Secret Easter Bunny Craft Forum Swap

Well hello. Long time no see!
 A year infact has passed since I was last on the dreamstar diary blog and what a year it has been. Unfortunately my job took over my whole life last year not leaving me with much time, or even inclination, to get my sewing machine out and create. Now, having changed jobs a couple of months ago, I am a much more relaxed and happier person and maybe, just maybe, that little sewing spark will relight in the not too distant future.
 I have, however been creative in other ways, and on my other blog 'Styles Of Cooking' you can see I am doing food challenges and, at present, have almost finished my first challenge of making 15 bread recipes in a month.
 But back to sewing and despite not having done any for a year I still have a daily read of the threads and posts on the craft forum and when sign ups for the secret easter bunny annual gift swap came up I decided it would do me good to sign up again.
I felt quite honoured this year to have Karen 'BeadsByDesign' as my gifts recipient. She annually hosts the easter and christmas forum swaps and puts a lot of time into doing it so I knew my gift needed to be extra special for her.
It's great doing a forum swap as it makes you go on a snooping mission to discover as much about the person as possible. From Karens blog 'Creative and Faithful' I found she was a lover of the sea and beach and of the driftwood and broken pottery that can be found there. So the beach became my main focus for my gift. Having chosen the idea of putting a beach theme on a cushion I first put my ideas down on paper.
First I drew a house. 

Then I added sun, birds, a beach sign, shells and words.

Using my drawings I cut out fabric pieces from all my scraps and sewed them together. I found some lovely little shell design buttons on ebay to sew on too.

I added the words and then, after a quick visit back to Karens blog for colour inspiration, decided on a blue polka dot fabric for the main cushion colour.

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And here it is!!!!
I am so pleased with the finished product. Infact I may make myself one too.

It's easy to get so carried away designing your own gift that you forget that you actually get to receive a gift too! For me this year my received gift was extra, extra special as it was from a lovely lady that I have admired, and also been slightly in awe of, for the past couple of years. I love her work, her blog, her tutorials, infact everything about her!!
Ros didnt disappoint and she made me these beautiful bunnies 'Pip and Squeak' that I will put somewhere very special and treasure always. You can find more about Ros on her blog rosmademe.

I have decided to enter this post into Handmade Monday over on Handmade harbour blog  for the first time in months. It will be nice to enter back into the world of handmade and see what I have been missing out on for ages| And if you are interested in making bread dont forget to pop by other blop 'Styles Of Cooking' and maybe attempt a few of the recipes.

Handmade monday 14. A catch up on projects

Welcome to this weeks handmade monday, week 14 organised by wendy of 1stuniquegifts.
More photos than words this week as i'm tired from a long day at work. (My excuse and i'm sticking to it!!!)
So i just want to share with you what i have been working on for the past 2 weeks.
I have put my flowers onto hair clips and extended the leaves to come out of the sides.



A new denim bag for a lady at work.

Loads of pen cases which seem to be becoming my most popular item at fairs at the moment.

My new project for this week from my new Tilda project book which i will share with you more later on in the week. They look great in plant pots.

And finally one of the men where i work was moving in with his girlfriend and wanted to give her a moving in cushion which marked the date they had their 1st home. He chose the design from one of my books and chose the fabric and she absolutely loved it!!

Short and sweet, thanks for dropping by and please check out what other crafters have been creating this week at Wendys Blog
Until next time
xxx

And The Theme Is Red!

A belated Happy New Year to you all.
I had hoped to be back here sooner after the festive season but unfortunately my "proper job" has been keeping me rather busy and away from creating.
But today i am back and have decided that this week will be dedicated to the colour red as that seems to be the colour that surrounds me at this present time.

I've been thinking a lot about valentines and mothers day gifts at the moment. I've never really targetted events before in my designs but feel that maybe this is the year to start.
Firstly i've been working on some photo frames. I worked my design in patchwork first and then proceeded to glue the fabric to the frame.
My second attempt i added padding between the frame and material which i think worked a lot better.
Before i can put these for sale tho i need to work on the reverse of the frame as it looks slightly messy at the moment!
For mothers day especially i've been working on this decorative cushion in my spare time this week and finally put the finishing touches to it at 2am this morning!!!
This is the first time i have done applique but i'm pleased with how the letters have come out.
Ive also never done patchwork on a machine before either and have always used the traditional method of wrapping squares of fabric around cardboard templates and handsewing each square together.


Also targetted at mothers day is this red pen/pencil case which can be personalised to suit the individual.

Making an appearance also this week in my red theme is this white and red spotted felt mobile phone case which is brilliant for protecting your phone and also so much easier to search for in your handbag!

Once again i can personalise these on my excellent Janome sewing machine.

Well that's all of MY makes but i'd love to show off the cushion that my sister made for me this christmas. I was so shocked when she said she had made it. I love it! Trouble is i now want 3 more!!

And finally to end this post i want to share with you one of my favourite ornaments. Despite it being rather christmasy i have it on display all year round because it's too lovely to be packed away.

Until next time

xxx