Pippa's Patch

Nice Postie

2012-03-01T22:13:00.000+01:00

I've been a very lucky girlie, last week I received a 25$ gift certificate to my favourite fabric shop Fabric Shack from Annie from rubyslipperz, this was instead of the 5 fat quarters that I won earlier in the month, it made perfect sense to me as I get to choose and it helps Annie with the shipping cost which would be the same if she sent me 5 fat quarters or 8 yards :O( why does shipping have to cost so much, here it is MUCH more expensive than the US

Then my name game mini quilt arrived


Gorgeous wrapping

Isn't it cute, she's done really well too as I know she's a beginner, she's also a busy mum, a machine break down and a bereavement during the swop so I'm really thrilled with what she's achieved. It's a bit too big to put on my window frame so I'm hanging it on my sewing room main wall.

Then the beautiful heart arrived from shesinthestitchingcoop I thought it was going to be a small heart but its about 10-12 inches, truly beautiful and the detail of little buttons, pieces of lace is gorgeous. Amelia wants it in her room, it's lavender filled and truly a fantastic prize.

Here's the back

So even if I'm not sewing i'm still getting lots of lovely sewing pressies :) I'm also waiting to hear if I won anything on the leap day blog hop giveaway, I visited 52 sites I think it was...no wins yet but we'll see :)

Happy St David's Day

2012-03-01T21:55:00.000+01:00

I may not live in the UK anymore but we follow the french and the english/british traditions. My parents are Welsh and I like to have flowers in the house on St David's Day, usually Daffodils as it's the national flower of Wales, but there are none to be seen, my one and only one died in all our snow.
The kids saw a children's tv program today about Welsh kids making Welsh cakes...so at 18.30 tonight, what happens Amelia and I make some.
Here's the simple recipe stolen from the BBC Food site

Ingredients

225g/8oz self-raising flour, sieved
110g/4oz (preferably Welsh) salted butter
1 egg
handful of sultanas
milk, if needed
85g/3oz caster sugar
extra butter, for greasing

Preparation method

Rub the fat into the sieved flour to make breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, dried fruit and then the egg. Mix to combine, then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
Roll out the pastry until it is a 5mm/¼in thick and cut into rounds with a 7.5-10cm/3-4in fluted cutter.
You now need a bakestone or a heavy iron griddle. Rub it with butter and wipe the excess away. Put it on to a direct heat and wait until it heats up, place the Welsh cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need about 2-3 minutes each side. Each side needs to be caramel brown before turning although some people I know like them almost burnt.
Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm. Some people leave out the dried fruit, and split them when cool and sandwich them together with jam.

I love them warm from the pan, here's the proud chef

and of course, a yummy mandarin orange with strawberry jelly English trifle doesn't go down too badly either :o)

Haven't been near the sewing machine all week, am hoping to sneak something in tomorrow and next week. It's been gorgeous weather here this week 16/17C each day but alas the colder weathers is returning next week and perhaps even some more snow *sigh*

Have lots of UFO's to finish in March and I want to stitch one or two more machine embroidered tweets

Freedom Friday

2012-02-24T16:00:00.000+01:00

I'm (IM)patiently waiting for the school holidays to start, when the kids first went to school I HATED the holidays, the weather was always rough and I thought I had to entertain them 24/7 but now their that little bit older, they occupy themselves and are either drawing, helping mummy with patchwork, playing computer games or we play board games. Also means we get a lie in and generally I really enjoy the time together. This time it's 2 weeks hols and Jacques is off to the UK with my mum for a week so we have a rush to get his homework done before he goes. So today, I planned to sew all day as it's difficult when they are around BUT my shoulder is killing me (my sewing chair is too low, dh promised to rise it up when we bought it about 6 months or more ago but he hasn't done it and now i'm in agony) so I cooked some chocolate chip and chocolate and cranberry cookies for the kids tea and then thought, ohhh I know i'll get on and make one of the hairbrush pin cushions.
I'd first seen in on Kelli's blog that looks like it needs stitches go check out her blog its lovely and swoony atm :) and she based hers on this tutorial here. I've only got kids crafty felt but I got busy and hunted Amelia's hairbrush, in between getting cookies out of the oven about 40 minutes later I've now got this.

Will probably make some more for the patchwork club raffle prizes.

http://tgiffriday.blogspot.com/

I'm linking up to TGIFF because it is a finish, it is Friday and I love Quilter in the Gap who's hosting it this week :)
Now it's time to get the kids and let the chilling holiday commence :)
Have a great Friday night all...

WIP Wednesday

2012-02-22T12:04:00.000+01:00

Lots of lovelies have arrived in the post in the last week :O)

Apart from my aurifil threads and my dies.. I also got my fugly fabric from Poppy Makes, its the panache layer cake and ohhh I'm keeping my eye out for a great pattern for it, ...and I won the spring panel from her other fugly fabric How can this gorgeous panel be FUGLY !!!! So I grabbed the sizzix and with DH's help cut the 2.5" strips, one cut and all 8 strips were done, once I get the hang of making sure the fabric is being folded correctly, it is going to save soooo much time and I won't have woggly strips, so before taking JP to the speech therapist, I got busy pinning on the strips and sewing them...even managed to get it batted and backed beforehand and when we got home, I stitched around the ditch of the border and the lines that on the piccie are black are now aurifil cream and we're ready for more quilting... I was thinking some perle cotton hand stitching *I know me handstitching...argghhh but it would be a cute project to take to patchwork class* and there are lovely swirls on the flowers, the cherries and apples... the birdies all asking for some stitching. What do you think ?? any inspiration for me ???

My hand dyed fabric from quilt hexie arrived, its really gorgeous and its going to be a very special project that uses this fabric, perhaps not in the short term, I need to use it properly.

Last week I started the country Block of the month from the french magazine Quilt Country, this one needs stitching around the applique and some embroidery for names, signs, etc etc....its supposed to be two ladies taking their machines to the quilt shop, it doesn't really look anything yet but once I get busy on the applique I'm sure it'll fall into place.

Then I've spent all day Monday unpicking, resewing, trying to add sashing to the bosses quilt, I'm half way there and hope to get a bit more time to spend on it, perhaps on Friday, from there on in I won't get much done because its half term fortnight and the kids are home. It's not thrilling me but its nice enough, bit of a weird feeling, perhaps its just because I know it needs to be finished by April and it feels like a rush. So sashing and then borders, will post pictures before the borders because i'm not sure it doesn't need a different colour to make it pop a bit more... ahh well enough wittering, I'm linking up for WIP Wednesday :)

Scratchcard Saturday and Sizzix Sunday...

2012-02-19T18:46:00.000+01:00

The postman has been nice to me again, lots of lovely goodies arrived on Friday...

The courrier from my brothers arrived with my lovely sizzix dies...can you see the 2.5" and 1.5" strip piecing dies...my sashing and binding should be straighter now :O) plus I've read you can recut the strips to make them into 1.5 and 2.5" squares, should save some time.
I am amazed at how quickly it cuts through the layers, I'm definitely ordering the tumbler block, some hexagons and a 5" block for my birthday.
I went out on Saturday to buy some card for Amelia to make the swizzler thingie.

2 of the Aurifil spools, there were on promo 30% off so I bought some light grey and cream for piecing, I've read that light grey is very popular so I thought i'd give it a go.

The box of batting is for me and for the patchwork ladies, trying to do them a favour ends up giving me a headache...

I've been looking at how to make little labels to put on things using twill cotton and fabric printing sheets, we've got a colour laser so I was planning on buying an inkjet as I didn't think we'd get the laser printing sheets easily. So off to the big town we go on Saturday afternoon, I bought a 2e scratchcard and won 10e :O) so I bought another one for 2e and won another 2e :O) but the queue was so big so I didn't bother swopping it for another card. We went to do our shopping and lo and behold I found laser fabric paper:) so no need for an inkjet, carried on and on our way out I decided to swop my scratchcard for another 2 1e tickets. My little boy said mum, scratch it off here cos if we win big how do we get our winnings, I've never won more than 10e so I wasn't really worried...we'll come back I said..
We get to the card and I scratched off one of the tickets...rien, nothing :(
then I scratched off the final one, number 7 appears... I said to my DH, think i've won 50e !!!! then I scratched off the next number...it's another 7, scratch off the amount another 50E !!!!! the final number was a 3 so no win, I'm shaking, checking the rules (remember its in french) yup I said to DH, I'm pretty sure I've just won 100e... you'd better go claim it then babe and off to the fabric shop we'll go :O)))
I did go to the fabric shop but just bought a new cutting mat as i'd ironed mine earlier in the week and its got a huge warped bit, also bought some twill tape for my labels and treated us to McDonalds.... :O)
So yesterday was a very lucky scratchcard day.

Today, promised Amelia we'd make the swizzles, it made 3 swizzles in one cut :O) and then she proceeded to decorate two with glitter gel glue and little jewels, which one did I make ????

Thursday twitterings

2012-02-16T22:02:00.002+01:00

Just a quickie, We've got water WHEYHEYHEY... you don't realise how much you miss something until it's gone, we started defrosting yesterday afternoon and after boiling another bowl of water to wash up, heard some gurgling at 9pm and yup the water was back on and fully defrosted. Great news for us all, I was too overwhelmed to take a shower last night but oh it was beautiful to have a lovely warm shower this morning and wash my hair in my own home *bliss*

Been busy catching up on the washing and drying, changing the beds...but I did get time to make this little tweet for a friend in the UK, her daughter is 2 ( I thought it was end of feb )and she told me yesterday its Monday...so after french lessons this afternoon, got busy and an hour and half later and 21 colour changes this little beauty was born

I just put some backing on and shoved a quick bit of binding on and it's ready to go in the post tomorrow morning, let's hope it can get to her for Monday but if not it'll be a tuesday pressie :O)

On Valentines I made the kids some of the little hearts I'd seen around blogland but typically of me I left it too late and could only get huge red sweets which made it impossible to sew around so not a great success, the kids seemed to like them but next year i'm looking for red skittles or m&ms

and I also managed to get my name quilt binding on and that's going in the post tomorrow too, the person doesn't blog, doesn't post on the flicker group but she does post on the quilting board but i'm going to put the pictures here anyway as its highly unlikely she'll see them, it's reversible and from what I found out on the net she likes purple and has a beagle...so that's why there is an embroidered beagle on the sewing machine (hope it is the same woman) and I'm looking forward to receiving mine in the next month.

Monday Madness

2012-02-13T15:55:00.004+01:00

The cold weather continues, we've now been without a running tap in the house for 15 days, without water anywhere in any of the buildings for 4 days...oh and now the toilet wastepipe has frozen up... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR luckily we have another toilet that's not frozen but lugging bottled water up to flush it is a pain... it was supposed to all thaw today and it started but looks like it'll stop fairly soon as it's dropped to -1 again. First time in 15 days its been to 0 though so thinks are looking up :O)

Kid's went back to school after a week off due to bad weather and we're about to pick them up soon, hope everything went ok for them.

And this is my sewing update :-


Tweet

I got busy yesterday with embroidery machine and this pretty valentines is now adorning my sewing room...

I've been busy quilting and making binding for my name swop mini quilt :O) I'm hoping to finish it on Wednesday at patchwork club and finish sewing the binding.

Last week I appliqued the hearts onto a square block, my machine applique needs some practice around the smooth edges on these, it is getting better and I know I need to fuse them because alot of the problem was they shifted as I was sewing...note to self fuse before using the big shot... so now we've got a pretty Valentines pot holder :) Amelia is very happy about it....

The sew along is coming along, got some hearts to embroider and some wording to put on the bottom right and then it's finished, won't be done for Valentines but I'm hoping I might get it done in the next week or so.

Now for the exciting part :-
I've won a cross stich pattern from victorian motto samplers
I've won five fat quarters from annies ruby slipperz and I won a beautiful patchwork heart sachet from shes in the stitching coop

I want to be somewhere hot....

2012-02-08T17:19:00.001+01:00

Yup, it's true,I really want to be in some far off country, soaking up the sun, I'm officially fed up of being snowbound and when not snowed in, iced in...its been no warmer than -10C at night for the last 10 days, we had -16C last night with -23C as windchill factor, not above -3 at all in the day either... my car's killed it's battery, the snowplough came down the road but left ice and they commune don't have salt or grit to help the road. The water's frozen up (dh has a tap in his workshop working so the poor love is carrying in containers of water, we're distributing it throughout the neighbourhood too and washing hair over the sink, flushing loo's with buckets etc etc ) the kids haven't got school, luckily we're doing ok for food and have wood for heating, the house is nice and warm *thank god* here's some piccies I took today when I *hoped* we were defrosting...bit optimistic I think.

The postman did manage to deliver something for me today though ;O)I've been busy cutting out hearts with it.... I had a bargain day on Monday, Sizzix have had 1.5" strip die on sale at £17 for well over a month, well I wanted to wait until I knew the machine was on it's way, logged on to order and they had the 2.5" strip die on special too £17... so guess what needed to be done :) just need to find the 25" cutting plate which apparently is out of stock everywhere but hopefully in the next few weeks it'll be back in stock, along with the tumbler and some more quilting dies arriving in March, does anyone know how difficult an apple core quilt is to sew with the seams ??

