SSCS2014 - Thank you!

My Secret Santa Christmas Swap 2014 arrived today!

Beautifully wrapped,

but no card on the outside so still VERY secret :o)

I was allowed to open the decoration

which is gorgeous - love it!

And it's embroidered on the back too! Lovely.

There was also something for the little people in this house.

A very excited 'Kalico Kid' had the honour of opening it...

and was well pleased with the contents!

Thank you very much Secret Santa!!

(I couldn't email you a thanks, but I hope you get to read this!)

SSCS 2014

Secret parcels going in the post....

Started: 2006... Finished: Not Yet!

Ahem...

This quilt top was started in 2006 

as part of the BQL(British Quilt List) Ostrich Challenge

.

Every month we were given something to do to add to the quilt,

until this became a top....

I started handquilting it some years back, 

but soon lost interest :(

 Now I'm wondering if I should load it on my Longarm

quilting machine and just get it finished??

It's weird how it's sort of red-ish and green

and quite Christmassy 

which is not what I had had in mind at all!

Watch this space...

It may get finished one day!

Wordless Wednesday - Crafty Cat

If Quilts Could Talk...

I'm sure it would say something like this....

I really do need to get piecing and quilting....

Because I would love to see this one finished...

But I've got some friend's quilts to do before I can play.

*****

My UFO list should be getting smaller

with my Longarm machine, 

but as usual I'm constantly adding to it....

I may blog some seriously old UFO's to push me into finishing them,

but oh the shame (some are as old, and older than my children!!)

Quilt Talk

Last week was the school half term holidays.

The week went past in a blur of entertaining the 3 Kalico kids...

A trip to visit an old Aunt in Manchester 

and then the Trafford Centre (ugh!),

A trip to Bolton Abbey to do the Pumpkin Trail,

A Halloween Party... etc etc

and in the midst of it all

I went to visit Levens Quilters to talk about some of my quilts..

My friend snapped a few shots of me

showing the only 2 unfinished quilts I took along,

(not the 23 finished ones LOL!)

I shall finish my Carolina Lily quilt one day.

Entirely hand pieced including the borders...

 And my mom's UFO.

Also entirely hand-pieced and no borders

(or a single straight edge to help me decide how to quilt it!!!!) 

It was a busy week 

and now that the children are back at school

I hope to find the floor and some time to quilt!

Happy November everyone.

Not many sleeps 'til Christmas!!!

(Which is another reason 

why I don't blog much at the moment....

too many secret things in the make!)

Just a few Quilts

Over 25 years of making quilts 

in one big pile...

(plus loads given away over the years

and another kingsize quilt found in the blanket box

after this photo was taken!)

Wordless Wednesday - Miss Kalico turns 3!

Hexagons - Finishing Off by Adding Borders - a Tutorial

So you've done some English  Paper Piecing over papers 

and now you want to quilt it...

 To get square edges to add a border, 

I tend to just fold over the hexagons

 and trim them to a quarter inch to square up the top...

Often it's just two sides that need this folding over and trimming.

Then I take my border strips of fabric and fold over a quarter inch seam on one side.

(You can iron the quarter inch seam if you prefer.)

Sometimes I have done these border strips over paper 

and then just sewn them on paper pieced bit to paper pieced bit,

but just folding over is much quicker.

I then pin the border on to the edge of the quilt top...

And just stitch it together.

Hopefully, on the left in the picture below, 

you can see the borders being sewn together

(both obviously have quarter inch seams.)

This is the attached border piece from the back:

And from the front:

 Now with borders on, you will be able to quilt it!

I used this technique to add the borders on my Rose-Hex quilt.

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!