Wordless Wednesday - Christmas Stockings

Rose Star Hexagons - A Finish!

Finished...., 

 Hand pieced over papers, 

the English paper Piecing way,

Longarm-quilted by me,

 bound in red spots..

and backed in a pretty wild Kaffee Fassett print..

Finished in about 2 years at a very leisurely pace LOL!

I must say, once the paper-piecing was done,

I missed it. I love a bit of handwork!

*****

I parked at the side of the road

to get these photos.

My impatient passengers

didn't give me much time to take the photos....

... but if you look in the second and third photos

 you'll see why I stopped here....

I wanted a photo of my favourite tree that has lost it's leaves.

Autumn is on it's way!

Concealed Zip Cushion

A few years back,

I did a refresher Screenprinting class

and this was one of my designs

which sat idly on a piece of cloth until I recently

turned it into a cushion....

 With a concealed zip on the back!

I used this tutorial that I found on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqve_Xv3jqY

to insert the zip.

*****

There has been plenty more sewing,

but October (and the end of September!)

is birthday month(s),

with all 3 children, DH 

and many many others in the family

celebrating their birthdays!

 However my husband, 

after getting certain gifts for his birthday this week,

has now been informed by Miss Kalico 

that is birthday is actually "Underpants Day!" :o)

Around the World Blog Hop - This stop: Yorkshire

Firstly I'd like to thank Plum from Plum Quilts for nominating me 

(even though I don't normally do these things...)

and I'd like to apologise to Ailsa from Cape Pincushion 

for not reading my emails in time when you nominated me!

I have been a bit bad with emails and comments of late,

I do apologise. I could blame my 3 crazy kids, 

but they may read this someday ;o)

So here we go....

1. What am I working on at the moment?

A bit of this, a bit of that...

Mostly, I work on this:

But currently, I am getting the binding on this quilt...

And trying to make some sense 

of my Mother's oldest and most gigantc UFO.

I have hand sewn all the star parts together...

Now I need to remove the papers

and figure out how to square it up for quilting on my longarm....

(any suggestions gratefully received)

(it's a very 'Vintage' colour scheme -

not my taste at all, but I do love it because Mom made it

- or started it at least!)

 *****

I have sewn the borders on my African quilt

and that is waiting to get loaded on the longarm.

I just need to piece a backing 

with the leftover blocks.

This is an old photo

(the borders ARE on! I promise)

I have various UFO's which I dabble with,

far too many to list LOL,

but hopefully I'll be finishing them off 

and putting them on my blog

in months and years to come!!

SOME, not all, are listed in my sidebar.

Here are 2:

'Carolina Lily'

And  'Criss Cross Apple Sauce' blocks

I have a lot more than this!!

2. How does your work differ from other of its genre?

I'm not sure. I seem to do a bit of everything 

so I guess I must overlap with many others of my 'genre'.

I just love quilting, the scrappier the better!

Although I do love my roses!!!

(Rose Hexagon Quilt Mummy)

3.Why do I create what I do?

I love sewing. Madly, passionately... 

I find it relieves stress and I like to sew pretty much every day.

Even if it's just something very small.

Or even something not quilty,

like clothes, bags, home furnishings etc...

4. How does my creative process work?

Chaotic-ly!! 

I see something, want to try it... do a bit, see something else...

finish something, start another 2 things..., 

cut out something else, get distracted...

etc etc etc!!!

But I do finish loads of stuff

so my guilt levels are not dangerously high :o)

One of my favourite finishes:

This quilt is often on our bed.

*****

Now I had to tag people.

I chose Scraps and Threadtales

because Sio constantly inspires me to try something

and she is so knowledgable about our patchwork and quilting.

She has answered many of my quilt questions over the years

and really helped me especially with this quilt:

*****

I also chose Birgit of Patchcom

because I have known Birgit for such a long time.

We met at a quilt group when I lived in Germany 

and she taught me how to paper-piece 

(- for that I am eternally grateful!)

(Paper pieced rose in my Rose Hexagon Quilt)

Birgit is a bit snowed under at the moment,

but I just wanted to take this opportunity to mention

what an important quilt friend Birgit is to me.

*****

And Kate of Katesquilting was tagged the same day as me,

 We then tried to tag each other,

but as this has already cut into my sewing time,

I am going to tag her anyway and be done - sorry!

Kate and I met as blog friends

and now we are real friends too, 

having families that holiday together well is great.

*****

Anyway, keep sewing everyone, 

it's cheaper than therapy!

Wordless Wednesday part2 - Peepo! with (Granny's) Monster UFO

Wordless Wednesday - Mom's Monster Quilt

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

A finish!

Single bed quilt.

Quilted with 'Swirling Daisies'.

These pictures were taken 

in a friend's lovely English Country Garden...

inclusive of local farm life ;o)

I think her sweet little dog

thinks I'm mad ;o)

*****

I've also finished some more little girl's dresses.

This one was inspired by the blue lace 

I bought from Coolcrafting.

I couldn't resist putting spotty buttons on too!:

 And these 2 new dresses are for Miss Kalico and her friend.

She kept nagging me to make her friend a little dress

so here it is... (or here they are!)

and looking at the 2 dresses, it always remind me of the book

by Julia Donaldson: ' Sharing a Shell':

"2 friends sharing a shell under a sky of blue,

romping all over the rockpool 

in their wonderful home for 2" (or something like that!)...

And I keep thinking when I see these dresses:

" 2 friends sharing a dress under a sky of blue,

romping all over the playground

in their wonderful dresses for 2" 

(or something like that LOL)

Wordless Wednesday - Weekend Walk

What's Been Up

Finally, I can dig my head out

and blog a little...

 Summer has been a great time for creatures.

Creatures in the house however have NOT been great.

This cat is on probation for Mousing!!!

(Trying to find a mouse under the sofa 

at one in the morning is not my idea of fun! 

Not finding it is even worse! 

Wondering for a few days if the half a mouse 

outside the back door was the same mouse is no good either LOL!)

*****

The school holidays are finally over and the little people

in the Kalico household are (mostly) back at school.

I didn't get much sewing done over the school holidays,

just a few dresses for Miss Kalico.

I cut a new dress pattern for her

and although it's a little on the large side,

she'll grow, and these dresses can be whipped up 

in a day...

Great for playing (and potty training!)

I made a reversible dress:

Roses on the one side... 

And baby cord with a pocket

on the other side...

*****

We had a week in South Wales: fabulous!

Family time is just so precious.

The other few weeks we were around and about locally... 

and just enjoyed the lovely weather...

A friend (and fellow blogger) 

and her family came to stay....

It was great having 'Southerners' to stay with us 'up North'

as we got to do some great walks and explore our local surrounds.

This is the walk from Clapham to Austwick 

and I had never done it before...

In Wales we'd done a 'herb walk' at the Botanical gardens

and I'd learnt that these were Burdock pods:

 Nice and sticky LOL.

We all walked through the tunnels to Clapham

 that were built by the local landowner many years ago 

so that he didn't have to watch his workers walk home...

Bit of a cheek, me thinks! But a nice walk.

*****

And now that the kids are out of the way ;o)

I have been able to quilt again

And why, yes, before you ask,

Miss Kalico does need another quilt :o) 

I cut the binding without measuring to check I had enough,

as I sewed the first side and a half on, I remembered I was going to measure...

But it fitted. Phew!

 With only a small piece left to spare!

*****

The next quilt is ironed and ready to be loaded.

Oh, I do love my Longarm machine!!