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Wednesday 31 December 2014

2015 Sewing Goals - link up with giveaway at PennyDog Patchwork

Kerry at PennyDog Patchwork has always got something up her sleeve. If you were following the Quilter's edition of Sew-vivor 2014 then you can't have missed her singing fish: Billy Bass Mini Quilt, with sound box! Brilliant!
When she asked to write about your top 5 sewing goals for the new sewing year, she got me thinking. I looked back on the past year and decided it's time to sew more for my family (and myself!). I have a load of WIPs and even more ideas for starting new projects. Five top goals? Here goes:


1. Catch up with my Bee Blocks
I am guilty! Yes, I admit it: I am totally off track with my bee blocks. 2015 will bee (sorry!) the year I catch up and keep up with my block making. It is so fun to try new blocks even though often it is also intimidating to sew for others (who aren't family!).





2. (Try) Sewing clothes
I would love to start with a skirt because I have some lovely fabric by Rashida Coleman-Hale from her Moonlit collection I would love to sew it into a skirt for myself! I've seen this pattern by Flamingo Toes and thought: "Wow, only 15 minutes to make it!". Even if it takes me four times the time, that's only one hour! I can manage that, can't I?! 

Easy 15 Minute DIY Skirt


3. Sew some wonderful patterns
I have just bought two of Aneela Hoey's latest patterns before the VAT tornado hits and I can't wait to try them out. I'm especially intrigued by the Pull out Boxes. I have a thing for matchboxes, as you can see from my Matchboxes Pinterest board, and these boxes remind me so much of them.

051 (2)


4. Invent and sew something fun
As William Morris put it: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful". Can I add fun too?

 Kawaii Ring Pin Cushion


5. Sew twin quilts for my daughters
OK, this was in my list of "to do things" for 2014 and all the fabric is still in the bag I originally put it in, untouched. No excuses here. Ella and Lucy are waiting (more or less) patiently! (in the photo detail of Cardigan Girls panel for Timeless Treasures, to be sewn...).
I'm planning on finding time to finish a few WIP quilts too. I want it to be a quilty year!



Let your dreams take flight in 2015
Happy and peaceful New Year!



PennyDog Patchwork


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Saturday 20 December 2014

Le Challenge: Ink Note Pouch (and a giveaway!)

I really like Le Challenge and every month I look forward to reading what Lucy and Nat come up with. When I read this month's Le Challenge was Ink my mind went completely blank. And when I say blank, I mean BLANK!
Then the day before the link up, I suddenly remembered a panel I made during a workshop at the Lago Maggiore Quilting Day this summer, using a kind of silk print technique called mono printing. As I desperately needed some way of keeping all the papers/bills/notes I carry around in my handbag tidy, this is what I came up with:



The Ink Note Pouch! The text panel is "framed" with wood grain fabric to look like a painting. It's funny, a fabric painting!


The lining is a tiny polka dot I used recently to make a mushroom. It makes the painting front look less serious!



For the back my Mum kindly donated one of her beautiful "vintage" pearl buttons. This one is particularly special as it is dark coloured instead of the usual white/cream pearl colour. The ric rac loop easily hooks on to the button, keeping all my mess of papers inside the pouch!



This pouch is going to be really useful and it has already brought me good luck as I (still can't believe it!) won a gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!



Thank you Lucy @ Charm about you and Nat @ Made In Home for all your hard work. Don't miss Nat's giveaway here, she's celebrating her Baby's first month!


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Le Challenge

Monday 15 December 2014

Giveaway Day Winner and new giveaways!

This season's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day has been our favourite one yet! It has been so fun dashing around with you from one blog to another, finding old and new friends. Some friends, we admit,  we had lost track of in the craze of activity of our corner of Blogland! So it has been great to catch up again. We are impressed by how generous everyone is and that we all really enjoy giving!

We would like to thank all those who passed by and left a comment. We're planning on making a fun statistic with your answers to our question:


What are you sewing at the moment or what is your next sewing project?


If you'd like to read about our fun Fall Bucket List Mobile click on this link. We made it for a very special contest...


And now, the winner of our giveaway is...




Congratulations Gill!

 We have sent you an email and will be sending your parcel in the post. So happy you have won because you have been following our blog for a long time!


