My first ever Jelly Roll

This is my first ever Jelly Roll.  I finally gave in to the urge to make another quilt and this Amy Butler Soul Blossoms Jelly Roll was what tipped me over the edge...

It looks so perfect wrapped up like this that I am very tempted just to leave it as it is for a while, the colours are so beautiful together.

 My plan is to make it into a Jelly Roll Race quilt, a very fast and satisfying technique which involves stitching all the ends together to make one loooooong strip which you then proceed to put end to end and stitch along the right side until you reach the end then snip at the loop to make it into 1 long strip and it repeats as such until you end up with an entire quilt top, although obviously its a little more detailed than my basic description!

 This lovely quilt below is a fine example of the type of Jelly Roll Race quilt I hope to end up with, I like the blunt ends and randomised pattern selection.

 

This picture and quilt are by Kelly who writes the blog Run with Glitter

Here is the link to the tutorial I found that inspired me to make this quilt, kindly posted by Fromthenestdesigns on The Quilting Board foru.

x

Statement Jewels

The best piece of advice I ever heard with regards to putting together an outfit was from Mary Portas, the Mary Cocktail as it is known : 

‘One part chic – one part edge – decorate’.

I have always loved to decorate with bold jewellery, and although I have toned things down a bit as I get older, I still have a weakness for making the odd statement purchase.   

I spotted these earrings from Accessorize in Stylist magazine the other day and think they are just the right balance between fun and sophisticated, and perfect as 'decoration'.

Bursting with creativity!

Hi.

Its been a while.

I just hadn't been feeling the creative urges like I used to and it seemed so hard to come up with ideas and projects, it was a weird feeling... but this Easter has seen a resurgence and I'm bursting with creativity again!

Here are some of my latest loves and creations:

Mainecoon cat ink stamps, an original and inspired gift from my friends Ali and Paul I cant leave them alone, its making me want to write letters and post parcels just so I can stamp cats all over!

Knitted Toadstool Rattle for my new nephew, from the ever wonderful Purl Bee blog can be found here.

 

Sashiko Embroidery - a brilliant tutorial by the Purl Bee can be found here.

I made a Pinata with my friend Lara for her Son's 4th birthday, it was ridiculously satisfying to make, I want to make more now....is it weird to make one for your back garden? I dont care about the sweets inside, perhaps I should make another one and invite the local kids to destroy it?!

Homemade Ravioli, I made some of these with my Mum at Easter and they were so delicious I decided to whip up another batch this Saturday for lunch, and they were delicious :) I cant quite get over how easy they are to make, and it feels so good to eat something you made with your own two hands (although I felt like I did a major arm workout at the gym after all that rolling...I need to buy a pasta maker)!

iPad cover Make over,  inherited this iPad cover from a friend and I really didn't like the colour....so I decided to grab a marker and draw my own design on the front cover....you have no idea how satisfying it is to draw on something you shouldn't...it feels GOOD, its a work in progress at the moment, trying to decide how much more detail to put on....

Galaxy Nebula Cat

I have a real thing about Nebula and cats at the moment, so that obvious choice was to join the two and make a Murphy Nebula print....how I love being a Photoshop nerd sometimes....

Here are some of my inspirations from Etsy....

 Nebula Crop Top by SweetandSwitch - find here.

 Galaxy cat iPhone 5 hard case by CoverOrama - find here.

 and my favourite.....

Cat Space Galaxy Nebula Print Silk Square Scarf by Pillars of Creation - find here.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

What an amazing way to celebrate the weekend.....

We had a Happy Friday Red Velvet cake from The Hummingbird Bakery at work this afternoon, I hope your weekend starts off as well as mine has, have a good one!

Millenium Bridge

Beautiful London sunset over Millenium Bridge

British Summer Clouds

Hutten-le-Hole in Yorkshire, Aug 2012

The Hexagon Obsession

The Obsession with Hexagons continues!

My Hexagon obsession started with the crochet variety a couple of years ago in the form of a cushion, inspired by this wonderful tutorial by Lucy of Attic24.

The original Hexagon Obsession Cushion

Recently it hit me again, except this time I had a really strong urge to Paper Piece and hand stitch some Hexagons together, I didn’t have a particular finished project in mind, I just knew I needed to do it… 

This urge coincided with our family holiday to Yorkshire, and because I start to panic if I don’t have some project to take with me, and being the big craft-geek that I am I started searching online for the nearest craft shops to where we were going to be staying.  However, for one reason or another I got distracted by general holiday, family, food and fun and forgot about my initial search.

