If Quilts Could Talk...

I'm sure it would say something like this....

I really do need to get piecing and quilting....

Because I would love to see this one finished...

But I've got some friend's quilts to do before I can play.

*****

My UFO list should be getting smaller

with my Longarm machine, 

but as usual I'm constantly adding to it....

I may blog some seriously old UFO's to push me into finishing them,

but oh the shame (some are as old, and older than my children!!)

The Little Things

Sometimes the little things

can put a smile on your face...

a favourite mug on a beautiful mug mat

made by a talented friend..

Time spent embroidering an envelope

 to wish a teacher all the best on their new adventure...

A quick little sew to get 2 rows of a quilt together

when you didn't even have this quilt in mind...

A reminder of something fun you made years ago...

LOTS of little apple key rings

for the children's teachers....

Deconstructing pink shirts for patchworking....

Hours spent in playgrounds because a certain little girl

was just having so much fun...

Putting another 3 rows on the quilt...

(just some more sashing and borders to go!)

And Mummy's little helper...

Who definitely puts a smile on my face!

(well most of the time! ;o) )

African Blocks Revisited! (And a little Giveaway!)

Another African Block for Kate!

The pattern is:

Two Colors Star.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly

because it was easier to use

my Easy Angle Ruler,

but it's a fun pattern.

 

 Making another block 

made me wonder

just how many African blocks

I had in total?...

LOTS!!

*****

 These are my favourites

(although, one I'm going to swap out

for another block that I want to try...)

Can you guess which one?

If you guess correctly,

I will send you an envelope with

some African fabric scraps.

Interested?

Just leave a comment

with the block number you think

eg. Top row, block 2...

And a way to contact you!

Be nice now,

because some blocks I made

and some blocks Kate made.. :)

 

Some of the other African blocks

I'm going to use for the back.

- I do love a pieced backing!

 

Wouldn't it be lovely to knock

this UFO off my list too!!

 

*****

Here's the quilty cat

catching some zzz's in my studio...

 She's still missing after my SIL

came to visit today with her dogs ;o)

But she'll be home soon

when she gets hungry!

 

*****

And here's my little hat/bag-maker...

it's just a really sweet, simple old machine

with no quarter inch or zipper foot,

but it does the trick for making hats etc.

 

*****

And here's a photo for Granny...

Somebody was VERY tired

and nearly fell asleep in her pasta!

Giveaway closed.
Nik was right it's
the second row from the bottom,
the last one :)
African Fabrics on their way shortly!

Hello Africa

Kate and I have traded African blocks

for a while now, although we have had

a few stops and starts...

When Kate came for her recent visit with her family

she brought me a new block:

And while we had a few spare minutes

together in the studio, I made us each an

African block too:

 

This pattern is called Ribbon Star.

*****

Kate had sent me these African blocks previously:

(which I had forgotten to blog)

I really do need to dig

all our African blocks out

and decide how to put them together!

*****

The studio needs a srious tidy up,
but it was great to share the space with a friend

*****

Kate also brought some quilt tops for Linus!

These will be passed on to be quilted and donated.

Thanks Kate!

Maverick Stars

It has been so nice having the space to sew without having to reshuffle my sewing machines around. I fancied a bit of 'loose' sewing and I also felt I had been neglecting all my beautiful African fabrics so I made some Maverick Stars....

3 of these blocks are on their way to Kate for our African swap. I am sure I am the one holding up the swap so I have sent 3 to make amends, and as we had suggested 6"finished blocks for our borders and stars to boot, I thought these might get the swap rolling again? Although Kate you'll have to forgive my very 'loose' measurements this time, but at least I'm sewing ;)

When I'm in the sewing room, I get some very furry and purry company...

She found some freshly washed batting/wadding and thought it made a very cosy place to hide.

African swap block

Kate and I are still swapping African blocks, although now we are doing 6 inch instead of 12 inch blocks. I rustled one up quickly this week while looking for fabric to swap with Elsie who sent me some wonderful reds for my Lilies.



These were just quick blocks to let Kate know that I am still in the swap and will do something better next time I promise!

As always, photo taking in this house is tricky if you're not fast enough :-)



Birgit sent me a completely unexpected and lovely Easter surprise:


Thanks Birgit!


I received another lovely swap parcel this week as well which I will blog shortly. And I also won a giveaway so to celebrate that bloggers/quilters... are generous people I will soon be having a giveaway myself... also very shortly I will have been blogging for 3 years!

