Speedy Make

I had an idea in my head last week for a quick lap quilt for my Granda's birthday.  He is the fantastic age of 93 today.  I bought a lovely layer cake at FoQ last month which was just asking to be used to who was I to deny the cutting of fabric to be carried out.

I have no idea what the fabric is called or who designed it unfortunately but I do know that it from Robert Kaufman and it's lovely.  I changed by mind about the design mid way through last week so by Friday I needed to go and buy some sashing material and backing fabric.

Saturday naptime I managed to get the fabric cut out, Saturday evening I started to piece the blocks until my machine fell out with me and stopped working.  So I threw in the towel in trying to fix it and went to bed!  Got up Sunday morning with renewed energy determined to figure out what was wrong with my machine so I did this

and gave it a good old clean.  Hoovers out quite nicely actually, but no still no joy in getting it to do more than one stitch before it jammed up and refused to work.  *insert a very stressed person, lots of shouty, growly, thumping about and threatening to throw it out of the window*  But then for some reason I looked at the bobbin .............

I had been using the one on the left!  It should look like the one on the right.  No wonder it kept pushing he bobbin case out of the machine.  So once that was sorted it was like working with a different machine and it was full steam head.  So as daddy kept the dude occupied (ok they watched a dvd but it kept them out of my hair) I got all quilt top pieced.  Another short nap time and I got the layers basted.  We then went to visit my Granda at his nursing home.  He was in fine fettle if a little confused (apparently he was going to visit his auntie!).  We then got home and when daddy did bedtime I got on with the quilting, making and attaching the binding.  I finished about midnight last night!  But I'm really happy with it and what's more so is my Granda!

I did worry that it might be a bit too modern for a 93 yr old but he talked about it all afternoon apparently (after asking my dad if he needed to go to school today, bless him!).  We got it home because I forgot to attach a label with his name on it but I'll get that done tomorrow. 

Procastination

be thy middle name!!  Oh dear, I don't know if it's post holiday blues or just laziness (I'm leaning more towards the latter) but I've struggled to get back to my normal level of organisation since I came back from Embo.  I get little bursts of energy/enthusiasm but they don't last very long ...........

......... or I get interrupted. (I did start this post at 1.30pm today but a little person decided he'd had enough sleep so it's now 6pm and he's busy watching the Bedtime Hour on Cbeebies - I know dreadful parenting eh!)

Anyway, this week has been busy with getting back to work, catching up on everything that went on when I was off and getting back into our normal routine.  So all fun stuff has kind of taken a bit of back seat but I have been getting on with my hexagons.  This is 71 of them sewn together, I not sure what I'm going to do with it to be honest.  I did have a bit of an idea of making them into a cushion cover but I'm not sure about that now.  It's a funny shape of I need to cut out more and then see where I get too.

The husband is off working tonight so I'm planning to get some more hexies cut out and try to get some more of my mystery quilt done.

I've also been spending some time this week doing a little bit of family history research which has been really interesting.  It's something me and my dad have talked about doing for years but never really got round to doing anything about it.  But with my grandad's 93rd birthday coming up my dad wanted to find out if he will be the longest living of all his siblings, he was one of 7 and is the only one still living.  So that has meant a bit of digging about to find out birth dates and then that led to finding out marriage dates and similar information.  So in a short number of hours the other night I discovered that when my grandad's parents married  in 1906, his mum was 25, 3 years older than his dad and both her parents were deceased which my dad didn't know.  In fact there seems to be quite  few marriages in my family history where the bride was older than the groom which I think is quite unusual.

Wow! Wow! Wow!

If anyone is joining along with Lynne of Lily's Quilts Hexalong then this stunner will make your eyes water and make you go weak at the knees. 

This is a close up so you can get an idea of the size of the hexagons - possibly 1 inch width at widest

And this is the full size quilt .........

Unfortunately I don't have the name of person who made it, the details were not in the Festival of Quilts catalogue, but whoever they are they are a HUGE Green Day fan, this is their lead singer and it is an incredible likeness.

I feel like I spent the whole of Friday catching flies!!!  The standard of work was absolutely amazing.  At one point I overhead a conversation between two women about how they were starting to glaze over they had seen some many stunning quilts.  I had to agree, it did kind of become an assault on the senses, but in a very positive way.  So much to see/admire/drool over and most definitely not enough time.  One day is just not enough, we had hardly any time to view the stands but I did manage to squeeze in a little shopping :-)

More on that later and some more pictures of stunning quilts.  I've never driven 350 miles in 1 day before, never mind doing it again 2 days later, I'm feeling fairly exhausted today and I still have to organise the packing for going up north tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to a restful holiday, with a little hexagon sewing coming along to join the fun.

Not long now!

Look what my postman delivered to me the other day.  I've been reading them (almost) obsessively since they arrived - I know, they're only the guides, it's a shame really how excited I'm getting about going.  The competition guide is really interesting as it gives you a little blurb bit about all the quilts which are being exhibited - really interesting.

I had myself a very productive night last night and I've more or less caught up with the Mystery Quilt-along - hurrah!!!  How fantastic are these plaits?  I loved doing them and I'm really pleased by how effective they are.  Trying to think of ways to make an entire quilt out of plaits.  My first thought was that they could be used in a similar way to a chinese coin style, like this one I made, but now I'm thinking of different blocks and things.  My mind is running away with it's self on the possibilities!

 All I need to do now it sew together these 4 blocks and I'll be up to date!  I should even be able to get that done before the end of (dare I say it!) nap time if I get my skates on.

I've got a busy week ahead of me, what with a mountain of work to be done at work before I finish up on Wednesday, getting organised for heading to Birmingham on Thursday (not really looking forward to the drive but hey, it'll be worth it), back home on Saturday, then packing to be done for heading away again next Monday.  But I still want to work on getting some hexagons cut out to take with me so I have some sewing to keep my hands occupied and stop them shovelling food into my mouth.  It's a subconscious action, I swear I don't even realise I'm doing it half the time.  Well that's my excuse anyway!

Hex-a-long

Hexies are something that I have been thinking about for a while.  When we were on holiday the other month I had planned to make some to have a little portable project with me but ran out of time to get it organised.

So when I was having a little read over at Lily's Quilts and I noticed Lynne was planning a Hex-a-long so bearing in mind that my resolution this year (which I usually never set and definitely never stick to) was to try new things and challenge myself.  So being very optimistic I've signed.  Now when I'm going to find the time to do it is another story.  Who needs a tidy house?!


P.S. Get me - 3 blog posts in 3 days!!!

Making a List

 (picture has nothing to do with what I'm talking about, it's just a pretty picture of a white peacock)

So ....... I'm going to Festival of Quilts next month (yay!).  I've been once before (2006 I think, or it might have been 2007, my memory is rubbish!).  Anyway it was in the days before I really did any significant amount of sewing or quilting, it was really as a fact finding mission when my sister ran a quilt shop.  So I did a small amount of shopping, a couple of fat quarters, some Kaffe Fassett material and nothing else.

But now that I'm actually making things, looking at lots of inspiration on different things to create in the future, I'm starting to think about what I want to buy when I get down to Birmingham next month, I'm making that list and I'll be checking it more than twice.

Now what should I put on that list?  I don't have a great deal of stash or accessories.  I'm kinda like a blank sheet.  What would be on your "must have" list?

I'm a bit of a magazine addict.  In the last week I've come across two really good ones - mollie makes which is full of wonderful handmade goodies - how to make them and where to get them.  The other is called Craftseller, it's tag line is 'Make and sell your handmade crafts', I only bought it today so I've not had the opportunity to read it through properly but when faffing about online earlier to find out more about it I came across this article on the Folksy blog about handmade goods and people's attitude towards handmade.  It's really interesting.  I find it so sad that some people seem to see handmade as 'cheap' instead of recognising the time, effort and work that has gone into unique items being produced.  I've made things for people in the past, more papercraft items, but the general response was disappointing and people seemed to think that I'd taken the cheap option and not spent enough money on their gift.  So I've not really made anything for a lot of non-crafting people until last christmas when me and a couple of friends decided we'd only give each other something we'd made ourselves.  I always try to buy gifts that take a person's personality, likes and dislikes into consideration but it felt good to put all of that thought and effort into something I've actually made.  Well that's my tuppence on the subject.

Crafty wee space

I'm in the process of getting the spare room back just for me, after Pedro has downsized all his work stuff and decided he's suffered enough cabin fever.  It's had a variety of uses over the last few years, a home office, a craft room, back to an office, a baby's room, back to an office and now back to a wee crafty space just for little old me!  It really is the smallest room in the house but it's big enough for what I need to use it for.  This was it on Tuesday once the painting was finished

And this was it earlier today, we've got the furniture in but I need to now get it organised and I sort out more shelving.  I particularly love my new rug from Ikea (and so does my son, he keeps walking on it saying 'all fluffy!')

Pedro is working tomorrow night so I'm intending to have it sorted out by then so I can actually start catching up on my sewing.  I've been in limbo while the room was being cleared out, painted and all my stuff put back in.


My other exciting news is that I'm going to the Festival of Quilts.  I'll be there on the Friday with my sister and my nephew.  It was supposed to be the start of our holiday but after a bit of hiccup, we've had to change our plans so I'm now driving down on the Thursday, will be at the FoQ on the Friday and then driving home on Saturday morning.  So it'll be a looooong drive down and a looooong drive home again but I'm still looking forward to it.

What a beautiful day!

It has been glorious in my neck of the woods the last couple of days.  Definitely a welcome change from the rainy, cold days we had about a week ago.

This week has been a bit more chaotic than usual, Pedro has been on holiday, so our normal routine has been out of the window.  Which is good but it also means that I'm behind on tons of stuff.  Housework has been way down the list of things to do this week and getting up to date with my sewing has been high.  So a day later than I planned to post it, my mini quilt for the Brit Quilt Swap was posted off this morning.  I'm not saying who to yet, as it's a secret swap and they won't get it until Monday but this is what the finished article looks like 

The last one includes the extras I've sent away.  My first ever attempt at a pin cushion, it's really sweet.  Now I need to make one for myself and I loved it so much.

Now yesterday a parcel arrived for me but, because I hadn't posted my quilt away I wouldn't let myself open it!!  I know, the will power I have at times it's outstanding.  So it sat in my kitchen all yesterday and all last night unopened - willing me to open it but I wouldn't.  So as we planned a day at the seaside today, I took my parcel with me to open in the car, after I'd been to the post office.  And WOW!!  I'm so glad I did.  My partner Suzan or (Quiltitis as she is known on Flickr) as made me a gorgeous, amazing quilt.  It's called the Sunshine Tree, which is very apt for the weather.  I absolutely love it.  Love it, love it, love it.  It's already hanging in my kitchen.  

And being a wonderful person, Suzan included an amazing fat quarter (not sure who/what it is yet!) and a fantastic Mr Men book for my little boy.  There he is "reading" it in the car on our way to the beach.  Thank you Suzan I truly adore it :)

We then spent a good part of the day at Burntisland beach building sandcastles.  It's definitely been a beautiful day!

Crazy animals and busy times!

Well I think that's what the fabric is called!  I can't actually remember and none of the selvedges I can find have the full name.  But it's by Moda, at least I know that.  I've had the material for a few months (think I bought it at the Scottish Quilt Championships last October but it might have been the spring one!) but couldn't think what to do with it.  So after seeing a few square in square quilts over the last few months I decided it would be an ideal design to show this fabric off.  The white fabric is actually a white duvet cover that I bought in Asda.

Really need to try and take some pictures in daylight, these don't really do the fabric justice.  Still to sew the rows together but it's taking shape really well.  I'm planning to give it a border so should get than done by the weekend hopefully.  Mind you we've got our next block in the Mystery Quilt - paper piecing, another new technique for me, which is great looking forward to try my hand at that.  And we've now got our partner info in the Brit Quilt Swap so I've got my thinking cap on to design something for my partner.  These are my first 2 ideas, scribbled out very quickly during my lunch yesterday.

 To top of last night look what I spied outside and double rainbow!  The sky had a really cool pink tinge to it for a while afterwards too.

It's a mystery, oh it's a mystery

(in a strange type squeaky/husky Hazel O'Connor type voice)

The first post for the quilt a long has been posted and it's all about the fabric requirements.  So it looks like I will need to buy some fabric over the weekend .......... oh the hardship that will bring, I will have to drag myself in front of my laptop to pour over sites.  Damn I was going to wash my hair too, that'll just have to wait!!

The last 2 days have been full to the point that I am drained of any energy.  I had plans to start sewing blocks together as I finally got all my fabric cut the other day, but I've just sat on the sofa and been a blob.  I can barely concentrate on catching up with my sky+'d programmes!

Still sitting

in the same pile as it was on Thursday - my fabric that is!

Thursday night was such a wonderfully warm, light night that I took the opportunity to plant up 3 hanging baskets, a trough and 3 plant pots.  Soon I will (hopefully) have pretty flowers decorating my back garden, including this just outside my back door.

It's a flowering lavender, which admittedly isn't much to look at just now, but hopefully it will give off a lovely scent when we step out of the door!

Gardening is not my strong point - I've lost count of the number of plants I've managed to kill off, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if any of the other plants actually developing lots of lovely flowers!?!?

Yesterday we headed off for a drive as the weather was so nice and ended up in Milngavie - the quilt shop I was hoping to visit was closed (again) so we visited Dobbies instead and had a lovely lunch.  But I did end up getting a quilting book in Dobbies for a complete steal of £4.95.  We got Euan a Toy Story book as he loves Woody at the moment and he's never been so quiet in the back of the car, it was really cute to see him holding this huge book and really studying it!

Today we did think about going to a local farm for special Easter open day but the miserable weather made up our minds for us.  So Pete ended up convincing me to drive to Corstorphine to visit Guitar, Guitar (otherwise known as the Sweetie shop in this house) and he came away with a new guitar pedal - I've no idea what it does but as he's gigging tonight and has it with him, I'll find out tomorrow how good a buy it was!  So after a complete soaking for me and Euan when we went for a little walk when Pete was 'having a wee shot' of the pedal, I decided I needed a 'sweetie' too.  So a drive back to Stirling and I now own a 1/4" foot for my sewing machine.  It was supposed to be my mother's day present, it's only taken me a month to get it.

So now I have no excuse for wonky seams! 

Getting There

I had the luxury of a cheeky wee afternoon to myself the other day, well I say luxury, but I felt guilty the whole time because I could quite easily have kept Euan with me but his granda was happy to still look after him for the afternoon.  The joys of being a parent eh!

Anyhoo I used the time wisely and got round to starting to quilting my log cabin quilt. 

I got on really well too and by 8pm, after nipping out to get weighed (18.5lbs so far - go me!) and collecting a very tired little boy, it was all quilted.

Although I did do the same as the last time, made a couple of little errors on the back, where the backing hasn't been as flat as it should have been so there are 2 or 3 little creases on the back, quilted in!  It doesn't annoy me enough to rip the stitches out (cos that would take AGES, and I really don't have the patience for it) but it does remind me that I need to do my quilting with less speed and more haste - to paraphrase that old saying.



On a different note while I've been downloading photos from my camera and writing this blog I've been playing about with itunes on my ipod touch (mult-tasking at it's best - esp as it's not quite 7am yet!) and their collection of artists under each genre selection has me perplexed - Jason Mraz under rock!  Don't get wrong I like his stuff, but I'd never have put him in the genre of rock.  But do check out Hugh Laurie in the Blues genre - he's really good.  I was reading something yesterday that he (yes I do mean Hugh Laurie as it Dr Gregory House/Fry & Laurie) is releasing his 1st blues album this year. 

Okay dokey I'm off to see what the day has in sort for me - here's hoping for a warm, sunny day with lots of smiles! 

I (heart) nap-time

because it gives me a window of opportunity to get various things done without a little person 'helping' me or without feeling guilty for leaving said little person playing on his own. As I'm a working mummy, I am only home during nap time for 4 days and some days nap time is about an hour or so long, so that lets me catch up on a a little bit of cleaning or maybe something I've sky+'d. Other days the little person has a LONG nap time. Like today, he decided to sleep for 3 hours!! So I made very good use of the time and did this ....

I made the blocks last week when I was on holiday and last night I put them together to make the 4 rows.  So during nap time I sewed roundabout the hearts, sewed the rows together and put on the inner and outer borders.  As I mentioned in a previous post I've had the material and pattern since about July 2006 so I'm very glad to now have a completed quilt top.  I bought some backing material last weekend so at some point this week I'll layer it up and start to quilt it.  Not sure how to quilt it, I'll probably just do a random squiggly thingy.  That the vibe I'm getting from it, higglety-pigglety-squigglety-ness.

Pedro asked me why I'd made it?  It's difficult to explain 'just because'!  I think he meant if I'd made it for someone or for a particular reason.  But no, it's just for me and will look pretty in our livingroom.

Belated Valentine

I totally forgot that it was valentine's this week.  We had a very low key affair, in fact we actually we swapped cards on Sunday night instead of Monday and I got some very, very lurvely Lush smellies.  Now I just need to find the time to soak in a lovely scented bath.  Maybe tomorrow night, in preparation for going back to work on Monday - I'm liking the sound of that actually!

But in honour of it being valentines this week , I finally started my heart log cabin quilt (the one I've had the material & pattern for since 2006).  Started and made up the blocks.  It was fairly easy to put the blocks together - I'd never done strip piecing before and it was much easier that I anticipated it to be.  I've still to applique the hearts onto the block and then put the blocks together to make up the top. 

I'm really liking the way it's looking so far, I'm getting quite excited about how it will look finished!

Bye ..... Hello

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in my very first quilting swap.  Well after making about half a dozen, I finally had 2 mug rugs that I was happy with to be sent to someone. 

So these have been posted off to someone, on the other side of the world!!!  Now I just have to wait to receive my package from the swap, I've no idea where it is coming from and it's really quite exciting.  So I've said 'bye' to my mug rugs - the first time I've ever sent any of my quilting to another quilter, it's quite nerve wracking!  And I've said 'hello' to some new tricks, tips and styles.

I've enjoyed making these mug rugs, I've tried different quilting styles.  Different ways of piecing material, different colourways.  The binding was giving me a bit of headache but again it helped to have a few attempts to sort out what the problems were.

This is one of the 'not quite up to scratch' mug rugs I rejected for sending to my swap partner.  And my funky sock monster that I made too - he lives in my kitchen and his name is Loppy. 
We've had some other 'bye' and 'hello's this weekend.  This happy little man has been getting chatty - 'bye' started on Friday as we were leaving toddlers, a few people said bye to us and he just replied!  The same with hello, I answered the phone yesterday and then heard the wee man, who was walking at my feet go, 'ellooo'.

There was me last week starting to get paranoid that his speech wasn't so great and then over the weekend we've had a total of 3 new words in fact - bye, eye & hello!  I vow I will stop worrying about his development and just let him do things at his own pace.  He's is own little person and he does things his own way.  And I'm happy with that - really I am!

Cat on the Mat

Well more of the moggy on the mug rug.  My friend at work has a little coaster which is pretty much at the end of it's useful life so when she mentioned last week that she should probably get herself a new one, I had a little idea.  And this is what that idea led too - she's cat daft and has a ginger kitty cat like me!

I've worked on the 2 mug rugs for the swap I'm in, this weekend tops are made, just need a little light quilting and then to be bound.  I did intend to get on to that tonight but the dude has been full of jumping beans today and has been bouncing off the walls since 7am this morning so I'm drained of what little energy I did have.  

Busy, busy, busy

There just never seems to be enough hours in the day lately.  Not even down to any one thing in particular, just lots of things going on!

But I have been making stuff - woo hoo :)  I got this fabulous book for my birthday last November and I've finally got round to making something from it.  He doesn't have a name yet, possibly Loppy cos his mouth is a bit lop-sided but I'm not sure.  I loved making it, really quick but really effective.  If I get time I intend to make another this weekend.  Everybody need a sock animal I've decided!

I've also been making another mug rug tonight, it's not properly finished but here is a little look.

On other things my weight loss is coming along nicely, now lost a total of 8lbs since 11 January - 3 weigh-ins so far.  Many more lbs to go but I'm happy with the way it's going so far.

Very tired now, so off to bed for me and maybe just a page or two of Keith Richards' book.  It's a facinating read but it's written how I imagine he speaks, rambling through different topics before getting back to the original story, can be a wee bit confusing depending on how tired I am!

Mojo Rising

no, not just a line from LA Woman by the Doors.  But what is going on with me!!  I've been making stuff, woo hoo :)  Lookie see - my first EVER mug rug!  Thought I really should try them out before I make ones to send to someone.  Not bad me thinks - as long as you don't look too closely (then it looks REALLY bad LOL)

So I need to get my thinking cap on for designs for my swap partner rugs, got a couple of ideas but not quite sure yet.  Might need to buy some material depending on what I decide on, oh what a task that will be!

But I'm already planning my next quilt.  It's not a new plan, more like a long forgotten plan that I've finally plucked up the courage to continue with.  If you look closely at the picture below you will see that the magazine is actually dated 'August 2006' - yes that is not a mistake, 2006. 

I bought the magazine way back then, flicked through - as you do - and decided I LOVED this pattern, a log cabin with an appliqued heart in the middle.

 So off I went to my sister's shop (which has since closed due to a variety of reasons) bought the yummy material below.  Started to cut it up into strips and then ............... nothing.  Other things cropped up, I packed the material away to keep it nice and clean and I promptly forgot about it, until recently.

So I've decided that it will not live in a box under my bed no longer.  It deserves to be made into an actual quilt.  Now all I need to do is actually sit myself in front of my sewing machine and put thread and needle into the material. 

Inspired by Inspiration

As I've just signed up for my first EVER swap (what I am thinking!!!!) I'm just spending a little time tonight looking at my meagre fabric collection and lots of lovely inspiration on t'interweb.  I've come across this fabulous collection of inspiring goodies on the PS I Quilt blog.  I do intend to make some lovely cushions for my livingroom but they are way down the list of things to be done.  Much higher up are the roman blinds for the kitchen, I bought the material ages ago and still in the bag that it came home in!  Haven't quite plucked up the courage to start them yet.  Not sure why I find the idea of roman blinds so daunting but I do!

As I feel a blog post is never quite complete without a photo, here is a random one of my little dude.  This little man cannot get enough bananas (or 'nanas' as they are now known in this house) into his little tum-tum.  I swear one of these days he'll turn into a monkey!!!

Autumnal Cleaning?

I never seem to quite get round to spring cleaning every year, it's more like autumnal cleaning in this house!  We got our new kitchen floor about 2 weeks ago , so it no longer looks like this

it looks like this

NO MORE BLACK!?!?!

And I've been powerwashing - how much fun is power washing???  Our patio is looking 1000% better than before.  I was filthy by the time I'd finished but the patio was clean.

I've also been working on this, my friend's daughter is due her baby any minute now and they're on team yellow so I've gone for greens, blues, yellows, purple and some polka dots.  I bought some lurvely brushed cotton for the backing so just need to cut the backing, do some simple quilting then bind it.  Should get it done over the weekend no probs.  Just need to hope the baby holds on until it's ready!