Sunday Stash

I'm linking up to Sunday Stash today.  I went on a bit of a rabbit fabric rampage... not sure what came over me but several hours of perusing the ranges of bunny fabrics in most UK online shops lead me to this:

I'm so glad I got my hands on that Dress Up fabric... maybe I should have bought more...  The central one - the blue, comes in several different colours but I couldn't find it anywhere that had other bunny fabrics, I was trying to keep the shipping cost down.

Here is what they all are: 

The Eternal Maker

1 -	Lily Ashbury Folklore Otomi in Cloud Pumpkin (11480 11)
2 -	Kate Spain Daydreams Arcadia in Ink on White (27170 24)
3 -	Abi Hall ABC Menagerie Tossed Animals in Sunshine (39521 13)

Plush Addict
   4 - Michael Miller - Foxtrot Citron
  5 - Michael Miller - Bunny Scallop Pink
  6 - Michael Miller - Rabbit Repeat Aqua
  7 - Michael Miller - Rabbit Repeat Coral
  8 - Michael Miller - Bunny Stripe Blue
  9 - Moda - Folklore Otomi Peackock Floral Turquoise
  10 - Dear Stella - Wild Dress Me White
  11 - Michael Miller - Camp Out Yellow

yummy yummy colours

Looking for the A Time To Stitch blog hop?  Go here

I've been buying fabric again...  The top 4 were necessary.  They are 1m and 2m pieces of Klona cotton from Backstitch for my Bluebird Park quilt.

The FQ bundle is for my Mackintosh Stained Glass hanging.  I didn't read the fabric requirements so bought this FQ bundle.  Yeah, I just need a couple of scraps for the project!  No matter, my solids stash is pitiful so this will help.  And it looks so pretty...

shopping handmade, and, erm, bunny fabric

I had the day off work yesterday.  I went to get my hair cut and on getting home I went out to see my bunnies.  Would you believe, someone (and I suspect it must be one of the reprobates living in the house next door) had dumped a whole pile of dog poo over the wall into my garden??  It was in a pile next to Colin and Ellis and swarming with flies.  I am absolutely furious with the disgusting b%^&*ds.

Anyway, I think you all know that I love bunnies?  So anyone that also know's Mia's work would probably guess that I'd love it.  And I do.  I have ordered from Mia before and when she brought out these sweet little needlefelted bunny brooches in a little bunny shopping bag, I couldn't resist!  As I'm a return customer, she also generously threw in a snowdrop magnet.  How cute?

I went shopping again.  I've lost the little note I wrote telling me what these fabrics are and where they're from.  I think they're from Celtic Fusion, but don't quote me.  Top left in Anita Hooey's Posy, bunnies in lilac.  Top right is Lily and Will but the other one is a bit of a mystery.

Then my Village Stash Society bundle turned up.  Orange!!  Yay!  Clearly Annie was reading me moaning about the lack of orange in my stash (or rather it's coincidence as the colours were decided from the beginning!).  Now I'm lacking purples...

The bank manager is really mad at me now, so this month will bring a bit of Littlest, a new FMQ foot and that is it!

Update: A wonderful bloggy friend sent me some more bunny fabrics yesterday!  I will post about them very soon.

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where it all began
a present
more bunny fabric

Yep you guessed it, more bunnies

I spent 3 hours looking online for bunny fabric.  Some I purchased, most I just bookmarked as unfortunately I don't have an unlimited budget!  I just have to hope they're not gone next week when I come to buy them!

The first three FQs are called Lucky and I bought them from a Thai seller on Ebay.  Wondering why they fit the bill?

See the bunnies dressed as Matroyshkas?  How adorable is that.  If anyone is collecting fabrics with mice dressed as Russian dolls, give me a shout and I'll send you some scraps!

Ange answered my plea for more bunnies, more bunnies, more, more more!  She told me where I could find some of the difficult to find Posy by Anita Hooey fabrics.  I ordered them in pink and lilac from The Brighton Sewing Centre, my first time as a customer of this shop.  Definitely not the last though.  I ordered on the Thursday, on the Friday I got a refund via Paypal and a note saying they'd run out of lilac bunnies and had sent me a refund and a free FQ.  I must have skimmed it as I didn't notice the bit about the free FQ but, the very next day my order turned up and had a free FQ, what amazing service is that?  I also bought another FQ of Enchanted in green as I noticed I was lacking green, and this Wildwood print. 

