Back to work tomorrow

The holiday is over and I'm back to work in 12 hours, so the sewing room has been put away for a while :-(

I did manage to assemble and quilt my warm triangles quilt

 

And I've stitched down the binding on the white zigzag quilt

 

Now I can plan and shop for the next projects!!!!

 

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The one where Lisa crocheted a Dragon

For years Lisa has been crocheting flower squares, but suddenly she got the urge to follow instructions (maybe she's not really my daughter!)

And this is the result (so sorry about the awful light and the abundance of feet in the background!)

Isn't he cute!

Meanwhile I have done *some* sewing - the white zigzag quilt is now ready to be finished - the binding has been machined to the front and will be hand stitched as soon as the weather cools down a bit - it's far too hot for me to sit with a quilt on my lap while I stitch down the binding!

 

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The One where I made the Crafty Church Ladies Crochet!

I advertised this month's Crafty Church as a crochet special - suggesting that we use some of the donated wool to make 12 inch granny squares, then stitch them together and make charity blankets. This pic from Pinterest  was my inspiration:

We had a dozen ladies at Crafty Church and they all got crocheting - these were the ones I managed to get photos of

Here they are all hard at work 

 

As for me - I started laying out my zigzag quilt

and pinning the blocks together

4 more days at school and then I'll have plenty of time to sew the blocks

Fortnight round up

Life seems to have (again) got in the way of making and blogging, but her is a bit of a round up of the last couple of weeks . . .

We held a crafty church special and had a bunting production line - and made 35 yards/metres red white and blue bunting

That afternoon we had Kids Crafty Church - these two awesome girls learnt how to use a hand crank singer and made another 8 yards/metres of bunting

I made some more at home, and this is the finished 80 yards/metres around the village green for the queen's birthday

(Actually it's red white blue AND green - all the fabric was recycled from shirts, dresses and donated fabrics!)

I spent some money and have organised my threads

And I bodged some replacement candle holders for my garden candelabra

I've stitched, pressed and cut more blocks for my planned zig zag quilt

And practiced some screen printing for a class

Phew! Not too shabby as I'm working 40 hour weeks!!!!!

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I Is In Ireland!

It's lovely to be back at my second home!  Sewing, and chatting, and numerous cuppas with Jackie, catching up with her (and by extension, my) extended family, and generally putting the world as best to rights as we can!

On Monday we made a basket each

We started a FQ Pop Up (thank you Kathy)

We organising zips

. . . Auditioned blocks for a new quilt,

And there may have been cuddles with this little poppet, called Mouse!

And I've got all of Tuesday here too, and a bit of Wednesday!  Yippee! Xx

Beautiful Batiks

Lisa gave me this fabric bundle for Christmas 2013.

As sometimes happens I had to wait a while for them to speak to me; to tell me what they should become.

But today they have been cut and stitched and cut again: the inspiration from Pinterest is with them.

I'm now off school for a week, but I'm off to Ireland for some of the days, then back to a Thursday with family, a Friday with a smocking class at Chertsey Museum and a Bunting class at church, a Saturday with a Race For Life 5 kilometres AND Kids Crafty Church, a Sunday at my mum's . . .  and there endeth my holiday! 

Super Saturday

British Schools know how to put on a Summer Fete!

It was my school's turn this weekend, (along with thousands of others I'm sure) and we had a great day: Pimms, burgers and about a hundred different types of cakes with tea and coffee were on offer, and stalls were selling plants, toys, books etc, as well as numerous tombola stalls.

Nearly all the stuff had been donated by the parents, who then came out in their hundreds to let the children buy or win it back!

I had a stall and had a few quilts and bags on display, and had my baby Brother embroidery machine set up with a basket of brightly coloured flannels (wash cloths) by my side

I embroidered over a dozen flannels there, and came home with orders for another 9, plus bunting,

 

and I even sold a quilt - the pink zigzag one!

I've now spent the evening at the bigger Brother finishing the orders, and reckon its now about time for a celebratory glass of wine!

Work (and other 4 letter words)

I know plenty of people didn't get two weeks off over Christmas and New Year, and I know I'll (mostly) enjoy work when I get back, but . . .  really, do I have to go back tomorrow?

I've had a lovely sewing time!  As well as the stuff I showed on 27th, 28th and 29th December . . .

 I also have these three iSpy quilts now ready to bind and finish for a customer:

And I have a  new bag for my travel ironing board (for classes): thanks to the amazing Bag Lady,  Liz for the straps lesson

And I have another iSpy, this time as staggered bricks using the off cuts from the larger squares, which will sit and wait until a baby needs it

And I have this zigzag quilt which has been waiting patiently for ages to be bound:  I was peeved because two deliveries of Kona Cornflower came as two different shades and I didn't realise until too late, but I had to chuck it or complete it, so I choose the 'complete' option!

Further Finishes

Following a load of "nearly finishes" in the summer, I can now start to show some "actual finishes" - all it took was a couple of hours to hand sew the binding onto this

And a few more hours to finish this:

Two finishes - so I can start some new ones right?

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Boring Blocks

As I just have to sew the binding onto the Carnation zigzag quilt, I decided I needed to get going on the Cornflower twin zigzag quilt.

I did the boring bit a few days ago, sewing blocks together in pairs

and then took them mum's yesterday to arrange them in the zigzag pattern

All pinned, waiting for sewing time 

Zooming Zig Zag

I sometimes wonder if using alliteration for my post titles isn't getting harder and harder! Anyway, the first zigzag quilt is ready to have the binding hand stitched on, so the suggestion that I've zoomed through it seems quite acceptable!

By the end of yesterday the Carnation blocks had been pieced into strips and were starting to be attached to a fleece blanket, and by mid afternoon today it looked like this

There were a few blocks left over so I added some extra to the sides, but then there wasn't quite enough kona carnation for the binding, so one edge is scrappy binding to match the side additions: this evening it looks like this - and is in the to-be-finished pile

 

 

Next I *could* start on joining the cornflower blocks ... I'll see what I'm tempted with tomorrow!

 

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