Belated Valentines

The wonderful new London Modern Quilt Guild set a challenge at the last meeting to make something to do with Valentines.

Well, not being the romantic sort and an old maid to boot I decided to ignore it. One of the principals of this guild is to do what you are comfortable with, so ignore it I did, for weeks. Valentines came and went...

Then this weekend I got an idea stuck in my head. I have been following Diane Gaudynski for a while and  this post on free motion  feathers stuck with me. http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial.html

Suddenly in my head I saw a feathered heart, this could be done for the challenge. But not in pink or red, oh no! So I picked the first solid I found hanging around in my dining/sewing room and found a variegated yellow aurifil 50 to go with it and made this....

Sorry about the photo but I couldn't get the lighting right to show the stitching. Its about 16 x 16 inches.

I have to admit, I am really pleased with how it turned out. I have no idea what I am going to do with it now, it could be a mini, but it won't match my colour scheme. Same if I turned it into a cushion cover. I thought maybe a bag panel? One day I will decide, but in the meantime it can go in the UFO pile.

Finish Along

I signed up to Rhondas Finish Along earlier in the year and declared that in the first quarter I would finish two tops that have been hanging around for ages, waiting to be turned into quilts.

The first one I finished a while ago and blogged about http://shevvylondon.blogspot.com/2012/01/first-finish-of-year.html and amazingly, today I have finished the second one! Hooray. And there is still over a month to go to the deadline.

This quilt even has a name, Twinkle Twinkle Scrappy Star. It was made using up all my scrap triangles, including those one you get when making binding and join two strips together.

I just did a stipple to quilt it as I have done a lot of heavy quilting for my last few quilts. I say just, but I have to say I really enjoyed doing it and I am really happy with how it turned out.

The backing is just one big piece of something I picked up somewhere cheap and found in my stash.

The binding is also scrappy and made up of all leftover bits from other quilts, green blue, orange, gold, whatever I had basically.

I think I've mentioned before how much I love working with scraps - this quilt show why. It finished at 44x52 inches. I haven't washed it yet so don't know how much it will shrink as I am out of colour catchers. This will need them I think with all the random bits in it, something is bound to bleed!

Award winning blogger, Me?

Early last week I got a massive shock when Samantha at http://quazyquilter.blogspot.com/2012/02/wow-i-won-award.html awarded me a Liebster Award.

This award is for blogs with less than 200 followers and recipients are supposed to award it to 5 of their favourite blogs.

I've spent all week trying to decide who I wanted to pass it onto. I've faffed about for ages as I read loads of great blogs and quite frankly wouldn't be reading them if I didn't enjoy them. I then had to do a check on the number of followers, I didn't want to break the rules by mistake!

So in the end I'm going for the following bloggers:



Anne-Lise at http://ragtagbobtail.blogspot.com/
Her snowing pics show me how little we really get in London and for that I am very grateful

Sheila at http://bluepatchquilter.blogspot.com/
For all the work she put into the recent mystery quilt-along

Michelle at http://thedesertquilter.blogspot.com/
For the gobsmacking amount of house moves and miles she has totted up since I first discovered her blog

Sarah at http://narcolepticinacupboard.blogspot.com/
For general nuttiness and for opening my eyes about narcolepsy

Helen at http://helsieshappenings.blogspot.com/
Lots of enjoyable posts, but today's one about the WWII bombing of Darwin was particularly interesting

So for those I have awarded, here are the rules:

Liebster Conventions:

*Thank your award presenter on your blog: Thanks a lot Samantha, I'm sorry my email was a bit waffling!
*Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award

*Copy and paste the award to your blog

*Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have fewer then 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized

*Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog

Favourite Things Friday

So, I wasn't sure what to use for this weeks favourite, but then it came to me. Somethings are so much a staple of your life you don't always pay them enough attention but without them life would be very uncomfortable indeed.

There may be other brands that are a lot cheaper, but for me I really need the engineering and security that come with this brand. My puppies need a lot of control and trying to do it on the cheap won't keep them in place.

They are good enough for Queenie and good enough for me.

My favourite bras are from http://www.rigbyandpeller.com/

See more favs at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/2012/02/favourite-things-friday_17.html

Favourite things friday

Its been a while since I joined in with Shay over at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/2012/02/favourite-things-friday_10.html for Fridays fun but head over to see more favourites.