So Amelia and I are going to be making some heart blocks or a runner or something, I haven't fused them though :( so perhaps they won't work as well, I know I should have but I just wanted to cut....

Haven't felt much like sewing, its been a bit depressing being stuck in but I got it together a bit and machine quilted my mug rug/pot holder (amelia says its too big for a cuppa and a biccie)

I put the feed dogs down on the Janome and used aurifil 40wt, just decided to try something new and got busy.... I've never tried straight lines without the walking foot, not sure I will again either but it was interesting. No funny eyes or problems with tension on the back either, needs an iron now :)

Quite like the spirally alien hands coming to get you bit

I also got on with my LOVE SAL and would've got the hand embroidery bit done too except my mum has my threads and I can't get out to her to get them (perhaps tomorrow eh...)

Am using all different fabrics from my stash and am not going to use red...when I showed it to DH he said, hope thats not for me !!! charming eh... true love and all that

Finally I got on and did block 6 of the christmas SAL and have just one block left to do, was quite enjoyable stitching with the snow outside, except amelia got confused and thought it'll be Christmas again soon....eeeerrr NO...

Its here

2012-02-08T12:41:00.001+01:00

More later

Freezing Friday

2012-02-03T21:35:00.003+01:00

Yup, its absolutely FREEEEEEEZING here, -10C when I took the kids to school this morning, with windchill even lower....one weather forecast is showing -23C with windchill next week and it's set to continue, at least the next 8 days before we get to the giddy heights on +2C. We've got no water in the house, the pipes have frozen up but luckily DH's shed still has water so we're bucketing it in and washing up with water boiling on the hob or kettle :) washing is easy enough but we can't manage showers, so if it continues it'll be a trip to my mums for us all.
Anyway as it's so cold and I can't really clean much, I was busy on the machine. I'm much happier with the twister name quilt that i've made, I'm ready to quilt it and I'm putting the other one on the backside so the participant can chose which side she prefers :)

While I was at it, i've made a mug rug, mini quilt for myself, I just love the fabric so much and I realised that I haven't got a mug rug at all :)

I've also discovered STARCH and how to properly press my seams, to just hold it down and not move it, my joins have been better and the ironing much stiffer with the starch.

Applique rules

2012-02-02T22:34:00.000+01:00

I'm going to get on tomorrow and finish what I started tonight...can you guess what it is yet ???? the border is so cute, its little purple words and definitions from the dictionary, I'm much happier and when its finished with a name, it'll be a much better alternative, if I can work out how to quilt it I might add the other one as the backing, the owner can choose which she prefers then.

Yesterday, the kids were home from school as it was Wednesday but it was bitterly cold -8 without windchill in the DAY !!! so we stayed indoors and I took an hour out for myself and machine appliqued the words from the SAL. TBH I'm thrilled with it, I used embroidery thread and I changed the applique stitch size to a smaller one, I was really worried i'd muck it up especially as the letters are so thin but no ;o) now all I need is to get to mums to collect the cross stitch thread, do some hearts (might even try them on the machine) and I've finished for this week

nice postman.....

2012-02-01T12:29:00.001+01:00

Look what my nice postman gave to me today, he didn't bring me my big shot from Sizzix, I'm getting irritated now, it's 3 weeks since I ordered it and I knew it was 2 weeks...but no communication from the company is not good.

but he did bring me 18 yards of fabric :o) my cupboards are very nearly full. I love the Hoffman purple with the leaves...and the red,green,blue,orange has little ladybirds on it. The yellow, aqua are also scrummy...
I'm going to try and knock up a small twister for my name game swopper, especially as no one commented on it, (so I'm thinking its a no....im sorta inclines that way to) so it'll be a twister with her name (i've looked and found out she likes purples so perhaps the hoffman) and I may use the completed
one too for the other side.

Tuesday's Twitterings...

2012-01-31T23:06:00.000+01:00

Yup, it snowed.... we had about 2 inches on the road and 4 or 5 on the hedges, ditches, cars etc. I phoned Jacques school and the teachers had got in and electric, heating etc was on so Phil drove him in in the 4x4, he was the only one in 11 fellow classmates, some who live a 2 minute walk away. I think if the teachers get in (they come from alot further away) then at least the kids parents should make an effort. He had great day doing some computer work and some maths. I got on with cutting sashing for the boss's quilt and catching up on paperwork, while Amelia played on my laptop.
We made a scrummy yummy lemon cake too and had it for tea. Tomorrow i'm thinking scotch pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast as there's no school and we won't be rushing out the door.

About 7pm, I finally decided to join in with valentine Sewalong from SewHappy.me, I got busy choosing fabric, cutting out letters and shapes. I've fused them on and need to zig zag them with the machine and when I get out will rummage embroidery thread to enhance it. I quite enjoyed it and am hoping it doesn't get to UFO stage :O)

Never again....

2012-01-30T22:24:00.003+01:00

I'm never going in another finished item swop again, if I even think about it, someone remind me no... I really wanted to do the name mini quilt swop, had some nice ideas, wanted to use the sizzix for some hearts, flowers, etc etc...name would be fairly easy and hopefully I'd get lots of ideas from the person, they'd blog or be active on the flicker site... guess what I get a no blogger, not a dickie bird on flicker, searched on FB/forums etc... I'm hoping I've got the right person, she likes beagles and has one, shes TEACHES kids how to quilt and has a long name like 9 letters !!!! I made this up today but i'm really not sure, I had to obscure the embroidered name in the top left and if my sizzix arrives i'll applique some little shapes in that block as it's too plain...don't want to bother quilting it yet incase something else takes my fancy...what do u reckon ??

My mum's UFO I sewed up the remaining squares and then gave it back to her to make another two and we'll get the little table runner finished ready to donate to Patchwork club for the Christmas market. Must try and find time to make something now and again to donate so its not a mad rush in December.

I've been looking at the lovely swoon blocks that are around blogland and then came across the carpenters block, which is identical if you use some different fabric on the rectangle bits, I was checking out the quilting board forum and girls there have made huge 48" swoon blocks and then bordered them, I really like that idea but I also love the look of the 9 24" swoon blocks on a quilt, but perhaps i'll just try the 48....if I can get fabric choices together, i'll wait until my next fabric delivery arrives, can't remember if I ordered anything snazzy or not, plus I need to get on with Phil's boss's quilt and I've got my spring quilt to finish which I probably needed to buy more fabric as I want a really wide border or a pieced border.

I'm in the process of marking out a smallish project just for me to take to patchwork, going to make a celtic wallhanging and thought i'd do it all by hand but perhaps when I think how much quicker it'd be to zigzag it...hmmm but I definitely need something I can take to patchwork club and just pick it up and put it back until 2 weeks time iykwim....

We've had snow today and the school buses aren't running tomorrow, so there won't be many at school, we could get the oldest Jacques to school but he wouldn't do much actual work so perhaps we'll let them both have a snow day, it's not even that much at the moment 1-2 inches but it's still falling.

Also need to get on and embroider the valentines tweet and the birthday one for my friend who has a 2 year old who adores owls...what a clever girl :O)
perhaps tomorrow if the kids are home and let me sit there and change threads every 2 minutes :O)

Sunday stutterings

2012-01-29T22:17:00.000+01:00

It's been a bit of a weird week. Amelia being sick has held up quilting progress, mainly as she wants to *help* all the time. We did get her lovely dolly quilt made though :)
I'm still waiting for my Sizzix machine to arrive and i'm trying to source the quilting dies but Sizzix UK don't stock them until March and Sizzix US refuse to ship to Europe ARGHHH, I'm contemplating selling hexagons, tumblers etc already cut on Ebay.fr. I would like to start thinking about what I can do when the kids aren't needing me so much, I could use some of my own independence but it's really difficult here to start a business...anyway that's in the future.

This week I won another giveaway :) applique addict had a pun giveaway, her and her DH chose the most entertaining ones, it was a big giveaway with lots of goodies, I won these beautiful hand dyed fabrics from quilt hexle and can't wait to receive them, will be great with the sizzle when it finally gets here...

here's my SAL block finished and I'm starting on the Christmas tree block next.

I may have another finish to show you tomorrow, its a very old old UFO and it's my mum's not mine, she made lots of the squares but hasn't got around to sewing them up, so I might get chance tonight or tomorrow.
I ordered more fabric too, a whopping 18 yards :) from fabric shack again, spent alot of time last week trying to order batting for patchwork club, except my usual uk suppliers don't seem to have hobbs 100% cotton and the french like the 100% not the 80/20 I use... has anyone used the quilters dream and what's it like for hand quilting ? and anyone uk/europe based, where do u get your batting from ?

I've been wracking my brains what to do for my name swop quilt, I've got a very long name to use a minimum of 9 letters !!! and I'm pretty stumped as she doesn't appear to blog or post photos so not sure what she will or won't like. I have embroidered a little square so am thinking perhaps 2 little blocks (pinwheels perhaps) and then applique her name or something..anyone got any inspiration for me ??

Not MIA...

2012-01-28T22:25:00.001+01:00

I'm not missing in action,just not much going on as Amelia's been home from school all week and other things have got in the way of sewing. Did finish my sal bear stitchery, just 2 more to go now and have cut the squares for charity quilt,just need to cut sashing..Will do a fuller post tomorrow, with news of my latest giveaway win.

Dresden Plate or a camel's bum

2012-01-24T19:14:00.001+01:00

Well, today I got on and appliqued the dresden plate on, then I got to thinking I'd make it into a cushion rather than a wall hanging...then I got the stuffing out and decided to stuff the red center, the petals looked a bit weird, so I stuffed them...

DH has now said it looks like a camel's bum....so do I destuff, leave it as it is or try and reduce the stuffing but then the petals look really *loose* but perhaps it does look a bit overstuffed... I fancy it for a cushion for my sewing chair to the firmer the better I reckon..was going to send it to my bro for his birthday because I made him a quilt with the same fabrics, but dont think so now..hmmm

created a monster

2012-01-24T11:58:00.002+01:00

has created a quilting monster...Amelia got quite stroppy with me because the boy dolly needs a boy quilt and I haven't got time to sit with her today and sew it up...so she's declared she's going to pin it ready....

lololol

Have a good day everyone x

Proud mummy day...

2012-01-23T21:20:00.000+01:00

My little four year old is home from school ill, she's got an ear, chest and throat infection and is home all week,the Doc said she can go back next week. I started making a dresden plate cushion because I saw an old tutorial from sewmamasew and I wanted to make one, I don't know where for, perhaps DH will have it in is room as it's grey and black. I had to stop which was annoying because I thought I might get to the quilting part today....and do you know why....because Amelia wanted to make a quilt for her dolly....


dolly quilt layout

Thinking it'd be a one minute wonder, I told her to choose 20 squares from my scrap bin and put them in 5 rows of 4, she choose purples and I was surprised at her layouts, she moved things around, didn't like the same ones close to each other..
Then I taught her how to line up the squares and pin them together... she loves taking photos so thought she needed one so we can document her quilting afternoon for her school book.

she realised when she made mistakes and put the fabric the wrong way to pin... I sat her on my lap and we used the Janome to start sewing the squares together. The Janome sews itself, it has a start/stop button and you can program it to stitch a certain length, so I was quite happy to let her just guide the fabric and lift the foot up and replace the fabric with the next lot of squares and press go again :)

We sewed them into rows and then joined the rows...the flimsy was finished, but it wasn't enough...oh no, little lady wanted the dolly quilt FINISHED !!! she said it needs the little strips round the edge mummy, err no Amelia, it doesn't really need a border not for a little dolly, so she grabbed her doll and measured it up against the quilt, yup it's fine without borders mummy. So we hunted through the stash for some backing and some *lamb stuffing*, we pinned it and then she sewed around to birth it, I let her decide when to start/stop and how to turn the machine for the edges. Then I told her to turn it inside out.

I hand stitched the opening closed for her and ironed it all, she said it didn't need any quilting cos it was just for a dolly and she was tired :)


Writing the label


The backing is from her ballerina quilt, that's currently on her bed

We are all so proud of her and finally, I made her write her name for the label, I told her that in many years to come her kids might use it for their dolly's.


Finished Article


Very happy and proud girlie with her first quilt

Then time for a piccie with her first finished quilt, her dolly and then her dolly and her enjoying a snuggle.

So I'm linking up to Manic Monday, not for me but for my 4 year old who it looks like might have the quilting bug already and who, might be stealing my stash in the foreseeable future

Manic Monday Link Up

A little bit of stitching

2012-01-20T22:16:00.000+01:00

Got around to doing a little bit of stitching, I started Phil's boss's charity quilt, his wife has Parkinsons and its early onset, she's had it for probably 3+ years now and is getting progressively worse, so DH volunteered me to make a quilt to sell, auction or give away at the next fundraiser... which is at Easter, so I thought I better get a shift on.
I had some lovely springy feeling fabric on a honey bun, so started sewing them into strips of five. I searched on moda then and came up with this pattern counting by fives

now what colour sashing do I use, the yellow, the aqua or buy new fabric ???

here we have the aqua/blue and the yellow with some of the 5 strips

the blue/aqua with 5 strips (little birdies on the blue)

yellow or blue (birdies on both)

Nice day out...

