Happy New Year!

Pre Christmas ...

The Teenage Diva made a good job of the tree..

A Fabulous Mug Rug from Sue at Quilt Times.. (thank you sew much!)

Some last minute Journal covers ... gifts now given...

Snow, hoar frosts and blue skies ...

and I found the spare bed underneath all these quilts ... ooops!

and fr my Mum, a home made hamper filled with homemade goodies  :)



Post Christmas ...

A little Bees Knees virtual quilting Bee block preparation...

Catching up on something new...  dreaming of less snow!

A few more of these Anita's Arrowhead blocks made ...

I aim to finish them this weekend as part of Pat Sloan's UFO Weekend!

And there was a lot of sleep ins, and reading , resting ....

So to all of you, here's to a happy, creative and wonderful New Year!

Thank you for stopping by to read about my about my little part of the world....

Happy Quilting!

Grrrrrr!

Oh why won't Blogger let me upload my photo's  ..... or any photo's at all! 

Firstly  -  Happy Birthday Charlie!  Yes, you!

If I don't get a chance to do it properly,  Merry Christmas to you all!  And here's to a busy and productive New Year!

Happy Quilting

tis the season...

... for giving!

And in the spirit of the season, I had ordered some books for my dear friend, unfortunately the post is still disrupted because of the snow.  So, it was time to break out the emergency plan...

I little free motion quilting (sorry about the pic, it was late last night, and very dark)

+ Notebook =

 This morning the Teenage Diva and I were out early for a little retail therapy, and we both had lunch plans, so this had to come with me to be wrapped once I got into town and bought the wrapping!

I'm delighted to say, my gift was received graciously  :)  And a lovely lunch was had by all...

And then I got home...

to a good mail day!

(still several packages known to be missing, so I'm still eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Scrappy Mug Rug 2 from my swap partner, and the missing books!)

Tomorrow, a sewing day, more gifts to make (I have a cunning plan), Bee blocks to catch up on before the holidays, and my own month to plan.  And a little C&G to be done!

Oh, I had a wonderful e-mail to tell you about too!

Happy Quilting!

dragging my feet ....

.... in the snow!  (yes it's still here, despite a slight thaw and no prospect of warmer weather for the foreseeable!)

I can't get blogger to put this the right way up -  sorry!  (the Teenage Diva after doing snow angels ... need I say more!  LOL)

I've got all the blocks for my Carolina Christmas Mystery quilt from Bonnie K Hunter last year pieced.  I just have the borders to make.  It's currently 80.5" square, and my frame only takes a max width of 82 -  but I have a plan, and it will look beautiful with the borders on it! 

I also got some more Anita's Arrowhead blocks done, and I'm loving how they look!  I've been pressing and sewing them up in batches, and it seems to work very well rather than one block at a time.  (I have another 16 ready to piece and hope to make good progress on this this week)

I said I'd been dragging my feet, well, I should have been doing a foundation block for my C&G, but as yet, it remains in my head!  Instead I've been meaning to play a little with some crayons (yup, good ol' kids wax crayons)  and a little (naff) quilting practice...

And my copy of Quilting Arts magazine arrived, which distracted me even more!

I painted this after the quilting with acrylics, and I love how the surface pattern on the fabric comes through...

So while I was at it, I had a little doodle, and now I have 5 new postcards  :)

So I guess I better go do that foundation pieced block now I have no other excuses .... hehe!

Happy quilting!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

OK, so it was pretty on Sunday, however, it was not fun I can tell you trying to get home from the hospital yesterday afternoon.  2 hours to go a matter of 6 miles, a journey than should only take 20 minutes around the bypass!  I'm just glad it was pretty much all downhill, as the bypass became blocked by cars and lorries that could not make it up the hill.  The city was pretty much gridlocked to a standstill.   And they say Lincolnshire is FLAT!  Shame the cathedral is on top of a humongous hill with the city built around it.

It snowed, and it snowed and it snowed some more!  A great evening to go for a walk!

This was the park early afternoon before we ventured out to the hospital.

And this morning we awoke to this ...

The neighbourhood is looking particularly festive don't ya think?

No sewing pics, I've been concentrating on my C&G, but I may sneak a few more Arrowhead blocks later today.  We've had flurries of more snow on and off all morning, sounds like the perfect excuse to stay in to me!  The Teenage Diva is on another snow day, and is off out with the sledge!

Happy Quilting!

Brrrrrrr....

It's bloomin' cold!  The temps have dropped to sub zero, the snow came, and more forecast for later (though we have nowhere near as much as some) and today it's still -4! 

So this morning I finished off cutting these for a quick Pork Chop Swap over on the Old Red Barn Flickr group. 

And whilst I was in town earlier this week I picked up a couple of quilting magazines that I don't normally buy, including this one.

There's great instructions to make those Arrowhead blocks by Anita Grossman Solomon.  The magazine article starts off with 8" squares, and after reading through all the materials and instructions, it got me thinking.... did you hear those cogs from where you are?  LOL 

Anyhow, what if I don't want to cut my FQ's and have a little left over from all 21 of them!  How about if I used a layer cake instead.  I was pretty sure I could make it work, but not sure how big a block I would get at the end of it.  So off I went to delve into my stash for an unsuspecting layer cake and some contrasting fabric to go with it. 

Now I'm sure you all remember Twiggy? 

I've had this for quite some time, added a little of the drops from Hushabye by Tula Pink, and as LCs in the UK only ever seem to come with 40 squares, I'll cut a couple more from the blue spot that is from Freebird by Momo all for Moda.  (I've discounted the green, it was just a little too bright for the other greens in Twiggy) 

So this is my trial run.

And I managed to trim this down to a 12" block so it will be 11 1/2" finished.  That means I can have a quilt that is at least 18" bigger than the one in the magazine.  Wooohoooo! 

I think I may get this pieced sooner rather than later!  And if ever there was a good excuse to stay in and keep warm, this is it!

So back to the cold weather.  A beautiful sunny morning called for a walk, don't ya think?

I'm so very lucky to live next  to all of this!

Happy quilting!

The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap

I received my postcard from Leona, all the way from Florida this week.

Isn't it glorious!  I just love it, bright, fresh and between sewing and baking is me down to a Tee!

Thank you Leona, I just love it!