Drawing and painting (and reading)

I used to do a lot of drawing and painting when I was little, then I took up art at school and being obliged to make art killed the desire to do so. I find the same thing happens when I have to sew or knit something on a deadline, all the fun of the project is gone and it becomes a chore!

For some reason all of a sudden the need to draw and paint has returned, and I'm really enjoying it. It gives me yet another outlet for my creative energy when I don't feel like knitting or sewing.

I don't have to look far for inspiration:





This tiger is destined to be painted:


Drawing children is hard because they just don't sit still, and they find it hilarious to be stared at intently - unless they are zoned out on tv ;)


And just to add a completely unrelated topic, here are some books Miss M and I are reading at the moment:

Things we both love: dinosaurs, history and fairies! I can't tell you how much I enjoy having someone to share some of my interests with, we went to the museum last weekend and it was so much fun. But she also shares many interests with my husband that are completely over my head - children are awesome :)

Happy birthday to me!

It was my birthday late last month, and I received some lovely things - here are a few of them!

The beautiful Soiree blue and green fat quarter packs - I've already cut out and started to piece together a quilt top from the blue pack.




Some lovely cups - I'd been eyeing these off for ages so I'm really happy to finally have these :)



A jelly roll and a jelly roll pattern - the fabric is Pack Your Bags by Arrin Turnmire. (There really is only one roll here - I've just taken lots of pics to try to show all the different fabric)






And two honey buns, in the Sultry range by Basic Grey - not sure what I'll do with these yet, I'm thinking that it will include some log cabins though.


I bought a few other things with the birthday money I received, but those things haven't arrived yet... more pics when they do :)

Amazing colours

I've been taking a lot of photos lately of colourful things, which isn't a difficult task in Autumn. My husband was rather alarmed the other night when he was looking through my photos and noticed that some of them were taken from a position that could only be while I was driving - I promise you I was extra careful and there were no other cars near me, and most of them were taken when I came to a complete stop! But there are so many beautiful red and orange and yellow trees around my neighbourhood that I can't resist taking my camera out with me.





I also find colours in the garden.



And in this lovely wool I bought - it just glows in the light.



And in my bead collection - I'm going through a green phase at the moment ;) And is this not a beautiful copper bowl that they're sitting in?



And in my collection of polished stones.



I'm pleased to see that Miss M has a love for these things as well, she takes her camera with her on our walks and our drives, and she loves to sort my beads and buttons into different piles, and to hold and admire the polished stones. It makes me stop and take notice of things around me more as I reconsider the world through her eyes.

Bags, bags, bags

I really enjoy making [basic and simple!] bags now - I understand the basic construction of them, and they are a great way to show off some pretty fabric. Miss M finished up at her preschool last term, and I wanted to make her two teachers a bag each as a thank you and goodbye present. The outside of the bags are very plain, just dark blue denim, but I embroidered on a rectangle of fabric to sew on the inside so that they would be a little more special. They were both great teachers, and we were so sad to leave the school.

As usual I thought about taking the photos just before I was about to wrap them the night before gifting them, hence the dark and gloomy photos!




(I'm not sure what the rules are for names on the internet, so I've painted out the names just to be safe)



Over the school holidays I recieved a beautiful card from one of the teachers (G) telling me how much she was enjoying her bag and how much she would miss us, and she included a lovely photo of Miss M as well. It feels lovely to make things for people, but so wonderful to know that they are enjoying them!


To finish off the bags post, I made a library bag for Miss M for her new school (a Montessori school, which she just fits into so well!). I used fabric from Spotlight - don't I always?

Lucky me - again!

First of all:



Ok then.

Now I'm not a person that usually wins competitions - in fact I seem to be more likely to win something if I don't enter than if I do. Last year I entered a couple of blog competitions because the bloggers were giving away something lovely, and to my utter astonishment I actually won some beautiful fabric, from the fabulous blog of Chaletgirl, which I've since used in Miss M's dinosaur quilt. This spurred me on to enter more and more competitions, none of which I won until last month, when I got an email to say I'd won some lovely fabric - from Chaletgirl! What are the odds? Thanks so much Chaletgirl, it will be as well used as the last lot was :) Here is the fabric, beautifully packaged - I just love that linen tape and I'll be using that for something as well!