And if you're still feeling in a giveaway mood don't miss visiting Lucy at Charm About You. She is holding an incredible giveaway with a Cotton+Steel bundle prize! 
Watch out for Mara's surprise giveaway starting Monday 15th of December on her blog Secretly Stitching.
If you're interested in winning sewing supplies, you can find more great giveaways on our Instagram profile, where we have reposted the Finish Along giveaway and other giveaways that catch our eye!


 Giveaway Day - Sew Mama Sew


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Tuesday 9 December 2014

Giveaway Day! - Sew Mama Sew

Welcome to Ella and Nesta's Little Room! If it's the first time you're visiting our blog let us introduce ourselves: we are a Mother and Daughter team living in Italy who enjoy quilting, sewing and craft in general. We love sharing our ideas with the wonderful sewing comunity and have a tutorials page with lots of fun projects. We hope you enjoy having a look around. To our friends, welcome back! It's great to have you here again and we love reading your comments!

We've been busy with some Autumn projects and for the first two decorations you can find the tutorials following the links below:


And now for the giveaway! We are giving away some craft supplies:

  • 4 fat eighths of pretty fabric
  • 2 reels of ribbon
  • 2 packets of Milward Cover Buttons (15mm and 22mm)




To have a chance of winning these pretty craft supplies all you have to do is:
  • leave a comment telling us what you're sewing at the moment or your next sewing project;
  • for followers, new and old, another chance of winning: leave a second comment telling us how you follow our blog! You can follow us on Pinterest and Instagram too.
The giveaway is open to everyone and we will post the prize anywhere in the world (if the post office lets us!), closing on Dicember 12 at 5 p.m. PST. Mr Random will then choose a winner who will be contacted by mail.


*****GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*****


Good luck!

Don't miss all the other fantastic giveaways at Sew Mama Sew!


 Giveaway Day - Sew Mama Sew


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Monday 8 December 2014

Fall Bucket List Mobile - Autumn Decoration

A contest to create a Fall Bucket List? I liked Alessia (at Alixia di Le Chat Gourmand)  and Alex's (at C'e' Crisi, C'e' Crisi!) idea straight away. I love writing lists, it helps make clear what I have in mind and lists are also useful for checking I haven't forgotten anything. I often take a dislike to a list though because I find it difficult to manage to complete all the things I've written on it. Then I get cross with my list! Bucket Lists instead are pure fun: a list of the things you'd like to do, your favourite things! So I thought that I needed a fun system to make this kind of list: the Fall Bucket Mobile.


Un contest per creare una Fall Bucket List? Mi è piaciuta subito l'idea di Alessia aka Alixia di Le Chat Gourmand e di Alex di C'e' Crisi, C'e' Crisi! Mi piace tantissimo scrivere liste, mi chiarisco le idee ed ho un anche un pro memoria da consultare ogni volta che mi serve. Le mie liste però spesso mi diventano "antipatiche" perchè è difficile che riesca a completare tutte le cose che metto in elenco. E allora mi arrabbio con la lista! I Bucket List invece sono puro divertimento: un elenco, stile americano, delle cose che ti piacerebbe fare, le cose preferite! E allora ho pensato che ci voleva un sistema divertente per creare questa lista: il Fall Bucket List Mobile.




A mobile with notes hanging from little wooden clothes pegs, tags that you can easily change. You can choose whether to switch the tags with new notes once you've completed the old ones or just change them next year. This Fall Bucket List becomes an Autumn decoration that can be reused every year.

Un mobile con delle scritte appese con piccole mollette in legno, dei tag facilmente intercambiali. Si può scegliere di sostituire i tag con nuove scritte una volta completate oppure cambiarle solamente l'anno successivo. Una Fall Bucket List che diventa decorazione per l'autunno e può essere riutilizzata ogni anno.


I really enjoyed myself making the acorns. I had found a few giant acorns with their "hat" still on and I made look alike acorns with green wool!

Mi sono divertita tantissimo a creare le ghiande. Avevo trovato qualche ghianda gigante completa di "cappello" e ho sostituito le ghiande con dei sosia in lana verde!




I was forgetting my list of 10 little things (because they're written on the back of the tags on the mobile too):
  1. Jump in puddles
  2. collect chestnuts
  3. eat a Sacher cake
  4. drink hot chocolate
  5. jump on a leaf pile
  6. collect acorns
  7. take photos of the lake
  8. hide under a woolly blanket
  9. eat roasted chestnuts
  10. warm up in front of the fireplace


Dimenticavo la mia lista delle 10 piccole cose (perchè sono scritte anche sul retro dei tag del mobile):
  1. Saltare nelle ponzaghere
  2. Raccogliere castagne
  3. Mangiare una Sacher
  4. Bere una cioccolata calda
  5. Saltare in una pila di foglie
  6. Raccogliere ghiande
  7. Fare foto al lago
  8. Nascondersi sotto una coperta di lana
  9. Mangiare caldarroste
  10. Scaldarsi davanti al camino


Thank you to Alixia and Alex for this great contest! I really enjoyed visiting the other lovely ideas for the Fall Bucket List - The Contest.


Grazie Alixia e Alex per questo bellissimo contest! Mi è piaciuto molto anche visitare le altre belle idee di Fall Bucket List - Il Contest.

10piccolecose - Fall Bucket List



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Monday 1 December 2014

Handmade Christmas: Giant Tag Decoration - Etichetta Gigante

I am very happy to be part of the Handmade Christmas event and to join the group of bloggers who form The Creative Factory, organised by Alex Bonetto at C'e' Crisi, C'e' Crisi! One of Alex's wonderful ideas has given way to this event which every day presents an original tutorial dedicated to Christmas, not to miss! I have the honour of opening the month of December with a tutorial to make a Giant Tag Decoration for your house.

Sono contentissima di fare parte dell'evento Handmade Christmas e del gruppo di blogger The Creative Factory, organizzato da Alex Bonetto di C'e' Crisi, C'e' Crisi! Dalla bellissima idea di Alex è nata un'iniziativa che dal 20 Novembre al 18 dicembre presenta ogni giorno un tutorial originale dedicato al Natale, da non perdere! Ho l'onore di fare da apripista per il mese di dicembre con un tutorial per realizzare una Etichetta Gigante per decorare la casa.



Here is what you will need to make the Giant Tag Decoration:
  • Burlap about 13.5x14 inches
  • Christmas fabric about 11x14 inches
  • Scraps of red and white fabric
  • Felt about 16x23.5 inches, about 0.1 inches thick
  • Eyelet about 0.5 inches in diameter
  • Burlap string about 39.5 inches long
  • Ribbon about 16 inches long

Ecco che cosa serve per creare l'Etichetta Gigante:
  • Tela di iuta 34x35 cm
  • Stoffa a tema natalizio 28x35 cm
  • Ritagli di stoffa rossa e bianca 
  • Feltro spessore 3mm, 40x60 cm
  • Occhiello diametro 14 mm
  • Corda di iuta 1 m
  • Nastro lunghezza 40 cm
  • Filo da ricamo
  • Eventuali campanellini, bottoni o altri elementi decorativi da aggiungere

To start, take the burlap and the Christmas themed fabric and sew them together along the 14 inch long side, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.


Per iniziare, prendete la tela di iuta e la stoffa a tema natalizio e cucitele insieme unendo i lati lunghi 35 cm (il margine di cucitura che uso è il famoso 1/4 di pollice del patchwork, circa 0,65 ma scegliete quello più comodo per voi!). 



Sew the ribbon (in the example I used for the tutorial, I used two different ribbons, each about 16 inches long) along the seam to hide it and to add a decoration to your tag.


Cucite poi il nastro (nell'etichetta del tutorial ho usato due nastri diversi, ognuno lungo 40 cm) in modo da coprire la cucitura ed aggiungere una decorazione alla vostra etichetta.


To make the Christmas ball decoration, cut strips of red fabric about 2x5 inches long and strips of white fabric about 1x5 inches long. Now sew them together, alternating red and white fabric. I used an iron-on adhesive for appliquè on the back but you can do without seeing as the appliquè is quite small. Draw the shape of the Christmas ball on paper and cut it out. Trace around the template and cut out the shape.


Per creare la decorazione della pallina di Natale, tagliare delle strisce di stoffa rossa alte 5 cm e larghe circa 12 cm e delle strisce di stoffa bianca alte 2 cm e larghe circa 12 cm. Adesso cucire insieme, alternandoli, le stoffe rosse e bianche. Ho stirato sul retro una pellicola biadesiva per appliqué ma si può anche fare senza visto che l'applicazione è piccola. Disegna sulla carta e ritaglia la forma della pallina. Traccia intorno alla forma e ritaglia la stoffa.


