Welsh Quilter

This and That

2012-01-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

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

SSCS 2011

2011-12-31T05:34:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason I have been unable to access my blog for a few days ( I think DH has been fiddling with settings on our server though he is admitting nothing - lol )

So I have been unable to show my bounty from Chookyblues annual swap. Don't worry though I sent a thankyou email on Boxing Day to my partner Deb for my wonderful goodies. Here's what I received

All I can say is - how fantastic !! Such lovely items - gorgeous fabrics and beautifully stitched. I feel very lucky indeed.

Close-up of " Mary " - even down to the little painted shoes.

Was well worth waiting til Christmas Day for... Thanks Deb xxx

And here's what I sent to my partner Tracey

Machine pieced and hand quilted Mini.

Scrappy zipped bag and hand knitted welsh wool hat.

Little felt tree ornament.

What a great swap yet again. Many thanks to Chooky - she is taking some well-deserved time off to herself just now and who can blame her - can you imagine how many hours she has put into organising this ?

I was going to end the year by listing my UFO's but that was too much like hard work. For now I am simply saying I will NOT start anything in January and work on some of my many WIP's. I just could not resist joining in with the quilt-a-long on Jeanne's blog. I do not plan on making one a day though as I know I will never keep that up so will probably just stop when I've had enough. I am making mine a bit bigger too - 5 inches. I have re-drafted the block and made plastic templates and have been going through my scraps tracing out the little pieces. I have quite a few ready to go. Was a bit naughty and stitched one up just to test it out. Which was a good thing as I had stitched the door unit and window units together wrongly - silly me. Have re-done this now...

so technically as this block is done the project is now officially not a January start - haha - have I convinced you ?

Have a very Happy New Year folks and look forward to seeing what crafty goodness 2012 brings !!!

A lovely package

2011-12-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hurray - my SSCS parcel arrived a few days ago ( been meaning to post but my DH has "man-flu" and we all know how that goes - lol ).

The main present is tucked away safely for Christmas Day but I was allowed to open this

A cute gift in itself. Inside was this very sweet little bag.

What a beauty - lovely, lovely, lovely !!

I am debating whether to snoop around Chooky's blog to see who my partner is but I think I will wait and see til I am allowed to open the card that came with the gift.

Thanks mystery partner - I look forward to opening my pressie - not long now.....

The best laid plans...

2011-11-27T05:22:00.000-08:00

Now my SSCS is off on it's long journey ( 3 days before the deadline I'll have you know - lol ) I cast my eyes around my sewing area in search of something to do. Remember those half square triangles from last but one post ?

I have been working on those and decided to make 35 blocks for a 5 by 7 setting. I did not have enough little units for these so have spent quite a bit of time making more. Added some side strips and here are 2 blocks.

Was going great guns when I realised I had mis-calculated and only made 34 blocks. Decided to call it a day and make the last block the next morning before sewing them altogether. However next morning I was checking my blog list and came across this tutorial....What fun this looked - haha

Casting my mind around I remembered a pile of fabrics I had put together when I was unable to sew due to my back injury. These were all fabrics that I loved but would they actually go together ? I think my painkillers were at work when I put these together in a basket as there was quite a lot of clashing - lol ! Oh well - I would either love it or hate it and so off I went.

I have spent a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon making my blocks and have 12 all ready to go. Funny thing - I showed Jason a few together and his very words were " It's a bit busy love " haha - great fun this quilting business.

See you soon xx

IF . . .

2011-11-18T15:27:00.000-08:00

If I were a more organised person....

If I didn't leave things until last minute...

If I didn't change my mind at the drop of a hat....

...... I would now be busy cutting and sewing quarter square little-bitty blocks for Bonnies new mystery quilt - Orca Bay...

Instead I am stitching my fingers to the bone finishing my SSCS gifts for my partner. I can hear Chooky cracking her whip. I have never been late for a swap before and don't intend to start now. I'm sooo nearly there....just a bit more to go and then - the mystery beckons - lol !!

Hope you all have a nice weekend. Any more SSCS participants doing the last minute thing ??

A special quilt.

2011-11-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

Here is some of my secret sewing which a secret no more. Let me show you what I used some of my precious stash of Bliss fabric for.

I have been blogging for 6 years or so and in that time have made lots of wonderful friendships - they may be with people I have yet to meet - someday - but are none the less special for that. One of these has been with Karol-Ann and over the years we have swapped many emails along with fabric, gifts for each other and our children and so on. We have nearly got to meet several times but not quite managed it - I'm sure we'll get there in the end - lol ! Anyway Karol-Ann was recently very clever and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl ( actually on my birthday ) and so I wanted to make a quilt for her. Karol-Ann and I both share a love of hexagons ( her rose hexagon quilt is stunning ) and so it was the obvious choice. Here it is

and a close-up.

Hand and machine pieced and mainly hand quilted - the border was machine quilted though as I ran out of time and we all know babies wait for no-one !!

I had the most lovely thankyou email which I have saved. Karol-Ann has posted pictures on her blog of the little lady herself wrapped in my quilt which made it all worthwhile. What a little beauty she is - bless.

More secret sewing has been going on but this I can't reveal yet as it it for my SSCS - almost done which is a good thing as mailing time is almost here.

My latest project is going to involve a bag of leftover half square triangles which yesterday looked like this

stay tuned for this - I have a plan.

And also today I bumped into my oldest friend ( we met on the first day of school when we were 4 years old ) She had a baby girl last year - also coincidentally born on my birthday - whose name is Charlotte. She was born when my back pain was really bad and so I never got around to making her anything. Obviously that will have to be rectified too - best get busy.

Take care xx

A new start

2011-10-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

to regular posting I hope.....

First up the winer of my birthday giveaway was number 6 ( random number generated ) and that turned out to be Mereth - which is serendipity as we actually share a birthday. Please send me your address and I'll have a wander up to the post office.

As I have a lot to get through I think I will add a bit at a time and show you what I did yesterday. Occasionally I dabble in a bit of cross stitch - a while back I finished a little piece and it had sat in a box for ages. I was out in town yesterday and came across a place selling frames. I bought one with the intention of getting this cross stitch in the frame even though I couldn't remember the size. Really I was just hoping it would fit and hurray - it did !

A couple of weeks ago I was inspired by Lucy at attic24 to pick up my crochet hook and start a rippley blanket. Now my quilts are normally scrappy but for this blanket I chose just 3 colours and started. I bought a couple of balls of each colour just to see if I liked it. I loved it and here's where the saga began.
Jess ( my daughter ) went back to the shop for me 2 days later to get some more for me ( as she was close by ) and could only get 2 colours as the other one was now out of stock.
No problem - I went online and ordered more. The website stated it was in stock and would be despatched the next working day. As I ordered it on a Saturday night I was expecting it to arrive no later than Wednesday. After the postman had been - with no sign of my wool - I gave them a ring. They said they were out of stock of one of the colours ( nice of them to tell me ) but would send the rest. The out of stock colour would be in 2 days later and would follow.
The first parcel arrived with what they had and yes it was the same colour missing.
So I phoned a place where I get my fabric ( Abakhan Fabrics ) and they said they had the whole range in stock. So off I went in my car to discover that actually they were out of just one colour - guess which one it was .......... Unbelievable.
The online shop still has not sent the rest of my order after another week and are not answering my emails. Just marvellous. Anyway here is where I've come to a halt on this...This isWendy Sorrento yarn and is a cotton/acrylic mix and is so soft and gorgeous.

And here is the other one I started out of sheer frustration. This is using the lovely design Lucy is using..

This one will be a present for my son Patrick who feels the cold as he is so skinny ( more meat on a butchers pencil )

I have enough wool for this one so have learned my lesson - lol !

And after my disappointment with the Bliss fabric I have been tracking a bit of it down - here's my haul so far.

Well that's enough for now - more to come later in the week xxxx

2011-10-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'll be back later in the week to show you what I've been up to in my absence. May do lots of little posts because I've been flitting about like mad - bit of this, bit of that and lots of stash enhancement.

On my travels I picked up these nice feedsack repro fat quarters and bought them to giveaway on here as it's my birthday today and I wanted to say thanks for coming here to read my posts. Over the last year I have not been as committed to my blog as I was for the first few years - this was mainly due to my back injury. Although it is still not quite 100% it is so much better now and I'm feeling a bit more like my old self.

So if you want these leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner on Wednesday night. I will also post anywhere xxxxx

The fabrics are much nicer than the photo - had to take it with my phone as my camera is playing up.........

Back soon

2011-09-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

Laid up with a nasty bout of tonsilitis passed on to me by my DD Jess - cheers sweetheart :-(

Got loads to tell so will be back as soon as I can xxx

Bliss - or not !!

2011-08-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

I'm still plugging away on those Wheel of Fortune blocks. I can see why it became a UFO - those little pointy bits are seriously fiddly. Not sure when the quilt will be finished but at least progress is being made - albeit slowly. One things for sure no progress was being made when it was stuffed away in a box...

Now a little story. I very rarely buy a full range of one fabric. I am a scrappy quilter and love using allsorts of bits from here and there. However now and again a certain range shouts out at me and I have serious fabric envy. Because fabric prices are really expensive in my neck of the woods thats usually as far as it gets. Recently though I bought a small pack of Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda and absolutely loved it. I know this range was out last year so thought I had no chance of getting any more.

I was browsing around on Ebay.com and discovered an auction for the full fat quarter set of Bliss and thought - why not ! One little problem was that the seller would only ship within the US. So I enlisted the help of my lovely friend Gail ( trailteach.blogspot.com ) -blogger not letting me do links - who very kindly agreed to let me have the fabric shipped to her and then she would post it over to me.

So I waited up til 1am on the end of the auction and some frantic bidding later I won - hurray. Very tired the next day but I was so pleased it was mine. I emailed the seller Gails address and just asked him to confirm he would be sending it there and not to my address that was registered with my paypal account. All well and good he replied that it was fine.

Gail was on standby to receive the package and said she would let me know when it arrived. Days passed - then a few more - then a few more. Well time was getting on so I decided to get in touch with the seller after Gail confirmed it had not arrived.

I sent a very polite email asking if he could let me know the date he had shipped it so I would know when it was coming. I had no reply. So a couple of days later I sent another and this time I got an answer. He was really sorry but had made a mistake in re-listing the bundle when in actual fact he did not have it to sell. He said he had sent me a message the previous week when he had refunded my money. Whaaatt ? I had neither and told him so. I was very cheesed off at this point and thought I was going to have some fun getting my money back. I had paid him practically a hundred dollars ! I went to bed feeling very disgruntled. However by next morning he had refunded me.

I'm not sure what would have happened if I had not gotten in touch - 3 weeks after I paid him I had my money back but no fabric. Very sad - I had such plans for this fabric. Ooh the quilts I have made with it in my head is nobodys business - lol !

Here is a photo from the web of what I haven't got - waaaa.

One last thing - if any of you use eBay - do you think I should leave negative feedback or not ? I have never had a problem with buying or selling before in the 8 years I have been a member. I will be interested to see what you think.

Have a lovely weekend. We have been out and about quite a lot lately and I am looking forward to staying put and getting some stitches in xxx

Twin quilts !

2011-08-19T03:29:00.001-07:00

Well my sewing marathon was brilliant - I can certainly see where all my time goes. When it was just me to see to I had so much time to play with fabric. I lived on salads and did the absolute minimum of housework and sewed until whatever time I wanted. I was really glad to see my boys home but it was fun. Wouldn't like it too often though - lol !

Anyway the upshot was I got most of the twin quilts pieced and in the days after I did the applique names panels - then onto quilting and binding. Here is Cherry's quilt.

And here is Pepper's

Unusual names I know - seems to be the thing with the younger parents. I have seen photos and they are beautiful little girls.

A little close-up of the fabrics and the black polka dot stuff hat I added to tone down the brightness. When DD Jess said she wanted bright and colourful I took her at her word - lol !

And look at this stripey fabric I used for binding - it is an older fabric and I just knew it would come in handy at some point.

As an added bonus I had overcut the brick shaped pieces and had enough to use ( along with some kitty fabric ) to make 2 quilts for Project Linus. These are finished too.

Now they're done the relief is brilliant. Jess attended the baby's christening but none of the gifts were opened at the time. However later on the baby's Mum sent Jess a lovely text to thank her for the gifts and to ask where on earth she had gotten those beautiful quilts as they were just amazing. She said her husband was speechless when he saw them - so of course that made it all worthwhile. Jess is apparently going to "pay" me for making them but not seen any cash yet - lol ! All fabric was from stash so I have just said I will give her them at cost price - haha. She would fall in a heap if I charged her what they're really worth. She is a good girl and I was pleased to make them for her to give her friend so it's all good.

Anyway I have been doing all sorts of other bits and pieces but last night I was really tired and instead of my usual couple of hours handsewing I started flicking through some magazines. Saw a lovely quilt in one of them which got my brain whirling. It was called Wagon Wheels and as the name suggests involved circles - I love circley things - lol ! Well before I got myself in trouble by starting something else I went rootling in my various boxes and baskets and dug out a UFO. Started over 4 years ago I think. It is called Wheel of Fortune. I sent to US for templates from John Flynn and used a pack of fabric from eBay. Can't remember fabric name - tropical jungle or something. I made 1 block ( nearly ) and because the inner didn't fit the outer properly I lost interest and stuck the whole lot in a box and that's where it's been ever since. Here is the almost completed block

And I also had another 11 of these inner bits done but without the spikey bits added. I think the trouble was my seam allowance was too big and there was a lot of fullness to ease in and it doesn't look very good.

Spent a bit of time with my unpicker last night and going to see what I can do to this over the weekend. Will update you soon

have fun xxx

Summer Sewing.

2011-07-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

I am doing a fair bit of sewing but not so much blogging. Hopefully I will catch up eventually. I can hardly believe this but I have the next 2 WHOLE days to myself as DH and DS are going on a fishing trip up the coast. I have greatly encouraged this - purely in their interests of course - lol ! They are going to the beautiful island of Anglesey ( home to Prince William and Kate ). DD Jess will hardly be here as she is working lots of hours in her job so I have STACKS of time to sew. It is hot here just now so I will be firing up my fan and sewing like a madwoman - yeeha !!

It seems at the moment I have 10 million projects on the go but I am going to concentrate on something in particular. Jess is going to a christening at the end of August and has asked me to make a quilt as a gift - - - - for each baby - - - - - that's right - - twins !!!

I have never before made quilts for twins and so I thought the simplest thing is to make 2 the same but put their names on them ( btw - both are girls ) . I spent nearly four hours the other day cutting out 2.5 by 4.5 inch bricks in BRIGHT colours as requested by Jess.

I am calling them rainbow quilts and here's where I'm up to.....

I am adding 4 rows to each quilt at a time so as not to get too confused. I have drawn up a diagram ( very unlike me ) and following it as I sew. With a bit of luck I will get the main bits done over the next couple of days and then add names and applique. I have the perfect binding for these and am sure I will get them done in time.

I realised I haven't shown you another baby quilt that was recently completed. This quilt practically made itself as the half square tris were already made for something else ( which I changed my mind over half way through ) and so the pinwheel blocks went together really quickly. Once the top was done I searched my stash for backing and found a piece of baby blue fleece in just the right size. And once quilted I had a gander in my extra bit of binding tin and found a great big piece in a lovely matching blue - serendipity - lol !

Here it is - simple but sweet.

I am so over making baby quilts for a while - although 2 friends have recently become pregnant - and you know what that means ???

I leave you with a picture of some of the most important men in my life. My fantastic nephew Jamie just graduated and we are all very proud of him. Obviously thats him in the middle with my DH on the left and my Dear Dad on the right. Well done Jamie - all he needs to do now is find a job - which in todays situation here could prove a bit of a challenge - he is very keen to earn some money - lol !

One more sleep and my sewing marathon will begin.

Take carexx

Needlecase swap

2011-06-16T03:52:00.001-07:00

A little while ago I joined a Yahoo group organised by Kathleen Tracy. She is the owner of several lovely books dedicated to making small quilts. Just as I joined there was the starting up of a needlecase swap and of course I signed up. My partner was Donna ( no blog ) and this is what I received.

And here it is opened up showing all the lovely pockets.

Donna told me she was quite a new quilter and was a little nervous about doing this but as you can see she had no need to worry as it is just brilliant. It is in use already as I took it to a workshop last week with all my bits and bobs in it. Thanks Donna. She also included some little extras - scissors, needles and fabric but I don't have a photo for some reason.

Anyway here is what I sent to Donna.

She requested modern fabrics which stumped me a little as I don't really do trendy stuff but anyway this is what I came up with. I tried to do modern with traditional and so turned to paper pieced hexagons and then hand quilted it.

Here it is inside.

I also chucked in some extra pieces of the fabrics I'd used for Donna to do with what she liked.

This was a nice swap - no pressure and I've also made a new friend as Donna is a lovely lady and we are keeping in touch.

Thanks for all your encouraging comments on my last post. I just don't seem to be able to get time to reply and that makes me feel a bit guilty. My DD is quite poorly at the moment and I am a bit side-tracked I suppose. Hopefully she is on the mend now - fingers crossed xxx

A few finishes

2011-06-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

My poor neglected blog - lol ! The more I thought to update the busier I seemed to become and my blog suffered. I am going to try my best this next week to get up to date and see how I go. I must admit I have toyed with the idea of finishing blogging - I am into my fifth year now - and just don't seem to have the enthusiasm I once had for it. For now I am going to carry on and have a think about it.

Anyway here is my cross stitch picture all finished.

And here it is after having it professionally framed. I haven't done a lot of cross stitch really so I am beyond thrilled with how it's turned out. This photo looks a bit light - the top one is truer.

It is called Midnight Moggies and was great fun to stitch. You may know I am a cat lover and have 3 real fur babies of my own. I have a spot on the wall lined up for this - just need some bits for fixing as it weighs a lot and is quite big. I think it took the best part of a year on and off but I'm glad I perservered. My last big cross stitch took about 10 years so a definite improvement - lol.

Next up my Mum asked me to make a baby quilt for a neighbour's grand-daughter. With no plan in mind I raided my pink fabrics along with a bit of green and cut some rectangles. Which I turned into this ( or rather 3 of them )

Added some white as the pink was just too MUCH pink ! And hey presto

A shot of my very boring machine quilting - the usual meander and swirly stuff in the sashing. I really enjoyed doing this braid design - grows like mad and before you know it you have a huge long strip. Good fun !

Onto baby quilt number 2. I wanted to use this as I've never had one before.

Bit fiddly cutting all the odd size strips equally but after adding a few of my own fabrics it came out like this.

Awful photo I know - think I need a new camera as mine is old now.

Close-up of some of the cute fabrics. Lollipop by Moda. Really simple straight line quilting on this one. I also discovered when working on this that I far prefer to sew with pre-washed fabric. The first thing I normally do when I buy fabric is wash it but I know many of you don't. Personally I don't really like cutting and sewing the unwashed stuff. Just my preference.

I have a few more things to show but blogger seems to be playing up a little. I'll just show you what I spent a couple of hours doing yesterday.

Removing papers and tacking from a whole quilt that I want to get ready for hand-quilting. Going to piece the backing over the weekend and get going on that next week.

have a nice weekend - we are supposed to have glorious sunshine xx

Stitching away

2011-04-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

I am currently stitching my fingers away trying to finish a cross stitch picture so if I'm quiet for a while you'll know why. I have shown this before on my blog and the last time it looked like this.

I have done loads since and the end is in sight. I haven't done an awful lot of cross stitch - think I'm too impatient as it's very slow going - lol ! I would like to have this finished as soon as possible as I have lots of hand work lined up.

For a bit of fun I have entered a quilt into the weekly Quilting Gallery Competition Click the link to see all the quilts.

I have entered my olympic Challenge quilt which has appearred on here several times. It was hand-pieced during the Olympic Games in 2008 and contained a piece of every fabric in my stash at the time. I'm sure if I did the same again now it would make a far bigger quilt - lol ! Think my stash has grown somewhat since then :-)

I have never done this before and I am just hoping I will not be last in the voting - argghh - lol !!

With a bit of luck I will be able to show you my completed cross stitch next time. I have lots to show you too but am trying to limit my computer time to get this done. Fingers crossed

2011-04-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

A well overdue catch-up post coming up.
I am feeling so much better due to a combination of decent painkillers and physiotherapy - can't wait to get proper back to normal. I have actually managed to get some quilting done but first want to re-cap over my other stuff that I have done whilst my back/leg was really bad.

First up a little knitting. Couple of baby cardigans and a hat for DD Jess's boyfriends new little brother due to be born tomorrow ( Easter Sunday )

This is a really pretty lilac cotton yarn ( not photographed terribly well ) This went to my friend Julies new grand-daughter ( Amber Lily - who I made the little wall quilt for )

A crochet UFO that had been hanging around for a while with about a half-hours work left on it. DD Jess is now the owner of this.

A new crochet project started - this was one I could do when I was flat out on my back. The instructions for this came from Attic24 blog. Not sure of the exact address as it's on my other pc but you will find it if you google it. She has some lovely tutorials on here and it is the only crochet blog ( amongst hundreds of quilting ones ) that I read.

Just using up some odds and ends of a cheapie acrylic yarn for this. I would love to do it again some time with some soft cotton. But haven't got too far with this yet. Think I have 35 hexies done. I will know how big this will finish when I run out of yarn - lol ! Haven't worked on this for a while but feel in the mood to do a few more since I pulled it out of the bag to take a photo.

What's next ???? Oh yes...

Bought a new metal tumbler template to try out and was very brave and decided to cut into my precious Japanese fabrics.

Only a small quilt this - doll size. Really enjoyed it as I had not done sewing on my machine for a while.

Pressed seams open for a change and they lay lovely and flat.

Trimmed and bordered..

This has been hand quilted now - I will show you soon.

A forgotten about cat block was dug out and had the stitching finished off. A couple of little borders added and this is ready for quilting. Might layer this up later and have it ready to take to my Quilt Group.

And lastly for now - you may know that applique is not my friend. I love the look of it but am not too good at it. This year I want to do more using different methods to see what I like the best. I don't mind machine applique but really want to do more hand work. So I made a few basket blocks using a freezer paper method. They came out ok but after 14 blocks I'd had enough. These will NOT become a big quilt - lol ! Maybe a bag or wall-hanging !

Well I've run out of time and I wanted to tell you about a little swap I've been involved in and a giveaway I've won but that will have to wait.

Hope you all have a great Easter - we have a busy couple of days ahead but I'm hoping to find a bit of stitchy-time here and there...

Take care xx

A finish !

2011-03-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

I actually completed this a couple of weeks back but am just now getting round to showing you. It has appearred on my blog in various stages of completion but is now D.O.N.E - hurray.

First of all I quilted in the ditch with invisible thread but decided I wanted to add some hand-quilting. If you click these pictures you can see some detail. Please remember some of this quilting was done when I was flat on my back with this slipped disc so be gentle with me - lol !

I think I will put a hanging sleeve on this and find a spot for it somewhere - not sure where yet.

For anyone interested it is called Log Cabin Sampler by Bareroots. It measures 34 by 38inches.

I have quite a bit of stuff to show and will try to catch up over the next few days. I have been very unsettled and done lots of bits and pieces here and there - you will see what I mean soon :-)

I only have a few minutes here so will quickly show a little bag I made for Floss as a little giveaway thing from a while back.

And here is a lovely little surprise I received from Karol-Ann for guessing how many 4-patches she made before attending a workshop with Bonnie Hunter ( lucky girl ).

Now that's the sort of post I like to receive - great fun ! Of course the very delicious bar of chocolate is long gone . . .

One last thing - I received an email a while back from Pameladownunder who I would love to answer but unfortunately is no-reply. If you are reading this Pamela perhaps you could email me again with your email addy so I can answer you.

Next post will be a proper mish-mash I assure you - need to take some photos.

See you soon xx

A bit sad

2011-03-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

I have been doing quite a lot of sewing lately ( I am now on Morphine tablets which although not ideal in the long term are bloody marvellous at taking some of the pain away until things improve ) but I am not showing you what I've been doing just yet as I want to tell you all of something very thought provoking that happened to me this week.

I attend a small quilt group every Tuesday night and although I hadn't been for a while - with these new pills I have been feeling so much better I managed to get there last week and the week before.

Anyway we had visitors on Tuesday night - a couple of ladies from a locallish quilt group selling fabric. You see one of their members sadly died just after Christmas and this fabric belonged to her. When she passed away her husband did not know what to do with all her stuff and was actually going to dump it all in the land fill site. Her friends came to the rescue and decided they would sell it for her and then her family would donate the proceeds to charity.

When they were due to come on Tuesday we knew these friends had already been to a few venues and had held a sale in a church hall so we were not expecting too much. Well when they arrived we were all absolutely staggered by the sheer quantity of fabric they brought in. I wished I'd had my camera - it was amazing. The ladies told us that this was only about a QUARTER of what they'd started with !!!!

The lady who'd died had also had 5 sewing machines, cutting mats galore and anything else you could think of to do with quilting but many of them. I think she was a compulsive buyer.

I obviously bought some fabric and I kept thinking how sad it was that she never got to use this fabric although of course it was good that at least it would be bought by quilters who would love it and use it to make beautiful quilts with. What a shame it would have been for it all to be dumped.

It certainly made me think about how much fabric we own. My stash is a good size but really I could see how it could so easily get out of control. Before this I was thinking I would try and use more from my stash this year and this has seconded it.

Here's what I got

To date her friends have sold over £8,000 worth of quilting stuff - I think that's about $13,000

Makes you think doesn't it ?

Simple is good.

2011-02-18T12:25:00.001-08:00

No I haven't forgotten my blog- just I am still having nerve trouble with my wretched leg. It is getting sooo painful now nearly all day long. At the moment I can stand or lie down ( quite uncomfortable ) but am literally unable to sit- at all !! If it can be done standing or lying then great I'm fine but sitting is out of the equation. I am awaiting physiotherapy but my doctor has told me there is a 3 month wait for that. Last week I was sent for x-rays just to make sure it is nothing worse than a trapped nerve. My husband had to drive me to the hospital while I gritted my teeth and slumped in the passenger seat.

About 2 minutes from the hospital my mobile phone rang. It was my son Patricks school to say he had been involved in an accident at lunchtime. He was fine but was missing a couple of teeth !!!! Whaaaaattt ???? Apparently he had been drinking a can of Pepsi and another boy had killed a ball at him ( completely by accident ) the ball hit the can - the can hit Patricks mouth with some force and this is the result.

