Ooops I did it again.....

I've been AWOL from my blog again.  I knew it would happen.  I tried to warn you, I really did.  I honestly didn't go away on purpose. Please forgive me.  Pretty please?

Whilst away I have been sewing, honest!  Not a great deal but some of the September sewing plan did actually happen.  Not sure it happened in September but another couple of things ticked off my list.  Bear with me and I'll take some photos during daylight hours.

So what else......well I've just signed up to join a low volume fabric charm swap hosted by Laura Jane.  Now I normally don't do anything low volume, bright and bold are my thing and so this will take me away from all that.

I set off earlier this evening for a jaunt around various online fabric shops and soon I fell in love with this:

Lucy's crab shack by Sweetwater for Moda.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough stock for my requirements and so off I went once more and discovered this:

A simple white and stone stripe.  It was sooooooooo hard not to jump straight to the bright prints but I showed restraint and went simple, who doesn't like a good stripe eh?

Once it arrives I'll be slicing it into 5 inch charms and sending them on their way to meet the other fabrics destined to be swapped.  If you are interested pop over to the flickr group and sign up!

In the words of Arnie in Terminator......I'll be back!

Sunday slicing

I've been back at work now for 2 weeks.  Days and nights have been taken over once more with school work, family life and general no time to myself-ness.  So today I grabbed an hour to be alone with my rotary cutter and began slicing into my Primitiva stash.

 

 

I grabbed my largest square ruler and basically cut 12.5" squares.  The plan was to keep this simple.  Then I had an idea.  I carried on slicing all the squares into triangles.  Still keeping it simple right?

Then I started playing with the layout a bit.  Random HSTs were tried and tested but didn't look quite right but then inspiration struck.  I've always wanted to to a zig zag quilt so why not - spurred into action I came up with this.

 

 

A yummy zig zag just for me (and the husband I suppose, seen as though this is destined for our bed).  I've already tweaked the layout slightly as a couple of the triangles pattern didn't quite match up the way that I wanted.

 



Now sat ready to be stitched. 

Details: Primitiva by Jane Dixon for Andover fabrics - 6 yards.

BQS3 - received!

 

On Monday the postman tried to deliver a parcel. As Monday was back to school day for me and the girlies were being looked after elsewhere, I came home to find a card telling me to get to the Post Office to collect something.

 

I was so excited and could hardly contain myself.  Unfortunately I had to wait until the sorting office opened the following morning.   I rushed out of the house at just gone 7am to collect my parcel.

 

Imagine my disappointment when I opened it to find Brownie uniform!

 

2 more days of waiting, checking the Flikr group for clues and general pacing around the house.

 

But today was the day I received my BQS3 quilt from Laura!

 

My original mosaic was filled with lots of stars and rainbow colours and what Laura has created certainly fits the bill.  She was very generous and included some charm squares and a couple of bigger pieces of fabric plus a couple of spools of thread.  Thank you Laura for your generosity.  I love it!

BQS3 has been my first swap, an experience that I have thoroughly enjoyed, and it certainly won't be my last - off to see if I can find something to keep me and my machine busy.

So long summer and September sewing plans

Well today is the last day of my summer holidays.  The five and a half weeks have gone quickly despite some days dragging on and on.  The children are looking forward to seeing their friends once back in school next week.  I too am looking forward to seeing my friends at school - oh how I have missed adult conversations!

A spot of sewing took place yesterday, a new pump bag and lots of name labels - a sure sign that the holidays are coming to an end.

September usually is busy with school work, settling back into old routines whilst sorting out a new class of children with evenings taken up with the usual teacher tasks of marking, planning and preparing.  Sewing normally takes a back seat at this point but this year I'm going to make time for me and my sewing machine.

My September sewing plan includes quilting the 'Little Apples' quilt for my eldest.  I've promised to get it finished for her birthday at the end of the month.

Other projects that I want to have a go at over the Autumn months are:

1) New quilt for our bed - I have 6 yards of Primativa for this project in the purple colourway.

Not sure what pattern or style - I might just keep it simple and do squares or a brick wall effect.

2) Scrap quilt - possibly a Spiderweb - this would be an ongoing project.  My scraps are building up and I love the look of these string quilts.

3) I still want to do a Swoon quilt - maybe a single massive swoon block?  This has October half term written all over it!  I just need to decide on the fabrics but I'm definitely doing a swoon.

Not too many things on the to do list, I could add a whole lot more if I put my mind to it. 

This summer I've loved doing the BQS3 (posting my mini tomorrow!) and so maybe I might look around for another swap to do as I think a couple of smaller projects would be managable as well as the planned pieces.

Back soon - promise!

1 reunion, 2 reunion....

Reunion 1 - the husband is back from his 5 days away celebrating his 40th at the Reading Music Festival.  He needs a bath, some decent food and some sleep - proof if any is needed that he is now TOO OLD to do it again (I hope).

Reunion 2 - the 40th birthday quilt is now finished.  Quilting done over the weekend and binding hand sewn on late last night.  I quilted round some of the squares - in no particular order, pretty random really and a couple of rows either side of the main seams going across the quilt.  To be honest I was wrestling with it trying to get it quilted on my standard machine......perhaps I should ask Santa to buy me one of these. 

It measures a full single bed size - approx 70 x 85 inches, so it should be big enough for the husband to sit underneath on a winter's night or early morning. 

So photo overload here we go:

The backing is a stripe bought from Seamstar and matched perfectly with the colours in the Reunion line, plus I added a little of the jumping jacks print, nothing to do with me not having enough of the stripe, no not at all.  Binding was the date print from the range - my favourite I think. 

Ready for the wash and then the wrapping paper.

Blue Monday

It's August Bank Holiday Monday, it's raining.

But my stash stack club bundle arrived over the weekend from here. I joined this month and I'm glad I did.  I don't do blue (see previous post on not doing 'boy') so nice to have someone else do the choosing for me and to take me out of my comfort zone.

The only blue that I do love is this.

Simple Seuss

My nephew turns 6 next week.  I don't tend to do 'boy' very well and I usually struggle to find him a pressie but this year I've gone with this:

Using what was left of a panel, yard and FQ bundle along with a few solids and some black and white stripe for the binding.  A little lap quilt for when he's snuggled on the sofa watching one of his favourite films.  He's also got a Seuss treasury and a 'Thing 1' t-shirt. 

Tonight's job is the binding once the girlies are in bed - peace and a spot of sewing, what more could I ask for?

BQS 3 - complete :o)

All done and dusted, ready to head to the Post Office next week.  A little bit of playing around with the final placements of my HSTs and then the quilting/backing/binding saw this one completed.  For the backing I chose a piece from my It's a hoot stash and then went with the turquoise mini butterfly print from the Just wing it collection.  I think it looks good, but then again I might be a tad biased.

A little bit more sewing of a matching pin cushion and a whizz through my stash to put together a little scrap pack - I hope my partner likes it.  It measures 18" square and has been simply quilted with straight lines, picking out some of the shapes in the block.  After spending hours trying to figure out what my partner would like from her mosaic I finally decided on a Lynnebobsquarepants.  The individual squares measure 3".

I can't wait to find out what my partner has made for me - I've been online looking at lots of minis that have been made and I've seen loads that I like with a couple that might be for me.  Guess I'll just have to be patient and wait and see!

BQS3 - so far

Step 1 - Decide on fabrics

Step 2 - Carefully cut fabrics to desired sizes

Step 3 - Make lots of HSTs for the first time (ever!)

Step 4 - Work on the layout

Step 5 - Tweak the layout again (and again and again)

So far......so good :o)

How to make a bride cry (and other quilting news)

Well we are back from SIL's wedding in the Lake District where we all had a fab time in the sunshine (Sun in the Lakes, in August I hear you cry but it is true!).  The Delilah quilt was handed over on the wedding day but let me fill you in on what happened before that.....

Tuesday night (Day before we travelled) I started to wrap the quilt very carefully in lots of layers of tissue paper when I noticed some small cuts to the binding.  Slight panic followed.  I then took said quilt out of the tissue and found several more small cuts and a few larger ones!!

AAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

It seems that my youngest (aged 3) has discovered the joys of cutting fabric, just like her mummy - but in a totally different way.

Emergency repairs followed.  The binding became a bit more scrappy in pieces but I think I just about managed to save it.  At least she had used my fabric scissors and hadn't actually hacked away at the main part of the quilt.  If she had done that......well let me just say we would have been missing a bridesmaid at the wedding.

So, back to how to make a bride cry.  Simple.  Give her a quilt.

As soon as my SIL opened it she burst into tears.  Happy ones I might add.  It seems that the Delilah quilt is a huge success in terms of meeting the brief.  Happy days.

In terms of other quilting news........

The Reunion (Husband's 40th birthday) quilt is now all trimmed and ready to be pieced together - I think this is the final layout.  I have some striped fabric for the back and some more Reunion prints for the binding.  I'm planning on quilting this one over August Bank holiday weekend whilst he is away with 'the boys'. 

I've also started on my BQS3 quilt - but more about that later in the week.

Moving on....

I've moved on to my next project, straight after the Delilah quilt was done and dusted.  No time to waste, lots of projects to get done during the summer holidays which is good as it's the only time I really get to do any sewing during the day time.  Most of my sewing is done late at night when the kids are in bed and when I've finished my school work.  So this week it's been all about sneaking an hour or 2 whilst the kids have been busying themselves during the day.

So what have I been working on.....well another quilt, who would have guessed!  This one is a super secret sewing mission.  My husband turns 40 at the beginning of September and so this is for him.  In the winter I often find him snuggled under one of the girl's quilts, usually a really small one and many, many times I have asked him if he would like a quilt of his own.  The answer is usually no.  But then the following night he'll be found under a girly quilt.

I've gone with Sweetwater's Reunion fabric from Moda - manly enough for the husband but also colourful enough for me!  The plan is lots of different blocks sashed in a mid grey (bit darker than Kona Ash).  This lot started out as a charm pack, scrap pack and 2 yards of solid. 

I'm really enjoying piecing the blocks in different ways and am going a bit improv with this as I haven't planned one bit of it.  I'm sure it'll work out.  I think.

The plan is to have all of the blocks made by the end of tonight.  Once done I'll work on a final layout ready to stitch together next week so I can move on to making my Brit Quilt 3 Swap quilt - lots of ideas about this one and one I will plan out before randomly stitching away.

Oh and then there are new PE bags to be made, another birthday quilt for the end of August.  Looks like I'm going to be busy!

Delilah - done!

This week has been all about getting Delilah finished. Lots of semi-straight lines quilted approx 1.5 inches apart.  I say semi-straight lines because I struggled to get them perfect due to the size and heaviness of the quilt.  Once washed and dried I'm sure no-one will see the slight imperfections in my quilting.

Measuring 108 inches x 72 inches this is a whopper - due to be a runner on a superking sized bed.  Given only the brief of 'pink and green, vintage style' by my sister in law, I think I've done well.  Despite not loving it at first, I've come round and I like the way it looks on the eldest's bed! 

The back is pieced using some solid pink, pink gingham and a massive piece of Deliah range print (not sure which one!).  This picture shows just how 'organic' my quilting is!  Forgive me.

My, my, my Delilah!

Today I've been busy singing Tom Jones songs in my head.  I blame the Delilah quilt.  It was a lovely sunny day so I tried to take some photos.  I say tried to but the wind wasn't playing fair.  Loads of shots perfectly set up and then whoosh!  I gave in and put the quilt top on the floor for the last picture.

The quilt is now basted and sat ready for me to start quilting.  It's been hanging around for a while now and my SIL's wedding is in 2 weeks time so I need to get it done asap!  I think I'm gonna be busy this week.

In other sewing news I managed to make some more keyrings to replace the 3 I gave as pressies last week.  A colleague has also asked for 3 for her daughter's teachers, this has made me happy to think that someone else likes them as much as I do.  She asked me how much I wanted for them and this is where I had a slight problem as I haven't got a clue.  £5 each seemed too steep, £2 too cheap so I haven't decided, I think I'll see how much she thinks they are worth tomorrow when I take them into school for her to choose from the selection.  Quick question, if you make and sell things how do you manage to price your items?

Last minute gifts

I've been planning on making gifts for teachers this year instead of the usual bottle of wine or box of chocolate.  Something a bit different from the run of the mill teachers gifts out there in the shops.  Over the years I have been very lucky and I have had many lovely pressies from the children in my many classes but I still remember the year when I received 27 boxes of chocolates! (Needless to say it was my duty to eat every single chocolate in every single box during my 6 week holiday - and yes I was sick of it by the end of August!)

So armed with a selection of scraps, felt and a bit of linen along with some lobster claw key ring type things and some stuffing I have come up with these:

Now I know that little keyrings are not an entirely new idea, many people out there are making them in various forms but this is something new to me.  I usually like to work with larger pieces of fabric so working with small scraps and my machine embroidery foot caused a few choice words to slip from my lips.

This little bundle was meant for my youngest daughter's pre-school team, however on the way to Brownies last night the eldest informed me that it was the last one and when we arrived all the Brownies were bearing gifts for Wise Owl et al.  So a quick trip to the supermarket and a mad dash home to finish off 3 of the keyrings resulted in this:

So I now have to make 3 more and a little something for my eldest's teacher - though I'm not entirely sure what yet.   I have enjoyed working on these, something a little different to what I usually do and pushing my boundaries a bit more.

Lovelies!

Back from work today to find that the postie has been delivering for me.  A couple of parcels, which were immediately ripped to shreds opened very carefully, full of lovely fabrics!

The first one was the 5 FQs that I won on a giveaway from Saints and Pinners.  Lovely vibrant African prints and colours, both girls were immediately drawn to them and have been asking that I make something straight away. 

I'm not sure what to use them for but I think inspiration may strike when I look through a couple of books I have on small stash sewing projects.

The second parcel was an order from Alice over the weekend.  I was in need of a bit of colour and so I grabbed a bright bundle of FQs, various prints, and some Klona - the hurricane bundle, to complement each other.  It is my intention to use these in my BQS 3 mini quilt along with a bit of linen I already have to hand.

 I love both bundles and it is certainly the only rainbow I've seen all week! 

And finally.......my latest quilt, all finished and ready to be delivered to a teeny tiny lovely later this week.  Simply quilted with straight lines either side of the seams - seems like this is becoming a regular option for me.

I've just realised that I  haven't measured it - at a guess it is approx 44" x 50".  Off to measure it now!

Hmmmmmm.....

Not sure that I should even mention this giveaway as I would love to win this pile of goodies for myself.

But head over here if you fancy a chance to win them for yourself (if you do would you consider sharing them with me?  Please?? Pretty please with a cherry on the top???)

In other news.... I've just finished hand sewing the binding on to the 'Just wing it' baby quilt.  Pictures to follow! 

I now need to get on and baste and quilt the 'Delilah' quilt for my SIL's wedding pressie for some reason I've been putting it off until now.

So excited....

Seriously I am really excited about 3 things at the moment and they all involve fabric!!

1) Brit Quilt Swap 3 - I have received my partner details and I have began my stalking.....I already have a few ideas in mind but need to check out a few more things before I let you in on any of them.

2) I've just won a fabric giveaway - 5 African print FQs from here.  I have no idea what I will make with them yet but I'm looking forward to getting my mitts on them.  They remind me so much of some art work that I did at school (years ago) and a muliticultural arts education project with my school a few years back. 

But the best news this week is that our friends had a baby girl!  Yay!!  One girly baby quilt coming their way (even though said baby has appeared 4 weeks early weighing in at 4lbs 9oz and has caught me completely off guard in my best laid sewing plans).

This is what I've been up to the past couple of nights:

I've raided my stash and used up some of my Just wing it collection by Momo for Moda.  I love this fabric nearly as much as the It's a hoot range that came before it.  I had a couple of charm packs and a yard for the front and a pdf of a free Moda pattern, funnily enough called 2 charms plus 1 yard.  The back is more from the range and a few of the charms.  Really simple but just lovely and according to my eldest 'Beautiful!'.  I know that it will be treasured for many years to come.  I have a few days to get this one quilted before we go to see the new arrival.....so excited!

Brit Quilt Swap 3

I've gone and done something that I've never ever done before.......I've just signed up for the Brit Quilt swap.  I'm really excited but mega nervous too.  There are loads of talented people out there creating all kinds of wonderful things.  I've picked out some of my favourite things and created this mosaic (another first for me!)

My form has been filled in and so it all begins.  Another little project to keep me going.  If anyone (UK based) is interested in joining in on all the fun then head over to here and sign up.

Thanks!

Just to say a quick thanks to all of you who have taken the time to visit my blog.  I'm trying to figure out how to reply to individual comments (and failing at the moment!).

If you happen to know a quick and easy way then leave me a comment and I'll try to reply ;o)

Small blog meet - hello from me!

Hello, I presume that you've found your way here from Lily's quilts and the small blog meet so I best introduce myself.

My name is Kerry, I'm a 30 odd year old mum of 2 and a teacher who tries to remain sane by sewing and creating bits and pieces but mainly quilts.

I first sat in front of a sewing machine at school then did an A level in 'sewing' (Craft, design and practice) and have returned to it over the past couple of years.

I try to blog as much as I can but with a full time teaching post and a young family it can be a bit hit and miss, but bear with me as I always have a project or two on the go!

Thanks for popping by, hope to see you soon!

Kerry

Completed quilts

I've completed 2 of the 4 quilts I had on the go a couple of weeks ago.  The Siblings Together quilt was finished about a week ago and the Rainbow quilt was finished a couple of hours ago.  Why I decided to make a quilt for a christening the week before we went on holiday I don't know.  It was a bit of a rush job this morning to bind it in time for tomorrow's events!

Here are some pics taken inside as it is a horrible grey day here today and I doubt I'll have time to take more tomorrow.

The Rainbow quilt was made up of lots of different scraps bought from many different online shops and lots of leftovers from other projects.  Backed in a full piece of heart fabric from IKEA.  Simply quilted either side of the horizontal seams.  It measures 44 x 63 inches.

The Siblings Together quilt still has it's pins in!  It measures 48 x 72 inches.  Backed in a solid purple and more of the IKEA hearts.  I quilted either side of all the seams in a hot pink which really stands out against the solid (and just happens to show how un-straight some of my straight line quilting actually is!)

A quick wash for this over the weekend and in the post I will be popping it!  Hopefully it will make someone very happy.