Hilltop House

Yippee... the wait is over

I am very excited to share my newest design with you, which is appropriately titled “Candy Girl Party Bags”!!

For those overseas ladies who are reading, in Australia it is customary to give a small bag filled with lollies or candy to each child that comes to your birthday party. The bag is often a plastic one and is thrown in the garbage afterwards.

I think you would have to agree that these bags are definitely much nicer than the usual plastic ones and they would put a smile on any little girl's face!!

Each bag is fully lined and once the lollies have been eaten, the bag can be re-used for something special. There are four designs to choose from so if you can't decide which one is your favourite, why not make them all?? 

Now here comes the fun part....... the GIVEAWAY!!!!

Just leave me a comment telling me which design is your favourite (heart, cupcake, flower or butterfly) and on Tuesday, 14 July I will draw out 2 names who will each receive a free pattern.

I said this giveaway would be EXTRA special so I am going to draw out 1 more name and that lucky person will receive a free pattern AND their very own favourite party bag made by me in their choice of colours!!

I hope you will join in J

Evonne xx

A little piece of eye candy for you today!!

My new pattern coversheets are back from the printers and they look fantastic!!   

The photo does not do the artwork justice but here is a close up of the butterfly at the top.

As you can see, I have changed my blog banner to coincide with my “new look” and I will be making a few more small changes to my blog which you will see over the next week.

I would also like to say thank you to those ladies who have been patiently waiting for me to release my new pattern and you won't have to wait too much longer now J 

See you soon J

Evonne xx

Small snippet

As promised, I am back to share a small snippet of my newest design with you.

I can’t give too much away at the moment but I think you will have to agree that the colours and textures of this new design are so pretty and refreshing.

The pattern writing is almost finished so I will be back very shortly with a few more surprises for you!!

See you soon.

Evonne xx 

Friendship blessings from afar

I was recently asked by my very dear friend Simone, from the Netherlands, to have a swap with her and we would each make 1 or 2 handmade items for each other.

I was absolutely delighted when Simone’s beautiful gifts arrived in the mail. She made this gorgeous wall hanging for me using an Ursula Schertz stitchery design and a woollen heart that reads ‘friendship warms the heart”.  Simone does the most beautiful embroidery and I am truly blessed to have received these lovely gifts from her.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the gifts that I made for Simone so please visit her blog if you would like to have a look.

In other exciting news, I am still working on some new designs for my catalogue but I will be having an EXTRA special giveaway in the next week for another new pattern.  I will be back very soon to show you a sneak peak and I am sure you are going to love it!!

See you soon J

Evonne xx

Easter lovliness

My children went off to school today with some easter lovliness for their teachers and friends.

I had lots of trouble coaxing this little gold bunny out.... but he was very pleased when he found out his new home was this gorgeous pretty pink bag!! I am really loving making these drawstring bags at the moment and can't get enough of them:) 

Nicholas was so proud to give his teacher something mummy made. Emily has a male teacher so unfortunately there was no prettiness worth photographing!!

I also made these aster egg bon bons for Emily and Nicholas to give to their friends.

It was both economical and quick to put together so if you would like to make some, this is what I did.

Cut out some rectangles from clear or coloured cellophane. Put 2 or 3 small eggs in, roll them up and twist each end. It is that simple!! You could jazz it up by adding some curling ribbon or a bunny sticker.

Thank you to everyone that commented on the party bags that I made in my last post. I did get all of them finished in time but I was only able to take a couple of photos before the batteries in my camera went flat so this is the only decent photo of the finished bags that I can share with you.

I kept it very simple for the boys bags by stitching each child's initial to a square of felt. Three of the boys were around the age of 9 or 10 so I don't think they would have appreciated a dinosaur or fire truck stitched to the front of the bag!!!

I have already had a couple of orders for some more of these party bags so it looks like you will be seeing some more in the months ahead:)

This next picture is of the road out the front of my house last Saturday. A huge amount of rain fell in such a short time and the stormwater drains could not cope with the volume of water so the road soon turned to a raging river!! As our house sits lower than the road, we were momentarily faced with the possibility of a flooded house. Lucky for us the rain stopped and receded fairly quickly. 

I hope you all have a safe and happy easter.

Best Wishes, Evonne xx

Boring sewing and FUN sewing

Lots has been happening here since my last post and, to be honest, I didn't plan on being away for this long so I am very happy to be typing this post.

Now to fill you in on what I have been up to... 

The majority of my time lately has been taken up with some volunteer work that I am doing at my children’s school and it has turned out to be a very timely project. The second hand uniform shop was in desperate need of some attention so I offered to lend a hand. Almost 90% of the uniforms needed to be mended in some way and then all of them had to be washed and ironed. I have also been opening the shop up for half an hour each morning as well. Then each Friday I take all the donated items home to be mended, washed and ironed. As much as I enjoy sewing, I find mending to be very boring and I would much rather be working with some pretty colours and textures instead!!

However, I have managed to do some FUN sewing in between all this 'boring' stuff. I made these 4 quilt blocks and some binding for the Victorian Bushfire Orphan Blocks appeal. I used a chunky log cabin design for these blocks and made 2 in soft girly pastels and 2 in bright boyish colours. If you would like to help out with this appeal, please visit the lovely Janet at Wildcraft Farm to find out all the details. 

