Siblings take two

I have to be honest and say I finished up this quilt a couple of weeks ago really. I seem to have a habit of finishing projects and not blogging them!

This is my second quilt made from the fabrics donated by Jennifer and I had just enough batting from the parcel that Sarah sent me to quilt it too :-)

Again I have to admit that I wimped out and did a very simple block design and quilting pattern, just for speed really! I did fiddle with my block size so I could just squeeze those fussy cut birds in the centres, love them!

I am ever so slightly obsessed with striped binding at the moment!

Whoops, I think I need to get back to take the shot a little  quicker!

Here's a new one, I ditched the barn door in favour of the grotty back  door guttering! Don't worry, it was washed afterwards :-)

So of course that is another tick off my list. Meanwhile I have spent the bank holiday making a few pairs of jammy bottoms for my girls from vintage sheets. It seems I may have a few orders from friends for them now too (I do hope so, it will help my FQ Retreat pocket money!)

sqiffle waffle doo daah!

Well, I don't know about you but I am not cool enough to ALWAYS think of something intelligent and appropriately awesome in my title, so today 'sqiffle waffle doo daah' will do!

I was naughty last night, I SHOULD have been sewing together the blocks I had made for the Siblings Together Quit2 during the day

But I didn't. I should also have been getting my name badge for the FQ retreat swap finished....but I didn't!

Instead I had a compete whim to suddenly have a go at some fmq. I wanted a really plain canvas to work on so made up a quick mini quilt, I also had a little length of dowel kicking around the studio I have been saving for about a year for just this purpose. Earlier in the day I had found the amazing quilting by Krista Withers and for some unknown reason I had ideas of making my own mini quilt in a similarly awesome quilty style.

How wrong was I! I was so excited, quilted away and then soon got disheartened! I used 2 different thread colours (the first ran out!), I am telling myself it doesn't matter as it was just a practice, truth be told I don't like to waste anything so I always secretly hope the practice is good enough to use!

Anyway, I finished it, felt rather disappointed and went to bed thinking I had wasted the evening making something awful when I had so much else I should have done.

I got up today, not remembering the quilt and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it in the daylight

Nope, still don't like the darker thread side!

It is not brilliant but it is mine, I would love to have a quilt long arm quilted in this style, but I doubt I will ever afford it. So I have my 15 inches squared of amateur fancy pants quilting. Perhaps when I get over how testing this was I may make another so it is not so lonely on the wall!

The early bird catches the worm!

Well, the sunshine anyway!

Wonky Stripes lap quilt is finished and ready for posting off to Siblings Together. So that is kind of half a tick on the list, as I have enough fabric from Jennifer to make one more quilt.

Everything is wonky about this quilt, the stripes, the quilting....lets just pretend it was all planned, yes?!

Love how some of the birds look like they are sitting on a 'telegraph line' of quilting, that was planned too, of course.

Obligatory folded shot

And of course the hanging on a barn door shot, you all have one of these right?!

I must of course mention Jennifer, who donated the fabric and Sarah who donated the batting, without the kindness and generosity of these lovely ladies it wouldn't have been possible for me to make this, thank you.

Quilt Details:

Wonky Stripes for Siblings Together Lap Quilt

Fabric used: Donated by Jennifer, includes Erin McMorris (the only one I can pick out and name!)

Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Batting

Backed with fabric donated from Jennifer and my LQS Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting

Machine Bound

Sewing for Siblings with Mary (and the pillow weekend)

Today I went to Mary's house to sew, with a basted quilt, a 2 year old and a bag full of snacks, toys and vintage sheets for bartering swapping.

I left a few hours later after lots of lovely chatting, some tea, delicious home made soup and bread for lunch, a fair bit of sewing along with a nice new pile of vintage fq's from Mary's stash having watched our little ones play adorably.

Photo taken from Mary's blog, we were too busy sewing to remember to take any! And yes that is a rattle on the table, not some new-fangled sewing tool!

I was on a roll and when I arrived home after picking up the other small one from school I managed to finish the last few lines of quilting, attach the binding and get the Siblings Together quilt in the wash. It is now dry and waiting for some sunshine (pah!) to photograph it tomorrow. I am very pleased to go from a messy looking un-trimmed top yesterday to a completed quilt today.

I must give a HUGE public thank you to Sarah, for she sent me the wadding that enabled this quilt to become a finished article. Such kindness, thank you Sarah.

This weekend I popped into my LQS as the lovely owner had offered me some fabric for backing the siblings together quilts. Whilst there I couldn't help but notice a bolt of Michael Miller fabric, plaidsportation, it stuck out like a sore thumb in all the 'traditional fabrics' mostly stocked there. I quickly raced over and grabbed a fq. Now I know I have a little girl but she is very much into cars and diggers and anything automated!

