Opinions ??

I love English Paper Piecing and have several ( cough ) quilts in progress. I actually finished one a few months ago but haven't got round to showing that yet. Anyway this year is all about my UFO's and I have been working away on a hexie quilt. This got started maybe 3 years ago and so it was about time it received some attention. I remember cutting one hexagon from each of my fabrics and the plan originally was a grandmothers flower garden with white paths. I made lots of flowers - each flower had seven fabrics from one colour. Can't remember how many I did before I changed my mind - and unpicked the lot. Then I put them into triangles - 10 in each grouping... nope - unpicked again.

Until finally I came up with this.

Yes I'm happy with this so far. You will notice the white hexies currently being sewn around the edges. Heres where I would like your input. I have tons of hexies left and was debating whether to border it with the leftovers. Like so ?

Close-up.

The borders are not sewn on yet as I really can't make up my mind whether to do it or not. The other semi-idea I have is to finish sewing on the white hexies and applique the whole thing onto a single fabric - maybe a blue. And then sew several straight borders on each edge - something like 2 inch strips in different colours. I'm not explaining this very well - I'll see if I can find a picture of what I mean.

This is something similar I did on a quilt a while back. I'm thinking of maybe 4 or 5 borders.

Please let me know which way you would go. If I don't use the leftover hexies I will maybe use them on the back or something - or a new quilt for one of my cats - lol !

Take care xx

A little quilting therapy.

Well here I am - thanks for all your well wishes -I am so very behind on emails and comments - don't think I'll ever catch up so may not even try.  Life is settling down a little now and although normal is a long way off we are slowly getting there.  My lovely sister - aged 50 - had a massive stroke the week before Christmas - completely out of the blue.  She is still in hospital nearly 8 weeks later and is facing a long recovery. She is making progress and is gradually starting to walk etc although as yet has no movement at all in her left hand or arm.  We have spent a lot of time at the hospital. As you can imagine it has been awful although there is light at the end of the tunnel. She was not quite lucid for a few weeks but that has thankfully settled down and she is doing great. She is surprisingly cheerful and is showing sheer determination to recover as well as she can. She is awaiting a wheelchair and is having lots of intensive physio. We are taking a day at a time. Anyway as she is such a kind person she has decided she wants to give a small gift to one of the nurses who is pregnant. She asked if I had anything suitable and it just so happens I had an I-Spy baby quilt on standby. I will take this in tomorrow for her to give to the nurse.

I am also trying to catch up with some UFO's.  So far I have resisted starting anything new.  Not sure how long I can hold out though.... My Easy Street is coming along - will hopefully have pictures to show of that soon. But here are a couple of small quilts that I've been working on.

This has been hanging around for a good couple of years. It is a schnibbles pattern called X-Rated.

It was made from a charm pack I received in a swap several years ago. The sender was a lovely woman called Marlene who has sadly since passed away.  I wanted to make borders on this but had no charms left and nothing seemed to match. Anyway last week an idea popped into my head and here we are.

Close-up of spotty fabrics.

Would like to hand quilt this but will have to wait it's turn as I have another small quilt in progress. Which is this.

This is a bit of a washed out picture - the colours are much richer. This was going to be a big quilt but appliquing four blocks was enough - tried the back basting method and it worked great but just didn't want to do any more. A few hundred( or so it seemed ) paper pieced flying geese and this little quilt was born. Like I say I am hand quilting it and am pleased with how it's looking.

I have a ton of other stuff to show and will do my best to get round to it - time is against me at the moment though - need a few more hours in the day - lol.

Hope to be back sooner rather than later xx
 

SSCS

I am surely one of the last to post about this years swap but have good reasons. Some of you know what my family is going through at the moment and just now I don't feel ready to talk about it properly.  Thanks for your understanding and feel free to send any prayers this way :-)

I loved my SSCS gift and thanked my partner privately although this post is very late. This is what arrived at my home made by Cheryl - sorry can't get the links working - my brain is tired...

It is far lovelier in real life and such a lot of work - beautiful embroidery !! I will look after this and it will grace my bed every Christmas for years to come... Thankyou so much Cheryl...

And heres what I sent to Jenny.

And because in spite of all that is going on at the moment I really, really needed to sew and this afternoon I cleared a bit of time and had a few blissful hours to myself. I have decided to join the soscrappy Saturday challenge. This months colour is pink and I have lots of pink scraps and had picked my block so got my first one done.  Here it is

Heres is the link . . Think  I've got this one to work..

I also put together 1 block for Bonnie Hunters mystery quilt - I am way behind on this but really want to get it done within the next couple of months.  However it might not bode well as this block has already got to be unpicked - yikes.

Take care xx

A belated Thankyou

Although I have thanked Karol Ann personally I have been slack in showing you all the beautiful bag I received for my birthday last month. 
It was a complete surprise and absolutely made my day.

