London Mummy

Something fresh for Spring

Am currently in the midst of making some baby and toddler quilts to add to my Limited Edition Handmade Range.  I've long been a fan of both coin and strip quilts as to me, they have a fresh and modern appeal. 

Originally I started out picking out fabrics for a neutral fabric after I had bought some of this adorable organic cotton fabric from M is for Make. 

It's part of the delightful circa 52 collection from Birch Organic Fabrics.  I'm hoping to make a strip quilt using all organic fabrics but need to add some more organic prints to my stash as I simply don't have enough different, organic ones for a strip quilt.

But impatience had set in and I was really in the mood for making a strip quilt,  right now - I'm sure you know that feeling :)  So I made a little dolls bed set with some pinks from my stash as a bit of a prototype for a larger baby/toddler version. 

Here it is all made up, washed and dried with a lovely little bit of crinkly goodness.

Of course, it's much easier making a small one as you don't need such a variety of prints but I was determined to make a larger size. 

Apologies for the rather washed out looking photo, in the flesh the colours are so much better.  I used three different  Aneela Hoey prints plus some other bits and bobs from my stash including the lovely Suzy Altman houses print for Robert Kaufman.  I have to be honest, it took me absolutely ages to make my final decision on widths, prints, placement etc but I'm happy now - would have liked a few more mixers but was determined not to rush out and buy a load of new fabrics - yet :)

So here's the completed quilt top, now I need to choose backing and binding fabrics and quilt it ......

Hmm, it is very pink! 

Playing with props

Really simple stocking fillers, or Christmas decorations even, depending on how you use them :)

Linen squares + applique stars + lavender = understated & simple.

 

Red & White for the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability

On Friday I'll be taking some of my goodies to Putney, to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability to be precise, to help raise some funds for this fantastic charity at their Christmas Fair.

Being a huge linen fan and having a rather large stash to hand, I thought it would be a good idea to design and make some more grown-up stockings and will admit to having a lovely time playing around with my various scraps and the embroidery stitches on my sewing machine until I was happy with the design.  

As space tends to be rather limited at these events, well for me anyway as I always end up taking far too many different goodies with me, I wanted to make sure that they co-ordinated with my other handmade christmas bits

My Xmas houses, I know they appear every year but I just love making these!

My new Dala horses plus some linen stars which I haven't had a chance to photograph yet.

So if you happen to be in the Putney area between 10am and 4pm on Friday, please do pop along and say hi.  There will be around 35 stalls so I may even get a little of my own Christmas shopping done at the same time :)

I'll try and pop a few of these in the shop too.

 

 

The holidays are coming ....

I actually purchased these fun 100% cotton Riley Blake Christmas fabrics last year but they were sadly held up in customs and so I didn't get much of a chance to make anything with them in time.

I couldn't resist making a few reversible patchwork bibs as I thought they would be a fun gift for a baby's first Christmas.  I made some with trees with snowmen or snowladies on the back whilst others have the snowpeople on the front with trees on the reverse.

These are a great way to use up some scraps and are pretty quick to make

They close with a velcro fastening and, as I do with all my patchwork bibs, added a layer of Warm & Natural batting to make them even more absorbent, hence the scraps of batting for my felt Dala Horses, the tutorial for which will be up in the next day or so.

I'm mainly planning on taking these bibs along to my Christmas fairs, but have put a few in my shop.

And here's another sneak peek at the felt Dala horses, I couldn't resist making the baby one too :)

 

Christmas Ornament tutorial - sneak peek

Every year I like to create some new simple handmade ornaments for Christmas.  Not only do I get the fun of  playing with the goodies in my craft stash but I love the feeling that I'm creating a little stash of ornaments for Livvy to keep and remember her childhood by, even the ones she doesn't always like :)

Fortunately, she rather likes these prototypes of some new felt ornaments I've made :)

Apologies for the poor lighting but it is a grey dull day here in London.  I'm thinking they will look rather sweet hanging from my ubiquitous white twigs at Christmas.

I've always loved the Swedish Dala horses and was inspired to make these whilst taking a little break from making another batch of my festive lavender houses:

I'm currently in the process of writing up a little tutorial for these felt dala horse ornaments to share with you, they really are quite simple to make and you don't need much at all in the way of materials just some red felt, scraps of white ric rac, red and white embroidery floss, some bakers twine and a bead if you feel so inclined - I also used some scraps of Warm and Natural batting, left over from some Christmas patchwork bibs I've been making, between the two layers of felt to add a little extra body. 

I've actually got a couple of tutorials on the go at the moment which I'm looking forward to sharing with you all.

 I might even put together some little kits to add to the shop if there is enough interest as I know it can be frustrating and expensive sometimes to have to go out and buy all the materials, particularly when you don't need an awful lot of each item.

And Livvy, how can you not love my Snowls .........?

There one of my most popular photos on Flickr