An emergency trip to the dentist for a lovely session of root canal work. Because the teeth snapped at gum line my dentist believes the roots will be strong but obviously he will have to have work to build up on what he's got. I'm completely gutted as of course they are his adult teeth and he hasn't had them long. I have always nagged both my kids to clean and look after their teeth - they will thank me in the long run. All those times they used to say they were too tired to do them at night and would give them an extra clean in the morning just didn't wash with me !! Anyway with a bit of luck Patrick will be happy with his false ones and it could have been a lot worse.

After all the drama - I cancelled the x-ray that day and went the next - I was really in the mood for some nice stress-free simple sewing. My friends little boy was having his second birthday the week after and I decided to make him a quilt for his new big-boy bed.

I started with a few I-spy squares that I had cut out a while ago.

There are 20 here but I managed to find another 4 for a 4 by 6 layout.

His bedroom has just been re-decorated in red and blue so I picked some nice bright ones from my stash to frame each block. I also used a bit of this for the inner border.

If you can't see the selvedge it is marked 2003. this pre-dates my quilting days as I think I started the following year. This is probably one of the first fabrics I bought then.

Here is a close-up of some of the fabrics

And here is the finished quilt.

It turned out good and even the quilting went well. Straight line quilting in the blocks and a swirly border. Isn't it nice when it all works out fine with no hiccups ( or hiccoughs - lol ). This quilt was very well received by young Ewan and his parents. I hope he has fun with it - spotting all the different things.

One last thing - whilst sorting out my photos I came across this picture that I don't think I've shown. It was an orphan block that I quilted and made into a cushion as a gift for an elderly couple that DH Jason has as his customers. He took it to them for Christmas and it has pride of place on their sofa I believe.

Well off to pop a few more pills - I am so trying not to moan about all this and I'm sure once I get moving on the physio I will see some improvement There are a lot of folk far worse off than me. I have also ordered a DVD from Amazon called Pilates for people with Back Pain. I'll give that a go too.

I also have something else to show you but have no photos yet so that will be for next time.

Bye for now xxx

Scraps and a gift

2011-01-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas I decided I would do something with my big box of little scraps. These are quite small bits that had accumulated over time. I had used up my box of strings previously on my crap circle quilt shown below. I had a lovely couple of hours sitting on my bed sorting through these with the help of one of my furry babies. If you click for a better look you will see my cat, scraps and quilt - lol !

I then started sewing them together randomly and trimming after each seam. This is great fun and something I really enjoy. I have a 6 inch square ruler and once the piece got to a big enough size these scruffy pieces got turned from these

Into these . . . . . .

I have not been doing a lot of sewing - mainly due to the ongoing problem of sciatica - but now and again I have been doing a few more of these here and there. Yesterday I counted them up and discovered I have made 95 blocks already with still no end to the scraps - lol ! Not sure how I will set these but for the moment I am really enjoying them. Quite satisfying making something from nothing. When I started quilting - seven years ago - I used to throw my scraps in the bin. What a terrible thought !!!

I am still slowly working on the 600 flying geese needed for the quilt in my last post. However my sewing machine is playing up again so for now I am using my little back-up machine to make these scrap blocks.

Last week a new friend - Julie - from my quilting group became a grandma for the first time. She phoned to let me know her daughter had the baby - a little girl called Amber Lily. My first thought was to make her a little something. I was going to knit a little jacket but I knew Julie had done lots of knitting for her so I decided a small wall-hanging for the nursery would be nice.
Here is the start of it

And here it is appliqued, bordered, quilted and bound. Tada !!! There are little hanging tabs on the back so hopefully it will be up on the wall soon..

I gave it to Julie on Tuesday to pass onto the new parents and she was so touched she almost cried - literally. I did not expect that ! It was so nice to do something from start to finish.

Because I can't sit at the computer for long before my leg starts paining I am behind on answering comments and emails - please forgive me. I am keeping up with all your blogs and comment when I can. I am currently awaiting hospital appointments for physiotherapy and am sure once I start these my sciatica will improve. I can't wait to get back to my quilting properly.

Have a good week xxx

2011-01-13T03:50:00.000-08:00

Good morning. I have a couple of questions for you today. The first one I'm pretty sure I know the answer too but I'm very curious about the second.

1. Do you have UFO's ? - see I think I'm almost positive most of you will say yes - lol. I think of my UFO's as something I have started and abandoned before it is done. I am not classing my long term projects in this - such as my English Paper Piecing quilts ( of which I have a few ) as I keep doing a bit here and there. When I get to the stage where my quilt becomes a UFO for whatever reason - deadline on something else, just got distracted etc - I stop working on it. This leads to my next question.

2. Are your UFO's carefully put away in a logical order - perhaps with notes - so you can see where you're up to ? Or are they literally bundled away out of sight, out of mind - lol.

You have probably guessed I'm going somewhere with this. Yes I am working on one of my numerous UFO's - not sure how many I've quite got but a few should cover it :-) After the Christmas rush I got to thinking which one of my quilts-in-progress would I like to see finished first. I decided on one I started only last year but which I really want completed. I will re-cap on this. It is one I saw in Quilters Newsletter and was love at first sight. It is made mainly in Reproduction fabrics and my wonderful friend Dawn very kindly bought me the poison green, chrome yellow fabrics I was struggling to get hold of. She had seen the quilt " in the flesh " and also sent some photos of it. We decided to both make this quilt.

Anyway I knew where it was - all piled up on a tray under my sewing table - like so

Some bits were done - some fabrics cut - little bits half done - no order whatsoever ! So I spent a bit of time working out exactly where I was with this.

There are 25 blocks in the quilt. I discovered 4 were complete.

Each block starts with a nine-patch in the centre and is then bordered. I found all nine-patches done and some ( about 5 more ) had their borders. I had no little borders cut so first job was to go through my fabric drawers and get the fabrics I had used so far - adding a few more to the mix - definitely a scrappy quilter at heart.

I now have all the borders on the nine-patches and am in the process of making lots of flying geese units ( there are 600 altogether )

To my delight I also found I'd made the 80 four-patches needed for the outer border. I can't even remember making these - lol !

I know this is a little long winded but I wanted to share how much fun I had sorting through all my bits and pieces and finding out what needed doing. I know it would have been far easier if everything had been tidy and labelled in little bags and the rest of my pieces cut out but I guess that's just not me.

I am up to 9 blocks complete now with lots more flying geese made and ready to sew. Might get some done later with a bit of luck although my leg is troubling me today. Could be worse.

My heart goes out to everyone affected by the Australian floods - so much devastation - the world truly has it's troubles. I hope to make a small donation tomorrow and wish it could be more.

Take care xxx

SSCS

2010-12-31T07:25:00.000-08:00

Well a combination of being really busy and having a bad sciatica flare-up meant my poor old blog has been neglected. We had a fantastic Christmas and enjoyed every minute of it. Lots of food, gifts and fun all round. Who can ask for more ?

Without further ado here is the Christmas part of my SSCS parcel organised admirably once again by Chookyblue.

My partner was Kate and just look at those 3 cute santas. They will be hauled out year after year I know. Had to keep them away from one of my cats as he took quite a shine to them - lol !

The main gift was these 2 beautiful items - a block of the month holder and a needlecase.

Here's the insides. Lovely, lovely fabrics - very well made and practical too. I plan to start a little stitching very soon so these will be set up ready to go.

Thanks so much Kate - I really love them. I am also very proud of myself for lasting out til Christmas Day to open them ( second year running - lol ).

And here's what I sent to my partner in Brazil. Denyse got these as well as some little extras of fabric, thread and a diary. Hope she likes them. Had a little fun with the instructions at one point but all came right in the end. Took a long time to make as those flowers are hand-appliqued which you may know is not my forte.
The back is the same as the front.

Over the next few days I will try and cobble up a couple of posts together as to what I was up to before Christmas. Sewing was done including some very last minute stuff - I will never change.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Peaceful New Year and thanks so much for coming back to read my blog even though posting has been sporadic of late.

Take care xxx

UFO - tick !!

2010-11-22T12:36:00.001-08:00

I am SO glad this one is done. English paper piecing takes a long time anyway but when you're stopping and starting for umpteen other quilts well time just flies. Last time this appeared on my blog I was up to the navy blue hexagons. I then found this lovely print in my stash and appliqued the whole thing on. With mitred corners too I'll have you know - lol ! That was a job in itself. Then a 3 inch strip of navy added. This did 2 things - made it bigger obviously and meant I didn't have to bind those funny shaped edges. I thought long and hard about hand quilting this but decided it would probably add another couple of years onto it ( took about 3 years I think anyway )

So I took the bull by the horns and quilted it on my Janome 1600p - only the second one I have done on this machine. I used a lovely pastel variegated thread and meandered away. My machine quilting is not perfect by any stretch but I love how this turned out. I am glad I went for the machine option although it would have looked good hand quilted - especially as it is all hand pieced but there you go.

At one point I nearly abandoned this. I had started out just working in rings round a single hexagon but after a while decided I didn't like it. Because the fabrics are pretty I went ahead and unpicked the whole thing. This was on a quilting day with my group. Whilst everyone else was sewing away on lovely new projects I sat and unpicked and unpicked. Took all day and some of the evening too when I got home but then I was able to start again.

These pictures should click to make bigger if you want.

Anyway after my last post when I told you all my machine had been stripped and oiled by me it was working like a dream - for about a couple of days. Then the funny noise re-appeared. So this time I did take it to the repair place. Apparently I may have a slipped jockey pulley - ouch !! Sounds painful - lol ! They have had it 2 weeks now and I am anxious to get it back. They have a lot of machines in and told me there would be a 2 week wait so I'm sure it'll be home soon. I have another back-up machine but to be honest don't get on with it that well. I have done a little on it but am looking forward to using my other one.

I have pulled fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt and this is what I'll do when my machine gets here. I will show you my colours next time as well as some photos of what I've been doing whilst my poor machine has been in hospital.

I have finished my SSCS gift but of course can't show photos of that yet. But lets just say I went out of my comfort zone a little and did some hand applique - shock !!

Anyway time is getting on and I have to dash - take care xxx

Tempted !

2010-11-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Because I have been very good and spent a lot of time lately working on UFO's I am feeling the need to use some new fabric ie. start a new quilt. It seems so long ago that I did this. I have a big UFO finished this week but have not taken photos today because it has been so dark and dismal that the light has been awful. I will wait for a brighter day to do so as I really want you to see this quilt at it's best.

Before I did anything however my sewing machine needed attention. Not the newish machine that I bought for quilting but my ordinary machine that I do all my piecing on. When I used it last it kept making a funny noise every so often. I can only describe it as the noise Donald Duck makes - I kid you not - lol ! At the time I was intent on quilting anyway so I just put it to one side and left it. Yesterday however I was in the mood for some serious piecing. I had phoned the sewing place and they said if I brought it in they would have a look at it. But there was a 2 week wait and a basic service would cost £50 ( I think about $80 ). Now I love spending at anytime but when I thought of what else I could spend that cash on - well it got me thinking.

I had already removed the footplate and gave it a good old clean in there - I do it all the time. Being brave I decided to go a bit further and started removing the side cover being careful not to lose the screws. Surprising how much fluff had built up. Then I started manually turning the wheel and watched which bits inside moved up and down. I'm not sure of the technical name for any of these parts but being very cautious I applied a couple of drops of machine oil to the bits that seemed to be doing the most work. I had a hairy moment when I did indeed drop a screw inside the machine and said a very rude word - lol ! But with the removal of the bottom of the machine I managed to get it and screw it back in the right place. Once it was altogether I grabbed a bit of scrap fabric and tried it out. To my absolute delight it was great. No strange noises and definitely sewing smoother. Nowhere in my manual had it mentioned oiling the machine - it is 3 years old and I have used it a LOT so I suppose it stands to reason a drop of oil would not go amiss. I am chuffed to bits and am now deciding what to spend my pennies on.

To give it a bit of a workout I spent a couple of hours sewing strips together cut from these fabrics.

They are quite subtle for me and I have had them for a couple of years. Also unlike me they are all from the same range - I never normally buy stuff like this. It is called Zen from Makower and is vaguely Japanesey.

I had bought a new ruler a few months back and armed with a wonderful tutorial from Lurline (she has it listed on the left hand side of her blog ) I had a lovely time sewing and chopping and pressing. Today after a bit of applique I have this

The question I am asking myself is do I like the block enough to make more and turn them into a quilt ? These are big blocks - almost 20 inches square. I would need to make another 11 and then borders to make a new quilt for Jason and I. Shall I or shan't I ? If I do go ahead I am thinking to hand quilt each block separately and put them together Quilt As You Go. I need to think about this one - lol !

As usual I am behind on answering emails - still having back probs - so if I owe you a reply you never know I might get round to it soon. I have been having some lovely comments from no-reply bloggers whose profiles are private so have no way of thanking them for taking time to chat to me. All comments are very much appreciated even if I don't always manage to answer.

One last thing. I am trying to get hold of a copy of Australian Patchwork and Quilting. It's Vol 17 no 7 - 2009 Yearbook. I will gladly swap, buy or whatever. I would be eternally grateful for any help..

Take care xx

UFO done !

2010-10-26T03:09:00.000-07:00

Here is my first UFO finished and quilted on my new machine.

Close-up

And backed with polar fleece.

