Look what arrived today. I had almost forgotten that the Postcard Swop was about receiving postcards as well as sending them out! It was so exciting to see them and aren't they all fantastic? You all are so damn clever!
( sorry that the picture is so crappy, I shall hopefully replace it with a much better one tomorrow)
Before Bella was born I was never really interested in the colours pink or red. Except that as soon as I wrote that sentance I realised that I had had pink hair for 5 years and red hair for 10 years. Duh!
When I told my Nana that I was having a baby girl she loved the idea of me buying little pink dresses. I would not have been caught dead in a dress as a child, yet alone a pink one. So why would I dress Bella in pink? Red, I thought would be the perfect compromise, it was feminine but not girly. And yet the first dress I bought Bella was pink and brown and I painted her room pink, made her a pink quilt, made pink cushions and bought pink trousers and dungerees.
And then when I finally met her I knew I was right with my first choice. Red is definately her colour. I love to dress her in it. Especially her red and white stripped long sleeve tees. She's the coolest kid in her red and white stripes!
And of course it's only just now that it's occurred to me that this was the start of my love affair with red and white. I now associate it with happiness. I can not help but smile when I see Bella in red and white, making it an obvious choice for her new quilt.
I managed to get these four blocks done today. And I'm hoping to get the other two done tomorrow. I'm very happy with it and can't wait to see her snuggled under it.
Over here in the UK babies have no bedding at all until they're one year old. We generally don't even use cot bumpers. Babies sleep in sleepsuits and sleeping bags and that's it. No pillows, quilts or toys in their cots, for fear of cot death. And whilst I of course agree with not taking the risk, I have always hated how bare and uninviting her cot looks.
So it is really very exciting and important to me that I have a brand new, handmade quilt for Bella to sleep under on the night of her first birthday. It has to be just right. I want it to be beautiful but also practical.
And with that thought in mind, my only concern is the Liberty print that I've used - it's not the most hardwearing of fabrics. But I'm hoping that it will withstand a little rough and tumble.
It may sound like such a small thing, but I just can't wait to tuck my daughter in. (Although I know for a fact that she'll throw the thing off in two seconds and then probably chew the corner of it - but I can dream through rose tinted glasses can't I ?).
It's Bella's 1st birthday in a weeks time. I had planned a party for her, but due to some crappy circumstances it's now just going to be me and Jim and my parents (and Bella of course). Which I have to admit makes me feel pretty lousy.
It means that the plans I originally had aren't going to work and to be honest since finding out that both mine and Jim's families aren't able to come, I haven't been able to think about the day without getting upset. So here I am with only a week to go and nothing is prepared or planned. So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to decorate the place and make it special for my little girl.
I have very limited time this week and even more limited funds, so I can't do much. I bought some bias binding today in the hopes that I will find the time to make bunting. But I also want to make a quilt and a doll for her and I'm seriously freaked about the time.
So if anyone has any suggestions it would be great to hear them. I really want Bella to know she's special even though there's only going to be four of us at her party.
And a voice asked "Is this TreeFall Design?" Which I have to admit confused me slightly, but I think I recovered quickly enough to not sound like a complete moron. And I proceeded to take my first private order from a complete stranger. She already owned a piece of my work (given to her by her friend who'd bought it from me at a show) and tracked me down to order more. I sell in shops and at shows, but this is so much nicer, because she had to go out of her way to contact me.
These are the fabrics I shall be using.
What a nice way to start my weekend.
And on another good note, these all got sent off today.
Along with these badges.
And as if that wasn't enough here's even more loveliness.
This is the beautiful art quilt, 'Blue Magic Tree', that arrived yesterday from Keri . I can not tell you how much I love it. It is absolutely perfect. And Keri was super kind and included the bundle of fabric that I posted a photo of yesterday. Which is also all perfect. You couldn't have picked any better fabric for me Keri, thank you so much!!
And this isn't another gratuitous photo of my wallpaper - it's where it's going to go. Doesn't it look wonderful?!
The rocking moose was one of Bella's christmas presents. She rides on it every day. She also sits and 'talks' to it!
The postman has been one of my most favourite people over the last few days, whilst the weatherman has been one of my least favourite.
I have received some wonderful, beautiful things and I want to show them off - but without sun I can't do it. How can I show you the beautiful, beautiful art quilt that arrived from Keri today, when there's no light? And how can I show you the fantastic postcards from Hillary when it's so dark and dismal? Not to mention the wonderful collage from Lisa ?
It is so, so, so frustrating!!
As I was about to fetch my screaming child from her cot this afternoon, the sun shone oh so briefly, and I confess that I left Bella screaming and took these photo's. They do not do the subject justice, but I have to show you anyway!
This parcel arrived yesterday.
And inside it was this.
It is just wonderful isn't it? I can not wait to frame it and hang it. I know exactly where it's going to go! Lisa is just too talented. I'm definately saving up for a Modbird next!
