Stress relieving sewing !

Many, many stressful things going on in my life at the moment so the best way I know to cope is to sew.
My lovely nephew is going through some health issues - and he also had a birthday - his 21st to be precise. Combining the 2events led naturally to the making of a quilt.

I have made him a couple before and he has trailed them around everywhere with him - nice to know. I wanted to make him something more grown-up ( his first one was a really colourful football quilt )

This is what I came up with. Rectangular plus blocks in navy blue, dark aqua and orange. The backgrounds are many shades of cream and grey. I am thrilled with it and thankfully so was he. Quite difficult to make a quilt for a young man I think.

The day after the picture was taken - his birthday - he was off to hospital for radio-surgery on an abnormal mass of blood cells in his brain. This has been causing him to have seizures and puts him at risk of stroke. A lot to go through at this young age. He is doing well and is hopefully out of hospital today - just waiting on the phone call to collect him.

I hope he loves and uses this quilt as much as his other 2 - love him to bits.

I am also working on a UFO that is very time consuming but I know will be fab when done.

Everyone have a great weekend x

A crochet detour.

A while back I started crocheting some granny squares with some lovely cotton yarn I bought at a good price. But they just weren't doing it for me and so got put in a bag and left.
Until this week when I dug them out and started unpicking and re-making. Much happier with them now and glad I decided to go this way.
My crochet hook is on fire -lol x

Last minute as usual.

Claiming my blog
Follow">http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3476715/?claim=u4t5ubgkjfx">Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Another little project

I'm pretty sure I never posted about this even though it was done a few months ago.
I followed a tutorial on checkoutgirlcrafts blog and really enjoyed it.
A couple of firsts here - I had never made a hoop and had never worked with wool felt.
My daughter will soon be leaving home and moving into her own place -sharing with a friend. Not sure when but should be before the end of the year. Her large bedroom will be snapped up by my lad but I will get his room to be my sewing room - yippee.
So this little hoop will go on the wall in there along with quite a few mini quilts I've aquired over the years - going to be great.
I will be spending the weekend sorting fabrics - they are not as organised as usual and I need to get them so I'm not wasting precious sewing time looking for that elusive piece of fabric !!
Have fun x

Little rabbits

Now I know this is working I'll try and catch up on what I've been doing.
I have been doing a lot of crochet but will do a separate post on that. I also got very excited when Julie from littlecottonrabbits.typepad.com released a couple of her patterns. I have long admired her gorgeous creations. So after a few (ie - many) hours work this is the result. Came out ok for a first attempt although I must admit I did say a few bad words when unpicking the ears for about the fifth time - could not get them right. This has gone to one of my oldest friends who is having a major health issue. I've told her it can be her lucky mascot when she's attending her many hospital appointments. She is a knitter herself and loves it.
I've made another one since and started number 3.
Since I have no idea where these photos will be in this post I'll just say that mine has the blue shoes and pink dress and my friends has the fair isle dress.
They are so cute and the pattern is excellent. One of the best I've followed.
Back soon x

Still here !

This is a quick test post -I have installed an app for my phone that hopefully will work. If so it will be much easier to update my blog when time is limited . Fingers crossed xx

Opinions ??

I love English Paper Piecing and have several ( cough ) quilts in progress. I actually finished one a few months ago but haven't got round to showing that yet. Anyway this year is all about my UFO's and I have been working away on a hexie quilt. This got started maybe 3 years ago and so it was about time it received some attention. I remember cutting one hexagon from each of my fabrics and the plan originally was a grandmothers flower garden with white paths. I made lots of flowers - each flower had seven fabrics from one colour. Can't remember how many I did before I changed my mind - and unpicked the lot. Then I put them into triangles - 10 in each grouping... nope - unpicked again.

Until finally I came up with this.

Yes I'm happy with this so far. You will notice the white hexies currently being sewn around the edges. Heres where I would like your input. I have tons of hexies left and was debating whether to border it with the leftovers. Like so ?

Close-up.

The borders are not sewn on yet as I really can't make up my mind whether to do it or not. The other semi-idea I have is to finish sewing on the white hexies and applique the whole thing onto a single fabric - maybe a blue. And then sew several straight borders on each edge - something like 2 inch strips in different colours. I'm not explaining this very well - I'll see if I can find a picture of what I mean.

This is something similar I did on a quilt a while back. I'm thinking of maybe 4 or 5 borders.

Please let me know which way you would go. If I don't use the leftover hexies I will maybe use them on the back or something - or a new quilt for one of my cats - lol !

Take care xx