A belated Thankyou

Although I have thanked Karol Ann personally I have been slack in showing you all the beautiful bag I received for my birthday last month. 
It was a complete surprise and absolutely made my day.

Can you see it is all hand stitched and is amazingly well done.  I love it so much I am a little loathe to actually use it just yet - it is currently on display on my book case.  But soon I will be brave and use it for the purpose it was intended - lol. Here is a close-up of some of the lovely fabrics.

I have also received my gift from Chooky's Secret Santa swap and it is safely stashed away ready for the big day.  I must say the first year I took part in this I was soo very tempted to just open it but over the years it has gotten easier to resist - I lok forward to the surprise now. The ornament I received was wonderful but my camera's batteries are dead so I can't show it just yet.  But thanks partner - you know who you are ..

So much to catch up on I'm not sure where to start - be back soon xx

Finishes !!

Before I start telling you about the new stuff I'm working on I thought it was time to show what I've finished.  Not quite sure if my UFO list is getting any smaller though. The first quilt is for my son ( 15yo ) He is as skinny as a rake and loves cuddling up in his quilts.  However a couple he has got are a bit babyish for him now so I decided a new one was in order. Here is the centre of the quilt. Many different blues for the asterisk blocks with scrappy red squares inbetween.  These asterisk blocks are a LOT of work and took a long time to make.  Once I got to this stage I stepped back and decided it was just not working - way too much red.  The quilt sat for a while until I figured out what to do with it.  I didn't really want to waste all that time. I tried to find a border fabric to tone down the red but was unsuccessful.

So I decided to cut up the blue fabrics I had left ( leaving out the lighter ones) I made them the same size as the blocks and laid them round the quilt.  It needed something else and so the bright aqua border was auditioned and whaddyknow ? Success ! Or at least I thought so :-)

Here is the finished quilt. It has Patricks seal of approval.

Next up was my little house quilt that I started at the beginning of the year -  this was an idea from Jeanneke - her idea was a quilt-along where everybody made 1 house a day for a whole year. I knew I did not want to make this many and so stopped when I had enough for a wall quilt. These were all made from my scrap box and were mainly hand pieced from templates. really good fun and I adore this quilt. It will be going on my wall when I get a sewing room sorted.

Here is a close-up of the lovely border fabric which just begged to be added to the quilt.  I had bought it a few weeks previously with no plan in mind and there it was ready in my stash.

This post has taken ages to write as I think blogger is having an off-day - my photos keep disappearing and moving about so I just hope this publishes alright.

I'll leave you with the start of something that I'm having a lot of fun with - stay tuned...

Back soon

Nearly got all my problems sorted - thank goodness - so will be back very soon with lots of news. The winner of my little giveaway has been picked and I already have her address so a little parcel will be on it's way this week. Could it be you ? lol

And because I don't like to post without a photo here is Jess's birthday cake I recently made.

I have been on a bit of a mission to find a great chocolate cake recipe and think this is THE one. Not dry, not overly sweet and a fantastic texture.  Definitely a winner :-)

See you soon xxx

Time flies

Well I won't bore anyone with the problems life is throwing at me and my family so I'll just move on to the nice quilty stuff.
I have a few finishes to show because although I haven't been blogging I must have been sewing ( and knitting ) as things are d.o.n.e...


First up a quilt that I seriously could not have given away if it wasn't going to a special person.  My lovely sister was 50 last week and I worked my socks off to get this done for her.

 

This is English Paper pieced and then appliqued to a border strip. I would have loved to hand quilt this but time was not on my side so a machine stipple in a lovely variegated thread and a scrappy binding finished it off. I think it measures about 60 by 72 inches so a good snuggle size.

 

I also now have a new baby niece - born 2 weeks ago and so beautiful ( of course ) I will make her a quilt in time but in the meantime I have made her these.  Two little cardis in neutral colours as they were unable to tell her the sex of the baby due to the way she was lying. And also this really groovy crochet blanket that I had a lot of fun making.

