25th Jan Design wall and family tree

Not a lot happening on my design wall this week.
Just a rearrangement of the leaf blocks. I like this
arrangement, but not too sure it will work with
quilt-as-you-go which is how I would like to finish it.

My big excitement this week was to have my family
tree printed on an A1 roller printer, it is 12 metres long, thats 39 feet and will almost wall paper my workroom!!

IAM workshop 21st January 2010

Eight of us, called the IAM group had a wonderful day making memory pictures in my workroom. My picture is of my parents wedding, where the guard of honour was performed by St John Ambulance Brigade Nurses holding splints. The small piece of white fabric is actually part of Mum's wedding dress. The bobbin lace in the bottom right hand corner was made by me.

Leaves on the design wall

Blocks were made by cutting out a leaf shape with Heat n Bond ironing it onto a piece of fabric, cutting this out and ironing it onto a 9" square. Cut this in half diagonally. Make another pair the same and join back together. When the blocks are completed I will blanket stitch on my sewing machine around the leaves. Really easy! I managed to draw out 21 more leaves yesterday, ready to iron onto fabric.

Design Wall 18th January 2010

I had hoped to join in with Judy Laquidara's weekend Quiltathon, and thought the fact I was on a workshop on Saturday would be a big boost to production! But Sunday was spent chasing around for a new fridge / freezer as my fridge packed up. I now have to wait until Friday for delivery, good job it's cold outside, the milk is on the doorstep! This is my design wall today with the blocks I made on Saturday. I still have 22 more to make.

Stash report 17/24th Jan 2010

17th Jan
Used so far this year 9 yds
Used this week 1 yd pillowcase for Eleanor
Bought this year NIL
Total used this year 12 1/2 yds

24th Jan
No extra fabric used, I have been catching up on my Family tree and lacemaking, plus using fabric already counted!

Bobbin Lace Cowboy Boot

One of my New Year resolutions was to start making bobbin lace again. Since retiring from teaching lace I have done very little, and let quilting take over my life!

This week I put on a Russian Tape design for a Cowboy boot and have just made a start. The bobbins I am using were all made by Tony Archer many years ago, and are some of my favorites.

Design Wall 11th Jan 2010

At long last my design wall is up and running!! Actually it is just clipped to the hanger I have from Ikea for clipping my quilts to, but it works well. The two pieces are for a sweatshirt jacket I am showing as a workshop to my local group.

Made based on mile a minute technique, and a brand new sweatshirt cut up. It has a lovely summer feel while looking out my window at snow and ice!

Stash report Sunday 10th January

Used so far this year 9 yds

Used this week 1 1/2 yds sea horse backing 1 yd pieces for quilts for soldiers

Bought this year NIL [ well I've lasted one week so far!]

Total used this year 11 1/2 yds

Design Wall Monday 4th January 2010

Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times has a design wall weekly feature that I really wanted to join last year, but did not get around to it. Or should I say Hubby did not get around to fixing one up for me!

This picture shows the design wall fabric I was given about 6 years ago, and so far all that has happened it is out of the packet! 2010 will see it up on the wall.

Stash Busting 3rd January 2010

This will be a quick stash report today, the start of a New Year.
Purchased NIL [so far the NY's resolution is working!]
Used: 9 yds cut out ready for up and coming workshops I will attend.
3yds Pink Sweatshirt jacket
1yd Calico pictures
5yds 78 Squares for scrappy quilt with Jenny Almond

Quilted jacket from a sweatshirt

Preparing for up and coming workshops, I have cut out 10 FQ's into strips and cut up a brand new sweatshirt.

Next step is to sew the strips together, join them to the sweatshirt and quilt a design, then sew it all back together again... what a strange occupation quilters have!

Abigail the ballet dancer

Granddaughter Abigail's first Ballet award ceremony. She gained a distinction for her ballet exam, and was awarded a beautiful trophy for the most improved student in her year. It was definitely a night to celebrate.

