the one in which I 'fess up to several quilt finishes

So my lack of blogging recently means I have several quilt finishes that I haven't shown you. Some of which you didn't even know I had started.

I took some (very poor) photos a few days ago when the sun was out so I could share them with you. I think I got them all except the two Christmas quilts I made for the girls - as these are now packed away for next year.

Scrappy Trips. Finished and on the bed now since about the end of the first week on January. I am really glad I chose to put a dark colour running through the centre of each block, I like the way it highlights the diamond design.

Scrappy trips was made entirely from stash, bar the binding which cost me the princely sum of £2.49! Love love love this quilt. So do a few family members so I can see more being made in the future.

Backed with half of a duvet passed on from my mother-in-law. Not the most exciting print but I wanted something I already owned and low key for the back....the other half is being used for swoon, bargain!

Next up is my Aneela Quilt, finished before Christmas and I put off blogging because I am finding it really hard to photograph the quilting well!

I have lots of favourite spots in this quilt. There is this signature from the Fat Quarterly Retreat last year.

The quilting and the swirls and feathers are another of my favourite parts, I spent 3 days quilting this quilt and an insane amount of thread!

I just love free motion quilting, can you tell?!

The quilting and some of my all time favourite fabrics means that this quilt is my real treasure  one that I would definitely run back into a burning house to save! Huge huge hugest thanks to everyone who helped me make this quilt by sending scraps into me. I still have quite a few left and 'may' have started an Aneela Spiderweb quilt ;-)

Lastly (see you made it!) my new flannel quilt. I say mine because this is just for me! It is living on my little armchair in the studio and I have already been sitting under it when doing some epp, it is heavenly.

I have always lusted are a flannel quilt and I won a wonderful box of scraps from Katy, added a couple of half yards from the sale at M is for Make and just pieced the scraps together as I picked them up, no plan other than that. Hey presto, a quilt top!

You can just about see the quilting in this picture at the bottom. I tried an Orla Keily style stem design, along with some wavy lines (because I was tired of the stems, my arms where aching and I was running out of thread!) I am fairly happy with the fmq, especially now it is washed and you cant see my shaky mistakes so much!

I splashed out and backed and bound it with my favourite field study print, I would use this leopard in every quilt if I could somewhere!

Thank you Katy for the scraps that got this going, I love this soft snuggly riot of colour!

Footstool Make Over - Or where I patchwork anything that stands still in our house!

Yep, that's right, stay still too long in this house and I will patchwork it!

I brought a second hand foot stool last year. It is lovely and big and comfortable. Great for resting legs on whilst watching movies and useful extra seating when lots of visitors arrive. I really liked it, the price of £15 helped with that too! Only trouble is I wasn't so keen on the twee Laura Ashley style fabric

Perfect for my Mum perhaps but us not so much, the fabric was loose too and irritatingly sloppy on the sides. I knew I would re-cover it, toyed with the idea of using some precious stashed Echino, the idea being I could gaze upon it and enjoy it daily, rather than it being hidden in the cupboard.

Then last week I made up my January bee blocks for Lucy in the Bee a Brit Stingy. Me being stingy managed to make my strip piece go a long way and got 5 feather units out of it by joining up all the cut offs and so on. Two were sent to Lucy and the other 3 got some rather special treatment.

I have wanted to make a feather quilt for ages, I loved Charlotte's and was a bit jealous when Lucy chose them for her month (I am next months queen) so I was chuffed to have some of my own but knew I couldn't face making a whole quilt of them. Then I stumbled across this amazing cushion by Amanda of A Crafty Fox

Isn't it just gorgeous! I would give my kidneys for a cushion like that, I just love everything about it. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I really hope Amanda agrees because I just knew this was what I had to do to my footstool and those spare feathers.

So with a lot of careful cutting of very precious fabrics and some meticulous sewing - random can be so difficult and time consuming when you are trying to to waste even a fraction of special fabrics - I had a pieced top to fit the footstool. I then free motion quilted it in a wood grain effect (just like Amanda, eeek I am such a copy cat, but I loved it so much I couldn't help myself!) best seen from the back

Not great, but not hideous which is great considering it will be on display for all to see in the lounge. I then did a little pearle hand quilting around the feathers and wonky star I had added to help them stand out, sewed the corners up, stapled it to the footstool top and hey presto!

I have the worlds swankiest most amazingest footstool EVER!

