Lilysunshine

I know, I know. I said I was going to post yesterday, but yesterday, when I went to take pictures for this blog post, the batteries of my camera were empty and I kind of forgot to put them to charge until this morning. I also said I was going to post about some knitting, but I decided not too. I’ll keep it for tomorrow. Or the day after.

Instead, I’m going to talk about my little stash enhancements that all happen in the last couple of weeks.

First, after seeing Mooncalf’s Peace jacket, I had a look at the Misty collection by Kim Hargreaves and fell in love with a couple of patterns. Unfortunately, they were using some Rowan Milk Cotton Fine which is rather expensive and much more than what I am willing to pay. I was quite sad about it. But then I thought about checking the Phildar website and I found some Phil’ Crochet, which is more or less the same gauge as the Rowan Milk Cotton Fine. And it was only €0.99 a skein. Even including shipping, it was half the price of RMCF. Score. And it’s a lovely red – dark coral shade.
Lovely Phil’ Crochet

Some of it is already being knitted up and will become an Arielle pretty soon. I’m halfway through the back. It is knitted on tiny needles (2.25 and 2.75mm), but it grows quite fast. And it is very light. I like it A LOT.

But I still really wanted some RMCF… The John Lewis sale was just about to start and I was hoping to go and find some nice yarn bargains. I left my 2 boys together for the first time (for longer than 20min) and I headed into town on a very bright and very hot Saturday morning. I didn’t find any RMCF, but I found a very good replacement in a fantastic hot pink shade. I LOVE the colour.
Rowan Siena

It is slightly brighter in reality. This is one of my favourite colours, so I was chuffed that this was on sale! 10 skeins for £23.50! It is going to be a Petal, when I’m finished with Arielle. There should be some left overs, and I’m thinking about getting some more in a contrasting colour to make a funky Tee or something. They had some bright green that was really tempting me…

I rummaged through the bins. Well, not really, I’m not the kind of person to go all crazy when the sales are on. Some people there were really into it and it was quite interesting to see. I found some lovely RMC of the DK sort in a dark sage green. Once again, this is one of my favourite colours. How lucky was I?! So I got some!
Rowan Milk Cotton DK

Don’t let the picture fool you, there are 2 packs here. £49 for 20 skeins. You’ve got to love the sales!! This usually sells for £4.90 a skein!! Yup, half price! I think I’m going to make a Peace jacket, with it. The gauge of the yarn is different so this might not work out well. I will also make an Anais with the leftovers.
(I did say at the beginning I fell in love with some of Kim’s patterns!)

That’s not all. My mother-in-law and her partner were visiting us from New Zealand and knowing how much I love knitting, she brought me 2 skeins of gorgeous kiwi yarn, from Touch yarns.
Touch 2-ply

It’s a lovely variegated fine laceweight. The colours are black, dark teal, lilac and dark purple. It is pretty yummy. And with 900m per skein, I should be able to whip up a couple of projects. I have some ideas. The yarn is a blend of kid mohair and merino. It’s not something I would usually go for (I tend to find mohair quite itchy), but it feels incredibly smooth to the touch. And I LOVE the colours. I can’t wait to see those skeins all knitted up!

Bear with me, we are almost done with this stash enhancement post. Now, this wouldn’t be complete without adding a little bit of fabrics in the lot. So here it is, fabric!
Castle Peeps by Lizzy House

3 yards in total. My husband loves castles and he’s a bit silly (nice silly – I love him), so when I saw this collection, I knew he would like it. I was right, so I ordered some! I’m going to add 2 more prints from the same collection and colourway and this will be a twin size quilt for him for this winter.

That’s all!! Pretty good, heh? (And I did do some stash busting, too. But that will be another post).

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I know it’s only been a couple of days since I blogged about my blocks for week 1, but this week, I didn’t want to be in a rush like for week 1. I know there isn’t any obligation for me to complete these blocks on time, but a few years in a business where deadlines are what you live for make an impression on you. I didn’t want to think about the blocks for week 2 the whole week, so I made them early. Ha! Enough rambling about my psychoses.

This week, I decided to cut into my Nicey Jane fat quarters. I fell in love with this range the first time I saw it, but now, I’m not that passionate about it. I still love the big flowers, the dots and the stripes. The rest, I’m not so in love about them. I still like them. So it was easier to cut into them! Hehe!
Nicey Jane bits!

It looks so fresh and Spring like. Nice!

Piecing was easy. I laid the blocks before sewing up which prevented directionality mishaps. And it all came along very easily. Hand-sewing this size of blocks is not too bad and I guess that setting up a sewing machine, etc would take as much time (since I’m a noob with sewing machines – I still want one, though).
Blocks for week 2, all sewn up

I LOVE the block on the left. Probably because it’s got my favourite fabrics in it (I need to buy some more, just in case it runs out or something). I quite like the contrast on the “plus” block, it looks quite funky.