During the Christmas holiday Abigail [age 6] managed to make a Christmas hanging for her mantlepiece, using my featherweight to sew some of the points and sewing on the bells by hand.

All aboard for a Cruise

Anyone that knows me, will know this is the nearest I will ever get to cruising.. I cannot stand anything on water, but the SS Gt Britain is a restored ship in dry docked at Bristol. Chris seems to think he's a First class passenger, and I'm ready for lunch!

Stash Busting 2010

Stash busting in 2009 seemed to go to pot half way through the year, I was doing well until a local trader decided to sell up her fabric and I bought far too much!

I will again join Judy Laquidara's stash busting group in 2010 and have to try and use only fabrics I already have. Two reasons, One is my cupboards are full to bursting, Secondly I need to save hard for an exciting trip to Wyoming, the Tetons and Yellowstone later in the year.

Does buying fabric in a different country count !! Like eating chocolate when away from home does not have any calories!!

2010 quilt meeting dates and events

Listed here are details of quilting events I have found for 2010

(picture of a quilt-as-you-go quilt made for grandaughter Eleanor)

Busy Quilters and Stitchers 10.00 to 3.30pm
Goldington Middle School, Haylands Way, Bedford MK41 9BX
13 March, 5 June, 4 September, 6 November

Hamtune Quilters 7.30 - 9.30pm
Parklands Community Centre, Devon Way, Northampton NN3 6DX
First and third Tuesday of every month

Patchwork People 9.45 to 3.30pm
Lovat Hall, Silver Street, Newport Pagnell
6 March, 12 June, 11 September, 13 November

Spring quilt festival Chilford 12- 14 March
Quilts UK Malvern 13 - 16 May
National Quilt Championships Sandown 18 - 20 June
Festival of Quilts NEC Birmingham 19 - 22 August

Christmas Count down

This has been a fun project for a Christmas Count down...

Pattern taken from 12 Days of Christmas by Art to Heart.

Night of horror!

7pm Sunday evening an almighty BANG and all our Electricity went out, a car had run up the path at the end of our drive and demolished the Electricity Cabinet and lamp standard, smoke poured out and then it caught fire! The female driver was out of the car. Police and firebrigade arrived and questions were asked!! The electricity finally came back on at 3.30am the next morning as engineers worked through the night to clear up the mess and dig up the pavement.

It is now Thursday and we have huge holes in the pavement around our house but the power is back on. I think the police took the woman away probably to breathalize and question her! Next doors car was hit in the accident and looks like a right-off! A tree is now half burnt away and 3 or 4 dustbins melted into blobs of plastic.

Abigail's Christmas quilt

As it is half term, my granddaughter Abigail came to stay for two days. Age 6 she loves to do craft work with me, so we organized a Christmas quilt. She traced the pictures onto Heat n Bond Heavy then cut them out and ironed them onto fabrics herself under Grandma's watchful eye!
I think it may have been the first time she had used an iron by herself.

Having arranged the snowmen and trees and ironed them to the background fabric I machined around the edge with batting in the middle.. we didn't have time for her to use the sewing machine.

Busy busy busy

Busy busy busy, I seem to be always on the go. BUT I have found time to make this fun Santa, with all his bells. I thought my Mum would like it as she has little sight and the tinkling sound would be nice on her front door at Christmas.
This has been the month of birthdays, Granddaughters 6 and 2 years, son Richard, husband Chris, sister Debbie and my Mum will be 95 in 2 days time!

Final 10 fish for the fish swap

The final 10 fish blocks ready for the swap. There will be 25 fish in the post 15th September.

Green Lane Day in the sun shine

Friday 11th September as members of GLASS the Green Lane club, we went off the beaten track through glorious countryside in beautiful sunny weather. I must have opened dozens of farm gates, and while I lept out to take photo's Chris enjoyed splashing through the streams.

Fish swap

I've been fishing all morning!!!

