Gifts - bags, tissues, quilts :)

I hope I never stop thinking, 'I love my hobby' because I really do. I love playing with different fabrics, planning my next makes, finishing little projects, starting big ones and giving them all away! Two fat quarters, a bit of lining fabric and ribbon - a couple of hours sewing and voila - a bunch of gifts for a few little girls:

I have been sewing a bit crazy the last few weeks making zipped bags and tissue holders ... great gifts and a wonderful use of fabric leftovers. The iPad case in the top left, I actually made for me:

I made 4 yesterday! This one is going to the USA for a friend who's been a bit under the weather:

And the others are going to friends in Yorkshire, France and Sweden:

Isn't that the great joy of quilting? Spreading the love all over the world?! 

I've also been making a quilt for a colleague who retires in September (best I get a move on quilting it then!) This is my own design, based on the things he loves (photography and rugby) and what he does at work (drinks tea and eats crisps!), using 'boy' fabrics:

Here it is on my ironing table; must make the back and baste today:

Linking up with Amanda Jean @Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Happy weekend :)

New quilt WIP :)

So my dear SIL's birthday bag arrived today in time for her birthday and she is THRILLED with it ... Happy Birthday, Deb ... I'm doing a happy dance!!

It's been glorious weather in London ... if you like it at 30C (90f) ... I'm sorry, I don't! Hey, I grew up in North Wales - we had one hot day a year :) So, when everyone else was in the garden over the weekend, I started a new quilt. Nell was also a bit hot too: 

I bought this fabric whilst on holiday in the Isle of Man. I particularly like the blue roses:

This quilt will be for my friend's Mum's 70th birthday in a month's time ... doing it to myself again - will I never learn?! Inger is Swedish and immensely proud of her heritage so the yellow and blue fabric was a given and my friend suggested adding the white. We went to my dear friend's wedding in Sweden in May - what a beautiful country.

Next - choosing a pattern. I looked at some Boston Quilts and Googled 'yellow and blue quilts', I also Googled '3-colour quilts' ... hmmm, nothing really grabbed me. So, I looked at my books - I know ... BOOKS! And, get this, I found a pattern in this book - the same book I used for my friend's wedding quilt:

Did all my cutting first:

Then I marked all the squares and began sewing just to the right of the line. I know some quilters 'eyeball' the sewing line ... I can't, so I'm happy to spend a few minutes drawing the lines:

And thanks to the tip from Julie @ MackandMabel, I am saving those triangles - who knows what they may come in handy for:

My first few blocks which will need white sashing:

Dear niece and fiancé arrived last night for a week's stay and made us a delicious Chicken Fajita dinner when we got home from work (they can come visit again!):

Linking up with Plum and June:

Everything happens for a reason :)

You'll know from my post on Wednesday - 'Lost my (sewing) Mojo' or, as called by Liz and Karen - my 'Sewjo' ... that I was a bit upset that I had messed up the handles on my SIL's birthday bag and had no more of the Cath Kidston fabric to play with. Well, thankfully the bag workshop tutor (the lovely Kate) realised where I had gone wrong. In short, because I wasn't cutting the fabric from a half metre on the fold, I should have reversed the fat quarters when cutting ...

... it still didn't solve the 'no more CK fabric' problem but thanks to having had to move everything out of the sewing room, I had come across an old bag of curtain / fabric remnants and remembered seeing some light denim fabric that I thought would be perfect ... and it was!! AND there was just enough to make the handles. To keep it in the CK theme, I sewed some of her pretty ribbon down the middles:

Well chuffed with them, I can tell you, and then it didn't take me long to get it to this stage ... I love it when you look at this and go, 'No way, that's never going to turn into a bag!'

But it did and I actually think it's turned out better than if I had used the original fabric for the handles: 

And I added a little flower to the other side:

The inside:

And the best bit? I'll get in the post tomorrow and dear SIL should receive it on her birthday on Monday! Thank you for your lovely, funny and supportive comments on Wednesday - it all worked out for the best in the end :)

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday - loving Amanda Jean's Wonky Log Cabin Quilt - it's so bright and summery!

And for the first time, please Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Lost my (sewing) Mojo!!

But only temporarily, I hope!

Seriously, what with being evicted from my sewing room whilst the loft roof was fixed, followed by some weekends away, visitors, a holiday and the hot weather we've had this week ... I'm all in a tizz cos I have forgotten how to do stuff :(

I bought this Cath Kidston fabric to make my dear SIL a bag for her birthday - it's a thicker cotton than usual quilting fabric (but not quite linen) and about FQ sized:

I made these two bags relatively easily just 2 months ago and tonight I followed the pattern, looked at some photos I took during Kate's class and worked from my memory, which should have been enough ...

But the handles are all wrong, first the original lining I cut didn't match up so I had to substitute them with plain cream then the two handles didn't match - the short ends are sewn to the short ends but the spots are supposed to be on the same side ... I just cannot work out what's gone wrong *sigh* and now I've no more of this fabric ... oh, and it's SlL's birthday on Monday :(

On a brighter note, my fellow Strip Bee quilter, Fran @ PatchyRose sent me her strip today - isn't it pretty? Along with our strip, we are sending a photo of our progress and a notebook - just look at her cute quilted book cover ... clever Fran :)

And I'll be sending  mine off to Amy @ Cloud CouCou tomorrow ... by the time I see it again, five talented and lovely quilters will have added a strip of their own design to it! Exciting stuff!

The birthday bag is definitely my work in progress this week ... wave your wand, Glinda ... wave your wand :)

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced:

They say it comes in threes ...

... and that was true in our house last week. First, the tumble drier finally gave up the ghost (it was repaired in January but the guy wasn't optimistic!) Luckily, the shop delivered a new one on Saturday and it's drying our towels as I write.

Next, because of the major house upheaval (fingers crossed the builders will finish by Wednesday), I set the ironing board up in a different place with a different plug. I wasn't looking where I was going and tripped over the lead and the iron crashed to the floor and the front smashed open. I tried to fix it but no joy :( Oh well, I just plugged in my quilting iron (longer lead too!) and carried on :)

Yesterday, I plugged the iron in, had just finished ironing some binding, turned it off at the plug and there was a flash and a bang ... after resetting the fuses, I tried it again in a different plug but it smelled real bad! Goodbye quilting iron :(

So shopping today for two new irons! Beauty and the Beast describes them well, I think:

But life is surely about balance? And good things come in threes too? Here are the best three of the good things that happened in my life last week.

1) Lucky me got a day off work to attend a great bag workshop on Tuesday :)

2) Finished quilting my Snooker Table Quilt yesterday :)

3) Went to my dear friend's (Swedish Wedding) UK party last night and there was an ABBA Tribute band!! Had the best time in the company of some really lovely people. Also got to meet up with some friends I haven't seen for ages :)

No disastrous lows in the grand scheme of things but some wonderful highs ... 

Loving the new bags!!

I blogged about making this linen bag at a wonderful workshop on Tuesday:

I won't lie ... parts of it were tricky to make and without the patience and expertise of our lovely tutor, Kate Higgens, there's no way I would have completed it from just a pattern. And I don't know about you ... I need to repeat things - soon - if I'm to learn to do them on my own.

So, after work today, I set about doing just that. I took lots of photos so that I can refer back to this post as a mini-tute in the future because I will be making loads of these gorgeousnesses!!

Step 1 - choose your fabric. No linen in my stash so this bag will be made from 100% cotton - I've chosen three different fabrics for the main bag area, the handles and the lining:

Step 2 - cut up the fabrics: this takes a bit of time but it's good to do it all at the beginning:

Step 3 - make the handles, parts of this are more fun than others!

Make the bag and add interfacing (Vilene or Pellon) and start putting it all together. Note to self - do not fix handles to the bag this way:

But, if you do, please notice it before you've finished the bag! That way, you don't have to do all that unpicking ... DOH :(

Attach handles (properly) this way:

Then do the lining:

Add a flower and a tie and - ta daaaaaaaah! Here it is - a birthday gift for dear niece:

Learnt a lot today ... it's good when that still happens, hey?

Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday

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Bestest Bag Workshop :)

I bunked off work today (took a day's leave) to attend a bag workshop at my LQS - Yarnia ... hosted by the fabby Nicci and taught by the very talented Kate Higgens who was so patient and made it such a fun learning day for me and the 4 other lovely students.

From 10am - 4pm, we happily sewed away (it was such a relaxed day) and all made the same bag in different colours and sizes and everyone finished their bag by home time :) this was the first time I had sewn with linen and it was really nice.

I learnt how to make a flower:

And a bra all in one handles:

Doesn't this look painful? It pulled through ... eventually!!

Here's everyone's finished bags:

Me and Kate (I'm such a teacher's pet!):

And my bag: 

I love it ... I'm so chuffed - put it on Facebook - big mistake ... HUGE ... as the orders have already started to come in!!

Linking up with Heather and Megan @ Quilt Story - Fabric Tuesday