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: 

I cried ... and I cried ... and then I cried some more!!

It's been quite a tough week at work so after dinner last night, I was going to do some quilting on my butterfly quilt but instead we decided to watch a film. A comedy would have been a good choice or even a thrilling action movie ... but we watched Les Misérables and the tears came! Boy, did they :'(

I cried when Fantine's hair was shorn. Then, again when she died. Pulled myself together (just!) until Jean Valjean sung 'Bring him Home' and sobbed my heart out when he died at the end ... what an amazing film! Bless him, DH was a bit worried about me ... said he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen me cry at a film like that! 

If you've never seen it, there's lots of clips on You Tube to whet your appetite - I particularly love Colm Wilkinson's version of Bring him Home and, of course, the brilliant Susan Boyle brought the epic song I Dreamed a Dream to the masses when she auditioned with it on Britain's Got Talent in 2009.

So, from crying like to a baby, to my one finish this week which was this little baby quilt for Laura at work:

I posted about it earlier in the week and have since been asked to make another one for a friend and, as this really was such a dream to make, how could I refuse? And a bonus for me - this one's for a baby girl so I get to use my pinks! Here's my choices of fabric (so far!) and some fleeced fabric for the backing ... I just might get cracking on this over the weekend: 

Or I might finish quilting my charity quilt - I have done all the straight line quilting but think it needs something more - perhaps some FMQing in the butterflies? There's not a lot of space to move around in so my usual stippling is not going to work. Have been over to see what free motion quilting designs the fabby Leah Day has to share and I think I'm going to try making her pebbles. She really has the best site - everything's clearly signposted, categorised by ability, and there are videos for each design ... yes, pebbles - how difficult can it be?!

And no more sad films for me this weekend! 

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

Baby Quilt quick finish ... meet Ted!

I started making this little baby boy pram / crib quilt for Laura (a friend at work) on Saturday afternoon and finished it (late) on Sunday evening - I'm well chuffed!! Isn't he a cutie:

All the fabric was from my stash, except for the baby fabric fat quarter. I do like Makower Spraytime fabrics, I think they're my favourite 'blender' and this orange was just perfect for the quilt and binding. I think my tortoise-slow hand stitching the back of the binding probably was the longest part of the quilt making but I LOVE the whole process of making and attaching the binding, do you?

The backing fabric is fleeced and was thick enough, I thought, so I didn't add any extra wadding / batting and it FMQ'd like a dream  - with one bobbin and in less than an hour ... I know!!! (Doing a little happy dance!)

His cute little eyes and nose were made using a cotton reel as a template and appliqued with a small zig-zag stitch:

The pattern is from this book by Pam and Nicky Lintott of The Quilt Room - I have used this book before and find their patterns really easy to follow:

I can't remember where I read this tip (might have been Carla or Julie?) but instead of just discarding the cut off triangle bits, I sewed another 1/4" seam at the same time so no wastage and 26 little HSTs for another project ... yay!

Although it was meant to be made using a jelly roll, I upped the sizing a little bit as I only wanted to make one teddy bear, not 4 as the pattern called for. But I might just make it with 4 in the future if I wanted a larger quilt.

I am so looking forward to giving this to Laura and baby Matthew - she doesn't know I've made it so it will be a lovely surprise. Linking up with Quilt Story - Fabric Tuesday :)

You made me 'do a Gwyneth' !!

Yes, you lovely followers you, when I woke up yesterday morning and immediately grabbed my iPad (as you do!) and read all your wonderful comments on Friday's post about my quilting and blogging, I must confess I ... large GULP ... got a little teary :'-)

It woke DH up so I read him some of your comments and then, being the drama queen I am, I did a bit of this:

With my own, "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for xxx and I also want to thank xxx so much for their help and support"... it made us both laugh ... you probably had to be there but take my word for it ... it was funny! Thank you x

And so, drum roll, please ... who is the lucky winner of the Christmas FQs: 

It's: 

Congratulations dear Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts who left me this sweeeeeeet comment:

Oh, Jennifer you are a fabby quilting blogger and we love you! Congratulations on your 200th post! That is exciting! Love your house blocks pants bag. Regarding the quilting across and bumping up..... I wish I had an answer for that one. But I am getting pretty good at burying knots!

Thank you for the opportunity to win those festive fat quarters! I have been on a Christmas project kick and would sew love to use those on a table runner or stocking. Did you know there are only 74 days left until Christmas?

Isn't she a darling? 

And, as promised, I have spent a lot of time sewing over the weekend! After a quick trip into Rochester to buy some batting and a little bit of fabric, I made a start on a baby boy quilt for my friend Laura at work, who has given birth to Matthew - pleased to say Mummy and baby both doing well. Inspired by the new fat quarter I bought, (bottom left), I pulled all the other fabric from my stash: 

It wouldn't be me if I chose something easy peasy! Also, why keep it simple and follow the pattern exactly when you can shake it up, add inches and have to work it all out because you want one bigger teddy bear rather than four small ones?!

