I'm nothing special ...

... well, I am special - we all are, aren't we - in our own way? But I mean I'm no different to thousands of other quilters across the world in that we just - keep - giving. I have been busy making lots of little gifts over the past few weeks - and I just want to keep going! 

Friends and family often comment, 'you should start charging' or 'you can't keep giving everything away for free' ... but I can. And I will (until circumstances dictate otherwise) because I really do love my hobby. And I love how much happiness a small gift can give.

Take my friend Shauna @ lovinquiltin who won my birthday giveaway. She received my gifts this week and wrote the most lovely post. Please go and check out her blog - it was her birthday this week too!) This was the sewing mat I made for her:

It was Mum's birthday (at the end of May) and I made her a new peg bag (the last one I made was very sun faded) I struggled to find an easy tutorial so just made it up as I went along. Anyone recommend one, please - my friend wants one now!

DH said we 'needed a big one' - your wish is my command, m'dear (that's our old one next to it!):

Dear niece needed some new cushions:

And my little zipped pouches have gone down a storm at work (perfect for keeping things tidy in your handbag) so I have been making lots of these as well:

Speaking of DH - he was 50 last week and I surprised him with a trip to the homeland of his father - Poland - we had an amazing time. It is my new favourite European city and we will go back:

 We loved the flavoured vodka - even made our own cherry beer one night:

Loved it so much, we brought some home! Didn't spill a drop :

But I mustn't be distracted further this weekend! I have two more weekends after this one to finish my piano quilt for my boss. Just needs a border today and basting - then I will have to think seriously about how to quilt it:

All of this activity has meant I have been neglecting my blogging friends and I have missed seeing what everyone has been up to. I shall link up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict and check in later on everyone else's finishes.

Have a great weekend and whether you sew for yourself or others - it's your job or just a hobby - you get paid or give it all away - enjoy yourself. And never forget - you are special too.

Catch up post from Jersey :)

I do have to wonder lately where does all the time go?! Since my last post, I have been working on our god-daughter's 18th birthday quilt:

I took a bit of advice from my birthday giveaway comments and included a churn dash block. My giveaway winner Shauna has let me choose fabrics for the sewing mat I'm going to make her. So I have chosen these four (and there'll be some left over for her to use):

I finished a couple of cushions for a friend's birthday:

And I made some cushions for me from fabric DH bought me for my birthday:

Have made a start on my 'Piano Quilt'

And am currently on holiday in Jersey! Five days with DH, his Mum and my Aunt. Yesterday, we just happened to stumble across a delightful fabric store (as you do) called Treadles and I made a few purchases. Today we visited Durrell Wildlife Park and stopped by the sea:

Busy couple of weeks, yes, but always enjoyable. Hope your weekend is fun too xx

Cushions ... do you love them too?

I haven't started sewing the binding on dear niece's table mats and runner yet:

... but I couldn't stop looking at the fabrics she chose for her cushions so I've made a start on them!

So, out of two fat quarters and a 1/2 yard, she's getting two 18"x18" cushions for her bedroom and I worked out the measurements for a very simple 5 x 5 pattern:

You can easily get 50 x 4" squares from this amount of fabric but I did check before cutting using Robert Kaufman's quilt helper App. I kept the pattern close by and STILL had to unpick two rows when I sewed the wrong squares together:

I always press my seams after sewing to seal the stitches - do you?

And pin - do you?

And very quickly, one cushion top finished and ready to be quilted. I love this padded square that DH made me, sits perfectly on my ironing board and makes ironing large pieces so much easier:

You don't have to press the horizontal seams open but I like to:

And this fabric was in my stash, which matches up very nicely, and will be great for the cushion backs:

Nine days before we visit dear niece and I hand over all of this loveliness - best I get a move on!

Linking up with Meg and Heather and looking forward to their Holiday Tutorial Series which starts tomorrow ... like I need to add any more projects to my ever growing list!

New house presents :)

A flying visit to family in Chester this weekend and dinner with dear niece and her fiancé in their new (and first mortgaged!) house on Friday. They only moved in just over a week ago but it already looks and feels like a warm and welcoming home and whilst they already have quite a few 'Glinda Quilty Gifts', you can never have enough, can you Hannah?!!

Chester has a couple of fabric shops but this was my first visit to Liberty Bell and it was delightful. They were running a workshop at the back of the shop, I could hear all the chatting and laughter ... I so wanted to join in! We spent ages looking through all the deliciousness and finally Hannah picked out some fabrics for a table runner and placemats:

And for some cushions for their bedroom:

And a few fat quarters for me to add to my stash. I treated myself to a baby quilts book too:

Lovely lovely new fabric - now all I need is to find some more time in the day to make everything :)

Linking up to Sunday Stash with Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts

I did tidy up!!

Fellow quilters, you make me smile!  Your humourous responses to my last post definitely confirmed we all make a mess when sewing and that I really shouldn't worry :)

I did tidy up though - you saw the 'befores' and here are the 'afters':

And so today, I could make a new mess! I made two more Pants Bags (for my cousins in Germany), a cushion for my sewing room and I started a new lap quilt. 

