Bad blogger!

I seem to be giving more attention to my Flickr groups at the moment than this blog and the consequence of that is I make comments on Flickr and forget to update my blog with the same information.

I am rather horrified therefore to realise that I have thanked my lovely Bee a Brit Stingy swap partner on Flickr but haven't shown on my blog what I received!

My partner was the lovely Janet who doesn't blog (as yet) but is here on Flickr!

And here is the great basket and goodies she very kindly sent me!

The basket is very cute and has a matching needlecase !  I think this may become my EPP basket!   The chocolates were delicious - sorry they seem to have disappeared!   And the cute robin tape nearly did the same thanks to one playful pup but I managed to retrieve it after a little chase around the lounge - she does love that game - and fortunately no damage to pup or tape!

And then there are scraps - how I love other people's scraps, a wee snowflake which seems to match those fussy cut squares on the basket and a label!

I think we have all enjoyed our wee hampers!  And everyone seems to have stalked their target well.  Can't wait for the show to begin in earnest in January!

Star Turn!

The sun shone for a few moments today.

I made this quilt top yesterday from some plaids in my stash - yes I must have had a thing about plaids as I seem to have a lot!   

The black fabric was a gift from the lovely Helen who used it as a backing for her circles quilt.   All this was left over...

My youngest was the star in the nativity tableau at church today - she did sparkle!  So it seemed like I should show you this!  

Plaid Away!

Why have I not been blogging?  

I have had my nose to the grindstone finishing a quilt and a mini hamper for my delightful friend.....in the Bee a Brit Stingy Secret Santa swap!

First off the quilt!   

I started and finished the string pieced centre section of this quilt in  July/August 2011.  I had joined in with the marvellously productive Julie at juliekquilts on her string along!  Since then it has hung around waiting for a border and backing.

 

Then I decided to ditch the idea of a complicated border after all there is quite a lot going on already!  

Once the border was done I decided this quilt would leapfrog to the top of my list with a simply pieced backing!

I fell in love with this star - inspired by Katy-I'm a ginger monkey - Jones! and this gorgeous quilt that gave me the impetus I needed to get this quilt finished!  Yeah you have to love that!

So how to quilt it!?   As there are lots of little bits on the string side and for quickness I favoured machine quilting.  I briefly toyed with the idea of concentric circles but tossed that aside in favour of straight lines!  I know who would have thought it!  I love to do FMQ but wanted something simpler for this quilt.
Straight lines then but I didn't want to shove the whole quilt through that 9" gap of my sewing machine throat - so each quarter is quilted in an L shape.  With all the L's joining back to back in the middle - hope that is clear??   

Next question - what colour of thread ?

I got a few likely colours out and thought they looked so good together I'd use them all - in fact I used some others too thanks to my marvellous win from the lovely Lynne and Aurifil!

 So I did some plaid quilting on my plaid quilt.  Lots of colour, close lines of quilting, then gaps - seriously fun to do except for the winding of bobbins!  And my trademark quilted label - Plaid Away!  Was I thinking football or something else when I named it? 

And now here's what I sent to my partner in the Bee a Brit Stingy secret Santa swap - it has been safely delivered by sled and she seems to like it!   Woohoo!  Or rather Hohoho!

Any ideas who it is for??

I'll let Mr Giraffe reveal all....

Get better Jan !  Big hugs and hearty best wishes from the South!

Plaid string and star!

Another UFO I could finish before the year end!  It will be close though...


I have introduced you to the plaid string side which now has a simple solid yellow border instead of the complicated one I had planned before.

But the giant star is new!

Was hoping they could pair up and make a quilt together....what do you think!?


I am going to give it a go at least!  And as usual I seem to prefer my quilt back to the front so I guess this is the new quilt front??

[Edit: I should have told you I was inspired by Katy Jones and this quilt who was inspired by Jeni and quilt and tutorial - my squares are a touch smaller at 15"]

Fabricate could be coming your way!

Kerry, at PennyDog Patchwork , was my partner in the Mouthy Stitches 2 Swap.   She asked for a Carl the Chameleon tote and she got it!  

After Susan paired me up with Kerry I realised I had seen and was taken by a quilt she had made at the Festival of Quilts - in fact is was the only one I got around to blogging about!

Well Kerry is multi-talented and not only does she sew, make jewelry and lovely chocolates she has talents in publishing.  She is now keen to launch a new modern British quilting magazine.  What a clever woman she is!

But first  she needs some support from the quilting community to make this happen.  If she can get enough people signing up to subscribe, donate or place adverts she will launch ....

You can find out more here and here!  And she now has a free sample project you can download from that second link - look in the gallery section!  Have fun!

Not sure what you are waiting for!  Go and look - I have put myself down for a six month subscription - can't wait!   Love a good read with a cup of tea!

Side tracking!

Oh if you know me you know it doesn't take much to lead me down a side track.  It's ok I only get distracted onto another sewing project - nothing illegal or untoward at all - ok maybe eating a whole bar of chocolate by myself when no-one is looking!  Grin!

Well amidst all the things I need to be doing I decided to push on with a UFO I had put to one side and thought would wait till after Christmas.  But it looks like I have been following my own advice - who would have thought it!

I recently wrote about my turkey quilt that if you no longer love doing it , love to do it differently which I did when I machine quilted it instead of hand quilting it - job done!  

Well I had plans for a complicated border on this quilt 

but have now realised it would take too much measuring, maths and precision piecing for me to accomplish - so it now has a solid border on and it is ready for basting ...

Or would be if I hadn't decided to piece the back - oh well you win some...

Despite this side track I did however get another bee block finished!

My first ever attempt at the circle of geese - or any geese actually!

This is my last block for the Sew & Bee Happy bee and is for for Emma!  She has waited 11 months for her turn and asked for either the circle of geese in rainbow colours on white or a Mod-Mosaic block.  I remember looking at this bee before joining and asking Kat if this was the standard required as it had been one of the blocks requested and I thought : my that looks too complicated for me!  Kat reassured me that the blocks were not usually so demanding and that is how I joined my first bee!   I didn't know anyone in it apart from Kat but then Cindy and Jude joined in !  

Well one year on - strictly 11 months I guess - and I have done it! Maybe I am making progress and part of that is thanks I guess to Carl the chameleon and Kerry of course!

Talking about Kerry......oh I will leave that till tomorrow!

I'm a basket case!

As a prequel to starting the Bee a Brit Stingy bee in January 2013 we are exchanging mini Secret Santa hampers using Ayumi's lovely tutorial for a fabric basket as our hamper.

I thought I'd practice a bit

OK quite a lot then....but I thought they would be great teacher/guide leader etc presents and so that has been done - some have been filled and handed out already!

I used up some Christmas fabric which I have had for years and never used and mixed them up with some Klona solids and some newer fabrics.  I also incorporated a few pieces of so-called ugly fabric I received from a dear friend - can you see that glitter fabric??

And now I have made two further baskets - either of which could be for swap my partner

I love plants, seedheads and leaves - hence the Mrs Sow in my blog name!  I love the work of the artist Angie Lewin and enjoyed quilting some exotic flowers inspired by her prints.  I lined it with a bit of Loulouthi and made handles from the same print.


My next basket was inspired by Helen and her gorgeous pincushion.  She used the Paris fabric I chose for the Japanese Charm Swap in natural.  During the swap I also found the same print in a pale blue colour which happens to match a linen fabric I have.  Teamed with a further Paris print as the lining I think this turned out to be one chic basket...

I would send either to my partner or keep either quite happily!  She just has to choose ....or I may just make another one .....or two....!