The one where I made an April block

With a bit of help from Jackie I decided that April was going to be yellow!

It's not finished yet, but when I've stitched the strips together it will look a bit like this:

And a daughter's boyfriend has his birthday tomorrow.  We got him a boring phone charger battery pack, and I made this for a bit of fun to store it in.  Thanks for the inspiration Kathy

The one where I made a March block

Having yesterday made a February block for my calendar quilt, today I made March: March felt like a yellow and green month!

Most of the hearts will be based on the Norwegian heats we make at Christmas: like this one

I also embroidered some PE kit for a customer,

And started on some uniforms for the girls at Chertsey Museum

Tomorrow will be more of the same!

The one where I wanted to make a Calendar Quilt

I have a vague vision of a Calendar Quilt, but the image keeps changing!

I was tidying the sewing room (to make room for all my new goodies) when I found 4 embroidery blocks that were the start of a calendar quilt a long time ago (January 2013!).  But I decided I didn't like them.

I also found a whole load of 2.5" squares in assorted colours, and in low volume shades, and I found a pretty but empty box

So I sorted the squares into the box

I made the first of the new Calendar blocks (this is for February)

I have decided to 'lose' the previous blocks (does anyone want them before they become filling for a dog bed for Battersea Dog's home?)

And I have a tidy shelf in the sewing room (sadly one tidy unit, 6 not-so-tidy units!

And my secret sewing last week has been delivered and is in use!!!!!

The one where I've been to Festival of Quilts (part 2)

I have taken some photos of some of my favourite quilts from the festival - and some that have inspired me.  They are on the "Private Use" page

Whilst travelling, and chatting in the evenings I finished two cogs on the La Passacaglia (almost: two tiny triangles left to do on the top one, but I'm delighted I managed to get the same purple to be able to finish the outer hexies)

 and I started the next cog

We saw this felted bag when we had a coffee and a rest - a lovely lady called Heidi made it, and told us she was hoping to teach a felting class next year - we'll sign up!

And being too impatient to wait, I bought some hand made felt and matching buttons to have a go at making the bag!

I also bought some more picture fabrics

and some gadget type stuff - pre-wound bobbins and this fabric gel that turns anything into water resistant sewable farbic!

I also came home with these lovely goodies from Jackie: an Avoca button mug, a zippy pouch and a sewing essentials folder - thank you Jackie!!!

 Now I need to spend sometime in the sewing room finding places for all this stuff!!!!

The one where I've been to Festival of Quilts (part 1)

Oh my gosh - lots of inspiration, lots of shopping, lots of walking, and lots of talking!  Altogether a great 48 hours in Birmingham!

For now I'm going to share some of the  shopping!

some grey FQs and some picture fabrics as I'm running low for i-spy quilts

Plus a few more greys (I have some ideas!)

And some wool for Lisa,

Plus threads and new snips for me

And somehow I bought some charms too!!!!

The one where Lisa has been crocheting

I thought I'd share Lisa's current crocheting project: it's looking fab!

it's got some way to go - she's hoping for about twice this size!

I love the coloured wools in the blacks

We are hoping to get some more of the coloured wool

And a shed load more of the black - if you see any please let me know!"

And by the time you see this I will have given this I spy quilt to baby Dara's granny (aka Jackie) so thanks to scheduled posting I can post this pic too

All ready to travel back to Ireland for this gorgeous chappy

The one where I made some holiday purses

We have family in Norway and USA, and visit Europe and other places so have  random collection of paper money and coins from all over the world, which all get mixed up.

When I was playing with transfer paints last week I painted a couple of flags (Norway and USA) and some other currencies, ready to make holiday purses - and they have been finished:

The one where I stitched a dog!

I've finally finished the Pre-School embroideries, hooray!  The lady who runs the preschool also volunteers at a dog charity, and sent me their logo to ask if I could embroider it?

It was a difficult one, but I'm quite chuffed with the result - lets hope she likes it too!

I'm also playing with selvedge edges again -  saw this on Pinterest,

 and have started my own version

I'm making mine out of recycled denim, hence the colour changes, but I'm really loving it!  At the moment it's 32" x 27" but I'm adding a strip of selvedges to the left, and of denim to the right each time so it's growing quickly (or will do until I run out of selvedges!)

The one where I got some more selvedge strips

I had a lovely afternoon at Plum's today

She gave me some more selvedge strips (in a little pouch and with a book of selvedge suggestions and even a surplus-to-requirements 9.5 inch square- I love that lady!!!)

 

I also got to see THIS (her 365 quilt) in real life

I cannot begin to tell you how gorgeous it is - so bright , and so many tiny pieces!

We did some sewing too - using the scraps left from many of the blocks: I made the three pin cushions

Add that to being fed, and coming home with a pile of no-longer-required quilting magazines I think we can all agree it was a day well spent!

Thanks Plum xxx

The one where I used some selvedge blocks

I trimmed my selvedge blocks into matching pairs of rectangles, and got sewing!

I made a zippy pouch, and another one, and another one, and then one more!

And I cut up some other fabrics and stitched them together in a secret make. oh and I did some *more* machine embroidery - just 8 left to go!

The one where we played with transfer paints

I had a fun afternoon with the Chertsey Museum ladies: we had a few fun things to try but the most successful was the transfer paints.

Dull pictures painted onto paper become vivid vibrant pictures when ironed onto synthetic fabrics

And these are mine . . .  I have a cunning plan for them