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?