The great British seaside

Today saw us taking a train to the seaside.

It was DS2's first ever train ride so it was very exciting LOL. Here are some pics our first ever trip to Morecambe Bay...



It was bl**dy freezing and the wind was blowing a gale, poor Toby took shelter in his pram,
but Jack and his friend took no notice of the elements
No self-respecting seaside trip would be complete without a cup of tea...

or an amusement park!


And for me, of course no day is complete without something sewing related. I purchased this dinosaur fabric, not thin enough for patchwork, but it may make the boys some nice curtains or bags or something. Oh and I bought some bag handles, but I'm not sure where they are now... oh, and the dotty background fabric is a piece of pvc-coated fabric for our kitchen table. Oh, and...just kidding!

On the actual sewing front, I have been using our old bedroom to cut strips for my next few projects (hopefully never to be UFO's!). A while back I collected butterfly fabric for a project for my DSIL, but then she changed her decor to brown...

I have brown LOL

Slugs and snails...

There's nothing quite as exciting for a little boy as a tractor parked outside your front door...
...except when there's a digger in the garden too!
We're having our garden leveled so that we can use it. It used to be really slopey - you couldn't even put a garden chair on the grass without it toppling over, but soon we hope to have space to kick a ball and sit out - weather permitting.

The weather was quite nice this afternoon so we went to the local park. I always take something for Toby to sit on, but now that we're crawling...
there's no stopping us. This quilt was made for a friend a few year's back, but it didn't quite fit in with her decor so she went with this one instead.

I kept it and it gets a lot of use for general rolling around, first for DS1 now for DS2.

(Note the dark clouds - one minute we had jumpers on, the next I was getting hats and suncream out the car!)

Odds and ends

Just because I don't post every day doesn't mean I'm not constantly up to something (quilting or otherwise LOL). I sadly can't finish a quilt a week and posting about a UFO every week made me feel terribly guilty, but I do manage to sneak in a bit here and there, such as the (wild) borders on this...

... it's the last of the 4 Smilie quilts that are going to be quilted by Chris.
I've also managed to get all the bits together for the borders and backing of my Scrapbuster quilt. And I've been handquilting my Bag O' challenge. More on that later...

Here's a little trip down memory lane for my friend Birgit. Birgit, remember this? Birgit helped me cut this kit out for a 'Children of the World' quilt that I made for a friends daughter. Sadly, I don't have a digital photo to show (and the old fashioned paper photo (LOL) is somewhere...) As Birgit cut, I sewed and she had a brilliant idea that she would cut enough pieces for 2 quilts. Except, ahem, I er.. well I haven't sewn the second one yet and so this kit has been in the bag for about 10 years (?) or at least since I lived in Germany (could that have really been ten years ago??)

Not much 'up' here besides some scaffolding

In the post today, this book that I was the lucky winner of on Jane's Blog. It looks like a lot of fun to do and as soon as I have some spare time, I'd love to give them a go... Thank you Jane!

This is just a quick post as besides the book and more pinning, I really am not up to much sewing-wise (well I'm also handquilting my Bag O", but as I may have mentioned before, I can't show you, but soon...).

School sports day was rained off today so no photos of that as a downsized version took place indoors. Jack (DS1) refused to run in his race and decided he wanted to rather chew the plastic spoon and egg rather than run with it - well he is only 2!

On the home front, we have a new 'King of the castle', but at the bottom the same old 'dirty rascal'!

The cows were not amused... nor was I when I heard the roof would be coming off soon on the conservatory so we will lose yet another room. I am running out of place to re-house things!!!

And here some baby swallows who've come out of the garage (where they made their nest because DH left the door open once too often if you ask me) to poop on the garden gate where I like to photograph my quilts. I will have to wait for the rain to clean the gate before I take anymore photos LOL!

All I ever seem to do is pin...

... so yesterday when we had our pub lunch at the pub opposite Embsay Mills, I just had to pop in and buy some Quilting Pins. That's not new fabric the pins are lying on! Ok, it is, but I only bought these 2 pieces and the shop was just full of fabric LOL

This evening, I cut borders for the 2 tops that need to get ready to go longarming, I've pinned one and hopefully tomorrow I'll get some sewing time.
I also basted the top for my 'Bag O' Stuff' quilt challenge, but I can't show that as I'm still supposed to keep that one under my hat until it gets sent home to it's owner whoever that may be...