 

I also made a quilt for my friends little girl Charlotte - this is not the best picture as I thought I had taken one before I gave it but apparently not. This came out well and I think little Charlotte liked it better than her mum - lol ! Not sure she quite "got it"...

 

I also made a Granny squares top simply because I had piles of browns and tan squares lying around. I liked it when it was done but had no use for it so sold it on ebay...

 

I have a few more finishes to show but will do them again. And just to let you know that I haven't been THAT good I have also started some new projects. I have wanted to do something from this book for a while.

And so on Saturday afternoons ( when I normally have a nice chunk of time ) I am making little paper pieced log cabin blocks.

Which when sewn together ( after having the paper removed ) look more like this..

 

And if you've stayed with me this far - thanks !   I am having a bit of a de-stash.  Tell me your favourite colour and I will have a little drawing in a week or so for 4 fat quarters ( random selection ) to the winner.

I hope blogger posts this  - it has taken a while as my photos were all over the place - lol. My pc sure could do with a sort out.  Take care xxx

 

I have a dream ....

It's all very well working on UFO's - indeed I will very soon have two more to cross off my list - stay tuned for those - but I have broke rank today and indulged in a little scrap therapy. I have boxes of little scraps separated into colour and recently saw something on a blog ( forget who's -sorry ) that had me hotfooting it to etsy to buy this pattern  Pretty, pretty.

So a little bit of mess later I have these.

The dream I have is of one day having a sewing room of my own.  For now I have my sewing table set up in a corner of our bedroom.  I have plenty of space but when the kids leave home I am going to take over one of their bedrooms and spread out... In this room will be all my sewing machines, fabrics and all the usual paraphenalia and in a corner will be room for a tiny little bed - just for me - lol.  If I want I can escape the snores of my DH and sleep amongst my treasures.  On this bed will be a quilt ( of course ! ) and I have decided that it will a Rose quilt - so here is a long term project - by the time I get this room - way in the future - I may just have enough blocks ( quite time consuming making these ) to make my quilt. They are 6 inch blocks and have 51 pieces...

Now I have a lot of scraps so they should see me alright for a while.  I have a ton of blue scraps and although in real life blue roses are not the norm - because this is my quilt I am thinking I will make one in blue and see how it looks. We shall see.

I have loads more stuff to catch up on so will be back soon.  This weekend I plan to do one of my favourite parts of quilting - binding - love it.

See you soon xx

My Oldest UFO and catching up....

In an old box rescued from my parents house along with school reports and certificates I came across a piece of embroidery I had done in Primary school.  I thought hard and actually remember working on this - I was 10 years old and now I am 43 so it's quite a treasure.  It was tacked roughly onto a piece of cardboard and was stained in several places.

I carefully unpicked it from the cardboard and with my heart in my mouth washed it very gently in my kitchen sink.  I was so hoping it wouldn't fall apart or that the colours would run.  Luckily neither event happened - phew !!  Once dry I trimmed it down and added a couple of little borders.  Then I hand quilted it and added binding.  I really love it and am so glad to have it done.  I will add a label and may even mount it in a frame.  My DH can't believe I embroidered this at age 10 but I guess I was always destined to have a needle in my hand. Here it is...

Whilst browsing through my photos I realised I have never shown photos of a quilt I finished last year.  There is a bit of a story to this one.. A while back I was unable to sew due to a back injury which turned out to be a slipped disc. During this time I did a lot of crochet as I could manage to do this whilst lying flat on my back.  But my fabrics kept calling to me and one day I put some fabrics together that would end up in a quilt. These were put in a box and forgot about.  Months later I came across them and whilst browsing about on the web I came across a pattern on the sewwequilt website.  Here is the link. I decided to get this quilt done and it was the quickest quilt I ever made.  I love this quilt so much - I have named it my Morphine Quilt because those were the pills I was taking when I chose the colours - lol..I use this quilt a lot when I'm reading and feeling a bit cold. 

