Scrappy Sunday / Sunday Stash :)

Just a quickie today! Still visiting family so no sewing but in honour of my intention to use up my scraps, I have made another 4 blocks this week:

That brings me to 12 so far and still no dent in the scraps!

And yesterday, we went to Ruthin with my Aunty G - there's a lovely craft shop there so, of course,I had to pop in and make a purchase! Here's some lovely polka dots for my stash:

And dear niece just might be getting another quilt / big table mat out of this:

Hope you're having a super Sunday. Linking up with Sunday Stash, hosted this week by Lisa in Port Hope:

Gifts for dear niece for her new home :)

We live in London and our family live in Chester (a 4 hours drive) and North Wales (a 6 hours drive) so when I have gifts for family that need finishing, and I run out of time in the week, I know I have a good few hours on the car journey to get them done! (Thanks DH for driving!) Which was just as well as we were driving to Chester today and I still hadn't finished the binding on the table runner and 4 table mats I was making for dear niece.

Forgive the leg shot but I was trying to find a comfortable position! I'm sure every bump in the road made me miss a stitch:

I had finished her cushions at home during the week:

We were expected for pre-dinner drinks at 6pm and I was still stitching at 5.50pm! But I did it and 'girly' (dear niece) was over the moon! She had chosen the fabric herself the last time we were home but was still so very surprised and pleased when I took her gifts out of the bag and instructed her to 'close her eyes and open her hands'. She 'whooped' and did a happy dance :) Doesn't that make it all the more worthwhile?

Here are the cushions in situ in her bedroom:

One of the table mats - front and back:

The back of the runner and mats:

And the table runner and mats in their full glory:

Have said it before and will say it again; you can buy stuff in the shops that is cheaper and (perhaps?) better made but there really is no substitute for hand-made, unique, time-donated, lovingly-made gifts ... and her face was a picture (though she wouldn't let me take it!) Worth every minute that went into making these special things for her :)

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

Lest we forget ...

I've had a very special weekend: last night we spent the evening with our dearest friends to watch Strictly Come Dancing and eat a delicious curry - we had great fun! Their youngest had her 10th birthday this week so I made her a mini Pants Bag (7.5" x 6.5") and we filled it with sweets:

Today, we commemorated Remembrance Sunday by meeting up with old friends and taking part in a parade and service at a little village in Kent. The sun shone on us as we marched and stood in the church grounds. I am always moved at such events especially as my grandfather John Evans, a Captain in the Merchant Navy, was killed during the second World War. He was lost at sea so has no grave but is remembered at the Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill in London:

The whole service moves me but I always find these words taken from the poem by Laurence Binyon particularly poignant:

I have wanted to make and donate a quilt to a member of the armed forces for some time but just couldn't find the right pattern or decide on the colours. With DH's advice on Saturday (should have asked him months ago!), I've decided I'm going to make it in the colours of the Help for Heroes charity:

So, I have ordered some fabric today and have drawn my design based on this pattern I saw on Julie's blog on Friday:

The rest of today, I have been working on my Scrappy Sunday blocks and my Strip Bee quilt! The scrap blocks are a challenge that Jennie @ Porch Swing Quilts and I have set each other to try not to be too OCD about it and just use up our scraps. Last Sunday, I made these 4 blocks:

And this afternoon, I made these:

And I still have gazillions of scraps to use up! You have to start somewhere, hey Jennie?

We are on Round 4 of our Strip Bee Quilt organised by Maria @ Sew love to Sew and this round, I have the strip started by Julie @ Mack and Mabel:

We're not allowed to show too much of what we add as it's going to be a surprise finished quilt top for each of us at the end of the 6 rounds. But here's some of the fabrics I'm thinking of using:

And after making one block today, I cut the fabric for the 2nd block ... I have to make 5 in total. It's taken quite a bit of time but it's so worth it. I can't wait to see all 6 quilts (including mine!) at the end of this Bee:

So that's been my weekend, hope you've had a special weekend too :)

Here's your quilt, now get back to work!

