Celebrations

This past weekend we have been celebrating Elder Son's 18th birthday. I cooked all day Friday as we had a lunch party at home on Saturday, with family and friends who came from far and wide. Elder son's birthday was actually on Sunday so he didn't open his presents from us until that morning.

At last I can reveal the quilt that I have been working on during January for Elder Son. The last piece of binding was finally stitched on at 01.15am last Monday morning!

Elder Son's 18th birthday quilt

Another shot

This is a close up of the quilting. I machine quilted 1/4" on the inner sides of the grey sashing and 3/4" from the sashing on the blocks.

Quilting detail

I have always thought that this quilt was being made for me to feel that I'm a 'good' mother rather than my son liking it. I really didn't think that he would be too bothered. Other bloggers assured me that he would, but I didn't believe them. Well I was proved wrong. He loves it and was really overwhelmed that I had made it for him. It now resides on his bed. That is a result, as his bedroom has one massive 'floordrobe' and piles of books around his bed (never in the bookcase)! 

 Here is one last gratuitous shot…

Birthday quilt for ES

The details

Plain fabric from Fluffy Sheep Quilting shop

Patterned fabric from my stash

Binding fabric curtesy of Trudi's fabric pantry

P.S. Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Giveaway result!

Di x

1st Year Blogging Anniversary and Giveaway

Today marks the end of my first year of blogging. I have been blogging for a whole year! 

It took me about 5 months to pluck up the courage to start a blog. I thought of many barriers to commencing one.... I don't sew fast enough, my sewing is not good enough, what will I say.... but I really wanted to do it. What pushed me into it was the thought that I didn't want to be a year older and still not be blogging so I took a deep breath and wrote my first post the day before my birthday. 

Well a year on and I am so glad that I took the plunge.

I have enjoyed every moment of being part of the blogging community.

I have documented my sewing journey and I know that I am so much better at sewing than I was a year ago.

I attended the Fat Quarterly Retreat which was just a brilliant experience. I enjoyed the classes but enjoyed meeting other bloggers more.

The girls I did the sample swap with last year at the FQR
Teresa, Elisabeth, Nicky and Emily

I wanted to be part of a bee so set up the hipBees. I value this bunch of ladies a lot and the fun that we have together. 

I was invited to join the Bee A Brit Stingy Bee and have met up with another great group of women.

I have met bloggy friends in person 

Tanya

Sarah and Judith

Sarah and Catherine

And others who weren't captured on film...

Trudi

Moira

Susan

                                                                     To name a few...

My life is richer for blogging and I appreciate the support that I get from other bloggers if I get stuck or need help with sewing dilemmas.

This year should be celebrated, so I want to do a giveaway for my lovely followers. There are no hoops to jump through. Just be a follower and leave a comment below. That is it. Simple.

And the giveaway….

A triple zippy bag made with these fabrics 

along with some of these 'treasure finds' zips.

The giveaway will be drawn next Wednesday (13th) so you have a week to have a go.

Di x

Catching up.. a post of randomness

I had a really nice weekend this past weekend. On Saturday I was up early and caught the train up to London as I was meeting Catherine.

We had a lovely day. We went to the V&A for coffee and then we looked at the jewellery exhibition. We were both astounded at the jewellery on view and the size of some of the jewels. There are only so many things that you can absorb in a single visit so once we had reached saturation point we headed up to the centre of town and went for a very long lunch. This was followed by another tea stop interspersed with a trip to Liberty and John Lewis fabric departments!

Below is the only photo of the day taken at one of our tea stops!

Shamelessly nicked photo from Catherine's blog!

My menfolk were away for the weekend so Sunday was definitely a sewing day. I cannot show you anything yet but let us just say that quilting was completed and binding attached with the last stitch done at 01.15hrs. I was rather bog eyed at the end of my sewing marathon but it was well worth the sense of relief!

It is my turn of being Queenie of the hipBees this month. The fabric was sent out last Tuesday by second class post and in the post yesterday a lovely block was returned. Thank you Karen. 

HipBee block by Karen

Yesterday I had a sewing friend over and we had a morning of chatting, coffee and sewing. In my family there are a lot of birthdays this month, so I decided to sew an apron for my Dad's present. I just need to add a pocket and then it is completed.

Apron for my Dad

I also managed to complete my mat that was the sewing item we tackled when the Stitching it Together group met last month at Tanya's. It is made entirely out of scraps that I had been given by Trudi.

Mat

I also want to show you my haul of treasure that I found in a charity shop last week. There are lots of zips here and they were bought for the princely sum of £2.99! Some I don't see a use for, but many are very useable so I am rather pleased with my find.

Zips Galore

And finally just a little hint -  my 1st blogging anniversary is tomorrow so there just might be a giveaway for my lovely followers.

Di x

Triple Zippy Success

After my struggle with the first triple zippy purse/pouch I decided that I would enter the  Triple Zipper Pouch Quilt Along and make another. I really enjoyed piecing my Perfect Tote bag and with some of the small leftover pieces of fabric I decided to make a patchwork triple zipper pouch, following the same techniques used in the pattern for the tote bag.

I really enjoyed putting this one together and I also decided to make it slightly bigger so that my diary and pencils could go neatly in the bigger pocket. 