Not the best photos - really must get a new camera.  My friend Julie loved this so much she is making one in 30's prints. I will try and get a photo when it is done. I have loads more to show but am going to try and keep to smaller posts until I'm caught up.  Carolyn and I have an agreement to try and get our blogs moving again - lets see how we get on.

Long time !

Hello - I am still around.  A few minor health issues and other stuff have gotten in the way of blogging I'm afraid.  I'm still reading all my blog list and even commenting but this poor old blog is very sad....
I have been hard at work finishing some UFO's and just need to charge up my camera and take some photos.  I was quite dismayed when I counted up my started projects and discovered I had more than I thought - every time I thought my list was complete I remembered another one - lol.  
My final total was 27 and that for me is too many.  My aim is to try and get to single figures by the end of the year.  We'll see how it goes.
I am going to try and have a proper catch up post within a week - now it's in writing I may just stick to it - see you soon xxx

This and That

Yes I know it's about time I blogged - should try harder.  Been doing lots of stitching but have had no motivation to get on my computer and post.  This may be a long one - you have been warned......

I won't show you everything I've been doing - will save a bit for again.  But for now here goes

You may remember these

leftovers from a quilt top I made several years ago.

They turned into these

Which eventually ended up as this.

And a close-up.

There is a bit of a funny story about this.  My Mum had asked me to make a quilt for a Christmas gift for my Dad's sister and her husband,  I asked what sort of design and colours etc and Mum left it to me - the only info I got was that her living room ( as this is sofa size ) was quite neutral with creams, tans, browns etc.  So I got making this.  When finished I took it to Mum and she liked it so much she didn't want to give it away so ended up buying it for herself and getting my Auntie something else - lol !  Love it...

It was snowing the day we took it to Mums and I got a very rare snap of  DD Jess ( too cold to take her hat off ).

I have another couple of finishes for last year but have just realised I have no good photos of them yet.  Will do that next time.

Seeing as it is a New Year and all my UFO's are done ( lololol - I wish !!! ) Don't even want to count them.  Anyway when I saw this Quilt-a-long I knew I would have to join in.  I decided to try and tempt Karol-Ann into it and although she put up a token amount of resistence she quickly joined in.  Go see her lovely blocks.

Instead of going with my normal scrappy I decided to have a colour scheme going on with this and was inspired by a small bundle of FQ's I bought last year.  I am picking colours out from this fabric.

I have also had fun going through my stash and seeing what else "goes with "

Here are two

And two more with background fabric added.

I went to Abakhan Fabrics and bought a great piece of pale mustardy yellow to use as background but when it came down to it - it just seemed a bit flat.  I was just sorting through my neutrals to see what else I could use and this pinky/bluey mottled stuff was in the wrong drawer.  I took it out to put back with the pinks and just quickly placed a block next to it and whaddya know - a winner - lol !!

Last night I got a bit more prep done

should be good for the weekend.

I have had a lot of headaches this week so once I come off here I'm going to have a nice cup of tea and do some relaxing hand-sewing.  Should be filing our Tax Returns really but not much fun in that is there ?

Yesterday was so wet and dark that I decided I needed to brighten up my day a little and knocked up a couple of these - rainbow pincushions.

I did the ROYGBIV thing but needed 1 more colour to make up the 8 segments so added the pink.  These are BIG - about 7 inches across as that is just what I wanted.  Later tonight I will probably sort out my pins - flower head - applique - glass head etc and put them all in the different sections - yes I am that sad - haha ! Will be nice to have them all in one place.  I will give one to my friend on Tuesday at our sewing group.


Just one more photo for you cat-lovers.  A rare snap of all three of my babies altogether.  They all get on fine but tend to like their own space so I love this photo.

Have a nice weekend everyone xx

A quilt for Isla

My friend Bren is raffling a beautiful quilt in aid of this young lady.

Please go to quiltforisla.blogspot.com to read all about it and see if you would like to help.

Back soon xxx