In The Nick Of Time...

... The quilt is finished! I am very happy with it, here it is in all its quiltyness.

I'm not sure about the jellyfish but I gave it a shot lol! I used a sheer fabric so you can see through it. I quilted around it, maybe I should have quilted over the ribbons, I'm still not sure! Here's a close-up.

I like the fish, I used a solid fabric underneath and then a sheer on top for the fins and tail. I do worry how long that sheer is going to last on there, I may have to repair it in the future.

They look good for now anyway :)

The boys are finally home tomorrow! I've been feeling really sad these last few days, missing them soooo much. I'm sure by Sunday I'll be wondering if they were ever away, but right now I just want to snuggle them so close and eat them all up!

Oh and I made a gorgeous blueberry cake with cream cheese icing to console myself :D

And The Quilt Goes On

I finished the quilt top today, hurray!

I'm happy with how it turned out, I think lol, I always have such doubts. I hope the top looks right, it's supposed to be the surface of the water with turtle silhouettes and the white bit is the sun. I'll show some close-ups when it's quilted.

I have until Saturday to finish it, which is when the boys are coming back. It's way too quiet here but they are having a lot of fun.

Happy Easter

Of course my boys are away at my In-laws this Easter, so no easter egg hunt for us this year. Although we do still have a huge bag of eggs upstairs from my family. So just in case the boys haven't had enough chocolate there is a load waiting for them to come home, if I can keep my hands off it that is *evil laugh*

My Easter Sunday has been spent mostly in bed or at the sewing machine. I have got loads of work done on the secret project. I fixed the anemone, I think it looks much better now.



I covered the top of the anemone in the sparkly fabric I'm incorporating in other parts of the quilt. This is the first time I've used textures other than cotton and so far I'm pleased with it.

I added a couple more corals, I think I've covered the bottom enough now, I will be adding a few fish later.

I have also done the main feature of the quilt, a huge leatherback turtle, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

It's not the best picture, the quilt was draped over the back of the chair, I so didn't want to drag Andy out to hold the quilt up yet again, although I'm sure he wouldn't have grumbled :)

Look at this grumpy face!



I ribbed his shell before attaching it to the quilt. This gives it the nice lines that leatherbacks have. Our printer is very poorly so I had to rely on copying images by hand and then just trying to draw it bigger, I'm pleased with it though, I think it looks good. The real test will be what George thinks, I hope he likes it!


I'm working on the top of it now, I wanted to show the surface of the water with turtle silhouettes, I'm not sure if I like how it has turned out or not, no picture yet as unless it's daylight the pictures just don't work. Hopefully I will finish the quilt top tomorrow.

Happy Easter :)

The Secret Project

Some time ago I made a special dinosaur quilt for dino boy. It was a lot of work but it was worth it to see such a happy face.

Now I'd like to make a special quilt for George too. He has always liked sea turtles (leatherbacks to be precise) so I decided to go with that as a theme. I've made a start and am going to work hard while he is away, hopefully it'll be finished by the time he gets back.

I'm going to use this turtle fabric as a border and the gorgeous batik is to make the actual turtle.

I've already done some coral but am about to rip off that anemone, it just doesn't look right. I do plan to use some different fabrics in this, to give different textures, the felt anemone however is just plain wrong lol

Have Fun But Don't Stay Away Too Long!

These two monkeys are off tomorrow to stay with Grandma & Grandad. I'm torn between looking forward to a break, knowing I'll miss them enormously and wanting them to have a great time.

I do have a secret project planned to keep me busy. I'll post more on that tomorrow.

Have fun my darlings, will miss you x

Here Comes The Sun

Gorgeous spring day yesterday, both boys collected some flowers for me in the garden. A gorgeous bunch of bluebells from George, he knows what I like :)


In my lovely dinky milk bottle from Sage. And yes that is a simply gorgeous Alessi salt and pepper set in the background there (thank you Dad & Ann x ).

Thomas took a mini jug and filled it with flowers, including a big dandelion. I love that even dandelions are pretty when you're 4 :)

Everywhere you look in the garden you'll see a white animal but I couldn't get them all in one shot, Joey is missing from this one, more from him in the future.

Quick break from the garden for 'cowboy' tea

But he couldn't be kept in for long, the sausage made it to the trampoline when I turned my back.

Cheeky monkey!

George is desperate to get up the tree by himself, the rope isn't helping much. We have some treated lengths of wood that we intend to saw into 'steps' and nail to the tree, hope the tree can handle a few nails. In the meantime, plenty of effort and lots of giggles but he's still at the bottom!

Here's to many more sunny days soon!

A Disaster So Early In My Blogging Adventure

It was supposed to be a long post about strawberry cupcakes. I took lots of pictures, like this one of me blending strawberries.

I adapted a trusted cupcake recipe, I decided to replace the milk quantity with the blended strawberry, liquid for liquid what could go wrong?

I realised something was wrong when I had to bake them for 50 mins just to get them 'set'. What I ended up with were sunken soggy cupcakes, beautiful cases though :P

I decided to ice them and brave it out. Even the icing went wrong. My imagined swirls of strawberry hued icing with crushed meringue on top, actually turned out as a blob of nasty pink icing with chunks of meringue that wouldn't stick.

They tasted like a kind of suet pudding when warm, when completely cooled they tasted like rubber.

I will try again, I love strawberries, I love cupcakes, I will make this work...

...just not anytime soon.