Swedish Quilt - finished :)

This really was a quickie!

I started making this quilt about 3-4 weeks ago for my dear friend Lisa's Mum who will be celebrating her 70th birthday on Sunday. Inger is Swedish (hence the colours yellow and blue) and we all had a wonderful time at Richard and Lisa's wedding in Sigtuna, Sweden in May this year.

Since beginning this, there's been a couple of family visits, a little bit of quilting bee work, and a big clearing up of the spare room so I really am delighted to have finished it last night and I can't wait to hand it to the birthday girl tomorrow:)

I love looking back at how a quilt is born and grows, don't you?

Details: 'Memories of Sigtuna' for Inger

Pattern: based on 'Blossom Time' from this book by Pam and Nicky Lintott

Size: 58" x 58"

Started: 14th July

Finished: 8th August

Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

A little bit on my WIP ...

Just a little sewing tonight but it was lovely. Whilst measuring and cutting, pinning and sewing, pressing and thinking, I was listening to BBC Radio 2 at the Proms with Ken Bruce and Petroc Trelawny - presenting 'a treasure of British light music classics performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra live from the BBC Proms'. I loved it :)

I finished sashing my Swedish Quilt and am now onto the border. I have just done the one strip for now: 1) I ran out of time and 2) I haven't made my mind up about the other 3 sides yet :)

It won't be staying on the floor ... there's a little bundle of furry gorgeousness lurking in the loft!

Linking up to Lee @ Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and checking out what everyone else is up to. 

Here are some of my favourites this week:

• Stephanie @ Quarter incher has made a fabric box ... hmmmm :)
• Liz @ Shush I'm Quilting is mixing up straight line and stipple quilting in her quilt - an idea for my Swedish Quilt, maybe?
• Sarah @ Georgia Girl Quilts - who hasn't had much time for sewing because of a yard sale. My kind of girl - after all that hard work; it's got to be a bottle of beer!

Going to have to stop browsing now or me and the duvet will be fighting at 0530 when the alarm goes off!

A good weekend's work ...

I know we shouldn't complain about the weather (but that's what we Brits do!). It has been very warm again this weekend, which saps all my energy and then I'm in danger of wanting to move very little -  the thunder and lightening we had yesterday was pretty spectacular, though, and it does feel cooler this evening as I sit now writing this post with the garden doors open :)

DH has worked really hard in the house and garden, bless him. Remember when we cleared the loft, all the 'stuff' went into the spare bedroom:

Well, this is what it looks like tonight after we sorted, binned, charity shop gifted and stored what we are keeping! Ta daaaaaaaaaaa:

It desperately needed doing - dear MIL and SIL arrive on Thursday for a long weekend and though they said they'd happily room share, it was just the push we needed to get it done. And I managed to find some sewing time too ... don't I always?! Here's where I'm up to on my Swedish Quilt:

Just some more sashing to attach and then I need to think about whether it needs a border ... tempted to add a wide 6" out of the blue roses fabric - what do you think?

Have a good week, whatever you're up to :)

Swedish Quilt ... coming along nicely :)

As hot as it is in London ... and it is! And with dear niece and fiancé visiting, I haven't had bags of time this week to crack on making this quilt but I'm getting there. I still have to cut and attach all the 2.5" sashing and decide on a final layout but I'm confident I will have it all done by my deadline of the 10th August. I'm not sure yet about the layout - same colour rows or rows of alternate colours? Blocks all facing the same way or mixed up? Hmmm:

As I visited Lee's blog to link up, I read about her feelings about her Farmer's Wife Quilt - I'm also 'stuck' with mine. I was a frenzied FWQ block maker last year (I started mine in October) making 6 blocks a week but then the unmade blocks got harder to make and I was making other quilts and Pants Bags so, bless, it just got abandoned.

I laid them all out tonight (not in any particular order): 

You know, I really want to finish this this year so am setting myself a little goal - a block a fortnight until I have enough (I never intended to do them all). I know I can do it :)

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

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: