Sunday afternoon

 This weekend my brother and his family came to stay.  They live in Lincolnshire, about a 3 hour drive away, so we don't see each other an awful lot.  His kids are roughly the same age as mine and they get on famously.  My sister in law is a quilter and she has recently started making clothes too.

Anyway, after they left on Sunday, and my girls were at a rehersal, I felt the need to make something, so perused the internet and came up with these two items:

1st off a pot holder:

This was very easy to make, and used up some more scraps, including all those little bits of batting that I had left over.  And, it works - I tested it out on a hot bowl this evening and all was fine.

This is the link to the tutorial: http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2010/06/quilted-potholder-tutorial.html.  Elizabeth has an amazing blog and some fabulous tutorials.  My pot holder does not look nearly as proffesional as hers, but it looks great in my kitchen, and will probably never get used, because I don't want to mark it!

 And then I made this as well, what a brilliant idea, I don't know how I have managed without it for so long!  The tutorial is here: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=765.  It is another of Elizabeths tutorials, but over on sew mama sew.  I decided not to do the attached scrap bag, for no other reason than I didn't have a lot of time!

It really was so easy to make and such a clever idea!  It is weighted with some rice in the pincushion, under the wadding.  And if you have never checked out sew mama sew before either, there are loads of ideas on there.

Hope you all had a productive weekend too

Cathedral windows finished

 Well, I finally finished it, and after being disheartened as to how it looked halfway through, I now officially love my cushion.  Unfortunately, some of my edges didn't meet very well, as I said previously, so this is how I remedied that: with some little white bows

 I think they work really well.  And this is my friends wedding present, which I am now hand quilting.  I laid it all out on the floor at the weekend and pinned it all together - what a back breaking job!  I know she is going to love it, and can't wait for it to be finished. 

 And this is what I should be doing instead of sewing - on to my final year of my AAT studies.  But it is too hard at the moment.  I work in school finance and it is budgeting time and coming up to year end, and after I have been number crunching all day, I come home shattered and can't bear to look at any more numbers!!

This weekend, my brother and his family are coming down - 7 of us squeeze in to this little two bedroomed house, but it is lots of fun.  And it is super saturday for the 6 nations, and England just could get the grand slam - and it's my brothers birthday Saturday too, so guess what we will be doing!

Giveaway

There is a lovely giveaway going on at Vignette in stiches :http://vignetteinstitches.blogspot.com/2011/03/guess-what.html

There is a lovely bundle of fabric sitting there waiting to be given away. Go on over and have a look. You never know......

Applique

This is probably the second quilt that I made.  Its not very big, about 50cm x 50cm.  For some reason, I chose another quilt with lots of little triangles!  I love the reds in this pattern. 

 

The four wreaths were appliqued on.  The pattern itself was done with freezer paper, which was quite a time consuming thing and something that I don't think I have done since.  I seem to have found quicker ways of doing things.

And this is where I am at with the cathedral windows.  Anyone who has made a whole quilt out of these has my utmost admiration.  It has taken me all week to do this and boy is it fiddly.

My sewing/ironing was obviously not that great, as some of my points did not all meet nice and tidily in the middle.  So, to get over the problem, I have sewn on little white bows, which look really cute and hide the mess underneath!

There are still a few more bows to sew on.  One thing that I didn't realise was the need to sew the white edges down.  I had sewn my edges really neatly with 'invisible' stiches, so that the stiching wasn't showing, but when i finished, it just didn't look right.  So, I had a look at all those lovely pictures out there and quickly realised that every one sewed on the top.  I remedied mine this afternoon, with some machine stitching and it looks great now.  But what a waste of time, doing it all so neatly!



I will definately do these again, maybe black with really bright colours

Liebster Blog.....

So. I had just finished posting my blog on cathedral windows and then decided to browse a few blogs that I am following and find that I have been tagged by Sheila from Blue Patch quilter: http://bluepatchquilter.blogspot.com/

with this

 

wow, I am so chuffed to be tagged!  Here are the rules:

1) If you are tagged, and you want to accept, then create a post on your blog and add the leibster blog pic.
2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.
3) Choose 3-5 of your favourite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have been tagged.

The aim of this award is to bring unknown good blogs to light, (less than 50 Followers is ideal), therefore, please don't tag somebody with 3000 followers!

1: Nellies Niceities: http://nelliesniceties.blogspot.com/  a mother and daughter blog, that I have enjoyed reading

2: Sunshine quilting: http://sunshinequilting.blogspot.com/.  Martina is based in Switzerland and writes her blog in English and German.  I took German at Alevel (a very long time ago) and enjoy trying to read the german, before needing to look at the english!  Aside from that Martina has some lovely blogs there to read.

3: Sugarlane Quilts:  http://sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com/ Wendy lives in N Queensland and is also doing the Birdie stiches block of the month.  I love reading blogs from around the world.

I think the blogging community is great at bringing people together and this is a perfect example of how we 'spread the word'!!
4: Summerfete: http://summerfete.blogspot.com/. Another lovely blog - and she has a retro VW campervan.....

so, hope I have done this correctly and you check out their blogs

Cathedral Windows

 Whilst browsing all those wonderful quilting blogs recently, I seem to have come across a lot of pictures of quilts and cushions made with the cathedral window pattern - and they all look fab

So, I decided I would have a go.  I searched for tutorials and came across this one, which I have used: http://hyena-in-petticoats.blogspot.com/2007/08/cathedral-window-quilt-tutorial.html

It was all wonderfully explained, with great pictures and has definately done the job for me.  It is a fiddly job though - I don't mean because of the instuctions, but the actual pattern itself.  And for those who dont like ironing, this probably isn't the quilt you want to do!  Anyway, I started yesterday and this is how far I have got so far:

I intend to make a cushion cover with it.
And I have even found it is compatible with revising.  I have a test on Tuesday afternoon, which is a lot less hands on than any of the others, but involves a lot of parrot fashion learning.  So, I pick a paragraph, say it out loud and then start sewing, talking away to myself the whole time.  I do appear to have learnt quite a lot and it has seemed a lot less of a chore.  Proof will be in the results of course!

wedding present

 

My friend Zoe is getting married on May 29th and I am maid

(don't like matron!) of honour. They got engaged on holiday last Easter. So, in honour of her wedding, I have made her and Tim a quilt and I finished to top off last night - round about when I was meant to be revising!!  It has taken me ages to make this quilt as the triangles are small.  It was made from a jelly roll: moda fresh figs, mill house inn.  These pictures do not show the lovely material to its best.

The pattern came from Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott and was very easy to put together.  I did add an extra row, so now it fits the bed perfectly

Oviously now that I have put the quilt on my blog, I can't tell Zoe that I have started a blog or she will see her quilt, which means that I will probably be stuck at 3 followers for a while!

On top of getting marrried in May she and Tim found out that they are expecting a baby in July, so she is having her wedding dress altered! 

So, now I am knitting another quilt, like the one I did for Daniel.  And speaking of which isn't he gorgeous:

 Myself and my youngest, Beccy, with Daniel