More Cake, More Blocks, More Sewing with a Good Heart.

It's been a busy week - with some time taken to rant about the upsetting referendum result.

This is my favourite 365 challenge block that I've made over the past 7 days.  Shown here at it's 'raw' 6 1/2" square, it won't be long until we have sufficient blocks to make the next 'frame' on the pattern (not that I've actually assembled the inner darks yet - still a project for another day!).

I managed six blocks this week.  I'm only about 10 days out of date on it, which I'm quite proud of!

 We hosted DD2's 11th birthday party at the weekend - Snoopy themed.  Who amongst us quilters could resist asking the guests to help make a quilt for Project Linus, after explaining to them that the charity was named after the Charlie Brown character?

They set to with gusto, and are seen here admiring their handiwork.

I've added a few more strips to this 'stitch and flip' quilt (so pieced and quilted all at once - a great way to make a simple hardwearing quilt).  I just need to complete the binding now.  Well done girls!  It just shows how willing young people are, in any situation, to help create something for people less well off than themselves.   There is hope.

My other sewing has been a few more 'sweet pea pods'.  Quick to sew - I need to find a source of zipper pulls to add to the zipper teeth that I have left!




Finally, a snap of the cake that I created.  Relatively simple to decorate, using toys that I bought from eBay to complete it!

Planning a more restful week now!

Midsummer mum

 I took some time to myself to make these four Hazel blocks....

 ....and these eight Hazel blocks (that's me all caught up now on Hazel, at least!).

Aren't they great patterns?  I love how these ones play together to make a great secondary pattern.

But the rest of my time I've been being a mum!  I took DD1 shopping on her day off from school on Monday (and we both lived to tell the tale - and even had fun whilst doing it!).

Yesterday my attention turned to DD2 - and yes, you might have guessed, we gave her a camera for her birthday!

Midsummer 'mumness' is fun, but I wish that I had the energy to both sew and put that amount of energy into parenting!  Still, I shall stay happy with being able to be a mum and thinking that it is appreciated by my lovely girls.

I also made these sweet pea pod purses (one boxed out, one not) for a friend of both girls who also had a birthday yesterday!

Thanks to Lazy Girl Designs for selling me this PDF pattern and showing me how to reattach zipper pulls to zips!  and big thanks to whoever it was that showed them on her blog last week, making me buy the pattern and order some 16" zips!

Gotta love the world of blogs!

Happy sewing everyone.  Hope that you are cherishing your family relationships too!

A bumper week!

 Life isn't always perfect - and I'm here to show you that blocks aren't always perfect either!

Spot the mistake with this block?  Hmmm.  Yes.  Me too - not even I could sweep this one under the carpet!

I wasn't feeling the love for it, so confess to just chopping the extra fabric off, thus losing the chevron effect.  Oh well!  Only you and me know that, no one looking at the finished quilt will ever know that it was designed any differently!

 It was only one of twelve, yes, TWELVE, 365 challenge blocks that I made this week.

There are some glorious patterns to enjoy!

 Here's that rogue block with the outer parts chopped off - and some others with their points intact.

 Some of these blocks are quite fast, others seem more time consuming - but it's all good fun!

 Yesterday I started to cut out the pieces for my Little Hazel (last months part - oops!).

I even got as far as making up one of the eight blocks that are going to be produced - just as well, as I need to look at where the points are ending up on the outer edges!

If I wanted to boast about how productive I've been, I might also mention the 'army' trousers (simple pull on trousers in camo fabric) that I've made for my DD2 for a school production.  Such a long time since I've made any sort of garment, but it was fun to draft a simple pattern based on a pair of her pyjama bottoms and get something that more or less fitted!

Another pair coming up later this week as one of her friends needs the same sort of costume!

Have fun with whatever you are sewing too!

Blocks and Pink Loveliness!

 This is one of the nine 365 challenge blocks that I've made this week - shown on it's own as it is the closest to 'real' colours that I've snapped this week.

 These are some of the lovely other blocks that I've made this week - lots of pieces!

 And these blocks too!

And the pink loveliness that I mentioned?  My two beautiful daughters, all tricked out in pink ready for the Race for Life.  They raised £100 - thanks to all their sponsors - as part of a large team that raised over £1500.  Well done to them all!

I'm off to unpick the next block (I should have paid more attention before I sewed some of the elements together!) and then start some more!

Happy sewing, everyone!

Stop and smell the roses!

 The first day of June!  Not too much sunshine where I live, but glorious roses blooming their hardest in the gardens of my neighbours which I can enjoy whenever I leave the house, including one bush which the owner has put a 'stop and smell the roses' sign on.  DD2 stops each day as she passes the garden on the way to school and inhales the lovely scent.  What a great way to start the day!

I've been working on my 365 blocks again this week.

 Love the pops of colour.  I think that the two stars at the bottom of this set of four are some of my favourites so far.

 Again, more blocks made than there are days in the week, so my slow catch up continues!

 I've also been lucky enough to attract some more beautiful fabric from a well travelled friend who was reducing her stash.  Gorgeous fabrics bought from Africa and the Far East.

Small amounts of domestic sewing too.  I bound the lower edge of these cut off oven gloves - only to confirm when I used them that they are still too big / wrongly shaped for my personal 'best fit'.  I think that I need to make a pair from scratch again!

I've also been sewing name tapes on.  I suspect that having a uniform ready for September when May hadn't even finished was a little bit on the prompt side, but at least I know that we have everything that we need!

I hope that you are enjoying something fun this week too - and that you are able to enjoy your own rose smelling or it's equivalent too!