After a lot of trial and error I have found 3 quilting threads that the machine likes. So I am now in the process of building up a collection of different colours. Once I've adjusted the tension on my sample piece and got the stitch to my liking the machine quilts FAST. I have to remember to stop and breathe I get that carried away - lol. So far all I've done is a meandering stitch but I hope to branch out and try something different. But I like the quilting to be quite open to retain the snuggly feel and a lot of machine quilting patterns seem to be too dense for my liking. More practise is called for. I have also quilted another UFO and am onto binding stage. This is also quilted the same way - perhaps that will go on my tombstone - She meandered her way through life - lol !!

Last week I heard a rumour that quilting fabrics are going to become rarer due to the high price of the cotton crops ( thats what I told DH anyway :-x ) so I had a little shop. Quite a lot here as some of those are 3 yard pieces. And so my fabric diet is well and truly over - didn't last long !!

And another birthday has come and gone. Thanks for the cake Jess !

One last thing - I have a busy day planned - there were 765 hexies in that pile. One from each fabric in my stash. The closest was Floss with 750. I will get busy with my SSCS gift and make something as well for Floss to be sent out the same time - about a month away. Best get cracking on those.....

Take care xxx

This week

2010-10-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

I've been on a mission . . . . to prepare all my hexagons for my new quilt. It is a charm quilt with one hexagon from every fabric in my stash. I have been sorting and rootling about and think I have it all sorted now. I have been cutting papers and fabrics and basting all week and have just finished them all. Here they are in all their glory.

This will be a good record of my stash and depending how big it turns out I may hang it on the wall. I have no idea of the size this will be - may become clearer once I start sewing them altogether - lol !

Now these are done I will have to decide how they are all going together - I have a few ideas but that may change.

My next project is my SSCS organised again by the lovely Chookyblue. I know what I'm making and have chosen fabrics. The pattern for this was in a box on my shelf. I got the boxes containing my patterns out and within a minute look what happened.

He is so nosey - lol !!

Actually I have just had an idea. As I passed my 200th post a couple of posts back I think I will have a little competition. If you would like to guess how many hexagons I have in my pile ( I haven't counted yet ) I will also make a little present to be posted out the same time as my SSCS gift to the person who gets nearest. So if you fancy an extra Christmas present feel free to have a go. I will let you know who came closest on my next post - a week or so.

I have a couple of quilts I have been working on that are nearly ready to be quilted. I had this for my birthday almost a year ago and have hardly used it.

Maybe I will be brave and actually use it and you may even see a finished quilt very soon. The trouble ss it is very choosey about which thread it likes so I have had a lot of frustration with it. However after a lot of experimenting I think I have found a thread to use. In fact you can see a bit of my practise piece along with the hexagons. So wish me luck - I'm going in - lol xxx

Baby Steps

2010-09-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

Thats what I'm taking on my sewing machine. Don't want to overdo it. So I started a baby quilt for my neighbour a couple of weeks ago and just did bits at a time. I had it layered up and ready to quilt. On Sunday I decided to start the quilting - a simple machine stipple. Because it was small it was done in no time - after a few tension issues - grrr !! I got binding on and sat on Sunday evening hand sewing it down. Very pleased with myself as the baby wasn't due until October 14th.

Funnily enough the next day we got news that little Millie had arrived the day before surprising everyone being 3 weeks early. How funny is that ? Seems I wasn't early but bang on time - lol ! I popped round earlier today to give her mum the quilt and she was delighted with it. Sometimes you don't know if a quilt will be appreciated or not do you ? She really seemed to love it and although I'd told her I made quilts I don't think she'd seen any I've made. Anyway here it is

I love pastel colours and had fun choosing these fabrics.

First finish I've had in ages - hurray !! I would quite like to make a bigger version of this in Autumn colours but am trying not to start anything else - maybe next year.

I'll tell you more about my tension issues next post as it's getting late - lets just say I had a dash to a quilt shop for thread and whilst I was there grabbed these fabrics.

Later on that evening ( about 6 hours later ) I remembered I was supposed to be on a fabric diet - lol ! Knew it wouldn't last.

See you soon xx

Don't faint !

2010-09-25T02:21:00.000-07:00

Hello I am Andrea and I am a Quilter - lol.

You may be forgiven for not believing that statement due to the content of my blog recently. You may be aware I have been having terrible problems with my back - to cut a long story short it is apparently chronic sciatica nerve damage. Sounds impressive huh ? Anyway the pain has now moved from my lower back to my left leg - lol ! Which although not ideal is far less debillitating than the pain in my back. I am much more mobile, in less pain and more importantly have been able to use my sewing machine - hurray !!!

I have a free-ish day today and have big plans to sew some more. A neighbour is heavily pregnant ( due in a couple of weeks ) and I have it on good authority that she is expecting a girl. I have had a ton of ideas swimming round up top and off I trekked to my pretty pastels - lots of half-square triangles made.

I will show you progress soon but for now here is what I did with the off-cuts -

The whole thing measures 6 by 8 inches so really bitty bits - I normally throw them but because I was so chuffed to use my machine had some fun with these. DH Jason was very impressed - lol.

I also have started another charm quilt - more hexagons I'm afraid - why didn't anyone stop me !! Just been going through my stash and cutting ONE piece from each fabric and turning them into a hexie. Here's what 400 look like. Pictured next to my last charm quilt - 3D hexagons whish just happened to be on the end of my bed.

and here's the next batch ready - about 200 I think.

Much deliberating how I'm going to sew these together but just enjoying basting them for now. As the dark nights are drawing in ( much to my delight - I love Autumn and Winter ) I will have plenty of time to slowly work on these.

And talking of time something happened this week that will free me up A LOT. DH Jason has passed his driving test at the ripe old age of 38. It was his first attempt but boy was he dragging his heels to actually go for it. I have been driving him round for work for 2 years and it is a lovely feeling to see him toddle off by himself to his jobs. I feel like waving a flag every time I see him go - haha ! Well done love - about bl**dy time !!! More quilting time for me...

Sure I have more news but I am anxious to sew - just waiting to hang out some washing and I'll be away.

Thanks for your lovely comments and emails - I have managed to keep up my blog reading via Patricks iPod but haven't been on my pc to leave comments as it was too painful to sit on my chair. Hopefully things will improve in that department too - fingers crossed xxxxx

ALQS

2010-08-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

Two posts in a few days - what's happening ? lol

Well my little quilt from the swap organised by Kate has arrived and here it is

I know - it is gorgeous ! I am delighted I am it's new owner. Such lovely colours and great workmanship. It is from Rebecca in New Zealand. Rebecca doesn't have a blog which is a shame if she is making little beauties like this - I for one would love to see more of her work. How about it Rebecca ? lol .

She was very kind to add a few extras in the parcel

Thanks so much Rebecca - you are a star !!

And here's the one I made which went to Val. I nearly didn't get this done as it was when my back pain was at it's worst but with a bit of effort and a few painkillers I got it finished - hurray!

One last thing - I bought this earlier in the week

My first layer cake. I never really enjoyed using the one jelly roll I had ( I bought 2 but sold one on Ebay ) so decided to get a layer cake to see how I get on with this. I have a few ideas but will need to dig out some extra fabrics from my stash to pad it out and not have it looking too matchy.

A quiet afternoon planned - a few episodes of Gilmore Girls whilst doing some cross stitch. Wonder if I can persuade Jason to nip to the shops to get me some chocolate ? lol

Enjoy your weekend xx

What I've been up to !!

2010-08-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

Still unable to use sewing machine much due to ongoing back problems - have a few new blocks to show you next time though.

So lots of hand sewing going on. I am currently hand quilting my log cabin sampler which now looks like this.

Sneaky shot of Patrick holding it up. Newly tidied noticeboard in the background - was a real mess before.

Also been working on my 3D hexie quilt which is growing nicely.

I am thinking of a new English Paper Piecing project but really want this together first. I am being quite good about not starting anything new although a couple of friends are expecting babies and we all know what that means :-)

And as promised here are the instructions for the little knitted squares.

I use Double Knitting wool for these and 4.5mm needles but as long as you use a correct needle this pattern will work with any type of wool. Maybe just make one for sizing purposes. I use two colours.

Cast on 89 stitches with colour 1

1st row (colour 1) - Knit

2nd row (colour 1) - K2tog, ( K19, K3tog ) 3 times, K19, K2tog. 81 sts

3rd row + every following alternate row using colour from previous row - Knit row.

4th row (colour 1) - K2tog, (K17, K3tog ) 3 times, K17, K2tog. 73 sts

6th row (colour 2) - K2tog, (K15, K3tog ) 3 times, K15, K2tog. 65 sts

8th row (colour 2) - K2tog, (K13, K3tog ) 3 times, K13, K2tog. 57 sts

10th row ( colour 1) - K2tog, (K11, K3tog ) 3 times, K11, K2tog. 49 sts

12th row ( colour 1 ) - K2tog, (K9, K3tog ) 3 times, K9, K2tog. 41 sts

14th row ( colour 2 ) - K2tog, (K7, K3tog ) 3 times, K7, K2tog. 33 sts

16th row ( colour 2 ) - K2tog, (K5, K3tog ) 3 times, K5, K2tog. 25 sts

18th row ( colour 1 ) - K2tog, (K3, K3tog ) 3 times, K3, K2tog. 17 sts

20th row ( colour 1 ) - K2tog, (K1, K3tog ) 3 times, K1, K2tog. 9 sts

22th row ( colour 1 ) - ( K3tog ) 3 times. 3 sts

23rd row ( colour 1 ) - K3tog and fasten off.

They will look like this and then you simply sew up the row edges.

Have fun - I have made a good few of these and will probably do more during the Winter months.

I have also been working on my cross stitch but have forgotten to take pictures and it is late now so that's something else for again xxxx

Catch up post !!

2010-07-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

You know it's time to update your blog when you start getting emails from concerned readers wondering where you are - lol !! I'm fine but still taking things easy due to this bloomin back pain. I have been working on a few things though which I'll show you soon.

But first a massive thankyou to my wonderful cousin in Australia. Sarah has sent me a beautiful hand-made gift which arrived a few days ago. I apologise in advance for my rubbish photography - this is absolutely gorgeous.

You see - I am so lucky to get this - thanks a million Sarah - I will treasure it. I also received a lovely warm and snuggly hand-knitted hat and scarf set from my Auntie ( who is Sarahs nan ) but the photo was very unclear. I think I am going to start an Australia fund so we can get to meet in person one day - wouldn't that be lovely ?

I have also been dabbling in a bit of knitting - aren't these cute ?

They finish about 4 inches square and are knitted on 2 needles. Nice and quick to do now and again - I may have enough to make a blanket in about 5 years time - lol ! If anyone is interested I will post a little tutorial soon - need to translate the instructions in my head onto paper first :-)

In my attempt not to start anything new I am working on a UFO that's been in progress for quite a while. I think the last time I showed this it was like this.

A while back I got it to this stage

and very soon I'll show you how it's looking now - just want to do a bit more first.

I've also been working on one of my hexie quilts - I have 3 in progress !! Please don't ever let me start another - lol ! I enjoy English Paper Piecing but boy - it is labour intensive !

Now I've started this post I realise I have loads more to say but time is running out - and my back is saying enough - so that will have to keep til next time

take care xxxx

Still here !!

2010-07-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Seeing as this is a quilting blog and a slipped disc and quilting are not good friends you will see why I have been so quiet. I have been doing some hand work - bit of hexie stitching and a bit of knitting and crochet but nothing really to show.. The pain in my back is improving slightly - I am on new tablets and they seem to be helping. The trick is to strike a balance - rest too much and my back seizes up - move about too much and I'm sore - lol ! Sorry I have not replied to all your good wishes but sitting on a computer chair has been a no-no !

Anyway enough moaning - I have managed to finish my little quilt for Kates swap but I won't show it quite yet. I can say it came out nice and my DD Jess has asked me to make her one too as she loves it. She wants to put it on her wall. Seeing as she usually calls me sad for hanging little quilts this is quite a breakthrough - lol !

I decided to work on a UFO as it mainly involved unpicking as opposed to sewing. I made this over 3 years ago - I think it is one of the first things I showed on my blog.

I was enjoying working on it until I added those black thin borders and then I stalled completely. I just couldn't decide what to do with it next. I think the black killed it although it seemed like a good idea at the time. I have pulled it out loads of times and pondered over it and then put it away again. The little log cabin blocks are 4 inches finished. This picture actually makes it look better than it was - in real life the black is much more overpowering.

So I got busy with my seam ripper and replaced the back strips with a nice yellow. While I was at it I took off a row of blocks top and bottom as it seemed a bit of a funny shape. I had never been able to find anything I liked for an outer border but a fabric I recently bought very cheaply seemed to fit the bill. Here it is

I like it much better. I am not up to basting it yet - don't think my back can take it but I'm pleased with it now. I may take it to my sewing group next week and bribe some-one to pin baste it for me :-)

I did some cutting out today so I'm ready to sew when I'm able. I couldn't resist chancing a bit of machine sewing. Heres a picture for you Dawn.

We are both making the same quilt verrrrry slowly. This is my second block - 23 to go.

I have done quite a bit of fabric buying lately so I am now trying to ease off a bit. Lets see how that goes.....

Will try and not leave it so long next time xxx

The winner

2010-05-31T05:35:00.000-07:00

of my little giveaway is Rosemary. I used the random number generator and tried to post the result here but failed miserably. I could ask Jason but I don't want an hour long lesson - lol ! I am waiting for Rosemary's address and then the book and quilt top will be away across the water. Thanks to all who entered anyway.

And it seems I have managed to lay myself up with a slipped disc in my lower back. Ouch - very painful. It seems to be improving slightly but I understand these things take time. Very inconvenient I must say. I have lots I want to do - incuding finishing painting my hallway. Will have to wait.

The first couple of days the pain was excruciating and I was sent to bed. I am now at the pottering around stage but machine sewing is a no-no !

So when the pain gets bad and I need to rest I have been basting shapes for my 3D hexie quilt. This is the second one I'm making.

My first was a charm quilt but this one is in a limited colourway of green/purple/brown. All 577 shapes and ready to sew and I couldn't resist sewing a few together.

I must say I'm not loving this really but will carry on seeing as I've done so much already. Once the shapes are basting they go together quite quickly. It's very subdued - not as colourful as the photo shows. We'll see . .

I also started a crochet blanket to do when the mood strikes - nothing fancy - just going round and round in stripes. This is good to do when my back is hurting as I can work on it whilst lying alnost horizontally - needs must - lol !

Off to pop a few pills :-) take care xx

It's time . . . .

2010-05-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

. . . . for a little giveaway. It is 3 years since I started my blog and now I couldn't imagine life without it. I have had so much fun and met some lovely people. You all know the feeling I'm sure. So now it's time to give a little back. I don't always have time to answer every comment but each and every one are much appreciated and that goes for those who pop in and read what I've been up to but don't have time to comment. Personally I read tons of blogs and honestly couldn't comment every time.

Anyway like a lot of you I am trying to stash bust and I'm doing okay ( apart from my little blip last week but we won't talk about that - lol ! ) But I have been buying books. I've bought Jennifer Chiaverini's The Lost Quilter - Kaffe Fassetts Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts and this one

What a lovely book. Obviously it appeals to me ( my blog name is a bit of a clue ) as I am Welsh and I make quilts - lol ! In fact I loved it so much I bought another one for my blog-birthday. It has lots of history and pictures of Welsh quilts and also contains instructions for making your own Welsh-style quilt. One of these in particular caught my eye. A very simple design which when quilted in the Welsh style looks gorgeous. There are many quilting designs and motifs in this book. So part 2 of my giveaway is this quilt top

made by me this weekend and just ready for some lovely quilting. I plan to make another for myself and love the idea that there will be two of these in the world made by yours truly. It measures 24 inches square and is yours for the taking. A Welsh quilt of your own ! This is a typical example - very simple piecing but then brought to life with beautiful hand-quilting.

So if you would like to win both the book and the quilt top you know what to do. Leave me a comment and I will pick a random number a week from now - Sunday 30th May - 8pm UK time.

A couple of things - if you are set as no-reply ( I get lots of lovely comments I am unable to respond to ) could you include your email address in the comment. And I would prefer this to go to one of my regular readers so please don't advertise this on your blog.

Good luck XXX

Sunglasses on !

2010-05-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

My scrap quilt is done - right to a finish. Hurray ! I didn't want another UFO lurking about - I have far too many of them already. I started appliqueing them circles onto a nice cream background fabric but after doing 5 of them realised it wasn't doing it for me. Years ago I bought a sample pack from Ebay of a sort of shaded spotty stuff. Each piece went from light to dark of a certain colour and had a gold spot printed on. Every so often I would try to use a bit of this but it never seemed to work. Anyway I dug out the pack and just cut it up and began putting my circles on this instead - much better.

A quadruple strippy border went on too.

These photos should click - much brighter in real life and used up a load of strings.

I wanted a nice bright blue binding for this but didn't have enough of anything right. A little trip to Abakhan Fabrics was called for. I got my blue but hadn't planned to buy another 17.5 yards of other fabrics but that's what happened - lol !

When Patricks friends come for a sleepover they tend to doss down in the living room as it is much bigger than his bedroom. This quilt will be just right as an extra for his 13 yo mates to sleep under. Patrick is interested in Aliens and unexplained occurences such as crop circles so in Patricks honour this will be called Crap Circles - really I need to get a life - lol ! My family think I'm crackers :-)

As soon as it was done one of my 3 cats made a beeline for it and slept on it for hours. Thumbs up from Kasper.

I am coming up to my 3 year blog-birthday and have a little something planned.

Take care xx

My latest scrap quilt !

2010-05-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

As I explained a few posts ago my box full of strings was packed to bursting so I decided to do something with them. Instead of just diving in and sewing them altogether willy-nilly I wanted to do something more structured.

I ironed them all and cut them in uniform strips of 1.25 inch roughly 6 inches long. Once that was done I started sewing them into these.

Soon I had a pile like this.

Then I got a small pasta bowl I have and drew round it onto some fusible web.

And made 1 of these.

I cut out the middles of the fusible ( bondaweb ) to cut out the stiffness a bit. Here is a pile ready to be used.

I am not in the process of appliquing them by machine onto background fabric. My machine has been whizzing like mad - lol !

I am determined to get this done completely before I start anything new. Binding and all.

Next on the agenda is a baby quilt I need to make for Jess's college tutor. I know what I am doing for that thanks to Norma and Linda - because the baby is not born yet and they haven't found out if it's a boy or a girl I am thinking of doing 1 for each - the other will be kept til another baby comes along. But I want to get this done first.

Big day for us here in UK today - General Election - will we have a new Prime Minister tomorrow ?

Take care xx

2010-04-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

Ok - I've been doing a bit of this and that. Some knitting on an old project - I will show you when that's done. Some new knitting too - a couple more teacosies

I've also dug up my blue hexagons. I really, really want this done. It is a bit small and I want to make it bigger but I am NOT making more hexagons for this. So I am going to applique the edges onto some border fabric.

Can you see I am trying to fill in the top and bottom edges to straighten it up a bit.

This seems to be taking ages but I'm almost ready to cut border fabrics. With a bit of a push I will be ready to quilt this before long. I love hand-quilting and I know this would look great done this way but I think I will just do some very simple machine quilting to get it done.

I am also working on my scrap quilt but will show you that in my next post.

I dragged Jason to a quilt shop yesterday about 35miles away from my home. I promised him a pub lunch as a temptation. He is always up for a feed so I knew that would do it. We did indeed have a really good lunch and the quilt shop was wonderful. You know when you could just keep buying and buying ? I did get a few little pretties but could have got SO much more. But I am trying to stash bust so was quite restrained.

And thanks for all your lovely messages about Joan. We all know what it is like to lose a friend and it is difficult. I went back to quilters on Tuesday and it just won't be the same without her. I will miss her enormously and my thoughts are with her family ( who I feel I know personally through Joans stories ). Sadly she was working on a beautiful blue and cream log cabin quilt that was almost ready for quilting. Her sister also quilts so I am thinking she may finish it for her.

Take care xxx

Back soon

2010-04-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Not a good week. You may know I go to a small quilting group every week. There are only about 20 of us on a full night and as such we are very close. A few days ago I lost a good friend from my group. For the last 6 years I have sat next to Joan and we have put the world to rights over a cup of tea. She had a few health problems so it was not totally unexpected but still came as a shock when I knew she had passed away. She was over 30 years older than me but we all know age is just a number right ? I will say goodbye to her at her funeral tomorrow and will miss her a lot - she was a truly lovely person and we had so much besides quilting in common. This has took the wind out of my sails so I may be a bit quiet for a while - not too long though - a bit of quilt therapy may be just the thing.

Done, done, done !

2010-04-05T03:28:00.000-07:00

Hurray - my Mariners Compass is completely finished ( well except for a hanging sleeve ) and here it is.

Paper pieced star and all hand-quilted. I went with the very dark brown from the second border for the binding as it seemed to look the best. I think these photos should click for a close-up.

I feel very pleased with myself that it did not become a UFO like so many other things I start. I get back to them all eventually but this one was worked on from start to finish. Don't do that too often these days.

I worked on the quilting in the evenings whilst DH was watching TV so now I am casting my mind around for something else to do. Like so many of you my hands have to be moving - lol ! I think I know what will be worked on next - a UFO quite a while in the making. Just got to remember where it is !

I am still cutting scraps and have started sewing them together. This is my daytime project for when I have a bit of time. I very rarely machine sew at night - do you ?

Take care xxx

Scraps again !

2010-03-31T04:04:00.000-07:00

I've been decorating my kitchen so not much time to sew and therefore not a lot to blog about. I've been sanding, painting, stripping down cupboards and wallpapering. It's almost done now - just a few finishing touches. So I am itching to stitch.

But first let me show you what I got from my lovely friend Dawn. Remember the quilt I showed you a few posts back from Quilters Newsletter ? Well Dawn has seen the quilt "in the flesh" and sent me some great photos of it. Well the upshot is we are both going to make the quilt and when Dawn knew I was struggling to get some of the poison green fabrics she very kindly bought some for both of us ( I think Dawns friend was sent shopping - lo ) and here's my loot.

They are so beautiful I am going to have a hard job cutting into them. Dawn has made her first block and we are going to take our time with this. I am trying to use what I have but without the poison greens and the chrome yellows I'm sure it wouldn't work as well. Thanks heaps Dawn - there is a little thankyou coming to you soon.

I have been working on my Mariners Compass when I've had the time and energy and the quilting is coming along well. Here is a peak at the border.

I have these templates in various shapes and use them quite a lot.

And lastly the title of my post. I have loads of scraps - absolutely tons of them. ( Don't we all ?) A while back I started cutting then down into useable sizes - 2 inch squares etc. But I have an enormous box of what can only be called strings. Now I didn't want to throw then out. Years ago before I knew better I used to bin them - unbelieveable I know ! Now I've seen the error of my ways and hang onto every crumb. These strings were in a bit of a state - very raggy and yucky - lol ! So I have dug out the box and turning these

and these

into these. A lot of work but I have a plan.

And by the way I do not count this as starting a new quilt as it is only scraps - lol ! I have almost convinced myself this is true - HA !!

Better ??

2010-03-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out with my border decision. It seems most were with me and that the squares did not look quite right. Some of your comments made me laugh - especially the one about it being half-baked - lol !!

Sooooooo - off came the squares and on went the cream with a little addition of the cornerstones.

What do you think?

The cream border has a small print and I do think it's better. Although maybe the squares just needed to grow on me - lol !!

Anyway it's layered up now for hand quilting and I'm not faffing about with it any longer. It's 36 inches square so not too big and shouldn't take me too long to get quilted ( famous last words ? )

But you know how easily we are all sidetracked. I bought this book last week

and just had to give one a go.

This one is called Strawberries and cream and made it's way to my mum's kitchen as a little extra Mothering Sunday present. Great book I must say. I have started on another tea cosy - this time for me.

A little story about making this. My kids are so used to me making things that they don't always take a lot of notice of what I'm doing. Anyway Patricks friend ( 13 yo ) was sleeping over on Saturday night and was absolutely fascinated by what I was doing. I could see him watching me knit one of the little strawberries. He asked Patrick to pass him one of the finished ones and was examining it closely. Jokingly I asked him if he would like me to knit him a strawberry and he said yes - he would love one. Bless him.

Hope you all get some stitching in this week..

Opinions please !

2010-03-11T03:19:00.000-08:00

I have added another couple of borders on my Mariners compass wall quilt but think I may have killed it !!!

I keep looking at it and am very undecided whether to remove the last border and change it for something else. This is very unlike me - I usually know straight away if I feel something works or not.

First I added a little border of a red print and this I like. I then decided to add 4 inch squares of some of the fabrics I've used so far. But I also put in a little strip just to break up the dark colours without adding to the size. Like this -

These 4 inch squares fit perfectly but I'm thinking they all need to come off.

I may go with something like this. A bit more of the cream print and bind it with the red.

Less is more ??

Please give me your honest opinions. Should I remove those squares or not. I am a big girl - I can take it - lol ! Thanks xxx

All photos should click to enlarge.

Sunday Post

2010-03-07T04:32:00.000-08:00

I am going to try and post every Sunday if I can - and hopefully anymore I can squeeze in.

Been doing a bit of this and that - lots of cross-stitch. I really want my Midnight Moggies picture done before I get fed up of it. I'm really enjoying it. Will show a progress picture soon.

I've been basting lots of part hexagons for my 3-colour quilt.

I plan to get most of these basted ready for some serious sewing action maybe during the summer when it's hot.

I have finished a top ready for quilting. Once this is done it will be a UFO off the list. It is here. Karol-Ann - you may recognise this border fabric ?

This picture is deceiving. Those blocks are just 2 inches. Yes - I've been using up my little scraps. These blocks originally were part of this

It is the country sampler BOM from Ellies Quilt place that I started last year. Got to June and stalled. I knew I would not ever get these done now so took out the little square in a square blocks and made some more to make this little mini-quilt. I like it and would love to do a proper full sized quilt in this design. Not 2 inch blocks though - think that would drive me mad - lol !

This looked like this yesterday

Different fabric for borders. Once done I decided against it and off they came. This photo shows borders in process of being mitred. I like borders 2 better.

Will quilt this later and maybe use some scrap binding from this little tin.

I have a tin or box for everything. Bit of an obsession - lol !!

By the way if anyone wants those 5 stitchery blocks January to May please shout out - I will be delighted to part with them - I have enough quilty guilt about UFO's just now.

Jess is home - absolutely exhausted - physically and mentally. She has certainly had her eyes opened. She is still in the process of sorting out her many photos so once they're done I'll put a few on here. She had an amazing time and would love to go back. I can see her doing volunteer work in the future. We are relieved to have her back safe and sound. She is very emotional about all she's experienced and it is a bit of a culture shock coming back to her life I think. Here she is at the AIDS orphanage. She wanted to bring some of these children home she said.

