Fat Quarterly Retreat 2

Woo Hoo! I have just pressed the BUY button and bought my golden ticket for the Fat Quarterly Retreat 2013! 

I am one happy sewist to have this in the bag! I had a blast at this year's Retreat and enjoyed learning new techniques and meeting so many bloggers. 

Are you going to come too?

Di x

Fresh Sewing Day

Today I am linking up with Lynne at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day. 

My round up of September is rather minute but my excuse is that time goes way too fast and it doesn't include my Para-mouthy stitches tote nor the pincushion made for my partner in the Bee a Brit Stingy bee.

I have included a photo of the material used to make the pincushion (bottom right).The top row were Hipbee blocks for Judith. I really liked making this block so I made a couple more centres for Judith to finish if she wanted to. They were rather addictive and I cannot wait to see how Judith puts all the blocks together.

September 2012 Round up

It does include the quilt that I finished for my parents Golden Wedding anniversary. We gave it to them this past weekend and they liked it. I am glad, as it took me ages to make and I was rather weary of looking at the same colours for so long.

I haven't included my Echo quilt as I have not finished the quilting yet. I need to do a little more on it before I show you an update.

Di x

Slow sewing

I feel that although I have been sewing I don't have too much that I can show you. This is because my sewing has included my swap pincushion for the Bee a Brit Stingy bee and a secret piece of sewing that isn't quite finished yet.

In the summer I decided that I had three quilts on the go and that they all needed to be finished. The first one was this one below and I am going to give to my parents this weekend as we celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Golden quilt

The second one was just in blocks. I had bought the Echo material with my Christmas money and I did a pattern called Turning Twenty. It is very simple and each piece is quite large. I like it as it really showcases the fabric. I managed to piece the blocks together in August. 

Echo quilt - Turning Twenty blocks

Echo quilt pieced

Echo quilt layered up

Straight line quilting

I have sort of stalled on this quilt as I have been distracted with new projects. I aim to just do a line or two as the mood takes me. The third quilt is still on the back burner for now.

One of the new projects I have taken up is to follow Union Jack Quilt QAL on Lynne's blog. I have made so many mistakes on my first block and I can still see that it isn't perfect but I cannot unpick it any more as the fabric is beginning to fray.

UJ Quilt flag

Detail of first UJ block

I really like the fabric that I have chosen it is a little old fashioned but the spotty fabric gives it a more contemporary feel. Unfortunately I could only obtain two of the fabrics from this collection, so I am going to repeat one of the fabrics. I am undecided as to which one it will be. I am making this quilt for me so I can change my mind if I so wish!

There will be no sewing going on at Willowbeck this weekend, as we are travelling North for our day of celebrations tomorrow, and then travelling back on Sunday morning so that the boys have time to catch up on their schoolwork. I think I might be 'car - lagged' as we will be in the car longer than we will be at the celebration lunch. We also have to fit in a quick look around a University on Saturday morning. I somehow don't think that this will be a relaxing weekend!

Di x

Pay it forward surprises

Yesterday I received a rather big package through the post. We are blessed with a large letterbox and so most parcels go through it. Even so, I think that our Postie had to give it a big shove to get this parcel through it. The best thing about this parcel was that it had MY name on it. 

In it, was not one item, but two. It contained these…

A potholder or mat

Lavender bag

The potholder/mat is far too nice to be used as a potholder so it is going to be used as a mat on my kitchen table. The lavender bag is paper pieced and it smells delightful. 

So why did I receive such lovely presents when it isn't my birthday and who are they from? Well just before I started blogging I used to "stalk" and comment on blogs but really didn't know how blogging really worked. I had commented on Tanya's blog at the end of January when she did this post. Unfortunately, as I didn't have a blog, I wasn't eligible. Within a week I had taken the plunge and started this blog and I then received a nice email from Tanya saying that I could be part of the PIF. I can truly say that I had forgotten all about this so thank you Tanya for such superb presents and a nice surprise. There is also a twist in this, as I have since met up with Tanya several times, as we live within 40 minutes of each other. Tanya knows that I love green and that lovely mat goes really well in my kitchen. 

So would you like a surprise parcel pop through your letterbox in the next year? If so, then leave a message and abide by these following rules

1. I’ll make something handmade for the first 3 people who comment on this post. What I make will be a surprise and will arrive to you when you least expect it. Doesn’t everyone love a surprise?

2. I have 365 days to make and deliver it to you. But there’s a little catch, to get a handmade giftie from me, you have to play too! This means you take the pledge to send something handmade to 3 of your blog readers. It doesn’t have to be a quilt, just something handmade!

3. As stated in #2 you have to have a blog.

4. Once you comment here, you have to post about Pay it Forward on your blog and keep it going

So...... Jump on board and join in as you may receive something nearly as nice as I did.