The Pants Bags were made out of my scraps and stash so I never quite know what design they'll end up as until I put the fabric piles together. These are #4 and #5 ... just two more to make before my Mutter goes to Germany next month:

And this little cushion was made for me from the leftovers of Aunty Ruth's layer cake quilt:

Please pardon the fugly chair - it's vintage Lloyd Loom :)

I'll post more about my new lap quilt later but here is the fabric I've chosen for it:

That's enough for one day. You can tell the evenings are drawing in - I covered  my legs with my lap quilt and look who joined me a minute later! I can count on both hands how many times in 3 years this little rescue cat has sat on my lap. Thank you, Nell - each time is precious:

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

'Man Quilt' - the rest of the story ...

I blogged about making this quilt and cushion (pillow) earlier this week. I'm still not sure you'll find the way I made the cushion in any book :D

One of DH's best friends is Mark. Mark is a character ... and a half! It was Mark who gave me my nickname Glinda after the first time we went to see the show 'Wicked' all those happy years ago. In fact, Mark has given me three names over our 14 year friendship!

I don't have a middle name - I was the only one in our group of friends and family who did not - and Mark thought I should have one so I became 'Jennifer Jane'. So, everytime we met up. A booming voice would greet me, 'Ahhhhh, its Jennifer Jane!' and so it stuck. But then a friend, whose real name was Jennifer Jane, joined our group on a ski trip and so Mark just had to think up another name for me. First day skiing, we looked at my skis ... someone had written the name 'Ashley' on the skis so for the rest of that week, I was called Ashley! Thank goodness it was a nice name :) It also helped to distinguish between me and the other Jennifer. 

At some point, we all went to see Wicked in London - a fabby show (one of my all-time favourites, I think.) For those of you who haven't seen it, there is a moment in the show when Glinda is looking at all her pretty shoes and bags, bags and shoes and in a very girly voice, tosses her blonde hair and says, 'Toss Toss' ... with that, Mark has pointed at me, pointed at Glinda on the stage, pointed back at me and a big grin appears on his face ... and the rest, as they say, is history.

So, here is the 'Man Quilt' (and bonus cushion) as requested by DH. Made over 5 nights (bit of a last minute birthday idea ... tut tut!!) and the top is made out of DH's recycled work shirts: 

And I straight-line quilted it with a gorgeous Guterman Sulky variegated blue cotton ... had no bunching problems whatsoever ... yay, way to go Glinda!! And DH decided on the red binding:

Oh, did I say, 'the rest is history?' Well, not quite ... not content with giving me the different names, Mark now calls me all 4 at the same time - 'Jennifer Jane Ashley Glinda'! Hence the label:

Happy Birthday Mark xx

Quilt facts: 'Shirt off my back' pieced from DH's 'old' 100% cotton work shirts
Size: 57" x 57"
Batting: 100% cotton off the roll from my LQS
Backing fabric: navy blue 'Dimples' by Andover Fabrics
Binding: 2 1/4" folded red Makower Spraytime
Quilted: Straight-lines drawn with Hera Marker through diagonals
Start date: 14th April
Finished: Today!!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday :)

A 'Man's Quilt!'

One of DH's best friends is Mark. It's Mark's birthday next week and DH asked if I would make him a quilt - a 'Man's Quilt!' In fact, let me rephrase that sentence. DH asked me in a very manly and deep voice to make his best mate a quilt!! So, on Sunday after making all this loveliness, I looked through my fabric. I looked ... 'sigh' and I looked again. 

Now, let me be clear, I have a LOT of fabric. Some might say 'too much' but what do they know, hey?! But what I have a lot of is pink ... and flowers and butterflies ... and, oh, more pink!!

But, what do I spy there? Ah haaaaa! Perfect! I cut up some of DH's 'old' shirts last year. All are good quality, made from 100% cotton but were 'tired' and ready to go to shirt heaven until I washed, ironed, cut them into 6 1/2" squares and waited for the perfect project. And this is it!

Because the fabic was already pre-cut, I made the top really quickly but think I need to add a dark blue border:

And then I had a few squares left over so just had to make a cushion (pillow). I decided to set myself a challenge (will I never learn?!) I wanted to make a 'sealed' cushion and bind it with the same dark blue border fabric ... would that even be possible?? Only one way to find out ... 

I made two 9-patch front and back pieces. Because the cotton is a bit thinner than usual quilting cotton, I quilted some thick Vilene interfacing to each piece. Then, I machine stitched the binding on to 3/4 of the cushion, leaving an opening big enough to stuff that cushion through! I hand sewed down the back of the binding:

Okay, deep breath, here goes. Cushion in and opening pinned closed:

And to the sewing machine ... by now, I am chortling to myself because this does not look like it's going to work!! Ever the eternal optimist, I've sewn ... slowly, very slowly:

And do you know? It worked ... it's actually worked really well. I hand sewed the last bit of the binding down and here it is:

Love it! Please come back later in the week to see if I have finished the quilt :)

Update Wednesday 17th April 1852 - just added the border, basted and now it's ready to quilt ... FMQ stipple v straight line quilting ... who will win???

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced - WIP Wednesday :)