2021 Week 4

 No end in sight to Lockdown 3, no travel plans, no day trips, no meeting family - all a bit dull!

So I might have bought myself some wool!!!!

But no chance to start it yet - a local charity have ordered a gazillion of these... ideally by Thursday so Lizzie and I are going to be BUSY!!!

I managed to get this quilt embroidered and then delivered while I was out walking  a few days ago

And I made these cheerleaders for the Keep Moving campaign

We had snow!  Most people headed for the shed to get wellies and sledges . . .  me?  I headed for Lizzie LOL

One of my lovely warm Norwegian jumpers had a hole in it so I did a bit of darning, visible from the inside

but not from the outside!

Lizzie has finished quilting this for me.  We installed her FMQ table and it worked really well supporting the weight of the quilt.

Back to Lizzie and the gingers (they are finger puppets - a cute idea) and I'll see you on the other side!

2018 Wk 11 - Almost Snowing Again

It isn't really snowing again - it's just that I am working on a very old Christmas snowy quilt!  Plum reminded me of it earlier this month - We met through being members of then Yahoo BQL (British Quilt Lovers) group, and back in 2011 I offered to embroider BQL badges for the ladies who were going to Festival of Quilts.  They offered to pay but I asked for green scraps for a scrappy quilt I wanted to make.

I got the scraps and started the quilt but it then stalled.  It was last blogged about in 2014 when the tree was shown plonked on the sky fabric

At some stage since then the tree and the sky were joined but nothing further.

Today it has moved forward to this


The details don't photograph too well, but the star above the tree and the candle flames have been embroidered with a glow . . . in glow in the dark thread!


The top of the snow glistens with a glitter fabric attached on a gentle curve

and snow drifts have been topped with more sparkle

It's still a bit tall and thin but it's doing much better than it has for the last 4 years!

2018 Wk 10 - two quilts!

Quilt 1
After the previous disaster with June's quilt I have now made a replacement. Amo suggested a way to salvage the original which I will do, but for now June's replacement is ready to go to Texas, and with the right name!

Quilt 2
I was inspired, many months ago, by a quilt I saw in a fabric shop in quaint village called Grayshott.

My version was planned last August

but never got stitched until this weekend.  I considered the lines of quilting in the white sections, to make it look as if they were pieced, but didn't feel the love.  I rummaged in the quilting threads box and found threads that were close to the colours in the fabrics

and I quilted and quilted and quilted - something like 130 yards of quilting, all triple / bean stitch, and I'm really pleased with the result

I just need to find suitable fabric for the binding

We've had  few days of the country going into panic mode - Brits can go through a World War or two with nothing defeating their spirit, and have shown terrorists that our best comes out in times of disaster - but a few inches of snow has achieved the results that the terrorists planned and hoped for! The country shut down!  Schools were closed, flights were cancelled, people panic bought at the shops that were open.  Niki was flying back from Budapest: the flight was delayed not due to the two foot of snow there, but the two inches of snow here!

Another casualty of the weather was Niki and Lisa's front door.  They could not get it open!  Their home insurance comes with an emergency call out service - but the operators couldn't get to the call centre so they were no help at all.  so . . . Daddy to the rescue

It was the only way in!  He did manage to remove the lock and fix it so at least he could leave by the front door rather than the kitchen window!

And finally, Janet from Crafty Church has created another "Horton Hug".  Completed blankets are appearing in church and then being taken to a good home - to someone who needs a hug!  I love the colours on this one

The snow has now gone, the weekend has nearly gone, and this blog post is done!  Hope you had  good weekend

2017 Wk 49 - Christmas making

I've been busy using up the black and white scraps from the Black and White and bits of Bright quilt , and have make zippy pouches for colleagues

 Then I pieced the rest to make a bit enough block that I could make a few Pythagoras pouches 

So finally I've got my Christmassy packages ready to post - although maybe they will be New Year packages!!

I've finished a few customer orders (although there are plenty left to do)

And I've actually done something for me!  As we are getting to the season of Christmas jumpers I decided to go with a nativity rather than Rudolph or Santa

And in final random news . . .  its snowing

And the kitties are happy with their quilts

A creative day - and boobs

[4 posts in 4 days - what's going on?]

Today Niki chose the Santa's forest wall hanging for me to work on in between taking her to, and collecting her from work - so I did!

The blocks had to be joined into rows and then the rows joined to make a flimsy. Then the backing fabric and the flimsy had to be basted to the wadding, and then I started quilting (shock, horror!)





















I have slightly overdosed on swirls, and I've not yet finished the quilting, so it still may not be a wall hanging by Saturday, but it's getting closer all the time!

(and talking of closer - here is a closer pic of the quilting...)
















In between swirls, I have been taking an occasional break to make boobs!!!

Yes you did read that right!
A fellow blogger, Nina Lise, known as Mrs Moen, is running a community project called 'make a Boob' - click here for the website and more info.
















The idea is to offer breast cancer patients a little art therapy and to create awareness and involvement.

The project has two main goals:

.

Offering people with breast cancer the opportunity to participate in workshops where they will decorate boobs. These workshops are set up in co-operation with the local chapter of the Cancer Association. Participants can decide to keep their work or to donate them to Make a Boob Art.
.

To create awareness and involvement through
- making circles for workshops
- participating in workshops and decorating boobs
- exhibition of Make a Boob Art

Nina Lise has asked for donations of boobs to take to the workshops: there can be plain, or already decorated.

The plain ones will be decorated at workshops, and decorated ones will be used as inspiration at workshops and stitched into Make a Boob quilt(s). The quilt will be donated to the Norwegian Cancer Association at the end of the Make a Boob project. In case there are several quilts some might be donated to hospitals or other organisations that deal with beast cancer.

The boob is made using three layers of fabric (and sandwich with wadding in the centre) and is based on the size of a CD. The instructions show how to make them using a sewing machine - but I simplified it even further by designing an embroidery design the same size as a CD ... and made loads!

One final photos - one of Niki's friend's mum made this today with the snow we have here - awesome or what!!!

Stay At Home Robin Round 6

Just had a bit of fun today: Round Six of Kate's Stay At Home Robin, (see the blog here, for some amazing quilts, all to the same (ish) spec, but all very different).
















This black & white version started with an orphan log cabin block, but I had its two twins waiting to be used, so for round 6 I have added them on the left. This does make the quilt wider than it should be, but I'm sure I can compensate in future rounds.

I was a bit more obedient in the pink version, and added a narrow strip of pinwheels (also added on the left). I had to force myself to do these as I'm not a great fan of triangles.

I'm glad I've finished but wont be doing such small pinwheels again. I have seen instructions where the clumpy bit in the centre of each (where all 8 triangles meet) is arranged differently so it is less clumpy, so having been inspired by Plum's blue and white pinwheels I might try bigger ones, once I've found the instructions I want
















There is a pale blue SAH Robin too, but that will have to wait until another time.

I think tomorrow may be time for either the log cabin Christmas tree or the raw edge trees and cottages. I shall see how I feel - both feature snow, and I might need to work on something without snow!!!