Tucked into the bundle were a couple of scraps.  One of them featured this little bunny, bottom right of the photo above!  I wonder if they noticed I was going after bunnies, or it was a coincidence?  It was gratefully received, though I now have to identify and find that fabric in all colour-ways possible!

So this is where I am right now.  20 FQs and one scrap.  A lot of blue.  I definitely need some purple and lilac, more shades of green, more red, orange and pink and some yellow.  Not much then!  I've started a Pinterest board... my bank manager is going to kill me.

I've also been the lucky winner of a few giveaways recently...

First up, I won a giveaway hosted by Vera of Negligent Style.  She sent me this gorgeous 1/2 yard of fabric along with the cute little quilt block card:

I won another giveaway at 1/4 incher, Stephanie sent me a charm pack courtesy of the Fat Quarter Shop, I chose Simply Style:

During the Grow Your Blog blog hop, I won a handmade necklace from Dawn at Sadie Jewelry Design:

And last, but certainly not least, Susan of Canadian Abroad sent me this sweet little gnome pincushion.

Thanks ladies!



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where it all began
a present
more bunny fabric

more bunny fabric

I am definitely going to make a bunny quilt.  I haven't chosen a pattern yet, I'm still in mad fabric buying stage!  These little babies joined my stash last week.

The blue one is Ric Rac Rabbits, the white is another print of Enchant and the red is Ric Rac rabbits again, all from Hulu. The teal is another colour way of Critter Patch from a seller on Ebay.

So having a look at the full line up...  From left top, going down in columns:

Red ric rac rabbits
Pink unknown
Orange Forest Playground
Cream Just for Fun
White Enchant
White/red/black unknown
Cream Just for Fun from Celynn
White Enchant tea party
Blue Just for Fun
Blue Lily and Will
Blue Ric Rac Rabbits
Teal Critter Patch
Grey Critter Patch
Aqua Enchant Tea Party
I also have 2 Bluebird Park prints which aren't show - Orange on Teal and Yellow on Grey.

This is going to be a rainbow quilt, by necessity.  The plan is to build up the stash more and think about a pattern.  I clearly need more red, and yellow fabrics.  I'm doing OK for white and blue.  Green needs some serious effort and I need to find some purple too.

So my lovely readers, you're all on bunny watch!  Please keep an eye out and let me know if you come across any.  My lovely US reader (or anyone) can let me know when lines come out so I can put them on my radar.  UK readers, I'd love it if you let me know if you spot any I'm missing on your shopping trips around t'internet.  Ange - I have bought some Posy as suggested!

When I've got a few more, I might need to think about Ebay and Etsy for older lines (though it's pricey) and even Spoonflower, but I'm going for the current and mainstream first.  If anyone did want to send me any bunny scraps, I might be able to offer you something in return...


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where it all began
a present

the building of the stash

I've noticed a lot of bloggers are on a fabric diet.  This worries me as the economy is still fragile and only just entering recovery.  I had to do something about it.  But what could I do?  Well buy fabric of course, all the fabric!

I LOVE Bluebird Park and had to have the bunny fabric.  I had a good look around and found that the shop with the most prints that I wanted was Hulu.  I have no firm idea what I'll do with these, but the background prints and the bunny prints are 1/2 metres so I was thinking about a quilt.  I bought a charm pack in the end after putting a layer cake in my basket 3 times and taking it out 3 times.  (After this arrived, I realised I'd already bought an FQ of the first two prints!)

With the money I'd saved on the layer cake, I bought a couple of mini charm packs by my favourite designers and a piece of this Happy Go Lucky fabric.  I'm planning another splash mat for the kitchen.

I'm all for helping the global economy, not just the UK economy, so during the Great Fabric Destash on Instagram I nabbled these prints and promptly forgot what they were.  I missed the UK Destash due to being forgetful...  Probably for the best.

The green bundle for The Village Haberdashery Stash Society also turned up.  Yummy greens!

These FQs came from a new-to-me shop, Plush Addicts.  It's all Di's fault.  I saw the bunny tea party fabric on her blog and had to go and find some and buy it.  It's called Enchant.  In the same shop I bought another two bunny prints from the Just For Fun line from Makower (it seems to be called something else in other shops) and one print which includes a bunny from Forest Playground.  The Henry Glass teapot fabric fell into my basket.  

