Back to work

I have enjoyed a lovely relaxing week off work and have particularly enjoyed the winter Olympics: great for sewing along to.
My friend had asked me to cover some foam cushions for her new summerhouse. She had a 4ft and a 6ft bit of foam

It was a struggle sometimes; fabric and foam don't mix very well. But I did finish it, along with 2 of the 8 cushions that she also wants

And they look great in their new home

It is her birthday next week so I thought I would add a splash of red to her room with a cushion

I just need to quilt it and get it ready for next week.
Well done to all team GB at the winter Olympics: it has been amazing to watch: I am glad I am back at work tomorrow, I won't have time to sit around and miss it all!

Wizardry

On Sunday I took Jenny and Nathan to Watford - for their Christmas present.  Thankfully it was a bit more exciting than that.......

We went to The making of Harry Potter. What a great day out, I can definitely recommend it.  There was so much to see

The knittinh in the top right pucture was actually knitting itself.  I did also have my photo taken on a broomstick!!

Jenny has a temporary new addition to her household

She is looking after this little lady for the week, until her dad comes back from South Africa. She is 9 weeks old and has just left her mum. She is very cute and well behaved too. Jenny is in danger of becoming Mrs Dolittle-she is also looking after her dads house rabbits, which are actually bigger than these two

I had to sneak in a picture of these cuties!  I have been sewing as well, but more on that over the weekend

Ask and you shall receive....

I got a lot of sewing done over the weekend. My first project was inspired by this comment that Jenny, my eldest left me on an IG picture.  Asking for a cushion

Well, I didn't need to be asked twice. And for the second weekend running I got out my scraps and made this cushion for her

I quilted with a variagated thread, which I love.

I am pleased to say she loved it!

I also got Di's hipbee block done for February. She sent us out some gorgeous Liberty that she won at the FQR

This really is a stunning block.
I have back to back presentations this week. 3 down 3 to go: my feet are killing me already!

January

I think everyone is glad to see the back of January. The dark and the rain.....
Sewing has helped : I have done three cushion covers, two of which I finished!  It's been mostly about messing with scraps

 And bee blocks and socks

February is a nice short month and surely it can't keep raining - actually the sun was out for a while today

The square circle

I have spent the whole weekend making this cushion: and it was totally worth it

Just before Christmas I bought some of Karen's scrap packs and in keeping with Sarah's ethos of using up our scraps and me needing a new cushion for my bed, I set off.

I knew HSTs would be the way to go to show off these fabrics and decided to go with Lynne's Lynne bob square pants. That block is 12" and I needed 26" so I knew I would be adding fabrics. I also knew I couldn't just do quick HSTs and chain piece them as I needed certain layouts - that took a long time to sort out....

This morning I tried lots of options for the rest of the cushion

And eventually settled with the light and dark grey. Then I decided to keep the block square but set the light grey on point, but this then made my cushion bigger than it needed to be, so I had to trim, leaving a gap in my triangle

Which gave this circular optical illusion, which I thought was just the way it was draping

But no - it looks just the same now and I couldn't have done that even if I had tried!! It's fabulous

 I finished off with lots of straight line quilting

Whoop! I love it AND I have managed to use up more scraps !

Scrappy

The lovely Sarah has been encouraging us to use up our scraps, which worked perfectly for me as I only have time for little projects at the moment.

So I made a couple of place mats

I wish I had had enough to make 4!
I also started a scrappy spool block mini - inspired by Cindy's mini

This one is destined for my sister in law.
And to finish off the scrap theme I used up some pastry to make these!

2014 FAL Q1

So here we go into the third year of the QAL.  This fabulous invention has really helped me get some of my WIPs finished off. 
Leanne did an amazing job last year and has now handed over to Katy.

So here is my list for this FAL

1.  This project has been carried over almost since the start - no idea why because I really do love it

2.  My Hipbees blocks from November.  I have just received the last ones back, so at some point I need to find some time to get all of them together and made up

3.  I think that this needs to become a cushion and go in to my Etsy shop

4.  I have started some more EPP with some Scrumptious - would like to make these in to something

And that's it - rather a small list considering.  However, life is set to become busier over the next few months, so thankfully I may just be keeping it real!

Linking up with Katy