2012-01-19T23:22:00.000+01:00

Good Evening all, nice day out today, mum and I were off to pick up my dad from Poitiers airport, he's had a few days in the UK... Mondial Tissues (eeerr like a basic fabric store in the uk but it has lots of cheap pins,needles, machine oil and ribbons etc) had a sale on...so I bought some goodies

10metres of pink double binding for 2E 2.57$ £1.67 and this really cute picture frame, I couldn't resist for 3E £2.50 isn't it sweet...lovely little buttons now to find a picture or I might just write some witty comment on some fabric and put it in.
Anyone know any button rhymes ???

I love Mondial Tissue bags too but my other store NEVER has them in stock, so I treated myself for carrying my things to patchwork club

and not really anything patchworky but I loved them and they look so cute in my lounge, peeking over the settees looking at various wall hangings, quilts or towards the windows, how cute are these fellers ??

Finally, I've been busy this week making a cover for my tablet, you couldn't dream how difficult I seemed to make it. I didn't want the same fabric on front/back, it had to have some cardboard in it to protect the screen and give it some weight, DH thought it should have cardboard along the top rim and as it lives in the sewing room I needed it to be able to stand up with the cover on... easy eh...ehh NO !!!

I'm not 100% happy with it but it'll do...oh and I'm going to write on the right hand side Pippa's Pad I think :) although DH will argue its not a pad its a tablet, does it really matter ???

One Thing, One week FINISH !!!!

2012-01-16T22:05:00.001+01:00

Ohh these link ups and Finish a longs are really encouraging me to get UFO's and things finished. If it wasn't for One Thing, One Week I really wouldn't have got my 12 Days of Christmas finished by today, I quilted it yesterday afternoon and was sewing the binding on last night while watching Sherlock. Think I'm going to hang it in my sewing room near the window.

It's not perfect but it'll do :O)

am linking up for Manic Monday at sew happy geek
This week, I also made the pincushion and the tote bag from start to finish :) I'm trying to get my tablet cover made and finish one of the sew a longs parts...but its possible I'll get diverted this week.

Something to look forward to

2012-01-16T21:53:00.000+01:00

This is definitely something to look forward to in February. Melissa at Happy Quilting has organised a simply charmed blog hop, looks alot of fun :)

On Sunday, Amelia and I made a very quick pincushion, she chose the fabric and the buttons and got the stuffing, I literally just sewed a shell type shape, here's the finished pincushion

She thinks it looks like a butterfly which is what she wanted...see the butterfly buttons too. Then today i'm reading the various blogs and Love laugh quilt Here is having a pincushion Parade, so i'm linking up :)

FMQ catch up

2012-01-15T22:21:00.001+01:00

Yup, I've been slacking and haven't done any FMQ which has been frustrating because I really seem to *get* what Leah has been talking about and on Wednesday I started FMQ the 12 days of Christmas mini quilt, as it wasn't that well pieced I thought it'd be perfect for the wiggling part. Pull out the Janome, loaded it up with Aurifil 50 for the top and invisible thread for the bobbin...grrrr it just didn't *flow* tension and stuff was fine but it actually felt really sluggy and slow after the brother 1500 on the frame.... so took it to patchwork and unpicked it... Haven't had a chance all week and because I need to finish the mini quilt for the Monday One thing, one finish challenge I decided today was going to be the day. I got DH to pull the Brother off the frame, cleaned out all the fluff and bits of dust, gave it a good oiling and loaded it up... Aurifil on the top and invisible on the bottom, turned it over so I was effectively quilting the back and got busy....

It's harder for me to quilt it at the machine than on the frame, (see all the angular bits) I seem to have a better flow when standing and jiggling than fighting the fabric at the machine, but I was at full speed. Am going to look for a pair of gloves, I know i've got them somewhere or put it back on the frame but I kinda liked having a go on a little thing. Tomorrow, will try some of the YLI thread and do the proper assignment, want to try making the wiggles bigger because I seem stuck in the must do it small loop... these QAL's and FAL's definitely seem to help me focus :)

Picasa and Quokka Quilts...

2012-01-15T21:46:00.000+01:00

You know how Quokka Quilts has been running the Fat Quarter bundle giveaway since Christmas, you have to choose 3 solids and 12 patterned fabrics from Fat Quarter shop.. you'd have to have been half asleep not to notice all the nice collages of fabric popping up here and there on blogland. I've chosen mine weeks ago and kept thinking, must get it into collage format with picasa and post about it. Well tomorrow 15th is the last day... I run Linux and Picasa stopped support for Linux as they reckon it's not in use much...DOH !!!! I use picasa via google but that doesn't do collages as it's the online version. So I've spent hours today googling, trying to find old download and I've managed to install and get it running.... quite a feat especially without bro or DH helping (their techies by trade and always go, just install this, just do that or DH infuriatingly says... try google ARGHHH FFS just do it for me babe) however he's busy cutting up a van (literally) so I thought i'd do it myself and it's working ... I ROCK !!!! but it did mean I haven't had time to sew *sigh* but oh well, so look out for lots of collages :) and here's my selection for the give away.

Have you noticed there are some of the B words in that selection...hmmm I've bought a Sizzlix large flower die and it needs B's..... I need some help choosing some appropriate ones but that can wait until another day.

Yard Sale Cantaloupe Confetti Dots Yardage
SKU# STELLA-37-CANTALOUPE

Mimosa Yellow and Orange Basketweave Yardage
SKU# STELLA-2-YELLOWORANGE

Mimosa Light Orange Basketweave Yardage
SKU# STELLA-2-LIGHTORANGE

Meet Me At Sunset Orange Stained Glass Yardage
SKU# STELLA-4-ORANGE

Meet Me At Sunset Orange Butterflies Yardage
SKU# STELLA-18-ORANGE

Mimosa Orange Ikat Yardage
SKU# STELLA-12-ORANGE

Stella Light Orange Solid Yardage
SKU# STELLA-SOLID-LTORANGE

Bella Solids Butterscotch Yardage
SKU# 9900-36

Bella Solids Golden Wheat Yardage
SKU# 9900-103

Meringue Tonga Batiks Ivory Fossil Leaf Yardage
SKU# B6233-Ivory

Creamsicle Tonga Batiks Tangerine Dotty Bias Wave Yardage
SKU# B6907-Tangerine

Creamsicle Tonga Batiks Orange Blotchy Dot Yardage
SKU# B7798-Orange

Creamsicle Tonga Batiks Creamsicle Trumpet Flower Yardage
SKU# B8410-Creamsicle

Primrose Tonga Batiks Sprout Mini Palm Yardage
SKU# B8540-Sprout

Coco Berry Tonga Batiks Caramel Heavy Rain Yardage
SKU# B9102-CARAMEL

A lovely little bag and a battle....

2012-01-12T21:21:00.003+01:00

I saw this post on Poppy Seed Fabric and fell in love with the elephant and owl fabric, alas I don't have any but I did remember buying a roll of webbing and had some black and white blocks left over from my brothers quilt I made 3 or 4 years ago. So out came the black kona and the blocks...and I got busy

Problem is I love it, the outside is 6 little pockets and I want it for kindles/phones/chargers/stitching/tissues/sun tan lotion/sunglasses and bits and bobs for the house and the motorhome. Amelia thinks it's for her and Jacques thinks Nana should have it. It's not long enough to go over my shoulder so a little carry tote but its incredibly cute and not too big for its needs.

Think I need to buy some funky fabric now and different colour webbing :)) not bad for a yard and some batting/webbing... If you want to make one yourself go head over to Poppy seed and grab her tutorial...

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-11T21:45:00.001+01:00

Its another WIP Wednesday and i'm hooking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced...
The latest anti biotics & steroids that I'm on to try and shift this cold/cough/bad chest/tonsilitis that's been plaguing me for 3 months now have obviously got some form of speed or anthetimine in them... EG last night (this morning) I went to sleep at 1.30am and then was wide awake at 6.05am and had sorted out and put washing in, cooked a curry and had a lemon cake in the oven by 6.53.. sales start here in France today so I also spent some time buying kids clothes and myself the Sizzix :O)

It's one of my quilting friends birthday today Clare from Dordogne Quilter and I'd sent her a pressie parcel, a quilters journal (forgot to take photo) and I embroidered a little plaque for it..isn't it cute...must get on with one for my sewing area I think

Anyway, back to WIP.... the 12 days of Christmas sampler has moved on a bit, I was not cutting too accurately so decided to make my squares 31/4" ahh well I hit upon a problem with one of the blocks so cheated and am appliquing it on when I do my FMQ over the top... then the sashing went on and it's not fantastic and some of the blocks are now less than even (spy the bow tie) but its being quilted, its being bound and it'll look pretty enough hung up in my space... oh and I STILL hate BATIKS !!!! I didn't actually buy these ones, they were given to me but the scraps are going to a swop or a friend who likes batiks cos I'm not using them again..each time I think ewwww, its mad because I love them when other people use them, just not when I do...

Go take a look at the other linky's some of the WIP are awesome

And finally I received the log cabin pattern from the giveaway win and also found out I've won a ticket to l'Aiguille en fête which is a big exposition in Paris, lots of embroidery, art textiles, boutis and patchwork expos.
2012 seems quite lucky for me so far :)

Am off for an early night and hopefully a good sleep :)

Sizzix Tutorial

2012-01-11T00:01:00.000+01:00

ohhh im more than tempted now :) sales start in france tomorrow :)

EDITED >>>> http://www.scrapcoutureetcompagnie.com/index.php?product/21-offre-speciale-big-shot-sizzix I'm going to be the proud owner of a Big Shot.. I looked into them and this is actually cheaper here in France than I can get it from the UK.... I can't really justify the go or the big shot pro and for what I want to use them for I reckon this will be the ticket... the go baby was still more expensive and I don't like that you can't use other dies... with the big shot you can use accuquilt dies or sizzix as long as their under 6 inches wide... I need to keep my eye out for a 5" square die so I can make charm packs..would love a 2.5" strip die at some point, flowers, circles, vines, ahh think I'm going to be doing applique and perhaps an apple core or tumbler quilt :)

Italian generosity knows no bounds....

2012-01-10T11:07:00.002+01:00

Gobsmacked, thrilled, amazed, word's don't describe how I feel to be honest...
remember I won the blog hop prize from Mary at the curious quilter (blogged about it here astounded ) and Luisa http://www.luisaquiltfriends.it/
got in contact with Mary who kindly passed the message onto me and then I hooked up with Luisa who wanted to send me a COMPLETED 144 block wedding quilt as a GIFT !!!!! for me to put a border on, back and quilt.. well it's arrived in the post.... The pictures do not do it justice as I haven't got the floor big enough and the weather is grey and miserable but here it is !!!!

I took it out of the box (with clean hands) and it is beautiful, the work involved for an older lady she is very talented and the generosity to send it to an unknown person, it brings a lump to my throat. I am taking it to my patchwork club tomorrow and I know the ladies will be thrilled with it.

At the moment (I reckon its at least 2m square) It's too big to quilt on my frame so dh will have to move the frame into the lounge and i'll add the extensions when i'm ready. So am on the lookout for extra wide backing fabric on sale in the US and will order some batting from the UK once I measure it, will be using ITALIAN Aurifil thread to quilt...need to think of a border or not, I've always felt that bed quilts aren't quilts without wavy borders, so think I'll put a scallop edge on it and as we're renovating our house and hadn't decided on a bedroom colour and dh thinks it'd look great on our bed, so it's decided, our room will be blue and white.

Thank you so much Luisa, it will be deeply treasured :O)

Being a good girl

2012-01-09T23:21:00.000+01:00

Yup, I'm being such a good girl. Quilter's Gap Finish a long is really helping me. I've been itching to start my dh's bosses quilt and have sorted strips into colours and patterns, even pinned some and told my DH I was going to get on with it this week. BUT I sat down at the machine and thought, nope I need to finish the 12 days of Christmas sampler first...so this afternoon, I've got on with it and just have one small block to finish (I did do it but it's too big for my finished size and can't be cut down, so it's going in the scrap box and I need to make it again) and then I'm going to try sashing it and bordering it...might even get it quilted as it's a mini quilt and binded by Friday afternoon but.... I AM GOING TO FINISH IT BY NEXT MONDAY and to prove it, I'm linking up with amyscreativeside one thing one week challenge
I love the idea of this kind of challenge, especially for this little sampler... and I'm taking the santa SAL redwork with me to stitch tomorrow while my boy is with his speech therapist... see my halo shining

Leona's Quilting Adventure: 900 Follower Giveaway!!

2012-01-08T15:16:00.001+01:00

Leona's Quilting Adventure: 900 Follower Giveaway!!

A great giveaway and theres AURIFIL :o)

Leona's Quilting Adventure: 900 Follower Giveaway!!

2012-01-08T15:16:00.000+01:00

Leona's Quilting Adventure: 900 Follower Giveaway!!

