Fresh Sewing Day July

June has been a very interesting month in our house which has involved a fair bit of catching up with commitments from May, but not much sewing has been achieved. :(

In fact it has been primarily Bee blocks, with the completion of blocks from April, May and June all completed this month and off on their way home. I also made more headway on my Curio quilt which is a bit of pain to keep getting out and packing up all the bits are so cumbersome.

I have also signed up to the Brit Quilt swap, which I am pretty excited about and I have made some concrete plans for my Crab Shack winnings; I see way too many quilts in my future :) but I'm sure that's not a bad thing.

And as I am a pretty small blog I will also be linking up to the Small Blog Meet Up and going over to say hi to everyone... "Hi guys!"

J x

       

What to do?

I was lucky enough to win TWO charm packs of Lucy's Crab Shack from Judith last week, look at the lovilieness!

(image from needlesandlemons.com)

It arrived in my letterbox yesterday, but I have been thinking about what to do with them all week, I could do with a nice easy to put together top and I was thinking about a simple charm quilt a la Red Pepper Quilts

Then I though half square triangles like this one, from Fran433;

That way I could make my charms go further and make myself a nice big quilt! But when have I ever gone for the easy option? I have been thinking that maybe HSTs aren't detailed enough so I was thinking string HSTs...

(I found this example by Sew Cherry on flickr)

That would still allow me to get 2 blocks for each charm, but it could be an awful lot of work for my 'quick and simple' quilt, then I saw this;

and now I am completely confused!


What do you think, do you have any other inspiration for me? (Not that I need any, mind!) I would love to hear what you think about it.


J x

Oooh and just so I don't forget, I also love this pattern from Sweetwater!

Weekend Walk #1

There has been so much to write about this week that I keep putting this post off, so before it gets too late, here goes;

Each weekend I try to get out with Shep on a 'proper' walk, somewhere that is completely new to us, we don't always manage it due to other commitments or lack of inspiration (or, to be honest, terrible weather) but last weekend we went out to explore the next village as previously we haven't been further than the pub! We clocked a very reasonable 3.5 mile walk in the process.

(route recorded via mapmyrun for iPhone)

Across the fields and footpaths like these;

We stumbled across (Shep's first) horses and said hello - although these particular horses weren't as happy to see us as the first ones we found.

We admired some lovely houses and cottages;

And Shep kept an eye on the locals;

All in all a pretty successful walk, although it was a little hot for the hills we had to cross, I think it was the only bit of sunshine we have seen for weeks so I am not complaining!

J x

Playing Bee Catch Up

Wow this weekend really ran off with me, despite me taking an unofficial 3 day weekend (don't get excited- it wasn't for fun reasons) but I did manage to get on with my bee block... for may :( please don't be mad at me.

Each month I have been lucky enough to try something completely new to me but this month was 8 pointed stars and I have already tried an 8 pointed star here;

and for our super secret Project 51 here;

As I knew it was going to be particularly late, I wanted to put an extra special effort in so when I found the Lone Starburst block from Six White Horses Studio,

(image from Six White Horses)

I fell completely and utterly in love with it and I proceded to disregard all comments about how long it might take even an experienced paper piecer. Well it turns out they were right, this is one majorly time consuming block and as much as I love the pattern I do not think I could make a whole quilt out of it.  I mean, seriously time consuming, like an hour per 1/8th of a block! This was partly due to my inexperience and a comment from Kerry at the retreat that it was easier to be more precise by hand than by machine, honestly, looking back I probably should have graduated to machine piecing while doing this block but I enjoyed not having to lug my machine out all the time and just picking up a bit to finish off.

So without further ado, block one for Terri, aka Miss May

The colours probably wouldn't be my first choice but Terri has asked for the pink to be used as a background, I can't wait to see what she does with all of these stars; its going to be such a bright and colourful quilt!

J x

Weekend Catch Up

All weekend I intended to get my sewing machine out, or rather, turn it on (as it has been sitting out in the dining room for weeks now) but somehow I just never got around to it. The only other thing I wanted to do was take some photos of my Bee blocks for Trudi, but the weather refused to agree with me, so even though they have been done since friday they are still waiting patiently.


I have completed my 2 blocks for Trudi; the first is my favourite, from this tutorial on Liesl Made, I love the scrappyness of this block, but I had no idea how long this would take; I used EVERY spare few minutes I had (even pressing a couple geese while waiting for the dog to finish outside before I left for work) and it still took my all week to get them done, but it turns out that 32 geese is a lot of cutting and pressing.

And I got all these bonus HSTs for my efforts. I'm not sure what to do with them yet, but when inspiration hits I will be ready!

The second was a great opportunity to try out a new technique using this tutorial by Jen A-C I had so many leftovers from the first block I really wanted to try a loss-less technique and this was a dream! In comparison it went together really quickly too, I had it done for the most part in one evening :)

I also finally got around to ordering more fabric to get my Curio quilt finished, and it came, from the states, in about 5 days (including the weekend) for only £8 p&p AND I didn't have to pay customs charges! Yey for stitchsteals.com I will be shopping there again!

So I pulled it off the bed upstairs and realised how much I had done, I started off last night by piecing the already completed blocks together and with new motivation I just want to get it out of the way now!

Tonight's job is to make a start on Terri's stars, after obedience class, I haven't heard back from you with any special requirements so I am just going to crack on (and cross my fingers that you will like them!)

J x

Brit Quilt - Round 3

Today I am soooo excited, as I have finally got around to booking my Festival of Quilts ticket, I'll be there on sunday, is anyone else going?

AND I have signed up for Mike Stead's Happy Villages class, I was really hoping to get into one of Alicia Merrett's classes too but she has completely filled up- procrastinating is a terrible disease, I really should have signed up 2 weeks ago when I first saw it!

AND in the vein of avoiding disappointment by not procrastinating so much, I have signed up for the Brit Quilt swap (round 3 is open for registration now) I have watched these ladies from afar for as long as I have been reading blogs, but I have always chickened out of joining in. Not so much this year though, I am going to throw myself in and see what happens!

This is the mosaic that I made for my fellow Brit Quilters, looking through my pinterest feed (here) I have an ever changing quilty love, at the moment I have been sucked into the rainbow solid goodness that is filling blogland. I also love intricate and delicate piecing and striking geometric and abstract designs. I have a love affair with the art quilt (much to my Bee's dislike) so I am drawn to all sorts of different designs and organic shapes and I am forever drawn to maps and cityscapes that sing to my inner (and outer) architect.

I guess I am still finding my quilty identity, there's just so much to see and try and at the moment I want it ALL!

J x

Robert Burns

Robert Burns
3rd June 1936 - 29th May 2012

I have never had to doubt how you felt about me, thank you for always believing in me and whatever I decided to do. It means so much to me that you are proud of my decisions; even if that motorway to Cambridge that you planned for years went unused in the end.

You taught me how to build Lego houses, how to nurture a seed and to be careful with my money, but thank you most of all, Grandad, for teaching me to love, to play and to always have a song in my heart; even if others don’t like to hear me sing! 

I am sorry, but I think its time to break our 20 year secret and tell Nan about your secret stash, I hope you can forgive me! Thank you for being so strong right until the end, Grandad, I will always miss you, but I consider myself lucky to have known and loved you and I will treasure your memory forever.