(My first) Wordless Wednesday

Slow & Steady wins the race

I am slowly getting all the blocks done for my Marti Mitchell Carolina Lily.

6 blocks are completely finished and 2 just need the stems and leaves sewn down. All the setting flower blocks are almost sewn together, the last 5 just need the white sewn down and their stems attached. Did I mention I found enough white to finish the last 5 small flowers! I was so happy to be so disorganised for once LOL.

Kandy has been helping me work out the fabric requirements and potential layouts in EQ6 (see this post - it's very cool!)

I was so pleased of her help as I changed the block sizes suggested in Marti's pattern.
(Because I have been sewing the blocks by hand I thought it would be more suitable to not make them as big as she suggests for the king size quilt and not as small as she suggests for the wallhanging...)

Here is one of the suggested layouts that I am pretty much going to go with...


I am scared and excited to tackle those vines, but first I have to sew all the blocks together (after I have finished them of course!)


On a commercial note ;-) I've made some more coin purses, but have not had a chance to photograph them properly so that I can list them in my Etsy shop...

Blue ones...

(Blue one on the bottom row in the middle is already sold)
(EDIT: Top left & Bottom right blue purses sold now too)

And some in yellow and orange...



I hope to list them sometime this week...

Life on the farm - Free BOM

As we live on a farm, I just had to tell you about the Happy Wren's free Block of the Month (BOM) called 'Life on the farm'.



The first block combines stitching and piecing and is called 'Hollyhocks and Pumpkins' and is available now... Hop on over, give Nichole some encouragement and bag yourselves a lovely new project to stitch and sew!!

I shall add it to my wishlist for 'some day' (that some day is when I have so much spare time and no laundry :-D)

And I'm a bit late here as she's already on the 3rd block, but Caroline also has a gorgeous stitchery BOM called 'Take time to...'. Go check it out!

Please feel free to make 2 blocks from each BOM and send me one... hee hee - well you can't blame me for trying LOL

Double Delight - Take 2

I just published the last post when I spotted some sheep on the hill so I crutched outside and hung my Double Delight on the perimeter fence. Then the sun went in, but at least it's a more interesting photo than the last 2...

Knowing me I'll keep trying :-D

Double Delight Done

Last night I sewed the last few stitches on the binding of my Double Delight. No label as yet, but perhaps when that's on I'll take some better photos. These photos are not great. The first one shows how my life has changed, The garden gate is no longer a good spot for photos because the garden is full of kids stuff! A trampoline, trikes and a jungle-gym all obtruct my view! :-)


In the second photo, my quilt holder was too impatient, it was too windy and he is only 6'4" which was not tall enough to show the top of the quilt. After a few attempts, he quit before I could sack him!!!


Anyway, it's done. I love this quilt and Bonnie named it correctly - it is a delight and even more so now that I have it done!

Wray Scarecrow Festival 2010

Today we took the boys to the Fair at Wray and had a look at some of the wonderful scarecrows made by the villagers of Wray....

This one was a partcularily beautiful textile art:


The four seasons:
The garden centre had wonderful displays:


The boys enjoyed a donkey ride:

Water, water? No only coke and lemonade at this outdoor stall!! (Or you could queue inside for half an hour. I think not!)

These little dogs were too cute! I am not really a dog person, but they were very awww...


Ice-lollies and Postman Pat...

More beautiful scare-sculptures...



The owl and the pussy-cat...


Love my boys...


I spotted this amazing conservatory in a local garden and just thought it was something that would just be awesome in ours!!! (One lottery ticket coming up!!)


I can dream (and apparently I can also stalk someone's conservatory LOL)


Next time something quilty!

Wins, Lilies, Gifts and Gabs

I am still stitching away! And this is my favourite Lily block so far. The colours appeal to me so much. The red fabric is from Elsie and the green fabric is from Siobahn:



Thank you Ladies!!

I guess that is what this post is about. Thanks. I am so very honoured to be part of such a generous and lovely community of bloggers, quilters and friends. At times I have wanted to give up this blog, I have never wanted to give up sewing, but blogging maybe. I am not sure why I blog. At first it was to record family life for us and the SA family alongside my sewing, but then I realised that my Mother never got a chance to read my blog and the sewing probably bores my brother stiff so he doesn't read it either. So then I thought I'd just blog about my sewing, and bore off the rest of them LOL, but I sew so much. Everyday! and it's not always that interesting especially if I have the odd craft market coming up or if I'm just sewing curtains or repairs or finishing something I started years ago...

