Diamonds Done

You may remember a little poppet at my school who has been battling cancer.  It's looking good for her, but they are looking at weekly chemo until Christmas!  Friends have set up a fund raising page (do message me if you want the link) and I wanted to help.

It's taken me a bit of time to finish, but with the help of a lovely lovely friend: Quilter in the Closet (aka Jen) I have now finished my contribution - and hopefully this will raise some money towards their hoped-for trip to Euro Disney

If you want raffle tickets feel free to message me

Sunday Strings

I'm meeting the ladies from our House Group tonight so I thought I'd better attach the latest finished string blocks to the others, so they can see what they've achieved - they just need to finish the last five blocks and this one will be ready for binding. 

 

I wonder if they are up for doing another one?  I can probably find enough fabric!!!

I have also dug out another strings project: Last (hangs head in shame) April Jen sent me some strings that she had, telling me that "it would be a LONG while before I use them" 

Well I think 13 months may be an even longer time than Jen anticipated, but after making another six blocks in November,this pile has sat waiting for a purpose.

My lovely little Miss M at school is being attacked by chemo, and infections, and hair loss and all the general horribleness of being in hospital rather than at home, so lots of mum's friends are fund raising for M, Mum and little sister L to go to Euro Disney when she's feeling up to it.

Jen has daughters herself of the same sort of ages, and has recently posted about going to Disney with them (California rather than Paris!) so I am sure she will be happy for me to finish this quilt, and donate it from the two of us as a fund raising item: it's so bright and cheerful - I'm sure it will help raise money for their trip!

All 20 stitched in pairs today: maybe I'll get a bit done tomorrow.

And a bit off topic:  My lovely bestie Jackie is a GRANDMA!!!!!  The long awaited grandson finally arrived today - mother and baby fine; grandmother exhausted after the longest day of her life!  Love you Jackie!

And the latest photos from Lisa's road trip

(Bless, Geography wasn't her strong point!)

How I Bury Short threads

A few weeks ago Jen wrote a post about how she got rid of thread tails [Click here for the post].  She uses a self threading needle, but I don't have one of those.

She also linked to Heidi who posted another method, [Click here for her post] but again it needs a self threading needle, which I still don't have.  My sewing machine cuts threads really short, so there are times when I need to hide the tails, but threading them into a needle is a real pain.

So I thought I'd post *my* how-I-bury-short-threads post, and link up (albeit a bit late) with Jen and Heidi

I use a short length of thick thread, about 5" of 40 weight, and thread bother ends through a large eye needle.

I push the needle in at the final exit point of the thread, and travel between the layers for about an inch

I pull gently until just a small loop is left outside the fabric

Then poke the tail through the loop

then pull the needle out and the tail comes with the loop

One Hundred Days of Happiness

I recently posted that I've joined Instagram: my daughter Lisa is taking a photo of something that makes her happy every day for a 100 days, with the hash tag #100DaysOfHappiness. Well I think I have at least 100 days of happiness tied up in a gift received yesterday.
Jen from Quilter in the Closet and I agreed a private swap, and I sent her an iPad bag and on goodies a while ago, and yesterday her creation arrived:
I can't get over the fact that this is*mine*

The perfect piecing, and the fab FMQ

The lovely wording: "Friends and Quilts make like more colourful"

A thread catcher with the tiniest pieced squares

this gorgeous rainbow of the same fabrics in the star and the flying geese, and the thread catcher

And a label - which I never thought to add to the iBag

Oh, and goodies too!!!!!

I can't tell you how much I love this, but I can tell you I won't be hiding it under my sewing machine! (Jen has even put tabs along the top so I can hang it instead)

It is beyond gorgeous,

and I love,

love,

LOVE

it!!!

Thank you Jen I feel very honoured that you made it for me

Posted with Blogsy

Mystery Make revealed

Back in September the lovely Jen from Quilter in the Closet made herself a sewing machine mat that I drooled over.  A few emails back and forth later, Jen and I had proposed a little swap.  Sometime she would make me a machine mat, and I would make her an I pad cover.

We both knew this would be a long term swap: one that we could make when we wanted to rather than feeling we had to.  My package to her finally got posted in mid November, and I have heard from her that it arrived safe and sound.

I made her an iPad bag rather than a clutch type cover: I find with handles it's less likely to slip out of my fingers.  She suggested aqua, so I got some aqua solid, and added some machine embroidery on the front

And appliqued some English paper pieced hexies onto the back - all in calm, grownup aqua and grey

But I know that she has three young daughters, and there will be times when they want to use it, so I made the bag reversible, with some lovely bright girly I-spy fabrics on the inside

I did also get three aqua flannels, and I embroidered the girls' names on one each, but I don't seem to have a photo of them

Super Strings & Homework Help

Back in April (APRIL!!!!) the lovely Jen from Quilter in the Closet sent me some string blocks that she didn't think she would use.  They were great but 14 blocks does not a quilt top make, so it has been in the back of my mind to make some more blocks.

I got hold of some thin paper a few days ago, and at about the same time realised that my 'string' drawers were kind of full

So I cut the paper into 12.5" squares, layed a strip of white down the centre diagonally, and stitched a coloured strip either side

and kept going until I had six blocks made (sadly I easily managed not to repeat any fabric, and have hardly made a dent in the string drawers!)

So one I have trimmed them to size I will have 20 blocks and will be ready to made another flimsey

On another matter . . . I was approached by two mums in the playground this week, on behalf of children who left our school last year to join a middle school (unusually for UK, we only have children until Yr 4/age 9 as Windsor has a three school system rather than a two school system). 

The children had been asked to collect examples of fabrics: woven, knitted, and bonded or felted, and the look of panic on the mums faces said it all!

I have found samples for them both (not too difficult you understand) but I'm not gluing them into place - the kids can work out which is which!

Mystery Make

Do you know my friend Jen, "Quilter in the Closet"?  We met through the Star of Africa bee - she refers to herself as a quilting beginner, but I think she's made some amazing quilts and bag

(Just have a look at these pics I've taken from her blog)

 

And this one shows she is an amazing photographer as well as an awesome patchworker

Jen recently showed a machine mat she had made

which I thought was fantastic.  A bit of a conversation went back and forth over the Atlantic, and the end result was me making an iPad case for Jen, and her making a sewing machine mat for me

We haven't discussed whether we are showing our makes, but I took a few teaser photos today as I started, so I figured it was safe to show them,  Jen suggested aqua, and I know she has a little bit of a grey thing going on, so here are some fabrics I used

She also has three little girls, so I have made it reversible: it's lined with some lovely Japanese I-Spy charm squares from a swap I took part in last year

There is some machine embroidery

And a few hexies

And I hope it is turning into something that she will be happy with

Super Strings

When I posted my string quilt flimsy a few weeks ago, Jen messaged me to offer me some more string blocks.  She had these from a swap, but didn't know when she would get around to using them, could I use them?

Well clearly I don't have enough fabric, or UFOs (please don't look at the UFO & PHD tab) so of course I accepted, and just look what she sent me.  FAR too gorgeous to cut down to extend the previous top, and with just a few more squares will make a fab top in its own right.

What can I say? Except thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Jen