On the homefront, I tried doing some more housekeeping today in between fetching, carrying and looking after children. As soon as I start someone wakes up or wants something, but I may be on to something as DH had been out and I used some pretty powerful cleaning stuff in the shower. When he came home, he said "Hmmm, someone's been cleaning!" So I was thinking perhaps if I just spray that stuff every few days, he'll think I've cleaned...!

Lucky day

I was supposed to be writing my own blog, but just happened to be reading a few when I noticed that today was my lucky day! I have won a book on Jane's Blog. I'm really chuffed as it looks really interesting, it's Gail Lawther's new book 'Stained Glass Stitchery Bowls'.

Other than that we had another busy day so not much sewing. In fact, I felt pretty tired so we put on a DVD and I stuffed lavender sachets (very exciting LOL), but Christmas is coming Ho HO Ho and I want to start now on my gifts and stocking fillers. Here's a trio of sachets for Grandma as a thank you for some card making kit she's kindly given me.


And here's my next African block for my swap with Kate. It will go in the mail tomorrow. I wanted to try a sort of chequerboard effect, a variation of a postage stamp block and that's quite African I should think.

The boring stuff

I haven't really had much to blog about because I've been doing pretty boring stuff... piecing the backing fabric together for my Scrapbuster quilt which meant first alot of crawling around on the floor. I was trying to use pieces as they were and not cut them uniformly and thereby end up with more scraps. Then I've been sewing these pieces into rows - I've almost finished that. Once the rows are done, I'll sew those together and Ta Dah! I'll have my backing piece. Knowing me, I'll have mismeasured, but it's so scrappy I might just get away with it LOL.

At the same time I've been pinning another "I Spy" (or "Smiley" quilt as the swap was affectionately known) together as Chris told me that she can fit one more on the backing fabric. I have already handed over three so I want to get this one done asap. Hopefully Chris will be able to do my Scrapbuster quilt at the same time, but I suspect that will depend on me finishing it... :-)

And also at the same time (I like to dabble in a bit of this and that as you can see) I have been sewing together my African Block for my swap with Kate. More of that hopefully later, should I finish it tonight....

What happened to yesterday?

Well after our big day out at Hesketh Farm Park we were all exhausted. In fact the only sewing I managed was....

I cut lots of little squares for my next African swap block, but that was it!

But we had a great day out. DS1 enjoyed the coach ride, he and DH had a great time in the haystack maze which you had to exit via the slide. The go-karts are resting after our visit... And we all loved feeding and petting times too.

Here are some pictures of the farm residents.




We hope to visit them again soon.

Blooming Marvellous

Phew! I just need to fix a little leaf (or two), but it is done, and boy am I pleased. I have paper-pieced my heart out with this project or as I kept thinking as I was sewing "This is not foundation-piecing for the faint-hearted!" LOL.
It will just get a little border and then some hand quilting and embroidery and then I can shout "Ta Dah".
I have really enjoyed it over the months it's taken even though it's definitely NOT perfect.


I have also finished the hospital quilt tops - the borders along with a lot of the rose piecing were part of last nights efforts - These tops will hopefully go to Vicky this week. She'll get them finished off with the help of some other ladies in my LQG for the premature baby units at 2 of our local hospitals. I also cut loads of strips for more so the strips will be donated too and if anyone in the group has nothing to do , they can make more baby quilts!


And the post brought my winning postcard from Kate's Washer challenge...
very nice, now where to display it?

Trying to get a little privacy here

When we added on the extension we lost a wall at the front door which made up a sort of internal porch and now not only can anyone who passes see right in (not that that happens too often luckily), but the sun likes to get a look in really early in the morning. It's not to be a permanent problem (hopefully) so in the meantime I have hung a little quilt. A friend of Birgit's called Beate Ade made this top and I bought it off her at Birgit's Annual Quiltfest a few years back. I came home, backed it and hand quilted it. It's a really interesting quilt as it's made up of allsorts! Some of the hearts are made up of cut up bits of knitting, velvet, dishcloths, leather/suede... you name it, you'll probably find it in this cute quilt.


