I've been a bit crafty this week !

A few weeks ago, I spotted a blogpost on Dragons & Fairydust that mentioned a crafts competition run by Hillarys. Back in the days before I had a blog (which means a whopping six years ago - how time flies !), I used to be a keen crafter, spending hours doing cross stitch and patchwork, all by hand. These days, the kids, the blog and the full time job all conspire against me so I just don't have the time any more but my sewing fingers were itching to get creative again, even if just for a one-off project.

Hillarys offered to send each entrant a piece of fabric from their new range of blinds and curtains fabrics to create their masterpiece. I opted for the stripey Hatti Raspberry motif because I thought the stripes could be used to create a very effective patchwork design using a diagonal checkerboard design. Now what to make? I decided to make something useful rather than just decorative so my first thought was to create a shoe tidy/wall hanger tidy (like the one I made here) because they're a great way of keeping everything at hand. However, time was short and I didn't really have enough of the fabric so I put my thinking cap back on.

Juliette came up with the perfect idea - "Mum, I need a new pillowcase and I don't want Barbie or Strawberry Shortcake any more". Hmmm your wish is my command ! How about this one, darling daughter?!

After sewing up a simple pillow case, I used the offcuts to spell out a little message for my Directioner daughter - can you read it? Yes, I heart 1D ! When she saw it, she squealed and ran off to her bedroom hugging it !

The whole thing only took about an hour to make (by hand - it would have been even less using a sewing machine) so it's inspired me to start crafting again, even if I won't be tackling anything as ambitious as my past projects. 

How did I ever find the time to create this quilt, all cut and sewn completely by hand !

Disclosure : I received the fabric in order to take part in the crafts challenge.