It has been a busy week.......but I am back

Hello all my lovely Friends, I hope you are all well.  It seems ages since we last spoke and I was hoping to write a post earlier this week but work was particularly busy unfortunately.  I hope you have had a good week and enjoyed some fun and relaxation.  I have been doing some work though on my giveaways in order to have them ready for posting to two winners.  My blog is one year old on the 5th May so I will have the draw then to see who are the winners so there is still time to put your votes into the box by making a comment.  I have logged everyone who has already commented so thank you for taking the time to do this.

 

One of my lovely daughter-in-laws love a programme called Downton Abbey, I must confess I have never watched it myself and for a long time thought it was called Downtown Abbey!  She has loved the programme since the first episode and followed it religiously.  When I heard that they were bringing out some fabrics related to it I wanted to get my hands on some.  I know that it is a big range but was keen to have the name on the fabric and won this on Ebay.  I do like it and there was more than enough for a cushion for her.  However I wanted to make it very special so got hold of her favourite photograph of the little Peeps with their Dad (my Son) and asked the lovely Sarah from Molly Felicity Designs on Etsy.  I was so pleased with the photograph and she had put on a little message for me as you can see below.  The photograph was taken outside a stately home so it was highly appropriate for the fabric.

 

 

Rachel from my sewing class sells small pieces of Liberty fabric for £1.50 which are such good value and I picked this lovely design for the ties and the inner sections of the cushion.  As always I was following the lovely Lillyblossom pattern which is so useful and easy.  I am so comfortable with this pattern now and can even do it without checking the pattern - real progress for me.  I hope you like the Liberty design, I think it just fits in with the era.

 

 

This is the back of the cushion and you can see the full design of the fabric, it was such good quality and so easy to sew.  I think that this range is particularly popular in the USA in the quilting circles.

 

 

The photograph below shows the lining fabric a little more closely.

 

 

I had some scraps left over so had a go at making a little brooch and I should get two of these out of what is left which is not bad for £1.50 outlay.

 

 

 

After reading the wonderful Daisy's blog about making Tilly's Coco top I really want to have a go myself.  Great excitement yesterday when the pattern finally arrived so I have to go out and buy some fabric, am really nervous about it as I am not sure about working with this type of material - any hints would be warmly welcomed.

 

 

 

The pattern says medium knit fabric so I am not sure what I am looking for - I am going to try and make the sleeved top without the collar to start with...............so fabric shopping in order sometime soon.

 

 

Now how is the giveaway getting on?  I am sorry about the quality of the photographs today as the light was just awful.  Below is the inside of the second bag - I am using a 1930 tray cloth which I had to trim to get the best out of it.  It is a sweet little design which I thought would look nice.  I have put a couple of hearts in the outer fabric to try and bring inside and outside together.

 

 

 

Below is the second part of the inner bag.  The zip is not perfect but I am trying!

 

 

I love this fabric - it is a tea towel as usual but a Sanderson print and really reminds me of the Festival of Britain era - just after WW2 in the early 1950s when there was a huge surge of British designs available. These are now very popular and I love the work of Wayne Hemmingway who is a lover of this era.  I hope you all like it.

 

 

I have tried a new method with my zips after all the tears and frustration.  Rachel thinks that I will cope with this type a little better, I hope you agree.  I am going to start to embellish it now in readiness for the giveaway so watch this space.

 

 

Well lovely Folks I want to apologise to my fellow bloggers as I have not had time to keep up to date with your posts but I intend to do this over the weekend.  I hope you have a good evening/day depending on where you are in our wonderful world.  Keep safe, be happy and I will see you all very soon.  Big hugs and loves to you all, Dorothy :-)xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx