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!

More sewing fun!

 I'm happy that I've managed to make more 365 challenge blocks than there are days of the week - first time for ages that I've had the energy to do that!

All these blocks are 6 1/2" square and made of lights / brights from my batik stash.

Of course, I didn't manage to get everything right first time.  The block on the right has the top right hand corner sewn on wrong, so I'll need to unpick that and re-sew it.

I've put it next to this other block - Flower Garden Path - that I am pleased with.  Partly it reminds me that I can sew things right the first time (!) and partly because I was interested to see the differences in the blocks that are both nine patches with chevrons in the middle outer four squares.

Apart from this there is a little bit of cross stitching going on, but not much else...... Hope that you too are enjoying something creative this week!

Bags more potential!

 Everyone who's been sewing for a while will be nodding along now - we are lucky enough to become magnets for bags of fabric.

These bags, passed on via the mother of a friend, are from some one else who is downsizing.

Oh the excitement!  One is never quite sure what the bags will hold.  What colours? What textures? What will the fabric be made of?

 Un furling the twisted tops of the bags is just the start of the journey of exploration that lies ahead.

I'm not sure that much of these bags will be quilting fabric - it looks to me as though the lady passing this on was a garment maker.  This is rather nicely timed with the start of 'The Great British Sewing Bee' on television, and my younger daughter wondering out loud if she should make another skirt.

I think that I need to look out (or even buy!) some patterns and get busy sewing with her. 

There might also be something suitable for school production costumes too.  We're going to be busy!

My other sewing has been on the 365 challenge.  I've accepted that I'm woefully (albeit cheerfully!) behind - but proud that I've almost finished the April blocks!

These are 6 1/2" square, but some of them seem to be four times the work of the 3 1/2" square blocks that we've working on up until now - so taking a bit longer to complete than they used to!

All good fun - and I'm enjoying the brighter, lighter colours too.

Oh, the potential!

 Oh, indeed, what potential these little blocks have!

I have reached 'April 22nd' on the 365 Challenge - which is significant because I have now, I am told, make enough 3 1/2" 'dark' blocks to be able to make the border to surround the centre medallion!!!

It's going to be a fun game trying to balance the different flashes of colour as well as shapes within the blocks - wish me luck!  I'm not sure whether to drop everything and concentrate on that, or whether to just keep pressing ahead with making the next series of blocks in an effort to get a bit more up to date!

Of course, the range of untrimmed blocks here will need to be seen by a rotary cutter and ruler square before that happens!


My only other quilting news this week is that I attended a very entertaining talk by Janet Clare about her textile business and how it has developed.  I went to one of her workshops several years ago, but she's been awfully busy since then!  Several books (you might remember that I won one of them, 'Quilt Home Quilt' a couple of years ago) and lots of other lovely projects.  Plenty to enjoy!

Off to bind the edge of some oven gloves (I don't have small hands, but still haven't managed to find oven gloves small enough for me, so I'm compromising by 'hacking' some Ikea ones) whilst I decide whether to join blocks or make more new ones!

In a Whirl!

Put together, these Little Hazel blocks look like an op art experiment - big and bold!  Thank you, Esther!

My only sewing this week.  Are they perfect? No!  Am I going to do anything else to try and perfect them?  No!

I shall make sure that I either (in time honoured tradition!) put a button over the centres of these blocks, or gift the resulting quilt to a non-quilter who will never be troubled by the 'not quite matching well enough' centres!

Happy sewing, everyone!

Three Cheers!

 Three cheers for Jack Petchy, for his foundation and their awards and for my DD1 who was lucky enough to be nominated for one by her wonderful Guide Leaders! She was awarded hers for her determination in overcoming some of her fears, squaring her shoulders and doing her best (I paraphrase slightly).  I am immoderately proud of her, and loved the award ceremony that we went to last night.    I think that this positive recognition is a wonderful thing for her and all the other young women who received awards last night.  We even had a short talk by adventurer Sally Kettle - what a treat!  Well done, all of you! 

 My sewing for the week pales into nothing compared to that, of course!

Its been a bit of a mish mash, to be honest!

This small 'dark' block (which I love!)

 'Light' corners for the central medallion, plus sewing it together.

 Playing with a new cross stitch design programme (which is really a re-branding  / updating of one that I used to use, I discovered).

It may turn out to be a more expensive purchase than I thought though, as I suspect that I'm going to have to buy some varifocal glasses so that I can stitch and still watch TV!

Two of the light corners in more detail (although before being ironed!).

Hoping to work on 365  now that their website is back up again - I've got quite a lot of catching up to do again!

The joy of sewing

 I had a cold that turned nasty.  I've had even less energy than usual, and that's saying something (plus I've also consumed half my body weight in ice cream and popsicles over the last week trying to tame a sore throat when pain killers weren't doing it quickly enough or well enough - not great news for any hopes of weight loss!).  However, I'm pleased to say that I've finally managed a few minutes sewing.

Needless to say, my first thoughts were with the 365 challenge.

Inner borders for the central medallion!  Mostly quick and straightforward, although the one on the left had me unpicking as much as I was sewing, for some reason!

Looking forward to working on the corners for this set now!

Hope that you are staying healthy and managing lots of creative good works as the seasons change!

A change of Pace

 

I spent some of the week waiting for some fabric to arrive - turned out that I was short of paler background batik fabrics - and I thought that I'd add a few more brights and darks too.... 

Of course, as luck would have it, by the time the fabric arrived I'd caught my DD2's lurgy and haven't been up to sewing since.  No little blocks from the 365 challenge for me this week!

The only sewing I've managed is to finish a few orphan blocks and make a small quilt top.  The centre rounds of these four log cabins were a creditable attempt to use up some fabric from another quilt, apart from the one that had a seam the wrong way (on one of the pieced strips that I'd used) and the one that had a chunk out of the edge, for some reason!  You know, just the sort of things that might put you off actually reaching a finish!

I'm pleased to say that a few moment of unpicking / resewing / trimming and I was all set up to add a couple more rounds with various fabrics that I was happy to give up.  It's more a thing of character than a thing of beauty, but it is made with love!

Sashing and border took the size to 36" square.

Over the next few weeks I'll try to baste it, quilt it and bind it - it's been too long since I've actually finished even a small quilt! 

More blocks

 More of the little 3 1/2" blocks made this week.  I'm enjoying most of them!

 Of course, it's only after you've made them that you spot problems - this snail trail in week 13 isn't quite right, is it?  Oh well! I can decide whether to live with the honesty of the mistake or to remake it at some point!

There were two of the larger blocks - 6 1/2" square this week too.

We are a quarter of the way through the blocks already - it hardly seems possible!

Time for a rest from these for a few days as I've 'had' to order some lighter fabrics for the next blocks that we are going to work on - my stash didn't include many light batiks, when I looked at it!

More baking and sewing my Little Hazel!

Apologies for the streak of sunlight over these photos - clearly its been so long since I've seen it that I've forgotten to adjust for it!

This was the last ring in Esther Aliu's Little Hazel. I was pleased with my progress!

 This is it pinned to the outer part that will square it up.

Unfortunately, as you might just be able to make out here, I managed to rotate the inner star, so that the four points that should be pointing at the corners weren't going to be.  Ugh!  Fortunately I noticed before I sewed it, but it was annoying to have to repin it all!

 Here it is with the purple squaring up border.  It's not quite as wiggly in real life - hanging it on a wiggly fleece doesn't help here -  although I have lost a few of the green points, I'm afraid.  Not ideal, but I shall gift the quilt to a non-quilter who will never notice!

On the whole I'm pleased with progress, although I shall be happier still that the future blocks are smaller!

The last hurrah of the birthday happened last week - with a triple layer chocolate mousse cake extravaganza (do I have to confess that there was only a layer of chocolate mousse included as I defrosted it thinking that it was more chocolate buttercream?).

Well received, although I'm pleased to be done with big cakes for the moment.  Bake to work-a-day baking without either buttercream or fondant icing on show!

Easter over, but the Easter holidays in full swing!  Less sewing time than usual, but fun and high jinks instead!

Hope that you are having fun too!

Sewing and Baking

 More work on my 365 challenge - the only sewing that I've managed this week.

These two squares are 6 1/2" square (ish!) and each demanded many mitred corners.

 These are the normal 3 1/2" square and show the start of the mitred corner set of blocks.
 The rest of my time this week has been taken up with baking and birthday stuff for DD1.




The first cake of the week was made to celebrate the news that DD2 will be going (along with several of her friends) to the same school as DD1 from September.  I'm looking forward to them both having the same school holidays and training days again!

The second cake was my best attempt to represent Brighton Pier (and specifically the fairground rides on the end of it) in cake form.  This was the destination of the birthday treat day out on Saturday - and I think that I'm still recovering from it, although the girls have bounced back!

I also made some bread - a no knead recipe - for breakfast after the sleepover.

Just one more cake to make (for the actual birthday!) and my baking efforts for the week will be complete!

I'm hoping to get a little sewing done over the Easter break, but it's always hard to know how much will actually happen once we start enjoying the school holidays!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, happy sewing, one and all!

