Really REALLY really love my quilting :)

I do. I am so in love with my quilting at the moment - I love my hobby ... and whilst I do not want to wish my life away, I cannot wait until I retire (in just 15 months) so that I can make even more quilts!

Since my last blog post, I have finished 6 quilts - 5 of which I'll share with you tonight (the 6th is a surprise birthday gift for next week ... Sshhhhh!) 

Baby quilts are so lovely to make - and these two were just dreamy. The first came together really quickly from a charm pack and a bit of sashing and was a gift for a colleague at work:

And this little darling is on her way to Ukraine in the morning with my dear friend Gerrie (chair of our North Wales link of Chernobyl's Children Lifeline, a wonderful charity I have been supporting for just over a year):

This next quilt, made with Moda Grunge fabric, was to match a rug in my friend's house - the rug:

I loved making this and I think I hit the brief - the quilt:

I finally finished my 'We should be sectioned quilt' which I started in September 2015. Mine was a 'seasonal' quilt which I started with Autumn and each of the ladies added their sections:

I tried different quilting on this including hand quilting but I still favour stippling as my go-to free motion quilting:

This was a wonderful quilting bee to be a part of and I love how we have all become good friends:

And finally, a leaving gift for a friend at work. He sent me a picture of a cushion his wife liked and I designed my quilt as a likeness - I won't lie - this was tricky to make - but I do like a challenge! 

I'd be lost without graph paper, being good at maths, pins and a spare bed to use as a design board!

Really loved this one:

And so did Wayne:

Yes. Love my quilting friends. Love my hobby. Love making quilts. Love giving quilts. 

Linking up with two ladies who also love making quilts - Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

13 ... unlucky for some?

13 - not an unlucky number for me as that is how many quilts I finished in 2016 (plus 3 WIP quilts in various stages to start me off in 2017!) 12 out of the 13 quilts, I gave away to friends, family and charities:

The 13th quilt is ALL MINE! As it should be ... I sewed my first two pieces of fabric together in January 2010 thanks to my dear friend Penny (an extremely accomplished quilter and crafter) and she supplied lots of green and pink fabric to keep me going. I just never got round to finishing it - shame on me - until this week and I'm so glad I did.

I have learnt LOADS since those first tentative stitches - the precision of a 1/4" seam, the accurate sizing of blocks, the use of colour, pinning those seams and, for this quilt, I attempted my first spiral quilting:

Just a snapshot of my year which, as well as still learning new quilting things, also included making some lovely new quilting friends - farewell 2016 ... it was a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to more quilting adventures in 2017.

Thanking Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict for keeping us on track all year with our Friday finishes. 

Wishing everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.

February catch up ...

I think the same person who stole January is doing a very good job this month too! 

A busy few weeks and a visitor from Jersey ... I've been working on lots of different projects which I'd like to share with you. 

My friend Mandy was celebrating the big 50 and I'd bought her some perfume but wanted to add a couple of hand-made gifts too ... well, it was a special birthday! Mandy loves, really loves, bags and shoes so that made my fabric choice easy. DH has made me a small design board so I put it to excellent use:

I haven't made a Pants Bag (as I call them) for a while and this was a mini one - perfect for a mini break (not for mini pants, DH!) and a matching zipped cosmetics bag. She loved them:

I have also been working on blocks for a Bee I'm part of - this is for the quilt drive organised for the charity Siblings Together. I'm going to do a full post on that soon to publicise the great work this charity does. These are the January blocks I made for Maria @sewlovetosew ... I also make the Queen Bee a matching zipped bag:

Last weekend, my quilty friend, Sarah @quiltcandy came for a quilting weekend - all the way from Jersey to North Wales just to see me and sew! I had done my research and not far from the airport (Frodsham), I found us a lovely LQS called Sew Simple - very friendly and a great choice. This was my 'little purchase': 

Clever Sarah had made me this beautiful embroidered hoop, now proudly hung in my sewing room:

Amongst other things, we both made an open wide zippered pouch using Anna Graham's tutorial @noodlehead - you must make one; and it's a great tutorial. Mine:

Sarah's: 

We had the most delightful time, sewing and chatting, eating and drinking! After Sarah went home on Sunday, I started to make this little pram quilt: My 'own design' (as much as one can claim such a thing for a simple quilt) which came together so quickly that I'd finished it by supper and was able to hand it over on Monday: 

And fleecy hearts on the back:

So, there you go ... most (but not all!) of what I've been working on since my last blog post. Don't forget, I'm on Instagram too ... 

Hope you're all enjoying your quilting as much as I am! Linking up to Amandab Jean @crazymomquilts and Sarah @confessionsofafabricaddict

Who stole January?!

I know they say 'time flies' ... but, seriously, where did January go??? It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since we were bringing in the New Year and all my good intentions to tidy up my blog, bring it up to date and post regularly have crashed :(

Oh well, I'm here today! And I have a baby quilt to share. I finished this last night but, as I'm sure is the same for many of you (except for quilters 'down under' or those living in equally more exotic climates than the UK), trying to get decent photos of quilts is very difficult at this time of the year:

This is for my colleague's 2 year old daughter, Isla - her beautiful name and information from her Daddy that she is a girly babba inspired me to design a simple 'named quilt':

All fabrics were pulled from my fabric stash and it soon started to come together:

I was a little nervous about 'doing random' so I did audition a few variations along the way. Using just stash meant I had to be careful not to run out of certain fabrics in the different sections:

It really was a lovely little quilt to work on and my excessive pinning (doesn't everyone pin this much?!) gave me some lovely seams:

Free motion quilting / stippling (my favourite) was an obvious choice and took me just over an hour yesterday afternoon:

And here she is this morning - all ready to go to work with me on Monday, labelled and bound:

And the back - plain but using a fabric from the front:

I love my hobby, I love making quilts, I love to make people smile ... here's to making more beautiful things in 2016. 

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

Christmas Stockings!!

Two more sleeps! I love Christmas - a time of magic, family togetherness and no work until 4th January ... yay!

Since my last post, the lovely Fran @patchyroses and her delightful daughter Rosie have visited. We had a very productive weekend's sewing with Rosie bringing along a Christmas stocking pattern from the young quilters guild she's joined.

Fran gifted me this cushion - isn't it delightful? My sister in law has her eye on it but I'm not parting with it - keeping this one forever:

There was no stopping us! This was our collective effort and I 'taught' Fran how to paper piece - that's her gorgeous pineapple block:

The Christmas Stockings became addictive and I ended up making - a lot! I even sent some to friends abroad and made some LFC ones for DH and other male relatives:

I finished my friend Daphne's Christmas table runner:

And used up the scraps to make a mat for our coffee table:

My lovely friend Maria @majasparadis sent me this beautiful bag all the way from Sweden - she is so very clever. And two (pink, of course!) fat quarters; what a generous and talented friend she is:

Our fabulous Christmas tree is up:

And today, I started on a new baby quilt for a chap at work:  

Phew! A busy month; so happy to be home for two weeks. Looking forward to spending lots of time with family. 

Linking up with the wonderful Lorna ... I count her as one of my most favourite quilty friends and am so pleased to follow her and see how successful she has become. Blogging and quilting are both wonderful but the best thing about both is definitely the friends you make along the way. 

Wishing all my friends and followers a very Happy Christmas x

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