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!

busy doing nothing

Well nothing blog related that is! I always knew I would be a sporadic and occasional blogger but only three posts this year? Oops! I am very busy with work, family and the allotment so sewing has come last place of late. Bee blocks are still being made, which will result in enough blocks to make at least two if not three quilts in the winter when outdoor demands are a lot less.

Here are a few blocks - all bee ones apart from the scrappy 2 inch square block. This is a very long term project to try and bring control to my stash and use up all those scraps!

Well I am not sure when I will be back - I might try to manage two posts in July but no promises :-)

Easter

Easter has been lovely - weather perfect, time to relax, family visited, allotment planted and of course some sewing done. All the above are bee blocks made using this tutorial. I am back at work tomorrow for just three days before a four day weekend. Hurrah for Kate and William getting married and giving us the day off! The bunting is going up tomorrow :-)

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: