Tuesday's Tree

I've been working on a button tree as a sample for a class later in the year, and have finally finished it.  All ready to be hung on the wall

Stars On Sunday

Yesterday I finally got started on some of the outstanding Star Of Africa Bee blocks.

Cindy was Queen Bee for April, and wanted bright blocks (think of the brights in a box of crayons.) on a background of white  Our blocks will be added to a rainbow coloured Around The World top, and our positions have been allocated!

She wanted the block to represent our home, and to show our name and our location.  My home is the most boring looking home imaginable, so I decided to make the block  show my life instead

My family

My sewing

My church

And my school / work

Tomorrow I will put them all together to follow the colours Cindy is using in her quilt

Private Pictures

Some Quilt Festivals ask that any photos taken are for private use only: as this blog is more a record for me, and doesn't have a very high readership anyway I'm going to hope it's OK to post a few mosaics here of some of the quilt photos I took at Festival of Quilts.  The original photos are being loaded to the Private Use tab (see above)

These first quilts are mini quilts, generally 8 or 10 inches high.  To give you a point of reference, the wooden 'pole' they are hanging from is 1cm diameter!

 The winning quilt was a whole cloth - again remember that the pole is 1cm!!!

Shopping Show and Tell

Well I was quite restrained on day 1 at Festival of Quilts, but not quite so retrained on day 2!

I bought this lovely pack of Liberty fabric from the lovely Yvonne at Village Fabrics: I already had one pack (thank you Jackie), and now there is enough for a bigger, um, something.  I also got some more charms for my sewing bracelet, and Jackie got me a replacement for my broken purple thang

I got a few replacement perspex sheets for Jackie's big shot (I felt I should as I've given her loads of fabric to Sizzix for me!) and got some fabric glue from the ladies at Apliquick which is much softer than prittstick.  I also got another thermofax screen: a spool of thread to go with the scissors I bought last time

I have been collecting red and stone linen for a while and have finally decided to make a log cabin, but had a glut of stone rather than red.

 

 So when I saw these I had to get them

But then I saw these too, and somehow they slipped into the shopping basket too, I think I feel a bag coming in these

I popped in to see the lovely ladies at the Button Company (at Eternal Maker - I gather the shop was a bit empty this week!) and got bits for bags as well as buttons and felt

And then I got some more wooden spools just because

 That covered nearly all of my shopping list plus just a few extras.  

The outstanding items were some paper piecing templates: triangles and hexies in both 1¼ and 2 inches, but no one seemed to have them.  I could cope, as I'd found them online from America, but that would include $22 shipping!

Jackie and I had arranged to meet for a final coffee at 4pm - on her way to the meeting place she passed Hannah's Room . . . with an almost hidden stash of EPP templates, so she dragged me back and I got all 4 packs for about half the price of getting them shipped from the states

Successful Shopping

Day one at Festival of Quilts: brain dead, feet knackered, not much impulse shopping, but I managed to get more  yellow for yellow hexi quilt, and solids to match the dotty fabrics, so I can add borders to make it bigger

And I got some Oakshott to border the triangles quilt, and fabric for two bag projects

And Jackie got me this lovely sewing themed mug!

:-) thank you Jackie 

Busy with Bags

I remembered today that last time I went to Festival of Quilts I decided I needed a decent size shopping bag, but didn't have one.

Not that I'm one to leave things to the last minute, but I started one last night and finished it today.  

It will usually be used this way, but is reversible 

I had a bit of time left, so made one for Lisa too, she chose the fabric and design last tine I saw her at home:

And again it's reversible, with an inside pocket:

Now I need to go and shop to fill mine!!!

Triangle Tuesday

When May came to visit a few weeks ago, she very kindly brought me this awesome Oakshott stack.  I've fondled, and drooled, and thought, and today I decided to cut into it

I pressed all the fabrics, trimmed them, and cut them into a 2.5 inch strip and a 6 inch strip

The 6 inch strips then got cut into 6 inch triangles

(just look at those yummy colours)



















and the triangles got sewn into strips and the strips got sewn onto a fleece blanket, and this is what I have

 

I  now have a shopping list for some more Oakshott for a border, and I have the 2.5inch strips to join to make a scrappy binding

I wanted to blitz through this one as I know I don't like HSTs and I wasn't sure that triangles would be much better, but I knew I wanted to use this fabric as triangles - I was worried that if I put it to one side I may never come back to it.  

The verdict?  I LOVE the top because of the colours, I'm really pleased that I went with triangles, although I know that plenty of points don't match (darned bias edges) and I strongly suspect there wont be many more triangle quilts in my future!

Miscellaneous Monday

I finally got my C&G PTTLLLS certificates today, I'm now actually a qualified ( post 16) teacher,

who'd 'a thunk it???

In other achievements, I bound the Lilac Jelly Roll Race 

Found some empty boxes 

That I can rebuild inside out

To make great project boxes,

And had all this cut off 

Leaving me looking (for the first time in a year) slightly maintained!

A respectable list of achievements me thinks!

Holiday Hexies

Both in Ireland, and in the New Forest I did some more work on the yellow Hexie quilt, I'm a bit worried there may not be enough yellow! 

The centre is being stitched in strips, I've worked out a suitable distribution of colours and positions and am referring to " the list " for each strip 

Then I had a brainwave, and I've written the position on the back of each coloured hexi so I know how  many to add to each side

Map Fabric with May

I recently joined a texty fabric swap with May, and although I haven't used many of the charms I received, I'm still loving looking at and fondling them (you understand don't you), so when she invited people to join a Map fabric swap I couldn't resist!

So I've just bought some of this

to be cut into layer cake squares (10 inch squares) as my contribution to the swap. 

There are still places left, so visit the Flickr groupto see the details, and to join

Buttons and Beaches

Having returned from Ireland on Monday, I drove to the New Fiorest on Tuesday night  to meet up with girlfriends for a couple of days 

We chatted and ate and chatted and drank!  We went to the beach

And I started a button embroidery hoop wall hanging

And I did some work on the yellow hexies too, but I'll take a photo tomorrow 

Tidy Up Tuesday

So I left Jackie yesterday, and came home to a house that needed just a little bit of tidying up so that has been much of my Tuesday: Jackie however has managed to decipher the quilting markings I made on the Rainbow HST quilt borders, and has it all quilted, doesn't it look great

I did buy Jackie a thank-you-for-having-me pressie, but then got scared that it would get confiscated as a sharp, so she'll have to wait until Festival of Quilts so she can put it in hold luggage.  I bought one for me too, and as she's seen the pic of hers I can now show you mine - a tulip rotary cutter, isn't she pretty!

Partly to hang it up, and partly in case there is another one at a class, I put a red ribbon on the end.

It cuts beautifully, like a hot knife through butter. 

My thought process . . . .

• I probably don't replace my blades often enough. . .
• I wonder when I last DID change a blade . . .
• It would really help to know when the blade was last changed . . .
• I should record that info somewhere . . .

Have you made a connection yet?  It took a a while for me to think of it, but I finally had the brainwave, and I've written the date of the new blade on the ribbon

The rotary cutters were last week's impulse buy, I actually went to the shop to get some binding fabric (I was going to be within 10 minutes of it anyway, and would have half an hour to kill)

So I took a bag of quilt tops . . .

This one had already been backed and quilted and now has pretty purple stars for binding

These are still flimsies but as it's school hols I should have the time to assemble, quilt and bind, so the flowery hexies have pink binding, and the tumblers have grey (both spraytime)

These hexies have muted yellow binding all cut and waiting

and these two string flimsies have a bright yellow and a blue/black binding

How organised am I?

Sunday Sewing

So much fun sewing with someone else!

This is Jackie's sewing room . . .

where yesterday we marked the quilting pattern for the Rainbow quilt, 

Pieced together some of the text charms 

to make a lamp shade

And cut, stitched, and bordered this lovely tumblers quilt, 

and even pieced its backing, and cut and joined pieces for a scrappy binding!

as well as planning future projects and future visits

Thank you again Jackie for a fab "retreat"  long weekend, see you in 9 sleeps in Birmingham!!!!!!!