My Mum is a very clever lady.  She’s been almost glued to her sewing machine these past few weeks, making toys for both display in my shop and for our friends’ children. But she’s also been coming up with lots of nice little things for Christmas.  These placemats are one of her ideas.

She used the gold stars fabric for the main part and then cut borders from a piece of the Novelty Borders Christmas Fabric.  She sewed them together and used some special heat resistance wadding. She backed them with a piece of the Classic Stripe Christmas Fabric.

The other day I came across these cute ideas about what to do with left over fabric.  They seem quick and easy to do, ranging from a patchwork cushion to hair accessories to small toys.

http://www.allaboutyou.com/craft/sewing-crafts-craft-ideas-fabric-scraps/v1

Just thought someone might be interested!

Anybody knitting a gift for their Mum this Mother’s Day?  I’m not, but I am giving her some lovely fat quarters that she admired when we went to a Quilting exhibition a couple of weeks ago.

Did I tell you about that exhibition?  I don’t think I did!

It was a really nice morning out at a quilting show in Exeter.  It was a small show, but all our favourite fabric suppliers were there and I ended up buying lots of pretty fat quarters and some fun fabric for making some bags with.  Mum signed up for a block a month quilt project too, which she’s looking forward to starting.

I got back from India on Sunday. It was an interesting trip and although I didn’t get to see many sites, I think I got a good flavour of Indian life. The area I visited was quite different from the usual images of places like Delhi or Mumbai which are colourful and hectic. I was up in a town called Kalimpong in the foothills of the Himalayas, near the Nepal border, where life is slightly slower. I also visited Darjeeling (v. disappointing) and a remote village called Lamagaon which only got electricity two years ago.

I did look to see if there was any interesting yarn available and I did spot a couple of yarn shops but they only sold brightly coloured acrylic stuff. I did however get some lovely Tibetan fabric. Can’t remember the proper name of it now, but I think I will use it to make some bags of various sizes, a Bible cover and things like that. It was only about £1 a metre and I loved the patterns. Cutting fabric and sitting at a sewing machine is quite a scary prospect though!!

I got back to see that my parents had decorated the house and Mum had made some mince pies… yum! I need to sort out what Christmas presents I have and if I need to buy any more before the Christmas deadline at Amazon! I have work all week and I’m going to a friend’s wedding on Saturday so don’t have anytime to get to the shops before Christmas Day! I must finish my brother’s Starsky cardigan this week too before he comes home on Sunday.

It is decidedly cold here in the UK too and it was a bit of shock when we landed at Heathrow yesterday. Not as cold as it is in some parts of the US though – the snowstorm pictures look amazing. It reminds me of when we spent Christmas in Vermont a couple of years ago. It makes me want to go back but I’ve already got all my annual leave booked up next year with trips to a Christian conference in North Wales, Malawi and Singapore, all of which will be great, but I do love going to the US.