Could IckleTomato please come to goods in...

The hot weather and time off at the weekend led us to the beach but it was a beach that just happened to be near a fabric shop. Now I wonder how that happened...
Anyway, these were the goodies I picked up in The Crafters Basket Sligo Ireland.

And just while we're on the subject of stashing, I thought I would share some recent gifts (from others and sometimes myself!)

Way back at Christmas, my family came up trumps with some great sewing related presents.

I know what you're thinking - what sewing stuff? This is all just boxes and books! But think of the storage possibilities...

These are all my little squares for my Tokyo Subway Map Quilt by Oh Fransson. The sign was from my sister who has the cheek to comment on my messy sewing room! The dresses book was from my mother- in-law and has some fabulous inspiration in it like this gorgeous Farah Fawcett style wrap dress.

And just recently my friend was in Scotland and totally surprised me by bringing back this beauty!

Of course your nearest and dearest could never buy all that you possibly need (or want) so that is when you just have to treat yourself - like all the time!

So here is the haul from Spain. As you can see not as much compared with other trips as devastatingly one of the local fabric shops in Malaga had closed. Grr recession. The bits and bobs are from what our family calls the Chinese shop up the town! It is a hyper bazaar that my sister discovered and it is full of everything you imagine comes to Europe from China. Anyway there is always much cheapness and good for stocking up on random items. Oh and you might noticed I've bought more storage!

I love the big chunky zips in the back there. Perfect for bags.
And finally...

Spotted these ribbon sets in TK Maxx here at home and couldn't resist. They are so great for tag blankets and wrapping up quilt gift sets.
So now I reckon I have all bases covered - just about!

Back at the wheel

Hey rat fans...I'm back with a quick baby set gift I was able to make at the weekend. It felt good to be at the sewing machine again.

This is the first time I made this particular pair of booties by a pattern by ithinksew.com and I was really pleased with the result. They came together well after. Had made an oops cut the first time round.

The matching tag blanket came together really quickly and is just a simple patchwork of 36 2" squares. I think with the little eye spy animal prints this looks quite effective for something so simple.

I used a thicker filling than usual to give it plenty of oomph in the puffy department. The back was the print that got it all started as the recipient had chosen it but I knew the print would be too large for the shoes but when I looked I found I had loads of fabrics which I could pull together to compliment it.

And finally, I did something slightly different with the name. Normally I would just write the name of the baby and date of birth on their quilt with a laundry marker but when I did it for this it didn't come out so nice. It was too obvious on such a small scale. So I used my machine to embroider on the name. Easy and quick right? After much pursing of the manual and many attempts, I eventually worked out all the options to produce this sweet little square.

All wrapped and away to happy customer.