I decided to see what other bunny prints I have.  The answer is not many.  These are the FQs I dug out, and of course there are the two BlueBird Park ones.  I think I might have a few scraps from a Lilly and Will layer cake too...  I need more bunny prints, I need a bunny quilt.  Will you tell me if there are any more that are out or if more do come out?  I need them.  NEED, not want. 

The UK economy will thank you.

Harrogate stash

On Friday and Saturday me and my wonderful mum went to the Knitting and Stitching show at Harrogate.  We stay overnight to make it all a bit more leisurely.  It's a good job we do as the place is rammed!  I thought you might like to see my goodies?

Yarn for a pair of fingerless mittens I want to make

Wool roving and fancy threads for a little felt picture I have in mind.

A goldwork kit that's actually a copper work kit and is done on canvas.

Me and mum went halves on this one. This is proper goldwork, but in silver if that makes sense!  We got two patterns and the materials needed to make them both.

They come with leather, and silver threads and metal threads...

And all kinds of other threads that I've forgotten about!  We watched a lady doing a demo and it really didn't seem as hard as I've always thought it would be, so I'm going to take the plunge!

This little fella is a magnetic needle minder.  I couldn't leave him behind!

I didn't intend to buy any fabrics, but at £2 a FQ I couldn't resist.  The car one is to make a crayon roll for my nephew.  The other two are just because.

These were £5 for three and I think they'd look lovely with a bit of embroidery, I have something in mind! In the background is a metre of brown corduroy which is for a bag I'm planning.

I bought this pattern and a roll of fusible binding tape to try the stained glass technique.  I wanted to try this and as the pattern is Rennie Mackintosh, how could I resist?

And how could I resist this bunny who has a little bunny in her garland!  I found the perfect FQ of white fleece on the stall opposite so it was clearly meant to be.

I bought a couple of beadweaving kits.  They're beginners kits but I love the designs and the prices were too good to pass up.

This is my jewellery making stash.  Some of it was from Harrogate but most came from the Bead Show that me and mum went to on Sunday... it was a craftstashalicious weekend!

I bet you all think I'm crazy.  I've got a list of WIPs and kits as long as an orangutan's arm, but I'm adding to it.  Ah well!

A frog in my kitchen...

Well there was a frog in my kitchen.  Gave me the fright of my life.  I actually screamed.  I was home alone as Mr CA was on site.  I'd been out to feed the bunnies, came back in, cooked some pasta, ate it, watched Saving Hope for a bit... went back in the kitchen and saw him!

See him*?  He's in the corner by the dirty unpainted door, next to the massive bag of hay to the right of the tea-towels serving as a doormat since the kitchen fitter decided I didn't want my doormat any more and threw it away.  So I screamed, grabbed my phone for a picture and tried to get him out.  He didn't want to go.  I poked him with a long piece of extrusion left over from the kitchen fit (no idea what it's for, but it works well as a frog-poking tool).  He jumped and I screamed again.  I really am such a wuss.  Took me about 10 minutes to get him out.

Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that's a sneak peek of the new kitchen... want another?

It'll be a few more weeks before I show you in full - clearly we've not painted, we need to wait for some pipes to be boxed in and another cupboard added first.  And I really must clean the window.

On to crafty stuff, though nothing made by me.  I treated myself.

This cute little bunny brooch is by www.emmiemckee.com, I love the brooch and her customer service is ace.  Go and buy something from her Etsy shop.

I've also had another giveaway win!  Jennifer at Knotted Thread was giving away a copy of the quilt pattern Hemispheres by Megan of City Stitches, The pattern is available for purchase as a PDF on Aria Lane.  It hasn't arrived yet but I'm looking forward to it.  I know I'm not much of a quilter, but I've been quilting all day today!


*I have no idea if it really was male.  I didn't turn it over to look at its "bits".  I also have no idea what either a male or female frog's bits look like.

Treating myself

Last week I was browsing through some blogs and I followed a link which took me to a Flickr stream of a polymer clay artist.  Her work was stunning so I followed the link to her shop.  I fell in love with a brooch.  I clicked away.  10 minutes later, I found myself back at the listing.  I tried to think who I could buy it for but it was my style more than anyone's.  The price was just £10.  I clicked away.  I found myself back there again and this time, I clicked "buy".  What made me hesitate?  It wasn't the price, it's was excellent value.  It wasn't the quality, the brooch showed serious skill and workmanship.  So what?

