October 25, 2010

Craftroom Corners

I would like to show you a few of my favourite spots in my craftroom. I love little groupings of my favourite things. They help give me inspiration :o)

Here are some of the things around my large sunny window. I have birds from three of my favourite internet crafty friends. The floral birdie was made by Sonia of Cozy Memories in France, and the little pink one was made by Kajsa of Syko Designs in Finland. I have a lot of their handmade goodness around my craftroom. The beautiful felted wool bird sitting in my basket of twine (and the leaf too) was made by Lisa of Lil Fish Studios in the United States. These wonderful women are all a big inspiration to me both on and off-line :o)





In front of me while I sew I have little design sketches, favourite stamps, a most amazing tea bookmark which never gets used for that purpose made by Sonia, a sweet little needlebook made by Anne Marie of Life in Yonder in Norway. My little house tape measure is cute and useful, and even my button magnets inspire me! Little drawings by my 6 year old daughter Claire also decorate my magnet boards... little did she know that stitch 87 just happens to be a flower!





Above my fabric on the left side of the shelf, I have a collection of the books that my patterns have been published in as well as hardcopy print-outs of my PDF patterns. The house was made by Kajsa, the pear by Lisa & the linen strawberries by Sonia! A card by Kajsa decorates the right side of the shelf, as well as other random goodness. A sunny teapot and some touches of springtime ready me for the drab winter :o)





Here is the place where I sit and sketch cozied up with Kajsa's teacup pillow! On the wall between the closet door openings hangs my acorn collection. And on the shelf above my computer, a little tag from a pattern that my favourite Australian designer Lynette Anderson sent to me as a gift! The tag sits beside Sonia's moleskine that I love too much to use... I promise I will use it one day ;o)





"Things to do after I have Tea"? Hmm... I suppose I will never get anything done because I never finish drinking tea!


Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

October 19, 2010

Quilt Retreat

At the beginning of this month, I was lucky to be part of the first annual Quilter's Connection Magazine Quilt Retreat! It was held at Edenvale Retreat and Conference centre in Abbotsford. Heather, Tricia & Susan went out of their way to create a special weekend for us. Lovely gift baskets, charm packs, chocolates on the pillows, fun games, demo, and lovely quilts decorating every common room... Fantastic!




I forgot to take photos of everything... I found a chocolate sewing machine in my gift basket and I actually remembered to take a photo before I bit into it! Here is the woodsy flannel charm pack I found at my place setting, and a few shots of busy bees at work :o)







I won three cutting rulers as a prize for the first completed project from start to finish! I made this monkey quilt in about 12 hours! These small rulers are perfect for me and I even used them all that same day!







I have a few new nicknames now... "Ruler girl" because as well as the small rulers, I also won a large pineapple block ruler as a door prize at the local quilt shop. A Great Notion opened their doors to host a special wine & cheese night. I bought some lovely fabric, new on the market Shades SoftFuse fusible web, and a new rotary cutter because my small one is too small and my big one is too big (that's my excuse anyway)!






My other name is "Liberty girl". We were playing a game of charades and we had to act out quilt block names. Well mine was "New York Beauty" and all I could think of doing was stand there the whole time thrusting one arm up in the air! There were a lot of laughs :o)

I overheard a few quilt retreat repeat offenders saying that this was the best quilting retreat that they had attended. It was my first weekend retreat and I will definitely be going again next year! If you would like to join us, subscribe to Quilter's Connection Magazine e-newsletter to receive news and free patterns.

Here are a few more photos of all the lovely ladies I met at the retreat...





*All of the outdoor group shots are courtesy of Megan Jensen*

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

October 15, 2010

Mug Rugs

In September I joined an online Mug Rug swap. You may ask the same question I did, "What is a Mug Rug"? Well, it's like a quilted potholder... a special place to put your cup of tea with room for treats!




The Scrappy Mug Rug Swap was lots of fun! 125 crafters signed up and each had a different secret partner. We received a list of our partner's likes & dislikes from our swap mama and then we had to be sly & cunning to learn more about what our partner liked without letting them know!

Lots of design photos were posted, comments given, guesses and hopes as to which mug rug we would receive! Take a look at all the wonderful Mug Rugs in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap flickr group.




My partner liked linen, pink and charcoal as well as teapots and teacups! From the comments on flickr, I learnt that she liked the first design in the softer pink colourway.




She also liked the checkered button from the second colourway and adored the backing fabric which is why I decided to make a matching napkin so she could actually see it!





It travelled all the way to Rose in Australia. Rose says, "I'll be thinking of you when I have a cup of 4 o'clock tea with my napkin while admiring my mug rug safely on the wall!"

Here is the second mug rug design in the other colourway. I was really happy how this one turned out too! I worked on it at the weekend quilting retreat but left the binding for home after finding a tiny piece of the stripey fabric in my scraps. I knew it would be perfect and that I had some in my stash!





I bought these lovely Spring fabrics at Quilted Treasures in Coquitlam. I used the pretty green on the right for the backing fabric.



And last but not least...

The absolutely fabulous Mug Rugs that I received from France! Yup, not only one mug rug, but TWO!!! And teacups! What could be more perfect :o) Thank you so much Sylvie! See how they match our mugs perfectly!





Sylvie's 5 year old daughter made a special lavender house sachet for Claire. She was thrilled to receive something from across the seas and enjoyed seeing the photo of Charlotte sewing the sachet. She loves the smell and takes it to bed with her! Thank you so much:o)



Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

October 12, 2010

Paper, Pie & a Sheep

Last month I was interviewed as part of an article on Etsy for the local newspaper. Twice a week since then, I have been eagerly searching the paper looking for that tiny article with maybe a photo of me in it. I was starting to think that it may never be published until yesterday when I saw a little photo of me at the top right of the front cover announcing the feature story...



Little did I realize it would be a full page article with my photo taking half of it! I was blown away! Please read the full article HERE.

I also made some absolutely scrumptious pie! It was so fabulous that my friend licked her plate at our tea party! HAHA! I used what I had in the house: 2 nectarines, 2 fresh spartan apples, 2 clumps of concord grapes, 2 cups of frozen blackberries, the juice and rind of half a lemon, 2/3 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup flour to thicken. I use this fabulous hot water pastry recipe for my pie crusts. It's so easy and always turns out great. I think I miss pottery because I went crazy with the crust! I will definitely make this pie again!




Here is a sheep pillow I made for a friend's daughter about a year ago that I forgot to blog!! It's never too late :o)






Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)