Catching up with myself

Where to start! 

Its been too long, I'm sorry!

So, there was a BIG birthday, in fact we will be celebrating another big birthday for my youngest this weekend too!

Afternoon tea with friends, thank you Di for a day full of memories

and to Gillian for my amazing patchwork cake!

I was thoroughly spoiled!

including even more cake

and flowers too!

And lots a very lovely generous gifts from so many friends. 

Thank you all!

There was also a BritBee meet up, sadly my camera never came out once!

On the quilty front, oh so much secret sewing has been happening, 

But finally this months issue of Quilt Now Magazine has the Cloud 9 Quilt I quilted for Jacqui of Hantex, way back in January, along with 7 others too! 

Katy has a done a marvelous job of styling the quilt for the magazine, (as always) and its so nice to be able to share this now. 

And some recent fabric acquisitions include this bundle of Cultivate by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics.  I have something special planned for these! 

(just sayin'!)

Well, I hope to be back soon, with a catch up on the travels too!

its a finish!

A birthday present for my Bestie!

Sorry about the bad lighting, but as you can imagine, being the queen of last minute, it was the night before the birthday!

Which I was very lucky enough to share in the celebrations, in style

And the birthday girl had made everyone a party bag!

Thank you so much Di for inviting me to share in your special birthday celebrations

x

by special request

So I get this phone call from my son, just the day before the delivery, 

you know how the story goes,

'mum, how much would it cost for you to make a cushion for my girlfriends sister, its her birthday next week?' 

tell me I'm not the only one that gets those kind of requests?  Please!

so said recipient is 1 years old, girly girl, like pink, ...  yeah I get the picture!  

Something pretty and girly!

so I pulled a few fabrics,

I'd had some time to think about what I was going to do

but I did have a plan ...

it didn't take long to get all the cutting done

and in no time at all, I was stitching down and quilting all in one go

a bit more quilting around the outside, 

because you can never have too much quilting in my very humble opinion!

a quick zip insertion, and a cushion was born

and what better than 'girl on a swing' in pink by Aneela Hoey for the perfect back!

I had a lovely text and phone call to say how much this gift was loved!

I call that a successful make, 

I love it when a plan comes together!

Catching up on Birthdays

I have been busy, but just not blogged, so I thought I better get some blog posts written, 

first up were some birthdays for the Kitchen Guild ladies, 

(if you've been on IG, you may already have seen some of this)

first up is our hostess with the mostest Lynne 

now, she's a tough cookie to make for!

It is all about the piecing for Lynne so I had to find something that was challenging, yet traditional, with that real traditional red white and blue feel to it.

enter the Lone Star - challenging, and traditional

The star fabrics are from French General, and the background fabric is from , Etchings by 3 Sisters for Moda, a Parisian architectural print, all very personal to Lynne

and of course, you know I don't do straight line quilting,

but for this project it was the right thing to do :) 

I used Aurifil 50 Wt colour #2123 (a lovely yellowy cream)

the back, zipper inserted in the Sew Mama Sew way

I'm really pleased with the finished result, the piecing came out almost perfectly, 

the quilting (although I nearly went mad) was just right

and best of all Lynne loves it!

Secondly, was Brioni 

now, for this one it was all about the quilting and I knew exactly what I wanted to do, 

and whilst I cannot explain where the inspiration came from, 

lets just say, it's very personal for Brioni!

and the back

Plain White Kona I got from Justine at Simply Solids, and the background was quilted with Aurifil 50 wt colour # 2021, my go to piecing thread!  The colour wheel was a mix of all sorts that is in my thread stash...

(yes I have one of those!)

sometimes, it all just comes together!

and even I was a little gobsmacked I managed to pull off these two gifts,

 for two very special talented  ladies

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 

Sunday Sitrep - MIA

2 weeks?  all I can say is I really have been busy!

So lets get on with some catching up ...

I've received a whole stack of packages for Siblings Together, and will do a post all about those soon ...

