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!

time flies

I cannot quite believe it has been a month since I last posted - where does the time go? November was a very busy month - four family birthdays, report writing, mock exams to mark, sewing to do..... the list goes on. To top it all my work was given an inspection last week so I have been beyond busy. All that is done now thank goodness, so I am hoping that I can now finally concentrate on some serious sewing in the run up to Christmas.
I have got a fair bit done already though - have a look and see what I have been up to!
Bee blocks:






A quilt for a birthday boy:



and a quilt top in progress:



Right - I better get back to it! Happy sewing to you all this weekend!

Thunder flower girls and flags!

I am really pleased with how this cushion turned out - my first Christmas present sorted! It was made using some vintage bunting I found at a car boot sale this summer. I chopped out all the mildewy bits to make a rather abstract union flag design. I off centered it on blue and gave it a red cushion back. It will hopefully suit my sister and brother in law - they have a very funky modern kitchen and a red leather chair it should work perfectly in.


My second result of the week is this quilt for my goddaughter - she has just had her 13th birthday. The main fabric is Thunder Flower by Alexander Henry and I just LOVE it! It is too nice to cut up, so decided to just go with a big piece and show off those funky anime girls to to max.


Sorry about the poor quality of the photos - I am now going to work in the dark and coming home in it - boo! Both the cushion and quilt are being delivered this weekend so I snapped these just before they were wrapped up. Next I need to complete a bee block, make a dolls quilt and start on a Christmas table runner. That is before I tackle the monsters that are the two quilts for my sons! Have fun this weekend whatever you are doing.

Halloween and harvest

So I have finally gathered in all the pumpkin and squash from the allotment - don't they look pretty?



I made a table runner for Halloween. I am not a huge fan of orange and black, but adding the purple works really well! We don't go trick or treating but always light a fire, have a lantern and a special meal. (usually a Chinese - not very traditional I know but our favourite!) When I was growing up the lantern was always a swede picked from the field next to the house (my dad was a farmer). Boy oh boy they were hard to carve! I always kept the swede carving tradition going when I left home, but when I got an allotment I did decide that as long as I had grown the pumpkin myself I could use one! So the last couple of years we have had pumpkin lanterns, much to my relief :-)



Finally here is some vintage bunting I was lucky enough to find at a car boot sale in the summer. The youngest it can be is from the 1950's as one of the flags is an Australian flag with a red background instead of the blue we see today. Apparently the red background was used in Australia a fair bit during the first world war but by the 1950's the blue one had become the main flag. Fascinating stuff! I love to think that those little flags might have been used in a village hall to celebrate the end of the war, summer fairs, Christmas, the coronation.... the list goes on! The bunting was damp and covered in mildew when I got it, but after a very gentle hand wash it came up good. I am going to turn a number of the flags (some of them are damaged) into a patchwork cushion for my sister and brother in law. Watch this space!

progress

Six blocks made for my hive peeps in the 3x6 mini bee:

Two more rows added to my ever growing eye spy quilt:

Yipeeee! I nearly have a quilt top! I am on a bit of a roll at the moment - I hope your sewing is going as well!

Shhhhh - top secret!

No sewing from me alas, but look at the pretties sent to me by my Bee peeps. These six fabulous blocks are to be added to the eye spy quilt I am making for my two year old, courtesy of the 3x6 mini bee:


These beauties are the start of the top secret star wars quilt I am making for my soon to be seven year old and are from the Euro Bee:

I am very excited about making these two quilts. The eye spy quilt isn't so top secret, but the eldest has no idea I am making him a star wars quilt - I will be doing some late night sewing when he is abed to get it completed for Christmas. Oops, sorry - I said the C word :-)