A quick fix :)

Yesterday was my first day back sewing since before Christmas. We had the most wonderful time with family in Anglesey and Chester (ate far too many roast potatoes and chocolates!)  but ...  it is good to be home - I can sew! Do you miss your sewing when you're away from home?

So, easing myself back in gently, I looked for some instant gratification. I've been wanting to replace my 4 living room cushions for a while - the ones I've got (sadly) are looking a bit tired and you can't keep making beautiful stuff for everyone else and not for yourself once in a while, hey?

I've never made a 'card trick' block and inspired by the image in this book, DH then helped me choose this fabric from my stash (he is good!):

I worked out the centre square needed to end up around 8" so I made each of the 9 squares at 3". The only trouble I had was by making the squares with the HSTs and QSTs method, I ended up with some squares I couldn't use (the small triangles were on the wrong side???) so, not wanting to 'waste' fabric, I've just made the one cushion for now:

What do you think I should do - do you think I should make 3 more cushions exactly the same or use the same fabric but do different designs?

Happy New Year - wishing you health, happiness and fun times in 2013 :)

639 little pieces ... It's finished!

I previously blogged about this quilt here and here and here and I can't tell you how happy I am to have it finished before Christmas. My dear SIL is going to have 13 of us around the table on Christmas Day so the very least I could do was finish this quilt for her and I LOVE IT - hope she does too!!

Whilst looking for loose threads and tails to be hidden, I did a little counting ... give or take, there are 639 prices of fabric in this quilt top - 221 alone in the building on the far left as you look at it - I know, what was I thinking?!

Most of the fabric Deb chose herself in Amsterdam, supplemented with a Moda Serenade charm pack, some Makower sky, some Stof brick and extra bits and pieces from my stash along the way.

As I wasn't working to a pattern (not to be advised for the faint hearted!), it was a bit hit and miss at times with fabric choices and building sizes designed and decided upon as ideas popped into my head but I managed to work it all out in the end. Also, my original plan of this being a 60" x 60" lapquilt got a bit 'lost' and this now measures 72" x 62" - oh well, it can cover a couple of laps :D

I was tempted to try a different quilting style - thought about trying straight lines - but the coward in me decided best to stick to what I know so 'stippling' with a lemon cotton - looks lovely. 

Cute yellow and orange gingham pieced for the back:

And the all important label:

I hope she likes the little Amsterdam touches: the tulips, the cobblestones, the bicycles and, of course, the red light in one of the windows :)

I have really really loved making this quilt; big thanks again to Mandy Monroe for her great workshop which taught me some new techniques and I can't wait to see Deb's face when I hand it over :)

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday

4 more little Christmas gifts :)

Anyone else feeling a little bit under pressure this week to get everything done in time? Yeah, me too! But am mightily relieved to have finished my nephews' Pants Bags:

And I made another one for a friend - not sure it will arrive in time for Christmas but am hoping she'll love it when it finally arrives:

Come back and visit me tomorrow: I've finally finished dear SIL's Amsterdam quilt ... YAY :)

Nearly finished :)

I was in the loft til 10 o'clock last night finishing the piecing of this quilt for my dear SIL - it's ended up at 72" x 62" ... so a little bit bigger than the 'lap quilt' I had intended!

DH helped me baste it this morning and now I'm FMQing ... my oh my, am I a happy quilter???

I'll post more photos and details when it's completely finished :)

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday

With MY sausage fingers???

Sharing my WIP ... this is going to be a lapquilt (60" x 60") for dear SIL - a Christmas present, if I can get it finished in time! Which is getting less and less likely with my improvisation at every stage just adding hours to the piecing of the top!

I am designing the quilt based on our trip to Amsterdam and inspired by this image:

And am not following any pattern, just making each house up as I go along ... which led to me cutting and sewing all these 1" squares for windows ... not easy when you have 'sausage' fingers like mine!

And a little preview of the other houses:

I need some more hours in the day ... I wonder if Father Christmas is listening???

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday :)

Some little finishes ...

I'm very happy it's Friday because tomorrow and Sunday I am going to SEW SEW SEW all of the hours I possibly can :)

I have just a few finishes to share with you today. I am making my nephews Pants Bags as Christmas gifts - I have other presents to put in their bags and I am really enjoying making something personal for each of them.

First up, a friend also paid me ( yay - more fabric!) to make 3 Pants Bags for her to give as gifts:

This is the first one for my nephew, Ollie:

And a tote bag for my niece, Libby (she already has a a PB):

I WILL finish piecing the top of dear SIL's Amsterdam quilt tomorrow! Hope you all have a great weekend ... whatever you're up to :)

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday

WIP Wednesday - a few Christmas gifts :)

Updating this post today (06/01/2013) to link it up to Fiber of All Sorts 2013 - A 
Lovely Year of Finishes. This month, I am going to finish the twin size quilt I started in November (please see below) which, when finished, I will send to America so that it can be given to a Hurricane Sandy survivor.

Original post:
Brrrrrr ... It's turned cold in London today - definitely time to get the winter woollies out! It's so cold, I didn't even venture ino the loft after work to sew so not much to share tonight.

I am making 7 Pants Bags as Christmas gifts and did all the cutting yesterday in one go. I planned on having a couple of hours in the evenings doing solid chain piecing in one hit:

... but I couldn't help myself and made two first, I just need to tidy the sides and insert the ribbons:

 

And remember all this lovely fabric I got from the generous Tonya? Well, I'm going to make a quilt for a young person and find a USA link that can donate it for me to a hurricane Sandy survivor. I saw this pattern by Colette Cogley in the Nov/Dec edition of Love of Quilting:

and whilst I'm not doing strip blocks, I liked the simplicity of the pattern. Here's my centre piece - 56 charm squares (from Moda's Cape Ann):

Linking up to Freshly Pieced Quilts WIP Wednesday and definitely recommend having a look around the others - there's some great work out there! Here's a few posts I looked at today on blogs I haven't visited before - good on Lee for hosting this link up every week:

Julia at Life as a Quilter

Mrs Pickles at Mrs Pickles Garden

Tessa Marie at The Sewing Chick

 

http://fiberofallsorts.blogspot.co.uk/p/lovely-year-of-finishes.html?m=0

Alice's Birthday Bag :)

Oh we've had fun today! There's nothing like spending 6 hours with a thirteen year old to make you appreciate how unimportant the 9-5 stresses of working life really are ... she's the best company and I knew most of the music we listened to on the radio :)

This post contains lots of pictures so I'm going to keep the text to a minimum and the pictures tell the story really well. Firstly, please meet Alice ... today is part of her birthday present with 'mad Aunty Jenni' ... I love this kid and she loves ... sweets!

Practising her 1/4" seams:

Auditioning fabrics ... we're going to make a bag:

Chain piecing ... still lots of sweets there:

Now that's what I call a perfect 1/4" ... good job, Alice:

Making the inside pocket ... ok, Alice, I could have left you a little more room to pull it through! She was in stitches ... I put her ' problem solving' skills to great use:

Making the lining ... hey, where have all the sweets gone?? I was at the ironing board for like 5 minutes!! 

All component parts ready for assembly:

Button sewing, she's under there somewhere:

And finally after a little unpicking ( yes, Alice, I should have listened to you when you said the button holder didn't look like it was on the right side!):

One very sweet and funny birthday girl with a unique bag:

Thank you, Alice, I have had such a fabby day :)

A little finish ...

Whilst I am really enjoying making my Farmer's Wife Quilt, making 6 blocks a week takes up a lot of time. I have managed to make a Pants Bag this week but nothing else :( 

I made this one for my friend Ian - he's the coolest guy I know and a retro 70s Pants Bag will hopefully suit him:

Just home from a fabby night out with Ian and friends. We ended up at a great Thai restaurant in Covent Garden and he really likes his Pants Bag:

Looking forward to the weekend as I intend to work on SIL's Amsterdam Quilt tomorrow and my friend's 13 year old daughter, Alice, will be coming to spend a day sewing with me on Sunday ... not sure what we're going its make yet ... its her birthday treat so she can choose EXACTLY what she wants :) 

Linkng up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday 

Have a great weekend of sewing!

Farmer's Wife Fabby Friday (6)

Am I late or early? Well, I didn't get any blocks made last week :( but I have finished this week's a day early :) and it's Friday somewhere in the world!! Happy Friday, Australia!

These 6 little beauties came together quite quickly this week, though they still are a bit fiddly and you really must keep looking at the picture in the book as you sew all the pieces together - its so easy to assume you know the position and then you crack on under your own speed ... Oops, thank goodness for a seam ripper, hey?!

So, here are my latest 6 blocks (now up to 36 ... yay!) #4 Basket Weave - got to be the easiest block in the book and it still went skewiff - look at the 'wonkiness' of the top left square - oh well,  one saying I'll definitely take from making this quilt - 'it's good enough': 

#5 Bat Wing:

#9 Box:

#15 Buzzard's Roost:

#23 Country Farm:

#29 Economy:

 And all 6:

I think my favourite this week is #23 ... what's yours?