My blocks so far

I like the different styles of fabrics and the fact that they are brought together by their colour schemes. It will be interesting to see how it will look once it’s been all put together with the sashing.

I’m feeling quite “bloggy” this week, so I’ll come back tomorrow with some knitting adventures. Toodles!

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This post is brought to you by the Little Fabric Store!
I have finally added my haul of Essential Dots and a couple of new listings with the latest bolt I’ve received: some lovely flowers from the Make Life range. Very pretty.

All of that can be found in my Ebay shop.

There are also a few hours left to participate in the giveaway over on Ravelry in the friendly UK Quilters group: the lucky winner will get a far quarter bundle of my lovely Cherish Nature range + a matching solid.

Also, as an introductory offer, I will bundle up all my lovely prints (3 fat quarters from the Cherish Nature, 2 from Make Life and 1 from Freebird) for the fantastic price of £15, shipping in the UK included (if you are not in the UK, but are interested, do let me know and I’ll come up with a similarly nice price for ya.) To get it, just leave me a comment here (do leave me an email address in the email field) and I’ll contact you shortly! :)

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I have been a follower of Amy’s blog for a long time and I have been thinking about joining one of those quilt-alongs for quite a while (even before I actually started quilting!), so when she posted about this new adventure a couple of weeks ago, I decided to join in the fun.

For this sampler quilt we are making, we were supposed to use 8 half yards of fabrics (or scraps). I went the “scraps” way, as I didn’t want to buy fabrics (it didn’t seem sensible when I’ve got yards of the stuff here at home). So, I dug into my personal stash and came up with a lovely mix of fabrics. It’s a good thing that I’m always going for the same kind of colours: lime green, pinks and lately orange (this is weird because I don’t like orange that much usually).
Fabric choices

There is a couple of fabrics in this mix I’m not too sure about – namely, the little rose buds (on the far left) and the one with the orange background. We’ll see.
From left to right there is: Rose buds by Maywood Studio, 3 fabrics from the Candy Cotton line by Clothworks, 1 FQ from the Love U for Moda, the orange-y ones are Riley Blake’s fabrics and the 5 FQ to the right are from the Nicey Jane range by Heather Bailey.

So, last week, Amy posted the first couple of blocks for week 1 and it took me until Thursday to cut into my fabrics. I had never cut for this kind of blocks (my quilting experience is very limited!), so it was a bit scary at first! But I did it and it was much easier than what I was thinking. I’ve got a few rulers now, it does make the cutting and measuring a little bit easier.
All cut!

Yesterday, as I was battling with my PC and several anti-virus, anti-malware/spyware softwares (my World of Warcraft account has been hacked into and my characters have been pillaged – it will be restored, but I’m still pretty annoyed and upset about it), I started to sew all those pieces together. I finished this morning and I’m very happy. It all lines up pretty nicely. As usual with me, it’s been handsewn (I’ve got good hopes of getting a big sewing machine next month). I’ve also eyeballed the 1/4 inch seam allowances. I checked them a few times and they were spot on!
All sewn up, my blocks for week 1

Nice, innit? I did have a mishap with the owl block, as I didn’t pay attention to the direction of the fabrics: I ended with perpendicular owls, so I had to undo and redo, but that was a minor annoyance and it could have been easily avoided if I had lied down my squares before sewing.

I’ve just noticed that Amy has posted the blocks for week 2, so I’m going to have a look at those and think about starting them pretty soon!

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This post is sponsored by the Little Fabric Store (hop over on Ebay for some fabric goodness!)

Today, I received the second part of my first big order with Moda. I had been waiting for those fabrics for over a week and I am very happy they are finally here. Now, I can’t wait for them to be out! Ha!
Moda Essential Dots

I’ve received 24 ‘samples’ of 2 x 1.10 metre. No hot pink or bubblegum (boo…), but plenty other luscious colours. I am currently in love with Lipstick (the bright red on the picture – it’s a bit washed out on the picture, in reality it’s a really intense red). It makes me want to pair it with some nice and bright red gingham and some pure white cotton for a summer quilt / picnic blanket. If it sells well and quick, it will probably be one of the first colour I reorder.
In more subdued tones, I really love Olive and Moss (greens in the first column from the left). Burgundy and Red (at the bottom of the middle column) are also quite gorgeous.

They are not yet on Ebay (I’m hoping to find some time to do that tomorrow), but if you want some dotty goodness, leave me a message here with your email and I’ll get back to you shortly.

Today, I’ve decided I would join another QAL, organised by Amy over on her blog. I’m going to use my meagre personal stash for it as I am not allowing myself to buy any fabrics for a little while: after all, I’ve got YARDS METRES of the stuff. But it’s business stuff and I’m not allowing myself to use it either. Maybe later. I will need some white though, and it feels a bit silly to buy some when I’ve got a full bolt of it!…

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