Wish I was there...

Today my dear friend Helen is getting married in London. I had planned to be there. I had train tickets, accommodation, babysitters, packed bags, outfit on...

But the children have not been well. On the way to the train station this morning DS2 threw up in the car so we turned the car around and 5 miles before we were home DS1 was doing the same! Obviously staying with my children is the only option for me, but I can't help feeling tearful that I'm not going to be there with Helen on her special day...



Here she is, with me, 4 years ago on my wedding day.

I'm wishing Helen and her husband a wonderful long and happy life together and wishing I could be there.

Orange Crush or (Red) Berry Pie

I have chosen red as my 'orange' for the Orange Crush mystery as I'm not really an orange kind of girl and even my pie is red LOL.


This is another version of the fantastic pie recipe in Healthy Gluten-Free Eating. I can't recommend this book enough if you are gluten-free, but still want to be able to eat cakes, pies, biscuits etc.


Here's another shot of the view from my window. If I'm sitting at my table I will be able to see the kids getting up to all sorts in the garden (I hope).



The last few days I have been so full of cold that I spent an entire day in my pyjamas wishing that instead I was spending an entire day in bed! But, that was sadly not to be and so now I'm still full of cold, but soldiering on... I managed bits here and there before coming down with my cold and then had a whole day without a single stitch!! But finally last night I finished Carol Doak's May Block of the Month.

I wanted to try and use less black so used lots of Amafu fabrics again although I probably could have used a few more colours.


Here a gratuitous shot of DS2 in the bath last night.

He makes me 'tea' in the bath, it's very sweet. Talking of sweet, I bought some plants at the street market (don't ask me what they were, I have NO idea!) and because I'm clueless about plants I was asking the lady for advice. I bought two bushes and she said that they were quite established, but if they got too big I should just cut them back. That night in bed DS1 and I were talking about the street market and he said that he heard the lady say that if the plants got to big I could just take them back LOL

Carol Doak 3500 Member Block

At last, a chance to paper-piece the Carol Doak 3500 Member block


In 'real-life'the lime is very bright against the black. I used my South African Amafu fabrics again and I really do like them a lot so I'm sure there'll be other blocks with them shortly.


This Bank Holiday Monday our local village held it's annual Cuckoo Festival. As a 'Mum' I had a shift on the school's cakestall...


And my sewing skills were stretched to making a wooden cuckoo an apron out of an old dishtowel (in about 3 minutes LOL)



I am slowly moving into the new room. Not quite sure where to put it all!!!!!


But the view is nice :-)

Happy Scrappy African Houses & a 'cool' BQL May bag

I have been trying Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses in African fabrics.



I adjusted the size as I wanted to use 2.5" strips that I already had...


I probably need to work on the frames next time so that there is more seam allowance, but this is a fun pattern and I shall be making more!


I finally finished my BQL Bag Challenge for May which has 3-D Bowties.

I lined it with brown Da Gama fabric and used a beaded pull that my mother made. When I was in South Africa my mother and I made loads of these zip pulls as well as beaded handles.

The bag has 'insul-bright' wadding so that it can be used for chilled shopping or as a bag to keep your picnic cool. The plain fabrics were kindly given to me by my very DB (Darling Brother!!). I think the plain colours are very 'cool' tonally so I'm sure to remember what this bag is for :-)

Now to see if I can do some BOM's before the month is out. Time just flies when you're trying to get some sewing done!!!

A photo finish

At long last. It's handquilted in variegated thread, bound in scraps and just in need of a quick wash to remove the marks made while I made up quilt designs...

I am pleased with it. The blocks are from my BlockBuddySwaps with some from Ila, Amanda, Cobi, Maureen (I think), Theresa G and lots from me (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!!). I did traditional binding instead of my usual sneaky Cheater’s Binding as I had taken so long on the whole quilt, I felt I couldn't just whizz the binding on.


On another note: We have a 'guest/sewing' room complete. It's really bare for now :-) so I plan to quilt my BQL Ostrich challenge for one of the walls. I will slowly move my sewing stuff in as neatly as possible so that guests don't feel as cluttered as I am LOL





I have been expecting a small squishie from Guðrún, but yesterday the Postie brought me this!!!



DS1 thought he was in heaven! All the yummy sweets and Lazytown stuff. Guðrún has some interesting Icelandic facts on her blog, but doesn't mention that Lazytown was filmed there. DS1 loves Lazytown...


Guðrún and I are swapping some fabric and I'm due to mail her some this week. I love all the fabrics she sent me and the box it came in (Sorry, you can't see that too well in the picture). So Guðrún keep your eyes peeled, I'm planning on going crazy too LOL!

Something scary

Something scary was in my postbox yesterday.... oooohhh....


I know they're frogs, but I think they're quite spooky!
Andrea sent me these fabrics.

DS1 loves them. Thanks Andrea.
I had to use them straight away!!


The Happy Scrappy House blocks are from Toni. Hope you don't mind Toni, but I just had to use those googly eyes in one of the windows and one of the doors so I adapted your original blocks a bit. The borders for the houses are the sum total of Halloween-type fabrics that I have. As it's not a 'celebration' that I am familiar with, I don't have a stash of Halloween fabrics (and you guessed it, I'm not buying any! LOL)

Friday I went to the Lunesdale Quiltshow with a friend. It was held at Jean's house. When we arrived it looked so nice from the outside so I whipped my camera out to take a picture only to discover that I'd left the battery on to charge!! So no pictures except this one of some of my raffle winnings and a few small oddments of fabric that I bought (there must be less than a yard there so I've forgiven myself).

I also bought some batting/wadding offcuts for a future BQL Bag as I need batting. I'd love to buy a whole roll of the batting Birgit stocks, but where would I hide it? :-)

I met a fellow BQL-er at the show called Linda, she is a hoot and I hope our paths cross again sometime!

19 months later...

..and I'm ready to add the binding to DS2's BABY quilt.

Ok, so he's 19 months old, life got in the way LOL
Actually now he'll probably get more use out of it as one doesn't have to worry about baby's regulating their body temperature etc.

Here's the back...

I didn't have enough teal fabric for the binding so I've decided to go scrappy yet again as I am not buying any more fabric!

All I have to do now (after I've put the binding on!) is to decide what to handquilt next:
The +/-20 year old 'monster' I started when I was at school with my Mother's help..



or My BQL Ostrich from 2006? Basted by Chris and ready to go...



The monster is King-size and I've already started a bit of the quilting and the Ostrich is much smaller and only 2 years in the making. Both are UFO's in need of finishing. What to do, oh what to do...

ps we have a new gate..

perfect for dispaying quilts...

Some progress, (not much)

An update on what's been happening around here...
We've had a load of cement delivered to finish off the driveway.



I finished the borders on the Project Linus UK top Kate sent me...

It was really windy so I was struggling to use my trusty gate quilt display!

(you can see the new driveway in the picture.)

And I finally got my shop open again....


There's not much in the shop yet. I'll add a few more things as and when I find the time and when I have less distractions...

And when DS1 is better. He's poorly again, poor chap. He has Slapped Cheek, a virus. Perfectly harmless, just a bit exhausting for the poor guy.

As you can see by his face he enjoyed the chocolate pudding I bought him to cheer him up (or so I thought except I found some of it down the sofa so maybe he didn't!)

It's still a mystery to me

I have completed step 4 of the Orange Crush Mystery quilt.

There are 30 of these star blocks.

And I've chosen my fabrics for the May BQL Bag Challenge.

My friend Birgit gave me this floral fabric some time ago and I just love it, but I didn't know what to do with it. Until now! I've decided to line the bag with the brown African print (as I bought a brown zip for 20p at a local charity shop). I know it's not a perfect match, but it's inside and will not be seen much I hope :-)

I think I need to rest now... I have been sewing like a maniac. But I'll leave you with a few more pictures of life around here.
DS1 on a bouncy castle at a local event yesterday...
The weather was glorious (a few rain drops from a passing thunderstorm, but otherwise gorgeous!)

DH and kids on the ride-on-mower...

Mid-morning traffic jam...

I'm crushed!

I was reading blogs the other day and was impressed by Vicki W's generosity. She gave away 77 yards of fabric! I shot off a comment (on impulse) claiming that I doubted I even had 77 yards of fabric! Well I am clearly in denial!!! I do have 77 yards, possibly much more. When I finally get my official sewing space I shall have to count it all. There's some under the bed, in the lounge under a chair, behind the bedroom door...
This lost grip on reality has prompted me to tidy up my 'stuff' a bit.

I've put quilt tops together with potential backings. Created a box for blocks (orphans and otherwise) as well as half started projects and I've set about trying to organise my scraps in the most useful way. I've also put a pile of leaders and enders next to my machine. I still have loads to sort out: half started bags, cushions etc...
(over the sewing machine is a top that needed borders for Project Linus UK. Kate sent me the top and I've used some of my favourite star fabric to finish it off. I hope to deliver this and 3 other quilt tops to our regional Linus rep Vicky shortly)

On the sewing front, I was relieved that I managed to finish step 3 of the Orange Crush mystery this week as step 4 has just been revealed!

I have cut my strips (the old-fashioned way) for step 4 so I'll be ready to get going on those soon.

Yorkshire has been so beautiful this past week with lots of glorious sunshine!

So DH has been 'doing' the garden....

Pity he's not 'doing' the house, but maybe just as well as my current temporary sewing space will be the first to go :-(

Scarecrows and stitches

This weekend included a Monday bank holiday so we headed off to the Annual Scarecrow Festival at Wray. There are scarecrows all over the village...


And there are scarecrows that walk among the crowds... (DS2 did not like this tall lady at all!)



It's a great day out with most of the villagers exhibiting scarecrows outside their front doors. (DSIL's dog inspects a scarecrow on our walk around town)

Some of the villagers have a silly sense of humour...

The day before it rained so the field where the Fair was held was rather muddy. We took the kids on a few of the rides. While DS2 went on the Mery-go-round, DSI went on the swings. When DS2 was finished he just got off the merry-go-round and headed straight for the swings. I got a bit muddy at this point as I had to rugby tackle DS2 to the ground to avoid him being knocked out by a swing! Rather embarrassing really LOL

I've been handquilting the borders on DS2's 'baby' quilt.

I'm just making up the design as I go along :-) Just one and half more sides to go... I had better start thinking about the binding!

African Mavericks

It's my turn to make a block for Kate for our African blockswap. I thought I'd give Bonnie's Maverick Stars a try...


I think these could get addictive and they're a great way to use up smaller bits and scraps.

Of Pirates and Beauties

Here's the last of my New York Beauty's:
A2 (again)


These are the rejects. All a bit too small due to 'scaling' and not 'cropping' the printouts...

(So just one more for a cushion...)

I have no more of the patterns for this quilt. The BOM that I signed up for is sadly no more and I only have about half the blocks done. Unfortunately the lady organising the BOM has had some difficulties keeping up and her Yahoo! group has been closed before she released the other half of the blocks month by month (- bah humbug!!!). Apparently one could have purchased them previously, but I believe even that option is now untenable.

I'll have a little think how I'll arrange what blocks I have done, but I think I'll only make one or two more and move on to something else.... (no change there then LOL)

On a brighter note. Look what I got in the post today: A pirate parcel of precious patchwork pieces!



Thank you Toni! a.k.a. The Quilting Pirate for these lovely 'spare' blocks from her course with Bonnie Hunter. She also sent some great fabric, a memo pad, a pirate duck (which is apparently now DS1's!!), a pirate card and a cool pattern.

DS1 says the house with the skeletons is the best!

Last year at Halloween he borrowed a skeleton outfit for the day.

We went to 2 parties and still months later that's all he can talk about. Skeleton parties, skeleton outfits, skeletons, skeletons... (he is only 3!). I guess the search for a skeleton costume is on LOL.

The pattern of Toni's blocks is Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses, my all time favourite pattern and how I initially found Quiltville.com. I just have to make some myself sometime soon!!