3 finishes, a WIP and a new start ...

Happy weekend!

Why stop at one teddy bear baby quilt when you can make another? Having made the blue one for baby Matthew, last weekend I started on a pink one from these fabrics:

 

This was made for Jacki; our families lived next door to each other in Skelmersdale, Lancashire in the 1970s. We were very close back then, we'd go off on camping holidays a couple of times a year, our Mums and Dads were great friends and Jacki's sister Mandy was my first best mate! We were also part of a dance troup trained by my Mum and their Mum, Aunty Brenda. Here we all are in (I think) 1973/4. That's me in the bottom row (with the end of my arrow on Mandy and Jacki in the centre with the end of her arrow on my older sister, Debbi):

 

When I was aged 7, our family moved to Wales and we still met up for camping holidays and visited for a few years but, sadly, over time we lost touch :( until the end of last year when, out of the blue, Aunty Brenda rang my Mum and through Facebook, I'm back in contact with Mandy and Jacki ... got to love social networks, hey?

So here's the quilt I made this week for Jacki, she's thrilled with it:

 

Love making these teddy bear quilts - I could seriously make baby quilts all day long, couldn't you? My other two finishes are the Christmas Tree mug rug for Pam at work. Made from scraps and a penguin fat quarter, I free motion quilted some stars and loops and straight line appliqued the Christmas tree, star and tinsel. It really didn't take very long to do. I even hand sewed the back of the binding but then, that is my favourite part of quilting:

 

The binding fabric for both of these came from my little binding basket. This is where all my leftovers go until I reuse them:

And the advent calendar made out of a Makower Christmas panel. This was a fun project to sew - the instructions were very clear (half the battle when doing anything for the first time) and this one's actually for us! I have two more to make which I'll be gifting to friends with children:

 

My WIP is a Moda charm square lap quilt for my deputy at work, who's going to be off sick for a few weeks :( started on Wednesday, here's where I'm up to:

 

 

And this weekend, I'm starting on my niece's table runner and mats from this bundle of gorgeousness:

 

LOVE LOVE LOVE my hobby! What are you up to this week? I'll pop over and take a look as well as drooling overall the beautiful things shared at Amanda Jean's Finish it up Friday and Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict:

Christmas stuff and other WIPs :)

I'm loving my quilting the last few weeks. Unusually for me, I have a few things on the go but some are nearly finished so I'm not getting too stressy about it. My biggest problem? I keep adding to my list! Take tonight after dinner, I've started on a new lap quilt for one colleague and a large mug rug for another and they weren't even ideas in my head, never mind written down on a list until 6pm!

Mandy, my loyal deputy, is going to be off work for a few weeks having had an operation on her foot. It's only been 3 days and I miss her already :(  She is so active, hates daytime TV and will be going stir crazy before the first week's convalescing is up! I'm going to visit her during the next week or two so thought I'd make her a little lap quilt out of fabric in my stash - she'll appreciate that :) 

I made her a tote bag last year and she loved the fabric I used - a Moda Lumiere de Noël charm pack and I had another one on the shelf so thought of a pattern that would use all 42 squares and 2 x 1/2 yards of contrasting light and dark fabrics:

I laid out all the squares first so I knew I'd like the layout: 

Then I just put an alternate light and dark 2 1/2" x 5" strip to be sewn on the right hand side and a contrasting 2 1/2" x 7" strip to be sewn on the bottom. So easy! Two rows done, five to go ... at this rate, it'll be finished by the weekend! 

As long as I don't get distracted ... again. I was going to call it a night, remembered I'd promised Pam at work a mug rug and made a start on it. Pam LOVES Christmas - seriously loves it ... all the tinsel and lights :) She even leaves (some) decorations up all year around (bless her!) so what better than a Christmas tree on penguin fabric!?

Still got to appliqué it, baste, quilt and bind it but think this will be another quickie. And I've nearly finished my first advent calendar, just got to bury some knots and hand sew the binding:

Imagine what I'd get done if every day was the weekend ... SIGH ... looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to over at Lee's link up: 

A 'cracking' start to 2011!

I should stick to quilting - enough with the funnies.
This was my unfortunate start to 2011 after an accident whilst skiing in January. Two breaks to the ankle / calf, snapped ligaments and two cracked ribs meant I was unable to quilt for weeks ... I was bereft :-(

Thank goodness for dear husband who didn't listen to me when I said, "I'm sure I can hop up the ladder into the loft!" and brought my sewing stuff down to the spare bedroom and set me up with a mini quilting studio until I was all better.

And Nell? Oh, she just loved sleeping in the batting:

I DO love her ... the little madam ;)

I managed to move between the make-shift ironing table/cutting area and sewing table by pushing and pulling myself around on the ‘wheelie' chair but I wasn't able to quilt for long as the ribs were A G O N Y ... far greater pain than the leg - never want to experience that again. Also, the leg in plaster meant it did not like being vertical so I was quite limited in the time I could spend sewing - after an hour, some days, I'd really had enough ... so I made up for that my spending loads of time S H O P P I N G!!

I found eBay had a much better selection than I would have thought as well as some local (ish) shops that had internet ordering and I got in enough supplies in to make another set of table mats and table runner whilst still in plaster:

It was good practice ... they're really mini quilts so you get to have a go at piecing, basting, quilting and binding but on a much smaller (and manageable) scale. And it made me happy ... I'm not used to being off work and spending so much time on my own so it was a great way to pass the time.

It was around this time, I really discovered quilting bloggers (mainly USA quilters) and I could (and did!) spend hours a day drooling over their fabulous creations. Looking for smaller things to make, I stumbled across posts on 'mug rugs' and made a couple of these for friends:

Also, I couldn't stay away from making cushions and Pants Bags!

For the Church raffle (my first of many!)

More to come from early 2011 ... gosh I DO love my hobby ... I am so lucky;)