Porthole Windows

Woohoo; 100% complete!

I finally finished this ginormous quilt last week and it is so big I can't hold it up alone; even Chris struggled to hold it up for the photograph.

I am so happy to have this quilt sitting on my bed, as my first full size quilt, it has been really exciting!

J x

Missed Bee Update

Going through a year's worth of photos yesterday, I found some completed Bee blocks that had never been posted.

First off is Miss May's LynneBob Square Pants block from Lily's Quilts, thanks for easing us in gently Trudi!

And I also forgot to post June's Disappearing 9 Patch for Fiona which was a HUGE relief and something that had been on my list for a while :)

Unfortunately my pictures of the blocks are rubbish, but you get the gist, right?!

Do you remember those sunny days that we used to have? I hope we don't have to wait too much longer for them to come back!

J x

Finished Christmas Quilts

I wanted to take some pretty photos of my all finished quilts today while I was off work (and had natural daylight for the first time this week) but the weather turned out to be absolutely terrible and it might as well have been night time it was so dark here, so I am so glad that Chris has been out earlier to buy a daylight bulb, this thing is awesome!

First up is Felicity's Big Sister 9-patch;

And then Baby Hannah's Not-So-Mystery Mix Tape;

Two partially matching quilt for two sisters, now just to wrap them up and let them finally go home!

J x

Look who's pieced!

So I planned and planned, and wrote some lists, and planned some more about all the tings I want/ need to do before Christmas (and the inconsiderate people who decided to have their birthdays in December) and, well, it turns out that there might not be enough time to get it all done before Christmas!

With my new found emergency motivation I dragged out Fifi's quilt and got to work, and look who's pieced together now!

I love the pinks and red in this quilt, and whilst there is one or two blocks I would reconsider if I was to repeat it, I think they all work pretty well together.

Last night I also squeezed in time to put together the bindings for Fifi's Nine Patch and for the Mystery Mix Tape,  which now needs to be quilted and bound asap as the recipient was born a week early at the weekend!

and no, I am not showing you my list! Off to do some quilting (and maybe some roasting of extra Christmas presents if I have enough time tonight)

J x

Big Sister in progress

Next on my list of quilts (on my Winter Stitching list anyway) is Fifi's Big Sister quilt. My god daughter is soon to become a big sister for the first time and as she never got her own baby quilt (she is 4 and I have only just finished my first quilt) this is her big sister quilt. It is designed to loosely match the Mystery Mix Tape, but as she is no longer a baby- I didn't a want a typically baby quilt.

As a ballet-loving girly girl, I have gone for a range of pinks and reds, but I am keeping the grey sashing and 6" blocks from the Mix Tape.

Using the mix tape layout of 5 x 6, 6" blocks, I need a total of 30 blocks, 15 of these will be 9 patch combinations (7 of these shown above) and 15 will be single colour blocks; the central single block with have an F monogramed onto it... if I ever complete the embroidery tutorials!

Jx

Woohoo, a finish and some great news!

***Good news first: This morning I found out that my uncle is out of critical care! Now just a couple of days to wait before we find out Grandad's new prognosis.***

I finally sat down with my quilted panel and my homemade binding and finally got this baby bound!

I am so pleased I got around to it, and no single step was as hard as I expected. There's a fair bit I would differently with it, if I was going to do it again- but I have plenty of time to practice and plenty of quilts in line to practice on!

Still on a high after completing my binding, I went out to the Fabric Guild and picked up some batting to get ready to work on my Mystery Mix Tape next.

J x

Doom and gloom is lifting :)

After day after day of bad news the last few weeks, and a subsequent couple of hundred miles in the car, I think things are starting to look up- even if they will never be completely cured.

I haven't had much crafty time, but as no post is complete without a picture, I have been working on some little Christmas embroideries that I plan on making into place mats for the table (please excuse my lack of ironing).

...and I have all the shopping done to make some family photograph coasters, which I think will be my Mum's Christmas present- ssssh!


Promise I will have more stitchy/ crafty goodies to show soon!

J x

Lutterworth Piecemaker's 2011 Exhibition

I had a very inspiring afternoon yesterday, wandering around Lutterworth Piecemaker's exhibition, they hold a meeting on the third wednesday of each month for local quilters and it is a group that I have been meaning to go along to for a while now- maybe it should be the first of my (many) new year's resolutions?! You can check out their blog here; they are a bunch of very friendly and talented ladies, but I guess what you really want to see is the quilts, here is just a small selection of the quilts on display...

This reminded me of one of my very favourite quilts, Composition II by Shoko Sakai which can be seen Here.

This quilt was designed for a minimalist daughter who enjoys the sports pictured here. I love the complex simplicity in this quilt and the colours are beautiful!

The following quilt's top was found in an attic by one of the ladies, who carefully repaired, backed and quilted it. The top still had its original papers tacked in and rather than lose the history these papers have been scanned and printed onto the rear of the quilt, along with census data to match the woman who is believed to have pieced it, so that it's history may always go with it.

Four of the five blocks shown here are the product of the scanned paper pieces.

An interpretation of the paper pieced artwork on display at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh House and Gallery in Northampton by Helen Spence.

EDIT: The inspiration for this tryptic is the beautiful window of 78 Derngate and not the Helen Spence piece, my apologies for the mistake, thank you to The Maker for pointing this out; I tried to reply to your email but you are a no reply blogger.

Sorry, I forget the story behind this lovely baby quilt.

This piece was the quilter's first foray into art quilting and she remarked how easily it came together, this left me feeling totally inspired, I would love to be able to achieve something like this one day!

Jx

Hoop Trio

Mum stop reading NOW!!! (just in case!)




I don't think that anybody that I know IRL reads my blog, I tried to keep it quiet; it's kind of like having a secret identity, but you never know what mum's get up to! :)

I worked all weekend on a present for my mum's birthday and I am pretty pleased with the result (isn't it great when that happens, I hate it when you work on something FOREVER and you just can't get it right - that's what work is like at the moment for me)

My dad has recently converted the back bedroom in their house to her new sewing room, but despite it now being filled with all the requisite crafty stuff it didn't seem quite complete... which is where I step in! I decided that what she really needed was some artwork, so I planned and planned and researched and planned and came up with these...

which quickly turned into these...

and not so quickly into this...

which I am little disappointed with as my sketch was so much better, but transferring it to the patchworked fabric was really difficult (I can tell you that it was NOT my best idea, I should have listened to Chris)

So together they read "karen's sewing room"

Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope that she likes it when I give it to her this weekend!

J x