A great giveaway and theres AURIFIL :o)

First Finish of 2012 and ARGHHHH

2012-01-05T10:06:00.004+01:00

It's been quite a frantic start back to school and work for DH...plus I've been ill with tonsilitis and means another dose of anti biotics. I've got so much sewing I want to get started and kids, housework and being knackered hasn't helped.... I'm off to UK for a flying visit to pick up a DRAG BIKE with my DH, first weekend without kids probably since Amelia was born 4 years ago, we're sorta jinxed, every time we plan a trip, a meal out, anything special one of us gets ill, the kids do or we have breakdowns with vehicles, etc etc... When we got engaged on NYE 2011, (opps edited, NYE 2010/NYD 2011 if you know what I mean) We'd bought the ring, prebooked flights, hotels to Loch Lomand in Scotland and DH came down with the most awful flu just after Christmas, made his diabetes play up and we both sat in our PJ's and stayed at home... he finally proposed by putting the foam bath letters kids have on the bathroom mirror with will you marry me, I was in the bath at the time... :o)
Keep your fingers crossed for us, although it's really wet and windy here atm

Anyway, I promised a mug rug to a friend in Paris and I really wanted to make something for a special quilty friend who's birthday is next week. It's not gonna be much now but if I can get on the machine tonight, who knows she might get something for her birthday.

BUT The mug rug is the first start and finish of 2012

way to go eh :O) I started it as a red/white/green log cabin on Monday, then got liberated and cut it into triangles, then resewed it as a rectangle...realised it wasn't really what my friend would like, I asked her and I could almost here the *oh my god no* in the internet atmosphere. She said she liked aqua's, teals, browns, etc etc so I got busy with the Janome and voila... going in the post this afternoon :O)

Back with Label, I'm contemplating making some labels of my own

It is squarer than it looks, and she's called Linda so there's the L....

Ok, I'm officially mad in the head...

2012-01-03T21:54:00.002+01:00

Ok, I'm officially mad in the head... but I'm going to try and get a grip on my frame FMQ and Leah Day is planning on quilting bigger and full quilts so looks like something achievable on the Frame...so starting tomorrow night I'll be loading up the frame and getting stitching.... if the kids ever go to sleep, I'm going to get my pen and paper..

Finish-a-long, first quarter...

2012-01-02T22:06:00.001+01:00

Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap Blog is hosting a quarterly project where you finish up projects and can win some really cool prizes including Aurifil thread. I'm thrilled after an email to Alex at Aurifil, him and Rhonda got in touch and he sent some yummy thread that I REALLY REALLY want to win. Click the link or the image for more information on how to sign up. 2012 Finish a Long

I wasn't sure I really wanted to join in as I'm not great with UFO's but after looking at my large list yesterday UFO's I've decided that I'm going to get the following finished by end of March.

Finish the stitching on all of the 7 blocks of the Christmas SAL
Get this finished, need to buy some fabric for the outer border, back and quilt it

3, I know its not technically a UFO but I have got the fabric, pattern and some of the strips sew up...need it completed for my DH to send for it to be auctioned/sold at his bosses Parkinson's Stall at Easter

4, Finally, finish the 12 Days of Christmas mini sew along, I can't show you as its for a present and people watch my blog...but I can confirm I've completed block 8

It'll definitely be a challenge as I need to get a mug rug done and a birthday machine embroidery project done for Feb and wanted to get a start on DH's Space invader quilt which was for his birthday in April but I think may be a xmas present :O)

Astounded !!!!

2012-01-02T19:09:00.002+01:00

You know how I won a log cabin pattern from Mary at the curious quilter well she emailed to say the pattern has been posted and also that she'd got a message on her blog that looks to be for me,

I like Log Cabin pattern too, I quilt since 1979 and I live in Genoa-Italy- I made a Log Cabin quilt for Christmas gift for a friend- I have 144 log cabin blocks white/blu/light blu for another wedding quilt- do you want for you? for free, I mean for gift- later you sew and quilt–I am 74 and all my friends has a quilt made by me- send me your address- you can answer in french I studied at school but I write a lot of mistakes….

Luisa marialuisaboldori@gmail.com http://www.luisaquiltfriends.it/

How completely amazing, how generous and I think I'm going to be in for a very pleasant surprise when I receive the blocks, have you seen Luisa's work, she's a very talented lady... I'm thinking perhaps I should gift the quilt when I finish it but perhaps I'll be selfish....

So it's a double win for me, thanks to Mary :O-)

oh and I'm linking up with Manic Monday Sew Happy Geek Manic Monday for my Christmas wreath twister so please go take a look at mine and the other great projects :) manic monday is certainly a great name for our first monday of the year !!!

EDITED 3rd January, Just had an email from Luisa to say she's actually made the TOP !!! and I *just* have to quilt it, wow how kind and generous, can't wait to see it and will be keeping it somewhere safe and practising lots before I let myself loose on it....Perhaps some Italian Aurifil thread might be needed !!!!

Stitchery Give away

2012-01-01T15:19:00.000+01:00

I must get off this computer and get cooking lunch/dinner.... but I got sidetracked by this stitchery give away from Sarah, here will run for the whole of January and some lovely goodies are being given away

New Years Resolutions

2012-01-01T14:24:00.001+01:00

A new year, lots of new ideas floating around in my head and lots of UFO's I want to try and finish...
I've just been in the sewing room and taken photo's of my UFO's, need to look for a strike through list or something for blogger...any help guys ??

Kaaren from The Painted Quilt is an inspiration to me, I love her blog, I love her house, her pictures, her stitchery. In fact the Raggedy's is one of my UFO's (forgot to take a picture) and I ADORED her new labels, she's posted that they are from Mommie Made It and I am SERIOUSLY tempted, think it would be a really great as I don't like labelling my quilts and giveaways and a cute little label would be enough...think I might be shopping later :o)
Kaaren then tempted me further with a 12 days of Christmas mini mystery quilt sampler from Temecula Quilt Co and it looks like something I could do quite quickly or use it for a hand sewing project when I'm travelling in the van to the UK next week....

I've spent alot of time trying to work out what im doing this year and I *think* I'm going to link up with a UFO finishing party but more of that when I get time to investigate and the kids aren't getting on at me to help them with lego.

Here's my UFO pile

14 blocks of the SBS quilt done, there are 140 blocks so i'm 10% done, I started it I think in 2008 or 2009, when I was living in the mobile home and didn't have my sewing machine handy, so decided I'd do a hand sewing piecing project...needless to say didn't get much done, so this year I'm going to use the machine and hopefully get a further 50 blocks minimum, one a week and a holiday week :) still seems alot though

next is the Christmas SAL, I've got 1 block part done, 1 block drawn on the muslin, 1 block still to print out and 4 finished, want to get this done rapidly as I've got the thread all sorted and its a take along thing when Jacques has the speech therapist. It was designed to be a bunting type SAL but we're running out of room so it might need to be changed into a wall hanging or something

Then I've got my spring quilt, I'm in a quandry as I feel it needs a larger border but I haven't got the fabric, so either quilt it as it is and put a multicoloured binding on or buy more variegated fabric and have a large 5 inch or so border...this is my preferred option I think.... I could also just use this as the promised Parkinson's quilt for my DH's boss which needs to be done before April but I think it's a bit bright and I really LOVE the colours, the quilts I give away are always the ones I feel are my best colour choices and I often think, damn I should've kept that.....

Next is a project, I started, liked, didn't like, nearly chucked it away, hand quilted some, machine quilted some, thought oh god I'll just burn it and I'm now thinking perhaps I'll just finish the damn thing, it'll do on a window sill and it was a learning process, I used cheap cotton mix backing and some thick poly batting. So some straight line quilting on the baskets (if I can find the thread I used) and shove a binding on...

A mystery quilt from our patchwork club, I HATE mystery quilts, I like to know what I'm going to finish up with, I started this, hated it, liked the fabric and thought oh damn it, I'm not continuing with it but it seems a shame to chuck away fabric, think I might make another 4 random blocks, shove a border on and use it as a practice piece for my machine quilting.

I want to do the December 25th stitchery that I'm pretty sure was by Sew Happy Me again (will check the print out) but it'll be a autumn start...gosh I've just remembered I've got Kaaren's (Painted Quilt) Halloween Hauntings to finish, it should look like this when finished....

I also fancy making this quilt as my biggish project for 2012 and I've been stashing some country looking fabrics and for the Parkinsons quilt Ive dug through my books and fabric and think this bands of gold quilt might be nice with the moda jelly roll, springy but not AS bright as the spring quilt, not sure on sashing colour yet but think I'll get busy sewing the strips and perhaps some inspiration may hit.

Also need to make a mug rug in January and a quick gift for one of my quilty friends and I've promised a birthday tweet embroidery for February and have promised the kids more tweet embroidery hangers..... Plus DH and I really need our red and white bed quilt and the camper will WANT some quilts if I manage to get hold of enough Happy Camper TOO fabric...

Gosh and here was me thinking I might be able to fit in the sewhappygeek quilt along I don't want to buy any more fabric and although I adore the aqua, grey, red combo if I *do* the quilt along I'm going to have to use some stash, how about these colours...not sure what do you all think ????

corr, i'm exhausted just reading it all, let alone finishing it all...ahh well it's only the 1st day of 2012, just as well we've got another 365 days to go :) off to cook out late New Year's Day roast dinner

Wishing you all a very happy and crafty 2012 :)

Happy New Year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2012-01-01T00:17:00.004+01:00

Welcome to 2012 we've just welcomed it in here in France, another hour and my family & friends in the UK will be seeing in the New Year. To all other friends throughout the world by the time I wake up on the 1st January it'll be 2012 everywhere :o)
Had a chilled New Years Eve and finished an owl embroidery, can't believe I was sewing on binding this afternoon but I had to get it finished to hang on the wall at midnight...am planning to make more for every month or season, I adore them...

the backing fabric is gorgeous balloons with silver sparkle, wish I'd bought more of it...
Tea/Supper was a mix of aperitifs for us all, pizzas, nibbles, crisps, cheeses, pate's and sausage rolls from the uk :O) delish and a thoroughly enjoyable evening with lots of booze....off to watch the fireworks on the TV

Happy New Year !!!!

Statuses from 2011

2011-12-30T13:31:00.001+01:00

Aiguille En Fete

2011-12-30T12:53:00.000+01:00

aiguille en fete
I'm contemplating a trip to Paris for the Aiguille en Fete, there's embroidery, sewing, patchwork and its on starting a Thursday so no need to inconvenience DH to watch the kids or take them to football etc etc, wonder about trains to Paris.

Theres a giveaway of some tickets from L'Atelier de Emma, this is where I got my aurifil thread from, go take a look atelierdemma. and have a browse around her shop

I'm playing

2011-12-29T22:42:00.000+01:00

As you can all see, I'm playing with blog templates and backgrounds again...ready for 2012....

Have been chilling some more and made a really cute machine embroidered birdy Happy New Year...will get it finished and post some decent pictures, I bought it from Embroidery Library as they've got a $ sale, it stitched out really well and they have so many cute owls in the series that I bought most of them 28 or so later :) am on the lookout for some hoot fabric now, think I might make a frame and hang a different one up every month or so. I've got Halloween, Easter, Spring, Summer, Christmas, May day, Valentines, St Paddy's day, UK theme, French theme, back to school, techie ones, quilting ones (SO CUTE) and a sewing one, ahhhh it goes on and on...just to get stitching them with 27 colour changes and 60 mins of stitching takes a good 90 mins or so each one with thread changing.... another UFO or project for 2012,

I'm trying to write a list of my UFO's and quilty/sewing things I want to achieve in 2012, my DH signed me up for a Parkinsons charity quilt which needs doing before beginning April, so suppose that should be on the first few things.

I've tidied and sorted my sewing room out so it's sitting there waiting for me, haven't had a chance to oil and clean out the brother yet and I NEED a sewing machine cover for it that fits when its on the frame sitting awaiting a project, its really heavy and awkward to lift out and I don't use it for any other stitching, so if anyone has any patterns or tutorial ideas...if not think I'm going to just sew a big rectangle (could add an embroidered set of birdies on a tree) with some ribbons to tie it with...basic but might work

Ahh well, time to take more meds for my sore throat now...the flulike symptoms have gone and left me with phlemmy cough with a sore throat that is razory and dry and the lidocaine (sp???) spray isn't touching it, am going to try a hot rum toddie with lemon and honey tonight.

Happy last Thursday of 2012 :)

Happy Boxing Day

2011-12-26T16:55:00.000+01:00

We survived :) and a lovely Christmas was had by all....Christmas Eve was spent with my family having a buffet lunch at mum's, stuffed ourselves silly and the baileys chocolate cheesecake was delish.... Santa came and visited us....

Christmas morning at 6am I was slamming in the turkey, sitting having a cup of coffee and waiting for my kids to wake up !!! Finally at 8am, I made so much noise and flushed the toilet for the 3rd time they woke up .... Stockings opened on our bed and then finally we went downstairs. Lots of pressies and excited screams, shouts of joy and ohhhhh's later :)

Presents opened, champagne drank and we were all ready at 1pm for lunch

it's what Christmas is all about, sat and watched TV and the Christmas soaps specials...

Boxing day is my favourite day, can't say I miss all the sales, here it's not a bank holiday so alot of people have to work but we've stayed in and chilled...Would I rather be reading quilting blogs or doing this ----->

My main present was an android tablet, I'm planning on using it in my sewing room for music, catching up on blogs, facebook, google and to use it for a photo frame :) most importantly is to put my sewing ebooks on and watch the you tube tutorials while sewing :)

my DH did very well with my pressies this year, a bottle of champagne, a magazine subscription to Quilt Country, a side winder bobbin winder, it's great as the brother bobbins can't be wound on the Janome, so if I forget to wind enough bobbins and the brother's on the frame its a really hard job to rewind bobbins, the side winder is excellent as it winds lots of different bobbins without being on a machine :) he also bought me an electric extension cable on a special pull out winder thing so I can plug the brother in on the frame and have enough cable so that it doesn't tug on the power cable as i'm quilting and turn it off like it did in the past.

Also got a really lovely clock, which DH has hung in an unlogical place for people to see the time in the sewing space but I asked him to hang it there as it's a fantastic place for me to see the time while I'm actually sewing...see it's highly logical for me :)

Finally, as it's not a bank holiday today the postman arrived...and look what arrived and is now hanging in my sewing room, it's going to be a permanent fixture as they aren't too christmassy and too pretty to be put away in the next couple of days for another 11 months. It's my blog hop prize from Nadine at This Creative Bliss...lovely that it arrived today

Have just had our traditional boxing day lunch of bubble & squeek (left over vegs and potatoes fried up) with stuffing/sausagemeat, ham, turkey, baguette, anything and everything the children and ourselves fancy. An hour later i've just managed to gobble some trifle and am now full to burst.
Oh well, Turkey salad tomorrow, must be time for alcohol *Happy Boxing Day*

Christmas stitching finished

2011-12-21T23:08:00.001+01:00

Here's the finished wreath, I'm still contemplating if it needs a ribbon (yes if I'm hanging it on the wall) so I've fashioned a temporary one and will see if the fabric shop has an extra 1/4 yard tomorrow. I'm really pleased with it and when it comes down in January, I'll be anxiously awaiting next December to get it back out again.
Think perhaps enough twisters for the moment as it really does use alot of fabric for what you get at the end. It's the 2nd time I've done a scallop border and I think it adds to it.
Wanted to get the SAL finished but really haven't had time so it's a UFO for 2012 that will be hanging somewhere on my wall next Christmas :)

WIP Wednesday update....

2011-12-21T18:38:00.000+01:00

It's been manic here for the last few days, as usual and more especially when the kids are on holidays. Have to say they have been incredibly well behaved and i'm very proud of them. The excitement hasn't got too much yet...
DH and I have been busy putting up the outside Christmas lights. It now lights up the road when the streetlights go out. Will be more organised next year though, too many loose hanging cables for my liking.

This morning I finished icing the cake, DH and the kids wanted a modern version so some edible glitter and some iced penguins, santas and dwarfs...snow white's done a runner though :(
Made the stuffing and started to make the trifle, it's a bit of a mix this year, sponge with Kirsch (cherry flavour liquer) Mandarin oranges, Lime Jelly and then the custard and cream :o) and have written my shopping list for food bits and i'm off out shopping tomorrow.

Quiltingwise, I've tidied up my sewing room, want to get the Brother off the frame and give it a good clean after the holidays, lots of fluff accumulated when I was using the polyester batting even though I had Aurifil thread. I've just quilted the wreath with cotton mix batting and it's much more even, the thread is lovely and I need more colours and the fluff is reduced with better batting. I'm pleased with the quilting, once I worked out I needed to go quicker to stop the thread breaking and I quilted the main border, the cream bits on the wreath and left the main one, am contemplating if it needs the bow on it but its more than likely just going to sit on a table (cats will love it) as I think I'm running low on wall space....come on DH get the rest of the house done :) What does it look like i'm doing tonight... yup sewing on binding !!!

Amelia and I over the weekend made a fabric bowl, it's too big, when I asked Amelia what we were putting in it (thinking lovely satsumas and apples) she said oh BONBONS !!!!! (sweeties/candy) I'm not joking its a 2 or 3l bowl so imagine what a sugar rush girlie we'd have on our hands.

Magic Moments

2011-12-17T12:51:00.000+01:00

We were all ready to go out for the Fete, Jacques wanted blue hair so we used temporary spray and we had to wait a while for it to dry, trying to get a photo of us all was a challenge :)

I absolutely hate having my photo taken, since October 2010 I've lost a whopping 23 kilos, although most of them were in 2010, I've been quite naughty in 2011 but I have maintained the loss, put a kilo on, lost a kilo etc etc but in 2012 I want to lose more as I know it's do-able... heres a photo of me taken last night trying to look *slim* I love the tunic top, the colours, embroidery and the jewels but kept thinking oh its too small, shows my hips up too much, I'd like to hide behind a bigger size but so what..it is my body and I've got big hips, my dh loves me as I am and so do my family

here's one of dh and the kids

and for the last photo one of all of us

I had a magic moment last night at the kid's Christmas fete, the schools were singing papa noel and Father Christmas arrived....I looked out the window and it WAS SNOWING !!!!! then the whispers started and the kids went and looked out the window... hour later the snow had stopped and it was slushy on the way home... who doesn't believe in Father Christmas NOW !!!!

Happy Saturday !!!

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!

2011-12-16T16:00:00.001+01:00

I'm linking up for the first time to TGIFF . I've been looking to join Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday! for a few weeks but don't seem to ever finish anything...thought oh I know, I'll put the 1st of the twisters up but alas didn't get to finish the binding last night. We've had horrendous weather, hurricane force winds and rain like you cannot imagine, flooding everywhere, the road, the drains, the ditches, coming in the front door, the roof and the utility room...ahhh well its the adventures of life and renovating in France. As I was awake half the night, decided to take a nap...yeah RIGHT the tractor cutting up fallen trees caused the dog to bark and wake me up, so decided I might as well get on with sewing the binding....

Now it's finished and hanging on the wall, along with all our other Christmas decorations....I really need to learn how to square up properly in 2012, anyone got any decent tips or tutorials, it always seems to measure the same all sides but doesn't look square once the binding is on :(

Oh and I won a prize on the blog hop, :O) This creative blissI won one of her super Paper Lanterns,how excited am I :)

Sorry for the rubbish photo (with bit missing) but i'm in a rush to pick up the kids and get them ready for their Christmas party evening at school tonight...i'm super excited to be linking up with TGIFF !!!!

Thursday's Photos....

2011-12-15T23:01:00.000+01:00

I spent Wednesday morning on the frame, 3 hours later came off with a bad back, frozen shoulder and a flimsy finished :) it's got its binding on and i'm hand stitching the back, fingers crossed it might be finished ready for me to hang it on the wall, looks a bit wobbly with the binding on, why is it my tops never look square once the bindings go on ??? any ideas anyone???
my quilting was a bit rushed so not great curves and I used cheap polyester batting which I think it making it look a bit puffy, going to sacrifice the cotton/wool hobbs on the wreath.

The wreath one will be on the frame for Monday :O-) so i'll be hand sewing tuesday or wednesday.

As a side thing, I watched Jamie Olivers Christmas with bells on yesterday, bought some extra ingredients and tonight we had

For the epic hot chocolate mix

2 tablespoons Horlicks
2 tablespoons cornflour
3 tablespoons icing sugar
4 tablespoons quality organic cocoa
100g quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely grated
a pinch of ground cinnamon
a pinch of sea salt

1. Pour the milk into a large pan, and bring almost to the boil over a medium heat.

2. Meanwhile, add all the chocolate mix ingredients to a large jar and give it a good shake to combine. You need around 10 heaped tablespoons of the chocolate mix for this amount of milk.

Simply spoon the chocolate mix into the hot milk, give it a good whisk and leave to bubble away for a few minutes before serving. You're looking for that gorgeous, thick, almost claggy, knockout texture.

It is truly delish and the pictures do not do it justice, so I made up another batch and a small jar for my brother, going to find a nice label for his... definitely one for everyone to try.

Tomorrow its the Jerk Ham and the kids sneaked a pic of me making their sarnie for tea.

I got caught up with my photos and here's the new additions to my fabric stash

Can't you just eat the Watermelon's :)

These are a bit of a step from my usual stash but I'm trying to move out of my box a bit

These ones are for backings and for my country style quilt that I'm going to start in the New Year
Have a Fantastic Friday xxx

Tuesday twitterings

2011-12-13T12:01:00.001+01:00

Well not much to post I'm afraid, I've been running around sorting out the last Christmas pressies, tree and outside lights, thinking about my food shopping list for xmas, buying the booze and frantically knitting scarves for the patchwork stall at the xmas market and for Amelia's teachers.... all done and delivered now so I'm hoping to move onto patchwork and quilting, need to get the flimsies of the twisters on the frame this week so hopefully in the evenings I can get some done. I think because I'm still recovering from the lung infection by the time 8.30 comes and the kids are in bed i'm just too tired to start sewing. On Friday I've got to bake a cake for the school xmas night/party and saturday evening we've got a football club evening, so i'm hoping next week will be calmer, no school runs so just getting through the week until XMAS !!!!! Mum's having the kids for a day so I've told DH it's just me and the sewing machine/frame and he can cook us lunch or take me out I'm having a whole day off :O)
Oh i've made home made marzipan today, so easy, whizz together icing sugar, caster sugar, egg and almonds and it's done :) tastes yummy too. So am marzipaning the cake that mum made for us tomorrow while Jacques is at footie practice and it'll have time to dry out before I ice it, probably on 21st or 22nd
My fabric's arrived and I'll get the camera out later and take a piccie for you, still blog hopping too, i'm upto F and can finish at M, so not so bad. Need to get my stitchery stuff together to do while JP is at the speech therapist.

Cold, wet and windy here in rural france, shame I can't stay inside all day :(
Have a terrific tuesday xxx

EDIT I've finished the blog hop !!!! whey hey.... and now I've got another giveaway to tell you about

The amazing blog race is on !!! go check it out !

Blog Hopping

2011-12-11T20:36:00.001+01:00

I'm blog hopping with the Quilting Gallery blog hop, I'm having so much fun, don't think i'm going to manage all the sites in the next week but I can try :)

Ok Ive done N through to A now :)) people are being incredibly generous and sharing some fantastic blogs, puts mine to shame

here are a few of the great giveaways
sewbittersweetdesigns

WIP Wednesday

2011-12-07T21:59:00.000+01:00

Not much to update on i'm afraid, no crafty or sewing since Monday and apart from flimsy twister tops which fingers crossed I might get on the frame at some point this week, I haven't got much time either.
Our patchwork xmas fayre is on Sunday so I'm hoping to take the kids and will take some photos, they get to meet santa and our guild sells stuff that we've made, I donated a scarf, the bottle apron and my first twister mat.
I'm currently watching Kirstie's home made Christmas which has been lovely, lots of little crafty, food and decorating things and will look forward to next weeks. Ok time to get on, have to knit at least one more scarf before next friday so the kids can give them to their teachers as pressies :)

Have a good evening

Tesco's trials

2011-12-05T21:46:00.000+01:00

ok, did my shopping order last week, wanted 2 frozen turkeys *dont be going on about BM and frozen turkeys * one for mum, one for me.... shopping arrived NO TURKEY !!!! I'd been charged for 1 and the other was unavailable. (id written one x x x large and one xxl and wanted 2 turkeys whatever size) but the delivery company couldn't find the turkey I had paid for, anyway eventually after me moaning they *found* the turkey just being put into someone elses car.... anyway, phone Tesco's the next day to moan

spoke to a lovely lady who assured me she'd order me a XXXL one and get it delivered today, she told me to phone on friday, they'd phone the store and make sure the manager put one by for me, they'd waive the delivery cost of £4.50... ok phoned on fri, yup one put by...on tenderhooks all day and then get an email from the french delivery company, your order is on the van and your bill is £9.50 !!!!! so go online, thinking fuc***s have sent a chicken not a turkey, no turkeys for £9.50 at all..not even a breast... get on phone to french delivery, are you sure it's right £9.50, yup she says, the driver's checked your receipt and the £60 turkey is currently half price so £30.... they've then given you £20.50 STAFF DISCOUNT !!! so I've paid £9.50 for a 10kg+ turkey and delivery, the french del company then moaned cos they charge 20% of order and I felt a bit guilty, so told them i'd pay the £6 they should've been getting... but still £15.50 for a hugeeeeeeeeee turkey, not bad eh :) dad's picking it up and putting it in their freezer for me tomorrow... so I love TESCO tonight :)

Monday Musings and some flimsies

2011-12-05T21:19:00.000+01:00

Another Monday musing, don't these Mondays come around quick. Well the lurgies seem to have finally done one, I'm still chesty but feel more human. Amelia's back to school today but Jacques is still at home, he's not great, hacking phlemy cough but is refusing to stay at home another day. Least we don't have problems with these two not wanting to go to school.

Feeling better I actually did some sewing over the weekend, and got the border on the twister and started and am to flimsy stage on the twister wreath :) both ready for squaring up and quilting, hopefully this week...

for quilting I need to get them finished quick, do you think FM squiggles or something, I've only got white or cream aurifil, not sure what that'll look like on the green/red, the wreath one has gold throughout the fabrics, can't see me managing metallic on the frame perhaps an invisible thread...bit ambitious maybe something to think about

Got some more Christmas cards to write and if JP is at school tomorrow a massive marathon wrapping up of pressies session, I want to be able to put them all together and get them stashed. Need to finish another scarf and have some stitch alongs to catch up on...not sure i'll get them finished for xmas :(

Picture update

2011-12-02T20:19:00.000+01:00

Here we go, I've found some batteries...

The pink and blue scarves I whipped up one afternoon, my daughter loves that we have 3 scarves now that either of us can wear when we want, just grab one and go. Need to knit 2 for Amelia's teachers xmas presents and some more for us.

Here's my mug rug that I received from the swop, seems such a shame to use it but its sitting on my window sill

and for those that haven't seen my wreath tutorial here's the finished wreath and the tutorial is here Tutorial

Wreath Tutorial

2011-12-02T20:09:00.000+01:00

This was not designed by me and unfortunately I have no idea who came up with the idea except it was at a french friendship patchwork day and one of our patchwork ladies explained how to make it....

So you need a polystyrene ring, some green fabrics and a variety of reds or whatever colour you want for your flowers, some ribbon, buttons, pins and thread.

Start by winding the ribbon around the ring and I secured it with a pin but you could glue it.

You need to cut some green squares out, you need 3 squares of 8cm or 4" Approx for each *flower* so probably 21 or more squares and you need 5 squares of 6cm or 3" of flower fabric for each *flower* so 35 red squares.

Take a green square, fold it in half to make it into a triangle and then fold it in half again to make a smaller triangle

Make 3 of these triangles and then get the needle and thread out. Double thread and put a knot in one end, then make some running stitches on the edge of the first triangle *leaf*

Once you've finished one, you add on the 2nd and 3rd green triangle,
Then you pull and gather both ends up so the leaves make a little leaf circle

Then knot them together and cut the end off.

That's your leaf formed...

then take the red/cream *flower* fabric and do exactly the same except you have 5 petals on the thread, pull and gather, knot off.

Then take the petals and a leaf and either make a little yo yo for the centre or use a button, a piece of lace, anything you want. I used the pretty wooden star buttons I bought from China. Use the button to secure the petal and the leaf together and tie off at the back.

When you've made the 7 or 8 that your wreath needs, you can either use some hot Glue to stick it onto the wreath or I've used some pins in the hidden folds of the petals to secure...then tie some ribbon around the top to use as a hanger and that's it. Once you get busy it hardly takes any time at all and my 4 year old daughter helped with the folding of the leaves/petals.

And that's all folks !!!!

Not for those with weak stomachs....

2011-12-02T12:10:00.000+01:00

I've got sick kids again, but i'm quite proud of myself, managed not to puke when Amelia did last night, cleaned up the bed, got downstairs and put it in the machine, DH had to undo it a bit so it got washed properly.....however this morning not so good, Jacques puked and unfortunately mummy did too :( why have I got such a weak stomach...on good side, lots of gunk from both of our chests seems to have shifted :) and I have to say I feel alot better today ....

Haven't had any time or inclination to sew with worry about kids and which medicines to give to us all when, (we all have different anti bios, cough medicine) but I have knitted 2 more scarves and started a little wreath which i'm hoping to finish today, might even try a tutorial if anyone is interested. I can't post pictures as my rechargeable batteries are flat...why is that, they can be in the charger and get stolen and mummy gets left with flat ones.

Must get on with my Christmas twister and really wanted to get a twister wreath done, it'll end up being a Xmas Eve project !!! The SAL I'm well behind on too and i've got 3 vat returns and a year end to get sorted....can't do that with sick kids so next week is going to be a challenging one.

Keep being tempted by new projects too and although I haven't possibly got the time I've downloaded Kaaren from the painted quilt friday freebie, she is so inspirational and I love her stitcheries.
On top of all this DH has volunteered that I will send his boss a quilt for his Parkinsons fund raiser...ahh yes I thought, I've just missed the one this week so I'll be fine to get a quilt for next December, he phoned his boss and low and behold the next fund raiser is April !!!! and he's going to let me know what size they'd like, wall or bed... DH says oh yeah April's months away. hmmm
So need to start thinking for ideas and fabric when it arrives

Sorry for not being very quilty but its not a quilty household atm *sigh*

Pretty shitty week

2011-12-01T15:08:00.002+01:00

Pretty shitty week here, no sewing, can't be naffed and Im on different anti biotics and both kids are on medicine, anti bios and nose sprays as they've caught it and we're all off school until Monday... hmm not a rest for mummy
Anyway here's a great giveaway fedulab for some yummy aurifil threads

Monday Musings

2011-11-28T21:56:00.000+01:00

Well, another start of a week, not much to blog about on the sewing front unfortunately. Just haven't really had my Mojo.. lots to try and get finished or partly started but can't be naffed...feeling rubbish with this lung infection hasn't helped and it doesn't seem to be improving much. I did knit the scarf this week and have started on the next one. Tomorrow I WILL Get the borders on the twister, then I might get it quilted somehow but don't think it'll be getting any fancy applique.
I received my mug rug swop today and will take some photo's later, it's very lovely, rich browns with appliqued and embroidered Christmas trees. I need to write my little card and pop it in the post tomorrow, it's supposed to arrive Thursday or Friday. Here's the pic of my one, it's got that special pot holder/heat proof batting so hopefully won't damage someone's highly polished wooden table.

I'm going to send some of the scissor/snowflake fabric, isn't it cute and appropriate :) the colours aren't showing up so well the twisters are green, red and black and they are the smaller 3.5" starting size, DH made the template out of plexiglass stuff and it works really well.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday worked out really well for me, I've bought 3 ebooks and 32 yards of fabric for about 100 euros, I could be paying 16-20E a YARD here so I've saved 400E or more !!! mind you DH said I should've bought more:) but that's because he wants a motorbike so is being nice. Stash building and I still haven't got the stuff for dh's space invader quilt.

Time for a hot toddy and bed ready for tomorrow's Frozen turkey arrival from Tesco's (bit weird as its a UK supermarket and im in France) but that story is for another day *grin*
ni ni

Just quick before battery laptop runs out

2011-11-26T22:27:00.001+01:00

I went to the local crafty cheap shop, no polystyrene wreaths, no appropriate card but they did have holey wool like the katia I blogged about earlier in the week, so I bought a set of knitting needles (need shorter ones for next time) and 5 balls of wall to share with my mum and got knitting....its not difficult but it needs to be concentrated on to get the holes in the right bit but about 2 hours later here's the finished article. (don't laugh at the boobs, will try get a proper picture tomorrow) and for 2e worth of wool I love it :)))

ARGHHHH Why do I sit and read blogs.....

2011-11-26T12:13:00.001+01:00

I'd have been much better off just getting on with writing my Christmas cards, but the boys are away (youngest playing football, old man going DIY shopping) so Amelia and I are home alone, I've phoned mum and got all my gossip updates,hoovered, washing in and on, cooked lunch (spag bol) and made a fairly yummy looking homemade mince meat with apple filling with a meringue topping pie for dessert...so then I *need* to get the christmas card list of the computer. I've got IGoogle as my home page and it's all sorted out so lovely for me, email, weather, calender, translate and READER !!!! so an hour later i'm just finishing my blog reading...get to Love Affair with my brother and she's blogging at Two Girls Being Crafty and has the sweetest little sewn Christmas cards and Im thinking hmmm I need something for patchwork club to sell at the Christmas fayre 2 weeks today.... so I'll HAVE to go out and get some card although with lung infection being out in the fog isn't such a great idea..but anyway I'm going to cheat and make gift labels.....wonder if our craft shop has blank ones I could just sew onto hmmmm or do I start searching ebay for the old fashioned brown label with string types....see more ideas and more time wasting ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Now i'm going start writing my xmas cards so DH *thinks* i've been really busy.

This weeks giveaways

2011-11-25T19:58:00.001+01:00

inkythreads is having a great giveaway to win a copy of Jennifer Chiaverini’s newest book: The Wedding Quilt.... go take a look if your interested in a chance to win :O)

love affair with mybrother is having a giveaway along with Intrepid thread for a FQ set of free spirit solids, how much would my stash love them :O)

Black Friday,

2011-11-25T12:20:00.001+01:00

I've just started shopping, is it a special day, yes it's Black Friday !!!!!

All my waiting is over, now just where to go and what to choose... so far i've been to martingale publishing and with their 50% off everything, bought 3 ebooks so I don't have to pay international shipping, don't you just love TECHNOLOGY !!!!!

So I bought this to get busy with more twister quilts, its actually how I got the measurements to make my own twister ruler but was so tempted by 50% off thought i'd get the ebook....lovely scrummy baby quilt I might have to make...

and then I got this cos Ive seen some celtic quilts being blogged about and I've made a table runner but never got round to making anything more, I enjoyed it and have some bias binding already made just lazy and my DH loves celtic quilts, perhaps a valentines wall hanging in the making

As im so rubbish at exciting borders I bought this one to get some more inspiration perhaps, and at 11E or 15$ for the lot, it'd just be nice to read when i'm bored one afternoon.....

Now im off fabric shopping, where to start ???? and what to buy, need some more solids for a stash, need something for baby quilt thats not really girly and now some batiks perhaps for celtic hanging and want to make dh a space invader quilt for his birthday

shop until I drop :)) online !!!

Playing around

2011-11-24T13:25:00.000+01:00

as you can see I'm bored and so have been playing around with blogger..doesn't it look prettier now :) I so love Autumn

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:00:00.002+01:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American and Canadian Friends

ohh the delay posting actually worked, that's an interesting feature, I can do my WIP Wednesdays in advance now. I've finally succumbed to a visit to the doctor, 5 weeks of flu/coughing is quite enough and unfortunately I have a lung infection and low blood pressure as I'm so tired of the constant battle with the cough. So anti biotics and more pills for the cough, ahh well in 10 days I should be better. I don't think I even feel like being bothered to sew *must be feeling ill* so am thinking I might write my Christmas cards instead, bit early but quiet time without children shouldn't be wasted and its that or year end accounts..I definitely need a clear head for that !!! Hope everyone over the pond is having a fantastic Thanksgiving and I'm hoping the black friday and cyber monday sales will be very interesting, I'll be online searching out those deals xxxx

WIP Wednesday update....

2011-11-23T22:09:00.000+01:00

Back from patchwork club where the naughty women got me started on another xmas project, you wrap ribbon around a polystyrene wreath, then you make poinsettias/Christmas roses, out of 3 petals 8cm square, folded to make a triangle, folded again and then gathered, the same with 5 6cm square flower colours,
then a little yo yo or button in the middle....I need polystyrene and time :O)

My frame quilt is now bound and I'm trying to decide where to hang it, running out of wall space, Jacques said they'd have it in their room, but it's a bit too girly and although Amelia would love it, I haven't told Jacques I'm hoping to get him a digger wall hanging done in time for Pere Noel....so I've broached the subject of hanging it in the upstairs hall, which was supposed to be lilac but it more a pinky/purple lavendery colour so I think the quilt will fit in just fine up there.

I started my Christmas mug rug yesterday and got it bound today, I'm sure I can't blog a picture yet as the recipient hasn't received it, let's just say its a twister of an experience.... I've got some nice fabric to send with it and I'm thinking something typical from this area...bit difficult considering it's Berrichon Pie (potato, ham, onion with creme fraiche pie) or Limousin Beef...
Remind me early december to show you the piccie.

And the Yo-Yo Christmas tree is finished too, think it'll hang on the wall somewhere at Christmas.

The twister has a border on and hopefully tomorrow may get another one, then it's onto what kind of quilting...to get it finished quickly, could load it on the frame and FM it...then I get to move onto the twister wreath or tree I want to make

Did I say I love my Frame :O)))) got some cream Aurifil too so that'll be good.

I saw some scarves made by my patchwork ladies, they are using a wool called Katia, one has made one like this Katia and the other made one with the other type called Ondas, it's only 9 stitches wide but looks quite complicated, they all seem to think it's early...will look for some of the wool and perhaps my mum might knit one for me or I might give it a go. the turquoise/blue that one lady made was gorgeous. I've always wanted to knit a pair of those chunky socks...although I'm hopeless at knitting and find it stressful

WIP Wednesday

2011-11-23T13:16:00.002+01:00

Well, Ive got lots of WIP but I'm hoping to get some finished off and photo's taken while I'm at patchwork club today.
Got one border on the twister, need another one on it...

its off the frame

2011-11-21T16:17:00.000+01:00

Ok, it's off the frame, I've given it a wash to see if the green marking pen that's been on it for ohhh 3 or 4 years has come off. I never really thought i'd see it as a finished piece. I've made the binding and will machine it on tonight and hand sew the back tonight or tomorrow.

I feel like a proper quilter now, Its far from perfect but as others have said now its off the frame, I don't think I or anyone else would really notice. The stitches vary from very small to large to medium, but I've got the hang of the speed I need to get even stitches I think now. It looked so pretty hanging on the washing line drying...

wowow I've NEVER quilted every single inch of a quilt before and I do loooooooooooove my frame.

How much did I actually get done

2011-11-21T13:06:00.000+01:00

Well last week this was my list, how much did I get done....

I'd like to achieve this week :-

~~Mark out the rest of the CAL embroidery ready for stitching...~~
Unpick an old unfinished quilt top that I'd started machine quilting and i've now decided will be my first *proper* quilt on the frame, just want to get busy with some stippling or leaves on the borders I think.
~~finish another of the pressie things that's half way~~
Come up with a plan for my mug rug swop and a definite idea
put some borders on the christmas twister
perhaps cut out and sew some 5" blocks ready for a wreath twister
plan JP's digger quilt, had the fabric for ages and its a panel, just needs some borders and I reckon another one to practice on the frame....he's not going to be bothered if its a bit screwy, but needs to be done in secret which can be difficult....
Finally, have to bind the yo yo tree, but its on the can be left pile.....
sew some xmas panels that I have lying around together, see what I can do with them, cushions seem a waste, perhaps placemats for xmas lunch

HAVE NO MORE PROJECTS RUSHING AROUND IN MY HEAD

Only 3 out of the 10 this week and the quilt that was just going to be a practice is finished and awaiting binding....

So heres to the 6 getting done this week with the addition of binding to make number 7....think I might get cutting strips and try get the quilt and yo yo binding made

Monday Musings...

2011-11-21T10:01:00.000+01:00

Ok I've not dropped off the face of the earth...
I can now show you my finished mug rug and a coffee coaster that I made for presents. Why is it my binding always makes the things not look square ??? even when they are squared up before I bind them, any ideas please...

I'd forgotten how much I love the embroidery on my Janome, it was a pleasure to sit and watch it stitch (didn't dare move away because it ALWAYS screws up, it likes being watched)

I'm starting to panic about my mug rug swop, can't even come up with a proper christmassy design, will try put some time to that tomorrow, did think about trying to make a miniature twister, will look into the 2.5" pattern I think. Need to get on with my borders for the other twister as want to show it at patchwork on Wednesday and see if anyone else wants to make one with me.

All weekend I've been busy with kids football, an impromptu Chinese dinner with my Bro and trying to get my head around the quilting frame...
Dh has had to draw arrows and label the wood, not great for resale I know but I'm not planning on ever selling it. I've realised two big problems, the first I hate unpicking and the second I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing when *free motioning* I'll take some photos later. The backing is rubbishy shiny stuff so not ideal, the molleton *batting* is polyester practice stuff, however the thread is Aurifil and I'm definitely ordering more but what colour to choose is going to be a problem. I've got one crease in the quilting but I think its because I have been doing it too close and heavy. Will need to investigate further. Thank god its just a practice one, am hoping to possibly get it finished today and off the frame... EEEEK

Am awaiting some important contract info for my DH, to see if he gets to stay working at home or will have to look for a new contract, its all at the finance stage so nail biting and means we're on a spending freeze...hope its sorted before Black Friday as I'm waiting for the fabric sales :O)

back ache and more quilting

2011-11-15T00:09:00.000+01:00

it's nearly midnight here, I have back ache from leaning over the frame unpicking hundreds of little stitches...is there some kind of fabric eraser ?? Ive got a feeling there might be cos I'm sure I remember someone saying theres one for unpicking the machine embroidery stuff, must have a look on the net.
I have sore arms from stiffly quilting and I have a headache from not drinking enough through the day, but I am now happier with some of my quilting (borders) not so pleased with the little square and the rectangles are practise. Going to rest tonight and think about what else I could do in the large squares, perhaps a flower or the squares I inked in years ago.

Pantographs...

2011-11-14T20:42:00.000+01:00

decided to look for a print myself a pantograph site and happened on designsbyvickie my god, I will never have to look for another pattern again, there are literally thousands of free pantographs, now to find an easy one for the quilt.
Aren't people wonderful

need a break, need more aurifil colours, need a kit kat...

2011-11-14T17:03:00.000+01:00

wow I'm finally allowing myself time to sit down, am back on my diet and could really use a choccie bar or biscuit so am blogging instead !!!

I've got a bit of binding to sew on tonight for one pressie, decided to make myself a heatproof coaster for my sewing table. I have unpicked the quilt I made years ago and dh has helped me to get it on the frame....

I loaded up the machine, got my new aurifil thread out which yes, is pretty awesome, no problems with breakage or tension !!!! *YES* and my Brother does like it *sigh* shame its so difficult to get...BUT I've only got white or cream, so its loaded with the white...the stitching is showing up big time so its making me think I need to practice more, unpick it and change my thread to the YLI blue variegated for the borders... I'm really a bit depressed now cos the quilt hasn't got a purpose really but I still don't want to ruin it with my quilting...the markings on it were from before, I cant do straight line on the frame and never really did have an idea with how to quilt it, shall I just stipple it and perhaps unpick the borders and do them in blue or practice some more... I could do the leaf pantagraph on the borders...anyway have started to unpick it all but need to go get the kids from school

NOT MIA...

2011-11-14T09:54:00.000+01:00

I'm not MIA just busy making some pressies that I can't show you yet...today is a dedicated sewing day, its 9.50am and I've dropped kids off, prepared the dinner in advance, hoovered and mopped floors so the rest of the day is SEWING....

I'd like to achieve this week :-

Mark out the rest of the CAL embroidery ready for stitching...
Unpick an old unfinished quilt top that I'd started machine quilting and i've now decided will be my first *proper* quilt on the frame, just want to get busy with some stippling or leaves on the borders I think.
finish another of the pressie things that's half way
Come up with a plan for my mug rug swop and a definite idea
put some borders on the christmas twister
perhaps cut out and sew some 5" blocks ready for a wreath twister
plan JP's digger quilt, had the fabric for ages and its a panel, just needs some borders and I reckon another one to practice on the frame....he's not going to be bothered if its a bit screwy, but needs to be done in secret which can be difficult....
Finally, have to bind the yo yo tree, but its on the can be left pile.....
sew some xmas panels that I have lying around together, see what I can do with them, cushions seem a waste, perhaps placemats for xmas lunch
HAVE NO MORE PROJECTS RUSHING AROUND IN MY HEAD

and I need to do them in the following order 10...3, 1, 2,4,5 6,7,8,9,

WIP Wednesday

2011-11-09T22:30:00.003+01:00

ohhh I'm excited, my first WIP Wednesday !!! I was contemplating a wordless Wednesday like Clare Dordogne Quilter but considering I go to patchwork club on a Wednesday and usually have something unfinished as the kids are home from school, I'm going with WIP !!!!
Looking through I've decided to link up with Freshly Pieced, her list of WIP linkers is huge and looks like it's increasing by the minute,it's her first year WIP anniversary today.

I finished off block 4 of the SAL tonight, and am going to start block 5 tomorrow, or at least I might draw the last 3 blocks out, they don't take very long to stitch once I get round to it, what i'm going to do then I don't know...the SAL idea was bunting but not sure I fancy that,

Well my WIP is still twister....I'm stuck, what border, what size, what quilting, do I applique words on or not, what do the words say.... my stash doesnt have much that won't clash with the quilt as it is now, the red is more of a pinky red... I think it needs a small border of red or blue and then a wide cream (butter) border...with green/pink flower binding.
WIP too on the Xmas tree, have to make the binding, sew it on and finish it !!!

ahh well its what WIP Wed is all about :)

EDIT

Chance #2

Between now and Tuesday, November 15, comment on as many WIP Wednesday links as you can. Whoever comments on the most links gets an FQ bundle.

• Leave a comment on this post telling me how many links you commented upon. You must leave your tally in a comment on this post by Tuesday, November 15, at 1 p.m. Central time.

• I will be verifying the winner's comments—if you win, but you don't have as many as you reported, I'll move on to the next person.

• If more than one person ties with the same number of comments, I'll draw a winner from those top commenters.

• One comment per link please.

• This part of the giveaway is open to everyone, even if you don't have a blog.

finished no 42 :O)

Lazy Lady

2011-11-08T22:30:00.000+01:00

yup, I'm a lazy lady, haven't done much sewing the last few days, after my marathon Sunday, yesterday I was knackered and seemed to be really tired and lazy, think its the end of the cold/flu bug....Dh even took me out to lunch as I *really* couldn't be bothered cooking us lunch, isn't he a sweety :O) even went to bed with the little one at about 8pm and watched TV in bed....told DS to go to bed at 8.45 and then woke up at 11.45 when DH came to bed, went back to sleep and woke up at 7.45, quite a night eh :O)
Today I got some more energy back and by 10pm, had dropped kids off at school, went shopping, unpacked, hoovered, mopped the whole of downstairs, put in the roast pork for lunch and got the washing in the machine...phew !!!
Jacques had the orthophonist in the afternoon so I packed up my block 4 from the SAL and got busy sewing the bear while in the waiting room, did get some funny looks and heard one of the boys say, why is the english lady sewing, hasn't she got anything more exciting to do....did I chuckle !!! ...have nearly finished it off tonight just the lettering to do..hoping to get it done tomorrow (its Wednesday, the kids are home from school, pork curry for lunch, home made naan bread if I remember to make it and Jacques has football practice) so not much time.

I'm still contemplating the twister table runner/hanging and thinking a wide butter (its the cream) border on my twister and perhaps an appliqued Merry Christmas... anyone got any sorta twister words/phrases that are christmassy ??....

how about Don't get your tinsel in a tangle (I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE)
Be jolly by golly
Christmas is love with all the trimmings.

mind u that seems to be alot of words to applique on :(

it'll need something on a cream border, the other option, small cream border and the green/red flower border....
don't think a scallop cos its quite angular so a normal square border, hmmm decisions decisions...

I've been a busy bee !!!!

2011-11-06T22:27:00.002+01:00

I've been a busy beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

A simple selection from the charm pack, sewn 5 by 5 and then a 3" border added.....

home made twister template, becomes this....DA DA !!!!!
Looking at other pictures, the twisters can be different ways depending on which way you start with the ruler, do these look weird ??? my little 4 patch this morning was the *original* way, I'll have to make sure I mark the template next time...

It's most definitely shrunk quite a bit, not sure how costly it would be to make a few of them, although this isn't a full charm pack, full charm would be 7 by 6 wide with a border... and from what I understand a layer cake makes a decent size quilt...

Anyway, border assistance needed, I've got more of the green/red flower but nothing else, need to order some I think.... I was thinking perhaps a 1inch blue border, then a 2 or 3 inch green border finishing with a larger 3 or 4 inch white border and red binding..... means a fabric order

Twisty Turny....

2011-11-06T16:04:00.001+01:00

Bit of a funny weekend here, Usually on Saturday we go shopping for do it yourself (hardware) materials or DH does the DIY and I take the kids out food or clothes shopping. Sometimes DS has football in the morning and we have a casserole or an easy lunch, (burger and chips, sausage and chips) I clean in the afternoon...on Sunday's I ALWAYS cook a roast dinner, clean again *sigh* maybe bake a cake and we get homework done and sometimes I spend some time sewing although not very much.....

All change this weekend....

We went DIY shopping on Friday night after work/school (i'd already cleaned the house during the day) and I got some food and clothes shopping done, we had tea (dinner) out....so Saturday no shopping needed, DH was doing some landscaping work outside, I cooked a roast shoulder of lamb with all the trimmings.... and we had cake/biscuits in the cupboard....

So it meant that on SUNDAY the kids woke up early, I left DH to sleep and got caught up on the blogging world and read the newspapers online with breakfast...then I got busy in the sewing room :o) How lucky am I !!!! the kids were playing happily so I chose some charm squares, sewed them together into a 4 patch and shoved a border on.
Used my 50wt aurifil and even though my Janome doesn't seem to really love it my piecing was much better than usual and my squares were spot on.

Then I made a template from template plastic... its 3.5" and the lines start at 1" in as you can see....really easy to make and I'm reckoning that the large twister is an 6.5" square and its either 1" in again or its just this extended out. DH is going to buy me some perspex or I'm going to buy a 3.5" ruler and mark it, I don't just want the twister template and not be able to do anything else with it...

found this on the quilting board
The 8" tool uses 10" blocks, the 3½" tool uses 5" blocks, the 2¼" tool uses 3½" blocks and the 1½" tool uses 2½" blocks.

EDITED:---- ok I think
the 3.5" tool is 1" from the end
the 8" tool is 2 3/8 from the end
the 2 1/4 tool is 5/8" from end
and the 1 1/2 tool is 7/16th from end....

Border size help would be appreciated :O)

can someone confirm what border sizes the twisters uses, I've read its a 6" border, the smaller ones must have tiny borders, the moda 2.5" blocks would be good for the tiny tool although cutting would be scary...

Anyway I digress, I got cutting (with the rotary cutter) after all what did I really have to lose, was exciting but with a sense of oh my god too.... once I'd cut them out I sewed 3 together then the 3 rows.... didn't want a border as I'm going to give it to patchwork club to sell at the christmas market I think....

Then stitched in the ditch using Aurifil's 40wt...yes I do like it but not sure if I can really afford it ;o( its about 9e ---- 12$ a spool
made the binding, machine stitched it on the front, hand sewed the back, gave it an iron and here it is.... 2 hours later !!!!

do think it should've had white or cream where the green/red border fabric is but you live and learn...am hoping the big quilt as it has more cream in won't look like this...anyway

way to go !!!!!

I LOVE TWISTERS !!!!!!

and I found this cute ribbon in our sewing shop...will sew it on later. If I get chance while the kids are playing I'm going to cut up the other Christmas top

Mug Rug Swap

2011-11-05T19:17:00.000+01:00

oh well the twister nerves have been sorted... I'm joining a Christmas mug rug swop here at Au Fil du Patchwork and i'm going to make a 4 patch with a border tonight and see if I can make it into a twister and see what size it ends up being for a mug rug....or adapt the template to make smaller twisters...hmmm may be tricky, oh well will experiment for a 4 charm and border

Sign ups for the mug swap finish on the 7th, come on all, join in the fun,

Linky Party

2011-11-05T17:47:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Linda at Living the Dream for posting about the Linky Party that's taking place over at Love Affair With My Brother. It's my first Linky party and I didn't really know what it was all about and my posts this week haven't been that exciting but still..... you can "like" my post over there if you like or join the party .... you can win 6 FQs from The Intrepid Thread as well as have some fun xxx

can't believe i'm going to cut this up

2011-11-03T22:48:00.001+01:00

well got busy tonight and have a 5x5 with a 3" border lovely nice wall hanging or table runner....which I could back, quilt and bind.... nice, quick Christmas finish and what am I going to do tomorrow *if i've got the nerve* going to cut it up into twisters.... hmmmm

let the fun commence tomorrow.... any advice ??? Im really thinking I need to mark them and cut with scissors, my rotary cutting is not the best or most accurate, have read starch helps....

EDITED :- Have decided to make a little 9 patch block tonight with borders and have a go with that to see.... if I can get the kidlets to bed *GRRR*

Look what the nice postman brought me

2011-11-03T12:34:00.000+01:00

Look what the postman gave to me this morning :O)
Journals are for the patchwork club christmas giveaway, am tempted to keep one too but not sure and one of the books is to go to a friend, the others are mine to take my time looking through while having a nice cup of coffee, probably later on this afternoon when I get back from French lessons, my daughter is sick with a cold so she and I will snuggle up and do some reading...

she's playing with her dollies

Just a quickie,

2011-11-02T23:45:00.000+01:00

heres an offer I've received that I can share out, its for extra discounts and pre warning on precuts and fabric deals, go here
craftsy deals on precuts to register....

No sewing done today as I'm still laid up with the dreaded lurgie, however have spent most of the afternoon and evening looking at twister quilts, templates and online shops....have managed to find a pattern and I'm going to make my own template, it looks so easy and I refuse to pay £16 and £9 plus postage for an itty bit of square plastic with 2 lines drawn on... they seem to have come from a book by martha thompson here and someone has just copied them onto acrylic...

Am going to start sewing a charm pack up tomorrow night to make a xmas runner or wall hanging....
that's it for me tonight, off to bed xx

Tortoise Pincushion

2011-11-01T22:15:00.000+01:00

Last night, as posted, found the tutorial from Sew Happy to make a really cute tortoise pincushion. Amelia my little 4 year old chose the felt colour and we had some breast awareness fabric stashed away. We are going through this within the family at the moment and it seemed appropriate. Amelia wanted me to get it finished before she went to bed but I had some stuffing to do...promised her it'd be done for her to look at before school, haven't got any lace for the edge but i'm not sure she needs it. Amelia will choose a name in the morning.

Happy Halloween !!!!

2011-10-31T21:56:00.001+01:00

Happy Halloween to you all,

Finished block 3 of the SAL last night from sewhappy and traced out the next block ready to start...but I got diverted this morning, I was Ghastlie hopping and found Pauline's blog, wonderful ghastlie stuff and happened upon a washing up bottle cover, not 100% sure why anyone would want one. A tutorial was posted by camille and I thought it looked fairly easy....
Heres the result of my work this morning, I *think* it can be adapted to make a cute wine bottle apron, see on the brandy bottle *grin*.... it's totally reversible and really easy to make, I could've sewed the binding on by machine but am not great at getting it really even and the kids were about so decided to hand stitch it down... perhaps I could make some for the xmas craft sale...what do u reckon ?

Could adjust to wine bottle size ???

Totally reversible so when it gets dirty just turn it over...

I've been blogging this evening, sitting with my boy and newest kitty under my quilt and listened to Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville.com on the American Patchwork & quilting radio site, it's awesome what you can do online from across the ocean :O) and I happened on a cute tutorial for this tortoise pincushion from sewhappy me which I might start tomorrow, not so sure about the lacey stuff but can see it needs something to hide the stitching.... ahh well time to blog hop some more :O)

Web Tastic...

2011-10-29T21:29:00.000+02:00

Don't you just love the head...my DH bought it in the UK, he was at the french services filling up the van with diesel and as typically with Phil, it was just tossed in the van, he opened the door and the skull rolled out, bashed on the floor and into the petrol station forecourt... the old woman in the car opposite him had a VERY strange look on her face :O)

Ok it's finished, not sure I'll get to make another one tomorrow (will try) but have thoroughly enjoyed it, quick and easy to do, very wonky, doesn't meet in the middle, deliberately doesn't meet on some of the edges...but a lovely placemat, plant pot holder or to display the sweeties for the trick or treaters.... thanks sarah for the tutorial and additional help with the pattern, I'll definitely be making a set for next year's Halloween dinner... wonder about wine glass mats, hmm

And I REALLY do like paperpiecing I've decided, I don't do as much of it as I should and after loving the Mariners compass, its something I'll be looking at doing more of.

I'm tempted....

2011-10-29T21:17:00.000+02:00

lejardinducure

wish I was nearer *sob*

So Sarah Sews

2011-10-28T22:56:00.000+02:00

Ok I've started the web placemat from So Sarah Sews here it is...
had to stop to print out the other half and then I have to do the uprighty bits...then back, quilt and bind :O) may even make another one with black web or blac middle and white web...ahhh shame I couldn't get them done earlier, could've made 4 placemats for Halloween Dinner.

Please vote.....

2011-10-28T11:10:00.002+02:00

can you all please go and vote for me http://quiltinggallery.com/2011/10/28/vote-now-halloween-quilts/ mine is the halloween happenings, I know its really not the greatest of the quilts, some of them are truly stunning, but i'd love to get in the top 3.
one 1 vote per IP address for the technically minded,

2011-10-27T22:34:00.000+02:00

Am just catching up on the Ghastlies...corrr my list of blogs has grown over the last 4 days, so many wonderful Ghastlie projects....

I've found So Sarah Sews too and am tempted to try to get a Spider web placemat done, not sure if I've got any of the orange left over but I've definitely got some yellow spiders web fabric and always have black stashed, quite enjoy paper piecing once I get into it, although 31st is fast approaching.

Mum had the kids for me today so I got on with some FMQ and had a practice with the brother, this time not on the frame, no thread breakage at all, which makes me think that the frame's not level and that's what's breaking thread... I still love my Janome and auto tension and HATE all non auto tension machines, I've spent so much of my time adjusting the brother cos of different thread choices...heres my WIP and have to share some of my FMQ one tiny cross over i've just spotted in top left corner but apart from that none, no birds nests, some sharp corners but am quite happy at the progress,

I'm going to enter....

2011-10-27T19:21:00.000+02:00

I'm going to enter halloween happenings into the quilt contest
with quilting gallery It won't do any harm to enter and its definitely quite spooky...I'll post later where you can vote for me :O)

For those that haven't seen my table runner.... here he is...why its a he i don't know, doesn't feel like a she, perhaps its the spiders

Wasted Wednesday

2011-10-26T20:54:00.000+02:00

Well it's a Wednesday and Wednesday's mean nothing gets done....its autumn holidays so even less gets done. I've been ghastly hopping again, having so much fun and meeting so many new people and adding to my list of blogs...it's going to take up so much time if they update their blogs all the time.
No sewing done today but we did go shopping, so fingers crossed might get something done tomorrow.

Did have a practice on the frame on Tuesday, and following a flower and leaves pantograph, am feeling much much better about it, some thread breakage but think that's down to the uneven floor and it's polyester thread. Am contemplating ordering some Aurifil 40wt but the 50wt my Janome hates, hoping the brother will prefer it, do I proceed to a quilt and just do some loops, or practice more stippling or pantographs....
Theres a bit more muslin loaded on the frame and after that think I'm gonna whip up the digger panel with some borders and get busy with loops, Jacques (my boy) isn't going to be bothered if my loops aren't totally even...

2011-10-24T20:05:00.000+02:00

No sewing achieved today and have the sore throat from hell so am cuddling in bed with the kids at 8pm at night, catching up on blogland... and I've just seen theres a Ghastlies blog hop starting today, more details here so i'm going to go hopping.... oh we did a geocache today in our local *biggish* town, so one more to add onto the database 1!!

Une citrouille géante à Compreignac ! - Insolite - France 3 Régions - France 3

2011-10-23T22:38:00.001+02:00

Une citrouille géante à Compreignac ! - Insolite - France 3 Régions - France 3

I thought my pumpkins were big, but nothing like this 2m2o by 2m46 one, weighs a whopping 112 kilos...

Sunny Sunday

2011-10-23T22:34:00.003+02:00

Things didn't go quite to plan and I ended up lying in bed finishing my book until 10am and dh decided he wanted a cooked breakfast...so bacon, egg, tomato, toast, spuds and hot dog sausages with a big cup of coffee later we decided to have late dinner...couldn't be bothered slaving over an oven all day so got busy cleaning top to bottom, changing beds, emptying bins and shoved in a frozen stew veggie/meat mix in the slow cooker....cooked a delish Courgette cake and while it was cooking made Lime pickle

three jars later and hopefully only a week in storage and it should be ready to go, it seems spicy hot...

Was a really bright sunny day, got 2 loads of washing out onto the line and while watching Come dancing, X Factor and Downton Abbey have done some hand stitching....

Shopping Saturday

2011-10-22T18:46:00.001+02:00

Have been to Limoges today, shopping and dropping my dad off at the airport, popped to Cora for lunch, went to the Grand Frais and bought some lovely looking parsnips, butternut squash and lots of limes...am making a lime pickle for our curries and I think a Key Lime Pie may be on its way next week...
Roast Loin of pork tomorrow with all the veggie trimmings....am watching Celebrity Masterchef final atm, followed by come dancing, MERLIN *swoon at the knights* and then Casualty so not much time for sewing

Fluffy Sheep Quilting: Free Motion Friday Week 3: Slate Tiles

2011-10-21T19:29:00.000+02:00

Fluffy Sheep Quilting: Free Motion Friday Week 3: Slate Tiles

arghhhh it's too late for me to try it sans alcohol, perhaps tomorrow, looks like something achievable :O)

yeh hey hey

2011-10-21T19:14:00.001+02:00

yeh hey hey I've managed to quilt on gracie and not break a needle !!!!

the new needles arrived from the US and I changed the thread so can't really say what it was, but apart from thread breakage the quilting practice is going well, practice photos are here, decent enough stipple, curves and I can do a pretty decent heart on a string, did some freehand leaves and echo quilting, am really pleased with progress....

Cranking up the music !!!

2011-10-21T10:31:00.000+02:00

I'm child free and have decided to crank up the music, sod the hoovering and getting busy with gracie and the brother....new thread, new needles to try :O)

Chilly day

2011-10-20T16:40:00.002+02:00

First proper frost of the winter this morning, -1C taking the kids to school and the first fire was lit on the fire monster furnace. The wood smell is back again until Spring, Chimney's been cleaned and I've hoovered the furnace out but soot and wood bits are set to aggravate me all winter. I've sat this afternoon and watched Celebrity Masterchef while finishing off one of my SAL embroidery weeks...another one tomorrow, I'm now only 2 behind soon be 3...
tomorrow is going to be a sewing day, I'm spending all day sewing, no cleaning, want to play with the frame and brother, need to get cutting some 4 patches for 4patches4hope out of my scrap bag. Contemplating a pinwheel Christmas quilt but not sure I'll get time to finish it and our not nice social charges bill arrived...ahh c'est la vie :O)

4Patches4Hope: What is this all about???

2011-10-20T16:15:00.000+02:00

I saw this on a blog and I've chosen to make some out of my stash 4 Patches 4 Hope project. It's a wonderful project to help the American Cancer Society. I know that Cancer has caused unfortunately quite a few deaths in our family and currently my aunt is fighting breast cancer....We all need to help put a stop to this horrible disease!

Regina's "concept is simple - Make a 4 Patch... Make a Donation... Make a difference." It's a unique and wonderful idea.

Share the word and make a 4 patch