Making Medallion Progress

Last night for the first time in 2 weeks I was able to sit down and do some sewing!

It is kinda strange not having the time to sew when I spend my days teaching others to sew...

Last night it was so nice to go to my studio and shut the world outside for a little bit..

I posted a couple of weeks ago about trying something new. Last night I got back to work on it.

So we started with this:

And last night is turned into this:

Don't look too closely though - the star points aren't perfect but the seams match up in the middle of the block.

I am using 2 fabrics from the bundles by Katy Jones and Rita Hodges, but also adding to it from my lovely stash!

Now onto the next border - 80 small triangles!

The cutting is my job for this evening, but right now I have to get on with my City and Guilds coursework.

WiP Wednesday: Gifts Galore

It is Wednesday - Yay!

And I have time to share my WiP in this week...

It is all about gifts in various stages of development!

These lovely fabrics are going to be made into pouches for the Fat Quarter Retreat Sample Swap!

I am going to be using my paper piecing letters from last week to make pouches.

All of them will look different, but the same!

Finally I have a pile of quilt as you go gifts that need finishing this week!

I love a tight deadline and a challenge!

Linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Making gifts...

At the beginning of this year I decided that I would start hitting the massive scraps pile I have generated over 16 years of quilting and make gifts for my family, friends and the boys teachers using them..

A fabulous idea in January, but now the end of the school year is creeping up fast and I have a long list of deadlines, Scouting stuff and general stress...

Anyway, I made a start last week with the blue cushion cover, which I love!

Over the weekend I started experimenting with using the idea to make a pouch. It is no where near finished, but it is looking pretty good:

I mixed scraps with the lovely Quilters Linen I got from M is for Make last week.

As you know I love FMQ, but there is something soothing about just using a walking foot to go in straight lines!

I love that I can pull the smallest scrap from my bin and make it work somewhere in the rose part of the design!

There is a way to go, but they will make perfect presents for teaching assistants - no pressure!

Going all blue!

Earlier this week I saw this amazing photo and blog post from Quarter Incher:

The colours and design are gorgeous!

Stephanie is taking part in the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop 2013 with me, and her blog is full of fabulous ideas, quilts and fabric!

Stephanie followed a tutorial written by Cori at  Let's Eat Grandpa - I love the title!

The tutorial is really easy to follow, but the effects are amazing!

I didn't follow the tutorial completely as I needed to make a blue version today and I don't actually have a lot of blue - a serious situation that clearly need rectifying! So I made the sections bigger, but followed the same basic method of quilt-as-you-go.

Plus I didn't quilt the patterned fabric as I wanted to differentiate between them and the solid colour!

So the first cushion cover the one of boy's teachers is nearly done... and yes I did throw in some Liberty Fabric!

Only 6 more to go!

A Special Delivery

If you have been following my blog over the last few weeks you will know that I have been working hard on a gorgous Tula Pink quilt for a very special friend.

I has been a long 8 weeks with lots of late night quilting!

We went to a family party at the recipients house this weekend and I needed to make sure the quilt was finished by then - I wasn't going to trust the post with this precious quilt!

Unfortunately my manic week of work and being a Scout leader had finally got me and I gave up attaching the binding in favour of sleep, so the quilt wasn't quite finished when I presented it to her on Saturday afternoon...

I have to admit I felt very nervous driving up. Her mum and I had selected the fabric and I had put the design together, so Lily didn't have any input into the quilt at all... it is an 18th birthday present, what if I had screwed it up?

Luckily she absolutely loved it! The huge smile and look of wonder in her eyes told me it was fine!

So we partied on Saturday night and I got up super early on Sunday (the monsters dragged me out of bed at 5.50am after going to bed at 1.30am!) to finish the quilt binding for her:

 

 

The best bit about finishing and gifting a quilt is seeing it being used! Lily has already had a snooze under it and as you can see it is already part of the household!

 

 

 

Lilys sisters have now booked their colours for their 18th birthday presents in 2014... 2 quilts for the gorgeous twins!



Handmade Christmas

As you may know, I started my creative journey as a bag maker - funky diva designs - which came to an end in July. It was a great journey, and I believe really strongly in the need to support independent makers in the UK. It is true that you are buying quality and something unique as well as supporting a local business.

So here are some of my favourites:

I have been a long time admirer Blueberry Park and all the simply gorgeous things Karen makes, but not actually bought anything. On Thursday I bought one of her fabulous Advent Calender kits for the boys and it arrived yesterday:

And I am not disappointed! It is a fabulous kit and I plan on making it up this weekend so we are all prepared for December!

Another shop I have long admired is Snapdragon:

I ordered the kids teachers presents from Jane in the Summer, as well as a camper van mug for a fabulous friend and they were simply gorgeous! I have a shopping list from Jane once I get paid for friends, so don't tell them!

A twitter friend, Charis Slade, is a design talent who knocks the socks off everything a big company produces!

I have been keenly watching her develop her feet range and I am saving my pennies to get one for us... we are like many families across the country, we have different surnames (2 marriages and 3 kids will do that). I am saving for a Our Family print to go on a wall I am planning to covering in photos in the kitchen...

I hope you take a look at all 3 of these talented designs, you will find gorgeous, handcrafted items make your family/friends smile!

Ok, so this may be a purely self indulgent blog post showcasing the gifts I want for Christmas..... if anyone is listening!

Experimenting with hexagons!

I have been steadily working on my HexyMF - work commitments and children who insist on scaring their mother with trips to the A & E have made my progress slow down..

But I did have a birthday present to make for one of my closest friends. Liz is a an amazing friend. She has been there to listen and gives out most amazing hugs... at a moments notice she has taken the boys if there has been an emergency. Without her and another couple of people we would have been in the muck more than once!

So what to make her....

Her living room has lilac and green curtains... I had an idea late one evening of using the lilac colourway of Katherine's Wheel by Nel Whatmore that I had bought last month to make her a cushion cover...

A few weeks ago I bought the wonderful book Hexa-Go-Go by Tacha Bruecher. As an EPP novice I wanted to explore the idea of hexagons more and Tacha's book is perfect. It is chockablock full of designs and ideas that use hexagons and EPP to the max - I really recommend it!

So I cut out the hexagons and put together a  design:

 

 

I backed the hexagons with cream and set about free motion quilting the negative space:

 

 

 

 

I didn't have any cream Aurifil so I used aluminium instead that give the quilting a silver appearance which worked really well!

 

 





I love the finished cushion, and luckily so did Liz!

PS Sorry about the bad photography - late nights sewing and forgetting my digital camera batteries!