2019 Wk 51 - a day in my happy place

I actually had pretty much a whole day to sew on Thursday - unheard of!!!

And my extra fabric from Janet Clare arrived too so guess what I did!!!

It’s all cut and speed dated, the pieces are mostly joined into strips, and I am loving it!!! The (few) free motioned pictures are included, and the fabrics are all chosen to remind me of my father, the family holiday cottage south of Bergen, and Bergen itself.  There will be enough fabric left over to make a smaller one for my step mum too

And Luna clearly gives it her seal of approval!

This was supposed to be the last Christmas pressie - a bag for the tiles for a favourite game of Lisa’s

But then I got the urge to make rope bowls.  I hadn’t made a totally scrappy one before, I’m really happy with the result.  Niki can use it for bathroom stuff,  food or rubbish!!!

And then I made a much subtle one for Lisa. I’ve bought her a crochet pattern and the wool for Christmas and I think this will be a good size basket to keep it all in.

What I don’t understand is how they decide for themselves what shape they will take! I swear I made these the same but they came out very different shapes - at the end I decided Lisa’s needed handles too

One of husband’s nieces sent me this pic - I made a sack for her oldest daughter Chloe ten years ago when she was a baby - and now one for the much younger new little sister Olivia

And this arrived in the post from Jackie.  I’m sure the inside will be awesome, but at the moment I’m happy looking at the outside - it reminds me of our “small world” that hangs in my bedroom

2019 Wk 39 - whole piece quilting and a day out

The whole piece quilt is rather lovely even if I do say so myself!  I have a plan for it, but then I had more ideas of what to do with it . . .  so I started another one!  This one doesn't have any specific negative space, and it has more hand stitching than is planned for the bigger piece, and I just used the machine running stitch.  More hand stitching is on the cards

It was my birthday this week and Plum and Avril have blogged about Chihuly at Kew Gardens.  It's not that far from us so we booked tickets and went for the afternoon.  I thought we would see them lit up, but we went on Wednesday and the "Chihuly Nights" session are Thursday, Friday and Saturday :-(  We had a good time though, although I declined the opportunity to buy a small bowl for £6000!!!!

 

My favourites though are the pagoda I remember from going there as a child and the dragons on every corner of every roof

and the wrought iron spiral staircases - I cant help feeling my life would be complete if I had the space for one of these!!!

This week end I did a bit more hand sewing on the second whole cloth piece

and found a purpose for the amazing folder Plum sent me for my birthday

(My friend Sharon gave me a journaling bible for my birthday and a guide book . . .and persuaded another friend of ours to get me some journaling pens . . .  and they all fit perfectly in the folder - thank you Plum (and Sharon and Alison!) no comments on lack of artistic talent thank you!!!!

2019 Wk 38 - Quilting!

I'm not really a quilter - more a patchworker (as husband explains, I cut up fabric and sew it back together!)

But I woke up at about 3am the other morning with a vision of a completed whole cloth quilt.  I basted it a Crafty Church on Saturday, and marked off 6.5" squares, and on Sunday I started sewing.  Very liberated machine running stitches, a few fancy stitches from the machine's memory, and later will be adding some hand stitched running stitches sort of Kantha style

I'm using each thread no more than once on each line - and each line may have just have one or two decorative stitches: either from the machine or hand stitched.  It's taking about half an hour to do each colour - On Sunday I clocked up 2.5 hours.  There may be some paralleled sections but not many!!!

And today I took the total up to about 4.5 hours.  It doesn't look much from a distance

but close up I'm loving the colours.  Next I need to add the hand stitching and I have an idea for the squares . . . watch this space

 Just thought I'd confess to a total inability to sew parallel lines, but I don't care!!!!!!

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!

2019 Wk 12 - Hello from Texas

We've just spent a week in Texas with my dad, there may have been some looking at quilts

 Some sitting by the pool

Some hand sewing

Some looking at an awesome Quilting Retreat

Some sitting with Miss Maddy

And a bit of being spoilt by my daddy!

There may also have been some shopping!!!

2017 Wk 43 - back in my happy place

Jackie and I haven't met up since June as nature and family life have conspired against us (I almost didn't make it here this weekend having missed my original flight!) but I'm finally here

In my happy place with my favourite person

(Oh gawd - how many chins do I have???)

Let's look at the happy place instead

 

Anyway, having *finally* got here we spent today mostly sewing of course!

Japanese knot bags

 

Magic pouches (thank you Sandra for encouraging me to persevere with these, it was easier this time!)

 

And a simple zippy pouch with a fun zip arrangement

 

We also made a quilt for a colleague for one of her boys

 

And she taught me how to do basket weave crochet (taught herself then taught me - yes the even shaped top one is hers!) Thanks Amo - you were right, I have got the hang of the stitch, even if my tension is far too tight

 

I handed over a few bits I had made / bought for her, and the gorgeous rope bowl from Kathy! There was also a goodie bag for me! Lovely goodies!

Thank you Jackie Xxx

 

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