I was really very brave and cut into some of my treasured Heather Ross along with text fabrics and hand printed fabric from friends. It was scary (I bet a lot of you know how that feels!) but I am so glad I did. Yes I might not have as much stashed as I did and yes I can't get any more BUT I see it every single day rather than occasionally stoking it and putting it away again.

I hope you like my makeover too, I'm off to see what else I can cover in patchwork....don't tell the husband ;-)

Sssshh don't tell but I have something to celebrate!

So a few days ago the lovely Susan pointed out to me that I had passed a rather celebratory milestone, 100 followers!

And then today a timely parcel arrived from Indie,

How cool?!

 I am sure she could whip you some up if you ask her! Today I had a lovely friend visiting, we went to University together but don't often get to spend time together. She doesn't do much sewing but that didn't stop me dragging her into my sewing room to play with the new fabric. In no time at all we had cut 3 pouches and sewn up two. 

Then I had to drop my friend back to the station and found a little time when I got back to sew up the last one (my one)

So I sent one home with my friend as her Easter gift

She picked the fabrics and how she wanted them set out and I sewed that little beauty of a pouch up. I sent her off home with the suggestion that she should immediately fill it with a bag of mini creme eggs!

I also made one for myself out of the DS scraps left from my Sew.Happy.Geek QAL.

Who is the third one for I hear you ask?.....Maybe you!

I have an almost Jubilee Britannia colour theme going on with this one, it was my test pouch and the zip ends are no where near perfect on this one, but if you love it it can be yours.

As a special thank you to all my lovely followers I am going to send this to one of you, I just ask one small favour. Leave a comment below, I'd like to know a quilt pattern you recommend for using up charm squares. I seem to have an abundance of rainbow charms (can't think how that came about) and want a good pattern to use them up.

The pouch is only on offer to my current followers, I'd love it if you are new here and want to start following me but I am not doing this as a means of gaining new followers but a way of thanking those who have been with me over the last few months.

Phew, that felt good - what with all the sickness in our house I haven't sewn in over a week, I'm glad I got it out of my system! Hoping for a little more sewing time this weekend and perhaps even a trip to the local quilt festival if I can persuade my husband ;-)

EDITED TO ADD:

I will leave the comments open until Thursday 5th April 9pm my time, then I will draw a winner at random. Good luck!

Germs should not be shared....

I am a great believer in instilling good manners and behaviour in my children, sharing is one of these.

However, germs are the exception. On this occasion I will not be praising my daughter for sharing her germs with me! I have been up for 4 hours and used up two whole toilet rolls and half a box of tissues (emergency shop run purchase!)  on my nose already!

Today's post will be short, full of photos, snot and self pity!

Tuesday - Another pleated boxes pillow for my Mum for mothers day. Sew-Along instructions can be found here.

Tuesday - A Black Apple Doll for Eloise, a get well dolly from Mummy to daughter, it seemed to do the trick except now I have to make another for Juliette!

March 1st - My Bordered Star block for the March Queen in the Stash Bee (posted out today which reminded me I hadn't blogged it!

 I loved trying out this great block, I hope it sits well in the quilt for Cindy. I used fabric I won in the Fugly Fabric Party from Kelli at Small Town Stitcher. I love the thought that fabric I won from the US came to the UK to be made into a block to go back to the US to be part of a QOV! It was also a big leap into paper piecing for me, I can't wait to try more now.

Wednesday - Started a Mini Eye-Spy quilt for my new baby nephew.

Juliette had a lovely time testing it out before I had even finished making the top. I had the top sewn up in less than an hour and the quilting done in 2 hours last night, I must have known these germs were coming to me! Binding will have to wait, I have a new order to snot work on.

Finally, great news - the final charms arrived for round 2 of the rainbow charm swap, they will be out in the post in the next few days, check the flikr group for more information. I'll get a photo as soon as I can put the tissue down!

Chevrons and HST Swap-erific Goodness

Hi everyone, sorry its been so quiet on the Strawberry Patch front. My life is slowly being taken over by boxes!

I did get an amazing treat in the post this week that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. My Sew Happy Geek Runner swap parcel arrived all the way from Stephanie in Denver over at Spontaneous Threads!

I cant tell you how thrilled I am with my runner, perfectly made, perfect colours and fabric and SO me! It is made to live in my new kitchen and I cant wait until we move and I can put it in its new home. How Stephanie knew it would be just right for that room is magic itself.

I just LOVE those HST :-)

And the quilters linen and label on the back are so fab, makes me want to sort my labels out asap.

