Must try harder!!

I have not been very productive at all lately on the quilting front - life keeps getting in the way :(  

Should I feel bad about that? Probably not ... but I do! I don't think I have the busiest of lives - yes, I work full time and I commute 3 hours a day, over the last week we've been helping a friend 'to pack' who's emigrating to Spain and we're away from home again this weekend visiting family for my birthday - so I really haven't had a lot of spare time so I shouldn't feel bad, should I? Note to me: be kinder to yourself :)

I have made one thing! And it did put a big smile on a little girl's face today when I gave this cushion to my brother in law's niece:

It's cute (if I may say so myself?) I really like it - this was one of those things I have made which I wanted to keep for me - you know I LOVE pink! I don't do it very often but I added binding to this cushion - and I really like the professional finish it gives. 


We all get busy, life can feel like it's running away from you at times so, if you can't do everything (and, let's face it, who can?) please, be kind to yourself too :)

Busy ... but no sewing :(

We have had the most lovely weekend in Chester visiting family over the Easter Holidays and, sadly, it's nearly time to go home. Whilst I always love spending time with family, I have missed my quilting, especially as I have quite a list of things I want to make:

1) Cushion for Lucy at work (she stepped up when I was off sick recently so I want to thank her with a little gift)

2) Irish-themed quilt for friend in USA

3) Finish 'USA #4'

4) Start 'USA #5'

5) Cushion for brother-in-law's niece

6) Playmat for River Faith (niece's boyfriend's niece)

7) Peg Bag x 2

8) My sister's 'V' shaped cushion

9) Tote Bag(s)

Just a few things to keep me going, then!!

And as I can't possibly post without a photo, here is a little more fabric I bought for the Playmat on a lovely day out with dear Aunty G and hubby to Ruthin, North Wales on Saturday (no website but the shop is called 'Threads'):

That's about 6 different fabrics now I've bought for this Playmat - time to stop shopping and start sewing!! I'm really not sure yet what pattern to go with as some of the fabrics will require fussy cutting ... hmm, will have to get thinking - any ideas??

Shame I have to work for a living - so many quilt projects, so little time ... BIG SIGH!!

You can't keep a good woman down!
Two days without being ill equals two days of glorious sewing :)
This is (some of) the top of 'USA #4' which I finished piecing last night. As thought, there wasn't enough of the background fabric to do the sashes and borders so I have had to use some of the pinks, blues and greens. It makes for a very different finish but I am happy with the overall look:
Sooooooooo glad to be better and sewing :)

But not too ill to shop :)
Well, online anyhow. Still not well - day 6 - Doctor says I have a virus (nice!) and it will last 7-10 days so I'm just waiting it out.

STILL not sewing ... I must be ill! But I have made a start on putting together some fabrics for a baby girl's playmat. Love my eBay sellers, they get stuff out to you almost immediately and this is what arrived today:

I hope I feel well enough tomorrow to play with all of my lovely fabric :)

Too ill to sew :(

Isn't it horrid when you are ill, you don't want to leave your bed and you can't climb the loft ladder and sit in your lovely sewing room and sew all day ... even though you really want to? I am sooooooooo unwell - it's only gastronenteritis (I know I will recover soon) but it's been 3 days now and I could have done so much sewing on my latest WIPs ('USA #4', an Ireland trip themed quilt, a christening quilt, my sister's V-shaped cushion cover ... the list goes on!!!) Fingers crossed, tomorrow will bring some recovery.

'USA #3' arrived safely in Towson, MD on Friday and my dear cousin Facebooked a great photo of her holding it up. She is so cute. And she has an amazing group of friends who follow her so her post got 40 likes and 15 comments ... yay I'm a little bit famous - well, in Maryland anyway!!

I love that we all "rescued" her grandma's fabric (which is over 20 years old) and I feel honoured to be turning it into quilts for my five cousins. So far, that's one daughter and two grand-daughters who have received their quilts and now I have two daughters-in-law to make for.

I started 'USA #4' at the beginning of the week. It is getting trickier (because of my self-imposed rule of only using my Great-Aunt's fabric to make these quilts) to decide on a pattern and pick the fabrics that will then 'stretch' to that design and I may have to improvise (again) as the blocks get made because I don't think there's quite enough of this background fabric to make the whole quilt as per the pattern (I had to choose it as it was the largest piece of 'light' fabric in the stash and it's pretty).

I was curious about the label - Montgomery Ward - so I Googled it and found it to have quite a history. It led me to conclude (I may be wrong) that my Great-Aunt probably ordered some of her fabric from them. I bet she would have loved internet shopping!!

Here it is:

The pattern I am using is called 'Super Stars' which I found in one of my quilting books, Fresh Fabric Treats. The talented designer (Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts) has a great post showing off her quilts and the fact you can nicely blend together a lot of different fabrics is what drew me to her pattern.

These are the complimenting fabrics I have chosen - I picked 4 different pinks, blues and greens to match the little flowers:

and here is one of the blocks:

Only 8 more blocks to make (plus sashing and a border) so we'll have to see how it will all end up if (when?) I run out of the background fabric. I love it when I don't know if a plan is actually going to come together ... don't you??

Thankful Tuesday - isn't it nice to be appreciated?

It is so wonderful to be a quilter and a blogger! Firstly, I get to play with fabric and create pretty things - two years ago, I could barely sew a button on a shirt - then I get to blog about what I make (still getting to grips with that!) and, finally, people say thank you and other kind stuff.

I got a lovely email from my friend's Dad after he received the Pants Bag I made for him. He wrote:

Firstly thank you so very much for the lovely bag (for pants I am told). I think it is absolutely fab and so professional looking and I love the little tag you have put on the inside. Thank you! (then he wrote about the apartment which he'll be renting in Spain) ... Once again thanks ever so much for my lovely present.

Then, I was thrilled yesterday to read a comment on this post - my first ever comment - from Carla (at Bubble my Licorice, what a cute blog name) - she wrote: amazing post! your blog is lovely! - How sweet is she? :)

And to top it all off, my dear cousin left me a comment on this post!

Thanks for the thanks, everyone. Just what I needed as I am still feeling sooooooooo sad about my Dad ;(

Tired teddy ...

It's a Saturday and so I should have been feeling refreshed and raring to create ... but I didn't. This probably had something to do with staying up until 0130 this morning watching a film I had seen before -

- so why oh why did I stay up WAY past my bedtime to watch it?? And, because my eyes are used to opening at 0600 every day, that's what they did this morning ... despite having only been closed for 4 ½ hours ... that'll learn me!!

So, I decided not to attempt anything difficult. Hoping I'll be 'awake' enough tomorrow to have a go at Trish Preston's cute bag. But I did make something new! I saw this post for this handy sewing machine 'accessory mat' ages ago but have just not got around to making it. TODAY was the day!

Isn't it lovely?

And thanks to this You Tube upload from Connecting Threads, I've finally made something with 'properly finished binding'.

Oh, and of course, SHE had to join me ... that's my Dad's Quilt she's got her bottom on, the little madam:

And a dear friend came around to say 'hi' with some lovely daffodils (they weren't really for your Mum for Mother's Day, hey?!) so not a bad day after all ;)