Playing ...

I apologise for my bad-blogger skills and promise to improve. I have been doing a lot of stitching recently and berate myself for not having posted many pictures. I am working on a few new projects at the moment and this is a couple of them in action.

I've been playing with Sweet by Urban Chicks for Moda and have made pinwheels blocks, nine patch and a couple of other blocks.

I'm also playing with wonky stars after being inspired by AmandaJean from Crazy Quilt Mom. These blocks are so easy and quick to whip up and given that the finished size is 12.5", a quilt top comes together relatively quickly. I'm thinking that this one may become a quilt to put in my husbands study. Red, white and blue with elements of beige are definately my favourite colour combo to work with.

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What a wonderful Christmas ...

Warning; Image heavy post!!!!

Happy New Year everyone and I apologise for my lack of posting lately. I was very busy for Christmas with making gifts, finishing off orders and trying to prepare for the festive period.

This Christmas we were lucky enough to be invited over for a family Christmas with Tony's parents, his sister and her husband. While this meant that someone else was doing the cooking (wonderful it was too) it also meant that treats had to be made to share. With our wedding in June still burning a hole in our wallets, we were on a tight budget - meaning even more homemade gifts and treats. I have to say that it prolonged the festive season for me and I had great delight on Christmas day watching the reactions of gifty recipients;

I thought I would start a new tradition of personalised napkins for all the members of our family, when times when we are together.

I've recently got back into scrapbooking (with the help of some new friends) and decided to make my dear husband (recently overworked) a little book of 'some' of the reasons why I love him.

I made my sister-in-law a sewing organiser and journal cover with some fabulous french fabric (appropriate since she and her husband have recently bought a french farmhouse).

These little albums are such a great idea for keeping a few memorable photo's of the festive season. I made one each for my parents-in-law and sister-in-law.

My mother-in-law received a needle case and scissor case in the same fabric I used for a sewing organiser I made her for Mother's Day. She also received a journal with homemade cover.

I made this cushion cover also for my Mother-in-law with the fabric left over from the quilt I made her for all the help she offered for our wedding plans last June. This one's a pattern from the very talented Camille Roskelly of Simplify.

I made this wall hanging for my father-in-law. My parents-in-law have recently bought a caravan and it has been a stand-in joke about our Jack Russell Henri going on holiday with them - as much as they love him they emphatically DO NOT want to take him in their beautiful, clean and neat caravan. I therefore couldn't help but include Henri in this little stitchery which I adapted from a card we bought them last year.

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Planes and trains completed ...

I have finally managed to complete this little number on time and it will be handed over to its temporary new owner to hopefully make a little boy very happy on Christmas day. I especially designed this quilt for a neighbours grandson who loves just about every mode of transport. I hope he likes it as much as I do!

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Planes, trains and automobiles ...

Thought I would show you a photo of a quilt I am currently making for a neighbours grand-son. She wanted a quilt originally with trains and then told me that her grand-son didn't 'just' like trains but all modes of transport. I must admit that I really had no idea how to go about this one but came up with four scenes - all involving different types of vehicles connected by a road (the blue ric-rac around the road detracts from the grey. The train is yet to be appliqued around the edge on the blue border. There is a lot of applique involved!!!

The quilt is coming along nicely and I'm hoping to have finished the top and hopefully put it together ready for quilting by the end of this week. This is the last order for Christmas that I am doing as I am eager to do some stitching just for me, well gifts actually for other people but on a much smaller scale than big quilts!! If you have any ideas as to how I should quilt this baby I will appreciate any advice!!!

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All better again ...

I just wanted to let you know (after my rant the other day) that my Janome is all better again - the people at my sewing machine repair shop put a note of URGENCY on my machine and had it serviced in record-timing. I had a phone call on Saturday to say that it is ready for collection so she is back before I really got to miss her - here's hoping I can fnish a quilt order this week.

My dear husband and I have had a lovely weekend together - very rare these days with his work - lots of cosy movie watching and for me lots of cooking - iced cranberry muffins, mince pies (hubby's favourite), Jamie Oliver's Spicy pork goulash with chillies and two lots of chocolate ganache` (one with Irish cream, the other with rum) ready for me to make truffles tomorrow to give as gifts (apparently they are easy to freeze once made). I also got three stitcheries completed ready to be made into gifts - postings after Christmas - eyes are everywhere!!!!

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Bahh humbug ... not a good day ...

It's been one of those days today, you know the type - where, from the minute you wake up the day it is just all wrong.

I had some jobs to do in the morning which took up more time than I expected. I was longing to get to the studio as I have one quilt on comission that has been delayed because of previous orders. This one is a Christmas present and needs to be completed quite soon, but it is larger than I normally make and contains an awful lot of applique, which takes a lot of time.

My day was going reasonably well once I got to the studio, I thought I would use a twin needle to create a train track - quicker than appliquing a track - and saving tons of fabric. I threaded the machine just as the manual said, followed instructions for getting the right tension etc. It started okay and then I noticed the tension wasn't right, then disaster struck and the whole thing started looping underneath. To cut a very long story short I ended up spending an hour cleaning the machine, changing needles etc.

I have a sewing machine shop around the corner so I ran there for advice, I got reprimanded for using universal needles and bobbins instead of 'Janome' and we eventually came to a consensus opinion that there are scratches or 'burrs' (presume they mean scratches) on the bobbin case preventing it from turning properly. Well poor Janome is now awaiting the nice man to take her away for a well deserved service and repair work tomorrow. She will be missing from my life for at least a week, I am already missing her!!

After wasting half my day feeling frustrated I simply had to buy some chocolate and a fizzy drink, much needed but I'm disappointed as I've been trying to eat more healthily and have given up 'naughty' things, ie coca cola and crisps (my addictions - not had any for 5 weeks now!!!).

Good news though that my gorgeous husband was meant to be working on Christmas day but has just found out that he has it off. Yippee!!!!! Our first as husband and wife - it has to be special right - my three Christmas wishes may come true after all!!! We're spending our first Christmas as married people with Tony's parents, his sister and her husband. Luckily we all get on very well.

Must go chocolate calling ...

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A Quilt for Noa ...

I was recently comissioned to make a quilt for a young child and managed to finish well before the deadline. The brief was; purple, orange and pink with butterflies and dragon-flies appliqued over the top. Okay I thought, lovely colours, I'm up for the challenge.

I carefully pondered how I would combine those colours, came up with some ideas and a payout was agreed. Looking for inspiration for the fabrics I rifled through my stash and came across a charm pack from Moda Clementine, the colours involved pink, purple, orange, blue!! Amazing I thought, just what I need - now how to put them together??? I managed to find some block colours that matched the key colours perfectly and added white just to break it up a bit. The blocks are based on nine 5" squares sewn together 3 x 3, this is then cut into 1/4 making up blocks like these;

Each block is then rotated so that the seams do not match up and therefore it takes no time to put it together, I put mine together in blocks of 4 and played around with the configuration until I was happy. Some simple butterfly and dragon-fly shapes were appliqued over the top, personalised details were added and hey presto a cute and colourful quilt. I hope Noa enjoys this for many years to come.


Happy Birthday Noa Imogen for the 5th December.

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