Take care xxx

What I've been doing

2010-02-24T05:26:00.000-08:00

Firstly thanks to all for your lovely words on Jess's trip. I'm afraid she had a very tearful goodbye from me. I tried not to weep but it is like asking the sun not to set - that's how I am. I must say though I was not the only one so that made me feel better - lol ! Jess has been in touch by text and email and is having a fantastic trip although in her last message she said since visiting the AIDS orphanage she cannot stop crying - bless. She is like me in that respect. I will post photos when she returns for anyone who would like to see them.

I have been keeping busy - not so much sewing but lots of cleaning and re-organising. I am in the process of making new cushions for our living room but don't feel like doing them today. I finally got round to putting this little quilt up on the wall.

It has been done for months and had just been folded up and moved around. Because it was creased I pinned it to the carpet and gave it a good soaking with a water spray and left it to dry and it did the trick. It is now flat as a pancake :-) It is a Bareroots pattern called written in Thread.

The Chinese coins quilt I half started and then changed my mind about now looks like this.

I have border fabric ordered for this and have bought some funky flowery polar fleece to back it with so hopefully that will get done soon and another UFO off the list. I think I will give this to Jess to keep in her car in case she ever needs it.

And this week I fell in love . . . . .with a quilt from the latest Quilters Newsletter.

It's this one

Gorgeous, gorgeous !! This one is made mainly in 1800's repro fabrics which are quite hard to get hold of here. I have a few but not many. Although I really want to make this I want to do it with fabrics from my stash. So I plan to loosely follow the colourway with what I have. Of course I could not rest until I made a sample block

I really did not want to start another big quilt but resistance was futile - lol !! We all have no willpower . . . .

A few ladies have asked me where the pattern for the Mariners Compass came from. As these ladies were showing as no-reply I will answer here. It is a 2 part project from Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine - Vol15 nos 3 and 4.

And finally the raffle quilt finally got to Canada to the lovely Kathy. It took it's sweet time getting there ( over 10 weeks I think ) but is now in it's new home - thank goodness.

I think that's all for now - I am flitting about like a fly - lol !!

Take care xxx

A quick update

2010-02-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here's my Mariners Compass with the extra borders - not sure if I've finished yet. It's on the back burner for a while until I decide.

In the meantime I'm working on a UFO. Last year I had a charm pack which I decided to make a chinese coins quilt with. I had sliced the charms in half and sewn them together into 4 rows. BUT now I have decided against it and have spent a little time unpicking. I have a plan......

And my stash busting plans went awry when I visited the fabric warehouse. The last few times I've been the selection was very poor and I came away empty-handed. but this time I was tempted and bought 15 yards - all washed but with nowhere to put it yet.

And it is a big day tomorrow - do you remember the quilt I raffled to raise funds for dd Jess's trip to Africa ? Well tomorrow she flies out and I am feeling very emotional. I know she is sensible and it is all well planned. We have had the AIDS and drugs talks and safety briefings etc but she is still my little girl and I know I will worry for the 2 weeks she is away. It is SO hard letting them try out their wings...

She has a very full itinerary - helping out in the orphanages and shanty schools - and I'm sure will have an amazing time - but I sure hope the time goes quickly for us at home. And also thanks once again to those of you who bought tickets and helped to make this possible for Jess.

Take care xxx

Coming along

2010-02-07T06:12:00.000-08:00

Here's where I'm up to so far.

I've really enjoyed doing this - my first attempt at a Mariners Compass. Definitely NOT perfect but good enough for me. I really like paper piecing - great fun. I even don't mind pulling all the little bits of paper off at the end.

I have actually added a couple more borders to this now but don't have photos yet. In the magazine it is the centre of a big quilt but I am not making it full size. I think I want to have this on a wall not a bed.

My friend Sue has always wanted to make one of these but has never done so. She is going through a bad time just now and I am thinking of doing her a block too. This finishes at almost 20 inches and has 101 pieces.

This is just a quick post - need to ice a chocolate cake I've just made then I'm going to cut out some more papers for my hexie quilt. Yes my quilting slump is over - thank goodness.

Have fun xxx

Slowly . . .

2010-02-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

. . . . but surely I can feel myself coming out of my quilting slump.. I know I'm not the only one like this just now. Must be something to do with January but now it's February I'm feeling the need to cut up some fabric - lol !

Anyway I haven't been completely idle on the stitching front. I've been doing some cross stitch. Now I'm no expert - I have only done a few pieces but I have been really enjoying this. I saw a pattern to buy online and ordered it from http://www.the-chart-shop.com/ . When I printed it off I set about ordering supplies - aida and threads. These duly arrived and I was realised I had made a little boo-boo. Man - those holes are close together on this VERY dark fabric - lol !! ( The fabric is much darker than the photo ) I decided to have a bash anyway and so far it's turning out well. Here's what I have to show so far after many hours of stitching

It's called Midnight Moggies and is a great design. I really want to finish it before I start this

I do not want cross stitch UFO's as well as quilting ones - lol !

And like I said I really wanted to get back into quilting so have been flicking through some magazines for inspiration. Before I knew it I was picking out fabrics from my stash

and made a little start on something. Keep tuned . . . .

Have a good day xxx

Quilt for a cat ??

2010-01-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

I have really enjoyed seeing what colour schemes you all came up with. Just goes to show how differently we think.

Out of all those guesses no-one actually got it.

So I have got DH to choose a number and the winner is Annette. If you could send me your address please ( don't think I've got it ) I will get your little prize to you.

Is there anything else ??

Oh yes - my colours are these.

Green - purple - brown.

Every shade I can bung in there.

Hopefully it will look well when it's all put together. You know when you get an idea that you just have to see through. If it looks awful all is not lost - at least it will have kept me out of trouble and I'm sure one of my cats will adopt it - lol !!

Thanks for playing along.

What's in the tin?

2010-01-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

You may remember this quilt - my 3D hexagons.

I have had a number of enquiries about where to get hold of the template for this. Well the good news is you can make your own.

Like so - I'm hoping this will enlarge for a better look. My photos usually do but when you want something it never works - lol !

Anyway it is not all UFO's in my house. Just after New Year I decided to do another of these quilts as I absolutely loved making it. This next one will not be as scrappy. In fact I am only using 3 colours. Not 3 fabrics mind....... No I couldn't cope with that.

So I have been prepping some shapes ready and they are in my rather nice new tin.

I have worked out to make another quilt the same size I need 189 complete hexagons - each comprising 1 of each of my chosen colours. I am going to use 21 different fabrics for each colour - so the quilt will have 63 fabrics. Are you with me?

As I have a boring weekend ahead ( namely doing Tax Returns ) and for a bit of fun and maybe a little something for the winner I was wondering if you'd care to guess my colour scheme.

So I am looking for the names of 3 colours - I'll give you a headstart - it's not red,white and blue ! That's not to say these colours are discounted just not in this combination.

If no-one guesses correctly I'll do a lucky dip for a couple of fat quarters and if more than one guesses right I'll pick the winner by a random thingy.

Will give this until Monday morning UK time - get your thinking caps on - lol !

I have some parcels ready to go out on Monday and will add this extra one too.

Have a good weekend xx

In a Quilting slump....

2010-01-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

Just a little one . . . . . . I can feel myself getting a bit motivated again though.

We have had a shed load of snow which has been and gone. Not before I got stuck in my car up a hill and fell over - lol !! It was simply safer to stay in.

Anyway because of all the snow our postal service went haywire. I had ordered stuff on Dec 29th and yesterday (19th Jan ) it had still not arrived. So I went to the sorting office and asked if I could collect it. I was told there was a backlog of over 600 parcels and lord only knows when they would be sorted out. The lady behind could see I was not delighted at this news and asked me rather sarcastically " would you like me to go and look through 600 parcels ? " I felt like saying " Hello - I am waiting for fabric - of course I do !! " - lol...

Anyway I used a bit of persuasion and she trundled off to one of the big warehouses to have a look. As well as stuff for Jasons work she managed to find my bundle and here's my belated Christmas present to myself.

Not sure what's going to happen with it yet.

Anyway I was in need of wadding/batting and because I couldn't get to anywhere that sold any and the Post Men were being naughty I improvised and for my rail fence quilt I sandwiched it with a piece of a funny sort of stretchy fleece that I had bought years ago to make dressing gowns I think. Wasn't sure how it would turn out but am really pleased with it. Once it had backing fabric on it was fine. By the way is there anything more frustrating than spending an hour pinning 3 layers of a quilt together only to turn it over and see the backing fabric creased to blazes - aarrgghh. The trouble was I don't have loads of free floor space for doing this. In disgust I removed all the pins and tried again next day. This time I moved all the furniture around to make more space and pinned the backing to the floor. The result was a crease-free quilt and a good hoover/vacuum under all the stuff that never sees the light of day.

Here is the quilt - simply quilted with straight lines in keeping with the blocks.

This is an OLD ufo - from about 4 years ago I think. I didn't have my own blog then - just read other peoples. I saw this on a blog and set about something similar. I am pretty sure it was on Keryn's blog. I am always really inspired by hers and her sisters Mereth's blog. They always do such gorgeous quilts - we have very similar tastes. I remember having terrific fun slicing up a load of my favourite fat quarters and sewing them together in pairs. I love the colours in this quilt and it is great to have it done. Because of my make-do wadding it weighs a ton - just right for keeping me warm when I end up on the settee when Jason's snoring reaches high levels - lol !!!

For once I am showing you the back as I like how this looks. My little brain ached a bit working out these measurements - I like symmetry. It is quite a big quilt and it was so much easier quilting in on my new machine with the longer arm.

I have been counting and have got up to 20 ufo's - well 19 now. May not seem a lot to some quilters but it is annoying me. I have my next one picked out ready to work on. I will be hand-quilting this one though so will not be finished for a while. I also have a set of abandoned blocks that need working on pulled out of the depths and may get cracking on them.

One last thing - are you still awake ? Because of my quilting slump I have been doing other things like cross stitch and crochet and here is a little blanket I made for a neighbour's daughter who has just had a baby boy.

I have a few things to get out to people so if you're waiting for something from me - I haven't forgotten - it's on the list.

Take care xx

January blues !

2010-01-05T02:03:00.000-08:00

Its official - I dislike January. Now everything is back to normal doesn't it all seem flat ?

I plan to get out of this by doing some quilting. Trouble is I have such a lot of UFO's I'm not sure where to start. My plan is to get 1 finished by the end of January. I have a very nice rail fence quilt top up to border stage and after I've come off here I'm going to search through my stash for border fabric. I have a reason for doing this quilt which is this.

Jason snores - loudly !! Most nights I turn to my faithful ear plugs which do the trick - lol ! But some nights I like to give my poor ears a rest and so very often I find myself trundling down the stairs with my pillow and a quilt in hand to spend the night on the settee/sofa. Trouble is the quilts I use are a little tad too small and I want something longer to keep my toes warm. This rail fence quilt is quite long and will be ideal so that is the plan. That will be my next post hopefully.

Here's a little quilt I made from a charm pack some time ago.

I got this hand-quilted just before Christmas and it made a nice present for a lovely lady who Jason does computer work for. She was delighted with it. I may make myself another like this with another charm pack I have but not yet - need to get stuff finished.

And lastly a quick few photos on one of the ways I make bag handles. I used this method for the handles on Kerry's bag and I like how they turn out. I'm not sure if I've shown this before but anyway -

1. Decide on the length and width of your handles. Cut wadding/batting and a strip of fabric to

exact size.

2. Using a contrasting fabric cut another strip the same length but 1 and an eigth of an inch
bigger. So for example if you want the handles to be 2 inches wide cut the contrast fabric 3

and an eigth inches wide.

3. Layer as follows - wadding strip with smaller length on fabric on top right side up. Then place

your contrasting fabric along one edge face down. So your 2 fabrics are right sides together.

Sew along this edge.

4. Then line the unsewn edge of the bigger contrast fabric along the other edge and sew the 3

layers together. I use a little trick at this stage to turn the handle through easily and it's this.

I use a length of old selvedge strip longer than the handle and sew it along the top edge of the

handle before I sew the second seam. Obviously making sure it doesn't get sewn in.

This makes it quite easy to pull the handle through and once it's done just snip off the length of selvedge. I have one I use that is cut bigger and folded in half along the length and zig-zag stitched to make it stronger.

Hope this makes sense.

And I must say a big thankyou to Gina who was amazingly kind and sent a very generous donation to Jess's African Fund. What a love !!!

Off to get those borders done......

SSCS gifts

2009-12-31T08:59:00.001-08:00

The big question in my house was would the wait be worth it ? The wait to open my SSCS gift that is..........

The answer was OMG - yes.

Just look at my wonderful present from Toni.

I was so pleased when I started opening these. You might know I have 3 real kitties - a black + white, a grey + white and a tabby. How clever of Toni to come up with the perfect gift for me. I love them so much - absolutely gorgeous. My house is still a bit messy from filtering in all the Christmas gifts but once I'm organised these will be pride-of-place somewhere.

Look at the detail

Thanks so much Toni - as well as for the lovely chocolate and beautiful buttons - which I've forgotten to photograph.

My gift went to Kerry. Heres what I made

A tote bag, a hexie table runner and a few little things.

Another successful swap organised by Donna - don't know how she manages this. Thanks Donna - especially for the encouragement to hold out on opening - lol !!!

Just time to wish everyone who reads this all the very best for 2010. Cheers xxxx

Happy Christmas !!

2009-12-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to wish each and every one of you all the very best for a lovely, relaxing Christmas. Despite the last minute rush everything is in order here - gifts bought and wrapped - food bought - last minute home-made gifts finished with hours to spare - lol !

I think this is my favourite part of Christmas - the anticipation and knowing everything is done and most importantly the shops are closed so I can't spend any more money :-)

Will be back in 2010 hopefully with lots of new stuff. I would like to thank you all for visiting my blog and once again I send my warmest wishes to you all at this special time of year.
xxxxx

ps. I am so looking forward to opening my SSCS gift tomorrow - go on admit it - you never thought I'd last out - lol !!!

Bright !!

2009-12-15T01:26:00.000-08:00

Do you remember this ?

that turned into this

well now it's this

It's going to a friends daughter and I hope she likes it.

There was as much pressing in this quilt as actual sewing. I pressed the seams open so they would lie flat and guess what ? They did !!

I quilted in the ditch but decided it needed something more.

So I did some big stitch quilting with 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread. It looked good but what a lot of extra work. I roughly worked it out as 25 hours more. Ever wish you hadn't started something ? lol If you click on the photo below you may be able to see what I mean.

I did the binding in a black and white polka dot just because I thought it needed a strong colour to finish it.

Too much Christmas shopping and cleaning and driving around going on at the moment and definitely not enough stitching. Can't wait to get something done when things calm down.

AND I still haven't opened my SSCS gift yet - think I've cracked it. I've gone 13 days so may as well last out now - sound like an alcoholic - lol ! Ooh the anticipation !!

Will try to post again before the big day...

( message for Aisha - can you email your address and colour choice for the FQ's - tried getting you a few times now ) xx

Quilt Winner !

2009-12-03T03:34:00.000-08:00

Well I put all the raffle tickets into a bowl

and Jason gave them a good mix and picked one ticket and the winner is Kathy. So my quilt will soon be winging it's way to Canada.

A huge heartfelt thanks to all who bought tickets. A few of you just bought tickets purely to help Jess's fund while others just wanted the quilt. For whatever reason we are both very grateful for your kindness and it was definitely worth doing ( even taking into account the paypal fees ). It has bumped up Jess's total nicely and I think she was pleasantly surprised how much we raised - the total was £255.

And the winner of my little giveaway is Aisha from Bahrain. I will send you an email soon for your colour choice of fabric and address.

And my SSCS parcel has arrived safe and well from Australia. You will all be very proud of me because it has been in my house for a whole 24 hours and I have not opened it yet. I am trying SO hard to keep it til Christmas. Do you hear Gudrun ? lol...... A huge thanks to Donna for doing this again - I can't imagine how much work goes into a swap of this scale.

I may be quiet for a while - lots to do - including putting up new wardrobes in Patricks room and trying to get him to part with some junk - you know what 13 yo boys are like.

Thanks again to all raffle participants xxx

A few finishes

2009-12-01T06:32:00.000-08:00

After 7 years of quilting and I don't know how many finished quilts my DH Jason finally has his own. I started this a while back when we knew we were in a recession and I laughingly named it Jason's Credit Crunch quilt as I told him he would have to wrap up in this instead of us having the heating on - lol !!! The time I took the poor man would have froze to death if that was the case :-(

Anyway all done and although I wanted to get a photo of him with it finished it seems now is the time for his business to take off and I can never catch him when the light is good. So here it is draped on my sofa - not the best picture.

This is the first quilt done on my new machine and I found it much better having the extra space under the arm. Had a few issues with thread snapping at first but after some new needles and much adjusting of tension it is fine.

It is backed with polar fleece and the piece I bought was just slightly too small so had to trim the second black print border to fit. Actually one side out of the 4 is an inch smaller but no-one has noticed so I will keep quiet about it. Jason is very pleased with it and will now stop muttering that everyone has a quilt except him - lol !

I've also been doing some knitting. I was a knitter long before I ever quilted - my Mum and Nana were great knitters and my sister and I were taught at a very early age. Maureen was 4 and I was 6. I bought a knitting magazine a couple of weeks ago as it caught my eye and have made a few things.

These are pressies - I love the pink hat - I have bought more wool to make myself one only in blue.

And I haven't actually bought much fabric lately but fancied these last week - must be a seasonal thing. Although there is no chance of anything being done with them soon. Hopefully I will have another finish in a few days - I am working on another quilt.

And we are drawing the winning number for the raffle tonight. I have bought a book of raffle tickets as I thought it was fairer than having some-one pick a random number. If you have requested tickets and have not paid there are about 3 or so hours left. If anyone happens to pay after we have chosen I will refund your money. If you are in the draw look out for an email if you are the winner. Good luck xxxx

Stitchers Angel

2009-11-25T05:25:00.000-08:00

OK - I didn't mean to fall off the radar but life is busy-busy just now. I have some quilting to show but for now I just want to say a big thankyou to lovely Annette for my stitchers angel parcel.

It took it's time getting here but was absolutely worth the wait. Everything is beautifully stitched and wonderful. Pictures -

Aren't I lucky ? I have thanked Annette personally last week just not got round to posting here. Thanks again - I will use these often I'm sure.

My swap package went to Margy and she thanked me and also bought some tickets for our raffle quilt which was a lovely gesture I thought. Thanks !!

My SSCS is on it's long journey but no pictures of that as you all know. The big question is when my pressie arrives will I be able to resist opening it til Christmas day - I wouldn't place bets on it - lol !

Raffle Quilt

2009-11-05T02:13:00.000-08:00

This is a bit of a different kind of post and I hope I don't upset anyone by doing this. I'll tell you the background first.

My daughter Jess is 19 and attends a local college doing Beauty therapy and massage. She is into her third year and doing well and really enjoying it. She recently came home VERY excited with some great news. She has been chosen to attend a college trip to AFRICA. Her and her team members will be helping out at local schools in deprived areas, visiting a shanty town and also an Aids orphanage (terribly sad ). They will also have educational trips to museums and things as well as possibly a days safari. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and she is so keen to go. The college is buying several hundred pounds worth of educational books for them to take. We attended a parents evening on Tuesday and saw footage of what they will be doing etc. Quite harrowing in places but amazing too.

The proviso of this trip is that they must fund-raise the money themselves - a cost of £1200. We as parents are not allowed to give them money towards it. It is down to themselves to really get into this and come up with the cash.

So far Jess is doing well. She got up really early ( 5am ) on her days off a few weekends ago to do carboot sales. She came home freezing and tired but very pleased with her takings.

Last Friday was hilarious as she did a sponsored silence - from the moment she got up til she went to bed. Now if you knew Jess you would think this was virtually impossible as she is very lively and loves to chatter. But she did it bless her and now is collecting her money from that. We all had such a laugh as she mimed what she wanted to say - lol ! Of course half the time she couldn't get her point across as we just didn't get it. She spent a lot of the day banging her hand on her forehead but didn't utter a word. Well done girl... She has other events and things planned too.

Anyway a few nights ago she turned to me and said " Do you have a quilt we could raffle Mum ?"

As we all know it is quite hard to part with our quilts but as this is a good cause I have decided to do it. I actually finished this one a couple of weeks back but hadn't got round to showing it yet

So if you would like to own this here is the plan. Each ticket will cost £2 and every penny will go straight to Jess's fund - I can assure you this will all be done properly.

I have set up a paypal account and special email address for Jess just for this purpose. I thought if anyone would like a chance to win this here's the plan

1. Send an email to this address helpjesstoafrica@googlemail.com with the number of "tickets" you would like - ( one would be fantastic ). Please include your full name and email address.

2. Myself or Jess will then send a paypal request for the money.

3. Once this has been done I will allocate a number to each ticket and keep them on a database. I'm sure you understand it will not be feasible to send out tickets.

4. On December 1st Jess will ask one of her college tutors to draw a number and I will then contact the winner and will mail this anywhere in the world.

I should tell you a little about the quilt.

It is my own design and typical me - scrappy style. All best quality quilt fabrics and backed with a tawny colour polar fleece - very snuggly. It measures 58inches by 70 inches approx. Pieced and quilted by machine.

If you would be so kind as to spread the word about this and post on your blog I will be doing a little giveaway too. Perhaps 8 fat quarters in the colour fabrics of your choice. If you do mention us on your blog please leave a comment on this post and it will make my life a little easier - lol !

All support greatly welcomed. And again I hope this is okay with everyone for doing this. Thankyou xx

Something old(ish) and something new !

2009-10-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

Finished - tralala !!!

My 3D hexagon is all done.

Hand-quilted up to the borders and then I tried out my new machine to do some free-motion squiggling.

For anyone who doesn't know I started this quilt during the Olympic games 2008. It is a charm quilt - every piece is one from my stash and is different.

I have had the most fun ever doing this and am delighted with it. I would recommend making a charm quilt to everyone. So many memories tied up in this.

And because I am so chuffed with a finish I decided to do a "start" - lol !

I have limited space to store my stash and it is busting out all over. I need to get some used up. Now I have my new Janome I will be making backing for tops I have so that should make a dent. But I have been toying around with an idea for a while now. Want a look ?

2 strips joined along the length with a small stitch. These are width of fabric cut 2.5 inches ( good for jelly rolls )

Then I am trying something radical ( for me anyway - lol ) pressing the seams open. Do you do this ?

Using a 60 degree template cut like this.

And this

Join 3 together - pressing seams open again.

Here we have it

Need to make a good few more - so far I have cut enough strips for another 20 blocks. Keeping this bright and using spotty and stripey fabrics as much as I can

All good fun

have a good day xxx

Lucky me !!

2009-10-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

Firstly here are a few things I made for our little quilt show.

It was a great day and we were kept busy all day with visitors. Looking at the quilts - buying from our sales table - cushion tombola - raffle and most importantly drinking tea and eating cake - lol ! I'm not sure how much we raised towards local charities as the money hadn't been counted up when we left. Quite successful though I think.

Earlier in the week I did a little knitting for my friends gorgeous little boy.

He will kill me for this when he's older :-) He's 7 months now and such a love...

And I had another birthday this week ( man - they come round quick ) and here's what I got.

I have been saving up for ages for this and had got about halfway there and so for my birthday DH said - just get it - so I did...Yippee.

Do you see the big space under the arm ? That is why I bought it. It just basically does a straight stitch and I will only use it for machine quilting. Apparently it is FAST - semi-industrial. It is a big machine - makes my others look tiny... I am hoping to be able to machine quilt on this with a bit more ease - ie - not nearly wrenching my shoulders out of their sockets - lol !

So far I have only threaded it and sewn a few lines but next week I plan to try and get a quilt done on it. I think I have a top or two ( cough ;-))) I can get backed ready to quilt. I bought the free-motion darning foot too and look forward to giving it a whirl.

I got a free gift with it

should keep me going for a while.

I am busy putting the finishing touches to my Stitchers Angel swap package and should get that in the post early next week.

So much to do - I love it xxx

Thanks for all the lovely comments on Dannys quilt - I always try to reply but somehow the time gets away from me..

By the skin of my teeth

2009-10-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

Well you all know where I've been and what I've been doing - lol !!

Happy 21st birthday Danny !

All done just in the nick of time. Guess I will always be a last-minute sort of quilter.. Finished the binding just last night and gave him his quilt a little while ago. The smile on Danny's face made it all worthwhile - he wrapped himself in it and declared it the cuddliest thing ever.

For a bit of fun I quilted his and Jess's (DD) names in it and they both had a search for them. This is the Peaches and Dreams pattern kindly provided free from Judy Laquidara

The borders were just made from random sized leftovers from the blocks. Because I was running short of time I did them differently to how I normally attach borders. In golfing language I believe there is a term " hit and hope" - well that's how these borders went on - sewn a load of strips together and just whacked them on hoping they'd fit. Sort of "piece and pray" - lol ! Turned out fine.. So glad it's finished. The quilt is actually blue and green although my photos are showing it all blue. Feel quite a pang giving it away.

Our little quilt group has a small exhibition on Saturday and I am making a few things for the sales table. Only little items but I need to get moving.

Take care !

Feeling blue . .

2009-10-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

Before I show my new quilt project here is a photo of Septembers quilt of the month. This is a UFO that I said I would work on through September whenever I could. I did get side-tracked once I started hand-quilting my hexie quilt but I have made some progress. Last month it looked like this.

And now it is at this stage.

I also have all the hexies prepared for the next row - I think I will continue to take this to my quilt group on Tuesday evenings where we all sit and do hand-work. I can't wait to get this done.

Because I have a deadline coming up I have decided not to work on a UFO this month. I am making Jess's boyfriend a quilt for his 21st birthday and what a performance this is turning out to be.

A while back I bought yardage of this fabric.

The width of the fabric is divided into 4 sections ranging from light to dark. I bought this in blue and green and this is what I decided to use for Danny's quilt. I love Judy's blog and she has some wonderful free patterns on there. One caught my eye a while back and I thought this would work well with these fabrics. Because the shaded fabrics are quite plain I thought I'd add a bit of something else to make sure the quilt wasn't boring. Like so . .

