Birthday Presents Required!

My youngest has a party to go to today and couldn't think of a gift for her three friends hosting the party.  

In steps mum with her big mouth .....and so I spent yesterday making these....

The two heart ones are a total copy of these lovely cushions by the fabulous Karen.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I say!  Just hope she agrees...

The other one is made with an orphan block from years back!  Hope they are well received but if not there is a bar of chocolate included.

KISS X!

According to my friend Susan , KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid!  It is a phrase that  seems to appear a few times on her blog and I have decided to take her advice for once regarding the back of a quilt.

She often teases me for making double sided quilts but I am just trying to get two UFOs out of the way or more recently desperate to try something new I've seen and my only excuse for a new project is if it helps me finish an existing project.

Well for once I'm just stitching big blocks of fabric together for a speedy finish and I love it!

Bye bye UFO, bye bye old fabric from my stash and soon bye bye quilt !  My daughter would like to give it to a friend and I am happy for her to do so!

The front

The back

The finished quilt with a scrappy binding....

Details of the quilting - oyster like shapes in the background sections.....

 and straight lines in the borders at different angles....

I am liking the quilted bits !  Not at all what I had planned up until the very moment that I stuck it under the needle!  I had intended to quilt the stars - ah well heigh ho!   Plans are over-rated in my opinion....

KISS! KISS! XX   First of my FAL projects completed!

I've just...

signed up to a swap!  What another one!?   I keep saying I will stay away from swaps as it can eat up your time stalking and all that but this is a quick and simple one (er ....I hope)!  I did join in the first round, missed the second (too busy) and am joining in round three...

Here are the deets in case you want to join in...Modern Scrappy Bits Swap! Round 3

Sign up for Round three here! You will have until March 8th to mail your scrappy swap package out. If you complete your projects sooner, please do not mail before the third week of February. This way there will be some element of expectation for everyone that is receiving.
The swap is pretty easy going. You can make one of the following handmade items:

Fabric Baskets
Needlebooks
Small Pouches

Please send a minimum of one fat quarter's worth of scraps to your partner. (when laid out end to end and side to side) You can always send more if you like. 

Last time I made this

And received this

Lucky ol' me!

If you think she does sewing 24/7...

Sometimes I distract her with a bit of this....

WARNING : Several tidbits were harmed in the production of these photos !

Or this....

And you just never know this might happen for a few seconds!

Just while I'm thinking what I can do next to take her away from that noisy machine?

Busy Bee

I joined one bee - Sew and Bee Happy in January 2012 and liked it so decided to join another, and another, and another....till I was in 5 bees including Jude's charity Bee Blessed!

Every month therefore I am making 6 blocks plus siggy blocks if required and however many blocks I get around to making for Bee Blessed - it varies!

I fell behind in August when Maddie our payful pup came on the scene and have been playing catch up especially with Christmas in between - this month is no exception!

My block for Janine - star_of_africa_bee - needs a little more stitching and the siggy bit on the butterfly body, was due Nov/Dec.  The stitching is supposed to be reminiscent of Charles Rennie MacIntosh!?

My block for Deborah - Scrappy? Sew bee it! due in December and finished today - a 36 patch! 

Only after cutting up my fabrics did I notice one had a directional print so I unpicked the last square of every other row and added it to the beginning or some of the flowers would have been upside down!  

I think she asked for bright but this may need some sunglasses!   My first attempt was badly cut and too quiet so I went to the other extreme perhaps?

My block for Christiane - same bee due in January - a scrappy Spiderweb block - still got a siggy to do!

My blocks for Jennie - Modern Stitching Bee - two quatrefoil blocks plus siggy!  I saw on the Flickr group that she liked bicycles so I was happy to provide another one, with elephants!   The orange fabric has little scallops on it and they reminded me of the Ellie ears so they had to go in the block!   And the blue fabric cos of the footballs - I expect they will start riding the bicyles as soon as they finish their game!

And strawberries bought from the lovely Cindy @ fluffysheepquilting - they are ever so cute and she still has some left!   Go have a look!  Roll on summer I say - can we get it back from the downunder guys do you think?


There are some ladder blocks for Bee Blessed and more to come as I'm clearing out a bit of novelty and Jude doesn't mind she said, as they are making quilts for children!  Win win I say!   No photo of those yet!


And just because I cannot seem to leave my plaids alone, now I have started playing with them, here is a Dresden plate which may or may not get some friends...

It needs a centre circle!  Actually having tried out lots of fabrics I'm thinking just white might be right!

Star-tling!

Sometimes it is quite star-tling what you can achieve when you get stuck in!

My two little star blocks 

Reproduced to become a heap of star scrap

And a pile of quarter blocks

And have joined together to become this...

Wasn't that keen on the blocks before but now they are a quilt top they look quite twinkly and cheerful even on a gloomy day!

The tops are stacking up - that makes four already!

Star struck!

I did make the London Modern Quilters Guild on Sunday!

We swapped pincushions 

I swapped this one 

For this one from Kelly aka Chunky09

It is very cute - thanks Kelly!

There were quilts to look at, chat about quilts, fabric to discuss and lunch!   I then followed Danielle to John Lewis' and bought some gorgeous yarn in the sale

Baby alpaca and mulberry silk mix from Debbie Bliss - the colour just begged to come home with me but no plans as yet what it will become except perhaps something fairisle?

I had to run for the train home and I plonked myself down in one of the few spare seats on the train opposite this lovely lady 

I nearly told her she looked like the long suffering wife of New Tricks detective Brian Lane who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder that can lead to startling episodes like thinking his wife is a spy!   Well she would look like herself wouldn't she, but I was only confirmed in that when I looked to the side and saw I was sitting next to her husband 

I didn't say anything about them being who they were - in fact I hardly talked to them at all - so unlike my normal state.  But I was stitching some Rosestars and Susan Jameson did say that was a good idea to do something useful ... and I do believe she is right!

I am not star struck (title)  about this episode though!

But I am about this....star scrap

which means....a little galaxy of star quarter blocks to mix and match 

One UFO on the go...