Sunshine and sewing

The weather has brightened here and we finally have some sun! and blue skies!!


It means that driving kids to school etc is a real treat...

And little little children can come along for walks in the sunshine past fields of cows...

And beautiful brambles...



To Becks where they can play with watering cans and water the plants :-)



And crazy Grandma's can spoil them with very early birthday presents of garden trampolines (reminiscent of animal cages LOL)

On the very neglected sewing front, I have finished my first Stitcher's Angel project.


My partner likes pink. I am not really a pink girl (unless it's pink roses of course!) so I have struggled a bit, but I hope my secret partner will like it.

I have quickly whizzed up a sock sack using an old sheet and some machine appliqued sock shapes. I was so tired of odd socks lying around!


It now lives in the laundry room and according to my DMIL contains 15 odd socks! Oh dear!!


And I finally got to the PO and mailed 2 very belated birthday cards and one of these blocks to Kate for our African Blockswap.


It's a simple Ula Lenz star block, but because I haven't paper-pieced for a while it took a bit to get back into a rhythm. Hope you'll forgive me Kate for such a simple block after your lovely one ;-)

Girl's day out

LOVE my kids, but almost a whole day without them! Bliss!


The day started with my friend Vicky coming over so that we could all go in my car. We loaded my kids and Vicky's quilt tops and drove to Grandma's house. We piled kids, bags, lunchboxes etc out and headed off to Chris, the lovely longarmer. (Grandma a.k.a. Crazy Grandma and Grumps, meanwhile took the kids on a day out to see the birds at Harewood House). I collected my Orange Crush (now ready for binding...)




I chose a swirl and feather design and am very pleased with the quilting. I also chose a Moda backing which I think is very cute. Now I just need to bind it...

Then we wandered around Salts Mill looking at the David Hockney's, the lovely book shop, stunning cook shop... This was thirsty work and we ended up lunching in a nearby cafe/winebar called 'Don't tell Titus'. I later heard that Titus Salt, the founder of Salts Mill did not approve of alcohol licensing in the area, hence 'don't tell Titus'. However, you can tell as we only had Lattes!

Sorry no photos - I forgot my camera, but we hope to do it again!!!!

Over the summer Chris is very busy so she is unable to do DS1's quilt until after his birthday. So I have pieced some wadding and am thinking to attempt it by myself. Life is a bit too short for getting on my hands and knees, killing my cranky joints and basting this quilt on the floor so we'll see how I get on.

And I have had a brainwave on DS2's quilt. I bought this row of Mickey Mouse panels in South Africa to make him a school bag and some place mats for the new kitchen, but think if I do a scrappy border around them it could look quite cute... Love the colours for a little boy - all those yukky greens LOL

My Mom came to the rescue and after a few texts to and fro, went out and bought me a few more rows which she will mail to me so I may just manage the quilt, the bag and the place mats (and hopefully before he grows out of Mickey Mouse LOL)


The Raeburn was moved this week...

There she goes....

Now what?

Actually, she's in. She just needs to be plumbed/connected or whatever they do... but she's in!! One step closer to that kitchen :-)

This week, I also received a block from Kate for our African block swap. We have decided to do 6" blocks from now on so that we can in theory be working on our borders.

This is a cute block and love the idea of a star border...

Thanks Kate. Now it's my turn.

Roses are red and pink and....

I have not been blogging much as I am not permitted (!) to be on the computer too much these days LOL. This does mean that in the evenings I get exposed to a lot of television (!!) and (luckily) quite a bit of hexagon handwork too :-)

Here are my hexagons so far...



I have a ways to go. I still need to border the rose panel with cream roses and attach it. This I will do last. I am sewing the hexagons in sections. The big gap will become a whole new section which I will join later. (At the moment it is still in 3 sections.)

I got a wonderful and very welcome surprise from Guðrún! More gorgeous rose fabrics.



These have already been added to the above sections, but just need to be stitched on. Thanks Guðrún. The sweets were very welcome too :-)

I have finished the tree skirt. I struggled with the tension on the back for ages and in the end thought that for something that will be used once a year for a few weeks and only viewed from the top I am not going to agonise over it. So it's done and already in use.



This week I also received an African block from Kate for our private blockswap.
We have now decided to swap smaller blocks so that we can potentially work on the borders of our very unplanned quilts.



Thanks Kate, this is a really cute block.

Also on an African theme. Mother has finished 2 scarves for Ruth's Scarves for Africa project...



In case I don't get any more computer time between now and Santa's visit, I'd like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and thanks for visiting!