I finally finished Mandy's quilt at the weekend and we visited her at home yesterday to hand it over. Mandy is my number 2 (is anyone else giggling at that? No? Just me then!) and she has been off work for 3 weeks after an operation on her foot and won't be back at work for at least another 3 ... and we miss her :(

It was so lovely to see her and the other girls had bought her chocolates, flowers and wine - she's doing alright out of this, hey?! I think it's time she hobbled back to work :D

I've said it before and, knowing me, I'll probably say it again but I remain amazed and joyful that I can turn this:

into this:

I started quilting 3 1/2 years ago and it wasn't easy. I really struggled as I hadn't really sewn before (didn't do it at school or have a relative who'd passed any skills on to me) so it could have been one of those pastimes you dip into as an adult and never master. I was hooked from the start and whilst I may never master it, I know I will always love quilting.

Taking good photographs is a bit tricky in the UK at this time of year so my photo on the garden bench above was an attempt at something new. Looking around the wet garden yesterday morning, it really was just the washing line shot I had to settle for:

At least Nell showed up for the shoot:

The back:

And the obligatory label. Our work is in the public sector so there's no bonuses I can give Mandy but when she's done great work for me, I've always said thank you and emailed her some gold stars (it's our thing) so it was fitting that when I came to name this quilt, I thought of 'Star':

Please get well, get fixed and come back to work soon, it's not the same without you x

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

Thankful Thursday :)

I love quilting, I love blogging, I am so thankful for the inspiration and generosity of ideas and all the new friends I am making - we are a lucky bunch of ladies, hey?

One of the nicest persons I've 'met' through blogging is clever Carla over at Creatin' in the sticks who wrote a lovely post recently thanking me for a Pants Bag I made for her daughter (isn't she adorable?):

Another treasure is Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts who won my 200th post giveaway. Look at the sweet gift that came for me in the post (mail) today:

Thank you, Naughty Lorna! And big thanks to Fran @ Patchy Rose who always thinks of me. She gave me the early heads-up that Rachael @ The Floral Suitcase was hosting a low volume charm swap and encouraged me to sign up ... glad I did, the spaces flew off the quilter scale and my purchase also arrived in the post today (guess I should be thankful too for Mr Postie!) I'm not a low-volume user but I think I could be converted! My contribution to the swap is by Moda - Road 15 - Little Trees - Vanilla and it's great:

Thank you also to Nina @ Quilts, Life and Balance, my fellow Oz lover who always leaves me lovely comments that make me smile. Nina took her Pants Bag to Oz recently and got a real Glinda to pose with it! Now, how wonderful is that - we're thousands of miles apart, she's on her holiday and she thinks of little old me!

And thank you, mother of the century - Jennie @ Porch Swing Quilts for challenging me to use up my scraps - Scrappy Sunday will become a regular feature from now on ... well at least until I've used up my scraps ... and that could take some time :)

Finally, thank goodness it's nearly the weekend because I have all this loveliness to work on:

Cheers m'dears :)

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!

Speedy Scrappy Sunday :)

What a busy weekend! Friday night after work, DH and I had a fabby night out at the theatre seeing Shakespeare's finest comedy - A Midsummer Night's Dream. Starring the sublime David Walliams and Sheridan Smith, it was a very good play:

Yesterday, I free motion quilted Mandy's lap quilt and straight-line quilted dear niece's table runner and mats ... just some binding to hand sew on the runner and mats and Mandy's label to be attached and these will be finished:

The lovely Jennie over at Porch Swing Quilts (one of my loyal followers) and I have been emailing each other after she left this comment on my scraps post: 

The birdcage of pink scraps is perfection.

I'm hopeless with scraps. I know in my head I need to make a scrappy quilt, but I also can't wrap my brain around truly scrappy ones. I might force myself to do one or two or ten next year. My OCD little self will have to shush in order for that to happen!

We've decided to 'challenge' each other to use up our scraps and Jennie suggested an idea from Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts - please pop over and see her post from Friday. So this morning, I made a start on my blue scraps and decided it would be that scrappy that all I needed was my scraps, a pair of scissors and my finger (to press!):

This was so quick! Like Jennie, I could never relinquish control to complete randomness so I did give a little bit of thought to choosing the fabrics but I just kept adding and adding:

... until it was about a 7" square, then I pressed it and trimmed it down and voila:

Thirty minutes later, I had done three more! Am going to stop now ... I think my Sunday mornings will be my scrappy quilt time from now on as these blocks really do come together so quickly. And I have LOTS of scraps to use up :) I wonder what Jennie's blocks will look like? 

And to cap it all, I have signed up for a 'low volume charm swap' that Rachael over at The Floral Suitcase is organising. I haven't taken part in a swap before and I don't have any suitable low volume fabric ... I'll just have to go shopping ... YAY!!