What's been inspiring me in April

These are the projects and photos that have been inspiring me on Flickr during April. You can see where I got my idea for the Pillow Talk Swap now!



1. Bloomin' Pillow - Quilt As You Go, 2. _ABI7344a, 3. Peekaboo quilt - detail, 4. Is This "Love"?, 5. pts5 done!, 6. PTS9 Received! Thank You Holly!!, 7. PTS 4, 8. Hot Air balloon cushion cover, 9. Embroidered Pillow, 10. Cushion, 11. Front side of my first #pillowpop project Fair Feathered Friends by @j_q_adams from @houseofalamode #pillowpopbook, 12. Big Love Pillow, 13. A little Paris on my windowsill., 14. Bosham - reflections at high tide, 15. scrappy Starbright Quilt, 16. Cass Sculpture Park - Zadok Ben-David, Looking Back

Interior design themed Pinterest Competition

Having recently moved into our own house by the sea, we are currently plotting extension and renovation work to turn the building into a home that justifies it's lovely location. At the pre-planning stage most of this plotting has involved gathering ideas on Pinterest. I have spent far too many hours on the site browsing and pinning different architecture and interior design ideas which at this stage I can still do little with.

So I was delighted to discover this week that I can do something quite constructive with my seaside interior design fantasies. Hillarys the parent company of Blinds Supermarket are running a Pin To Win contest on Pinterest giving entrants the chance to win £500 of Hillarys vouchers and two runners up prizes of £50 M&S vouchers.

All you have to do is follow Hillarys on Pinterest, then build a board around one of their four key looks of Global, Floral, Coastal or Retro. I guess it's not going to be a HUGE surprise to learn that it took me about 2 seconds to decide to go with 'Coastal' as the theme for my board, I was even able to use their lovely beach hut roman blinds...

Which would go rather well with these cushions from Not On The High Street...

Oooh where do I stop!

I've had great fun over the years entering creative competitions, and if you've yet to dip your toe into the world of Pinterest competitions, this one is a great one to start with. It's relatively straightforward (no tagging to be done) has multiple prizes and the winners will be picked at random so you don't have to spend hours obsessing over making your board perfect.

You have until 17th May 2013 to put your board together and enter the competition, and you can have a look and see what I've done here to get some inspiration. Good Luck and don't forget to...

WIP Wednesday (1st May 2013)

Two works in progress this week. Firstly my neighbourhood quilt is still coming together. I had a lazy moment last week where I thought I might be able to get away with just three rows and pad the rest out with border, but then I took the measurements and realised I'd need as much border as I currently have of houses! So I'm ploughing on and will be making five rows in total, with a small border. This is what I have so far, a lot of it is just laid in place on the floor and not actually sewn yet!

I've also started work on my cushion for the Pillow Talk 10 Swap on Flickr. I was actually a bit thrown when I saw my swap partners inspiration mosaic, because there is very little overlap between our personal likes and I have struggled a little to come up with ideas. However being pushed a little outside my own comfort zone is exactly why I do these swaps...

This is what I was experimenting with last night though, it matches one or two of the things on her wish list. I have no idea what it will look like when I've finished though, I'm hoping it will just evolve!



For the first time since this blog was rebooted, I'm linking up today with Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday. It's nice to be back...

Aaah sunshine!

This was taken just the other side of our garden fence on Friday night. I can't wait till the weather warms up properly and we have a few more evenings like this...

Wedding cushions

One of the sewing projects I missed the opportunity to document during my blogging hiatus were my Wedding Cushions. I made three of these last year for various friends who were getting married, tweaking slightly as I went along.

As always I think it took till the third attempt (above) to perfect them. I quilted the front of the first one (extra work, no real gain) and used the red fabric for the reverse on cushion one and two, until I managed to work out what the fabric I'd been using for the front was (it's Essex Linen) and where to get more of it. (The Eternal Maker)

I'm happy with the result (particularly the third one!) but it's always difficult to know how well handmade gifts are received. Even my own sister is guilty of an unintended lackluster response to a handmade gift, which only years later I discovered she had absolutely loved after I stopped making said item due to the lukewarm response she gave! Gah!

Pillow Talk Swap

I've just signed up for the next round of the Pillow Talk Swap on Flickr and this is my inspiration mosaic for my swap partner.

In the last swap I took part in, I received this gorgeous cushion from Lee which now has pride of place in our sitting room.

On that occasion it was a mixed swap where you choose a table runner, mini quilt, cushion or sewing machine cover.

I have to admit the pillow swap seems a lot fairer as you give the same as you receive. I already have a few ideas in my head for my partners pillow (cushion!) I'm just waiting to find out who she is and what she likes...

Neighbourhood quilt

There is nothing quite as satisfying as finally starting a quilt which has been on your to do list for over a year. I first saw the design that inspired this quilt just after Theo was born and immediately bought a half metre of the Alexander Henry fabric that the quilt was based around...

I spent more than 12 months procrastinating and trying to decide whether to use the faces as part of a train design, or as the drivers of cars and every time I took something out of my fabric stash I'd see the Faces Around The World fabric taunting me. In the end I've gone for a very similar design to the original, but I'm incorporating trees and working with a more ordered palette of fabrics.



This is the first row almost complete (I need to add a strip of blue to the top) and I'm working on the houses for the second row as we speak.



I'm intending to make 4 rows in total. Possibly with a border to frame it all and I'm going to experiment with wadding. After years of using only cotton wadding, I fancy something with a bit more loft for this to make it more snuggly, so I've ordered some samples to experiment with.