And today I received a gorgeously large parcel that made me literally jump up and down with excitement (in front of the delivery guy no less!). Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a photo of everything, but here's a sneaky peak of it's delights.
I will find a way to photograph everything else this weekend even if I have to pay for a professional studio to do so!!!
Oh and I also received a delivery of fabric! Happy days!
First of all thank you for everyone's kind words about my SPT post. Although I was unsure about posting it at first, I'm glad now that I did, both Jim and I have been really touched by all your comments.
It's Jim's birthday today (Yay! Happy 33rd Birthday sweetie) and I was so excited that one of his main presents arrived in the post today when I had thought that it would be at least another week.
I don't know if anyone else has used Qoop to have a book of their photo's printed, but I highly recommend it. I get the impression that in the US it's pretty easy to get stuff printed, but over here in the UK it's very expensive. To get postcards printed at my local printers starts at £65 ($130)! So when I saw Qoop and it's prices I was very excited and had this book of photo's of Bella's first year printed for Jim which he (and I) just love. The quality is better than I thought it would be and it arrived super quick.
I also made a picture for him but it's not quite finished and I forgot to take a photo whilst it was still light, but it's almost exactly like this one that I'm working on,but without the dog.
I have almost finished my postcards for the Postcard Swop (well one of them anyway - still 2 days before they have to be posted so no rush there then!)
I'm pretty happy with them, especially as I was suffering from a major block over what to do. I finally came up with the design in the last few days after playing around with my four season blocks. As I 've already said, I've been really loving the look of the back of the pieces I've been working on, the way the stiches looked against the cream backing. That's led to a quite sudden love of Redwork. I've always admired it, but have never really been drawn to it before. Don't you love the way that happens? You can just go along quite happily, when all of a sudden, bang, you're obsessed with something new!
I love the fact that stiching on to white card creates such a crisp image. And although my next door neighbour was raised to believe that red and white is cheap looking, I like it very much.
I also like the fact that it looks like those cards you can buy to teach children to sew.
This was my first attempt at the card. Hmmmm.....
Here's a bit of an update on the tidying of my studio. It's not quite done but as you can see, I can at least work in it now!
Oh and just for the beauty of it here's a photo of a card I found in my stationary stash today. I didn't know I had it, but I haven't been able to stop looking at it all day.
Beautiful!!!
(Oh and I haven't forgotten about the fabric bundles, I promise that I'll get it sorted as soon as I can)
I've really struggled over whether or not to use this photo for todays SPT. It's a very personal piece of my history and although I am not embarressed to talk about it, it may make other people uncomfortable. It was however taken exactly 2 years ago today - so it just feels like it's meant to be.
This was our first positive pregnancy test after almost two years of trying to have a baby. We were very very happy and incredibly shell shocked that it had come up positive. After seeing so many negative tests you really don't believe that you'll ever, ever see a positive. But there it was.
The next day, on Jim's birthday, I unfortunately miscarried. It was a very strange situation to be in. We'd only known I was pregnant for one day, so we hadn't had time to bond or even get used to the idea that we were pregnant. But it still hurt like pure hell to loose something that we'd wanted for so long, so quickly.
I lost another 2 pregnancies over the next 5 months, before finally getting pregnant with Bella. And for those months my miscarriages were who I was. They defined me. Over the two years of trying to get pregnant Jim and I had carried the burden of failure together. It could be either or both of us. But the miscarriages could only be my fault. Our inability to have a child was down to me. I didn't know who I was or what I was supposed to do. And that's when I discovered quilting. I completely fell in love with everything to do with quilting and I honestly believe that it saved my life. It gave me focus and meaning until I finally had Bella, who gives me more focus or meaning than I could ever imagine.
I still have that positive pregnancy test and still ocassionally look at it. It doesn't make me sad, it's just a part of my history.
Since I'm sorting out my workroom/studio/guest room (work room sounds too utilitarian, studio sounds too much like I know what I'm doing and guest room is a bit of a misnomer as we never have a guest and there's no room), I am trying to be brutal with my stash and have decided that I simply do not need to keep every single scrap of fabric. But I can't throw them away. I just can't. So, at the moment I have 4 bundles of scraps of varying vintages (1960's - now). They're small pieces, nothing over 6 inches wide and some only 2"x2" but there's some nice pieces, I think.
So would anybody like them? I'm happy to just give them away, but if anyone had some scraps that they wanted to send to a good home I'm happy to swop too. If anyone would like a bundle just email me your details and I'll pop them in the post to you. They are just scraps though - nothing mind blowing. I'll post some pics tomorrow to give you a better idea.
Thank you Autumn and Toni for complimenting the cushions in my last post. Like everyone else, I have (and love) this book
and couldn't wait to try out their log cabin blocks. These were made before christmas for a show I was doing.
Here they are with some others at the show.
This one was a last minute panic that I didn't have enough stock the night before the show!
