Knitting & Stitching Show + Soft Monster Toy

I got a chance to go to the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show at Olympia over the weekend so I thought I'd share. I normally go to the show up in Alexander Palace but I was happy to go to this one too since it's not very far from where I live in London. I liked the fact that the venue was small, thus making it more manageable for a preggers lady to do in one afternoon. There weren't many quilts on display though but there were tons of venders on hand of course. 

I only had my phone camera handy so please forgive the shoddy pictures!

 (Some cute ribbon from craftyribbons.com and gorgeous Liberty lifestyle print bags at the Fabrics Galore booth.)

I did manage to actually get my act together and sign up for a workshop this time. I took a really fun Soft Monster Toy workshop so that I could bring home something for my daughter.

(That's my purple koala/monster WIP in the corner)

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I have so much fabric already that I didn't bring home much. Only a fun variegated ball of yarn (soon to be gender neutral hat for baby), some pre-cut hexagons and a super cute charm pack.

All in all, a nice afternoon out despite the pouring rain and I'm really glad that I could attend a shoe in central London :)

W.I.P. Friday

I've been off sewing for a bit lately. DH has started a new job and works longer hours now so by the time the little one is asleep I have no energy left to sew!  I think I just need some new projects to get me going again. Here's what I've been up to lately:

1. Recieved this lovely package from the Village Haberdashery. I needed some basics and a few supplies to start several holiday projects. Annie does such a nice job with her packaging!

2. I finished a fabric covered journal for a friend's birthday. I used the tutorial from Bloom and Blossom I liked the general instructions but next time, I will use my own measurements for the book as I had to adjust the measurements in the end anyway. The pink and yellow mechanical pencils aren't proper for sketching but how often do you find a perfect color match like that?

3. Yet another zippered pouch for a friend's birthday. I'm using up more and more of my precious Hello Kitty Liberty fabric!

4. I somehow signed up to have a table at Little Miss' christmas fair. Not sure what I'm going to sell yet but I always wanted the experience of having a stall at a craft fair. We'll see how this goes. Eeeks!

An Afternoon at Liberty...

The LMQG recently had a chance to sit down with Sholto Drumlanrig, designer of the new Liberty Lifestyle Fabric collection. Read all about it on the LMQG blog...

p.s. - this is my very first guest blog post so check it out :)

Embroidered Cushion...Finished!

This week, I finally had a chance to complete my Aneela Hoey embroidered cushion. Again, I used the "Girl on a Tree Swing Pattern" from Aneela's new book, "Little Stitches." I then used some of my Liberty Lifestyle Bloomsbury Gardens fabric to create a simple pieced border. 

I think it came out really sweet and it was great fun to work on!

WIP Wednesday...Embroidered Cushion

This week's task is to finish sewing up my Aneela Hoey embroidered cushion. I began the project during Aneela's class the other week. I've finally decided on what fabric to use to finish it off...my Liberty prints from the Bloomsbury Gardens collection. It will be tough to cut into but worth it as I think the colors really complement the embroidery.

Also, I found this great fuzzy mustache applique that I plan to make into a Can't Grow a Mo', Sew a Mo' block for DJ Coolbear.

Linking up with...

Festival of Quilts 2012

It's Monday and I'm recovering from a weekend of quilts and fabric. I was lucky enough to make it out to Birmingham over the weekend to visit the Festival of Quilts 2012. 

There were so many lovely quilts on display but I think I was too distracted to take many pictures of them. Other highlights included a visit to the Eternal Maker booth (my favorite), gawking at Liberty's new quilter's cottons from Fabrics Galore and seeing Tula Pink's new fabric & book at the Coats & Clark booth. 

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Oh, and here are some of my favorite purchases from the show:

Cloud 9 simpatico fat quarters, scrap bag and gorgeous zippers from The Eternal Maker.

 Liberty fabric and quilter's cotton from Fabrics Galore. The fabric on the left is called Tuesday Trees and is one of the designs by Lauren Child, author of Charlie & Lola. My daughter really likes C&L so I was even more pleased that I found it :)

Liberty 9 patch cushion kits from Alice Caroline. I'm giving a friend a sewing lesson so I thought this would be a great first project.

Did anyone else out there enjoy the festival?

Hello Kitty Baby Blanket

I finally made my very first minky baby blanket!  I've wanted to make one of these for a long time but minky fabric is very hard to come by here in the UK and it is much more expensive then it is in the US. However, when a dear friend of mine found out that she was going to have a little girl AND since she loves Hello Kitty, I just had to make one. Remember this post on Hello Kitty fabric from Liberty?

There are a ton of tutorial out there on the internet so I didn't use one specific one. I got the basic idea from reading a few and went from there. However, I did use these helpful tips on sewing with minky from delia creates and Sew Much Ado.

A few important take aways:

• Pin your fabric like crazy (I ended up pinning every 1"-1.5").
• Use a walking foot if you have one to avoid puckering (my machine is lucky enough to have one of these settings).
• Minky tends to stretch and there were a few moments when I thought I'd end up with a lumpy mess. But is also very forgiving. By the time I sewed the finishing seam all the had lumps worked themselves out.

The finished product. I know the pictures are horrible but I can often only sew at night when Little Miss is asleep! Plus my friend really liked it so I guess that's all that matters.

(hello kitty fabric is from liberty, coral minky fabric is from theeternalmaker)

Liberty Fabric + Hello Kitty = OMG

image via Liberty

My love for Liberty fabrics has now merged with my asian-girl childhood obsession with Hello Kitty via Liberty's newest collaboration with Hello Kitty.

The new collection will be available 28 September 2011 and consists of 5 different designs in 1-3 color ways: Kakurenbo, Apple Tree, Kitty Wonderland, Music Festival and Kitty Town.

I pre-ordered my fabrics today and Kitty Wonderland and Kitty Town had already sold out. I can't wait to receive my order and get started on some Hello Kitty projects for the little one!