Saturday, 30 March 2013

Burying Thread Tails

I found this super video on YouTube
for burying your thread tales:
What a great tip!!

Friday, 29 March 2013

Yellow Yellow

If you know me...
you know that I am not a fan of yellow,
but I saw this door in Lancaster
and I love doors, so...
I had to love this :)
We'd gone to Lancaster for blood tests
for my youngest son
who is just not himself...
He was also NOT happy having his finger pricked
and squeezed and squeezed...
He hates plasters (even fun ones!),
but he loves sweets :(
They cheered him up.
It was a yellow day...

*****
Today we went to Kendal to get the boys some shoes
They had free facepainting at the shopping centre.
We came home with a snake:
And a leopard:

*****
My first practise quilt is ready to come off the longarm :)
I really enjoyed it.
I quilted this kids quilt with 'Stars and Loops'.
Then I quickly cut some binding
and not caring that it was past midnight,
I whipped some borders on the next top I plan to quilt.

It's a top with Maple Leaf blocks
that I swapped ages ago.
I did think to do a leaf panto, but I'm going with roses
in pale pink thread.
I just need to piece the back
and get it ironed and ready.

Looking at this picture I'm wondering if I should do leaves....
mmm, I may have to think about this....

Thursday, 28 March 2013

And so to Bed...

I was recently given a bed head to recover.
This is the 'Before'
i.e. this was the original cover:
 This was the brief:
A curtain from the room the bed head will live in....
 This was the idea stage:
 The 'After':
The side detail:
I used the curtain from the 'brief' for the back and sides
The back:
 The 'After' including cushions
made out of the original cover:

*****
On another note:
please accept my apologies if you got a spam email
from me. Well it wasn't from me, it was from
goodness knows who, or more importantly,: why?
Honestly these people should quilt,
it would keep them out of trouble LOL

Monday, 25 March 2013

Brrr! Cold Weather Crafting

I have loaded my first practise quilt on to the machine,
And I'm using a pantograph called stars and loops...
It's fun to do
and I'll hopefully start making a dent in my UFOs!

*****

But it's been bitterly cold out.
I missed getting photos of the snow drifts
as I was tucked up inside,
but the snow went right up the walls I was told...
While inside, ... I laid out my Scrappy Trip blocks
to see where I was with them...
Just a few more to make a picnic blanket for a friend.

I cut a pattern for and made an Easter Bunny...

And did some Easter crafting with the boys...

This is my youngest son's egg.
He likes things just so.
No help from me besides supervising the glue tube
produced a really pretty egg...

My older son is much more random
and definitely not as fussy
as to decorative element postitioning :)

This is my elder son's Easter 'Bonnet'
I had some lovely green bobble trim
and he just snipped all the bobbles off
to glue them randomly on his hat :)

My younger son of course was into symmetry...
Each decoration placed with care.
Two children so so different.

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

I Have Been Sewing, I Promise...

...I haven't JUST been looking after sick children!!!!

I have made all 66 Ocean Wave blocks that I needed...
Actually, I needed 64!
Not sure what happened there? :o)


I have made some more Scrappy Trip blocks
as Leaders & Enders....
Oh and I have done some 'committment sewing' too.
Can't show that until the recipient sees it,
but remind me never to say yes
 to ANYTHING that needs to be 3D.
My brain just does not work in 3D or HD or... LOL.

PS, Do you like my 'Design Hand'?
It's because my 'Design Floor' has been taken up by
my lovely Longarm machine!!!

Time for a 'Design Wall' me thinks!

Thursday, 7 March 2013

Somebody Pinch Me!

I still can't believe she's actually here
and happily living in my studio.
(By 'living' I mean taking up pretty much most of my studio LOL)

I never thought that I would ever be able to say this, but it's true:
 I am now the very proud owner
of my own Longarm quilting machine.
and I am thrilled!
Now if I can just figure out how to get the best out of her
(and me) we'll be sorted!

Friday, 1 March 2013

Just 3 More Leaves

Just...
 3 more leaves to stitch down
and then I need to decide on berries...
If I'd followed the pattern...
I'd know how many berries I need,
BUT, I appliqued far too many leaves
so I will have to see if the berries
suffer the same fate :)
 The papers are still in:
 I English Paper-Pieced the bulk of the quilt,
 And I like to leave the papers in
until I'm almost ready to quilt.
But that's just the way I do it...