Five Days in Rwanda

Savoring the world only takes place when you all get along.

The world makes no sense without friendship.

-  Rwandan Proverb

This year, my husband and I completed a 20 year dream and got to visit the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. During our trip, we visited a local school that is supported by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and got to spend time with some truly inspiring children who touched our hearts and left us wanting to help them further. This school is the children's opportunity to be educated, learn English and make a better life for themselves.

With that in mind, we came up with the idea of creating a photo-book of our travels to share our experiences and give back to these beautiful children. We are looking for help to raise the funds to publish this high quality hardcover photo-book celebrating Rwanda and it's gorillas. If we reach our goal 90% of profits from sold books go directly to helping to support schools helped by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.  

Please click the link and visit our indiegogo campaign and consider donating to this wonderful cause.

http://igg.me/at/5daysrwanda

Thank you in advance for your contribution and support; even helping to spread the word is what helps to make crowd-funding work.  

We appreciate any and all help you can give us!

Paul and Nicola

Goodbye to Tex

We lost our beloved baby boy yesterday. It has hit us pretty hard as he got sick very quickly. We did our best to find out what was wrong and make it right but he was too weak to fight it. We are thankful that he passed peacefully in his sleep. He was only 6 years old. I miss his cwtches (cuddles). He was such a lover. My heart is very sad right now. I'm gonna take a break from here for a little while, I hope you understand.Sorry for keeping you waiting.

Hugs
Nic

India Quilt

Earlier this year my husband had to travel to India on a business trip. Before leaving he asked me if there was anything I would like for him to bring back with him. Of course my immediate answer was "FABRIC" LOL. I asked him to please get me approx 1 yard of at least 5 different fabrics. He did not disappoint. The fabrics he brought home were beautiful.

I made a few sketches of ideas for quilt tops. I wanted to do a large pattern to allow us to enjoy the fabric to the fullest. I chose to machine quilt it as I was rushing to finish it in time for my husbands birthday. It seemed only fitting that this quilt should be his seen as he had picked out all the fabric himself.

Thanks for looking

California Quilt

Back in 2010 the kids and I went to California to visit close friends. We took a little road trip with them while there through Yosemite and lake Tahoe. My friend is a quilter in fact she is the one that got me back into sewing. We stopped at a few quilt stores on our road trip route and I bought a few fabrics there that reminded me of our trip together. 

I left the fabrics I bought on the road trip with my friend and she said she wanted to turn them into a quilt for me. Fast forward a couple of years and my friend has had a couple more babies and moved house too. I figured that my quilt was probably low priority in amongst all the hustle and bustle of family life so I chased up my friend and offered to take the fabric as is so I could try and finish it myself. 

Lucky for me she had already started the process at some point because when she sent them to me she had the blocks already assembled. Now it was up to me to sew them together. I had a few more fabrics in my stash that I had brought back with me back then and hadn't gotten around to doing anything with them so I pulled them out and worked on strips to break up the blocks to show them off more. 

I then pieced together what I had leftover to make the back, including a strip of California fabrics that my friend had sewn together of all her remnants too. I used a different fabric for the binding along with a few of the smaller leftovers. I am over the moon with it and can confirm it is lovely and warm to snuggle up on the couch with. It was a joint effort across the country which I am so happy I got to do with my friend Lucy. Thank you Lucy xxxxx.

Poncho Request

Here is another poncho. very similar to the last one as my friends daughter liked hers so much she wanted one just like her mom. One minor difference is the owl I made to decorate this one as this special little girl loves owls.

Thanks for looking

Mushroom Baby Quilt

What do you make the baby of a video game designer?

Dear friends of ours are expecting their first baby. Hubby and I are very excited for them and I wanted to make them something special. We tossed around a few ideas before settling on a Mario mushroom.

It needed to feel soft and cuddly for baby so I used soft minky dot fabrics in black and white. For the other colors I got sesame street flannel. Can you spot cookie monster, Elmo and big bird?

I had to draw it out to begin with so I knew how many squares of each fabric I was going to need. turns out there was 320 so it took a while. The whole thing was hand sewn together and then hand quilted to finish. Once I found out it was a boy I was able to bind it in blue.

Thanks for looking

Lego Tower Bridge

We treated ourselves to another Lego set at Christmas. This one was a family project as there were thousands of pieces. It was lots of fun to spend time together at the dining table while sorting and building. The finished thing is now our dining table centerpiece and we get lots of comments on it from visitors.

Thanks for looking

Creeper Cushion and More

April has been a tough month. I have been syringe feeding our guinea pig after he had to have surgery for gall stones. His recovery has been a long slow road but we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. With that in mind I haven't really done anything creative this month so I am sharing a forgotten post about the cushions I made my kiddos for Christmas.

My son: I bought a pack of green fat quarters in various shades and I have some black fabric in my stash. My son loves mind craft and I thought it would be nice to make him a creeper cushion. I worked out a pattern in my notebook and cut out the fabric I needed. I used squares on the front but on the back to save time I used strips as it was the front that had the face of the creeper. My son loves it and sleeps with it every night.

My daughter: I couldn't leave my daughter out when I was making cushions. Her favorite animal is the panda and she loves the color pink. So I got a similar pack of fat quarters as I did for my son but this time in pink and found some awesome panda fabric online. I chose larger squares this time as I was not making a face and the finished cushion looks great in her room and she loves it too.

Thanks for looking

Bean Bag For Toys

Simple and not too fancy project. I got the idea from Pinterest. I had a 2 yard long piece of fleece. I folded it in half, right side in. Sewn down two sides and velcro sewn the length of the forth. For my son to store some of his cuddly toys in. He has so many and nowhere to put them. With the bag filled with soft toys he can also sit on it too.

Thanks for looking

Pinterest Poncho

This is a nice and easy poncho idea I found on Pinterest (my new favorite friend). The post originates from Jo-Ann's I think. I am posting the pinterest picture

I used to follow the pattern and at the top of the post a blurry picture of me modeling the poncho before sending it to one of my besties. Minimal sewing involved.

Thanks for looking

Quilted Flower Coasters

Back to an old favorite. My mum loved the Christmas coasters I gave her a while ago but did not like that she had to put them away once the season was over and couldn't use them year round so I decided to make her another set this time with pretty spring flowers that she can keep out year round. Daffodils are the welsh national flower and tulips are her favorite. She loves them and the fact that she doesn't have to put them away.

Tea Cozy

I'm not sure if many of you will remember when I made my sister a carrier bag holder a little while back. I had more of the same fabric and wanted to make her a tea cozy to match. Most members of my family my sister and her husband included drink a lot of tea so it made sense. It was the perfect Christmas gift for them and they loved it.

Thanks for Looking

Reversible Bag

On our last visit to the United Kingdom to visit family, my niece gave me some fabric that she had purchased to make something with but had never gotten around to. She didn't have time to make anything with it so I wanted to use some of it for something for her. I picked two fabrics from what I was given and made a reversible bag for her. That way she could choose which fabric she was in the mood for and change it when she wanted something different.

Thanks for Looking