Not only did Stephanie make me a runner but a gorgeous bag too. Apparently she likes her runners rather long and Id noted a smaller size on my preferences so she used the leftovers for the bag, lucky me! It is already filled with new goodies to take to the new house and decorate with. Because of course that is far more important than moving the furniture or pots and pans over there!

I was thoroughly spoilt because I also got some beautiful ribbon and  a mini charm pack that is so cute I may not be able to bear using it!

Aside from packing this week I have also been doing some preparation of this months double dose of 'Merry Meet & Make' two festive workshops at our local craft evening that I run.

I have been busy sewing Hoops and promised Laura that I would show mine, she has after all shown hers!

I am hoop mad at the moment. If I can sew it, it goes in a hoop! Again, I'm hoping to keep hold of these to go at the new house but a few friends have already said quite loudly which ones they would love to receive for Christmas! I got lots of inspiration for my hoops from Kristie over at OCD.

This week we went simple at Merry Meet & Make and made raggy wreaths, just like Hadley did a few weeks ago. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately for me) we had a full house at this weeks workshop and it was so busy I forgot to take photos of all the amazing wreaths! I didn't get home until gone 11pm after all the crafting and nattering. I did photograph my efforts the next day though

This is my funky festive wreath that I made as the demonstrator for the workshop, it is silk and cottons that I had accumulating in my stash, it is now wrapped and on its way to my brother and his wife to start their collection of decorations as their first Christmas as a married couple.

On the night I made a much more traditional mini wreath with green gingham, red holly fabric and gold ribbon. We used wire florists rings which cost less than 50pence each at our local wholesalers. They are perfect for the job and have an inner ring and an outer ring, with the mini wreath I tied my strips around the inner ring and then more strips on the outer ring giving me a really full look. On the bigger funky wreath the strips were made longer and tied around both together.

Ive got a review coming soon of a great pattern I tested, I cant wait to share it with you and hopefully there will be a little giveaway to go with it!

Festival of Quilts and Jap Swap Happiness!

Wow!

what a week :) Towards the end of last week, feeling fired up by the prospect of heading to FoQ I delved into my Japanese Fabric Swap Charm stash. Huge thanks to Cindy of Fluffy Sheep Quilting for organising the swap. You can see the Jap fabric in more detail in the Flikr group. I made these little beauties

This adorable little bag is for J and I'm hoping she will enjoy playing eye-spy with the little characters on the charms, I used Pink Penguins Reversible Patchwork Bag Tutorial. I did add a little band along to bottom of the bag to give it more depth and room for dolly to travel in!

Then another Pink Penguins Tute - the Fabric Basket, this time I followed it to the letter and I love this darling little basket. As the squares on this one are only 2" I was left with some 1" strips from my swap square's. What to do with them...???

Well I just couldn't bear to waste any of the scraps and knew if I put them into my scrap basket they would disappear forever, so, I made my first mug rug! It was a bit of an experiment, randomly piecing it and I'm not sure I am happy with the border (an old Topshop top) but I don't care, I LOVE my mug rug! I think they may become an addiction :)

Now, a quick pic of my haul from the FoQ

Not the best photo but the drive to Birmingham and back in a day, coupled with about 6 hours of walking around the NEC, the mind blowing quality of quilts and shopping has all left me a little weary!

In the top of the picture is my new ruler and rotary cutter that Ive been waiting to get for a while and will make my life so much easier. There is a value bundle of batting, destined to become cosy sleeping bags for E & J's dollies using Flossie Teacakes pattern Three Bears Sleeping Bag

Then there is a meter of a lovely sunny Makower floral print, which will likely be a clothing make for J. There is a half meter of both red polka dot and a natural star print cotton both for Christmas makes. Then a bargain Boden cotton flannel check which was only £4 a meter,  I am going to make myself a little jacket from this, also a lovely fresh pink floral, Boden too at £4 a meter!

I thought I'd had some good bargains until we wondered back past Simply Solids and nearly fell over ourselves for the amazing Swoon collection by Melissa Averinos, pictured on the bottom row, which Mandy was practically giving away for £2/meter! I snatched up a 6 FQ bundle of the green colourway for only £3! Then a half meter of the blue colourways (plus some extra not shown for some clothing makes for me) I tell you I was super super excited and still cant believe my luck! Its not a fabric line I would usually go for but I am so glad I did, the more I look, the more I love :)

Finally, I couldn't resist starting ANOTHER new project! Feeling inspired by the beauties at the FoQ I have started a rainbow scrappy quilt, here's a peek at the squares I have cut so far (again apologies for the poor picture quality!) Hope you are all feeling as inspired as me :)