2011 October (1)

 

at last, a basted quilt

Whilst I cant quite claim a finished quilt today, I have managed to baste and assemble (with some QAYG quilting) a quilt top for a customer.  Debbie asked for cream fabrics, but other than that she has left it all to me.

This top started as three nine patches, where each nine patch was made of pieced corners and either pieced or plain middles, and a plain centre.  I then cut the 9 patches into quarters, giving me 12 units, which I twisted and turned until I liked the arrangement.  So it is a Disappearing 9 Patch (D9P) but with pieced corners.  The photo isn't too good, but I am very happy with the assortment of blocks
 

It just needs a border and binding, and then I have earned some money!

In other news . . . 

I found some scrummy vintage sheets in Mother in Law's loft, and am looking forward to cutting into these

My youngest daughter has come out as a super hero (here she is at work as Bat Girl with Banana Man!!!)

And my washing machine tried to eat my bra, despite me having put in into a bra wash bag, grrrrrr

That's all for now, I think it's time for grub!

Some sewing . . . and a few personal tropical holidays

Really, sewing woolen squares together, and quilting warm blankets isn't the best thing for menopausal women to be doing during an Indian Summer, but there you go, these things happen!

At least I managed more sewing today that I did all weekend, so I shouldn't complain!!!

A few photos before I crawl off to bed

A better photo of the cream blocks (Debbie now has asked for a second one, but I used nearly all the cream fabric here, so I'll just have to go to the fabric shop again - sigh!)

This is one blue top from the sweetwater Pure fabrics

And this is the other

And finally, did I ever mention that mum was knitting squares in exchange for the Texture quilt?  Well I have a box of about 100 nine inch squares in assorted shades of grey, and half a dozen different knitting patterns.  I have started sewing them together tonight - initially just into groups of 4, then I'll get the girls to help me with the patchwork equivalent of speed dating, as we arrange the units to their best advantage and I try and remember what we decided on!

The plan is to get these done before the cold weather kicks in - didn't someone say snow in October???  As much as I'm loving the sunshine over the last few days, with my hot flushes personal tropical holidays, I'll be quite happy to have cooler weather for a bit!

I love my postie

Look what he brought me all the way from Croatia. The lovely Stanislava is now revealed as my other swap partner.

(I am blogging this from my iPad, so I hope this post does justice to the yummy goodies she sent me)

A beautiful postage stamp mug rug with two hearts,

and a notebook cover from the same scrummy fabrics.

Such a sweetie, she also added sachets of coffee, and tea bags, and a FQ of beautiful pink and red fabric.

Thank you so much Stanislava. (and she has a great blog at www.quiltsofmanycolours.blogspot.com, - lots of hexi love and inspiration happening over there, really worth a visit)

A bit of a problem

I really want to do some sewing - I started a bag while Jackie was here, and would love to finish it, and even more significantly I received a great squishy from Gwen at Celtic Fusion Fabric, but there is a slight problem with accessing the sewing room!!!!!

I am the luckiest swapee, EVER!

I want to start here by saying that I love both of my mug rugs from the recent swap. I loved both of them when I first saw their pictures, but I didnt think either was for me. I did however think (hope) another one WAS for me, and it was only when my two lovely mug rugs arrived that i knew the other one obviously wasnt.

So imagine my surprise when I opened a squishy tonight to find this . . . The mug rug I lusted after ( can you see the letter B?)

It seems that Susan's original partner didnt respond to the invitation, and the mugrug couldnt go to the replacement, so she sent it to me - Susan, I love you!!!!

Finally I feel at home again

Having not even switched on my PC for a week, it is lovely to be back in front of it, and able to blog properly. The iPad is all very well, but nothing blogs like a pc!!!

I managed to clear a path to the computer and the workbench by moving huge amounts of stuff into Lisa's room [Hi sweetie, I will clear it before you next come home, love you x x x], and I've taken photos of various shopping treats as I unearthed them.

I have about a zillion unread emails, so while I look at them, you can feat you eyes on some seriously yummy fabrics!

I have been asked to make another cream baby quilt ...

And these next two collections are both heading for girly I-Spy quilts.  These six were from my local quilting shop

and these five were from Knitting & Stitching show at Alexandra Palace

Also at Ally Pally I fell in love with a few (!) buttons

and a few ribbons

And I also bought the one item actually on my list ... a 12 pack of Aurifil threads (be still my beating heart).  The lovely people on the stall were happy for me to find the best-fit pack, and then change the ones I didn't think I would use much for another 4 colours!

Now I need to embroider a baby's blanket for a customer, but after that, I can cut and sew and cut and sew :-)