Here's another shot of it hanging over our garden gate. I like this spot to photograph my quilts and while I was at it photographed my old log cabin too.



Here's a family portrait.

We went for a lovely evening walk (just down the driveway LOL, I am not a big walker!).

A woman of few words

I had to sew last night, I just had to...! I had one seam to go this evening after getting back after a busy busy day and now my New York Beauty blocks for July are complete. This is month 2 of the Quilterscornerclub New York Beauty project.


I put the four I've done so far together and they look like so...

May need to re-think my colour scheme, but not tonight, I'm off to bed, I'm exhausted....

Another one of 'those days'

I hope to get to my sewing room later, but after the last 2 days perhaps I should just go to bed early LOL. I have been covered in baby puke, cleaned bottoms and floors and just generally had no sleep at all. Last night was so rainy and far too cold to go outside to get to my sewing room so I did some hand quilting on Toby's heart quilt - spilt tea on it of course! All this cleaning up after kids meant a bit of tea was no problem for me LOL

Yesterday DS1 came into my bed really early, a few hours later we heard the bins being collected, he wanted to know what the noise was, I said "go to the window and you'll see the 'dust-truck'" I was so tired I couldn't think of the right name for the bin-men (still don't know what the right name is...). He was so cute, afterwards he told me that the truck had come to collect our dust! If only they came to collect our dust, I'd be one happy bunny!!!

The one highlight of my day was a parcel from Kate with a block from our African swap - I really like it. Ok, this is not a great shot, I seem to have taken it a bit off-centre and I could have ironed it (yeah, right!), but it's lovely in the flesh so to speak.


Also in the parcel was a piece of shark fabric (ditto re the ironing) for Jack (DS1) - he was delighted, he just beamed and said "Sharks!".

Of course it means another quilt for my wishlist. I guess if I finish some UFO's this year, I'll need to start some now for next year?

ps this picture is for Kate: Toby (DS2 - pictured here with the last of his chicken pox spots) wants to know

"where's mine?" LOL

Anybody seen my tape measure?

By the end of sewing the rows together this top was so heavy and I kept standing on it when I was trying to iron it. Now all I need to do is add a border and sew the backing pieces together then I can send it off to be longarmed, but in true UFO/WIP style I may do something else for a bit before I do that LOL.

I laid it out on our bed that got moved upstairs today (hence the uncluttered bedroom) and was surprised how big it is considering it was only supposed to be either a picnic blanket or a sofa blanket for Mummy (me). I guess that's me all over, I hardly ever measure and when I do I get it wrong a lot. I love sewing and making quilts, but I like to 'wing' it. Measure twice, cut once? Err, that is a good idea, perhaps I'll try it one day :-)

Yum, plum! And a purple UFO for the week.

My fabric arrived from Chris so as soon as I have a chance I will be cutting more triangles. Wish me luck - there are only so many big triangles I want spare!

All this plum fabric reminded me of a UFO I started ages ago, long before I enjoyed foundation-piecing. It's based on a Kaffe Fassett pattern in one of his patchwork books called 'Pennants' or something (?). I started it so long ago and the book is in South Africa so I hope I have the name right.

Basically instead of foundation piecing it I English paper-pieced it over papers. So lots of hand work which I do enjoy, but I somehow lost interest and didn't quite know whether I should keep going or what.

DH helped me pin it in this layout (Aha! so that's where my pins are!), but I don't think I like it. Anyhow, with all these plums and purples back in the daylight perhaps I'll use the scraps to finish this as a table runner or something. Any ideas?

Spot the difference

Anyone got any good ideas for some big navy triangles? Don't ask, just don't ask!! But I managed to cut them too small, first cutting the most enormous squares and then cutting the diagonals only to find when I attached them that I hadn't added a seam allowance! I can't believe I did that - although now I am pleased, because that means that this scrappy quilt gets to be even scrappier. I have used bits of my absolute favourite colour: plum. I didn't have one big piece, but I used my raspberry (or is it plum LOL) Fossil Fern piece that I was saving (not sure what for), some plum stars and some other plummy purples. I am a few triangles short so feeling virtuous that I am not buying backing fabric because I will be piecing a scrappy back, I placed a little order with Chris for some other plum stars. I hope it will arrive tomorrow, so I can keep the momentum going on this quilt top.