Back in January, on the morning of Emily's birthday party, I decided to make some drawstring lolly bags. They turned out really nice, despite the stress I put myself under to have them finished in time!! Anyway, one of the mothers commented on how pretty they were and asked if I would be interested in making some for her daughter’s birthday party in April!!! So last week I made 10 of these gorgeous lolly bags.

Most of the fabrics I used were from the Ava Rose collection but I mixed them up with some other pretty prints from my stash. I decided to make the bags extra pretty using some felt, paper flowers, glitter and covered buttons. Here are some close up shots of the extra prettiness.

When I phoned to say that the bags were ready she asked me if I could make 13 more!! Yikes..... better get cracking. I am so glad I am only making the bags and not supervising the party!!

I have also made another 4 blocks for Emily's and Nicholas' quilts but I will have to share these with you another time as I have to get these lolly bags finished by Friday.  

Thanks for visiting.

Best wishes, Evonne xx

My first tag!!

I am pretty excited because I have received my very first tag from the lovely Simone in the Netherlands.  Since I started blogging I have met some really kind and thoughtful women who share my passion for sewing and creating and I am very proud to have Simone as one of my friends.

Now the rules of this award are to list 8 random facts about myself and then pass this award on to 8 blogging friends and let them know you have tagged them.

Okay, here are 8 random facts about me!!

1.       I am a tea drinker and I loooooooove to drink Earl Grey tea.

2.       My favourite flowers are pink roses and camellias.

3.       I have always driven a Holden car.

4.       My shoe size is 8½.

5.       My favourite fragrance is Youthdew by Estee Lauder.

6.       I got braces put on my top teeth when I was 18.

7.       I sleep on the right hand side of our bed.

8.       The colour of my mobile phone is red.

So there you go, now you know a little more about me!!

Rather than pass this award on to 8 blogging friends, I am going to pass it on to everyone who visits and reads my blog regularly because it is you who motivates and inspires me to keep blogging. If you would like to accept this award, please visit Simone's blog to find out all the details.

Changing the subject, as you know I recently participated in the Honey Pot Swap organised by the lovely Darlene from Bee Sew Whimsical. I have not shown you a picture of the gift that I received from my swap partner because I have not received one yet. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it but I would like to share a picture of the lovely gifts I received from Darlene in the mail yesterday.

Darlene’s MIL made the beautiful snowman wall hanging and she does the most petite and tiny stitches compared to mine!  The “Tea of Friendship” card and stitchery pattern is a design by Janet at Wildcraft Farm. Thank you to Darlene and your MIL for your sweet kindness.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Best Wishes, Evonne xx

First attempt at machine quilting

Today, it is Emily’s 10^th birthday and we are going to hit the shops this morning in search of a new handbag for the “all of a sudden grown up girl”!! It should be a fun dayJ

As the title to this post suggests, I have made my first attempt at some machine quilting and I am pretty happy with how it looks. This little peak is all I can share with you at the moment because it is a birthday present for a girlfriend who happens to read my blog! 

 

I bought a swirling love heart stencil and traced the design onto the border with a water erasable pen. It is a little wonky in places but you can only notice it if you look closely. When I first bought my sewing machine, a little over 12 months ago, I had a play with the free motion quilting but wasn’t happy with how it looked because I didn’t trace a design onto the fabric first. Now that I have used a stencil, it looks so much nicer. The only complaint I have is that I had a stiff neck when I was finished but I guess with a little more practice I will become more relaxed.

I will be back shortly to share some pictures of the birthday present and the completed journal cover I was working on last week.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Best Wishes, Evonne xx

Inspiration board finished

As promised, I am back to show you my finished inspiration board.

Now the FUN part begins by filling it with my goals for 2009, lots of lists and some inspiring pictures.

Something else that I am working on this week is this journal cover for a friend.

Thank you for stopping by and I would love you to leave me a comment.

Best Wishes, Evonne xx

Can't help myself!!

This week I have been working on a few different projects and I know I should probably finish one project before I start another one but I just can't help myself!!

At the beginning of the week I started this....

and this....

This is the fabric and frame for my inspiration board that I am making for my sewing nook. I will be back shortly to show you a shot of the completed project.

Then while I was waiting for the paint to dry I started this....

It is the first of 12 blocks of a quilt that I making for Emily. The pink fabric is from the Durham Quilt Collection by Lecien and it's been one of those really pretty fabrics that I've had in my stash but have been saving up for something special.

Next up, I started this....

This is also the first of 12 blocks of a quilt that I am making for Nicholas. Sorry but I do not know the name of the blue and white spotted fabric.

One of my goals for 2009 is to make Emily and Nicholas a single bed size quilt. Each quilt will have 12 different blocks set in a cornerstone block. I am challenging myself to complete 1 or 2 blocks from each quilt every month so that I will have them finished by the end of the year. I have made up my own design and measurements for both quilts and the finished size of each quilt will be approximately 52 inches x 66 inches. I will start a photo album in my sidebar if you would like to have a look at the completed blocks.

I hope you are having a wonderful day whatever you are doing.

Best Wishes, Evonne xx