Another first for me this week, my first paid cupcake job. Katy has a friend who was looking for someone to make 30 cupcakes for a mother's day event and she recommended me. I like a challenge and it's been a while since I've had an excuse to do 'pretty' cake decorating so I was really excited about this one!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums!

I found the loveliest charm pack and thought I'd really like to use it to make a bed runner (inspired by the one my Auntie Judy made for mum). Problem was I'd never done any patchwork before and I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it and didn't really know how it would all work out. I was feeling precious about it and was worried about wasting it on something that I wouldn't like. So in the end I went back to the lovely little patchwork store and got a second, different charm pack that I could just play with, without worrying too much about the outcome.

So this charm pack I had became a patchwork... 

And then eventually I undid some of the stitches and made it into a cushion.

I used the 'scrappy 4 patch' tutorial from here - this website has heaps of great video tutorials for quilting. The name of this fabric is 'Papillon' and I used a coordinating fabric for the back as well, a plain grey for the ruffled edge, and wooden buttons (my favourite!). I have enough of the patchwork for a second cushion, but so many other projects to do, I doubt I'll get back to it in a hurry!

My cushion isn't perfect, but I like it and I sure learned a lot from making it!

This plastic bag bag (bag dispenser?) was very easy to make. I looked at this tutorial but adapted it to suit what I wanted - I changed the measurements because I didn't want to be storing thousands of bags, just a few and I just wanted the one fabric. I used cheap calico that I already had in the cupboard and stencilled it with black craft paint and a sponge before sewing it together.