What's in the tin?

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....

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 !

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

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 !!

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 !!

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 !

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