{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

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

finish-a-long quarter 1

sooo i'm sure you've all heard about the finish-a-long, well this year katy over at the littlest thistle is hosting it and i've never linked up before (and i'm just sneaking in at the last minute as today is the last day to linkup), so i thought i might as well give it a whirl...

number 1 on my list:

my low volume, pink quilt, i have had this half quilted f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! and i really want to get it finished, i just need to finish quilting and bind, not that hard, right?

number 2 on my list:

when i was tidying my 'sewing room' i found this panel i cut out ages ago, to make a cushion for my brother (he's 22) and now since he is moving to england it seems like a good excuse to actually finish it!

number 3 on my list:

i started this quilt just before christmas as i wanted some 'me' sewing time, it just needs pieced, basted, quilted and bound, simples :) i really want to get this one finished, cause i have a flannel backing waiting, perfect for all the cold weather...

hmm it's a very short list, but i thought i should ease myself in gently in the first round haha, so let's see if i can complete my 3 items before april. have you linked up??

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