A finished Quilt

Just a quick post: after 4 hours work at school (staring at 7:15am) I dashed home to finish this quilt, to be back at school for 1:30 for another 4.5 hours work!!!

Anyway, "Myles David" has been finished in time to be collected tonight - and be paid tomorrow hopefully :-)

Happy Birthday to Me

(and Happy Birthday to Plum!)

I had a lovely birthday yesterday - phonecalls from the family, the promise of a skype from the babies in Australia, a trip to Greenwich to have lunch with Lisa and then supper with mother-in-law. Then I'm stretching it out with a joint staffroom treat at school tomorrow with Jane, and a trip to Portsmouth to see mum on Thursday...and a girly trip to Florence at the weekend!

I got an awesome pair of converse style Levi boots from Brian


and from the girls I got a sewing themed bracelet and two troll beads.

Best was to spend the day with them and Brian. I managed to get photos of Lisa's jewel blanket









and the banner for her bedroom door

We went for a walk to the University campus ... where they are filming a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Unfortunately Johnny Depp isn't there at the moment :-( but huge sections have been fenced off and are being tweaked to fit the movie.













We also went to Greenwich market where we found fab pressies for Stig's babies: as Stig races we thought the racing car would be great for Marley, and mum had just told me that India is into princesses so these two puzzles should be ideal ... and I love wooden toys

HELLO MUMMY!

I've finally got my mum reading my blog!!! Well done mum, very brave! You might progress to adding comments one day, but I can show you how next time I'm in Portsmouth :-)

If you want to look at some other ideas, click on any of the blogs shown on the left of this post - your computer will take you to a blog that I enjoy!!!

I made a fabric postcard to send to Lisa at Uni - it's the first one I've actually posted so I thought I'd send one to mum too to check it arrived. then I got carried away and found some more sky fabric and made another six - I hope someone on the Post Card swap group chooses a suitable theme so I can send these out!!!















I got a text from Mum this morning - hers had arrived, so fingers crossed the Uni postal system works too!!!

A fab website

I have fallen in love with the appliques available from the Wee Folk Art website. They are great to do in felt, and lovely designs, ideal hand sewing while watch TV or on a train, and are free patterns.















Thank you Wee Folk Art Folks - I've done two design from the website, and have been inspired to do two of my own, and think there might be a few more in the pipeline ;-)

Lisa made a quilt

Lisa wants to take my old sewing machine to Uni with her - she is desperately worried about being bored so wants something to keep her busy. I showed some picture quilts a while ago that I have made and will post to her over the next few months for ideas, but as a friend of hers has just become a father, she wanted to make a quilt.

She was worried that doing it all herself would be too much, and that she would give up, so we found some skinny insert blocks that I had been playing with and she joined them together, first in three strips, then, (using the Slik and Quick method)she attached that to a fleece blanket We then created some 'piano key' strips from fabrics used in the skinny inserts and used that as a border, and finished with a plain pink border and the baby's name embroidered. She's gone off to present it to the family tonight - I hope they like it :-)



**Update** the baby's parents liked it, but Grandma *really* liked it - I think she had far more appreciation of the work that went into it. As for baby - she just slept, but Lisa did get a cuddle :-)

Post cards and Stay At Home Robin

I have NOTHING in the diary today, so after taking Niki and Polly to work I have been sewing - yippee!!

I have done month 3 on the black and white SAHR that I am doing through Kate's blog,














and then carried on with the black and white fabric to make 6 postcards ready for the November (!) BQL postcard swap using the same idea. I've also played with making a mug rug, but that was from leftovers, and I think its too scrappy.

I'm in love with a new blog!

I've been blog surfing this morning, and skipped from stash manicure to Horst clan blog, to bee in my bonnet ... And fell in love! I'm dribbling on my I-pad trying to decide which wall hanging I want to make!

The garden one is really cute - but I'd have to make it for someone else as I don't do anything in the garden except read a book or sunbathe!

The Gingerbread men could be good for Niki as she likes to cook, but I don't think she's made Gingerbread men yet


Grandmother's kitchen is lovely, but neither of the girls' Grandmas are that sort of Grandma


So I think I have narrowed it down to Snowman, Comforts of Home or Quilter's World... decisions, decisions!




Of course the temptation is to get all three, but as I read that it took about two years to complete one of these, I think maybe I should only get one!!!

Manic life

I am exhausted! I only work part time at school, usually one-and-a-half days a week, but until the new breakfast club and after school club provider is registered I'm running that - so I've done 22.5 hours childcare, plus 10 hours shopping and sorting for the club, plus three hours in the office, plus ten hours backwards and forwards to the Eco area as I've had twenty volunteers in school working there and they needed looking after!!!

Added to that, Niki has just started a job, and is attending training for the new bowling alley that opens next week in Slough, and was enrolled at TWO colleges and didn't know where to do her A'levels, . . .

And Lisa is off to University next weekend and we've done a mega shop of cooking stuff, stationery, bathroom stuff, cleaning stuff, bedding etc.

So you may have guessed that cooking and general need-to-do things, and sadly sewing, have not happened :-(

On the positive side, all the work on Uncle Geoff's estate is starting to show results, and cheques are now coming in, and the offer on the flat is back at what I'd hoped for.

Most excitingly, Stig is on holiday with Dad at the moment, in Florida, and has had no idea that he and I were even mentioned in the will. I posted a cheque to him, care of Dad, and he opened it on Skype yesterday with all of us watching - he was almost speechless . . . And then he realised it was in GB£, and he converted it to Aus dollars which almost doubled the value - and was speechless!!

We miss you Uncle Geoff, but thank you.

Henry's Swan

This quilt has finally been finished and taken off the to-do list! YIPPEE!!!

It needed to have the name Henry on it, but also show swans somehow
















In the close up you can just seen one of over a dozen swans that are swimming around the quilt. I hope he likes it :-)

Lola Rose & Emily

My Great (and terrific) Niece, Emily (age 10) came to stay last night, and wanted to do some sewing. She decided a doll was a good starting place, so we could then go on to make clothes for her (for the doll, she reminds me, not for Emily!!!)

We started with a doll shape which she pinned and I stitched, and then we had the fun of turning it inside out!!! It was AWFUL! says Emily

We stuffed her, and Emily tore strips of yellow fabric to make the hair, which was stitched into the top of the head as we closed the final gap.















Emily says "I drew Lola Rose's belly button and facial features with permanent markers."

Then we started on the clothes. We made a summer dress, and it has straps and a sash and a matching scarf.




























And then she platted Lola Rose's hair.




















Ta-da!!!!!!