Hoot #2

So a while back I offered to make my 11 year old niece a quilt. Go upstairs I told her. Have a look at the fabric. Pick your favourite. 10 minutes later she came down with my Hoot stash. Mild heart attack followed. Well my own fault really, I did say pick your favourite........I should have said but not the Hoot!!!


Keeping it simple. 5" squares using various prints from Moda's 'It's a hoot' range. I love this fabric so much, it may be hard to part with.

Any one there?

Well I've been AWOL again but I do come bearing gifts....well photos of a couple of bits that I have been working on.

Firstly the Pips quilt is complete. Stingo loves it and it is in use daily. I managed to quilt it in a day with lots of straight-ish lines using various stitches on the machine. Some worked better than others and if I am being honest there is one that I wish I hadn't used at all. But saying that it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things.

Secondly another quilt that I have just put the finishing touches to this very day - it's for a colleague who is due to have a baby boy in a few weeks. I own up to not owning much fabric suitable for boy things but I did have a charm pack and a couple of half yards of Max and Whiskers.

Whilst I love the white background for some of the prints I am not really so keen on some of the darker prints so I put those to one side and decided not to use them at all. In the end the charm pack was reduced even further to the 25 squares used for the center, a bit disappointing really but ho hum. I just hope that my colleague likes it enough to at least using it as a play mat for her little one.

I'm also in the middle of a new 'It's a hoot' quilt for my niece - same size and set up as the 'Ginger blossom' quilt that I made last summer and sent to my friend in NZ for christmas. Big enough for her bed in her new bedroom in a new house in a couple of weeks or so. But more on that one next time.

* All pics have been taken on my phone. The charger wire thingy turned up for the camera eventually but the camera is full!

Pips at last!

Firstly I will apologise for the picture, it was taken on my phone as the charger for the 'proper' camera seems to have hidden itself away during the house move. One of my resolutions is to find it, pronto.

Another resolution was to get back on the sewing horse so to speak and so over the past couple of weekends whilst the children were playing I managed to piece, quilt and bind the pips quilt I've been dreaming of since last May. The top came together pretty quickly, just a couple of hours from start to finish with a few interruptions inbetween.

I've never used a jelly roll before but I absolutely love the ease of them having done this simple strip quilt. I think it might be the way forward for the few baby quilts I need to make this year for various friends. So much quicker than having to cut the strips like I have done for sashing and the like previously.

I used Kona Ash for the backing, just a solid piece without any scrappy border, and a piece of Sherbet Pips was used for the binding - pictures to follow!

The 'doggy' quilt as it has been named by Stingo was well received and a little girl is very happy with it, in fact she is fast asleep under it right now.

Plus it must be OK as both my husband and Mum have said they like it! Praise indeed :o)

I'm back!

It feels like I've been gone a long time, seasons have changed from Summer through to Autumn and now we're heading into Winter.

So what have I been up to during my time away? Mainly moving house, returning to work full time and generally not having that much time to sew!

We moved into our new house just 3 weeks ago and I've only just managed to get all of my bits and pieces needed for sewing out of the boxes and into some sort of order. My first bit of stitchery happened last weekend but I don't have any pictures as they were simple shepherd costumes for the Infant Christmas play. This weekend I have 3 alien costumes to make - don't ask me what aliens have to do with Christmas, I just sew what's needed.

In my time away I've been keeping up with blogs and was so pleased to see this:

My dress that I made for the 'Dress a girl' campaign that Louise at http://sewscrumptious.blogspot.com/ organised a while back. At the time I made just one dress but I wish I had made more. Just seeing this little girl wearing it made my day. I promise I will make more in the future!!

I have also been managing to buy fabric.......quite a bit of it really. I have plans for some more quilts for my girls and a few baby quilts that will be gifts for friends who are expecting next year but I have to get those aliens done for now.

Back soon! (I promise)

On hold for a while

Looks like there won't be a lot of sewing happening for a while as I've just started to pack up boxes ready for the house move in a few weeks time. Today I as I packed my stash away I had a hankering to sew something quick. I fought the urge as in all honesty time wasn't on my side. As I lovingly stroked and carefully packed the fabric into boxes my mind wandered onto what I could make for use in the new house. It's a much newer style house to our current one and we will have to change our usual style of decoration - we're thinking Centerparcs new style lodges, just as well I have something in the stash which just might work. Sewing to be resumed at some point in the future but for now, on hold.

Wonky blocks - complete!

I've done it, a second quilt completed within a week, OK I know I've had it sat around for a while but the basting, quilting and binding was all done once the Ginger Blossom quilt was finished.

I've managed to take this picture but as you can probably tell, the weather is dull and there are quite a few rain clouds in the sky hence the indoor shot. I'll take more tomorrow as this one doesn't quite do the quilt justice.

Digby loves it - so much for keeping it hidden until her birthday next month. The scrappy binding and random straight line diagonal quilting looks fab - something I'm sure to use again in the future.

Ginger Blossom completed!

I finally got round to finishing the Ginger Blossom quilt last week but then the weather decided to turn to being totally rubbish and I couldn't get a half decent picture of it. Today is lovely and sunny and bright, perfect photograph taking conditions, so here it is.

I'm about 90% happy with it to be honest, the backing isn't perfect due to the basting. I use safety pins but I think I might try some of that fancy basting spray. I've some how managed to get a few puckers on the back when I quilted it, nothing major but it still makes me feel a little bit sad. I haven't washed and dried the quilt yet but I'm hoping a little bit of shrinkage might disguise it. This time round I've used Hobbs hierloom batting which should crinkle up nicely.

For the past couple of days I've been working on the wonky blocks quilt for Digby - all quilting now done, lots of random straight (and a few not so straight) lines done all over in a mix of purple and pink thread. It makes a good contrast and seems to be working well with the mix of colours in the blocks. Just the binding to attach and another quilt will be done!

My next project might involve breaking open my Sherbet Pips jelly roll - If I'm brave enough!