Super-Sized Jared Takes A Wife - Finished for January

This quilt has been finished for a while,

but it feels like it has rained almost all of January!

In the end I'd thought I risk a photo

in the mud and grey cloud because at least it wasn't raining!

Of course it's King-size so getting a photo was tricky anyway...

But a few fallen logs came in handy...

The back is pieced 

and ended up being almost as much work as the front!

A close-up of the back:

And a close up of the quilting:

The pattern is one of Bonnie Hunter's.

'Jared takes a Wife' can be found under Bonnie's free pattern section.

I super-sized the blocks so each block measures about 24"

 And to prove the lengths I go to to get a photo...

Muddy boots, muddy trousers...

(and muddy quilt,but I planned towash it anyway before gifting it away!)

Amazing What You Find...

... when you tidy your studio!

This book called 'Needlework Economies'

is an absolute gem:

Very old...

Re-sold at Foyles in London...

and in it's day, perhaps very useful,

if say you needed new underwear:

Or you were going to mend a hole in your stockings (What!!)

Mending your man's shirt would have come in handy then!?!:

And you and your friend

could get a measure of each other:

A photo shows 'a girl wearing the frock she made'.

She must have been very proud....

The back has an advert for Fry's Cocoa

and a slogan 'The Pursuit of Health'.

Cocoa? Health?

 Can't be high up on the healthy lifestyle scale. Can it? ;o)

Wordless Wednesday - Quilted!

Raspberry Skirts

When saving these photos to the boys computer

I had to think of a name for the folder...

Raspberry Skirts because,

Well because I made Miss-Kalico a few skirts of late

(another distraction)

 Love this baby-cord fabric, so easy to sew up!

(There's another skirt with roses (of course!), photos to follow...)

And I made these yummy scrummy Coconut & Raspberry biscuits

(mine are on the right and the photo from the book on the left

I used the wrong coconut, but they were so so good nonetheless!)

 From my favourite Gluten free Cook Book:

Over 10 years of being Gluten-Free

and this is still my favourite recipe book!

*****

Miss-Kalico loves her pom-pom

jumper knitted by Vicky!

And it looks great with her new skirt ;o)

And I love this new pantograph for my Longarm that a friend sent me!

I know I should be doing quilting freehand, 

but this is so cute and so easy,

it's like doing it freehand ;o)

Wordless Wednesday - Borders

Like Sudoku, but not quite

Our sofa isn't normally so laden with quilts,

but I am sewing the binding down on a king size quilt

that got plopped on the sofa on top of another quilt for some reason....

 and when I came back to it,

a certain furry person had made herself very comfortable!

*****

Story Time Stars by Bonnie Hunter:

This is the top so far for my friend's first grandchild.

I'm loving the colours and the spots and stars.

The fact that putting it together was like playing Soduku

was not so easy for my little brain!

In the end I had to call in reinforcements.

There are 16 blocks. Each centre is repeated twice. 

There are 4 colours for the stars, 

but each block only uses a combination of 3 of the colours...

and that's where it all started getting confusing for me.

After about an hour and a half of shuffling blocks around we were happy

(a layout normally only takes me a few minutes!)

Now for the borders which are already cut

and thankfully require no more brain strain :o)

***

On another note,

I had to go around to a friend in the village

to borrow some pins to put this quilt together.

It was still early, but very dark

as our village has no street lights...

As I walked home just with my torch,

I thought to myself that I have probably watched

far too many of these murder stories 

set in quaint English villages for my liking!!!

Baby Quilts

I am currently making a baby quilt for a friend's first Grandchild.

We decided on Bonnie's Story-Time Stars

 I've made the blocks using very cute novelty fabrics

and will get to work on the sashings 

as soon as a bit of fabric arrives.

(You can see our 'new view' in the above picture

and we are just loving all the light from the bungalow's many large windows)

♥ ♥ ♥

 On the subject of baby's and quilts...

Look at this gorgeous baby on the quilt I made him!

♥ ♥ ♥

What I sent - SSCS 2013

Of course the photos of what I sent Chookyblue

are on my dead laptop, but she kindly blogged about it here:

http://chookyblue.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/secret-santa-christmas-swap-2013-sent.html

So if you want to see what I sent click on the link.

I do love a good swap...

I even come out of hiding...

Have a good stretch....

and get sewing! :)

Special Delivery

A friend asked me to make 2 custom made bags for her...

 I machine make the bags, 

but I just love to handsew the names and decorations on...

One for David:

 And one for Orlando:

 As Orlando is a special new baby,

he got a special quilt too!

 This time I didn't use a pantograph

 and instead practised what I'd learnt in the class with Ferret,

 and freehand machined the stars.

very enjoyable and much quicker than a panto!

(Now if only I'd insured my mother's Christmas parcel!!! 

Maybe then she would have had her Christmas gifts.

I'm still hoping it's just delayed 

and not stolen by workers in the South African postal service!)

*****

This is the gift I made for Alice in the BQL Secret Santa swap:

Photos of the gifts I made Chookyblue are on my dead laptop,

but hopefully I'll be able to link to that soon.

Christmas Spoils

This year, I joined Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas swap

and was lucky enough to have Denice as my partner.

She made me these cute cinnamon star cookies.

They were so beautifully packaged as a pack of cookies,

but I forgot to take a picture before putting them on the tree...

 The tree was heaving this year 

as the children wanted to put everything on!

 Denice also made me this gorgeous table topper:

In the British Quilt Secret Santa that I joined,

I got Irene who made me the most stunningly modern table mats and coasters

They go perfectly with our new decor.

 Thank you Denice and Irene!

And a wonderful parcel arrived from a dear friend in Germany.

Birgit spoilt me rotten again!!!!

Beautiful fabric:

 My absolute favourite chocolates!

(Both the Mozart Kugeln and the Mon Cherie!!! Nom nom nom!)

and treats for the kids....

 I felt very lucky indeed!

Thank you Birgit!!

On the sewing front...

There's not been much activity with the house move

and the decluttering 

and the constant tidying involved in living so open plan.

However, I have started a baby quilt for a friend...

 And I've started Bonnie's Celtic Solstice Mystery

(part 1 not even nearly completed!!! Oh dear!!)

I'm borrowing my son's computer and feeling the need to be quick

so more to follow as there were quite a few photos on my camera that I should blog...

In the meantime:

Seasons Greetings!

A Mystery

I have just worked out how to upload a photo from my tablet.

These are my colours for Bonnie's new mystery...

We're in a new house and there's no sewing machine here yet

(But there is heating!!!)

If the move, which is just down the road,

becomes permanent my Nolting will be rehoused here too!!

In the meantime I still have access to my studio

and plan to spend plenty of time there

(weather permitting!)

Gone AWOL

I didn't intend to not post for so long, 

but it's all change here at the moment...

My run of bad luck included the heating breaking down

with no chance of repair, and a new boiler a long way off,

my car not starting...

and my laptop refusing to charge up...

Hence no photos :(

I did however receive my secret santa and it looks

FABULOUS!! (Well the decoration does -

I am saving the gift for the big day,

these Secret swaps are the highlight of my Christmas!)

THANK YOU.

I will try post photos soon...

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!