Di xo

A generous present

The sun is shining today so I have taken full advantage of it to take some photos show you.

First up is a gorgeous bag that Liz has made me. This bag is really special, as when Liz knew that I had not got into the Mouthy Stitches 2 swap she emailed me to say that she would like to make me a bag. I think that that was so thoughtful and kind. I quickly said YES as Liz makes some fabulous things. Have a little look at her blog as you will spy some lovely makes.

A parcel came yesterday morning that contained my non MS2 bag. Look at it… it is beautiful.The front has a Japanese + and x block.

Front of bag

Back of bag

Liz revealed on her blog that she spent a whole afternoon straight line quilting the outside of the bag and that she had used extra special embroidery threat. I know what a pain straight line quilting can be, so I really appreciate all the work that has gone into this bag. I will also show you the inner fabric too as it is very cute.

Inner fabric of my Janpanese + & x bag

Liz also gave me a key ring which is already in use as my existing one is a car garage nasty type of one.

This bag has accompanied me to town to do some shopping AND someone in the supermarket  commented that they liked my bag.I felt a warm glow at that point. Thank you Liz for thinking of me and making me such a splendid bag.

Di x

New projects

Now I know that I promised myself not to start anything new, until I had finished up outstanding projects, but there is only so much of this that a girl can do in any one day. 

Quilting in rows.

Going up and down a quilt to produce rows of quilting 1/2" to 1" apart can become tedious. This is a quilt I have never blogged about so I will let you see some more photos once the sun comes out and I can get some decent photos.

To relieve the boredom I have decided to join a QAL. There are a few around at the moment and there are two that I would really like to do. I am still undecided about one but I really wanted to join the one being hosted by Lynne at Lily's Quilts. I had had the thought that I could make a giant UJ quilt for my son as an 18th birthday present until his younger brother pointed out that he wasn't very patriotic and probably wouldn't want UJs on his bed. This was a bit of a spanner in the works so I then changed tack and thought I would make it for me! It may be selfish but I really want to make this quilt. I have bought some fabric from a new fabric shop that has opened up in one of our local towns. I was quite constrained in what to choose but here are a few shots of progress so far.

Detail of first UJ

B block

Gone wrong!

As you can see, I have had a few issues with getting my UJ lined up and looking as it should be. I have had to do a lot of unpicking and also buy an extra FQ as I mucked up on the cutting (I didn't make a practise block!). All was back on track until I tried to get ahead and attach the quarters together. Yep - I have put the vertical strips over the horizontal ones and not vice versa. Guess what I was doing sitting in the car at my son's drum lesson last night!!!! I think that, in the future, I will wait for Lynne's posts before I race ahead! I am really loving this quilt as it is not made up of lots of blocks and the maths is keeping me on my toes so there is a challenge involved too. I really enjoyed making the UJ pillow cover that I started in Lynne's class at the Fat Quarterly retreat back in June.

UJ pillow cover [June 2012]

Another little project that I need to think about is the pincushion swap that the Bee A Brit Stingy  bee is going to do. Now listen up Catherine…. do you like this little selection of fabrics?

Possible fabric for a stingy pincushion swap.

We are to use fabric from our own stash and are not allowed to buy any new fabric. Well, I don't know if I have broken the rules but I did buy the floral fabric today. It isn't new fabric as I bought it at a charity shop. It is old fabric but new to me. Do you think that I will get away with it or will the Bee Mamas be after me? Help… I may be out before the bee has begun!

Di x

A Golden Finish

I have been competing in my own Olympic competition. The "finish that quilt" one. Yes, I have finally finished my quilt that I am going to give my parents for their Golden Wedding Anniversary. It has felt as if it has been a long course to get to this point. The quilt pattern was the project given to us in January at my patchwork class. I have battled with not hand sewing it, not liking the colours (they were picked with my Mum in mind) and generally not feeling the love for it. In the past week I have had a final push for a finish. The binding was machine sewn and I have been hand sewing it down during the last couple of evenings. I machine quilted around each block to stabilise the quilt. I then hand quilted each block to highlight the block pattern. I actually enjoyed doing the hand quilting by the time I reached the end. Unfortunately my camera is not good enough to pick up the hand quilting detail but I used a soft green and a light blue floss that blended into the quilt colours.

A "Golden" finish

I shared this quilt with  Sarah & Catherine when we met last month. They gave me some wise advice (get it finished) and encouragement. So a BIG thank you for getting me over the line. Thanks too, to you lovely bloggers have given me lots of encouragement to get this quilt finished.

"Golden" Quilt

I am pleased that now I can mentally move on.  I have two other quilt tops that I put together when I was away in August. I cannot start quilting either quilt yet, as I have run out of 505 spray, and I cannot face grappling around on my hands and knees using pins. For now, I am content to have a Golden finish.

Di x