On the burlap using embroidery thread (without dividing the threads!) write the word you've chosen using cross stitch. I counted 6 spaces on the burlap for every stitch. There are a lot of free words and alphabets for cross stitching on Internet, so you can have fun choosing which to use.


Sulla tela di iuta usando il filo da ricamo (senza dividere i fili!) scrivete con il punto croce la parola desiderata. Ho contato 6 fori nella tela per fare ogni punto della croce. Ci sono molte scritte ed alfabeti con il punto croce disponibili gratuitamente su internet, quindi potete sbizzarrirvi.


Make a template for the tag shape using baking paper, cut it out and fold it in half to check it's symmetric. Draw the shape of the giant tag on the fabric, checking the position through the baking paper. Now place the fabric on top of the felt and tack or use pins to fix in place.


Create un modello dell'etichetta sulla carta da forno, ritagliandola e piegandola a metà per controllare che sia simmetrica. Disegnate il modello dell'etichetta sulla stoffa con una penna cancellabile, controllando la posizione in trasparenza attraverso la carta da forno. Adesso appoggiate la stoffa sopra il feltro ed imbastite oppure fissate bene con gli spilli.


Sew all around the fabric following the line drawn using the tag template. Cut the felt and fabric about 1/2 inch from the seam. Sew around the Christmas ball decoration, trying to stay as close to the edge as possible. Now find the centre of the tag folding it in half and cut a little cross where you will insert the eyelet.


Cucite tutto intorno seguendo il disegno dell'etichetta che avete riportato sulla stoffa. Tagliate ad una distanza di 1 cm dalla cucitura la stoffa ed il feltro in eccesso. Cucite intorno alla pallina di Natale, cercando di stare il più possibile vicino al bordo. Adesso trovate il centro dell'etichetta piegando a metà e tagliate una piccola croce dove volete inserire l'occhiello.



Once you've fixed the eyelet, you just have to fold the burlap string in half and pass it through the eyelet to hang up your Giant Tag Decoration!


Inserito l'occhiello, basterà piegare a metà la corda di iuta ed inserirla nell'occhiello per appendere la vostra Etichetta Gigante!



And here is your Giant Tag to decorate the front door or to use as a fun "place card" for Christmas. You can write the name of your guest to make a "place card" to take home as a souvenir of a special day!


Ed ecco la vostra Etichetta Gigante per decorare la porta di casa oppure anche come simpatico segnaposto a tavola. Basta sostituire la scritta con il nome dell'invitato per creare un segnaposto da portarsi a casa come ricordo di una giornata speciale!


Don't miss the incredible tutorials The Creative Factory is presenting every day. Here are the bloggers joining Handmade Christmas, with lots of ideas from Home Decor to presents:


Non perdetevi gli incredibili tutorial che The Creative Factory sta sfornando tutti i giorni. Ecco le blogger di Handmade Christmas, con tantissime idee dal Home Decor ai regali:

Alessandra di Daisy Garden | Alex di C’é Crisi Bogomilla di Bogomilla Hopp Kids| Barbara di Accidentaccio | Carmen di Lo dico Lo faccio | Daniela diDecoriciclo| Diana Ingrid di Artedim | Emanuela di  My little inspirations | Froda diFroda Creazioni | Giulia di Extreme cera persa Iole di Ai piedi del carrubo | Kiki  e Illy di  Case per la testa Laura di  I colori di Laura | Laura D di A very Laurie blog |Linda di Mami Gio’ | Manu e Flavia di Genitorialmente Mara  di My Icecream Parlour | Marica e Tina di  I fiori di Marica Marzia di La Taverna degli Arna |Nesta e Ella di Ella & Nesta's Little Room | Norma di  Voglio il mondo a colori |Ombretta di A Sunday morning with | Roberta di Colori Idee Creatività | Sara di Il blog di Maryanne | Silvia di Ma Petite Maison | Silvia di Fancy Hollow | Silvia diTine the Lazy | Simona di Me & Design |Stefania di Il castello Incantato | Veronica B  di Le creazioni di Ivy

Handmade Christmas

And there is more! Don't miss the three Linky Parties with ideas and tutorials to make "DIY presents", "Creative Projects" and to find shops for "Handmade presents".

E non è finita! Non perdetevi i tre Linky Party con altre idee e tutorial per realizzare "Regali fai da te", "Progetti Creativi" e trovare negozi per "Regali fatti a mano"


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