BB baby no.2, Fletcher arrived safe and sound on the 7th.

Charlie's bestie is now here and ready to play!

Lisa xx

BB Baby Number 1 arrives safely!

**Updated**

Emma is the proud mummy of Charlie! He is such a gorgeous little boy!

We're still waiting for baby no.2, he's being a little more stubborn and is now 9 days late!
Lisa x

We're pleased to announce that Buttonberry bundle number one has arrived safely into the world!
Meet Charlie....

Mum and baby doing well! x

Stashbuster Quilt Tutorial

We've had a few people asking if we could repost our "Stashbuster" quilt tutorial from our old blog - unfortunately we lost the main content of it when we moved sites but we think we've recovered enough to post it again! So if like us you have indulged in a bit of stash building of late you might like to use this pattern to wade through a few of those fat quarters and make room for the new ones you’ve bought during the silly sales season!

It only takes 9 fats so most of us won’t even know they’re gone and if you’re one of those people who doesn’t think they can BEAR to cut up certain fabrics then this is a great way to showcase them. It is super duper quick as well.   

First things first take your FQ's and cut them up so you have five pieces like the diagram below...

 Now start making your blocks using a different fabric for each numbered piece below stitiching them together as per the diagram below...

Keep going until you have stitched all the fabric pieces together - at the end you should have nine blocks! Shuffle the blocks about turning them and placing them in a pleasing arrangement of 3x3. Stitch the blocks together first to make three rows then stitch the rows together to complete the top.

We cheated a bit with the backing so that gives us a perfect opportunity to tell you about a little money and time saving trick (not a trick actually, just an idea). We found these gorge little fleecey throws for a mere £3.99 each in a local mill shop.



















They make a lovely backing for these lap quilts and of course you don’t need to use wadding with them. Purists/sensible people will tell you that as they’re not 100% cotton they will not wash in the same way as the top of the quilt but to be honest if you are careful and don’t boil wash and tumble dry at "surface of the sun" heat we think you’ll be ok. So we reckon this little beaut only cost about £22 max (loads less if you’re sale shopping!)

We’re a bit hooked on this one and are aiming big for the next one – maybe four times the size for a fantastic bed cover….hmmmmm…..

Nesting Part II

Well here at BBHQ we've swapped one set of organising for another, the nesting is in full swing and shows no sign of slowing down! See we never were ones to pack light and the packing of our hospital bags has posed us with somewhat of a challenge!!

We have arm fulls of of gorgeous things to pack sonhow singly decide, the only thing that is certain is the Lucozade and snacks (and Lisa would pack those even if there wasnt a baby on the way)! Our current obsession is one bag or two?!

With family and friends regularly showing up with armfuls of unwanted delicious baby clothes we'll need a whole new luggage set to match. Why the short stay in hospital can't be a family getaway to the bahamas we'll never know - that's something we can pack for!

End of an Era

Well the day has finally come - BBHQ have closed the doors for the very last time!

We'll be sad to see it go but have so many lovely memories of our time with you all over the last few years. We'll soon be starting our new adventures as mums so we'll carry on blogging when we can (we still think we'll have plenty of time to sew lalalalala)....

All orders placed today (25th of March) have been posted and we'll continue to monitor the email account until the end of the month.

Thanks for all your support over the years, please do stay in touch & take care!
Emma & Lisa
Xxxx

Nesting

Time has been speeding up surely? Our bumps are out of control and our bodies are giving us nice little crampy reminders that we really don't have long to go before life really will become very interesting indeed.

One of these wake up calls prompted this: the shape of laundry to come!!

Tutorial: Posh gift bag!

We've dug out one of our tutorials for you as we thought it would be perfect for wrapping your Mother's day gifts!

It's a quick and easy alternative to a paper gift bag - this Posh Pick Gift bag takes very little fabric and very little time! Here's how you do it...

Here's what you need:

2 pieces of fabric - one for the outside of the bag and one for the lining - which will be cut to 11 1/2" by 16 1/2"

Heavyweight iron on interfacing (to be cut to 11 1/2" by 16 1/2")

Embellishments of your choice - I used 2 covered buttons, a piece of ribbon and a glass bead for this example 

General sewing supplies

Iron on a piece of interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric you want to use for the outside of your bag.

If you make sure both the interfacing and the fabric are slightly larger than they need to be when you are fusing them together, then cut them down to size (11 1/2" x 16 1/2") you'll get a nice neat edge and an exact fit!!

Cut your lining fabric down to 11 1/2" x 16 1/2"

**Use 1/4" seams throughout**
Fold your outside fabric in half along the longest length, right sides together, sew along the longest open edges and one of the short open edges.

Fold your lining fabric in half along the longest length, right sides together. Start sewing at the top of the long open edge and leave a 2" gap for turning, approximately 2" down from the top. (Shown by my silly pink post it note!). Sew along the short open edge.

Press the seams open as well as you can and press a crease where the fabric was folded - this will help guide you in the next step.

Open out the bottom of the bag, line up the bottom seam with the side seam (or side crease) to form a triangle and place a pin to stop it moving around. Using a ruler, find the point where the triangle is 3" wide and draw a pencil line.

Sew across this line. Repeat on the other corner and on both corners of the lining piece.

Snip off the triangles, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.
**NB - you don't have to do this if you'd rather leave them in place, but if you do, sew a couple of little stitches through the triangle "ears" to keep them down!**

Turn your outer piece right sides out and stand back and marvel for a moment!

Keeping the lining piece right sides IN, place the outside bag INSIDE the lining. Right sides of the fabrics should be together.
Line up your seams and the corners and sew all the way around the top.

Remember the gap you left in the lining? Well now is it's moment of glory!
Turn the bag the right side out through this gap - doesn't it look like a big empty flu remedy capsule??? This is intentional!!!

Don't fret - it's minutes away from beauty! Press the bag well and close the gap either with slip stitches or with the sewing machine (seriously, it won't show!)

Pop the lining back inside the bag, press the top of the lining well so that it is neatly inside the bag and top stitch - I considered using a fancy stitch on my machine at this point but thought this particular fabric might be a bit "busy" for that!

Embellish!
I rolled the top of the bag down and added a couple of buttons, a ribbon and a bead so that I could easily close the bag when it's goodies were tucked inside! You could use poppers, buttonholes or nothing at all - whatever you fancy. Now all you have to do is fill with gorgeous things and give to your Mum (if you can!)