Another year older

Lets talk birthdays, 

I've just had one, and I think the easiest way to tell you about it is like this ...

some of these 

cake baked by my children ... thanks A, for making sure your big brother made an appearance :)

Then there was the East Midlands Modern Quilt Guild meeting at Stitchcraft Studio in Grantham, where Mandy guided us through the intricacies of the Amy Butler Weekender bag ...

thank you to Di, a beautiful pouch and mug, which is seeing action daily :)

and Liz (no Blog) for a snap pouch, beautiful!

and Kerry, for a beautiful decoupage embroidery hoop and a Aurifil variegated thread, 

that just happens to match my bag fabrics!

and then last week it was Kitchen Guild, and it we were celebrating Justines birthday too!

so, with my new knowledge I set to on a reduced Weekender bag!

I'm pretty darn pleased with it, and I know Justine loves it too!

And I won!  Hadleys Pincushion, she did the draw on my birthday

and Oh .... its beautiful!

Thank you Hadley, I love it!  

and as if that wasn't enough, the very talented Kitchen Guild ladies spoiled me good an proper!

A cover girl Cushion from Lynne ...

and a beautiful Voile cushion from Katy,  

and to think, I delivered her voile quilt back to her too!  Sneaky!

but I do love it, and she quilted it herself too!

and a fabulous star cushion from Justine ...

Honestly Ladies, I use all them everyday now :)

a beautiful pouch and matching purse from Mandy

and from Laura Jane, the most gorgeous pouch with the poshest carriage fabric ..

and of course, my favourite Art Gallery Fabrics! 

A girl can never have too many pouches or cushions! 

Thank you everyone for making my birthday so special, I am truly blessed with family and friends 

Ta Da!

I cannot tell you how happy this makes me!

after a decision on binding, its done! 

That'll do Pig!

it was difficult to keep that Pig till whilst the wind blew 

and this is my first finish for the Q2 FAL - woot woot!

and I took this to work yesterday ... as I do with all my makes ...

seems I have a serious buyer in the midst :) 

and then to get home to this, 

time to celebrate!

so tonight, a little birthday baking :) 

Happy Days!

The sorting office

no, I wasn't at the post office today, my recent visits to collect packages are done,

however, 

sorting is most definitely in order!

Starting with the brown drawer ...

and then what looks like the yellow drawer ...

and then the white drawer ...

and combined two into one ...

and separated particular manufacturers ...

and even managed and empty drawer or two 

and the box that had been relieved of its treasure ...

re-purposed 

to hold precious cargo for the next Brit Bee meet up

so today, I have been sorting, 

and it has been most satisfying :) 

Resting

As instructed I have been resting ...

and quilting ...

and teaching ...

and shopping ...

and a little more shopping ...

and baking ...

and today, Di came over, and we stroked fabric, drank tea, ate cake ...

laughed a lot, put the world to rights ...

and came up with a plan for some of that lovely fabric ...

oh and in between all of that, I made a start on my FAL Q2 list 

resting is quite productive :)

FAL Q2 - the list!

It's time to declare my 'to finish' list for the coming quarter

so I can link up with our lovely leader Leanne

so although I haven't had the official 

'those are not finishes' just yet

in anticipation, lets start with

#1 The Big Blocks, now affectionately known as That'll do Pig!

one top, needs quilting and binding 

#2 Brit Bee LynneBob top, to be quilted and bound

#3 this start quilt, from an on-line tutorial, which it seems I have since lost the instructions for! Ooops.

Its clogging up my dining table right now, all the cutting is done, bar borders, and a good portion of piecing is at least started.  So, just the small matter of finish off the piecing, and quilt and bind this baby!  Easy right!

# 4 Overs and Unders, top is done, bonus from last months sickness, just to be quilted and bound.  Ha, Just!

# 5 a miniature star quilt like the big vintage modern one, all cut, piecing started, just need to finish the piecing and quilt, bind and deliver as a shop sample

# 6 Linen cushion - I need to expedite this, its been cut, and the thread is just sitting there,

waiting for some magic to happen, and then I can get it sent to its new home

# 7 Siblings Together Quilt, cut, partially pieced, just have to piece and add the borders, quilt and bind ready for delivery at Fat Quarterly Retreat in July. 

so that's my list.  I promise to do my best to Finish these, in the proper sense this time round :) 

and as its bigger than the last list, its quite a challenge, as you know, I don't make small quilts!  There's some serious quilting to be fitted in between customer quilts and class preparation, oh and the day job! 

a last minute make ...

so before I finished work on Thursday I need to hand over a birthday gift, 

so that meant a little last minute gift making on Wednesday evening,

after work, and all the other household chores

you know what its like ...

so I grabbed some of those pretty scraps from the last big blocks quilt, 

and my pattern from the Framed Purse class by Katy at FQR last summer

and proceeded ...

and before long ...

a little purse was born

ok, maybe not so little, I used a 6" x 3" frame

and do you know what, I'm pretty damn pleased with this!

I do hope my friend is happy with it, filled with some always needed pretty tissues

and emergency chocolate of course!