15 fish ready for the no-sew fish swap, 5 more are waiting to be cut out and five more are still in the "thinking about it" mode.

Here we go again............

Here I go again....

Really decided I was going to finish all those UFO's that are still waiting from January BUT Sindy who runs www.fatcatpatterns.com/fatcat_swaps.htm

has just started a fuse only FISH block swap through her yahoo scratchingpost group, and I just love these fancy fishes, so I have signed up for "between 5 and 25" just to cover myself, but hope to get all 25 sent in. I will start by spending tomorrow drawing the patterns [all free to download] and then look through my stash for fabric.. at least that way I will still be stash busting! Why don't YOU join me and give Sindy a bumper bundle of fishes to swap for us.

Little bags for bag swap

A few little bags quickly made. The first was for a bag swap, but then I got carried away and could not stop making them... I have 7 more cut out ready to make, I thought they would make great little gift bags filled with goodies.

Thank you Rachel for sharing the pattern on your Blog.

rachel-griffith.blogspot.com/2009/08/friendship-bag-tutorial.html

Paper pieced Teddy Bear quilt

Paper pieced, using a very cheapo block of paper which was very easy to see through and easy to remove.

This pattern was offered on Carol Doak's yahoo site as a mystery, but I did not get around to making it until after the mystery had finished.

My colour choice was based on a teddy bear fabric and plain colours I had in my stash... didn't have to buy a thing! It measures 40 x 40 inches.

Pfaff-ing about

This is a sample of stitches used on my Pfaff sewing machine some years ago.. I decided to make it into a wall hanging to remind me of what I could do!!

Mid-Life Crisis !!

Where did July go ? I guess two weeks in Scotland, followed by a week in Cornwall and then a five day trip with our Granddaughter has left little time for updating my BLOG.

First let me introduce you to Lucy.. my "new" car, well actually she is a 19 years old Mazda MX5, and I plan a lot of fun driving her around. I have always wanted a red sports car and had to wait until I am 64 to get one, she is automatic, which is taking a bit of getting use to. The only time I have driven automatics is while on holiday in the USA, so I feel I should be on the other side of the road!

To complete my "mid-life crisis" I have started a diet, let my hair grow long for the first time in years, and moved the walking machine into the house so that I can get fit.

24th June 2009

Wow. what an exciting start to the day. Postman called at 7.15 am with a USA parcel from my Spring Mini quilt swap. Not only is the quilt wonderful and the machine quilting brilliant, there was also chocolate and FQ's enclosed. Thank you so much Maya.. I love it.

On the left are the 9 completed Baltimore blocks [ from Fatcat patterns]. It has been a struggle to get the machine applique done, but at last they are ready for the next step.. not sure what that is going to be yet!

Holiday in Scotland

Just back from two weeks holiday in Scotland where I tried to find time to make a USA paper pieced star each day. I actually managed to make 11 stars [see photo] of the 30 I eventually want to make. They are from Carol Doak's book 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars.

Most of my time was taken up watching dolphins from the lounge window, I had never seen them in the wild around the coast of Great Britain and three days I managed to watch them. Plus grey seals were lolling about on the beach near our hired cottage. An added treat was seeing an Osprey flying over the Spey River estuary.

A visit to two patchwork shops meant my stash busting is not doing too well this month!

Back home I have 1078 emails in my in box! so a lot have been deleted or I will never catch up!

Four projects worked on in May / June

Playing catch up with my blog.

I am working on my Baltimore blocks, machine quilting them, 5 completed and 4 partially done.. really want to get them ready to join together.

The chicken pincushion was my swap and went with a length of liberty fabric to Polly auntpollysporch.blogspot.com.

The snails trail quilt was finally backed, quilted and the binding sewn on.. another UFO bites the dust!

Final photo is of the June lottery block sent to Carol Doak's yahoo group..
Talking of Carol Doak, I have started to plan making a 30 star paper pieced quilt from her book. At the moment I have the patterns printed and some of the fabric cut out.. watch this space.