 Vintage Hexagon Throw on my bed in the holiday cottage

When we arrived at the cottage where we were staying, and I walked into my bedroom for the week and the first thing I saw was this lovely Hexagon Patchwork Quilt on my bed, all hand stitched and beautifully finished – it was definitely a sign!

Judith's Fabrics in Whitby, Yorkshire

So, I was delighted when we stumbled upon this lovely little shop 'Judith's Fabrics' whilst on a visit to the seaside town of Whitby, it was stocked floor-to-ceiling with a wonderful selection of quilting fabrics and all sorts of haberdashery supplies.

My chosen fabrics, all by Tilda

I picked out my three favourite fat-quarters in the shop, bought a pack of needles and some white thread and set about stitching some Hexagons!

My first Panel of hand-stitched Hexagons!

By the end of the holiday I had a panel like the picture above... and no idea what to do with it (more cushions anyone?!) but I still felt a need to continue, so I decided to use up some of my stash to make another panel... 

Panel no.2 : Mushrooms (Jay Mccarroll), Honeycomb (Amy Butler) and some random purple stripe shirting from my stash!

So after a another week of absent minded stitching I had this Pink tonal variation...but I still hadn't had enough and by now I felt I ought to have some kind of aim to all of this hard work, so because I have no room for any more cushions in my life I decided I would turn these panels into a new quilt for my new spare room.

 The layout idea for the quilt

I decided that each panel should contain 3 tonal colours / patterns that would eventually be sewn together to create something looking like the picture above.

This is my lay plan of how many hexagons fit into a fat quarter on the left, and how many pieces of each colour I need in each of the 2 different panels on the right. Nerd.

And obviously because I'm such a nerd I had to build a layout on Adobe Illustrator so I could see what it might look like, how many of each panel I would have to make up and to figure out how many Hexagons (12cm inc Seam Allowance) I could fit onto a Fat Quarter.

 Panel No.3 begins...

So - I'm only on Panel No.3 at the moment and to complete the whole thing will clearly take me ages, but for now I am really enjoying the peaceful, therapeutic action of cutting, tacking, and stitching them all together, and it gives me a very good use for my enormous stash of quilting fabrics!

Sam's Super Fairy Cakes...

 

This is just a glimpse of the abundant Goodyear family creativity from this August 2012 Bank Holiday weekend.

These are Sam's traditional fairy cakes made with Rosewater and Lemon icing and they were absolutely delicious!

a garden of thoughts...

 "If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever."

— Alfred Lord Tennyson

Things are Rosy

A very friendly kitty...

When my friend Claudia and I went out for lunch today we walked past a window with a very beautiful cat sitting inside, and when we went over to say hello this cat went crazy, rubbing the glass with its face and being incredibly friendly, we wanted to reach in and give it a cuddle, it was clearly very happy to see people, and obviously I was very happy to oblige with some attention!

the best sister award...

Picture layout by Pugly Pixel Premium downloads

Coming soon...

I'm in the process of redesigning my blog, I have been so inspired by the work that I have seen in the blog community recently that it has made me want to push myself and learn more about how to further customize my own... So watch this space!

The pretty bow, medallion and dotty tape are thanks to the ever brilliant Pugly Pixel, if you like them you can get them through the following links...

Tape strips : HERE

Starbursts : HERE

Ribbons : HERE

Enjoy!

Lipgloss Donuts...

Mmmmm - glitter and sugar sprinkles!

I had my first ever full-on Krispy Kreme experience this weekend... yes, I've had them in the office and at birthdays before, but I've never been to an actual shop, it was like a small slice of America and brought back lots of nice memories of my holiday there a few years ago.

The Glamour Glaze donut

It was ridiculously exciting, mainly because they have a special limited edition sparkle Glamour Glaze donut at the moment (I will admit this is what sucked me in) and I could not get over how much it looked like someone had spread lipgloss over the top of them....why this should be appetizing I do not know, but for some reason it had a magical allure...

Me and donut, pre-devouring...

I think I had more fun choosing and photographing them then eating them, much to my companion's amusement "You're weird" he muttered as I tried to get the best light for premium glitter capture....

Sunday morning naptime...

Click on the image to view full size.... I still haven't got the hang of how to make my pics bigger, that's a challenge to master next week I think!

Here is a little photo montage of Murph's morning nap that I made this morning, I wanted to make something that could be easily constructed using an iPhone, an app and a little bit of Photoshop know-how!

I made all of the elements myself apart from the tape in the banner at the top which is a free download from the wonderful Pugly Pixel, which you can find on her brilliant blog HERE...

The app I used to take the photos is called LOMO LOMO and it was free from the iTunes app store.

Lush knot wrap design competition...