I do like to record the momentus finishes and the little stitches though,


but I worry that I am just wasting blog space with it all. So I am going to have a little think about this blog and try and decide what direction it should take. Ultimately it is for me, but through it I have met some lovely people and I have enjoyed the company so much...

I have been spoilt rotten again lately by bloggers and friends!
Reds from Elsie:



Greens from Siobahn:


(these greens are from The Carolinas! So fitting for my Carolina Lily!)

And Fran:


(A green and roses too!)

Belated birthday presents from
Sonnja,:



Josie,:


My favourite chocolates and beautiful embroidery scissors too!

And Kandy!!:


Kandy made me a beautiful Log cabin kit with 12 gorgeous little logs, borders, batting, backing fabric, bobbins, thread, needles etc. Amazing!

Thank you Kandy, Josie, Sonnja, Fran, Siobahn, Elsie...
Thank you all very much.

I drew a winner yesterday for my giveaway. Guðrún from Iceland!
Well done Guðrún! I'll send you a parcel this week.


I would have blogged the winner yesterday, but I managed to overdo it in the garden and I have been feeling a bit rubbish ever since. I am taking it easy now, but feel a little shaken. I guess I was getting used to crutching around like a maniac and forgot my limits for a minute :-(

On another note:
I like this picture. It makes me think of me....

A big fat mummy and her 2 cheeky little lambs!! :-D

Double Delight: Sewing the binding on...

Today I finally sewed the binding on my Double Delight by machine!

One of the reasons for the delay is that I wanted to bind it in brown, but I didn't buy enough. I had lots of blue, but I have already bound a quilt in blue (is that a silly reason to want to do brown or what LOL!) I bought the first piece of brown off Ebay and luckily the Ebayer still had some which she kindly listed for me. Unfortunately she put it on a 7-day listing so I had to wait a whole week to bid on it! Never mind, it's here, it's washed and more importantly it's on! Now I just need to hand stitch it down, but I doubt I'll get it done for April as it's a pretty big quilt and I haven't even started the handwork part yet :-)


It has been Longarmed quilted by Chris at Fathers-Heart. I chose a pantograph called "Dahlia Delight" and I think it goes so well with the Michael Miller Daisy print which also has tendrils... Dahlias? Daisies? Not sure I can tell the difference :-)


And instead of a quilted back, which I started, but after discussing with Chris the difficulties in lining a 2 sided quilt up, I used an old cotton duvet cover of DH's which he liked, but which we no longer use. I think it goes quite well with the overall feel of the quilt.


The quilt that I started for the back is going to be made (eventually) for a special friend's special birthday so I've got just less than 2 years, but hey I'll probably be sewing the binding on the night before (or the week after!) LOL!

Flowers & Have you seen this fabric?

Does anybody know what this fabric is called? It had nothing on the selvedge and is really difficult to photograph, but it is a white on white with a rose print:


The picture below is more true to colour, but the picture above shows the white print more...


If anybody knows who makes it and where I can buy some from, I would be most grateful. (I bought it about 3 years ago at the Harrogate Quilt show and can't remember who I bought it from or who prints it!) When working out my Lily layout, I realised that even though I am probably going to use a plain white for the setting triangles, I am still a few inches short of the white on white rose fabric for my flower blocks :-((



The foundation-pieced rose panel is now sewn in to my hexagons! I English-paper-pieced it in so I needed a big piece of paper :-) As I recall it was something like 13.5" x 20.5"!



And even though my garden is completely ungardened, a few years back, I put these Grape Hyacinth bulbs in and this year they have really come into their own...


They are so pretty, they even make the weeds look good :-)

African Giveaway

I have been blogging for 3 years now so it's time for a little giveaway!
Leave a comment on this post and you could win an African panel and ten 5" charms of African fabric.

The charms are one of each of these fabrics:



And the panel is to make your own tea towel, apron and potholders...

I will pick a random winner on the 1st of May.


ps (I am going to get back to my lilies again and am desperate for some dark green pieces of tone on tone fabric for my leaves. If you would like to swap some for African fabric please let me know. We can swap 5" charms or whatever suits....Thank you)


On another note:
I recently won a giveaway on Nichole's blog, it's a gorgeous strawberry stitchery:



You can see more details of it on Nichole's blog, the Happy Wren Studio! Thanks Nichole.

Parting shots: kids!


The boys love the new lambs on the farm!


And this is what happens when you buy your child new shoes!


I went in to check on him before I went to bed and there he was, fast asleep with his new shoes on. I took them off and covered him up and the next morning he asked what had happened to his shoes in the night LOL.