The delinquent blogger!

I cannot deny I have become a delinquent blogger - my crime is having things to write about but not getting around to it!  Serious isn't it??

Ok how much community service should I be doing or would you put me behind bars??

Just before my collar gets felt by the boys or girls in blue I thought I had better let you see something....

Yesterday I was visited by a dear friend who shares a birthday with my eldest.  So I made her a wee present from my latest book purchase... 

available here!


This is the bag I made for her using the Compact Groceries Tote pattern

I changed a little thing - the wrap around strap was supposed to have a metal snap fastener to close it but I went for an old fashioned bit of elastic and button approach as I had those to hand and thought my button was prettier anyway!

My friend likes to use her bike a lot and to visit the local market so I thought this would be useful.  Hoping it was the pear-fect present for her this time!

She didn't come empty handed though as she brought some yummy homemade jam and a freshly baked cake!  She is welcome to come again (wink)!

We were both eyeing up the bike panniers on the front cover for next year so I have a bit of time to master sewing laminated fabric.  It is on my to do list!




My friend made the acquaintance of our furry addition to the family and we went for a rather muddy walk in the woods.  We had our wellies on and Maddie managed to keep out of most of the mud by her agile leaping.  We met a couple of dogs on the way and some small children - I think Maddie preferred the attentions of the children to be honest! 

Now here is a photo of Maddie pursuing her new hobby - 

Well what did you think I was doing??

.......birdwatching!   

Ding dong bell a quilt is finished!

In August I started making a small lapquilt for a friend who wanted to give something a bit different to her niece as a wedding gift!

I was happy to oblige and you may have seen some progress on the strip pieced quilt she chose from book Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen - the quilt is called Fractured!  Normally I like strip piecing as it is fairly mindless action - pick up a strip, any strip and sew it down - your eyes seem to be drawn to the next colour and you can just sew happily for hours!

Well something intervened - something with four legs, a tail and an irresistible wee face - which meant progress was a lot slower than normal!  But now it is finished and I am glad to say handed over to my friend...

Here is how it grew....

Here is how my four-legged distraction grew too...5 months now!

Could you resist this?  Ok Hadley I know you can....

Goodies Galore !

I can't tell you how thrilled I am about two parcel which arrived recently chez moi!

First to arrive was my pincushion from the lovely Sheila - I may have mentioned that Sheila and I invited some friends to join us in a bee called Bee a Brit Stingy !  We wanted to use our stash for this bee hence the name!

Well we don't start officially until January 2013 as we are all beavering away with lots of things and for me it means I can keep to only 5 (!!!!) bees as the first bee I joined - Sew & Bee Happy! - finishes in November!  Eek!

Anyway to get to know each other a little better we decided on a small, quick swap - a pincushion!

Well I made this one which has arrived at Karen's house

The top is hand appliqued using some new carboard pieces called flat jewels I think!  It is quite big so shouldn't go amiss....I got a bit carried away!  When I first made it there was something not quite right - so I added those vintage buttons in the middle which helped ploof it up and weight it down a bit.


And Sheila made me this gorgeous one 

Not so much a pincushion but she must know I dither about deciding what to do so it is an action cube with choices of quilt, pin, sew and unpick !   Then it has lots of pockets - which did come full of sweet goodies - seen here!  All seem to have vanished now however!  And a wee fabric historical note at the bottom reminds we both started out using Debbie Mumm fabric in the 80s!

Thank you so much Sheila and my apologies for not showing it off before now!



My second parcel is my tote from the Mouthy Stitches 2 Swap

I showed you what I sent yesterday...it has arrived safely and my partner seems pleased - in fact she has been very nice about it!

I can now show you the letter 'K' which was hiding behind the button as it has gone to Kerry who blogs here!

I came across her or rather her quilt at the NEC Festival of Quilts when I went round with My Mouthy Stitches 2 Swap Mama Susan and took a photo of this quilt...Kerry then claimed it as hers as I didn't know who had made it...the quilts were not labelled.

I took the photo for Archie of course and it is the only one I have blogged about from the FoQ lazy blogger that I am.  I have just been over to Kerry's blog and she has entered it into the Blogger's Quilt Festival - you can go and vote for it!  There is a tail tale attached so take a hanky!

That was mine sent, but I got mine received a couple of days back but have been keeping it a little secret as the lovely May who sent it to me, only put it up on Flickr after I received it and I wanted everyone to have the chance to see it before I laid claim to it!

So here it is - welcome to Moominland!

I love Moomins and although they didn't feature in my mosaic May knows my weakness from her bee the Star of Africa - where we make blocks reflecting the country we come from.  May is from Finland the home of Tove Jansson and the Moomintrolls!

I love my tote and the moomin bits that came with it!  I even bought a Moomin notebook to live in my tote today!   I am a happy, happy bunny!

Various rumours may have been aired that I am at times like Little My - the feisty little girl with hands on hips but I can assure you that is almost not true!

 I am hoping for more Moomin magic as I am Queen Bee in the Star of Africa bee and have asked for a fictional character - I'm hoping for Moominmama!   Eventually I think I will need the whole set! 

Oh my what a long post - wake up and congrats you have got to the end!

Secret Stitching Revealed

Hi there do you remember me?

Sorry I have been doing some worrying and some secret stitching!

I am worrying because I am in the fabulous Mouthy Stitches 2 Swap - the tote! and I have to tell you the standard is sky high!  Not a duff tote among them ....

And I didn't want to let the side down - oh no!

And I have a fabulous partner - no can't tell you who she is until she gets her parcel - but I am in awe of her work, so not much pressure there then!

So I have been worrying, prevaricating, sweating and sewing and just before the bell goes I have finished the tote and keyfob extra....I just hope she likes it but if not she can always return it to me...?

The main picture shows Carl the Cameleon - a design by Joanna at Shape Moth which you can buy here!  Not for the fainthearted with about 60 pieces in it - argh!  I'm not usually a fan of foundation piecing and I got very friendly with Mr Seam Ripper but I got there!  

I used compressed foam instead of wadding as the inner layer and did a bit of spiral FMQ to echo Carl's tail!

The reverse side is a strip pieced leaf - with the zip as the spine - broke two needles going over the end of that zip as it was designed for a coat and ended with a stopper rather than the usual fabric bits!  It opens up to a generous pocket - below right - so plenty of room!  I echo quilted the leaf in variegated green thread!  Had to get my head round doing that without stitching it to the pocket!

The extra is a keyfob in this swap and I thought a wee co-ordinating strip pieced  leaf coin purse would go well!  Believe me I was making this up as I went along - but plans don't really work for me I'm more disorganised  organic!

The outside is a bit loud!

I thought the inside should reflect a different mood so I took my Carnival templates bought from Katy and swapped the squares for HSTs and ended up with a star!  The big button hides an initial - belonging to my partner - but I can't give the game away yet ....can I?  I then used Lu Summers' porthole magic to frame my star!  

Hey presto!  one tote bag finished!  Phew!  Final deadline for posting is tomorrow!

I might have bought some fabric...

Which might look like this...

For those of you who are fabric junkies the deets are as follows left to right:

Kukla Meadow in Bright ( Robert Kaufman )

Small Chevron in Tone on Tone Yellow ( Riley Blake )

Kona in Aloe ( Robert Kaufman )

Lady Bugs in Apple ( Free Spirit )

Hand Picked Daisies in Grass ( Free Spirit )

Bella in Mint ( Moda )

Specimen in Dream ( Free Spirit )

Circle Cross in Green ( Free Spirit )

Bella in Pistachio ( Moda )

Trunks in Gray ( Riley Blake )

Honeycomb in Sunglow ( Free Spirit )

Josephine's Bouquet in Meadow ( Rowan )

Heath in Chartreuse ( Alexander Henry )

Marguerite Dot in Green( Riley Blake )

Don't get all excited now all three pics are of the same fabrics!  I just love them so!


I am getting addicted to making my own bundles and it is far too easy to do this at pinkcastlefabrics.  Sadly I am not sponsored by them indeed I am probably responsible for a trade deficit in fabric between the UK and US...okay I may not be the only one!  There  are a few of you out there!  You know who you are!!

Fourth quarter Finish-a-long!

I did so badly last quarter I  have all my third quarter projects still to complete!

That is

The Friendship Garden quilt!

My Fright Nite quilt!

My churndash/granny squares quilt

Here they are together!

Hope I can do at least one!

Squirreling away!

 Today I spent quite a bit of time making this little chap...

for Jen, who is making a book for her children to keep them busy spotting animals on car journeys or at the zoo.  

This little chap is flying the flag for Scotland in the Star of Africa bee but he is to be found in quite a bit of Europe too - just not in much of England now and certainly not where we live in West Sussex.  His American cousin is doing  better down here instead and is a regular visitor to my garden.

Hope Jen's kids like him and get the chance to see him one day.

Have to say he turned out a bit fatter than I had intended but I think he is getting ready for winter and fattening up before his long sleep!  Ahh !  Lucky him!