Today, its a simple pleasure I want to share with you, but one I've been indulging in on and off this week. When I got my delivery of the Oakshott Colourbox loveliness last week it was wrapped in this......

Pop, pop, pop all the week long!

Papering along!

I know its a stupid title for a post but I couldn't think of anything else.

I am doing a bit of a dance of joy as I have finally finished all the blocks for Kathleens quilt, the one that started life last year as the Paper Piecing Quilt along.

All 80 blocks are made. I got to a point that I could finish 2 in 40 mins, so being sad I calculated and that is nearly 27 hours piecing the blocks. Never mind the time spent cutting fabric and then sewing the blocks together. The worst bit of that is the time it take to peel all the paper away. The dining room is going to get very messy!

I finished up one quarter of the top last year before I lost my motivation. Now I've got this far I'm going to have a little break from it, after all I still have until August before it is going to its new home.

I'm just so happy to have got this far!



On another note it was the 2nd meeting of the London Modern Quilt Guild last Sunday, but I was furious as I missed it. We had a little bit of snow and transport ground to a halt! I was not a happy bunny....

I can resist everything but temptation!

Today I went to another show which is on at Bluewater Shopping Centre in the new events area there. One floor is taken up with card crafts and the other floor with yarn and stitching crafts. I think you can guess which floor I headed for. I do think it is a bit cheeky to charge for these sort of shows as they are mainly retail spaces so you are paying to go shopping, but there were a few small displays that made it worth it.

They had a few dresses from Downton Abbey on display.

Some lovely quilts and embroideries and lace displays, a couple of which are below.

And all sorts of textile crafts and it was nice and roomy so I had time to get close and see what was going on. I bought this book and the cord from the author as making these pots seemed suddenly irresistible, and she was a lovely woman. Also many years ago I did some pottery courses and have some of the results dotted around the house so coiled pots took me right back to that.

There were many kits from many different retailers but one stood out for me as they had stuff that was a little bit different. I hovered over some amazing blackwork stuff for a while but in the end went for these because of the colours and striking design. I have some stitching kits on top of the wardrobe going back 20 years, but still so what.

But my biggest temptation happened yesterday. Naughty Lynne over at http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2012/02/its-february.html posted a link to an item that I couldn't pass up. And the service was so good it arrived this afternoon!

What is in the box?

100 fat 1/8th of Oakshott cotton is what!

Do you ever feel like you haven't handed in your homework on time?

I haven't blogged for nearly two weeks and I feel like a naughty schoolgirl which is so silly. I blog because I enjoy it and so it makes no sense to feel bad about letting it slide a bit.

But, I have been busy. I really feel like I've got some spring back in my step and am fully out of the funk I was in for the last few months.

I have one finish I can't show you yet until it gets to its destination but if I get myself organised that might be this week.

I have been back on the paper piecing and made progress on the quilt for Kathleen which I started a year ago with Beckys QAL. I still have 14 blocks to make, but putting that another way, I have finished 66 out of 60! Hooray. All the green are completed so I just have to cut some more for the yellow blocks.

I've been working on my hexies as well and I have a nice stack of flowers built up, 43 completed. I think I have decided that I will applique them onto a black background that is already sandwiched with the backing and wadding so I will quilt as I go. I need to get them all laid out on the bed to see how many more I need to do.

Last week I went to the quilt show at Ardingly which was about a hour away so an easy run. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a nice size. Enough there to get lots of ideas without being as overwhelming as the festival of quilts. I also arrived early so got around the displays without them being busy. I took loads of bad pics but they will still give me ideas. Below are a few of my favs.

I had to snap this one as I love dragons, I think it goes back to reading The Hobbit and Smaug. And even better this has a green dragon.

I'm not that keen on this tiger, but I love the background and how it is quilted.

This one is a wholecloth quilt, the detail is wonderful.

This is a mini that was part of a series representing a Noughts and Crosses game.

I loved the simplicity of this.

And the curves and designs of both of these are so striking.

And finally the use of colour in both of these really inspire me. I've got quilts in my head similar to these but I'm a long way off achieving them.