Simple Makes for Grand Gestures

Both my girls are leaving their schools this week, it has been a week of tears and emotion!

It felt only right that I should make gifts for both of the girls to give. Seeing as Eloise's teacher was having her first baby and that she has ferried my daughter around to countless out of school sports events when I was busy and couldn't make it I felt a special gift was required, a quilt.

Then I got to thinking, while I was making one baby quilt surely it wouldn't take much longer to make a second. And so it was decided rather than making a whole mountain of gifts for the army of preschool helpers Juliette will be leaving, the pre-school would also get a quilt gift. One to put on the sofa in the quiet corner, for sleepy new little children in September and those not moving unto big school.

It seemed just the perfect excuse to break out my rainbow charms that I have been saving for probably a good two years now (does anyone remember those charm swaps I organised - they were all the rage in 2012 ha!) I added a few more from my stash to make up the numbers.



A little late night organising along with some quick chain piecing later and I was quilting before I knew it.



Volia, two simple but lovingly made cheerful quilts, to leave behind happiness where my children once were.



I'm off to find the tissues again, and stock up for the smallest one's last day tomorrow too!

Quilt Stats:

Small cascading rainbow quilt:

42 rainbow 5" charm squares
27"x31" aprox
Pieced wadding, but mostly 70/30 eco blend
Ikea Numbers Duvet backing
Citron sketch binding
Quilted in crosshatch through the squares, Gutermann 12wt cotton in variegated rainbow

Large cascading rainbow quilt:

56 rainbow 5" charm squares
31"x36" aprox
Pieced wadding, but mostly 70/30 eco blend
Unkown Pirate Map backing
Scrappy rainbow binding
Echo quilted 1/4" either side of charm squares with Gutermann 40wt in pale blue

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!

Bee Virgin No More!

I forgot to mention back in January that when I was looking for a bee to join Cindy very sweetly pointed me in the direction of Sunni's blog and the Stash Bee.

Up I signed and the first month, January, had Sunni as queen, not daunting or anything!

She was asking for tree blocks and this is what I came up with

I fme a verse from the poem 'Tree of Life' by Mia Ocean as the tree trunk and made my first ever hexi's for the canopy. 

I also made my first ever siggy block (I even had to google it!)

So all in all it was a lot of firsts in one go! I was really nervous sending it off to Sunni, but she put all my fears to rest by sending me a lovely postcard thanking me for the tree! My daughter thought it was very cool to get a postcard from Washington USA!

Today I worked on this months block, the pineapple, for the February Queen Samantha. I must admit to putting it off as I was thinking the block was out of my skill range. But I got there eventually!

I was surprised how little black I had in my stash but I found enough, I kept thinking 'do the funky chicken' whilst I was stitching it up!

I also found a cute bee stamp to put on my siggy block, I think I will have to use it every month.

If you are looking for a bee yourself there are spaces left in Hive #3 of the Stash Bee which starts up in March, go here to sign up! 

In other news, last week the very last pack of charms arrived for Round 1 of the Rainbow Charm Swap. So I spent a good few hours at the big table sorting all the piles of charms.

Ouch, did my back hurt after all that sorting! But it was worth it because the very same I day I had all the UK packets back in the post and the international ones the day after. So here it is, my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow:

I'm off to work on my mouthy stitches pouch, the deadline is looming and I don't do 'close to the wire'!

Rainbow Swap Kicks off, More Spaces avaliable in Round 2!

SWAP NOW FULL

(Edited 11.1.12)

Wow, what a busy weekend! We have been dry-stone walling, painting barn doors, gardening and a little sewing was squeezed in! I managed to make up my first two blocks for the Sew.Happy.Quilt QAL with my new Hope Valley fabric. Had to use it quick or it would have stayed on the shelf to be stroked!

Woven Block

Snowball Block

The Rainbow Charm swap also filled up really quickly and by Friday I was giving the green light to all the ladies to go shopping for their very own little bit of rainbow.

In fact the response was more than I expected and I have several ladies who missed out on spots. Because they are all so keen to take part I have promised I will run a second swap group if we can fill the 28 spaces again. So If you missed out on the first group here is your chance! Comment to sign up, make sure if you are a no-reply blogger to leave your email.

Full swap details are in the original post here

You are more than welcome to take multiple spaces if you fancy getting yourself a bumper stack of rainbow charms, just remember you will need to purchase 1 meter for each space, so if you want 2 spaces and 112 charms you need to buy 2 meters in you assigned colours (each a different fabric).

Please help the ladies get round 2 off and running by spreading the word and blogging the swap. Im sure they'd be really grateful.