I’ve heard of shrinky Dinks on a TV show and was really wondering how it worked. Bought some on amazon and thought I’d do it with my youngest. It was awsome! we had so much fun watching the plastic curl up and shrink in the oven.

I really feel cheated as I never had the chance to try that as a kid! I printed some Auctonauts characters for my son and printed some sewing design for me, a bow, a chandelier, and a “pow” word.

We drew on the plastic, colored in, punched a hole, we then cooked it for a few minutes et voila!

we made a few earrings and some key rings.

Hours of fun and something to show for it, what a great afternoon!

I am back from holiday  and want to show you where I was. I used to go there often when I was younger with my parents but I had forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful it is. Robert Stevenson wrote a book of his travel there with a donkey called: “Travel with a donkey in the Cevennes”.

We went to a little town in the Cevennes called Florac in the south of France.

We stayed in the VVF where we were warmly welcomed. The holiday village was just what we wanted; nice accommodation, plenty of space for children to play safely, great staff, swimming pool, lots of games to borrow… We were at the bottom of a mountain so the environment was just dreamy. The weather was absolutely fantastic which was a lovely change from all the bad weather we were inflicted.

That’s the view we had from the swimming pool…..

It was a very active holiday which never happened before with two young children and we really enjoyed it. We went hiking a bit everywhere in the area. there are many different hiking trails and you can find all the maps at the tourism office in Florac. they were really helpful. We chose the small trails walking about 4.5km with the children. They really enjoyed it, holding the map and playing guide. we met shepherds and their herd, horse riders, donkeys…It was a delight and we are now very motivated to go hiking in the English countryside.

We also went to a place called “Le Vallon du Villaret”. It’s a massive park in the middle of the forest where the children can enjoy many different activities and art. It was amazing, fun, beautiful and really original.

We found lots of different hidden places to go swimming in the Tarn. We bought the kids some fishing nets and that kept them occupied for hours. I just cannot describe the beauty that was surrounding us.

One of the most memorable experience we had was when we went canoeing in the Gorges du Tarn. We went with friends we made at the village and we really had a good time, lots of laughing, swimming and paddling! I truly recommend it.

We also ate at the best restaurant in Florac called “Cuisine les trois roches” . The tables were rustic and few meaning the atmosphere was relax and intimate. You could also feel that the boss was passionate about healthy organic local good food. It was all about taste and healthy true food. the waitress was lovely and the boss nice but not overwhelming.

So all in all we had a brilliant time and 2 weeks was not long enough! now we’re back and my eldest is away at his grand parents in France having a good time in Belle-Ile and I’m spending some quality time with my youngest enjoying his company and doing what he feels like doing. It’s just so nice to slow down…

I got a new sewing machine for my birthday on Monday!! It’s a Frister and Rossman professional. I’ve never used an electric one before, it was always manual so it took me a while to understand how it functions. Especially as the manual is translated from German in a very odd way. So my geek helped me and decided that the manual was easy to understand as it was written by Yoda (“start button will no action to operate”). Hmm…. I still need to understand the tension bit as my thread from the bottom bobbin is not tight enough  even when I change the tension. If anyone has an idea I’m all ears!

I had lots of accessories coming with it and presser foot i didn’t even know existed! I’m going to have fun!

It does lots of stitches, simple ones and really crazy stuff that I don’t know when I’ll use them but they’re really cute:

I was so happy I had to make a quilt! I decided to rummage through my stash of fabrics and found loads of lovely fabrics I had forgotten were there! I made a baby quilt for my son’s teacher who will be having a baby boy soon:

Love the bright colors for a baby:

 I’m off for a couple of weeks hunting the sun! Have a happy sewing holiday everyone!

I know I couldn’t find another title… I’m open to suggestions!

As promised I finally manged to finish my tutorial and to actually blog about it!

I think it’s important for kids to learn how your body functions, what’s inside and how it works why. So I came up with this idea to make an apron where you could stick the main organs on. If you’re squeamish turn away from your computer now!

So here is what you’ll need:

A stash of different colored fabrics, different colored threads, the organ templates, a meter of felt, and some sew on Velcro tape and your sewing equipment.

Start by cutting the organs from the templates, and trace around the templates on your fabrics:

now sew a small rough side of the Velcro onto your fabric:

now fold your fabric and start sewing on the drawn line leaving a small gap to stuff the wadding in:

Stuff it with wadding but not too much it needs to stay quite flat:

Cut around and with satin stitch sew all the way round again:

Do the dame for all of the remaining organs:

using the felt fabric cut a strip (it doesn’t matter the width) and sew on it a piece of Velcro:

in the middle sew a piece of soft side of the Velcro:

you can now attach the brain:

now fold your felt in two and cut a larger piece of the  remaining felt (about the width of your child)

no on the folded edge using a small plate trace half a circle or even smaller:

and now cut on your drawn line:

now decide where the organs will be placed and pin some soft pieces of Velcro onto the felt:

sew them on and place your organs on them. Et voila! you’re done!

I know I haven’t been blogging for the past month or so, I know I should have and trust me I wasn’t thumb twiddling.

I’ve been caught up by life planning birthdays for my geek and kid, I’ve been filling up application form for jobs and not getting them so I spent a week crying, Went to so many school trip/sports day/and I can’t remember what else, I’ve been reading THE book, I’ve been working (because, you know, other wise no money to spend on shoes, bags, fabrics and other essentials), I’ve been planning my holiday (I know life’s too tough), I’ve been cleaning my fridge and kitchen-whoop-whoop!, and I’ve been volunteering at school and at the family center. SOoooo I’m exhausted and really fancy a break!

In the meantime I received the awsome chevron fabric that I have been dreaming about for ever. I think I went a bit mad because I had to buy the fabric from America and ended up paying more for P&P than for the fabric itself…. And I can’t even say I have more money than sense because I don’t have more money….

But look it’s just too beautiful!

I also bought the most amazing book called 99 modern quilt blocks.

I meet up with my sewing friends on Tuesday evenings and we sew/chat/bitch/giggle. We’re off to the Birmingham quilt show (oh yeah!) and this year they all presenting a quilt except me. So next year we decided that each one of us will make a sampler quilt and we will sew it together to make a huge quilt to present at the show. I cannot wait to choose the fabric and get started.

here are a few of my favorite blocks:

In between all the stuff I’ve been doing I managed to make a small kids tutorial. It’s all about  the body and it will be coming soon, hopefully tomorrow! here’s a preview pic:

So now I need to help tidy up the living room because there’s a Playmobil invasion…..

Oh and by the way, I love that you all come and visit my little blog but I’d love even more to hear from you! it’s a lovely feeling to receive messages from viewers! Any ideas for a modern block to make a modern quilt?