Fabrics galore...lovely, lovely fabrics...

I've had a bit of a fabric binge this weekend and the most exciting thing about it is waiting each day for delivery day and see which ones have arrived.

First up to arrive today was this little selection from M is for Make. An email pinged in on Friday evening from Kate about a 20% off weekend sale, so I quickly went for a look...well, it would have been rude not to.

Considering what an amazing selection of fabrics Kate has, I think I was pretty refrained. I actually made a conscious decision to look for fabrics that I could essentially use for my pouch linings and not be swayed by all the other beautiful Must Have fabrics in my stash. Shock, horrors, I know!

So with my focussed brain on, straight into the basket went firm favourites of Kei dots and Cloud 9's Shards from the Cut Out and Keep collection. You can never have enough dots and Kei dots are my absolute favourite. I just love Shards and Cloud 9 fabrics run out so quickly - it would be criminal to be without any of this in my stash.

Next up, a couple of Anna Marie Horner's Pastry Line Voiles. If you don't know Anna Marie Horner's Voiles, you should get acquainted. They are beautifully soft and silky, and this design has been on my wishlist for a while and perfect for pouch linings.

Another fabric line that I've had my eye on is Sara Morgans' Feedsack. They have a wonderful vintage vibe that will pair so well with so many fabrics. An essential. A staple. A must. Just gorgeous.

Last up was a little frivolity... What?? You didn't really think I could be totally focussed and unswayed by a beautiful fabric.

Another fabric in Kate's store that I have had my eye on for a while is this gorgeous Nani Iro yellow and grey dot. So while no-one was watching, I quickly slipped it into my basket, akin to a chocolate treat at the supermarket. Hey, I'm only human and let's face it, you'd have been disappointed with me if I hadn't. Wouldn't you?

I'm very very happy with all of these and have already lined a few pouches with the Pastry Line Voile and they look just perfect, so generally some very sensible business decisions.

In the meantime, I wonder which will arrive tomorrow...

How are your holidays going? We are having a grand old time and doing a bit of everything. Seeing family, seeing friends, going out on family outings, just the 5 of us, eating well, drinking well, sleeping late...

...and getting in some crafting.

I made a conscious effort last week of choosing a crafting project to do over the holidays that wouldn't keep me away from my family (I knew there was no point saying I would do NO crafting - I could NEVER have kept to that)

I'd used up what wool I had bought for the grey cushion on Day 1, so I had to think up a new plan.

I've been staring at the canvas I've been wanting to recover for the past however many weeks and have been ignoring it as I've been too busy to do anything with it. I'd had it in my mind that I'd tackle it more fervently over the holidays. The way the original idea was heading wasn't conducive to hanging out with everyone and also, the more I looked at it, the more I didn't like how it was developing.

So a quick U-turn has resulted on it going in a completely different tack...

...Hexies...lots and lots and LOTS of hexies! I still haven't decided quite how many colours are going to be incorporated and whether it will be all hexies or a mixture of some other design.

But in the meantime, I'm getting my crafting time in, I'm doing a specific project that needed addressing and what's more, I'm not missing out on hanging out with everyone.

I hope you are having as much fun this holiday and managing to tick all the boxes.

Not only are December and Christmas creeping upon us oh too quickly, we are just one sleep away from Chanukah. Chanukah fluctuates every year, as the Hebrew calendar is lunar. December 1st is the earliest it ever is and it throws me every time it is this early. We are all geared up commercially for Christmas and when Chanukah comes 24 days earlier, it's more than I can manage. We don't celebrate Christmas so you would think it wouldn't matter. But, it's there everywhere and also, obviously, my business is centred around Christmas.

So now I'm panicking. I did a big Amazon shop last night (thank goodness for Amazon) and

fortunately I got an early start with some of my handmade gifts, but I still have the Poppy Doll to do for Ruby.

All the family are coming over to us for candles, presents and dinner on Friday and whilst we normally only buy the children gifts at Chanukah, I wanted to give each of the ladies a gift - a gift FOR the ladies, but for the men to USE, obviously...

I've made each of them a pretty tea towel to match each of their kitchens. The pink one above is my Mum's. She has the prettiest palest pink kitchen.

This yellow one isn't actually for anyone, but how I could sew something and not do a yellow and grey version? It will however be in my Etsy shop, along with several others very shortly.

Can you guess who this one below is for?

I'm feeling a little more relaxed and prepared now that I have these made.

But no relaxing just yet...it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow too...and I haven't done a darn thing about that...

Thanks to all those that have posted/tweeted/emailed about book recos. I have a list of some fab new reads that is going to last me well into 2011 and beyond. And I hope you have all picked up some new titles too. Thanks for playing ;-)

Enough slacking now. It's back to business. The business of my wall-hanging.

My starting points, as you well know, where the inclusion of the Orla Blossom and a patch of my screen print. Oh and plenty of grey fabrics.

I had in my mind that I would be doing some brick piecing with the fabrics, so this week I've started doing that. I am quite conscious that I don't want this to be a quilt as such, so I have pieced the strips together with raw edges showing. I won't really know how this is going to look until I get further in. I do want these strips to be a backdrop for everything else that is going on, so nothing too dramatic there. Just lots of beautiful greys.

This was going in a whole different direction last night and then had a rapid U-turn when I caught sight of one of the cushions on my bed. Made over a year ago and still I love the Social Climber Flower appliqued on, so I bravely cut out a large section and positioned it to see how it looked. I'm quite liking the inclusion and am thinking a few smaller pieces dotted about may work too.

Still a long way from being ready to hang on the wall - particularly since I am awaiting delivery of more grey Kei dots - oh grey Kei dots, how I love thee - but it's slowly beginning to come together.

As you know we've done a lot of work on the house and are thrilled to bits with it all, but when you step into the hallway, it all looks a bit grey and bare (although seeing it here makes it look rather serene) and in need of something hanging.

So, I have a plan. I have an old canvas, an old very large canvas (it's 130 x 80cm) that I want to cover and hang there.

It's going to involve a piece of my screen printed fabric, a few of these embroidery threads...

...a section of an Ebay purchase of a matching Orla fabric piece to the wallpaper in the room next door...

...and lots of my favourite grey fabrics.

I'm going to try and be really patient (I can hear you laughing from here) and plan this design carefully and take my time with it. it's a large piece, in a prominent position, so it needs to be just right. I have lots of different ideas that I want to play around with before I actually cut into anything. But I have an idea of the one I am actually drawn to.

Watch this space.

I was pleased with the outcome of the Wedding Cushion and thank you to those that liked it too, but I think this one was borne out of the antidote to the more sophisticated feel of that. Without realising it at the time, I obviously found it quite sombre. And even before I had finished completing it into a cushion, I had already pulled out all these bright, fun dots, lining them up ready to be "log-cabined".

It could have been as a result of that, or equally a result of my sombre mood of last week. Either way I feel lifted to have been sewing this bright array of spotty dotties this morning.

It will be all cushioned up and in the shop asap. And long may the summery weather and mood continue until the distant future...

That's impressive isn't it? Only last night I was tweeting about how I needed a pattern for a Flexi Frame Purse and would you now look?

I won't tell you that I have had the afore-mentioned Flexi Frames for almost a year and been wanting to make one ever since...

Moving on...

With the help of my lovely Twitter friends last night, guiding me to all sorts of wonderful patterns, I eventually settled on this one by Pink Penguin.

I know. Mine looks nothing like Pink Penguin's gorgeous Puffy Pouch. Whilst I love that one and in time will make that too, I really wanted something simpler and smaller for all my cards and lose change.

Over the years I have used all sorts of different purses and wallets and have found I prefer something small and compact. I used to transfer all my bits into something smaller if I downsized my handbag for an evening and found I would never have the right things with me later as a consequence of not transferring them back.

This size purse works for me. Easy to move from bag to bag. And after all, how much room does a credit card take?