Bits and Bobs

I've been off school for a week now, but haven't managed half the sewing I had hoped for!

There have been relatives to collect from one place and take to another, walls to unpaint and then paint (his job, not mine), the shed to de-clutter and tidy, and coursework to be done

Inspired by Pinterest!

 but I have managed to intersperse *some* sewing!

I have finished the Dotty Tumblers

And made some bunting for a friend from her girls' old school uniform

I've done some customer embroidery

And I've made some more Sweet Sixteen blocks: some for me and some for Jackie

I've also made a start on a woven quilt using fruit and veg fabrics I bought, and used half of, at least 4 years ago.  I'm doing pretty much the same thing again, but annoyingly I've run out of black so I cant make the missing blocks

Oh dear - I might have to go fabric shopping!

A Meeting, and Modern and Me

Richmond and Kew Quilters' July meeting was last night, and the lovely lovely Jo Avery from Bearpaw and Bearpaw was our speaker.  She did a fab talk on Modern quilts, and mentioned that some of the defining characteristics are colours (rainbow fabrics for example) simplifying methods for quick results, and using fabric in an unusual way, for example using selvedge edges.

Well I certainly can tick the first two boxes, and she reminded me of my selvedge edge project.  May I am a Modern Quiter!  Two ladies also donated some more selvedge edges, and today I dragged the UFO out from the depths of a box, and have part stitch and part pinned the next round:

It's going to be a heavy one, but I love how its looking!

A couple of copies of 50 Fat Quarter Makes happened to slip into my bag last night - kindly signed by Jo.  Happy Birthday Jackie!

Jo and I have been blog buddies for at least 4 years (I found my first mention of you, Jo, April 2011!) and it was fab to actually meet her - her work is awesome, and I can see a lot of her influence in my quilts!

One of the quilts she brought to show was this dotty scrappy trip:

She made it a few years ago, and that was when I started collecting dotty fabrics.  When I finally cut into some last week I chose a more muted collection, but I had the fabrics to choose from thanks to Jo!

I have done some more work on my dotty tumblers, and they are now ready to have the binding stitched down . . . that will be in the cooler weather!

I was inspired to try an inner border after seeing Plum's Heart It finish

Solo Saturday

With one daughter still in Australia, the other at her boyfriend's all weekend, and husband working all day, I was all on my own today.
(Quietly shout yippee!!!)
I cut a whole load of tumbler blocks with my trusty Sizzix

And started to sew them together

I did some more uninform embroidery for Chertsey museum

I embroidered a fleece for a friend

And, inspired by Di's recent posts, I had a go at a circular zippy pouch

Is it really wrong to have such a great time when they are all out? I wonder if he'll be working again tomorrow???

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