Linus Day at Quilting Antics

Spent a wonderful morning 

at Quilting Antics

sewing underpants

(blocks) together...

The blocks came from all over

and there were loads of us this morning who sewed,

pressed, unpicked, made tea etc etc

to get 7!!! quilts together for Project Linus!

I had to collect a little person from nursery,

but not before all 7 were almost assembled!

Then I left the ladies to baste, quilt and drink more tea...

Great fun!

When the Cat is Away...

... Friends come to help to take you to the hospital

and in return you teach them how to baste a quilt,

the Sharon Schamber way

using one of Kate's gorgeous tops

for Project Linus.

A team effort and a quilt basted!!

Crochet One, Knit Two & Quilt Five

My unborn baby is already being spoilt!

Katie Z. from Zana's Nini sent baby a beautiful crochet hat

with a choice of 3 colour flowers...

So cute! Thanks Katie Z!

Check out her Etsy shop!

As the season has turned, I have knitted

the boys new hats for school

(I can't crochet at all!)

2 obvious things happened with the hats...

1) I couldn't get the boys to let me take any sensible photos..

And 2) The little guy has already lost his hat at school!!

Kate N. very kindly sent me some quilt tops

to hand over to Vicky for Project Linus...

Kate is amazingly productive

and I am so looking forward to catching up

with her again... soon!

We will be meeting another blogger

who I have admired for some time too...

soon!

I'm sure you'll get to read all about it on our blogs...

soon!

Another bad photo of the top below

(the borders are straight in reality!!)

And this red, white and blue top is my favourite from Kate,

but it's not a great photo either :(

Thanks Kate for five fabulous tops for a great cause!

(and see you... soon! ;oD )

Something Quilty - But not mine....

The lovely Kate has kindly sent me some quilts for Project Linus as well as this gorgeous 'Corn & Beans' top for Project Bedroom :-)

When I saw these Corn & Bean blocks and read that Kate wasn't sure what to do with them I unashamedly begged to make them into a dresser runner for our bedroom.

So the unpicking and quilting is on my 'To do list'.

The other 5 tops from Kate will go to my dear friend Vicky,

who co-ordinates quilts for our local Project Linus:

I wrote a post earlier about my aversion to yellow, BUT I love this top, it really sparkles!

These next 2 are lovely and bright and the pattern is so simple that my mind started going into scrap quilt overdrive LOL

Such a fun easy block...

LOVE the red setting triangles, but then I love anything red!

Thank you so much Kate! You are a very generous quilter!

(You can find a lot of Kate's block ideas and patterns on her blog!)

And an obligatory kitty photo of ol' four legs catching some shut eye :-)

It must be a hard life being a cat!

UFO's be Gone!!!

Thanks to this blog I can tell how long this UFO has been kicking around! September 2008 I started doubling these string blocks, (see my tutorial in the sidebar), that I got from Kate.

So after my wonderful quilt trip in Germany I just had to get it pieced together and donated to Project Linus.

This top will be joining some other tops that have been kindly donated (again) by Kate. Thanks Kate for these 3 cool tops which are much appreciated and are now in the hands of Vicky for Project Linus...

1)
2)
3)

Also thanks again to Birgit who donated this panel to Vicky for Project Linus.

The week that whizzed

(Blocks in this quilt are from various Blockbuddy swaps as well as many kindly donated by Kate)

Where did this week go? I know I managed to finish my two Linus quilts, but I can't remember when...



I know the boys got taken on a tractor ride on Tuesday which they loved.



I know on Wednesday I went on a farm trip with the boys and DS2's playgroup.



I know it was wet.



I know it was cute.






I know it's almost the weekend. and I know I am ready.
Have a good weekend everyone!!

Some progress, (not much)

An update on what's been happening around here...
We've had a load of cement delivered to finish off the driveway.



I finished the borders on the Project Linus UK top Kate sent me...

It was really windy so I was struggling to use my trusty gate quilt display!

(you can see the new driveway in the picture.)

And I finally got my shop open again....


There's not much in the shop yet. I'll add a few more things as and when I find the time and when I have less distractions...

And when DS1 is better. He's poorly again, poor chap. He has Slapped Cheek, a virus. Perfectly harmless, just a bit exhausting for the poor guy.

As you can see by his face he enjoyed the chocolate pudding I bought him to cheer him up (or so I thought except I found some of it down the sofa so maybe he didn't!)

I'm crushed!

I was reading blogs the other day and was impressed by Vicki W's generosity. She gave away 77 yards of fabric! I shot off a comment (on impulse) claiming that I doubted I even had 77 yards of fabric! Well I am clearly in denial!!! I do have 77 yards, possibly much more. When I finally get my official sewing space I shall have to count it all. There's some under the bed, in the lounge under a chair, behind the bedroom door...
This lost grip on reality has prompted me to tidy up my 'stuff' a bit.

I've put quilt tops together with potential backings. Created a box for blocks (orphans and otherwise) as well as half started projects and I've set about trying to organise my scraps in the most useful way. I've also put a pile of leaders and enders next to my machine. I still have loads to sort out: half started bags, cushions etc...
(over the sewing machine is a top that needed borders for Project Linus UK. Kate sent me the top and I've used some of my favourite star fabric to finish it off. I hope to deliver this and 3 other quilt tops to our regional Linus rep Vicky shortly)

On the sewing front, I was relieved that I managed to finish step 3 of the Orange Crush mystery this week as step 4 has just been revealed!

I have cut my strips (the old-fashioned way) for step 4 so I'll be ready to get going on those soon.

Yorkshire has been so beautiful this past week with lots of glorious sunshine!

So DH has been 'doing' the garden....

Pity he's not 'doing' the house, but maybe just as well as my current temporary sewing space will be the first to go :-(

And the winner is...

...ME! Ha ha Just kidding, I'll draw a name tomorrow (the 14th), but in the meantime I won a gorgeous mini-quilt on Hedgehog's blog. I am thrilled to bits and it came with all these great goodies too.


I also received a book I won on Kate's blog (this was one of Kate's Manic Monday offerings, and I've already gotten stuck into reading it) Kate also sent me some super-cool shoe fabrics.
Thank you both for your generosity.


Today my lovely husband took me to Embsay Mills near Skipton to buy some fabric for my birthday tomorrow. He asked me what I wanted, I said I know I have a room full of fabric....., but I have no yardage. I'm doing Bonnie's Orange Crush Mystery quilt and have asolutely no yardage for it.

And this is what I bought:
One Fat Quarter of lovely brown stars, I did want to buy more of these lovely brown stars (which were in the sale bin), but they only had this one FQ left (yet again no yardage!). I'm sorry, but birthday or no birthday I am not paying almost $20 for a metre of fabric!


Here are my 4 patches (clue one) for the Quiltville OC Mystery.
While I was sewing these I got a bit carried away and made over 180 and then I started sewing more four-patches for my Mom's quilt. While doing this I started digging in my stash in an attempt to sort some fabric out and scrabble together a bit of yardage (i.e. fabrics that from afar might pass as the same) and instead I unearthed some blocks Kate P had sent me for Project Linus UK which became (with a little help from my stash):


I also found some leftover blocks and squares from another Linus quilt I'd made. So I made another top, almost the same as the one I did last year:


And if you can keep a secret, I'll show you the top I've made for my mother...

She chose the colour scheme and wanted a Double-Four Patch type design. (I say 'type design' as I got a bit confused and ok, it's got lots of four patches...but not many doubles). I plan to quilt this myself as it's only a lap quilt and she says she likes quilts soft and underquilted - I can manage that LOL.