Limited edition bundle

Featuring some of the beautiful Alegria collection and some old favourites. The new limited edition bundle; 10% off with free UK shipping until 8am on Tuesday 1st May, enjoy!

The Great Outdoors

One of the great benefits of the beast shown above is that we have become 'outdoorsy family'. Our wellies have never had so much use. Weekend mornings that would ordinarily be spent faffing around in the house are now firmly spent in the outdoors whatever the weather, walking the dog.

Brighton has a huge selection of parks and woods and with the South Downs on our doorstep I think it's an amazing place to live with so much countryside and the beach too. These are from a visit to Stanmer Park, where the woods are just coming alive with tiny leaves appearing on the trees and bluebells springing up.

The dog moves at speed, 90% of my photos were of her tail disappearing out of shot.

Woods are a really good place to take kids,  I'm not sure if this is universal, but mine are obsessed with finding the biggest stick and then lugging it around nearly taking out your eyes, the eyes of strangers and their dog's eyes too.

Still it's all jolly, good, healthy stuff after apologising to those strangers, the kids were off in the woods making up adventures. A welcome alternative to trying to trying to get just one more game on the ipad. 

I love that when you get up high in Brighton, you get the view of this beautiful countryside in one direction and the sea in the other. The view of the sea always takes my breath away (not in this awful photo obviosuly, I should have climbed a tree or stood on someone's shoulders).

Of course in the woods, there are terrifying bears to watch out for. With muddy feet, aimed right at your coat.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, and wishing you a happy week ahead!

The morning after the night before

Non-stop rain (well at least it feels like it) has kept me in the house a lot this week. Apart from first thing when I get ritually soaked taking the kids to school. I do have an umbrella, but despite my finely honed multi-tasking skills, it is pretty much impossible to carry one and be the kid's sherpa. Swimming bags, PE bags, water bottles, crepe paper covered shoe boxes containing seagulls made from stones. There is no space in my hands for an umbrella. So I have become a little obsessed by owning a rain cape that will cover me from head down to the tops of my wellies. Look, I have found one;

rain cape

Look how it covers almost everything that the wellies don't. Perfect. I won't look this glamorous though as in reality I am quite disgusting*.

Stuck in because of the rain I found a rare opportunity for some day time sewing. I am progressing slowly on the rogue hexagon quilt. I settled myself into the sofa with the cat, my other quilt to keep me warm, and dared to turn on the TV. I've never watched daytime TV since I started working at home full time. I'm a little wary it will escalate and before I know it, Jeremy Kyle will be on daily and I won't make it out of my PJ's. (Perhaps my rain cape would hide these on the school run so that I don't end up in the Daily Mail.)

To my joy, I stumbled across an old episode of ER, right from the opening titles. Back in the days where Green was alive, Carter was bumbling, Benton was grumpy and Clooney was the original McDreamy. I have a weakness for medical dramas, especially ER which I still haven't quite forgiven for ending as nothing is nearly as good. So I had a happy hour sewing hexagons and watching/listening to medical stuff I don't really understand. I still have a number of rogue hexagons appearing, I have no idea how or why, but I am keeping a close eye on them and sewing them into submission.

My love of medical dramas is ironic considering I am the most squeamish person ever. Fast forward an hour to find me lying on the doctors table, feet elevated by a kindly nurse as I nearly passed out having a minor blip removed from my head. I used my Frankenstein head to great effect when I got home, scaring the kids and wrangling another hour of sewing infront of the TV. So in all, I have made some good progress on the quilt.

I am aiming to make it as big as my daughter's gathering flowers quilt, it seems fair. I want to finish the top soon as I would like to get started on Hazel when she arrives. I am waiting for this extra wide Moda backing, I think the grey dots will be perfect. I still have most of the fabrics used for this quilt here. But this, this or this would make wonderful additions.

Fast forward to the next morning and my son continues to be fascinated by my Frankenstein head. However I have managed to brush my hair to hide it and he asks me why I have done this, making the suggestion 'Is it to make you look less disgusting*?' Thanks love.

Alegria by Cloud 9 fabrics

Just arrived this morning; the beautiful Algeria by Cloud 9 fabrics, designed by Geninne D. Zlatkis.

Alegria means Happiness and Geninne's paintings depict imagery from her beautiful surroundings in Queretaro, Mexico.

Which is your favourite?

 Peacocks

 Blue birds

Walkabout

Personally, I have a soft spot for these golden triangular beauties, aren't they perfect?

Triangles in gold

Limited edition bundle

Springy, bright, cheerful, this week's limited edition bundle. You know the deal, it's 10% off, with free UK shipping until 8am on 24th April, when it will disappear like it was never there. But for now, it's here.

Pre-order new Colette Patterns at 10% off

The new Colette patterns are all over blog land at the moment, you can read more about them on the Colette patterns blog here, read an interview with Sarai, the creator of the patterns over at Tilly's blog here, or win a PDF printable version of one of the patterns at Florence's blog here.

I have a limited number of these 3 new patterns available to pre-order here at 10% off. Snap one up if you want one, they are already flying out!

Limited Edition bundle

I'm rather aware at the moment that all I seem to be blogging about is new fabric and bundles. There is not much sewing going on round these parts during the school Easter holidays. I have been busying myself with decorating, baking cakes resembling road kill, entertaining the kids, and you know, general motherhood stuff that takes up rather a lot of time.

But with the exciting announcement that some new Colette Patterns are coming my way and the fact that one of them has my name on, I hope to blog about some actual sewing soon.

In the meantime, I am having fun creating these lovely limited edition bundles for you. This one includes some Stockholm fabric that just arrived - sorry forgot to tell you about that one. 

The bundle is available at 10% off, the offer will end 8am on Tuesday 17th April and shipping in the UK will be free. You can find it here.

Easter Limited Edition Bundle

This week's limited edition bundle is Easter themed; lambs, bunnies, ducks, and zingy spring time colours. Perfect timing as our glorious taste of spring is replaced by snow. I think this bundle would be great for a few mini craft projects over Easter and school holidays so this week I also have a limited number of fat 16th bundles available. Just incase you are snowed in and feel the need to sew bunnies whilst gorging on chocolate.