Front of Triple zippy purse/pouch

Back of Triple zippy purse/pouch

Sometimes when you make something you feel that there is an aspect that could be improved on. It is very rare for me not to feel as if I could of done better. This is one of those rare occasions. I love everything about this purse/pouch, from the colours, the patchwork and the way the zips went in so perfectly. I am rather proud of this creation.

Just to check that I can really do triple zipper pouches I have done a third one, again using QAYG to showpiece those lovely typewriters.

Typewriter Triple zippy purse/pouch (Front)

Typewriter Triple zippy purse/pouch (Back)

As it is also the first of the month I am linking up with Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts. I hope that you all have a good weekend. Tomorrow, I am off to London to meet up with my bloggy friend and fellow hipBee, Catherine.

Di x

  

Plotting and planning for being Queen Bee

I have been plotting and planning about what to get my lovely hipBees to make, block wise, when it is my turn to be Queen Bee. February is the month that I am Queenie. 

I have had a few ideas about what my choice might be but have finally settled on what I would like these lovely ladies to make. I am going to let them loose on my precious Ruby fabric. I love this fabric range and I have made cushions from a layer cake for my living room. 

A Ruby cushion

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

I would like to make a quilt to put over the sofa. So my lovely hipBees, I hope that you are up for the challenge! I have hummed and hawed as to what to ask for. I knew that I wanted a block that contained flying geese and then I saw this QAL and I was smitten.

I have made one block to test how it looks.

Wild Geese block

I cannot wait for my lovely hipBees to get started on making these blocks for me. I know that it is going to be an awesome quilt.

Di x

Overcoming the fear of feathers

I am making progress with my 'to do' list. Today, I finally sat down to make my feather block for Lucy as she is our January Queen Bee in the Bee a Brit Stingy. I have watched our Flickr group photos gradually filling with the most beautiful feather blocks and still I haven't started mine. I have just been feeling paralysed with fear about doing it. It sounds really silly but I just couldn't start it. I have had the templates all cut and stuck to card for a week now and each day they look at me, making me feel so guilty as I just dreaded starting the block. Today is the 24th of the month and if Lucy is ever to receive my feather block before the end of January, then today was the day for making it. I pulled myself and my fabric together, and got down to it. 

Feather block for Lucy

I am quite surprised that it went together as well as it did. If I had time I would make another but I am afraid that time is in short commodity this week. I did learn that you need variety in the width of the strips for the block. I don't think that mine is very good on that front. I also unpicked the bottom part of the feather and changed the original bottom part for the orange fabric. I think that it looks better with the orange but I would like to do another of these blocks sometime as I know that I could improve on it. 

Triple zippy pouch

On another front, last week I tried my hand at making a triple zippy purse. If you remember I had issues with the final part of the instructions and the whole thing took me a day to make. Debbie from A Quilters Table who designed the pattern, is hostingTriple-Zip Pouch Along over on Flickr. The 3ZAL officially starts on Monday, January 28th. So if you are interested you need to pop over to the flickr group and sign up. I am going to give it a go and I have plans to use the fabric below.

3ZAL fabric choices

Finally, my secret sewing is going well and I hope to finish the quilt top tomorrow.

Di xo

Busy doing nothing...

I feel as if I have been busy doing nothing. We have had some snow and our garden looks magical. It is just a bit difficult to get out to the village and out to the main road though.

Snowy Willowbeck

I have been sewing but with each project that I am currently doing, I have hit a problem...

I cannot sew my son’s birthday quilt as he is at home due to A level exams and I can’t risk him seeing me doing a bit of furtive sewing.

I have two side swaps going on at the moment. The first is with Liz. This dear bloggy friend made me a tote as I missed out on the Mouthy Stitches 2 swap. I was rather disappointed that I had missed the sign up but this lovely lady offered to make me one. I was definitely not going to refuse that offer as Liz is a really talented sewist. I also received a key fob that I absolutely love as I never loose my keys in my bag anymore.

Tote from Liz

I have really dragged my feet about returning the swap. This was partly due to not knowing what she would like. I wanted to make Liz a different sort of bag but didn’t know which one to pick. When Liz left a positive comment on my Perfect Quilted Tote I asked if she would like me to make one for her. I was relieved when the answer was 'yes'. I have finished sewing the quilted part but cannot progress any further as I am waiting for a delivery of black Essex linen for the top, bottom and handles… I hope that it is in a colour way that she will like. It is based around the phone fabric.

QAYG

Yesterday I finished the second swap item I am doing. This is an infinity scarf for Nicky. We agreed that I would make her an infinity scarf and she make me a little basket with some FM stitching on it. I don’t want to show you a full photo of the scarf as I would like it to be a surprise for her when she receives it (it is in the post). It is made with Liberty fabrics and is very soft.

Infinity scarf for Nicky

This week, if I have time, I would like to make another triple zippy pouch however my main focus is to finish the birthday quilt. It is a fast quilt top to make but I have the young man in the house and cannot get on with it!

This brings me round full circle as I feel as if I am busy doing nothing except enjoying the warmth of the fire and the magical snowy views from the window. 

Di x