It's actually been lovely to work on and here's a WIP photo: 

And, just because I could, I made a start on this Makower Advent Calendar (bought the panels weeks ago): 

I've had the best weekend, hope you enjoyed yours too :) 

My 200th post :)

I don't like wishing my life away but I have been so looking forward to today since like Monday afternoon! It's Friday and I have been sewing this evening since I got home from work and I intend to sew ALL WEEKEND toooooooo!

Only a little finish to share ... I've made another Pants Bag for my Kansas friend Carla @ Creatin' in the Sticks ... well, for her daughter actually who is a huge KU Jayhawks fan (yeah, I had to Google them too!) and here are they are having a grand time in their colours: 

So out of these fabrics:

And inspired by Maria's super houses, I made this:

And now there's going to be another owner of a Pants Bag ... they're getting everywhere!! 

Some progress on my Macmillan Cancer Support charity quilt which I started quilting tonight. I've done some straight line quilting along the sashing (ugh, my least favourite type of quilting) but I'm not sure about it ... why does it ruche up and get stuck over where the seams join -  am I going too slow / too quick? 

And all those knots to bury:

DH thinks I should now stipple the butterfly blocks and borders ... hmm, we'll see!

And so this is my 200th post! Who'd have thought it? Not me, that's for sure. Like quilting, I'm still an amateur at blogging - I make mistakes, I get stuck in a rut, I think everyone is much better at it than me and it's not always pretty but I love it! And I love my followers - they really make it worthwhile - so I'm going to put all their names in a hat tomorrow morning and the winner will receive these 4 Christmas fat quarters I especially bought this week as a little thank you from me:

Have a fabby weekend, whatever you're up to. Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict:

Busy Bee!

Busy at work, busy at home ... so busy that the deadline for this round of the Strip Bee Quilt jumped out at me and I had a bit of a panic when I read everyone's emails on Friday night saying they were ready to post ... how did that happen?!

Just a reminder, there's six of us involved - from all over the UK - who have never met (hoping that might change one day), each adding a 40.5" strip to each others' quilts as they get passed from one quilter to the other. This was my strip  - which I passed on to Amy @ Cloud CouCou Crafts:

Round 2 - I received Fran's @ Patchy Rose strip - stars from a star:

And tonight, I finished adding my strip (Round 3) to Maria's quilt @ sew love to sew which had been to Fran before coming to me. Aren't Maria's houses the greatest? 

So, next week, I think I'll be receiving either Julie's @ Mack and Mabel or Sarah's @ Quilt Candy quilt and will have 6 weeks to add my strip ... it's such fun! I can only say that now I've finished - this time yesterday, I wasn't so calm but I only have myself to blame. 

We're not supposed to put pressure on ourselves but when I received Maria's strip from Fran, what she had added was so amazing, I just felt I had to 'step-up' and decided I wanted to paper piece either bird or butterfly blocks. Yes, I know - silly woman!

It's not like I've paper pieced that much before - a couple of square in squares cushions and Pants a Bags so ... SERIOUSLY ... what was I thinking?? I bought this pattern off Craftsy (very reasonable) by Linleys Designs:

and it worked very well but the first block was wayyyyyy too big for the quilt and some of the pieces were so small, I didn't see how I could reduce it in size - that was yesterday morning! So, back to ye old faithful Google Images and I found a couple but they weren't quite what I was looking for. You know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention? I made my own! 

We're only supposed to post sneak previews of the strip before passing it on but I don't think Maria will mind if I share with you the ingredients of just one block - I drew my pattern, cut out some templates for the wings and background, sorted through my scraps, paper pieced the wings, unpicked LOTS and made a heck of a mess:

But, it was worth it - all done before dinner tonight and it will be in the mail tomorrow! I have really enjoyed my sewing this weekend - I pushed myself, I found a solution, I had to take my time but I cracked on with it and am really really pleased with how it all ended up - hope Maria will like it! Just need Glinda to wave her wand again and for my sewing room to be tidied!!

WIP Charity Quilt ...

I have only made a little progress on my Macmillan Cancer Support charity quilt (started here) - I did an hour last night and hoped to have finished the top tonight but after a 14 hour day at work, my weary legs can't make it up the loft ladder! 

I was going to go with a more fancy border but thought there was enough going on in the quilt without adding lots more seams ... well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! Here's where I'm up to:

Linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday, hosted  this week by the 'Paper Piece Princess' herself  Kristy @ Quiet Play - she really does the most amazing work - very inspiring. 

DH said he'd hang my notice board back up in the loft at the weekend because I'm losing track of all my promised projects. So far, I know these are on my things to do list:

1) At least 3 new cushions for SIL's conservatory

2) Pants Bag for the daughter of a friend

3) Strip Bee strip (round 3) to add to Maria's quilt 

4) Two baby quilts

5) Table mats and runner and 1 or 2 bedroom cushions for dear niece

If only I could sew all. day. long ... ah well, one day *sigh* :)