Strip Bee ... Round 3 ... Ding-a-ling :)

Exciting times! Round 3 of our Strip Bees Quilting Bee is upon us (please see this post for its origins). In short, we all make a strip - 40.5" long in any style, width, number of blocks and colour of our choosing, then forward it to the next quilter, who adds their strip, passes it on until it returns home with all 6 strips completed.

I have now received Maria's strip with Fran's added to it. We're only allowed to show sneak previews along the way so I can't show you what delightful objects Fran has added but here's Maria's 'crazy houses' - aren't they fabby? I love them:

So, what am I going to add to it? Hmmmmmm ... I'm getting some inspiration from these Google images:

Seriously??? I don't know! I really don't but I might use some of my new fabric:

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Happy days :)

A great weekend with our wonderful family :)

We left London at 9am last Thursday and got back at 3pm this afternoon. During our time away, we slept in 3 different beds in England and Wales (Llangefni, St Asaph, Chester) and met up with 19 different family members! We have had a fun time :)

The main reason for going home was for Aunty Ruth's 89th birthday - she loved her quilt! She said the nicest things about it and it was so lovely to surprise her. Here we all are at the restaurant on Saturday night (sorry for the poor quality photo) and the cake which the Italian waiters brought out as they sang 'happy birthday' whilst banging trays!

And here is the birthday girl at the barbecue yesterday - isn't she adorable?

My sweet niece bought me this wooden sign and my dear SIL bought me the books in a charity shop for 99p:

Some new fabric had arrived in the post:

And after we got home, I just had to sew something so I made this Pants Bag for my new friend, Julie over at Mack and Mabel - we're taking part in a Strip Bee quilt and Julie loved the idea of my recent Pants Bags so I just had to make her one! This fabric was part of a Liberty fabric stash I bought at the V and A quilt exhibition in 2010 - it was good to finally use it:

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3 down ... 4 to go :)

I have to make 7 Pants Bags* for Mutter (my mum) to take on her holiday to Germany in September ... well, she doesn't ask me for much anything and she wants to take them as presents for all my aunts and cousins.

I didn't think I'd made that many this year until I checked out my 'other finishes 2013' page and counted 14 already! How does that happen?! 

On Sunday, I made a start by opening my little house of scraps:

And then I just went with the flow. I love making Pants Bags like this because I really don't know how they'll turn out ... I get to touch lots and lots of fabric and always end up with bags of different sizes and patterns: 

I love them and I hope Mutter and my family will too :) Linking up:

(*Pants Bags is the name I call these drawstring bags as I use them when I travel - I don't like to put my drawers in other people's drawers, so to speak!)

Ah Paris ... c'est très magnifique :)

I have started a new quilt today - don't know who for yet :) I have only ever bought one Moda Layer Cake:

I actually bought this one two years ago (I think) so it was high time it got opened, don't you agree? And how pretty:

Had an idea in my head for a pattern  - must have got it from somewhere but could not find any images / patterns / blog posts so just went for it! I knew I'd need some 'blender' fabric and was lucky to find this cream 'Dimples' in my stash:

Once I'd worked out which order to sew in and made the first block, it just flowed:

I think it needs sashing to frame the blocks and stop them getting lost in each other so have ordered some sage green ...  hope it matches!

Oh and I spruced up my old pink (sun faded) chair with the Cath Kidston fabric I bought last week. Now it matches my radio ... yay!

... it's the little things that make me smile!

Playing with fabric :)

Slowly but surely, I'm moving my supplies back into the loft / sewing room. I could leave it until the weekend but I'm hoping to do a little bit after work each night so that I can spend ALL day Saturday sewing :D

Thank you from me and DH for all the lovely comments you left about our decorating efforts - the pink Annie Sloane 'accents' were a hit with you too!

So, tonight I moved all my fabric back - I was up and down the ladder 6-7 times ... erm, there is quite a bit of it! I know I don't have the largest stash (go and Google 'large fabric stash' and look at the images of some very very large stashes!) but I was quite flabbergasted to see it all piled up:

And shame, there was even some I had forgotten about which I really need to use up:

Everything over 1/2 yard went back into the hanging baskets (wrapped around comic boards) and my fat quarters went back onto the cd shelf:

So far, it's all looking good up there. I'm not allowing myself any new purchases (fabric, storage or furniture) until it's all unpacked and I can assess what I need (not what I want!) Tricky ... very tricky :)

Best I get creating sooooooooooon!!

