Mug Rug and Goodie Swap Mosaic

I'm taking part in a Mug Rug and Goodie Swap organised by lovely Cindy of Fluffy Sheep Quilting here.

I'm excited about this as it's only the second swap I've taken part in and already I have met some new wonderful people. Cindy organised another swap I took part in recently which was the Japanese Fabric Swap.

Us swappers were advised to create a little mosaic of our favourite colours, fabric type and suggestions to help our swap partners find out more about us. Most of my 'favourites' seem to have come from pretty much the same source - lovely Kerri of Lovely Little Handmades. Up until now I have managed to steer clear of the red, aqua and white combo, but I seem to be developing a little obsession.

I don't know who my swap partner is but whoever you are I hope this helps!!!

Caroline xx

The kindness of strangers ...

It has been a little while since I told you about my All Heart Appeal to raise money for Cancer Research and I thought I would do an update.

First of all I want to thank each and every one of you kind hearted people out there who have donated a heart or hearts for my appeal. I really do appreciate it and love the thought you have all put into making each and every heart. Some have involved some interesting techniques that I would never of thought of. You are all so generous.

At the moment they are all laid out on my design wall and I can't help looking at them and reconfiguring them to try and get the balance right.

After much thought I decided that having an all white/cream background might not allow the hearts to shine through enough so I decided to branch out and ask for pink or red backgrounds.

This has helped greatly and the layout now seems more harmonious with some colour popping out. I am in the process of making a few more pink or red blocks to fit into the bottom left corner to balance it out.

I now have about 50 blocks and would like about 64 to complete the quilt. Hopefully it will be completed by the end of September.

Again, thank you so much for your generosity. Anyone else wanting to donate a block is very welcome - just e-mail me and I will send you my address via e-mail (please make sure you send me an e-mail address if a no-reply blogger).

Cheery Giant Spools

I am a bad blogger indeed and promise to post more pictures soon.

I seem to have about a zillion things to do before september and the start of various classes that I'm going to be teaching, plus some trading events and charity events. So what do I do??

Crack the whip and start ticking the long list of jobs to do??

No - instead I 'play' around with yet more scraps and do some more of my giant spools blocks - these were inspired by Jacqui from Tallgrass Prairie Quilts - I loved her selvedge spools - but I just don't have nice selvedges so I dug deep into my scraps for these.

They look so much better in person!!

This has been good therapy, this week we found out that my husband can have a bit of a reprieve from the endless radiotherapy sessions on his leg. He's by no means 'better', apparently the nerve tissue is so inflamed that the results can't be distinguished. For now though, he gets 6 months off from the endless driving, back and forth to Oxford and can hopefully start getting over the pain.

Thank you for all the wonderful heart blocks I've received recently - I promise to take pictures today and post some soon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Caroline xxxx

Happy Hearts ...

Apologies for the delay in posting about my All Hearts Appeal.

Thus far I have about thirty hearts, all donated from wonderful people near and far. I really appreciate each and every one that I have received and it's been lovely to see the effort that people have shown.

I do apologise for the photographs above, some of which were taken during the evening, the lighting is terrible. These are some of the hearts received in the last couple of weeks.

1. Anne in dedication to her first husband

2. Anne in dedication to her parents who both died from cancer

3. Angie Woodhemp

4. Janis Green

5 - 7. Anne

8 - 10. Wendy Herbert

11 + 12. Wendy http://thecraftersapprentice.blogspot.com

Centre. Jane Weston

I would be exceedingly grateful for more hearts, the more the merrier really as I would dearly love to be able to make as many quilts as possible and aim to use at least 60 heart blocks per quilt.

I'm also going to throw open the colour of blocks to extend to a red or pink background, I think the odd splash of colour will add so much interest to the quilt.

Thank you

Caroline xx

PAY IT FORWARD ANYONE?

I'm so excited to have joined Karen's PIF project over on her blog, here.

This means that in the next 365 days I get to receive something handmade from Karen along with two other recipients. How wonderful!!!

In true PIF tradition I pledge to also send a handmade gift to three lucky recipients in the hope that they too spread the love and share a gift within 365 days.

Is anyone interested in joining my PIF and receiving a gift from me - when you're least expecting it???

If so, leave me a comment on this blog post and the first three people to respond will be involved: please note - only respond if you genuinely intend to start your own PIF and would like to blog and post about it too.

Caroline xxx

All Heart Appeal

I want to make a difference, and I need your help!

I recently went to a concert where money was raised for various cancer charities. I got thinking that I would like to raise some money myself and my brain went into overdrive thinking of ways to help.

I have a number of reasons for wanting to support Cancer Research, my brother-in-Law died from cancer, my dad had a tumour removed from his stomach two years ago, a childhood friend died from breast-cancer in her thirties and my husband is undergoing treatment for cancerous tumours in his leg.

My little All Heart Appeal plan is to achieve the following;

I would like blocks to be donated that I will sash together, quilt and finish. The quilt (or hopefully quilts) will be raffled off at local events to and all proceeds will go to Cancer research. Even if you donate a heart you can also purchase a raffle ticket to win the quilt yourself. Each ticket will cost £2.50. That is a lot of tickets I need to sell to raise a goal of £400.00.

I would like the first quilt to be completed by August.

If you are interested in helping here's what to do;1. Measure a 8" x 8" square of neutral fabric, white-on-white or cream-on-cream to act as a background fabric.

2. Make a heart, any size so long as it fits within the block and less 1/4" for seam allowance. It can be any shape, fat, thin, elongated, stylized and in any colour.

3. You can also embroider a design within a plain heart like the one below:

4. The heart needs to be appliqued on either by stitching around a raw-edge, zig-zag stitched, blanket-stitched, fancy stitched, needle-turned the choice is yours - so long as it doesn't peel off is the general advice.

5. Once completed mail to me (leave a comment and I will e-mail you my address)and I will do the rest!!

Why not dedicate your heart to someone whose life has been touched by cancer. All dedications will be written in a note that will go with the quilt to winning recipients.

If you don't want to make a heart but want to dedicate one and I will make one on your behalf I will ask that you make a donation on my just giving page found here

You can make a difference.

COULD I ALSO ASK ANYONE READING THIS POST TO PLEASE BLOG ABOUT MY APPEAL FOR HEARTS OR LINK MY BUTTON IN THE SIDEBAR TO YOUR OWN BLOG - THANK YOU SO MUCH XXX

Thank you
Caroline xx

Happy Days ...

My colour scrap blocks are coming along nicely but this week I wanted to concentrate on something else. The arrival of "Lollipop Baby" fabrics made me put away everything else and whip up a simple baby quilt using the full range.

Although I love the colours for me it is a bit too busy, I'm wondering if I should have sashed with white!

Mmmmm maybe that's another quilt!

Excuse the poor photo on this one but the design wall was full and the only room left was on the floor with the awful red rug that covers a multitude of sins!!

My colour spools are coming along nicely, I wasn't sure at first - I looked at other spool quilts where straight piecing is more the norm, so I made red and green straight and left the others wonky. I like wonky!!

I'm quite excited about it to be honest, and I'm just going to take my time over these fun blocks. It's definately going to be a studio piece and will fit right in with my others. I sure do love gazing over the fabrics, especially when life has it's off moments and I need to remind myself of everything good in my life.

For now I will leave you with my photo of variegated thread. I love it.