The fact it was for me.  Not for a practical purpose, not for a specific occasion   Just a little treat for me.  That was my stumbling block.  I see handmade as luxury and why should I buy myself luxuries?  I pondered on this the day I received the brooch.  It was even more stunning close up and so well made.  I love it and it brings me pleasure to look at it, so why the hesitation?

I wouldn't hesitate to spend £10 on a luxury gift for a friend.  I treat myself to Costa coffee and cake which isn't cheap.  I'd buy myself perfume because I "need" it.  So why did I have to convince myself to buy this brooch?

I decided to write about this today as I want to show you the brooch in question, but I also would like some feedback.  Do you buy yourself little treats, little luxuries?  If so, are they handmade?  Would you have hesitated to buy yourself a £10 handmade treat that you loved?  

I suspect that some people will think the same way as me, and if you're one of those people then I urge you to go over to Etsy/Folksy/NOTHS, any handmade shop, and treat yourself.  I work full time and I work hard, I may be hard up at the minute (rebuilding a falling down house will not be cheap!) but I can afford a tenner on something special now and then.  I'm going to do it once a month.  Each payday I'm going to bag myself a handmade item that I fall in love with.  Not for any practical reason, just because.  Join me?

Oh, and the brooch in question:

It's by Pat's Paraphernalia, you can find her shop here and here.

I would love to know what you think about this subject, and I'd love to know if you bought anything handmade after reading this!

Craft show stash - or lack of

Friday was the craft show at the NEC.  It was actually 3 shows in one - Hobbycrafts, Sewing for Pleasure and Stitching, Fashion and Embroidery (or something like that!).  I've been going to these shows for a few years now with my wonderful mum, but we're not going next year, it has really gone downhill.  The Hobbycrafts was 80% rubber stamping and there were very few new products or techniques being demonstrated.  The fabric shops were at the Sewing for Pleasure but all selling at full price -come on, where's your discounts?  I'm sure they'd sell a lot more if they were to offer discounts.  The third show, well, it was neither here nor there, I don't recall seeing any embroidery other than 2 stalls selling cross stitch charts.  

I did come away with some stash, but nowhere near what I hoped to buy.  I had a list and they didn't have most of the things on my list.  I'll show you what I did get though.

A kit for a ribbon flower brooch, picked up on a whim, and a kit for a clock.  The ones they had on display were beautiful and so inspiring.

Decopatch papers. I knew I'd get these as they're so expensive in Hobbycraft.  I got a card too so can now buy them online.  I also picked up some MDF letters, a wooden vase and some cardboard hearts.

I think this was the only new product we encountered.  These little flowers are plastic, but with a little heat and a hammer, you can turn them 3d... I'll show you!

Some measuring tape fabric for when I get round to redoing my Measure Twice block, a couple of bargain fat quarters, the blue and yellow fabric is a chiffon to make a scarf, the next two are bargains from Abakhan - the only fabric shop to offer bargains at the show, and some Clarke and Clarke home dec fabric, probably for the Weekender Bag I'll be making along with the East Midlands Quilting Guild in a few weeks.

Fabric panels, probably for making cards, but maybe not.

Size 11 red seed beads, connectors for jewellery making, pretty brads, gold-plated cross stitch needles, E6000 glue, hardanger scissors (well they weren't labelled as that but they are curved at the end so I think they'll be perfect - I haven't done any hardanger for ages but have a SAL I've joined, I tried to pick up the thread at the show but failed and so have ordered it), and...

A hand-made lampwork bead.  How beautiful is that? I fell in love with a lot of her work, but couldn't afford much.  I'm not saying she was expensive - the prices were high but justifiably so - but I'm on a budget so just picked up this one piece.  She also told us where we could find lampwork lessons in the East Midlands, must get in touch with the lady she told me about...

Not my usual 250-photo long craft show haul post!

giveaway win

Yes that's right, I won another giveaway.  I say "another" as I went through a very lucky period of winning loads, but this is the first in a while!  Very much appreciated too.  I hopped along with the In Your Words blog hop, I love a good blog hop, great way of finding inspiration and finding new-to-me blogs to read.

I won the prize from Amy's Crafty Shenanigans and look what the generous lady sent me!

How fab is that London fabric?  It goes so nicely with the red fabric too and I just love red.  Now I have to decide what it's going to be.

I did a little tiny bit of online shopping too.  Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts is running a monthly stash club where you can buy 6 fat 1/8th or 6 FQs of Japanese fabric on a certain theme.  January's theme was text fabric and I really wanted some text fabric so I signed up.  It's all done on a month by month basis, if you're interested, you're too late for February, but you can buy March's pack- go to her Etsy shop.

This is what I received.  The two on the top right are written in French which is perfect for me, and I love the newsprint one.  Unfortunately, I got stung with a customs charge of £12 which brought the total price for EACH fat quarter to £5.50, definitely not a bargain!  I'm afraid I won't be joining in again which I'm a bit sad about as I'd planned this to be a monthly treat. 

Knitting and Stitching Show - Harrogate

Good afternoon ladies!  As you've probably guessed from the title, I'm going to show you my haul from the Knitting and Stitching show I went to with my lovely mum on Thursday and Friday last week, but first, you have to see Norbert!  Here he is...

I posted a pic on facebook and one of my ex-Mini-owning friends (he used to earn a Mini, he's still a friend!) told me Norbert was part of a special edition called Checkmate, hence the groovy checkerboard stripes.  He got us to Harrogate (about 2 hours North) safe and sound, despite the best efforts of a lorry to run us off the road.  Yes, another one.  I'm not really sure what I've done to offend the lorry drivers of the world, but I wish they'd pack it in!

Oh, before I go any futher, I got my present from the in-laws.  There was an amazing book about Polymer Clay Millefiori techniques, AND...

Yes, I've got Summersville!  Just a bit, but a bit is enough for me!  My MIL also picked me out that fab notebook (I say my MIL, it could have been my FIL, but I don't think so), she said it was because she knows I like to make lists.  I think "like to make lists" is putting it mildly, I'm slightly OCD with my lists...

So, the show was fantastic.  Much better than the ones at the NEC and I can see us going again next year.  We had two days which was good as it was bigger and we got to be really leisurely, rather than racing around trying not to miss anything.  The picture above shows the supplies I picked up from Molten Designs where a lady was demonstrating Friendly Plastic.  It looked so interesting, I had to get some!  I'll show you what it is when I get a chance, hopefully soon!

I saw this lino cutter at a bargain price so picked it up along with some lino.  I feel some printed bunnies coming on...

I picked up this handful of pretty glass pearls and spacers on the Thursday.  I thought I'd buy more beads the next day, but actually I didn't.  I was sticking to a budget this year!  The show was held in the building surrounding the Royal Hall.  We had no idea it was there until we followed some ladies who had disappeared through a side door.  The coffee and snack bar was in here and we were blown away!  (seriously, click on the link)

I love fabric panels, I made some cards from some recently, so picked up these ones too.  We stayed in a nearby B&B ran by a lovely lady who wasn't even mad when mum accidentally stole her keys the next day and took them to the show.  I was just glad we hadn't got back to Nottingham before she realised!

I was quite restrained with my fabric purchases.  The red corduroy above is actually a lovely deep red colour and at £2 a metre, I had to have 2 metres!  The other is wool and at £5 a metre, that came home with me too. 

The most gorgeous stall award would have gone to Favourite Fabrics (if such an award had existed), it was beautiful.  I picked up the 4 FQs above but could easily have bought the entire stall.  I notice they have an ebay shop with a webshop coming soon, one to note.  I've already used that Union Flag fabric!  See the Marmalade charm pack?  Pin It and Stitch had little tiny charm packs, I've forgotten what they're called and I nearly bought one, but it worked out cheaper to buy a charm pack.  One of the ladies was showing a customer Marmalade and some Vintage Modern and pointing out how well they went together so, after snatching the VM out of her hand, I showed them my handbag and pointed out how well it goes with Bliss and Ruby too!  I looked like some kind of Bonnie and Camile stalker...

Scrap bags, ribbon, french knitting dolly (I want to make bracelets from wire with beads inside) and some 3d fabric medium which is just amazing - wait and see!

Right, that's enough showing you stuff for one year I think!  Give me another week to get this craft fair out of the way and I'll hopefully start showing you my experiments with all this new stuff!