There was some of this ..

and these didn't last very long ..

there may have been a considerable amount of home made cakes consumed, but I have no evidence of this,  ....  no guesses why! 

birthday been and gone for another year!

And last weekend I did a work shop ... or two with Patricia Archibald.

seems I can't get my pics right way up at the moment, mine's the middle one ...

and this one was Sunday, and I now have just the binding to stitch down. 

All I can say is, if you haven't ever had the chance to take a class with Pat, you've missed a real treat!  The most inspirational, delightful lady you could possibly meet, funny, patient, and very capable in herding cats! 

I've also made some headway in catching up with my Brit Bee blocks, so I'll do a post about them, hopefully tomorrow.

So, it's back to the salt mines and chaining myself to the quilt frame to continue with the marathon of quilts that currently gloat at me daily in the studio. 

 

I'll try to break free soon ...

 

Happy Quilting!

 

 

12 Days - Day 3 - Oh Noooooooo!

Yes, I got to a great start, thinking I can get those cakes baked, wrap presents whilst they're in the oven, by the time that's all done, nip to shops for flowers ...  etc etc  yep I was on a mission! 

I made good progress, until crash, I smacked the mixing bowl against the plate in the microwave and took a huge chunk out of it ....

the phone rang, it's my mother, can you take me up to A & E? 

OK, I have enough time to get cakes in and out of the oven and collect her at agreed time for the emergency appointment ....

back to the cakes, weigh flour  ....  aaaaaaaah, flour mites - Oh B**%%%er!  Shops quick! 

Fastest shower on earth, just getting sorted for that and there's banging on the front door...

morning son!  Happy Birthday! 

Sorry, presents not wrapped, cake not ready,  ... you're early! AND, you can't stay I've got to get Grandma in 10 minutes!  He was great, I even had a hug, not bad  :)  And he still loved his presents, and the cake mixture  :) 

So, off to the hospital, back again, pick up more flour on way back ... and continue with baking....

Phew!  and it's only lunchtime! 

Time for some thread auditioning... I settled on this one,  Superior Rainbows called Northern Lights

Machine cleaned, oiled and set up ready to go, time for bobbin winding - 8 should do it.  Nooooooo! The bobbin winder decided after 6 it wasn't going to work again!  

the air may have changed colour by now  :)

So I start sewing, and it's not happy, then I realise after about 18" that I haven't changed to the right colour bobbin thread and there is light blue in the machine!  No, I am NOT unpicking, I'm sure Jean will understand.  Really, I'm not unpicking!

At this point I went to the shops (again) to get flowers and some new Kilner jars for the flour.  The Teenage Diva finally arrived home about 4 pm. 

time to finish those cakes ...

Cakes - Check!

We walked round to Grandma's with flowers, cake and pressies. (wrapped) 

After we were back we had a visitor in the house ...

time for tea and very little achieved, I needed some quality time with the sewing machine ...

piece Sunkissed blocks ready to lay out - check!

and a big pile of half square triangle to boot ...

Bonus! 

I did get one whole row of quilting done on Jean's quilt ...

So although I achieved my project for the day, boy, did it feel like I should have just gone back to bed and not bothered!

Tomorrow?  Priority goes to the allotment, I have leeks, spring cabbage and kale to plant,  and my beau is heading out in the afternoon, so I am going to concentrate on finishing my Brit Bee Blocks for Miss July...

as well as Pea Room Quilters blocks, after that I'm going to concentrate on these...

Mystery blocks, I think I have 2 to catch up on,  Sassy Christmas Stars, I have last months blocks to do, and I'd really like to do some more Farmers Wife blocks,  that should keep me out of trouble!

1. Day One - Borders on Jeans Quilt - Check!
2. Day 2 - Piece Kaleidoscope quilt -  Check!
3. Day 3 - piece Sunkissed blocks -  Check!

OK, I'm tired, time for bed!