Tuesday 31 December 2013

Bye to 2013

Happy New Year!

Here's a quick peak of my last few 2013 Finishes. Proper blog post may follow.

Star Wars for Ryan- front

Star Wars - embroidery on the back - thanks mother in law!

Tana Lawn 6 point Star mini quilt. Echo quilted this but no pics!


Oliver's Quilt- Roll up
Oliver's Quilt Back - I love Constellations!

My Kidlets - best thing of the year.  every year. Love them.

Hope 2014 brings you all much joy and happiness,

Sunday 15 December 2013

Precious

With Christmas fast approaching I really should have been getting on with some promised quilty gifts. Instead I've made this, a wall hanging / small table runner for my friend, Gem. Precious in every way, she's been having a hard month, in and out of hospital. So here's a early present for her.



Linking up to 'Le Challenge'
Le Challenge


Thanks to  this website  for the pattern

Thanks to hubbie for working some computer magic, making up the templates for me - 1/2" along the short side of the kite, they were tricky to cut and even trickier to piece, but have kept me nice and busy on my commute to work this month.

Here are a few more snaps to see the colours, piecing and quilting a bit better. I really need to improve my quilty photography!

Really I'm just happy to have something to post to an old friend when I can't be there to see in person and give her the hugs and good wishes I'd like to.

Monday 18 November 2013

The House Of Sickness

Very little sewing going on in my little part of the world just now as we're into week three of sickness, tonsilitus, followed up with a nice dose of 'flu.

In a brief window of health my mother in law came a-visiting and brought some embroidered Star Wars Characters along with her. They're hiding out in the cupboard. Finger crossed they'll be jumping on the back of my Star Wars creation in the not too distant future. As you can see - the top still needs a bit of work.




But I can share photos of my baby rainbow quilt finally. What do you think?


Rainbow Stripe - this shows the colours fairly well.


Diagonal quilting

Hills and Dales for binding and the back

I love it!

The points on the half square triangles don't match well and  the quilting's a bit wobbly too (my walking foot doesn't fit my new machine!), but check out those great fabrics! The rainbow is mainly a colour wheel bundle from The Surly Sheep, with a few bits added in to make up the numbers and the binding and backing is Hills and Dales from Robert Kaufman.

I'm also tickled pink with my improved technical ability - the binding was made and went on with no problems, and I even got the fabric on the back properly lined up

I also did my first ever link up to bloggy things too - le-challenge theme for November was stripes and I got a few flickr pics up in time. Next month the theme is precious for anyone wanting to join the fun.

Sharing this and looking at my pics has cheered me right up, so I'll leave you with a close up.
What's not to love :D

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Alison Glass Giveaway (and a sneaky christmas bundle)

Look at what arrived though my letter box today! I love all floppy parcels, but this bundle of Alison Glass fabrics from Don't Call Me Besty's Blog, is the most exciting thing to drop onto doormat in ages. Isn't it lovely!




On a cold, dark autumnal night, it's made the house seem instantly warmer and brighter.  I'm dying to get sewing with this - a few Christmas pillows for some loved ones need making. I just need to get a move on with the rest of my to do pile first!

And here's anther little thing I couldn't resist. Christmas bunting anyone?



If only there were more hours in the day to sew. What with work, little ones with colds and the nights drawing in, sewing time is far too scarce.

Saturday 19 October 2013

Back in Action

After a long trip to a friend of a friend, my machine's now back in action, in fact it's better than ever and running like a dream. All for the price of a case of beer


I've sewn up my bright baby quilt, it's pieced and quilted just waiting for the binding now - No photo's to share of this just yet, the lovely little man's mum needs to see it first.

And I've been busy sorting out fabrics for my nephew's and niece's christmas presents. This Camelot Cotton Star Wars Panel's all chopped up, with some Kona solids for the stripes. My colour card got put to some good use. I'm looking forward to getting it all sewn up, now. Fingers crossed it'll go well (my bright baby quilt is a bit on the wonky side)

Star Wars Stripes

Spring Green Yoda

And I've picked out the lilac fabrics for my niece's quilt. Do you like them?  I love the butterflies and birds in flight, and the solids are looking good. I'm thinking of having the whole quilt as one giant block, a log cabin or a half square triangle probably. I'm a bit nervous about keeping the triangles nice and straight though - any distortions are going to show up big time. Tips welcome!

It's lovely to be on a roll after such a long hiatus - especially as the nights are drawing in.


Monday 2 September 2013

Sewing Machine Woes

Sometimes I hate technology.




My beautiful new (second hand) machine is not playing ball. The tension dial has not been working, so there was far too much tension on the top thread. I found a nice little page here via google, and followed all the steps - cleaned it, checked the bobbin was evenly wound, re-threaded, changed the needle, moved the dial up and down all to no avail.

My on-call engineer (also known as husband) fiddled and fiddled and fiddled some more, and I now have even stitches, but the blooming thing is gathering up the fabric as I stitch.

I've given up in a sulk and will try again tomorrow - Baby Bates has been born, but not named, so I need to get stitching to finish and turn this...






into something more like this....  

Please excuse the poor quality drawing - my first attempt. You get the idea though!

Fingers crossed tomorrow will be a better sewing day!