Long time with no blogging...

It has been a whole month since I last blogged. This has partly been because we have been busy in the Willowbeck household but mainly because I have been ill.

In my last blog post I said that I was going away to three different places, one after another. Well I went to Southport and met up with my Mum...

...travelled back to Cumbria with my Mum and met up with my hubby and younger son. I then spent the next three days in bed with a viral infection and developed a horrible productive cough that is still lingering a month later. I got off my sick bed on the fourth day and then we drove down to Manchester where we dropped off Younger Son with Elder Son. We then flew over to Northern Ireland for my husband's 30 year university reunion with the medics of of 1983. 

A rather nice place to stay!

It was a great weekend and my hubby enjoyed seeing all his classmates. I was utterly bemused as I didn't know them 30 years ago and couldn't match up past photos with the people there. I think that the women had changed hair colour and the men had largely lost their hair!!!

Since our return home, I have spent the days napping beside the fire and feeling pretty washed out. This hasn't helped with getting the sewing done so I have very little to show you. For me, the highlight of the Northern Ireland visit was catching up with Sarah and Judith. We spend a lovely afternoon being 'Ladies Who Lunch' followed by a good chinwag. It was so great to see them and despite the miles between us they are very special friends. The photo below is testament to the gale that was blowing that day. 

I wanted to give my friends a little present so before I went, I made these little zipper purses.

I was given one from Nickki and I use it a lot when I don't want to lug around my normal overlarge purse.

My zipper purse from Nikki

Despite feeling ill, our family have had some nice times this past month. Younger Son has been awarded an Arkwright Scholarship so we had a grand day out in London at the Awards Ceremony. We were very proud parents and enjoyed the whole event. We stayed over in London so my men could go to the Gadget Show the following day. 

Younger Son also had his 17th birthday last weekend. He had a bonfire party with lots of warming food, sparklers and fireworks. It was deemed a success by all who attended. 

It felt sad at the end of the evening as it will be the last birthday party that we will host for our boys. We have always had birthday parties at home, despite it being hard work and often frantic. We wanted to give our boys memories of fun times in our home rather than going out to a fast food place or buying in an experience. 

Over the years we have had 12 boys sleeping over when they were 6-9yrs old (they were not enjoyable for us but the boys had a great time). I have done a dinner party for 23 teens for Elder Son's 16th. We have had treasure hunts, traditional parties…. now they are at an end and it feels sad to close that chapter of our lives. It is times like these that the passing years can be tinged with sadness.

This week is the week that I make all my November bee blocks as I am panicking about not making them in time. First up are Catherine's in the hipBees. Catherine has chosen a beautiful block and Catherine is cleverly using the charm squares from a charm swap. My only concern is that two of strips of fabric are an 1/8" too short. I have most of one block marked up for chain sewing and the promise of a flake with my coffee!

Wish me luck… I will report back later this week.

Di x

A New Kid on the (Bee) Block

…well perhaps not a kid, but definitely a new woman in  Brit Bee.

Our  sassy friend, Terri, is stepping down from the sewing part of Brit Bee  I have been nominated to fill her ginormous shoes. This is both exciting and terrifying. Terrifying, as Terri is irreplaceable and I only hope that my sewing is up to scratch. Exciting, as the bee is trying something new this round and I am going to be part of it.

So the mission this month was to select our colours and make a sashed star block. I have taken ages agonising about what colours to select as my inspiration and hopefully to act as a reference point for my fellow bees. 

So my colours that I have chosen are greens/pinks/soft terracottas/yellows/greys as the seeds designs above. I would also like a splash of aqua to mix it up a little too.

Fabric colours for Brit Bee

The colours were hard to choose. I wanted colours that would fit into either my bedroom or living room. After consultation with Younger Son and Hubby it was decided that these  colours would be perfect. We have apple trees in the garden so my son thought that those colours would be apt.

I found choosing the actual star pattern relatively easy . I have used a star from the Solstice Star Series from the Fresh Lemons blog. It is aptly called Star of Mystery. 

Star of Mystery for Brit Bee

This quilt will be growing month by month but until it comes back to me it will be a mystery as to how it will be completed. I love the idea of a little mystery incorporated into sewing.

I am going awol for the next 10 days, as I go on my travels, but keep an eye out for me in Northern Ireland!

Di x

Round Britain tripping

On Friday this week I am leaving home for multiple destinations and it will be 10 whole days before I return home. I am a home bird, and whilst I like going away, 10 days is more than enough for me. This means that my sewing time is limited for the rest of October, so don't expect to see an awful lot of sewing going on here.

As I travel from Lincolnshire, to Southport, to Cumbria, to Manchester, to Northern Ireland and back to Manchester and finally home, I will be seeing different friends as well as family. I also hope to spend some time with these two lovely ladies. 

We are staying with some dear friends in Northern Ireland. I last saw them in June and I made them this cushion to say 'thank you' for their hospitality.

Cushion for A & W

As my hubby and I are imposing on our friends again, I thought that another cushion was in order. I know that they liked the last cushion so I had been keeping the fabric in order to make them a 'matching' one.

Cushion Number 2 for A & W

Cushion (2) Back

So that is another item off my 'to do' list. I am going to sew prolifically today and try and get a couple of bee blocks made…. I will report back later in the week.

Di x

A Liberty and Linen Wallflower cushion

I have a lot of presents to make in the next week as well as bee blocks to complete. I feel a little overwhelmed with my sewing schedule and shared this with Trudi, Moria and Tanya at our get together last night. The advice was a) don't panic and b) write a list. 

So armed with my list, and deciding what was going to be sewn today, I have spent the morning making a Liberty and Linen Wallflower cushion following this excellent tutorial.

This is number one on my list with a great big tick beside it. 

Liberty and Linen Wallflower cushion

The cushion is long and thin and was an absolute horror to insert the pillow into it. As this is a birthday present for a friend, it won't be my job to take the pillow insert out when the cover requires washing and for that I am truly grateful!!! 

It was not the most pressing item on my list however it was half completed and it feels good to have a finish today.

Now onto item two…

Di x

Frantic Bee Sewing

Since I last blogged, I have managed to do a little sewing in the manic-ness of life. 

I always try and do my bee blocks near the beginning of the month as it feels good to know that I won't be late or if things go wrong (for example, cutting your thumb with a potato peeler) then it won't affect others. This is a good principle, but I tend to find that 'life' can get in the way of good principles! 

So far, I have completed the bee blocks that Erin asked for in the Bee a Brit Stingy group. Check out this excellent tutorial. These blocks are easy and quick to do if you know your left from your right. Unfortunately that part of my brain doesn't work too well and consequently these blocks took me an age to complete. 

Herringbone block (1) for Erin

Herringbone block (2) for Erin

Herringbone block (3) for Erin

Once I had got my left and right sorted, I then was given a little help with the photoshoot!

The hipBee group are going to do some string blocks for Reene, as she is our October queen. Unfortunately Reene has had to undergo an operation recently and is still not A1, so these blocks might be done at the tail end of the month once Reene gets her troops organised for the Post Office run. This is good as I have lots of other sewing to be getting on with and relieves the pressure on me!

The final bit of bee news is that the fab girls over at Brit Bee have asked me to join them. Terri is dropping out from the regular sewing so I was asked to take her place. They have a new round starting this month and I need to sew a star block. I have ideas of paper piecing one as I so enjoyed making my cushion cover top below.

I also have a couple of secret sewing projects on the go. I can only give you a peak of the first one…

…and say that the second one involves Liberty and Linen. The latter one has to be started and completed within the next 24 hours. Yikes! I need to go…

Di x

Hello…is anybody there?

Helloooooooooooo.                Are you still out there…….? 

I feel as if I have dropped off the blogging radar for a good while now. First there was summer and then I managed to cut my thumb, on my dominant hand, really badly on a potato peeler. We have dispatched Elder Son to university (with the offending potato peeler) and last week my hubby and I had  five nights away (one our own) to Kent / East Sussex. We had a great time and the weather was gorgeous - sun and warmth - a real Indian Summer. Whilst we were down in that part of England, we dropped in and had coffee with Terri and spent a morning with this trio of lovely ladies - Ceri, Liz and Nikki. It was really great to meet up with my sewing buddies whilst we were 'down South'.

On the sewing front I haven't really achieved much. I managed to get September hipBee blocks completed for Sarah. I ran out of the outer black fabric for the second block but I know that Sarah completed it with the scraps that were returned to her by the other bees.

Two box in a box

I also struggled to get Fiona's hipBee block completed for August. I had difficulty in making the gorgeous Amy Butler fabric go round. Fi wanted an improv sort of block. This is what I sent her, but it wasn't how it looked in my head! I had to use every scrap of the AB fabric to end up with this block. Not my greatest block,and it took over a month to complete!

In Bee a Brit Stingy, Karen asked for LV with 1930s feel, blocks. I really enjoyed making these blocks and found out that I wasn't as good at doing QST as I thought I was!

Pretty blocks

I think that Karen is going to end up with a beautiful quilt.

Yesterday was the first free day that I had to sew since the 'potato peeler incident'. I decided that although I should be doing lots of other jobs, or sewing for others, I wouldn't. It was definitely a sewing for pleasure,  kind of day. I have been wanting to do some paper piecing blocks for ages so I decided that I would start with an Economy Block. This is what I achieved.

Having fun!

By the end of the evening, I had made a cushion top.

I enjoyed the preciseness of the paper piecing but above all, it was pure pleasure to be back at the sewing machine, enjoying my own thoughts as I sewed. I have missed it so much.

Di x

Post summer review

Hi everyone. I have been missing in Blogland all summer, as life simply took over. I have spent three separate weeks in Cumbria, slap bang in the hills, where there is no wifi or 3G. My hubby might be desperate enough to go and buy a coffee and get free wifi in the local cafe, but I really couldn't be bothered. We had warmth and sunshine on all the weeks that we were there, which is no mean feat for Cumbria!

So what have I been up to…. 

At New Wine I escaped the misery of sleeping in a tent by being able to go home each night to sleep in my own comfy bed. I did get a place on one of the craft workshops and tried my hand at Art Journalling. I am definitely going to do some more of this as it was great fun and the results were impressive, considering that I cannot do art!

Art journalling at New Wine 2013

I carried on with the EPP that was started at the Fat Quarterly Retreat under the watchful tuition of the entertaining Katy Jones. My Triangle City cushion came together really quickly.

Triangle City cushion

I completed the EPPing of the Spring Carnival cushion whilst bathing in the Cumbrian sunshine.

Spring Carnival EPP finished

I also decided that EPP was not the worst thing to do whilst away from home, so I started another Triangle City cushion.

EPPing with a Pimms

I met up with other bloggers and dear friends, both in Cumbria and at the Festival of Quilts.

Pimms again!!!

Saw this amazing sign on the side of a shop in Penrith...

On the First of September, my hubby and I went to a wedding. It is the first one that we have ever been to where we were there as friends of the parents! My friend took the wedding ceremony and it was really special to see her join her son and his beloved in marriage. The wedding reception was definitely the best that I have ever been to and the cocktails were delicious!!!! I was wise enough to make sure that it wasn't my turn to drive once we got off the train!!!

A late summer London wedding

The only sewing that I felt should be done over the summer, were my bee block commitments.

First up, in the Bee a Brit Stingy bee I made these LV crosses for Nicky, our August Queen Bee.

I love how these have turned out and Nicky is going to have a great quilt when they are all put together.

Our September Queen Bee is Karen and again what a great block to choose. Karen wanted muted tones and a 1930's feel. I hope that these fit the brief. I don't have a lot of 1930's type of fabric in my stash.

The hipBee August Queen is Fiona. She sent us some Amy Butler fabric with a solid. I was a little behind on my bee blocks but thought that I could pull this one off quickly but for the reason below, I haven't quite got this one together. It is definitely a work in progress as there is not quite enough fabric so I am being inventive! 

The hipBees finished their first year last month and we are saying goodbye to Lynz, Karen, Judith and Jan. It is always sad to see people go and we will miss them. It has been a pleasure getting to know them and sharing our sewing, over the past year. Life never stands still though, and as things change there are new opportunities too. The hipBees have new bees in the hive…. Helen, Sarah C, Jill and Amy. We look forward to seeing what challenges we are set this year!!! 

And finally (are you still with me?) the reason that my sewing has ground to a halt is this… a nasty accident with a potato peeler!

The Willowbeck family are travelling to Manchester tomorrow to take Elder Son to university. We knew that this day would come (that is what 14 yrs of schooling often leads to) but I am not looking forward to it. I think that I will need a lot of tissues!!!!

Di x