Soul Blossoms Jelly Roll Race quilt

I don't know where to even begin....

I had bit of a quilters block, where I just could not pick up quilting project.... Partially because of my daughter's bedtime habits changing and therefore I have about an hour less in the evening. Partially due to simple lack of inspiration I guess.

And then I offered craft swap for somebody who does magic with knitting needles. She would knit something for me and I would make her a quilt.

I suggested beautiful colourful Soul Blossoms collection by Amy Butler. This fabric just exuberates joy and warms. It explodes with colour. It's such a joy to work with.

I got a jelly roll and went for Jelly Roll Race Quilt pattern. If you do have a look at the link, let me tell you, it's not 'a quilt top in less than an hour', oh no :) But it was fun and I will do it again.

....and another hat

Same pattern, different yarn (bamboo instead of merino) and different shade of blue. This one took longer, because Sublime Bamboo Pearl turned out to be difficult yarn to work with. It's very soft and lovely, but - never ever again. The reason being - it's made up if lots of separate strands that separate easily, and before you know it, you haven't hooked one strand and it's really noticeable. I had to frog back numerous times and crochet much slower to take care to hook every single thread.

Instant Gratification Hat {crochet}

Sometimes it's so nice to be able to do a quick project that you can start and finish in a same day. Instant gratification.

Well, pattern actually is called Gipsy Girl.
I didn't make ruffles, I think it's quiet unnecessary for an adult :)

Took me half day of crafting hugely distracted by children.

Crafter's 'block'

Is there such a thing? There is 'writer's block', so why not crafter's? Might as well.

All family has been though a lot of illness over last 6 weeks, hubby working crazy hours and my 4 year old daughter refuses to go to sleep without me lying there with her. Which means that by the  time kids are asleep and house picked up, I have no energy or will to do anything but sit in front of telly :( Have no inspiration or drive to craft. At all. Shame really.....

Millie's Quilt

My very dear friend's daughter Millie was turning 4 and I asked my friend is she would like a quilt for Millie's room, and to my delight she said YES. 

This quilt was quiet a challenge. It's first time that I had pictures of the room, which had been decorated and I had to try to find the fabric to suit it, to fit in with the decor. Usually I just pick up fabric from my stash, but this time nothing in my stash seemed suitable. So I searched high and low until I came across Moda 'Posy' collection.  And it just felt right. It felt right for Millie, and it felt right for the room that I been given pictures of.

Challenges didn't stop here. I'm still very much amateur, so it was quiet tricky for me to make fat eight bundle to "stretch" to make a single quilt. But I managed :) Used up pretty much every scrap that there was.

Modeled on my daughter's bed, as always :)

Blast From Mummy's Past {cot quilt}

Many ears ago, when I first came to live to England, I made a friend. We shared flat, we shared same workplace, we even shared same birthday! But as time went on, she went back home, to Lithuania, and, sadly, we lost touch. Recently I had discovered (thank goodness for Facebook) that she just had a baby. Immediately I knew I have to make a cot quilt for the old times sake.

Main fabric that I chose is called "Next Stop London". I thought it's perfect - colourful, bright, happy and, more importantly, will remind my friend of her time UK, small part of which she actually spent in London itself.

Dragonfly Jewellery Box set {decoupage}

This lovely jewellery box that I made back in December got lost by Royal Mail and never reached lovely Ann. As far as I understand it was supposed to be Christmas present for her daughter. Bad bad Royal Mail!

Anyways, so there was nothing else left to do, but make a new one. This jewellery box is slightly smaller than the one that got lost, so I decoupaged a tiny extra box as well. Maybe one day it could become box for Tooth Fairy, or just keep a single very very special piece of jewellery.