Happy Birthday Mum

Today is my Mum's birthday so I've made and posted to her this reversible apron beautifully modelled here by Flicky.

I picked out three fabrics at Purl Soho, Manhattan:

two of the fabrics are 70% cotton/30% silk blends from the Liberty Art Fabrics collection -
Willows Garden Portsea Place Voile (blue & red) inspired by photos of a wild garden of daisies, and William Morris’s wonderful ‘Willow’ wallpaper;

and June's Meadow B Portsea Place Voile originally hand drawn in pencil on Tresco: a meadow of cut specimens from the Abbey Garden.  A small idyllic family owned island 28 miles South of Cornwall, Tresco is one of the 5 inhabited of about 200 Scilly Isles;

and the third fabric is Robert Kaufman Essex Linen 55% linen/45% cotton blend in Navy.

Here's a closer look at some of the detail:

buttonhole adjustable neck tie

long bow ties to allow for back or front fastening

pocket frills and bias tape bound edges

 embroidered pocket edge and my small label detail.

frilled pockets lined with the Liberty apron backing fabric.

And here's the back of this reversible apron

front fastened bow

 appliqued name detail just in case Mum forgets who she is ;)

 my large label detail with care instructions on the reverse.

And another shot of Flicky who was soooo cold during this photo shoot.  It was minus something with an icy March wind but she wore the light jeans and t-shirt so the apron could be the star of the show and she kept hurrying off the balcony back into my bedroom to try to get warm again - what a trooper!!!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and hopefully Mum will love it too.

Happy Birthday Mum xxx

Disclaimer: 
This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

A Weekend Update

To round up my week, in one of my last posts I told you I was going to spend the day sewing - and I did. I made a baby quilt but, having machine sewn the binding to the front I've decided not to hand bind the back until I've got myself some labels professionally made - I've been meaning to do this for so long and it's time to get myself sorted.  Set about it on Friday but it turned out to be a much bigger task than I'd anticipated so this quilt may not be bound for a while yet!

So here's a quick peek at where I'm up to

I'm also trialling a larger font for my posts.  I was reading a post by Julie of Jolie Maxtin and she asked for feedback on her blog - everyone was incredibly positive about her great blog but one comment was that the text was a bit small, and I did rather agree.  Quickly checked my own blog and realised my text is the same size, hence my experiment in larger text. Let me know what you think: should I keep it this size or go back to my original format; does it make my posts seem way too long; and any other comments please?


I'm still trying to catch up with Plum & June's Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop - having joined late I've still got 6 blogs left to visit to get me on track.

This week I've visited the following blogs and can recommend you take a look at them too:

Book Cover tutorial by Taryn of From Pixels to Patchwork

Novelty print charm square patchwork ruffle skirt by Em from Sewing by Moonlight

Little Artist Backpack by Svetlana of Sotak Handmade

School Rules Mini Quilt Tutorial by Beth of Plum and June (and our fab host on this blog hop :) )

A Quick and Easy Placemat by Julie from Jolie Maxtin

Pot Holder and Oven Mitt Tutorial by Lori from Adventures in Fabric

Yesterday my daughter, F, and I spent the afternoon over at Toni & Guy in Hoboken.  When we moved over to the States we were worried about who we'd get to do our hair having had the same fab hairdresser back in England for many years and realising that it just wasn't practical to contemplate flying him over every six weeks, even if he had become my best friend (I'm sure all you ladies know just what we must have been feeling).  Anyway, we needn't have worried - we headed up to Toni & Guy (as it's such a known English brand we hoped we couldn't go too wrong) and it's the best thing we did since we arrived in the US (alongside from me learning to quilt and getting Tatty, our dog) .  F's hair is coloured by Jess then Peter cuts it and my hair is cut by Whitney.  The salon is fabulous, ultra modern and spotlessly clean and the staff are amazing and friendly and look after you brilliantly - on top of which the haircuts are fantastic.

F modelled for them at their recent Freedom collection promotion - and we had a great night out at the event.

F, centre stage with Zak Mascolo, Creative Director, T&G USA who cut her hair

F, looking fab :)

In the audience, two proud parents :)

So this time, F, decided to go for a really short cut, I've wanted her to do it for a few years now - she had her hair in a pixie cut when she was very small and looked great so I thought it would really suit her.  Jess put some great platinium blonde through her hair and Peter gave her the most WOW haircut, what do you think?!

I know she's my daughter but I think she's stunning x

I keep going back to my Dad's shirts - it's taking me so long to cut them back to flat, usable fabric - I think this bit will take longer than actually making the quilt, anyway it makes sure I'm never idle!