had the 'sunday night feeling' and was all just 'blah!' i took the week off school college, because to be honest i just couldn't face it! sooo i sewed, i couldn't settle on one thing so i just sewed 'ideas' and listened to this

i went through my scrap bag and just started pulling out random fabrics, cut them into 2.5inch squares, sewed them up to become mini patchwork, which then became...

sweet dreams sleeping teddy, i don't know if i love him but i think he looks cute all snuggled up in his little patchwork quilt! after making him i thought he needed a 'matching' cushion so introducing...

mr. teddy in blue and white striped pyjamas along with his teddy bear! can you tell that 'sleep' was on my mind? i think they are really cute as a pair and they are available in my etsy shop

after the cushions i wanted something a bit different, something that involved maths and really hard thinking, enter the fabric box

now i know there are lots and lots and lotttss of tutorials and patterns out there for fabric boxes but i wanted to come up with my own pattern/way of doing it, i will say it involved many prototypes and even more tears, but i am so so happy with the result and so happy that i did it by myself :)

also last week a lovely customer asked if i could make her some cushions and one of my quilts, i love cushions! so of course i couldn't say no, want to see?

it is absolutely delightful to work with voile, it is just soo soft, i finished the cushions of with some perle cotton hand quilting, i think we might need a pair for our house!

oh i also indulged in a little bit of fabric purchasing in the #greatukfabricdestash on instagram (boy! was that fun!) and i got a cotton blossom jelly roll by bonnie and camille, i am beyond excited!!

heres to a good week!

rachael x

my sewing room

just after christmas i was sitting wondering what to do and then it came to me re-decorate the toy-room (the sewing room) good idea, huh?

so i started stripping the wallpaper (tee-hee) and moving all my fabric and sew-y stuff to get ready for painting - heads up! get ready for a picture heavy post, but sure everyone loves pictures!!

this is what i found when all the wallpaper came off, it's 24/2/1928 and it says "papered by jack morgan painter and decorator 'something i can't read' connswater belfast"

an in progress shot, this is how i rang in the new year, i really know how to party hard!! i love the aqua colour

here is the only before picture i have, the room went from being blue to a slightly different colour of blue, are you ready to see the transformation? i'll give you a guided tour around it.

this is the scene you first see when you walk into the room, yes you are greeted by a big roll of waddling, the perfect greeting.

next the ironing board (which desperately needs a new cover) and  my pretty picture wall, it'll be fun to iron now and be able to look at the pictures, which i'm sure i'll add to.

the little quilt-y corner, yes i finally sewed the binding on my little improv mini, this is also the think-y corner, see that roll of paper on the wall? thats's for all my great ideas (haha)

i got rid of the green sofa, i loved it but it was just an excuse for me to messily throw my wip's, unfolded fabric, basically everything, it became like the sofa of doom. a quick trip to ikea quickly fixed that and voila! little cubby holes and boxes to cleverly disguise all the messy fabric and wip's

now i have somewhere to display my baskets of wool, which i will use...someday

the fabric closet also got a little clear-out and tidy, now who knows if it will stay like this i'm guessing no, but i'm gonna try and keep it like this.

my most favourite-est shelf.

i knew that in my 'new' room that i wanted somewhere to be able to take pictures, so this is my picture wall for all my photos for etsy and the blog. that chair will eventually be covered to make it pretty and not like something from the olden day, you know, like the 70's

the swing table! this would be probably be the best part of the decorating, another trip to ikea and i now have a big table, i have to say it is quite a luxury, before my sewing machine sat on my cutting mat, so i had to lift it off to cut and then lift it back up to sew, i know such an inconvenience haha i also added some more cubby holes, em because i lot of crap stuff.

a close-up of my pictures, each month at the fine and dandy market i would treat myself to a picture from one of the many talented exhibitors! you should really go and see for yourselves.

the whole room, with an absolutely delightful view of not one, but two sheds! but that's a good thing because then no-one can come and look through the window at me dancing em i mean sewing... now the only thing is to go and sew in it! except i have no inclination to sew anything, go figure haha

i hope i haven't bored you too much with all my pictures, well done if you made it to the end, it was a reallllly long post :)

rachael x

i finally found my headphones.

it's seriously been like forever since i blogged, lets just say it was my mourning time for brian haha.

anyhoo lets see what i've been upto:

i became a student :) starting september i'll be going back to school and i can honestly say i am beyond excited!! oh and yes i'm not looking at the camera in my picture and it kinda makes me look crossed eyed haha.

there has just been a little bit of fabric shopping, i finally got some briar rose and linen, which i already have some plans for :) oh and i got katy's blogger bundle, i seriously love this bundle and have had dreams about it haha i cannot wait to cut it up.

i've also done a bit of sewing, my new machine was meant to arrive ages ago, but it didn't (it came yesterday *yay*) so the shop very kindly let me borrow theres until mine arrived.

i made a set of placemats for a commission. i love that they're soo bright! the fabric is terrain by kate spain, i had a fat quarter bundle of it from ages ago and finally used it!

now you all know i love cows, right? you don't? well i LOVE cows i think they are just like the cutest animal, so of course i had to put one on a cushion. now i have to say i think she looks more like a duck, but i still like her :)

and finally

picture from google images

i discovered garth brooks music! ahh you can't beat a little bit of country music haha

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