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Did we buy the house?!?

I know my little band of faithful followers are dying to know how the house viewing went on Saturday? You're not?! Well, I'm just going to bore you with all the details anyway :)

Remember the outside:

Well, it was as lovely inside ... not perfect (it's been a holiday home for 9 years and, honestly, you could tell) but it had lots of character and it was still very tempting! Look at the quarry tiles and that Belfast sink on bricks in the downstairs loo:

And the imposing wooden staircase:

And a great sized utility room (never had one, always wanted one):

There were glorious old wooden latch doors, parquet flooring and floorboards everywhere. More than enough space to live and quilt in. So, lots of positives ... but ... it wasn't for us. There was an issue of shared access to half of the drive (leading to a range of local authority outbuildings behind the house used for forestry purposes), there were two large ponds adjacent to the property (actually one looked a bit 'swampy') which would be mosquito paradise and I am mosquito fodder at the best of times and there were a lot of different sized steps all around the house and gardens which wouldn't be visitor friendly enough for us.

I'm sure it will be a wonderful home for someone ... just not for us, sadly :(

On the bright side, we had a wonderful weekend with family in Chester and my dear Aunty G joined us for the house viewing and afterwards for a most delicious lunch at the fabby Pant-yr-Ochain country pub (we were in Wales, remember!) and it was as pretty as its picture:

Back home and we're still in major house upheaval but hoping to get the loft / sewing room painted this weekend. Might have to ask one of DH's friends to help us out ... so not a lot of sewing to share. 

I did make a linen Pants Bag after work tonight. This one is for Lucy who is leaving work to go travelling and I thought this might be a fun gift for her to pack her pants in on her travels:

Remaining optimistic ... I know the right house is out there :)



Linking up to Plum and June's Let's get Acquainted Monday link-up hosted this week by Laura C @ little and lots

and also to Quilt Story's - Fabric Tuesday and Janice @ Better off Thread's Sew Cute Tuesday :)

If you're popping by on Tuesday (June 11th), do please go and visit the lovely Shauna @ lovinquiltin and and leave her a birthday blogging message! 

Was it something I said??!!

Rescue cats ... do you have one? Has yours got over their bad experiences? I think mine has abandonment issues ... still ... after nearly 4 years! Ok, Nell, so we went away two weekends on the bounce but you were looked after really well whilst we were away so just because Mummy decides to sew tonight doesn't mean you should be rude:

The complete opposite of her bad behaviour on the swingometer has to be acknowledgement. Look at the pretty presents I received in the post today with a lovely thank you card from Fran @ Patchy Rose who won my Giveaway:

Too nice, Fran ... and naughty but thank you :) And speaking of gratitude, I forgot to share this little Pants Bag with you which I made just after my birthday for DH's colleague, Mandy. She kindly covered his duty on my birthday afternoon so that he wouldn't be late off work ... it was the least I could do:

And a wonderful acknowledgement was the response I received today from the legendary World Class Snooker Champion - Mr Steve Davis OBE. 

You will know from this post that I am making a 'Snooker Table' Quilt for my colleague Jackie who is retiring next month after 42 years service. When I thought about getting colleagues to write goodbye message patches to sew into the back of the quilt, I wondered if I asked Steve Davis what would his response be? He his Jackie's hero. Like BIG time :)

One of my most adhered to mottos in life is, 'If you don't ask, you won't get.' Not that I encourage avarice (because I don't) but if the occasion fits, and I felt this did, then I think you should go for it. I contacted Mr Davis' Management Company and explained the reason for my request and asked if there was any chance he could sign a patch for me. 

Look at this - and a signed photo too:

I'm beyond thilled! And I think Jackie will have kittens! Thank goodness, it'll take some attention away from my wonky balls!!



Linking up with Janice over at Better Off Thread: