Wordless Wednesday - A Flock of Sheep

Bloggy Visit

This past weekend,

I had the joy of a bloggy friend to visit!

Such fun!

Kate and her son came to stay

and we had a great time.

The first day I subjected her to a Christmas market I was doing,

but she certainly made the day fly by!

It was the first time I've ever done a market

and had a decent coffee!!! - Thanks Kate.

 

The second day we managed a bit of sewing!

We decided we wanted to make a block

which could be made into a small Christmas wallhanging

and would remind us of the visit.

(The block pattern is Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses.)

 As Kate said...

Can you guess who's is who's? :)

If you know me,

you'll know it's the top one...

although we should probably have swapped

and made a block for each other. Next time!

 

Of course mine is not quilted (yet)

and shan't be for a while.

Borders, Binding & the Hopes of Mindless Sewing

Last night we thought that baby Kalico was coming (again).

You'd think seeing as we've done this twice already that we'd know better by now LOL,

but we got it wrong and so we had a dreadful night and hardly slept a wink.

This morning when I finally surfaced, I asked my DH

if he minded if I carved myself a way into my sewing room

to just do a bit of mindless sewing.... for me...

He didn't mind, but I had nothing really ready to just sew,

so instead I had to do some cutting first and deciding and planning...

I wanted to do something with my Leader and Ender 9 patches:

So I cut some

 setting squares and triangles, but changed my mind and the quilt idea

(from Bonnie's books) twice at least!

So the 9 patches got abandoned.... for now.

In desperation to just sew. Something.

I put borders on these Corn & Beans blocks that Kate kindly gave me.

I LOVE the colours Kate used in these blocks!

 

(The runner looks a little yellow in the evening light...)

The runner and bedside table mat are ready to quilt now

and the binding is prepped too so hopefully I'll get another chance

to sew before baby Kalico arrives.

I also ironed the binding that I'd cut for baby Kalico's quilt,

which Kandy has very kindly offered to quilt for me.

Hopefully little Miss Kalico will not be early and I'll get both

Kate's Corn & Bean blocks quilted and Baby's quilt bound before D-Day :o)

Young Abby, approves of me being in the sewing room

and even tidying one or two things away

so that she has more surface area to spread out.

Miaow!

Seeing Yellow

I wasn't going to start anything new, but I had the instructions printed out and I had that yellow phobia I wanted to explore further and I had lots of spare florals and, and, and...

SO I did a few little blocks just to see what all the fuss was about and I have to say Bonnie's Florabunda is a very cute block!

Not cute enough with all that yellow to make a massive quilt,

but definitely cute enough to maybe make 16 blocks for a baby quilt...

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Of course the doll quilt sits on top of my other sewing machine waiting to be quilted

while my attenton is diverted, but I will do that soon...

... well as soon as I can come up with a quilting design to try out

as I think I may be all Stitch-In-The-Ditch-ed out =)

While I was taking photos I looked up and saw the printer's tray that I bought at a Village Fete for a £1.

I love it filled with threads...

I have far too many polyester threads so will be putting cotton thread on my list for the next quiltshop/quiltshow expedition! I like 100% cotton threads for quilting and polycotton threads for bag making... just one of those things...

**********

Abby is still using my battng/wadding as a 'nest'.

I noticed when I tidied the sewing room that she has scratched herself a cosy spot

so I will have to re-wash it and use it for stuffing toys if I am allowed to use it at all!

But how could I even contemplate ruining her special place =)

How Many 9 Patches Does It Take...

... to realise you are making them the wrong size for the project you have in mind?

30!

I had a bit of a sewing session this morning as I was up early and needed to sew. I took a wodge of my Leader & Ender 4 patches and made them into 9 patches. Later I cut setting HST's and then, and only then, did I realise they were the wrong size! Oh well, never mind... they'll be used for something else I'm sure...

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I never confessed that while in Germany visiting Birgit and meeting Bonnie Hunter, I bought ALL 3 of Bonnie's books (and Tonya's too!)

I needed inspiration for a very mini cot quilt I have been asked to make for someone's granddaughter's doll...

So 'Sister's Nine Patch' it was from Bonnie's Adventures with Leaders & Enders...

Now to quilt it!

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The garden continues to grow and we are enjoying all it has to offer,

including courgettes/zuchinnis which are absolutely delicious in a cake

filled with home made lemon curd and topped with cream cheese and lemon icing!

*********

The weekend saw us head off for a picnic. DH takes fishing for tiddlers quite seriously :-)

They must find it so curious to be fished out, admired and then thrown back after a bit...

It May Not Seem Like Much...

... but it's the little things that make all the difference.

I have been clearing and tidying my sewing room or should I say re-shuffling and re-jiggling my sewing stuff around a very small room that I share with the laundry, the washing machine, the tumble dryer and all sorts of odds and ends that have nowhere to go :-(

Upstairs in our bedroom I had my treadle machine (still not operational, but a great table for dumping books and cardigans etc.) The treadle table also needed to be re-shuffled to make space for the baby's crib. So.... down came the crib out the loft, down came the treadle to my sewing room creating an extra horizontal surface for sewing use! Yippee!

I sew a lot of bags and non-patchworky things and I use a machine for that (more about the fact that I may have a new second-hand machine for that another time LOL). Anyway, anything 'patchworky' gets sewn on my Janome Quilter's Companion. I have previously sewn bags with this machine, but the repairs afterwards were very expensive indeed that I swore never again!! So just like one has a pair of scissors just for fabric, I have a machine just for patchwork-piecing!!!!

It's wonderful having the space to have both machines out and so I have already sewn Kate's Corn & Bean blocks into the layout I need for our dresser and I also started putting together some blocks* for a quilt top:

*One of the online groups I belong to was doing a springclean of their list and it got me to thinking of all the swaps I had done with this group and all the blocks just sitting there waiting for something to happen to them. Many have been donated to Linus, but these Maple Leaves were just waiting for a layout... So I laid them out on the bed like this and now they are being sewn together.

I'd rather have tops than blocks lying around!

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For 8 days, I had a poorly little boy. Today was his first trip out. We went to the Beck for a paddle. We didn't stop long, I think it was a little bit too much for him, but at least he's on the mend.

Stitches (and Vegetables) in Ditches...

I guess from now on, no blog post will exist without my (lazy) quilty cat! :-D

Yesterday I discovered that my friend and his wife had had their baby on Sunday so the baby quilt top that has been sitting around waiting to be basted, quilted and bound needed doing a.s.a.p. With a spurt of energy, I ironed the backing, which I had with some foresight pre-washed last week, and pin basted the quilt. I only S.I.T.D.-ed, but hey, I prefer making tops to finishing them :-)

Then I sewed the binding on. I used this lovely purpley-pink batik I have had in my stash for a while. It's definitely time to use those fabrics I love or someone else will be when I am gone!!

I hope to get it done tonight and then I can move on to another deadline quilt. This one is the novelty or pink string one with a self-imposed deadline by me... I think I need deadlines LOL

On the weekend I finally cut into the charm pack that I won in the raffle when I visited Germany and the Black Forest Quilters. I had donated 2 prizes so was allowed as an exception and a non-member (although I would LOVE to be a member and fly over EVERY month for meetings!!) to buy a ticket.

I saw the pattern in 'Triangle Free Quilts' by Judy Hopkins (Great book!) and have sewed all the charms into these blocks so far.

Obviously (if you know me) I did not do it the same size and obviously (me again!) I am going to change it and add sashings in white similar to Kate's first Baby quilt in this post.

DH has been very industrious in the veg patch this year. I have been designated chief seed sower LOL.

This basically means that my job is to get seeds to seedlings, he then plants the seedlings or mini plants and then takes all the glory. Considering it's back breaking work digging bean trenches, I'll give him his well-deserved praise, although we're going 50/50 with the vegetables (especially the peas) LOL

Double Double Delight

Here's what I would like...

I would like to finish my 'Double Delight' Quiltville.com mystery quilt this year.

I would like to piece a backing for the above quilt. (I like pieced backings and this will make it a double-sided quilt - a double double delight!!)

I would like to use the fabrics that I won in a raffle at Birgit's Quiltfest in Schönaich, Germany at least 2 year's ago.

Last year, I cut the fabrics I won and some that complimented them into 3.5" strips (don't ask me why!!) I would like to use the 3.5" strips that I cut as they are, and not cut the strips down, but I would like to use the 'Jared Takes A Wife' pattern from Quiltville.com which uses 2" strips...

I would like to show my block of the aforementioned pattern in 3.5" strips :-)

(Another double: these blocks are now double the size of Bonnie's blocks due to making them with 3.5" strips!!)

Now, I would like to make 11 more!!

ps I would also like to go to Germany to Birgit's Quiltfest this year in September!! I therefore would like to win the lottery LOL