A new plan

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. . .

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 !

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

Back . .

Thanks for all your well wishes - both patients are on the mend. Patrick is still sore and waiting for his stitches to disappear but otherwise fine.

Before I show you my latest project here is a photo of those little hexies from a few posts back.

I was inspired to make this by Pascal . She had a beautiful table runner made and I just fell in love with it. Pascal's was larger and used dresden plate blocks instead but it planted the idea. I decided to use hexagons instead and dipped into my japanese style fabrics. The background grey fabric I had to buy - no grey at all in my stash. The little blocks are 4 inch finished. I hand quilted this and am very pleased with it. It has a new home on my china cabinet and I keep checking that the kids haven't put loads of stuff on it as they have the habit of doing.

I also finished a UFO but have forgotten to take photos of that.

I was itching to sew and after receiving a couple of magazines I decided to start a little something new. I blame the next episode entirely on DH Jason. I was showing him a quilt in one of the mags and mentioned that I really liked it and may start searching for fabrics. It was done in dark, country colours ( which I love ) and Jason said something like - It looks very like a lot of others you have done. He had hit the nail on the head. I do tend to go for these sort of quilts and so I decided to branch out a little and use something different. I was aiming for light and pretty fabrics so pulled these from my stash.

After a time I put together a block. I could just imagine this quilt.

I hated it. Actually this looks a lot better on the screen than in real life. It is so wishy-washy. I just knew that a whole quilt of these would not look how I envisaged it so needed another plan. Trouble was I had already cut 5 million 2 and a quarter inch squares.

After a bit of sulking I made a few of these with some of the fabrics but that wasn't doing it for me either.

Then I decided to add a few marbley type fabrics and began to play. Here's what I'm going with -

After getting this bit done I'm going to add to it with 2 fabrics each time. Here are my next lot ready to go.

I haven't a clue how big this will end up - til either I run out of fabric or momentum - wonder which will be first lol ! I won't use all of the different ones in this.

I am very much enjoying this and in fact it was an effort to pack away and make food for the hoard. I would love to wait til Jason is asleep and have an all-nighter but don't think I could take the pace - lol !

Just off to see if Ellies quilt place BOM is up yet. I'm a bit behind on this but will catch up soon.

Enjoy your weekend.

A little break

Just to let you know I will be absent for a while. My lovely Patrick went into hospital this week for surgery - nothing too major but a big deal for a 12 year old. Although the operation went well he is in a lot of pain and keeping me busy. He is on the mend though and being a good lad !
He wore Karol-Anns cap to go into hospital as he said he was having a bad hair day - I told him that was the least of his troubles that day ;-0.

DH Jason came with us as one of us had to be with Patrick as he was anaethetised. As I am a bit emotional to say the least Jason had agreed to do it as I didn't want Patrick to see me blubbing just before he went to sleep. The day before however Jason had tripped whilst out walking and as we were waiting for Patrick to go to the operating theatre I noticed Jason was wincing and could tell he was in pain. So I told him he had better go to get it checked out in case it was broken. So off he limped to Accident and Emergency department and I went with Patrick. I held it together til his eyes shut after the anaesthetic injection but then I was off. The nurse gave me a hug and said most parents have a weep at this point - quite upsetting seeing their child being put to sleep. Anyway after the longest hour of my life I was paged and went to recovery room to see him. All was fine and he was discharged 5 hours later.

He is uncomfortable but not complaining. We have a nurse coming to check him tomorrow but everything seems to be healing nicely. He has holed up in our lounge and is sleeping on the sofa as he is unable to climb up his high-sleeper bed. He has his quilts I made him and says he is having good sleeps at night.

Turned out Jason has badly torn ligaments and tissue damage. And what with me and my crappy shoulder it's like a doctors waiting room here - lol !

Will be back soon - I am managing a little quilting and trying to keep up with blog reading although probably not doing a lot of commenting. Bye for now xxx

It's been a good week although I haven't actually got a lot of sewing done. Firstly a couple of thankyous are in order.

A lovely package arrived from Karol-Ann containing a cute little cosmetic purse ( which she made ) and some African animal fabric pictures which a certain young man has his eye on - lol !

Here is he wearing the great cap Karol-Ann got him from her recent trip to Africa. He has deemed it "cool" and has wore it several times out and about. I think it suits him and makes him look more handsome - but then I am biased - lol ! Thanks Karol-Ann from us both.

And I was VERY lucky to win a giveaway (my first win) from Teresa . I don't enter too many giveaways but I was so glad I did on this occasion. You'll all be jealous when you see my fantastic prize -

And also included was a whole pile of cards which I love too. All packaged in a very pretty box. Go on admit it - you're jealous lol..

Thankyou so much Teresa - I will treasure them.

A good day later in the week when we went out for lunch. After eating Jason and I found a new recently opened shop on the retail park - Tesco Home. We had a good mooch about and bought a few things. I then spotted a small furniture section and they had these great bookcases which I thought would be ideal for my sewing area. Just that flat pack stuff but really strong looking. The trouble was they would no way fit in my car - just too big.

So I left them there - sulking I may add. Later on Jason was in our street talking to some neighbours and shouted me over for some reason. I mentioned the bookcases and said how good they were for the money. These neighbours are the ones who had the baby I made the brown quilt for a while back. To cut a long story short she was trying to persuade him to go out for a meal to avoid cooking but it was a lot of hassle with the baby. I saw my chance and offered to babysit him ( he's 4 months old ) whilst they had their meal and in return they called at the shop and got my bookcases - as their car is much bigger than mine - what a result !!

So I've spent a couple of days getting organised. Jason had his doubts that they would not fit where I wanted them but I had measured and they look great. The best part of the deal was they only cost me £5 each - I still can't believe it. Bargain of the year !! They are as strong as anything and I am delighted with them. I still need to shift stuff around a bit but my room looks so much tidier already. The unit I had previously was buckling under the weight of my stuff.

I have come to the conclusion that blogreading is harmful to the UFO pile. Just this week alone I have seen 3 projects that I want/need to make. So I have started the smallest one - here is the beginning of it - a few little paper pieced hexagons.

Whilst sorting out my room I know I definitely need to bust some stash - I've only been quilting for 6 years and have way much fabric ( as my kids would say ). I think I will try and get a couple of quilt tops ready for quilting and use some fabrics I have fallen out with for backing - sounds like a plan.

Have a good weekend xx

Can you see it ??

Binding that is..... Yes an actual finished quilt. I have so many UFO's it's nice to get one done. Although this isn't an actual UFO as I didn't start it that long ago.

You may remember I had a little fun with these blocks - getting mixed up towards the end. But I will make more of these sometime - once you get the hang of them they are fast and easy to make.

Here is a close-up of the border fabric. Isn't it just great ? I have always had a thing for owls and when I spotted this I had to get it. When I was quilting I stippled around the owls and trees as I wanted them to stand out a bit. I am keeping this for me. It will be a quilt to snuggle under when I'm reading. I have quite a bit of the owls left so this will be popping up in my scrappy quilts for a good while.

I recently joined Amanda Jeans quilt along where you made just one 9 patch a day. I think the total required was 70 but I decided to stop at 48. I didn't want another BIG quilt. I set them 6 by 8 and used a nice pale blue for sashing. I then pieced 528 little squares together for a border. Now that bit was boring but here is the top all done.

So many different fabrics in this - I was glad to use up a big pile of my 2.5 inch squares. It is still quite big - I'm not quilting this yet - will go in the box with the others.

Mmmm - what next ? Another UFO or something brand spanking new ?