2020 Wk 24 - Hello Blogland People

I cant believe it's June already: we are nearly half way through the year!

I finally received a delivery of white fleece so prepped a whole load of flimsies for quilting:

The Hexi rounds,

A spare I Spy

A spare Children's quilt (probably going to Linus Quilts)

The EPP Elongated Pentagon Plus Quilt

And then I got to quilting!  The children's quilts aren't very exciting, but I'm rather chuffed with the Hexie Rounds: Lizzie did the first 8" of spiral which is the really hard bit, and then I took over and went out to the edges

I used the same Lizzie spiral on the plus quilt.  No need for me to carry on, the 8" was perfect.  

I wondered whether to do every centre and have them overlapping but I halved the work and just did alternate ones.  I need to visit a shop to get the right binding for this one, so it'll be a while!

This quilt found a good home with a colleague's daughter for her 10th birthday

The girls and I attended an on-line painting party, I'm not sure we are made to be painters but it was a great evening!

The Australian hexies and stars quilt top has been quilted, has had borders added and has had the binding finished.  Annoyingly the latest delivery of black isn't the same shade of black as the one I used as the infill border - cant be helped as I cant go to a shop and compare: at least it's finished!

My current hand sewing project is Windsor Castle again.  I didn't like some of the tree designs, so I'm unpicking and replacing with smaller more random stitches

All Caught Up

Sorry - two lots of agendas, two virtual meetings and then two lots of minutes to write up, and audit documents to sort out rather took over the last two weeks, but now I'm back!

Several more Gingers have joined the Thank You window

And in close up they are:

(for more details on any of them visit my Coping With Covid Facebook photo album or message me)

I made a time lapse video of how they are made - it's not brilliant but quite fun

I've been hand quilting this in the evenings - I bought the fabrics in Australia in 201, so it is a a long term project.  Unfortunately both the dark red fabric and the fleece below are thicker than is ideal so my fingers are suffering a bit (I need to find a thimble) but I''m plodding through doing a few lines a night

Niki and I did a (socially distanced) art class last week.  This was the image I chose

Niki's came out well

Mine???  Not so much!  Each time I'd mix a colour I'd use it all then need some more and of course couldn't make the same colour again!  Also we were painting outside so the paint dried long before we could blend it in!

I shortened the potato-sack dress and now have a top that I rather like.  As this fab weather looks set to continue I might try a sleeveless version too

I tried speed dating the PFP blocks, but someone else claimed priority on the bed so that hasn't happened yet

I had a fab Crafty Catch up with Sharon, Lynne and Tara - show and tell and a cuppa and a lot of talking!  Great to see them all

And I am hoping I am coming to a natural end of masks: 91 made and delivered and a final 22 on the sewing table and I've used up all the t-shirts and shirt fabric that was prepared for the masks, and have delivered all that have been asked for

2020 Wk 19 - sorting stuff!

I have dug out various UFOs that have been stored in all sorts of places.  This pile is flimsies waiting to be attached to fleece

This pile is waiting to be hand quilted or hand finished

This one was a quick win - I quilted it whilst listening to an audio book this afternoon, whilst also attending to Lizzie with her embroidery, and the binding was already cut so that has now been attached - another hour or so in front of the TV and this will be finished.  I cant find that I've blogged about it before: I am fairly sure they are Aldi fabrics from Jackie.  Gorgeous bright spring colours

It can join the various piles of stuff in the sitting room: you might have thought I was content with having the biggest room in the house for my sewing room but that is clearly not enough room!!!

Lizzie has been working on pre-school polo shirts: It is really lovely not to be working on the burgundy for a change!

I have finally completed the last dark row of this and have decided to call it a day.  It is in the flimsie pile

A quick make: my niece in Norway had her second baby last week.  I made this quilt for number 1, Saga, and thoroughly enjoyed embroidering her name in usual letters and how it would be written in Viking runes, and also in runes type letters.  Her new sister is Theia, and Great Grandmother explains "Both names have a mythological background: Nordic and Greek, fit together well: Saga and Theia, it seems they have made a good choice."

So having gone Viking on Saga's quilt I felt I have the opportunity to go Greek on Theia's!  There is even a small patch of Greek fabric!

And I embroidered her name in Greek looking letters, normal letters and Greek letters! 

I will post it with crossed fingers: things are looking better on that front.  The first American quilt was delivered and well received (Step Mom's comment is on this post) and the Irish quilt has been received, and the second American quilt is being tracked.  The Aussie quilt - no news :-(

 Basil has been stitched back together and I made him a onesie to protect him for damage for a while

 I've been doing a bit of baking - Cheesie Marmite swirls went down well at the VE Day party, along with the bunting made for the Queen's birthday 4 years ago

And Kay and I made no-knead bread which was better than expected

And husband and I went out, together, in public, and saw people!!!!


Not quite a date night, and not breaking any rules ...


We went and gave blood!

2019 Wk 30 - some progress

Thanks to the big horizontal surfaces we have at Crafty Church I managed to get three tops spray basted - I don't even think I showed this first one as a completed flimsy!  1767 hexies!!!

It has been spray basted onto a fleece blanket, and tacked around the edges, but quilting (it will be hand quilted inside the flowers!) is a hot task, so that will wait until the cooler months

Same with this one: fewer pieces (270 maybe?), and a smaller result (definitely just a lap quilt as I ran out of Australian fabrics and didn't want too much repetition) ), but spray basted onto fleece and waiting to be quilted

and finally this one has been spray basted onto just a cotton sheet.  It will be machine quilted but will have to wait its turn  (thank you Jackie for the gorgeous FQ pack!)

The reason the sunshine block will have to wait?  There are 4 brick wall i-spy quilts that have been cut and are being pieced, so the machine is threaded with grey until these are done - I have a stall at a village fair at the end of next month so I need to have some stuff to show and hopefully sell!!!

And because there has to be *some* EPP going on . . . I've started piecing this one

2019 Wk 17 - old stuff and new stuff

A lovely memory came up on a friend's FB page: her now 8 year old still sleeping under a quilt I made when she was a baby . . .

Followed by a new post to FB . . . of a *very* old quilt!  I don't even remember making the quilt but I recognised it straight away as I made myself a similar one (which later became the family camp quilt / poncho).  I has to ask Elaine when her son was born so we could date it - 1992!!!!

 Thankfully my patchwork skills have improved a bit since then!!!

The Stitch ladies were busy a few weeks ago

And husband has been busy in the bathroom!

A leaky shower 

drove him to remove the old bath / shower cabinet

replace it temporarily with a spare shower cubicle from the shed (everyone keeps stuff like that in shed don't they?)

and then start planning the new room (no we don't have a second bathroom!).  So now the spare shower has gone, and the new floor has gone down, and hopefully the new shower will be in place before I smell too much!

Hand sewing has seen this all pieced, and put away until I love it again

The advantage of the bath unit being banished is that we got a skip - and cleared all sorts of other junk out too.  The patio may not be perfect but anyone who has seen it will agree this is much better that usual!

And the garden is looking positively gorgeous!