Contented

Happy Friday!

I've finally been able to enjoy some fun sewing this last couple of days.  The dreaded Santa's Grotto curtains are finished (hooray!!) so yesterday I had a lovely morning playing around with fabric, cutting and sewing and generally making a huge mess all over the dining room table!  I made a piece of patchwork which was to be the front of a cushion cover.

The fabric was pieced directly onto a piece of an old fleece blanket, a technique I've seen on a few blogs, and I was really pleased with how this worked.  I then machine quilted around the squares and, this morning, I cut up one of Peter's old shirts to make the back.

Such a brilliant idea to use the front of the shirt, so I didn't have to worry about making any kind of opening at all!  I think I might check out the charity shops for some flannel shirts, then the cushions could be even cosier!

I had bought some cheap cushion inserts from Argos which, by the way, DON'T!  They were rubbish and only about half full so I cannibalised some old Ikea cushions we had lying around and put some extra stuffing in to make the cushion nice and firm.  I am so pleased with how this has turned out so there will definitely be some more being made very soon!

Also making me happy today is the fact that my little pink baby quilt has been featured on Katherine's blog, Wolly Wotnots, as part of her Pink Friday series, in aid of Breast Cancer.  Do pop over and take a look if you can.

I also finished writing my letter to Susan for the Letter Swap and got that posted off today.  I wanted to make something a bit different for the envelope so I had great fun cutting and sticking pages from old magazines!  

 

I hope she likes it!

Have a great weekend!

R x

 
 

Wordplay

 

Regular readers of my blog might have noticed that, whilst I blogged about joining the wordplay project several months ago, I have yet to actually produce anything for it!  I've got to admit, after failing to come up with anything for the first two words (sugar & sunday) I was starting to worry that I just wasn't creative/imaginitive/good enough.  And I did feel this even more so when I first saw what the word for September was.  However, I gave myself a bit of a talking to - it's not a competition, there's no right or wrong, it's just meant to be a bit of fun, I should just chill out about it and enjoy it!  After that, when I thought about the word again, two images came immediately to mind - colour (as in, awash with..) and water.  And from there, it actually became rather obvious to me what I should do. 

 

 

 

I used Fossil Fern fabrics, by Benartex.  I absolutely love these.  The colours are so vibrant, but at the same time have a very watery quality about them.  I only had four fat quarters of it in my stash, so decided to use just those to put together a little mini quilt, pretty much just making it up as I went along.  I did the little bit of embroidery first, then quilted it by hand before finishing with dark navy binding.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it's very me, although the colours are much brighter in real life. 

Now, just have to wait another 3 weeks to find out what the next word will be!

R x

Trying to keep up

There are now just two weeks of the summer holidays left.  It's gone so fast and has, actually, been relatively pain free so far!  We've not been particularly busy, but I am starting to feel like I just can't keep up with everything - housework especially.  Now, you know that housework is not my strong point (!) but, honestly, with the kids around all the time it's just getting ridiculous!   No sooner do I tidy something up, than they come in and trash it all again!  Joe's toys are EVERYWHERE, and William is still leaving his stuff all over the place, despite several reminders to pull his finger out.  Although I'm not yet at the stage of wanting to scream, I'm starting to feel it might be nice to have some time to myself again.  Not least because I want to be able to get the sewing machine out and spread some fabric all over the place without having to stop every five minutes to see to the kids! 

Talking of fabric, that reminds me of several things that I have been meaning to show for ages and have not yet gotten around to (another thing I can't keep up with!). 

First of all, my parcels for the seaside swap.  I had two partners and I decided to make them a mini quilt each (I really love making mini quilts, so fun!)

 

This one went to Marie at Protect the Cookie.  The embroidered words at the bottom mean "gone to the beach" in French.  I made a similar mini quilt for Maxine at Tiny White Daisies:

 

Oh dear, that looks horribly crumpled doesn't it?  My quilt photography skills leave a great deal to be desired!  I also sent them a little zippy pouch each, a candle, a little seaside sign, some embroidered applique motifs, some body spray and chocolate.

