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

pinch, punch emm second of the month

it' recap time! 2013 is over! and can i just say thank god it is! it was not a good year, but i think that's because it was an ODD number year! it was a mix of good and bad, quitting my job = bad, starting blogging and the floral suitcase = good and i just wanna say the blogg-y/quilt-y world is so wonderful :) so last year was swings and round-a-bouts.

recap time means collages! i can hear you all whooping! i know everybody says this but it really has been fun to look at my quilt-y makes from the past year, i sew-ed a lot more than i thought i had, like 11 quilts - that made me smile :)

2013 was the year i started craft fairs, boy was that fun! (that's not sarcasm, honest) as i've said before i really have learnt a lot, i'm thinking of doing a series of post for anybody thinking of doing a craft fair and want to know some more about it :)

... and i think we can all agree that it was the year of the cushion! (these aren't even all of them) cushions are a great way to get all the creative ideas bouncing around your head out in a quick, fun way and aren't as time consuming as a big quilt.

so it's a new year which means resolutions, here are a few of mine:

- blog my progress and finished quilt-y items more 

- to carry a sketchbook and doodle all my little ideas

- be more adventurous in my quilts and fabric choices

- take better photos

- learn to use photoshop and illustrator

i think that's enough to be getting on with this year, what are your resolutions? are you making any?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

and here's hoping for a great EVEN number year!

rachael x

it's friday the 13th!! and there's a fly in my bedroom

it's september which basically means it's autumn, so it's time for all the warm comfy clothes to come out, yay!! i always get the need to knit in autumn and the fact that i can't knit is completely irrelevant!! haha i decided on sunday night that i just had to knit me hat after seeing jeni's on instagram onto the computer i went, then spent ages dithering over what colour of wool to get, but finally it was ordered!! then i had to wait like an eternity (it was actually only 3 days) for the wool to arrive, i was watching the postbox with my binoculars haha. 

now i really can't knit and definitly not with circular needles!! but it only took me 3 tries to cast on and actually start my hat, eeekk it's exciting. i chose navy wool :) and i'm using the hannah pattern by luvinthemoomyhood it's actually not that hard, i think if you can quilt you can knit it's like magic.

well obviously i needed a pouch to hold my knitting, enter jeni's fab drawstring pouch pattern i made the 'project bag' size i love these pouches they are so quick and make such a cute bag.

i added a smile-y pink buuny cause i like pink and bunnies :) i also cut into the animal print from indian summer i love this fabric and soo wish i'd bought yards of it!

i also added some sketchy writing so i know that it is my knitting pouch. i'm about half way through knitting my hat (i've also ordered more wool to make more, yay!!) i'll be sure to show you a finished picture of me modelling it with my new haircut :)

rachael x

linking up with crazy mom quilts

flopsy. mopsy. cottontail and peter

: :  my new quilt (big reveal on friday!)

: : doodles

: : house cushion top

: : circus cushion top

: : spending the day playing with buttons :)

rachael x

linking up with fabric tuesday

i have a hole in my sock

i was planning on 'blogging' on something else today and then the post came!! aahh the post came :)

i always forget that in a swap you get something, does that make sense? well anyway my pillow arrived from my PTS10 swap partner and aahhh!! i'm so lucky, wanna see??

it' soo pretty!! and soo me!! thank-you, thank-you thank-you to jessica from a little gray thank- yoouuuuu :) i really love it, it's so perfect!!

just look at the itty-bitty piecing and appliqued circles and the quilting!!

this is the back of the cushion, i said i loved pink and wow is this pink, it's totally amazing, i'm so in love with the whole cushion :) :)

along with my oh-so amazing cushion jessica also sent a few wee extras, a really cool circular pot holder, it's so cool, it's circular!! and some lovely fabric which is always a bonus.

again jessica thank-you, thank-you, thank-you i completely adore my cushion :)

rachael x

p.s i was hoping this one was mine :)

heffalumps and woozles

what do you do when you've lost your seam ripper in the green sofa of doom?

you go searching for it and find bondaweb instead and completely forget about the seam ripper and just accept that it is gone forever!!

bondaweb is always fun to play with, but it first has to give me a headache trying to remember how to use it, i can't work backwards.

have you read the suitcase kid by jacqueline wilson? there was a toy rabbit called raddish in it and this was the inspiration for my cushion cover.

the border fabric is the new anna maria horner linen, its great to work with. i embroidered little clouds to add to the cuteness factor.

while the bondaweb was out i decided to make another and you can't go wrong with a 'home sweet home' cushion

sketchy applique is so fun i really like the 'primitive-ness' of it. so two more to add to the craft fair pile, which is fast approaching and i've still got loads to do, eek!!

rachael x

linking up with crazy mom quilts