Foxes for Murphy

Well, it's been a while since I last posted! I seem to lose 'creative steam' throughout the year, and it takes a long lot of holidays to get my energy back. I'm on annual leave at the moment and am looking forward to lots of crafting and lots of blogging - as well as some more improvements around the house.

I have two beautiful nephews. You were introduced to Marcel in the previous post, and today I am showing you some items I made for my two year old nephew, Murphy.

This quilt is a birthday present to Murphy and is from Kajsa Wikman's beautiful book 'Scandinavian Stitches'. It was my first attempt at free motion quilting, and I'm really pleased with the result. (Apologies for the wavy photo - I need to find a way to photograph bigger items - maybe peg them to the washing line?)

This lovely fellow is my first toy from Fiona Dalton's gorgeous book 'Hop Skip Jump'. He was Murphy's Christmas present, and the nose, in particular, was a big hit!

There are changes afoot in the flat. I have had a cupboard made to give me some much needed extra storage and am currently painting the kitchen. New taps went into the kitchen this morning, and tiling is to come.

 This sliver of wall has gone from this....

To this in less than a week. The cupboard cuts out quite a bit of light and the tiny kitchen will be painted the same shade of white to try and lighten things up a bit. That blank panel in the top right has shelves facing the kitchen to give me some more storage there too.

The cupboard needs to stay empty for a week to allow the paint to thoroughly cure, so I'm hoping in that time to make six mini quilts to fit the six bottom shelves. It's my aim to make and post one a day starting tomorrow... in between coats of paint in the kitchen. Wish me luck!

This is why the storage is necessary. My dining table has increasingly become my 'craft room', and I'm hoping all of this will go into the cupboard and free up the table for entertaining. And it will be nice to hide away the clutter. The flat is very small with one tiny bedroom and it's hard to keep things hidden away.

The ironing board has increasingly become a repository for craft stuff too, and I'm hoping to declutter that bookshelf as well! The new shelves are double depth and I ought to easily get all my paperbacks into the new shelves.

Speaking of paperbacks, I have just finished reading Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca' and what a thrilling ride it was! I got half way though and just could not put it down. It was discussed on the 'First Tuesday Book Club' and I was inspired to read it. I'm now keen to read more of du Maurier's books.

It won't be so long between posts. I have a few finished pieces to share, lots of time over the next few weeks and no excuses not to blog!