Here's the good news and the bad news...

The good news is I shall no longer waste precious time with making bias tape, because, that's right, I went to my favourite shop and bought THIS!!!!

Clover Bias Tape Makers

Aren't they lovely? I bought the 50mm and the 25mm, which I think are the two sizes I'll use more, smaller than that is just too small for my taste. Haven't really tried it yet and I think it will be challenging to learn how to do it properly but once it's mastered, it will be such a great addition to my quilting routines...

And now for the bad news. I have been meaning to learn how to quilt with a free motion foot, but unfortunately I was told today that I can't really do it with my little sewing machine. As you might remember, I have a John Lewis Mini JL Sewing Machine and apparenty the Bernette free motion foot the shop had is just to darn tall for my little machine. And I was meaning to use it on my Christmas Twinkle Collection, but now I guess I will have to think of another way of quilting the items in a cute and proper way. Also, I guess I will have to start thinking about buying a new adult-sized sewing machine, which is a bummer not only because they are expensive but also because I really love my mini sewing machine, it is so cute, I brought it to the shop to try on the free motion foot and everybody loved it, it was like a small pupy or a baby... My baby :(

As you can see...

...my Mushi approves :)

Christmas Twinkle Collection

Like the new name? I figured it sounds better than christmas project :)
So anyways, I've been telling you all about how I had to dismantle what I already have, I've shown you the befores so now I give you a glimpse of the afters.

I'm sorry I haven't had the time to press them yet, but I think it already shows a lot of improvement. So there you have it, the result from my one week vacation :)
About the Christmas Twinkle Collection, I think I can tell you a bit more about it without spoiling any surprises. So basically seven of my closest friends and family will receive an item from my Christmas Twinkle Collection (my, how fancy it sounds!) None is alike, and I use two different types of patterns. It's my most ambitious project yet, so we'll have to see how it goes... Christmas is so close now I can almost smell it! But before that, we have chestnuts!!!! Anyways, I'm rambling... wish me luck!

Directly from Belgium...

My very own Smurfette :) Thanks bidiii! :)

Oh!!

My precious!

... by the way, in the meantime I managed to buy some new fat quarters... I'm out of contrrroooolllll!!!

Also with christmas in mind...

There is a second type of project I'm working on for Christmas, a more challenging, more creative project, just the way I like it. Here's a sneak preview of what it looks like right now.

lovely isn't it? :)

Also, as soon as I get all of these projects under control, I've decided I'll do a Christmas tablecloth. We have one, it's a needle point Christmas tablecloth I made when I was about 16. So now, so many years later, it's getting really worn out and I figure I might as well retire it and allow it to rest, it has served us well! :)

The before...

Just to make sure we're clear on why I started my Christmas projects over.
This is the before...

 As you can see, really short on fabric diversity, squares randomly set (which they still are sort of, except now I have more fabrics to choose from).

Tomorrow I'll try to post a few pictures of the after :)

Such a Perfect Day!

So today we planned somewhat of a touristic day out. We visited downtown Lisbon which is lovely this time of year. Also there are a couple of fabric and supply shops over there that were totally worth the visit :)
For starters, I managed to buy the filling I needed for half the price.
And, of course, I bought some more fabrics :) All in all it was a ver productive day. Too bad I have such a huge headache!

Lovely and half the price. Perfect combination!

More fabric

Buying fabric is actualy quite addictive. Also, i'm struggling with the fact that I'll have to cut into the fabrics eventually! So on friday I visited my favourite fabric shop and bought a couple of Christmas fabrics my favourites from the Christmas charm pack I bought a couple of weeks ago. This way I'll be able to complement the projects.