1st quarter FAL... already!

Back in January I declared my intentions for the first quarter of the Finish along hosted by Leanne

I had five projects that I listed and only managed to get two done, although another two are well on their way to completion

This was my first finish which you can read about here

This quilt was made for a work collegue who is going through chemo at the moment.  I found out since I made this quilt that she had recently decorated her bedroom - purple.  How serendipitous was that then! She is undergoing number 4 out of 6 chemo this week and is doing well


And here is my 2nd finish

This was an orphan block that had been lying around far too long.  I made it in to a cushion cover and sent it off to a friend I have known forever, but rarely get to see (although, we are meeting up in London in a few weeks!).  She is always saying nice things about my sewing when I (occasionally) post pictures on to twitter.

So, 2 out of 5: not so bad.  I have high hopes for next quarter, as I have so many things that need finishing!!

Quilted

I have a lot of plans for this Easter weekend, lots of things I need to do and finish off. 

I started off with basting my siblings quilt - this was a job that needed furniture to be moved

I started yesterday and got finished today

 I just did nice, easy and quick straight line quilting through the stars

The back of the quilt shows it a little better



I really am pleased with how this has turned out.  Its not perfect: the stars don't all align perfectly and a few other minor things, but I don't think you really see that. As long as it makes someone happy then that's perfect

Tonight I will be sewing the binding on this, having quilted this one today as well (it's not big).  I quilted this one in exactly the same way.  Jenny is going to see her friend on Tuesday, so I want it all done for her to take

 Tomorrow I am cooking lunch - mum is coming over, as are the boyfriends (teenagers boyfriends, not me!)  They are both lovely, so I am looking forward to it.
Happy Easter!



Hexies all around

Since winning lots of lovely hexies and hexie shaped fabric from Hadley, I have been steadily sewing and adding my own

I struggle a bit with hexies.  They look fabulous all lined up like this, and I like them in small amounts in small projects, or a mass of them in a riot of colour - but that takes a lot of hexies
And I have also been wondering how to border this quilt

And then the two ideas collided - why not try this:

or maybe this

This definitely gives me something to think about - and an excuse to keep on basting those hexies!

Productivity

I feel like I have had a very productive weekend.  On top of the DWR quilt that I mananged to get sewn down, I also put on a scrappy border around my HipBee quilt

This quilt is going to look amazing, thanks to the hard work of the girls in the bee, who produced such fabulous blocks for me

I also got this done today:

It's not huge, each block is 12" and it still needs a border.  It is for the daughter of a friend of Jenny - someone she worked with when she was doing weekends at Asda.  They have had a truly awful time recently.  I will aim to get it finished over the nice long weekend next weekend.

And finally, a job that I keep putting off because I thought it would be so time consuming: driving license and passport renewal

All together, it took me about half an hour!! Nothing like I thought it would.  However, I am now £92.50 poorer!!  (just think of all that fabric....)

Sewing snow day

 I have finally got my DWR all sewn down today.  I sat down last night to complete it, but ran  out of bobbin near the end and was too tired to carry on with it

 I got a fairly early night instead.  But if I had known that I would get a wake up call at 1am to pick up a sick child from a sleepover, maybe I would have carried on! 

It does need de-threading!!

Thankfully there was no snow at that time: unlike this morning!  We have been very lucky here as we havn't had nearly as much as anywhere else.  I had to walk to the shops earlier and the wind was horrid

 

  

I have done some other sewing today, but I will leave that for another day: unless you follow me on instagram (sewonderfulife) and then you will have seen it already!
Hope everyone is staying warm

Summer bee blocks

Jan is our March queen bee in Bee a brit stingy and she wanted some of these blocks:

 her remit was 'summer', which I am hoping that I have acheived: there are deck chairs, beach huts, waves..

 ...flip flops, sunglasses, sunflowers, citrus etc. 

I managed to grab myself a bargain at the market in town yesterday - 5 spools for £1.50.  I gave them a try and they worked a treat so I headed back today to pick up another 10 - should help me with my ST quilting!

 I finished this off over the weekend too: I had been sewing this whilst watching the 6 nations, which is why it has come together quickly (for me!) 

I was gutted when England threw everything away in the last match, but Wales played an amazing game.  Now, what am I going to do next weekend .....

Another week!

Another week has rushed by!!  Today I have managed to finish my Siblings Together top - boy this has been a lot of work, but I love the pattern and I am definitely going to do one of these for myself soon

I had to stand on the table to take the picture!

 Any ideas on how to quilt it will be very gratefully received!!

I also managed to finish this months Hipbee block.  Rachel sent us some lovely liberty fabrics to play with:

Tomorrow I will get on with Jans block for her Bee a brit stingy block

Changes

I moved in to my house, as a newly single mum, almost 12 years ago to the day. 

The first weekend we were here was mothers day and the girls and I went up to Norwich and spent the weekend there.  They were 4 and 7. 

They are now 16 and 19 and mothers day has changed a little.  Jenny spends a lot of time with her boyfriend: she stayed there last night and has been at work today, but she came home first, just to make me a cup of tea for mothers day and to give me her card.  Beccy is slogging away for exams at the moment, but she took time to make me a montage of pictures, on the computer,  of the three of us over the last 12 years, set to one of my favourite songs ever (Goo goo dolls: Iris).  I watched the video and realised that, actually, the three of us have 'done good' and her video made me very tearful (in a good way)

Now for me, this is a fantastic way to spend mothers day



Bubbly, chocolate and rugby (although we are not doing brilliantly atm!)

 And, of course, some sewing time

Siblings together quilt starting to come together

 Cushion cover that I made for my mum, she is away at my brothers at the moment

 Beccy is still working away in the kitchen on her art and there is a pot roast cooking slowly in the oven.  And even better, I have banked my mothers day gift for another day.  I told the girls that fabric was what I wanted, but I didn;t know which right now, so I have been allowed to defer my purchases for another day :-)

Happy Mothers day to all of you out there, hope you're having a lovely day

Its a finish!

This week has been long and rather despondent at work, so this evening I decided that rather than let it all build up and kill someone, I would sew instead

 And.... this is an FAL finish!!!  Hurray, at long last, I can cross something else off the list
I did some straight line quilting

 ..I was unsure how the quilting would look and was going to do my usual hand stitching in the ditch around the star, but decided to be brave!

I think I am going to send this to my oldest friend who often comments on my pics on twitter and likes my sewing, and she said she loved this one, so it's time she had something. (lets hope she's not just being polite!!) Linking up with the flickr FAL group