Then after a time I realised I was going to run out of the stripe. Tried everywhere to get hold of more to no avail. So I knew I would either have to scrap the stripe or add something else.. So a few different stripes came home with me

I went with the top one and duly made 12 small sections. These were quite different when next to each other but I thought I would alternate the 2 different striped blocks throughout the quilt although I wasn't convinced this would look very good.

I am bearing in mind here that Danny's birthday is getting ever nearer. This morning I realised I have 11 days to get this finished. I have had a cold-like bug for a week and have not really done any machine sewing in this time as everything seemed to make me tired.

Anyway I am feeling better now and if I get moving I will get it done.

I had a quick rummage through my scraps the other day for something else when just what did I find ? A whole big fat quarter of the first stripey fabric !!! I did not know I had this - I was amazed.

So now I have enough to just use the one stripe - which was my original plan all along.

This is one reason I make scrappy quilts - no running out of fabric and no headaches - lol !!

Here are 2 finished blocks - must get moving. If I had a brain I would be dangerous :-)

Oh and I managed to nip and see May - although I had to miss my quilt group because of my cold and she was delighted with the quilt top. She couldn't thank me enough. Big sigh of relief..

Just off to cut more strips. Meant to say it is the Peaches and Dreams pattern. I have 4 blocks made out of 24 - help !!!

Take care xx

Quilt SOS

2009-09-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Last week at our groups sewing day I got talking to a lady called May. She is a fairly new quilter and has only been coming to our group for a relatively short time - about a year or so. She is a really nice person - will do anything to help anyone . Anyway we were talking quilts ( what else ? ) and she mentioned she had put some blocks together with sashing and was ready for the border stage. She had hand-pieced 24 Grandmothers fan blocks in lovely pastel shades of mainly lilacs and pinks. Then she had toddled off to a quilt shop for sashing fabric. She duly bought 2 metres of expensive fabric ( I think on the advice of another lady ).. She set them together with sashing and then took a look at it. She HATED it.

The green she felt was too dark and overpowered the pastel colours of her blocks. She also did not like the way she had set them together. She confessed she felt like throwing the whole thing away. Argghh - can you imagine all that time wasted - not to mention the cost of the fabrics as well. A couple of us told her to bring the quilt into our next meeting and we would see if we had any ideas. She did and here it was. The green is much stronger in real-life..

Some-one suggested a nice lilac ric-rac sewn down the middle of the green to take a bit of the greenness away. She liked that idea but it didn't solve the problem that she hated the way the blocks were facing. May said it reminded her of those well-known mints with a hole - lol !

What about splitting the sashing strips and adding something paler said I. She liked that idea too. Maybe she said. Ok said I " would you like me to do it ? ". May said she couldn't possibly expect me to do that. To which my good friend Elaine ( who knows me very well ) said - " Go on May - can't you see Andrea is just dying to get her hands on it ? LOL ). So as May could not face doing the job the quilt top came home with me.

I have unpicked, trimmed ( as the sashing strip fabric had frayed a bit ), re-jigged and re-sewn and just about got it done. What do you think ?

A close-up of some of the pretty fabrics.

I like it much better and I think May will too. Anything was better than see it go in the bin - all those hand-pieced blocks. Couldn't see it happen. A few days well spent I'd say. I quite enjoyed the challenge. And the thing is I know May and indeed any of our quilting group would do a similar favour for anyone else - that's one reason I love being a quilter.

Back to my own stuff xx

Hand Quilting !

2009-09-22T03:10:00.000-07:00

We had our sewing day on Saturday and I used my new basting gun to get my 3D hexagon quilt ready for hand quilting. What I did was quickly pin the 3 layers together and then used the microstitch. Took a bit longer to do than I thought but no hurry. And ever since I have been hand quilting away. The little tacks do not get in the way at all and I am really enjoying quilting this. Honestly I could sit all day doing this - if only . . .

The other ladies in the group were quite interested in this and a couple of them may be investing in one themselves. It seems we all hate basting generally.

Besides this I have finished a couple of smaller items. My quilt group has a small exhibition coming up and we all make a cushion for a raffle. I used up some of the little blocks I made from those hundreds of squares I cut for the quilt I didn't make !! Here it is - turned out well enough.

And I got a little top quilted that has been hanging around for a while. These were leftovers from something else too. This will probably go to Project Linus.

Click for a better look. Do you see a member of our family here ? This is Gizmo and he is a leopard gecko. He is about 6 years old now and belongs to Jess. Having said that guess who cleans and feeds him ? Always ends up to mum. . . . The cats are not allowed in Jess's room at all but they know he is in there in his tank. Occasionally if the door is left open for a minute they sneak in and make a beeline for him. When he moves he makes a scuffling noise on his special sand and then the cats scarper - lol ! They are such babies ...

Here he is again. I never thought I would be able to handle him but he is a sweet little thing and always licks my hand and occasionally even nods off when I stroke his head.

And a nice bit of post today -

Great start to the day. I have jarred my back a little so think a bit more hand quilting is in order - yesterday I had the choice of cleaning or quilting. I made the wrong choice it seems as I was hoovering up the stairs and overstretched and felt my back "go" - knew I should have sewn instead - lol..

Jess and her boyfriend Danny have been away for 5 days to Disneyland Paris and are due back today - looking forward to hearing their adventures. The trip was a present from Danny for her 19th birthday. I have started his quilt but am having a bit of a fabric issue - photos soon.

One last thing my cousin Sarah has just launched a quilty Chat room through her blog. Great idea - spread the word !

Take care xx

My bit towards the economy

2009-09-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

Here is what I spent my pennies on at the quilt show

If you have been reading for a while you will know I am having a little dabble with cross stitch. And that I have 3 lovely cats. Guess what kind ? A back and white, a grey and white and a tabby - lol. This will NOT get started until I have finished the other cat cross stitch I am working on. I don't want cross stitch UFO's as well as quilting ones. The aida is for yet another project I've seen. Help . .

Didn't go mad on fabric as I have so much but these were very nice and found their way into my bag.

Love this book - the fabrics are unlike anything I have in my stash and not sure if I would ever think to buy them but WOW - the quilts are amazing. I think this book will be a firm favourite.

And a question for you. Has anyone ever used one of these microstitch things to baste a quilt ? Apparently the little tacks cause no problems when hand-quilting ( or so I've been told ) time will tell. I'm going to try this out next week.

And there is a bit of a story about this last purchase. I saw this wonderful plaid bundle soon after I got there and really liked it. But it was a bit expensive and I didn't want to part with my money so soon after getting to the show. So I decided to have a think about it. Towards the end of the day I was still thinking about it and just thought I'd have a little mosey towards the stall and see if they had still got them. There was ONE bundle left - not just on the stall but that's all the stall holder had left in the world - lol ! This one sure had my name on it :-)

I am mainly working on stuff for swaps that I can't show. Still doing some on my Quilt of the month - from a few posts back. However today I am starting a new quilt - hurray !!

DD Jess's boyfriend Danny is 21 next month and I have decided he needs a quilt to mark the occasion. He is such a lovely lad and she has been with him for 2 years now and he is a big part of the family. He is here more than at his own place. I have a pattern and fabric chosen and more importantly - a free afternoon. A new blade for my rotary cutter is in order ( there is a fair bit of cutting to do ) I have a piece of beef for pot roast in the slow cooker - bring it on - lol !

Have a great weekend xx

Quilt show photos

2009-09-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. Here are some that caught my eye - you can tell I'm a traditional quilter I think - lol ! All photos should click for a better look.

I've shown this one twice and don't know how to get rid - never mind xx

Ready to quilt

2009-09-05T07:02:00.001-07:00

Finally I am at the stage to show photos of the UFO I plan to hand quilt through the winter.

This was my Olympic challenge from last Summer. The middle is all sewn by hand. I love the Olympic Games but like many quilters don't like to sit without doing something else. So most of this was pieced whilst cheering on our athletes. It was last shown on my blog looking like this

It is a pattern called 3D hexagons and each hexagon is different - basically a charm quilt. Each fabric is from my stash - I bought no charm packs for this. I think there are nearly 600 fabrics here.

Once this bit was done it has sat for a year waiting for attention.

So I appliqued the edges onto some lovely marbley fabric I have had for a while. I love this fabric and talked myself in and out of using it quite a few times - silly woman lol ! I used long strips to applique onto and then mitred the corners and trimmed the back.

Then by far the worst bit was removing the papers ( It is English Paper Pieced ) I had paper and thread EVERYWHERE. . . .

Next a couple of borders and here it is.

I was going to baste this today but have decided to wait for a couple of weeks. We have a Finishing Off day with my quilt group coming up and I have high hopes of persuading a couple of my friends to give me a hand. I want to baste it with thread and this takes ages. I may bribe them . .

Some of these fabrics I have had in my stash since I started quilting ( about 7 years I think ) and are quite ugly to say the least. When I first started stash building I wasn't as choosy as I am now and this shows in some of these. But it's all good fun and I am really looking forward to quilting it and remembering the fabrics - where I bought them, which other quilts I used them in etc. It will a nice record of my stash. I may even make another during the next Olympic Games in 2012 which will be held here in UK - then again - maybe not !!!!

I have also been working on stuff for swaps but of course cannot show that yet.

I am hopefully off to a quilt show tomorrow and have a bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket . . hurray xx

A new plan

2009-08-31T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well tomorrow is the first day of September and what with the kids returning to school and the start of the dark nights drawing in seems like a good time to try something new.

Lately I have been a bit cheesed off with the amount of UFO's lurking around my room. There are umpteen new quilts I want to make - every day my list gets longer - new quilts in magazines and especially in Blogland. These quilts are calling to me but I cannot ignore the MANY abandoned quilts I have so I have been thinking ( god help us all - lol ).

From tomorrow I am launching my "Quilt of the Month". Briefly put this means that I will dig out one UFO and work on it as much as I can for that month. Now I'm not saying that's all I will do as I know I would never stick to that and there will be other things I need and want to do. But what I plan is to have this UFO out in the open and whenever I get chance I will do a bit. I will show photos at the start of the month and at the end to see what progress I have made. Who knows I may even get something finished ?

So Septembers Quilt of the Month is as follows.

Originally it was like this

then after deciding I didn't like where it was heading it ended up like this. What a lot of unpicking !!

Anyway I thought it needed an injection of something to jazz it up a little and now it looks like this. I love that lime green.

It has sat in a basket for a while so now it's time to do something about it. This is English Paper Piecing so will be great for picking up in odd moments.

Do you see the start of the dark blue round the edges ? I think this will work.

There are 4 variations of blocks here and I intend to make up a few more then start joining together.

The hexagons are quite big so are not too fiddly. After posting this I will cut some more papers ready.

Anyone fancy joining in with this - feel free. I may put a side bar of links if anyone is interested. I know there are other lovely ladies doing a finish of the month but for me this is just an idea to make some progress on larger quilts.

And definitely next post I will show the one I am preparing for hand-quilting throughout the winter months.

Have fun xx

Wonders will never cease. . .

2009-08-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

that's one of my mum's favourite sayings when something unexpected happens - lol !

All those squares are now a top. Took a bit of doing - starting off in one corner with one square and working my way to the other corner - strips getting bigger and bigger. I think the longest strip had 45 squares. There is probably some easy-peasy way of strip piecing this that takes about 2 hours from start to finish and if there is - I DON'T want to know about it !!! Such a lot of pressing in this and I even used PINS - something I don't often do. I worked out there are 1011 squares in this .

Here it is in it's just completed state

and here it is with borders.

I loved how it looked without borders and dithered for a while as to whether to leave it like that but in the end I added quite a bright pink inner border and used some scrappy bits for the outer and in the end I was glad I did. It's a better size now.

This photo has come out too bright - the earlier ones are truer.

I won't quilt it yet - it's on the pile.

But I am preparing a quilt at the moment ready for hand-quilting during the winter. I will show you that next time.

I bought a quilting magazine a couple of weeks back and there was a picture of a new range of fabric that I loved. I am trying hard not to buy much new fabric but I had to have this.

This features 2 things I love - owls and apples. Strange but true :-)

And lastly a bit more cross-stitch. I have signed up for a few swaps and this will end up in one of them I think.

There is so much inspiration out there on the net - we are very lucky - this little chart was a freebie although I can't put my finger on it at the moment to let you know where I got it. If I find it I will add it later.

Bye for now xx

Wish me luck !

2009-08-14T04:12:00.000-07:00

Missing in action once again. This time I have a valid excuse - we have had a few days away down in London. All had a fabulous time and although I optimistically sneaked a box of hexagons in my case I never found the time to work on any.

We went to Legoland which was brilliant. The lego village was amazing. I was even brave enough to go on a few roller coasters with Jason and Patrick. Must be getting daring in my old age - lol !

We also went on the London Eye

It was a clear day and we got some terrific views. Hotel was lovely and food wonderful but now back to reality and a huge amount of laundry :-(

All around my room are funny strips of fabric -

these are on my desk

these are on my sewing machine

these are draped off my noticeboard

and this just keeps getting moved about.

So wish me luck - hopefully next post I can show some progress.

Now I am absolutely hopeless at naming quilts. Usually they just get called things like Mum's green quilt and Jess's pink quilt. Well I am breaking the mould with this one and calling it The Wonder Quilt. I am wondering how big it will be as I haven't a clue. And it will be a blinking Wonder if I ever get it done - lol ! My sewing time is a bit limited just now with the kids school holidays and Jason working from home. And every time I sit down and sew some-one or something needs my attention. Anyone feel like renting a garden shed out to me ???

Have a good weekend xx