Today I found out that Lush Cosmetics are having a design competition that is right up my street....

They are offering you the chance to have one of your own designs printed up and sold in their shops as one of their clever 'knot wraps'.

Photo courtesy of Lush

Knot wraps are a concept that Lush introduced in 2009, they source and sell vintage scarfs to use as an ingenious eco-friendly gift wrap using the old Japanese art of Furoshiki, which is an origami like style of wrapping fabric to contain things - click HERE for the Wikipedia explanation of this art form.

What I love about this idea is that not only is it two gifts in one, but you are also helping reduce waste and saving the environment, what a brilliant idea!

My knot-wrap around my fave vintage bag (note how Murphy muscled in on the action when he realised I wasn't paying him any attention....)

I first came across this form of present wrapping on my birthday this year, when my wonderful friend Sally presented me with a little dumpling-like bundle of a gorgeous vintage locket wrapped inside a pretty vintage scarf, I thought this was a delightful way to wrap a present and the scarf is just as treasured as the pretty locket inside it, in fact I wrapped it around the strap of my favourite vintage bag and have received many admiring glances since....

I will definitely be entering this competition, its a win-win situation, it gives me a excuse to mess about on Illustrator (I don't need much encouragement) to have fun making a new design and to hone my skills with a view to possibly winning something at the end of it, and even if I don't I have an original design to brighten up my house with!

If you would like to find out more about this competition visit the Lush website or click HERE for the details and to download the template.... Good Luck!

my new mobile site....

Today I have set up my brand new mobile blog site, so that you can view things easily on a smart-phone should you want to browse on the go ;-)

The old blog format will stay the same but it just means that by clicking a little button it is now much easier to view posts in a mobile format (see main pic above)!

On the right hand side of the page you will see that it now says.... "Click this button for my mobile site", admittedly that is still going to be pretty small on a smart phone, but if you zoom in and hit that little button it should take you directly to the mobile site, job done!

Many thanks to Powered by Pastries for THIS fab tutorial on how to do it!

Cupcake Couture blogging tips!

The logo from the Lovely Cupcake Couture blog!

Hop on over to see my friend Nadia's wonderful Cupcake Couture blog today, she has a brilliant POST talking all about how to get the most out of your blog and sharing all her top tips and secrets, go and show her some blog-love and support and find some great new links to help you on your way!

Thanks Nadia!

Maine Coons, Parakeets and Sunbathing foxes....

This is a little photo story of what happened in my garden on Saturday morning, a drama that unfolded in front of my eyes (OK, not that dramatic but it doesn't take much to entertain me)!

THE PLAYERS

The brazen kitty!

Brazen Kitty : Murphy's girlfriend, actual name unknown, no collar - sometimes comes inside our house to eat Murph's food, very friendly, also a Mainecoon!

The brave parakeet!

A Brave Parakeet : A local resident, one of many living in my area and all over parts of London, Kent and Surrey.
Click HERE for more info....

'Disney' Fox

The 'Disney' Fox : Brazen and likes digging holes in our garden, surprisingly healthy looking, also loves sunbathing on my neighbour's shed roof apparently.... nothing really to do with the story he just appeared at the end and I thought he was funny, a casual observer it seems!

THE STORY

Brazen Kitty likes to play in our garden, I like her, she's got guts - I think Murph likes her - she steals his food but she is very pretty....and she has almighty paws!

I hear a parakeet squawking in the garden, and I peer out of the window hoping that there is one in the tree, and for once there actually is and it is eating the cherry blossom (usually you just hear them and see them flocking overhead)! So I grab the camera and try and a get a clear shot of the bird, plus the weather is beautiful and the cherry tree is in full bloom so it cant hurt to record this lovely sight anyway...

I notice the Parakeet look down and see that Brazen kitty has jumped onto the roof of our shed, I say 'Hello' and she looks guilty/defiant, see above expression....

The parakeet looks more disconcerted and starts to climb higher in the tree and squawk angrily...

I realize this is because Brazen kitty has started to try and climb the tree in the hope of an exotic catch, I start to worry so tell her off in the hope she will stop, she just looks at me with contempt and wanders off, meanwhile the Parakeet has had enough and gives a final squawk before flying away!

Going, going....

Gone!

Later on I heard the Parakeets outside again and noticed that there were 4 in the tree, all happily eating blossom until my neighbour's Chocolate Labrador 'Guinness' starts barking because Murphy is on the roof taunting him (a usual hobby of his) so they flew away again!

During the initial events, Murphy is asleep across most of my bed, totally unaware of the excitement unfolding outside, SO LAZY.

Human sized cat bed.

THE END