A busy year

So I have been busy with work, children, allotments and life since I last posted. Here are some of the things I have been doing:

1. Making masses of bunting, throws for hay bales and other crafty bits for a dear friends wedding this summer. This took up most of my sewing time last winter and spring. The day was perfect - decent weather, good company and happiness all round. The reception was in a beautiful old barn. My quilts decorated the walls and friends brought flowers from their gardens and baked cakes to share. Other friends in a band provided the music and we all camped in the farmers field. A perfect time was had by all.

 

 

2. Making a picnic quilt - made from The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric - perfect for a picnic blanket!

 

 

 

3. Entering my very first ever quilt competition. I decided that I wanted to challenge myself this year so took the plunge and entered the Festival of Quilts contemporary quilt category. Even though my quilt was nowhere near perfect and got slated by the judges I am still proud of myself for entering!

 



 

4. Completing a quilt made from Bee blocks collected in 2011. My inspiration was springtime in England and my finished quilt fits the description perfectly! I was made some stunning blocks by people from all over the world.

 

 

 

5. Making a few squares to contribute to a group over on flickr - Siblings Together

 

 

 

 

I now have to make two quilts between now and Christmas for my children. Eek! I better make the most of this afternoon then whilst my children are out. Bye for now xx



 



yet more pink....

......with a hint of green. Made in 24 hours for a new baby girl. I have never made a quilt so fast before. It is full of the most yummy fabric and I had real trouble giving this one away!

Pink Pink Pink

Wow - 5 months since my last blog post. Ho hum, such is life I suppose! As you can see I have a finished quilt to show you - my Quilt of Ultimate Pinkness thanks to the lovely ladies of the Tag Square Bee I was in on Flickr. In fact, this is the first of hopefully a lot of finishes. I was in a number of Bees during 2011 and now have enough blocks to make at least two more complete quilts. As my sewing time is very limited I decided to stop any bees this year and concentrate on using the blocks I already have. I also have a project on the go for a dear friend who is getting married in the summer. She is having a shabby chic style wedding on a real budget and has asked for help from all her crafty freinds. I am therefore going to be making flowery bunting and throws to cover the hay bales she is going to use as seating. They are going to be very simple quilts - just a piece of fabric with  backing (no batting), some simple straight line quilting and binding. I have been searching charity shops for floral sheets and duvet covers and am gathering a pile ready to be transformed. I will keep you posted on how I get on!

ABC

So the summer is rushing past in a haze of paddling in the sea, swimming, allotmenting, pottering and playing! We are squeezing a lot into our last week and a half until school starts again, but I wanted to share with you a completed project. Gasp - I know, I amazed myself as it seems that all I have done recently is show bee blocks! These quilts are for twins and were made from a fabric swap over on Flickr. They are ABC quilts so 26 of the blocks are showing letters of the alphabet. I had to make a couple of changes as the swaps were US based so the fabric reflected that. For example, the kitten fabric you can see came as Y for yarn. I swapped a plain piece of purple that was sent as 'eggplant' colour and a couple more like that. I am really pleased with them - different enough to be unique to each twin but alike enough to stop fights I hope!

Happiness is.....

An Orla bag from TESCO:



Potatoes chitting on windowsills all over the house:



A Tag Square Bee block made and posted:



My first Project Linus quilt of the year complete:

and relax.....

It is done. The Christmas quilt making marathon is complete. The Star Wars quilt for my eldest son is ready to be wrapped and I can now relax! Many of the blocks are from the Euro Bee girls - thank you so much ladies.



There is just some time for a little baking this afternoon before we light the fire and snuggle down for the next few days.



Happy Christmas to you and yours - see you next year!

Christmas finish

Phew! One down, one to go! Here is my finished eye spy quilt for youngest son. Twenty six different quilters contributed blocks to this quilt via the 3x6 bee. I love the fact that this quilt has had so many hands working on it. Not only does it make the quilt perfect in terms of wonderful block and fabric variety, but it represents everything great about online bees and quilters in general. I used lots of scraps for the binding and used a plain blue sheet for the backing. The second quilt for eldest son is also nearing completion - a good job too as there are only three sleeps until Christmas!

princess and unicorn

Made for a six year old using a tutorial from Fat Quarterly. Taken before the rain returned - the UK is back to its rainy self now, not that I am complaining too much, my allotment needed a really good water!

dogs and robots

Two finishes in one week - wooh hoo! The quilt is full of some of my favourite fabrics and was a joy to make. It is destined to live in the back of the car along with this one for moments of snuggle on long journeys.


I am officially retiring my UFO list for a while as I have done most of the stuff on it and I have another birthday quilt to make by next Sunday. I am in the quilting zone at the moment and have already made a start on the new quilt. Have a great week everyone - my school is taking part in SHINE - basically a week when students are taken off their normal timetable for sports day, trips, concerts, special assemblies, charity fundraising and the like. It should be hectic but fun!

pink quilt goodness

Yay! I have finished the quilt for a three year old girl. As time was short I just went for big, bold pieces of as many pink/purple fabrics I could get my hands on. I am very happy with how it has turned out, helped by my new toy, a walking foot. For those of you who might not know, a walking foot helps stop fabric puckering especially when doing lots of straight lines. It is pretty pricy at £25 ish but it is SO worth the money! I wish I had bought one sooner and totally recommend it. I can notice a real difference in my quilting and there are no puckers and snags!
I combined the batting and backing in one and used a fleece quilt from IKEA. At around three quid it was a really cheap way of making the quilt, and is also very nice and snuggly for a little girl who loves all things fleecy. So all in all a big success - I just hope the birthday girl likes it!

first thing crossed off the list!

I am happy to report that a UFO has bitten the dust! This is my Project Linus quilt, made using extra squares sent to me by the lovely ladies of this quilting bee. I got the binding sewn on this morning whilst my DS was at his gym lesson, and even now as I type the quilt is in the washing machine. If the sunshine holds I will be able to get it dry but thunder is threatening so it may have to be the tumble drier. I feel much better now I have got something crossed off the list. Next - the dogs and robots quilt!

spring raggedy

I wanted to make something small, fun and with a feel of spring about it. I think this little rag quilt fits the bill perfectly! As there was very little sewing in comparison to the amount of cutting out and snipping I had to do I was able to do odd bits here and there without having to set out my machine and iron. (This is complicated as it involves having a clear kitchen table and no children underfoot who would try and climb the ironing board!) The fabric is by Saffron Craig. I may have to get some more of this - I adore it and now it is all gone! I know I know, fabric is there to be used not just stuck on a shelf to be stroked but I don't like it when I use my last bit of something!

finishing off

I am really pleased to finally report a finish! The blocks sent to me by the First Quilting Bee ladies have been turned into this wonderful hanging for the upstairs landing. Isn't it brilliant? All the blocks are amazing and I have made some great new friends. I am so happy to have joined three quilting bees - I would love to join more but have to be realistic about the amount of time I have to spend sewing. I have to accept that at this point in my life, with a full time job, two young children, an allotment and the need to get at least eight hours sleep each night my sewing time is a lot less than I would like it to be :-)



I completed the next set of blocks for the same Bee - the lady they are for rerquested stars of all types, suspended in a white background. She sent over some lovely blue and green fabric for me to play with. I have discovered that I am not very good at following a pattern (the friendship star) and need lots more practice with accurate cutting out!



Finally I could not resist buying this amazingly cute donkey and wellie fabric from here. I have no idea what I am going to do with it - I just had to have it, you know how it is :-) Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

Christmas Quilt Done!

Yay! I have finished the Christmas quilt. This has been a long time in the making and I am very pleased to get it done and onto the sofa. It has been claimed by my eldest son who snuggled underneath it all afternoon whilst watching Star Wars!

I think I have enough time to get this done as well - a simple patchwork sack for Father Christmas to leave his presents in. I hope all your Christmas plans are reaching completion!

Gnomes and Spiders

My sewing machine is poorly. I don't think it is terminal but a short stay at the Singer shop for some treatment may be in order. My lovely other half spent an hour trying to make it run again but something somewhere inside keeps sticking as the needle rises. Luckily a friend has a sewing machine that she only uses once or twice a year so I have borrowed hers on a long loan until I can get mine fixed. After faffing about for a while getting to know the new machine I managed to complete my mini gnome quilt. I was lucky enough to be sent some squares of Heather Ross by this lovely lady and when I saw the gnomes I just had to make something with them.



I am so pleased with how this turned out. I only had a small square of the gnome fabric, but it went a long way! I have no one in mind for this quilt - I made it on a whim and I really enjoyed not having a deadline to meet or a person to make for. I am going to hang it on my wall for a while before deciding what to do with it.


The backing fabric is from the children's section of IKEA.


I also completed my spider web block for the Euro Bee. If you fancy having a go making one here is the tutorial.

made it!

I finished my two quilt challenge just in time. These quilts are for birthday boys and their birthday is tomorrow! Phew - there is nothing like a deadline to keep you motivated. The boys are identical twins and their mum has just started dressing them in different colours to make it easier for people to know who is who! As a lucky coincidence one boy has been given red/brown clothes and the other blue/green to wear. I didn't know this until after I had started making these quilts but it made it very easy deciding which quilt to give to which twin! Please excuse the poor photos - the weather was not cooperating today so i was unable to take any nice photos outdoors or even in natural light.

The only thing I am not happy with is the amount of crinkling on the quilts. I would have preferred them smoother. They looked a lot neater before they had their wash and tumble dry. I don't know why - maybe it is because smoother suits straight line quilting more. Never mind - it is a small niggle, otherwise I am very pleased. The fabrics are all child friendly without being too babyish - hopefully the boys will enjoy their quilts into toddlerhood and beyond!

Next challenge - spiderweb blocks and starting on a Christmas quilt for me and my boys to snuggle under this winter.

rag quilt done

Well after much snipping I have finally got the rag quilt finished for a first birthday present. I am really pleased with how it has turned out but it was a lot of work - more than I was expecting! Cutting out all the squares (top, wadding and backing fabric) was a bit of a pain. Thanks must go to Katy - she sent me lots of wadding scraps a while ago which I was able to use in this quilt.

I am going to give it another wash and tumble dry just to fluff out the raggedy bits even more before going on to my next challenge - quilts for twin boys by the end of October - eek!

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leaf and lilac quilt

My first improv style quilt! I love the colour combination and the fabric (from IKEA) but think the fussy cut leaves get a bit lost amongst the overall quilt.


If I did this again I would add an extra layer of square round the lilac one, possibly in white or black.


I am feeling all quilted out as I have made a couple in very quick sucession. I am going to stop with the quilts for a bit and instead make some smaller things including pincushions, chair covers and blocks for my quilting bee (more about that soon!)

finished!

Here it is, my prints charming quilt completed. I am very pleased with it, and my niece seemed to like it too. Not that a three month old can express an opinion, but she was certainly transfixed by all the colours and patterns!