Sunday Sitrep

I've been absent, I'm sorry, LIFE ... nuff said!

But I did get my Mouth Stitches Pouch made for my swap partner ...

I even managed a wee pocket inside

I'm pleased with how well the sip ends went, thanks to a great tip by Susan  :) 

and I took a little inspiration from Hadley with some hardware

I hope my partner like it,  I'm rather taken with it myself!

and in true swap fashion, I've been thinking extras, and these scraps from my Made in Cherry quilt could be just the ticket, despite being ticket sized (about 4 1/2" x 2 1/4" - 3" ish) 

Would you be happy to get scraps that size? 

I have some more to go with these, but these do come as a collection

I also got to do some work on the Ab Fab Free Bees round robin for this month ...

I chose a block from one of the 100 blocks magazines ...

a bit of a border or two and some applique ...

but this one is still speaking to me, as much as I am ready to send it on to Lynz in the morning, I may have to hold off a little , though the way life is, it could be just quicker to post it!

I've been doing a little more cutting, but not on anything I should have been working on ...

I've been staring at this little bundle that was a Moda Scrap Bag of Verna ...  it's been goading me for a while ... more on that in the week

and I got the block for the Pea Room BOM made ready for the meeting tomorrow night ...

Phew...  it was a productive weekend! 

Exactly what I needed to put everything back into balance and perspective ...

Hope you've all had a creatively focused weekend too!

happy quilting!

Stained Dilemma

The lovely Sarah is hosting the Stained Quilt Along, and not to leave one of my Brit Bee lovelies, I'm joining in!

I quickly chose my fabrics, the beautiful stack of Erin McMorris  Summersault paired with some Klona Ice Frappe  (isn't that a fantastic description for a colour!) I got both of these from Backstitch

After reading the cutting instructions I now have a bit of a dilemma ...

I need an additional fat quarter to join in the party

so these are the candidates shortlisted ...

and eclectic collection of Pat Bravo, Kaffe Fasset, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, a little bit of Freebird by Momo and some Luuuuurrrrvley Kona Chartreuse!

after a little play, I narrowed the choice down to these

What do you think?

I started cutting, it's a big job, and I've taken Sarah's advice with the labelling and have my Ziploc bags at the ready ...

I've made up my mind, I think, but still have time to change my mind! 

In the mean time, Happy Quilting!

Christmas Quilt Along! Ooooops

Ooops, it completely slipped my mind, till I read Sue's blog this morning, well, more like lunchtime

by which time I was already committed to some other, hmm, chores?!

like trim and get the binding sewn onto this ...  check!

make the backing and load up the Made in Cherry quilt ...

... check!

Make a start on my Mouthy Stitches pouch ...

well I got this far! ...  I'll take that as a check!

find an additional fabric to go with these ...

for the Stained QAL ... dilemma ensues ...

And I SHOULD have been working on doing the block for the Ab Fab Free Bees round robin,  and I did get my fabrics out, press the block and have a plan in my mind ....

but what I really wanted to do was play with a new toy! 

and who can resist the pull of a new toy right? 

it did not take long to get fabrics cut and frantic sewing to commence ...

Thanks to Jenny at Sew Kind of Wonderful, I now have a nice shiny new ruler...

and in preparation for Christmas, I now have a table runner ready for quilting and finishing!

the colours are really off, but this was so quick to do, so whilst I am late to the party, for which I apologise, profusely,  I have made a good start  :)

So having spent most of the day in the studio, toasty warm, despite the -3 C outside, I've also made it up to himself, cooked salmon en croute courtesy of Marks & Spencer, that might be enough to get me back into the good books :) 

Hope you've all had a good day, don't forget to pop over to Hazel's  who is hosting the Christmas Quilt Along today and see what everyone else has been up to, there's a bit of a linky party going on ! 

Happy Quilting!



Focus

that's my word to sew by this year...

So today, when I left work early

 no not skiving, but enjoying the pleasure of a little flexi-time

I was FOCUSed in my task

and before I knew it, it was time for a cup of tea

the cutting was done (thank you Alice!  the Jade Klona is perfect!)

and after refreshments

the piecing was done too!

FOCUS - a word to sew by!



Sunday Sitrep

It's been a busy week, with extra hours, my time to sew and do all the home making stuff has been depleted considerable, and I've been tired ...  very tired!

But there has been a steady stream of mail ...

I can now think more seriously about my pouch for my swap partner for the Mouthy Pouch Swap

and Miss February of the Brit Bee sent a stinker ...

serious effort required for this one!  Self portraits!  Gulp!

and maybe just a little fabric passed through my hands  :) 

Yesterday I spent in the studio putting my Made in Cherry quilt together, making great progress, having starched all my background fabric, I set too with the cutting ... and there things ground to a distinct HALT!  I got my corner squares cut - check. But when it came to cutting the larger square to make the flying geese element, I discovered the beautiful teal fabric is NOT wide enough!  Barely 42"

So I now await further mail, thanks to the wonderful Alice of Backstitch ... I hope the following doesn't slow the postman down!

The view this morning, pretty, but I'd rather not thanks!  So I trudged a pathway there and back, and turned the heating up, and started something new! 

This lovely pile was very quickly turned into this ...

and now it looks a lot like this ...

a colleague at work delivered a beautiful baby boy on Wednesday, I'm hoping this will add to her bundle of joy :) 

So, the ironing is all done ready for another busy week, the house is relatively tidy, and I have plenty to focus on tomorrow before it's back to the grindstone on Tuesday! 

Hope you've had an equally good week!

Happy Quilting!