 

Thanks so much for swapping with me ladies!  I had great fun, and I have really enjoyed seeing all the other swap goodies popping up over blogland.  I think I can call my first go at swap arranging a success!  I do already have an idea for another swap, but I'll wait till we're all settled back at school before I post details, probably at the end of Sept/start of October - so watch this space..

Before I go, I did promise some pictures of my finished Georgina quilt, didn't I?  Well, this is about the best I could come up with!

 

In the garden, and here it is in it's proper home, on our bed:

 

Again, looking horribly crumpled (probably because it is - ha!).  I didn't actually quilt this, it would have taken me FOREVER to hand quilt it and I just didn't feel confident enough to put it through the machine so I tied it instead - there's one tie at each corner of the patterned rectangles.

 

Because the weather is so hot and muggy at the moment, this is perfect on our bed, with just a duvet cover (without the duvet) underneath.

Happy Thursday!

R x

Getting things done

You know how satisfying it is to cross things off your to-do list?   Do you know how much more satisfying it is when those things have been on the said list for quite some time?  Well, this weekend I managed to cross two big things off the list, and it feels very good indeed! 

Yesterday morning I packed the kids off to stay at my parents' for the night and came home to finish painting our hallway - painting that I started in April of last year!!!  There is still more to be done there (like the woodwork for instance - I hate painting woodwork!) but finishing the walls makes a big difference. 

Peter was out at cricket yesterday so I had the house to myself, so once I had finished the painting I decided to make the most of it and crack on with binding my Georgina quilt.  It's so much easier spreading things out on the floor when there aren't any kids around!  I'd already cut and joined all the binding strips so it was just a case of attaching it to the quilt - the perfect opportunity to take my new walking foot for a test run!  I'm pleased to report that it performed very well, no more puckers for me!  I managed the mitred corners ok, but did have to resort to a bit of web surfing when it came to finishing off.  Luckily, I remembered seeing the perfect tutorial recently on The Sometimes Crafter, so a few clicks, a bit of checking back and forth between quilt and laptop, and I was done!   I finished handsewing the binding to the back this morning - hooray! 

 

I'm so pleased with how it's turned out!  It's on our bed now and it looks lovely.  Unfortunately, I left it too late to get a photo of it up there, so you'll just have make do with this shot of the binding for now and I'll try and get a decent photo tomorrow morning.  I still have a lot to learn about making quilts, (I think my handstitching needs a bit of refining) but I do feel like I'm getting there, albeit slowly.

Now I can start planning the next one!

R x

Coin collecting

 

Coins of the fabric variety, of course!  I don't know about you, but I do tend to buy fabrics just because I love them, rather than having a specific project in mind.  And then I often have trouble deciding exactly what to do with them, what wonderful project could possibly justify cutting into that beautiful material?  And so the fabric sits in my cupboard, patiently waiting.  I sometimes take it out to look at it, have a little think about what I could make with it, try it out against some other fabrics - and then put it back in again.  I know that I will use it eventually.  But the thought that I might use it up and not "have it" any more is always a little bit of a worry.  (How does this happen?  How does someone become so addicted to something so quickly? Is it just me?)

 

But then I kept seeing all these gorgeous coin quilts all over blogland, and had a bit of a lightbulb moment.  I could cut just a tiny piece of fabric and put it into a coin quilt, and that way would always have a little piece of it to remind me, whatever should happen to the rest of it.  So that is what I am doing, collecting coins from my most favourite fabrics.  They are quite small pieces, just 3.5 x 5.5 inches - small enough that I don't feel too bad cutting into the fabric but big enough to show the beautiful patterns and prints.

 

It's been quite an interesting exercise too.  You can REALLY tell what my favourite colours are, can't you?!  But I do like other colours too, like red and green, and darker blues & purples, as well as these sugared almond shades you see here.  So maybe I need to be a bit more mindful of that when buying fabric in the future.  In the meantime, I shall just keep adding to this little collection, until it is ready to be turned into a quilt. 

And I know it will be wonderful!

R x

Sugar

 

The word chosen for round one of word play is "sugar".   I don't have the foggiest idea yet what I'm going to do with it - but I'm really excited about playing around with some ideas (once I get them that is!!).  I think I should be ok - I think I might have had trouble with some of the other words that were suggested, but they may still come up again in future months!  (The word I suggested was "warm", just in case you were interested)  I can't wait to see what everyone else is going to create. 

Just for the record, this is what my sewing to-do list is looking like at the moment:

1. Finish 4 zippy pouches for the summer fair - deadline 26th June

2. Finish tying Georgina quilt and bind - deadline - whenever!

3. Word play - deadline 14 July

4. Make end of year gifts for teachers - deadline 19th July

5. Seaside swap - deadline 31st July

So not looking too hectic then.  I'm not sure if I shall start any more big projects between the end of school and September - although there are lots of things I want to make, it won't be fair to the kids if I spend their summer hols sewing, so I might have to put the sewing machine away for August.  I have some sock yarn waiting in my knitting bag so maybe that'll be my summer holiday project - it's much easier to squeeze in a few minutes knitting here and there! 

Oh, and before I forget, here's the finished baby/lap quilt, all bound and washed and looking rather lovely, if I do say so myself!

 

 

Have a great week!

R x

Alone

It is Saturday evening, almost 8.30pm and I am all alone.  Joe is in bed, William is out at youthclub (despite getting home from his French trip at half past midnight last night and being pretty tired, he was determined not to miss out on any fun) and Peter is still at cricket.  Yes, I am a cricket widow.  Every Saturday (and Sundays too occasionally) from April to September, he is out playing.  But I actually don't mind it so much now.  When we were first married and I was left in the house on my own, nothing do to, no car to go anywhere, it used to drive me up the wall.  But now I quite like it.  Because I have lots to do, children to keep me company and moments like this, at the end of the day when I'm all alone and it is peaceful.  I can watch what I want on TV - but more often than not don't (there's just nothing on!)  I know that I have lots of time like this during the day, when the kids are at school, but it feels different in the evenings somehow.  So here I am , rambling away to my computer and you people out there!   I hope I haven't sent you to sleep!  So, what do I have to tell you today?  Not a huge amount.  As already mentioned, William got home yesterday (oops, no it was this morning technically!), very tired but very happy.  He'd had a great time & hadn't starved (he is a VERY fussy eater!).  It's so lovely to have him back!  And then this morning I received a parcel of fabric that I'd ordered from the States which I am over the moon about!

 

 

Isn't it gorgeous?!  Six half yards of French Hatbox, by Tanya Whelan, bought from here.  I have no immediate plans for this fabric as yet - I want to buy the rest of the collection first - but don't be surprised if it gets turned into another quilt!  And talking of quilts, I actually managed to baste my Georgina quilt on Friday.  I had to move almost all the furniture in our living room to make a space big enough for it (it's a double size) and I only just had enough safety pins for it!  Man, that was hard work, crawling around on your hands and knees, smoothing and pinning.  But it's done, so I'm one step closer to getting it completed.  I have decided to tie this quilt.  I still don't have a walking foot for my machine, and to hand quilt would take me for ever!  And I really want to use this quilt, this summer, so tying it is.  I might even be able to show some photos next week.

And now William is back from youthclub.  I wonder if I can persuade him to go to bed a bit earlier?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

R x

 

Early start

William and I were up at the ungodly hour of 4am this morning, in order to get him to school where they departed at 5am for their Year 6 French residential trip.   He was really excited about it, and apparently woke at 3.30 and was unable to get back to sleep again.  I however, was less than thrilled by this early start, especially as I am going through an extended phase of having difficulty getting off to sleep anyway, so am currently running on empty.  (I was going to go straight back to bed once I got back from taking Joe to school, but have decided to try and see it through in the hope that I might get to sleep easier tonight!)  Anyway, William went off with barely a backward glance - I had to summon him back for a hug!  This morning Joe asked me where Will was - he'd forgotten already that he was going, despite us making a big thing of him saying goodbye to Will last night!  He went into school very happily too, so I now have the place to myself again.  Big sigh of relief!  As lovely as it is to have the kids home and to not have to get up at 7am, by this weekend I once again found myself looking forward to their returningto school.  Partly it was bad timing (pmt - I get VERY ratty!) but I think also has a lot to do with the fact that we just don't DO very much in the hols.  As we only have the one car, and Peter has to work through most of the school hols, we are very restricted in what we can do/where we can go.  Now I am more than happy to spend everyday just pottering around at home, but I am coming to realise that, where Joe is concerned, this is actually not very helpful.  I think he needs more structure than that.  So I really need to start thinking about the summer hols now and get some things planned and booked in advance so that I don't go completely doolally.

I have finally finished quilting the little scrappy pink lap quilt - it just needs binding now (which I would have done this morning but have discovered I don't have enough of the fabric I was going to use - rats!  Never mind, a good excuse to go to the fabric shop again!)

 

I originally started making these blocks with the intention of eventually turning them into a lovely, pink, girly quilt for me, but seeing as I already have Ava Rose (very pink and girly!) and with Georgina waiting in the wings too, I decided to turn the 6 blocks I'd made into this lap/cot quilt instead.  And I have also decided to try and sell it.  I shall take it to the summer fair and, if it doesn't sell then, then I shall list it on Folksy (but if anyone should be interested please feel free to drop me an email).  Although I started out on this sewing lark making bags, it's the quilts that I really love the best, and if I could make a little money from it then that would be great too.

Enjoy your week!

R x

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday.  We had a little birthday celebration on Saturday when my brother and his family were down from Oxfordshire.  We all clubbed together to buy him a photo printer, but I also knitted him a pair of socks as a little extra from the boys (that's what the secret knitting was!)

 

My dad's name is Harry, so when I saw this yarn I simply had to use it - Opal "Harry Potter" yarn, in "Harry" colourway!  It's a bit brighter than I expected, but it knitted up very nicely and my dad was very pleased with them.  He's having a nice, quiet day at home today, but we shall be seeing him again on Thursday, when he is going to babysit Joe while the rest of us go and watch William in his school production on Bugsy Malone (his choice, by the way, he's a bit deaf and probably wouldn't be able to hear what was going on anyway!)  Enjoy the rest of your day, Daddy!

Yesterday was spent getting quite a lot of sewing done.  I've finished the Georgina quilt top, and then decided to put together some scrappy blocks that I started ages ago, together into a lap quilt:-

 

I'm hoping to get this one finished in time for the summer fair, but as I have neither batting nor backing for it yet, it'll have to go on hold for the moment. 

I also made a start on a costume for William to take on his French trip, the week after half term.  On the last night they have a disco and have to dress up with a French theme.  Whenever they have a "dress up" day at school, I always try and think of something that will involve as little time/money being spent as possible, and I think we've come up with something really clever for this!  I'm not going to tell you yet, as I still have to make him a prop, but this is what I did to a shirt yesterday:

 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

R x

A week in pictures

This week I have been...

... sewing,

 

coin purses for my stall,

 

secret sewing for the Freestyle swap,

 

and, AT LAST, starting to piece my Georgina quilt top,

... receiving,

 

scrummy fat quarters purchased from here,

... reading,

 

a new magazine and a new book,

... and planting,

 

three little strawberry plants, bought for Joe, which he is going to take care of (with some help!)

There has also been plenty of other stuff that I don't have pictures for - such as knitting (secret), baking (eaten!) and a fair bit of Joe stuff, but I'll save all that for another post.

Hope you're all enjoying the beautiful weather we're having this weekend.  Tomorrow I'm off to Penshurst craft fair with the parents - so you can bet there will be a bit of show and tell afterwards!

Oh, and I just couldn't post without mentioning, but is it just me or did anyone else watch Kirstie's Homemade Home on Thursday and feel a bit shocked that she'd hung a "Never Mind the Bollocks" poster in the children's playroom?!! 

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!

R x