It's Arrived!

Fabulous day, today. The Giveaway I won recently arrived in the post. I had to hot foot to the local post office as the package wouldn't fit through my letterbox.

Can't begin to tell you how pleased I was. It's feels all the more exciting because it came all the way from America. Sorry about the subterfuge with the post-it notes. Tinternet security and all that.

The contents were even better than I expected and beautifully packaged. Can't quite believe how much fabric Lisa at The Pipkin House sent me.

Think this one is my favourite, so far.

Can't wait to get started on the quilt - she has sent me the pattern, too, as well as templates for the border pieces. A very generous giveaway, I can't thank her enough.

As well as this piece of good fortune today, I like many others in this country at the moment had to fill up my car with petrol. I was down to driving on fumes. As I use the very useful http://www.petrolprices.com/ I headed to my nearest Asda. They had the cheapest petrol today. Too late! By the time I got there, they had run out of fuel and had closed. Not to worry, I went to the next one on the list, same price £1.369. A small queue, but not too bad. The petrol station nearest to Asda had bumped up their prices to £1.449 per litre \ - they didn't have a queue. Blatantly trying to rip off the consumer - hope they lose lots of customers for this outrage.

After the grocery shopping and car filling I went mad, visiting a number of local charity shops and pretty much had a bit of a spending spree.

These are my finds:-

A hand crocheted lap blanket, now repurposed as a cat bed, obviously.

A bag full of cottons - some vintage and on old wooden bobbins.

A vintage Bakelite darning mushroom. Picture doesn't really show the tortoiseshell detail - did I need - well no, but it's lovely.

A  really nice wooden rabbit puzzle box. He's missing his bobtail, but I still like him.

A man's shirt (100% cotton) - fabulous quality and perfect for quilting with and a new zip for a dress I intend to make.

A nice glass jar.

Bought with the intention of doing this-

And finally, a pair of shortened, but new gingham cotton curtains.

wow, that's a lot of stuff. I went a bit mad. The total cost of all this conspicuous consumption - £7.50 (that's about $12, Judy). Told you I like a bargain!

Busy Sunday

I'm never too happy when the clocks change. It takes me several days to adjust. So, I was up early this morning, except it wasn't, as it was an hour later than my body clock told me.
First job of the day involved jumping in the car and going to carry out cat feeding duties. Their owners are away for the weekend.

Leon was starting to wonder when  his breakfast would be served.
I've also seriously tackled the quilt I'm making for a friend. All blocks now done and top part way put together. I really want to finish it this week. Then I can get onto a couple of other things that are almost finished. I'm a bit wary of posting pics just yet, as I'm a novice I'm aware it's not perfect.

Yesterday saw me making some good finds in a Congleton charity shop., including this vintage cushion cover.

There's only a small piece of usable fabric, but the combination of dogs, kittens and knitting will be perfect to add to a future project and it only cost 75p. That's just over a dollar, if you're reading this in the US.

Picture Round Up

Just catching up on the photos I haven't uploaded previously due to gremlins in my data cable - now sorted, thankfully.

Homemade cat bed and slightly angry looking cat, Violet installed on it minutes after finishing.

Teetering piles of fabric, acquired in a matter of weeks!

My current favourite fabric. Now what to do with it?

Another Next cushion that I fancy copying. So many projects, so little time.

I Won!

Can't quite believe it, but I won a Giveaway. I'm so pleased. I'm not usually lucky like this.
This is what I've won.

                                                 From Lisa at The Pipkin House.

She posted details of the win yesterday.Will be waiting anxiously for the post man! This is definately going to be my next project, but I have one quilt that must be finished this week.
Also had another piece of luck by way of my local Freegle group. Someone living locally offered a collection of quilting magazines. I asked, she said yes and a couple of text messages later they were mine. All in excellent condition, some quite recent and some a few years old. Think I'll have to limit myself to one a day or life will come to a standstill.
All in all that makes for a good weekend.

Free Shopping

No, this isn't a quilt I've made. I had to go shopping anyway, so incorporated a little bit of window shopping into my trip. Is it still window shopping if you go in side store? In Next they had a number of bedding displays which included a quilted throw. The picture above is one of them. It was nice, but could I be persuaded, ever to part with £100 for it - I don't think so. Also, in my (not very experienced) opinion it wasn't finished that well.

There was a point to my trip, though. There were lots of lovely cushions on display. Some very nice designs. Did I buy? Of course not - I took sneaky photos with a view to making them myself.

I really liked this one. Its natural linen with appliqued letters and the 'O' replace with buttons in a heart shape. I have a piece of vintage linen, buttons, a cushion pad, etc. Wouldn't cost me £16 to make.

Then a quick visit to my local fabric shop, a very inexpensive purchase and I have new projects to think about.

Still haven't resolved the problem with uploading photos, but I have almost finished the top for a quilt that is due to go to my friend. Will post evidence soon.

More Quilty Giveaways to Enter!

There are some fabulous quilting blogs out there and I enjoy them all most as much as I do spending time at my sewing machine. Loads of interesting ideas and inspiration.
I find they're also a generous lot as well, so this week has seen a plethora of quilting related giveaways. I'm not usually a lucky person, but nothing ventured, etc.
Anyway below are a few links to some great reading material and the bonus of a chance of winning. What's stopping you?

Over at The Pipkin House, Lisa is offering these lovely hand cut diamonds.

http://pipkinhouse.blogspot.com/

Whilst Susan has put together this delicious looking Easter basket filled with FQ's. Ten of them, no less!

http://blackberrycreek.typepad.com/

Judy at Green Quilts has a couple of giveaways, including these very spring like fabrics - 4 yards in total.

http://greenquilts.blogspot.com/2012/03/giveaway.html

Good luck to all that enter. Think I may have to come up with one myself in the very near future.

Mrs Thrifty

Mrs Thrifty over at New Beginnings is having a birthday giveaway. Become a follower to be in with a chance to win.
http://craftthriftandlove.blogspot.com/

Stash and Grab

Today has been a reasonably productive day. Amongst other things, I managed to make a decent start on the latest required reading for book club. It's this one.

Over 800 pages to go. Looks like I'll be forgoing telly watching for the rest of the month.
I've also gathered together all (almost) my fabric. For someone who only resumed sewing as a hobby a few months ago, after decades of not doing any, I seem to have amassed an enormous stash.
As I have acquired it by various means -
Recycled and thrifted, pillow cases and duvet covers being my favourite, especially if new
Upcyled clothes in nice bright colours
A job lot from a CS for £10 - lots and lots of fabric here and all I did was ask, think it was someone else's stash passed onto CS by her relatives
Remnants from fabric stores
Bought and paid for, full price, metres and FQ's (not many of these)
This means I can't quite work out the amount of fabric I have, but a guesstimate would be about 25 metres - is that too much? Should I stop buying now?

No, that's not mine. I've borrowed the pic as something to aspire to. My fabric  is folded into random sizes and is three tottering piles.
I also made not one, but two cat beds. One to keep, one to give away. Cost was virtually nothing as the plush fabric on the top came from a piece in a bundle of remnants I bought at Abakhan in Chester last week. The whole bundle (6 fabrics, good size pieces) cost 60p - that's less than a dollar for the non-sterling readers. Yes, really. Add to that a thrifted white pillow cases for the backs and and the wadding from a cot bumper (I'd already used the outside fabric for a baby quilt) and the cost was still pennies.
I did take some pics of today's progress, but gremlins have got into my data cable, so I can't upload my photos. Will update at a later time.
Many thanks and welcome to my new followers, Diane and Judy.