Small Pleasures

 You know those weeks where they seem full, busy, chaotic - but you can't really find what took all the time by the end of them?  That was the sort of week that I had! 
In fairness, I did some useful sewing done, just not as much as I'd hoped!

 I made (in the company of lovely friends) some bunny bags this week, ready for Easter.  Based almost entirely on this tutorial by sewcanshe.com.  I love that by ignoring the face embroidery I can get a quick gift that looks like a bunny hiding in a bag!  If you have four charm squares, some ribbon and about 20 minutes you should give it a go!

I also made the first 6" block from the 365 challenge.  I'm starting to think that I need to buy more dark batiks to feed into the making as the project is eating them up faster than I was expecting.

 

 Time off for a bit of quilting retail therapy, provided by the lovely Isabelle of Creative Quilting who packed up a good sized chunk of her shop and brought it to my quilting group on Monday night.  So pleased that they are now stocking Aurifil - my favourite thread!  Also a new to me magazine title which I'm looking forward to reading.

Finally a showcase of Week 10 (although I need to check how I've got 8 blocks rather than 7 shown here.  It's entirely possible that the last one will reappear next time I show you a weeks worth of blocks too!

Some fiddly piecing - on that last basket the little half square triangles are 1" blocks, so only 1/2" shows once they are finished.  Lots of fun when they work!

Hope that you are finding fun and small pleasures this week too!

Katy Catchup

 Playing "Katy Catchup" with my 365 challenge this week!

So lovely to get to make the centre medallion - I had fun breaking out the bright batiks for it (whilst remembering to use some of the prints that I've been using in the darker blocks so that it has some continuity).

I wish that I'd got all the sub units right the first time, though.  I haven't taken a picture, but I originally put the block together with some of the flying geese facing the wrong direction.  I had to spend longer than I wanted unpicking it before resewing the right way around!

 These are the blocks from week 8 of the challenge.

These are the five from week 9 - we had two days to make the centre medallion, so only five small blocks.

I've nearly caught up!  Just last six days to make and I'll be there.

I've also got another sewing project with a deadline for the weekend, so I'd better get on with that too!

Distractions!

 I had intended to get back up to speed with my 365 challenge - but got distracted!

Instead I made these cards - free motion stitched a stick figure and the fabric balloons.

 Then I made the rings for Little Hazel, part 2.  Thanks again to Esther for her pattern!

You can't tell the scale from this photo, but it must be almost 30" across already - the pieces feel huge compared to the small ones that the 365 challenge demands!

 And I made these, from fabric mutt, who published a fab tutorial for these little fabric baskets that she called Pixie Baskets.

Two have been gifted for birthdays, one is holding my fabric scraps that are 'pre-made' units for the 365 challenge, and I have two more cut out and ready to sew.


Addictive?  You think???  They finish at 3" x 4" and are totally cute.

Ideal for all sorts of things!

Perhaps now I've got these little items out of my system I'll get back on track with my other projects!

Hope that you have some fun sewing planned too!

Happy Sewing

 I caught up with my 365 challenge - only to go away for a few days and so fall behind again!

This is the set of blocks for week 5.

 Week 6 is shown here.

 Week 7 here, and this is as far as I've got.  I think that I have a full week's worth of blocks to catch up with now!

Naturally the first thing I did when I got back from holiday was to ignore any current projects in order to create something completely new!

I bought some tartan remnants whilst away (can I recommend the Old Town Weaving Company at Castlehill on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh to you all?  £3 was the starting price for remnants - the smallest I bought was 8" x 51" which is incredible value) so made an oversized cushion with most of the fabric plus some curtain leftovers.  Perfect for my sewing room (where the curtains are) but apparently even more perfect for anywhere that DD2 happens to want to be!  Of course, you may get to choose your own colour ways rather than have the other three members of the family choose without reference to making a harmonious selection.....

Back to the sewing now - I'll see if I can catch up with those 365 blocks!

So Proud!

 I delighted to celebrate a finish of a quilt that isn't mine!

My DDs have been working on this together for a while, but they have finally finished their 'Blue Peter Quilt'.

If you live in the UK you will no doubt know the long running children's programme.  My girls are fans (as am I, still!).

The girls made this quilt for the presenters of Blue Peter, but have asked if they don't need or want to keep it, that they pass it on to Project Linus so that it will provide warmth and a hug to someone who needs it.

I'm so proud of my girls, who have worked hard to design, piece, applique and quilt this.  I can only hope that it's just one of many, but I think that they might rest on their laurels for a while.  Plenty of time in their future lives to take up a sewing craft if they want to!