Quick March Update

Here's just a couple of pics of what I'm up to at this moment in time..

The biggest is this:

Thats about as much as I can show at the moment! TOP SECRET!!!

This is what I tried to do.... back the Underground Quilt..BUT something got in the way.

So then Mary Ann and I did some sewing for Project Linus Thankyou day at the Parish Room, making needle cases and goodie bags.

We had another wonderful day, about 20 of us in all, sharing our quilts and quilting patterns

Here's one of the marvellous quilts made from mens shirts

and these are vintage blocks that we plan to complete into a quilt worthy of raffling and fund raising

We have enough of the blocks above for about 3 king-size quilts!! We would love to know the story behind them - the fabric dates from mid seventies we think. Can you spot any familiar ones to you?? I'd love to know.

And finally I've been sewing some orphan blocks together that have either been donated to the Linus project or are from a wonderful giveaway , at least a year ago. It's almost complete tonight, I'll post again tomorrow. I've loved putting the jigsaw pieces together.

Latest update...Underground Quilt

When looking through my stash of fabrics for the tea towel challenge over at 15 minutes of play blog I found that I had more than a little of vintage farics that had a 'tea' connection. Napkins, cloths, a tea dress! aprons...see above

I thought the the words " Brightest London is best reached by underground" on the original tea towel that would become the medallion ,were best seperated to reduce the amount of beige in the quilt. So I played with some background ideas.

after making some big 'made ' fabric I decided to slash them into strips rather than squares

and sandwich them within strips of seersucker...why not????

and then once again.
I haven't sewn the dog to the bottom of it...he can run off if he wishes!

These shapes reminded me of the escalator in the medallion tea towel image. Such fun!!

For cornerstones I used scraps left from the Kath Kidson cloth that had lovely images of Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and Big Ben and another scrap of the underground logo and just added fabric to make the right size. As you can see nothing is particularly measured, and certainly nothing square but immense fun and it holds lots of treasured fabrics. Definately a 'keeper' ...now to look for some backing. Its got to be an old tablecloth or a vintage sheet! Now...who's for a cuppa??

Another big THANK YOU to Victoria over at the 15 minutes of play blog for such a great challenge.

First Quilt of 2013

Here's the making of a quilt that I have completed as part of a challenge on the Bumblebeans / 15 minutes Play blog (it's a great blog - please pop over and have a look - it's a lot of fun) Victoris sent the challenge fabric out (all the way from New York) to a dozen or more people like mysef in order to try and make something lovely out of it. Sort of like a silk purse from a sow's ear....but I happen to really like this sow's ear!!

I might add that quite a few of the fabrics were not quilting cotton, lots were polycotton, especially the shirting, and I think the final border too. I love using a mixture of fabrics and also I couldn't find my rotary cutter over Christmas so alot are scissor cut or...torn.

Here we go!! I loved the challenge fabric , so cut a big square from it, retaining the roses. I had 2 fat quarters of zingy Michael Miller fabrics that I've been waiting for the right moment for....here cometh the HOUR . I auditioned many fabrics and shapes but loved the idea of the roses being the centre of a star.

Next I cut up lots of stripey shirt pieces to 'make' some lights to form a star and used very dark striped black and green to form the points....OH NO!! TOO dark

So i softened the points with made fabric from the photo below....

I added tarten to the left-over scraps of the challenge fabric

Now that's more pleasing to the eye. And YES if the Quilt Police are watching...it is a Wonky Star...a very wonky star

Next I added the second of the Michael Miller fabrics as a border together with random squares inserted of the first one and added some fussy cut cornerstones edged in the tarten. You'll note I'm constantly trying to get a couple of my favourite fabrics of the moment in...but it wasn't to be

Lastly, a bit more chequered shirt 'upcycled' fabric - emphasising the points of the star, with a little whimsical change of colour in the bottom right corner -  and a border of a red/blue cotton just waiting for a day like today.

I think that I'll put a scrappy light binding around it, with a hint of an inch of black here and there. But I've LOVED doing this ..THANK YOU Victoria, I love a challenge and this will make a great Linus Quilt for a little star child out there. Put together with love, with a 12" square from New York and pieced with the bonniest of scottish tarten!!

102_1164, a photo by julie wyer on Flickr.

What's going on here lately...?

Here's a few snippets of life as I know it at the moment, in this glorious season, when there is hardly a moment to spare. I thought I'd take a bit of time to reflect and share:

I did a bit of felting at school, at a workshop inspired by advent

This one is upside down...ouch!

I quilted some teeny bits to make coffee pot warmers

I bought some sparkly goodies from the pound shop

made a papier mache moose head, adorned him with lights and Max's decorations of peace, love and goodwill

and have gazed at a wonderful square of fabric sent all the way from New York....now what to do with it?

Blessings duly counted.

Hope you too are having a lovely beginning to the advent season. x

In the Pipeline

Not for the faint hearted!

My camera doesn't do the colours justice ..they gel alot better in real life. As soon as I've started to sew and its possible to move it closer to natural light, you'll get a better idea. But I tell you what...I'm LOVIN it!!

Inspiration

A couple of snaps from the subway near the Elephant and Castle tube station!

Gives you an idea or two...?

Project Linus September in Shipley, Heanor

They came in their droves...

Some on their bikes...

They saw the sign....

Standing room only!!

Saturday morning saw a prompt start to a fabulous turnout of quilters and knitters to the Parish Room at Shipley (20 folk all-in-all, a record turnout).
Not only did these wonderful women arrive and immediately set to and make some inspiring quilts and blankets on the day, but many came laden with bags of items , completed since the last session. Some from themselves and some from absent friends, who couldn't make the date. One batch of tiny hats came from an elderly mother who knitted around 50 of these bonny coloured bonnets despite having one eye and a cataract - a 'life saver' her daughter described the goal of knitting for this much loved cause.

The word of our Shipley Linus sessions had spread to Cornwall, as a friend of one of our regular knitters pledged her support in the form of 2 beautiful  neonatal blankets ..plus 2 more from a friend of hers...passing on the goodwill.

We sewed, chatted, knitted, shared ideas until we ate a well earned lunch of hearty Autumnal soup and crusty hot rolls...(thanks to the generosity of our funders UK Coal) and then continued into the afternoon. This saw the unveiling of our huge roll of wadding as quilts drew near completion (how on earth did Mary Ann get that whopper in her car and still manage to drive??"!!) her car has all the traits of Dr Who's tardis!!

Knitters nattering

Ingenious blocks made of recycled mens shirts

Industrial extension leads were called for!!

As 4 'o'clock beckoned, the day slowly drew to a close - eager to know the date of the next meet up, we reluctantly packed every scrap away. And the tot-up of the 'Glory Pile' of quilts commenced:

Knitted baby quilts                                 x 18
Quilted baby quilts                                 x 4
Incubator quilts                                      x 32
Quilts (biggies!)                                      x 15
Hats                                                      x 116

plus 2 Laura Ashley 'shabby chic'vintage fabric quilts made with the sole purpose of raffling or autioning to secure the rent for another couple of Linus days in the Shipley Parish Room.

What a glorious end to the day!!!