the internet is full of cats. there’s long cat, spaghetti cat, party cat, simon’s cat, and of course all of the lolcats. but my favourite cat on the internet is a very special, very clever cat. her name is paisley, and she draws her own web comic (with a little help from her human, the girl).

through the wonders of the internet, pais, the girl and i have become friends. we send each other parcels from time to time with crafts and sweets in them. it’s like being pen pals! last week i got a particularly exciting parcel from them. inside were lots of nommy pretzel m&ms (now my favourite kind!), some pais-designed valentines, and the most awesome handmade magnet - it’s a portrait of orla!

pais and the girl use photos of people’s cats to make personalised cameo brooches and magnets out of felt. they are the coolest. you can get one from their shop if you want one - and as if you wouldn’t! they are the best! you can also get catnip mice, comics and other great things there. what are you waiting for, go and see!

hope your week has started off happily!
essie xoxoxo

happy valentines day!

i made my valentine some tiny (one inch) heart cookies…

i used this recipe, which was really easy to follow, but that doesn’t mean i didn’t find a way to make disasters in the kitchen! i managed to smash almost my entire first batch when the ice-cream maker fell out of the cupboard and landed on top of them, and i burned the second batch! if i didn’t love my valentine so much, i would have given up, but i couldn’t let her come home to no treats, so i persevered!

i hope you’re having a lovely february 14th!
essie xxx

here’s how to make a traditional “square in a star” quilt block like the one i blogged about in my last post:

for the purposes of this tutorial, i’ll refer to the fabrics as follows:
white = fabric 1
grey = fabric 2
orange = fabric 3
aqua = fabric 4

cutting
from fabric 1, cut 12 rectangles measuring 2.5″ x 4.5″, and 4 squares measuring 2.5″ x 2.5″
from fabric 2, cut 8 squares measuring 2.5″ x 2.5″
from fabric 3, cut 4 squares measuring 2.5″ x 2.5″
from fabric 4, cut 1 square, measuring 4.5″ x 4.5″

piecing
take one of your fabric 1 rectangles and lay it right side up on your cutting mat.
place a piece of fabric 2, right side down on top of it, so that one of it’s edges lines up exactly with the end of the rectangle.
mark a line bisecting the piece of fabric 2 diagonally as shown below:

sew along that line, then cut off excess fabric, leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance.

press open.
repeat this process for the other end of the rectangle.

you will end up with a rectangle that looks like a pointy pair of cat’s ears:

take another white rectangle, and sew a square of fabric 3 to each short end. press.
repeat so that you have two of these.

take another fabric 1 rectangle, and sew the long edge to the side of your piece of fabric 4. press.
repeat with the opposite side of the same piece of fabric 4.

sew the strips made up of fabric 1 and fabric 3 to the top and bottom of your piece made up of fabric 1 and 4, creating a square.

take two squares of fabric 1, and sew one to each short end of one of your “cat’s ears” rectangles. press.
repeat, so that you have two identical pieces.
sew these to the top and bottom of your pieced square.

take a rectangle of fabric 1, and sew it’s short end to a short end of one of your “cat’s ears” rectangles.
sew another rectangle to the opposite end in the same way. press.
repeat with your final “cat’s ears” rectangle.
sew these to either side of your block, completing the star shape.

your block is now complete!

there are many variations you can make to this block.
for example, for a simpler look, you could use more of fabric 2 in place of fabric 3, creating a more cohesive star shape.
you could make the block look more ‘filled in’ by substituting another coloured fabric for the white rectangles surrounding the central square.

whatever you choose to do with it, i hope you find this a very useful block.
if you end up using it to make your own quilted creations, i’d love to see pictures!

have fun!
essie xoxo

my dear friend holly and i have embarked on a new project together, inspired by the talented ms mcporkchop! we want to challenge ourselves to try new colour combinations and quilt blocks. each month, one of us will choose a photo, and the other a quilt block, and we’ll each use the photograph as a colour palette for the block we create!

this month holly chose this whimsical, vintagey photo:

(source)

i loved the orange and the aqua that featured in there, but my eye was also drawn to the band of grey in the background.

my choice of block was a traditional “square in a star”, which i’ll post a tutorial for very shortly.

the final result looked like this:

i like it! i think if i were to do it again, i’d substitute a different colour for the white rectangles surrounding the central square - possibly an apricoty orange…? but i still really like the block i’ve made. perhaps i’ll turn it into a trivet…

essie xoxo