Can you see it is all hand stitched and is amazingly well done.  I love it so much I am a little loathe to actually use it just yet - it is currently on display on my book case.  But soon I will be brave and use it for the purpose it was intended - lol. Here is a close-up of some of the lovely fabrics.

I have also received my gift from Chooky's Secret Santa swap and it is safely stashed away ready for the big day.  I must say the first year I took part in this I was soo very tempted to just open it but over the years it has gotten easier to resist - I lok forward to the surprise now. The ornament I received was wonderful but my camera's batteries are dead so I can't show it just yet.  But thanks partner - you know who you are ..

So much to catch up on I'm not sure where to start - be back soon xx

Finishes !!

Before I start telling you about the new stuff I'm working on I thought it was time to show what I've finished.  Not quite sure if my UFO list is getting any smaller though. The first quilt is for my son ( 15yo ) He is as skinny as a rake and loves cuddling up in his quilts.  However a couple he has got are a bit babyish for him now so I decided a new one was in order. Here is the centre of the quilt. Many different blues for the asterisk blocks with scrappy red squares inbetween.  These asterisk blocks are a LOT of work and took a long time to make.  Once I got to this stage I stepped back and decided it was just not working - way too much red.  The quilt sat for a while until I figured out what to do with it.  I didn't really want to waste all that time. I tried to find a border fabric to tone down the red but was unsuccessful.

So I decided to cut up the blue fabrics I had left ( leaving out the lighter ones) I made them the same size as the blocks and laid them round the quilt.  It needed something else and so the bright aqua border was auditioned and whaddyknow ? Success ! Or at least I thought so :-)

Here is the finished quilt. It has Patricks seal of approval.

Next up was my little house quilt that I started at the beginning of the year -  this was an idea from Jeanneke - her idea was a quilt-along where everybody made 1 house a day for a whole year. I knew I did not want to make this many and so stopped when I had enough for a wall quilt. These were all made from my scrap box and were mainly hand pieced from templates. really good fun and I adore this quilt. It will be going on my wall when I get a sewing room sorted.

Here is a close-up of the lovely border fabric which just begged to be added to the quilt.  I had bought it a few weeks previously with no plan in mind and there it was ready in my stash.

This post has taken ages to write as I think blogger is having an off-day - my photos keep disappearing and moving about so I just hope this publishes alright.

I'll leave you with the start of something that I'm having a lot of fun with - stay tuned...

Back soon

Nearly got all my problems sorted - thank goodness - so will be back very soon with lots of news. The winner of my little giveaway has been picked and I already have her address so a little parcel will be on it's way this week. Could it be you ? lol

And because I don't like to post without a photo here is Jess's birthday cake I recently made.

I have been on a bit of a mission to find a great chocolate cake recipe and think this is THE one. Not dry, not overly sweet and a fantastic texture.  Definitely a winner :-)

See you soon xxx

Time flies

Well I won't bore anyone with the problems life is throwing at me and my family so I'll just move on to the nice quilty stuff.
I have a few finishes to show because although I haven't been blogging I must have been sewing ( and knitting ) as things are d.o.n.e...


First up a quilt that I seriously could not have given away if it wasn't going to a special person.  My lovely sister was 50 last week and I worked my socks off to get this done for her.

 

This is English Paper pieced and then appliqued to a border strip. I would have loved to hand quilt this but time was not on my side so a machine stipple in a lovely variegated thread and a scrappy binding finished it off. I think it measures about 60 by 72 inches so a good snuggle size.

 

I also now have a new baby niece - born 2 weeks ago and so beautiful ( of course ) I will make her a quilt in time but in the meantime I have made her these.  Two little cardis in neutral colours as they were unable to tell her the sex of the baby due to the way she was lying. And also this really groovy crochet blanket that I had a lot of fun making.

 

I also made a quilt for my friends little girl Charlotte - this is not the best picture as I thought I had taken one before I gave it but apparently not. This came out well and I think little Charlotte liked it better than her mum - lol ! Not sure she quite "got it"...

 

I also made a Granny squares top simply because I had piles of browns and tan squares lying around. I liked it when it was done but had no use for it so sold it on ebay...

 

I have a few more finishes to show but will do them again. And just to let you know that I haven't been THAT good I have also started some new projects. I have wanted to do something from this book for a while.

And so on Saturday afternoons ( when I normally have a nice chunk of time ) I am making little paper pieced log cabin blocks.

Which when sewn together ( after having the paper removed ) look more like this..

 

And if you've stayed with me this far - thanks !   I am having a bit of a de-stash.  Tell me your favourite colour and I will have a little drawing in a week or so for 4 fat quarters ( random selection ) to the winner.

I hope blogger posts this  - it has taken a while as my photos were all over the place - lol. My pc sure could do with a sort out.  Take care xxx