Happy Birthday

Birthday card
Originally uploaded by Cloth cat

Can't believe how quickly it has come round, but my little daughter is now one! The last year just seems to have flown by. It feels a little sad as I don't really feel like I had the time to enjoy my time off with her like I did with my first one, but I guess that's just the way that it goes when you've got more than one little one to contend with.

Anyway I thought the occasion deserved to be marked with something special - I've been itching to have a go at making one of these machine embroidered cards since I got a copy of Poppy Treffry's 'Free and Easy Stitch Style' for christmas (a great book by the way - I would reccomend it to anyone wanting to have a go at this style of machine embroidery/applique). I thought it was a great idea to cover the whole card with fabric - I've seen lots before which just have a little embroidered or appliqued motif stuck to the front of the card, but covering the whole card with fabric gives it a really nice finish and has the bonus of making a good dent in my fabric stash too. Assuming I can find the time, I can see myself making quite a few more of these especially as I have a number of birthdays coming up in the near future.

New resoloutions

Well last year I started with no resoloutions so I can truthfully say I didn't fall behind on any of them! This year though I'd like to try and get a bit more done on the crafting front so I was delighted to see that Helen has started A Make a Month group on flickr Crafting 365 certainly ain't going to happen for me, but I think one make a month is a nice achievable target to set and if I manage more then so much the better.

I had already planned to make a taggie blanket as a birthday present for my little girl who will be one in February and is starting nursery soon (yikes - where has the time gone)! She seems to be rather taken with blankies at the moment so I decided to take the plunge and buy some minkie to make one. Originally I was planning to make a patchwork one with some lovely Liberty Tania Lawn fabric I bought recently, but after taking stock I realised I'd never get it done in time so I raided my stash of Japanese prints and found this adorable fabric which I hadn't quite known what to do with.