I used almost the full fq to run up a new pillowcase for her toddler sized pillow, adding just a little piece of flannel to make it up to the required size.

She had great fun spotting all her favourite types of vehicle!

And snuggling up with it almost as soon as it was finished!

Not wanting to leave big sister out, I came across the tumblers Mary cut me using her Go Baby last time we got together. Feeling slightly guilty that they had been lingering at the back of the cupboard for almost 3 months I thought it was time I used them!

Made with tumblers cut from vintage sheets and bound in vintage sheet too, I bordered it using fabric from an old pillowcase. This old pillowcase is quite special. It belonged to a friend who we once took Eloise to stay with when she was very little. I have a beautiful picture of my husband and Eloise snuggled up on this pillow. Recently my friend had a clear out and gave it to me, I am so glad she did, there are such memories in this new pillow already!

I love how it matches in with her giant star quilt, even Pudsey seems pleased with the new addition!

A simple envelope back but this time I bound the edge and I am pleased I made the effort!

My two favourite prints, love those anemones.

So, we won't run out of places to rest out heads for a while, I now have the small matter of a FQ retreat name badge to nail and get in the post asap and another Siblings Together quilt top to plan/cut....good job I like being busy!

second finish of the quarter!

Wow, if I keep this up I will be done by the end of the month. That is very unlikely however...i'll explain why in a minute.

First of all thanks to the kindness of friends (sewing and quilting folk are SO generous and lovely!) I had the floss I needed to finish this off:

(Boo for drizzly English weather and dark photos!)

So that is my second tick on the finish along list, I have even moved onto the 8th block for August, I am determined to finish this Birdie Stitches quilt this year lol!

Yesterday I managed to find enough odds of thread and finish off the wonky stripes quilt top for Siblings Together. Then I popped out to the local discount store to buy the horrible very reasonable poly wadding to get on and quilt it. They only had 1 roll of 2oz wadding and it was all hard and lumpy, as if it had been over heated and started melting in the bonding process. I told the staff I thought it was faulty but being a discount store they are not bothered and won't be ordering any more in until it runs out. As I cannot afford to buy my usual Hobbs wadding I am a bit stuck now.

My lovely friend Mary is going to 'host' a Siblings Together sewing day on Monday (read as - I am going to Mary's house on Monday to talk a lot, eat some cake and try and get some sewing done!) If we can't source the wadding by then we will spend the day whizzing up blocks with her fabric donated by Celtic Fusion Fabrics.

I cannot wait!

Sewing to make you warm and fuzzy

What a wonderful weekend I had, I hope you did to!

Saturday brought an unexpected surprise. My daughter had a friend to sleep-over and we ended up having an impromptu sewing lesson. Her mum had only asked a couple of weeks before about arranging some beginner lessons for her but this was totally unplanned. If it had been planned I may have panicked about letting a minor loose on my precious machine and not enjoyed it so much ;-)

Not wanting to change a winning formula we made another pouch, this time a smaller purse size. She picked the fabrics and fussy cut, helped with the rotary cutting and aside from a brief demonstration did all the stitching herself with a little assistance.

I think she is going to be a natural!

Here she is with her creation, very proud!

The finished purse

Not wanting to be left out my daughter spent the time I was sewing with her friend busy sketching a design for her own pouch, which she wants to give to her school teacher. She also showed a blatant disregard for the limit of my skills and chose to make an egg shaped pouch. Cue me panicking about putting in a curved zip!

We did it!

She chose a fabric that is somewhat reminiscent of a psychedelic speckled egg, heaven knows how it got into my stash!

After all that fun we made pancakes and gingerbread men and rounded out the day with a very wholesome walk in the woods by a tumble down castle, ah perfect!

On Sunday I threw away all plans of a day by myself at the local quilt show in favour of more warm fuzzy feelings. I had come across this the previous evening and before I knew what my fingers where doing I was jumping in with both feet.

Lynne over at Lilys Quilts has done an amazing job rounding up many talented quilters (I'm excluding myself from that comment haha!) with the aim of making 50 quilts by the summer for the children of Siblings Together to take home from their camp to remember their experience by. Siblings Together brings together children separated by the care system. Having 2 siblings myself I know how special the bond is and was immediately moved by the work of the charity. I have pledged to make 2 quilts, possibly 3! But wanted to do something immediately to get the ball rolling so I made a few blocks for the group projects.

First up were some simple log cabins, although I must have had my sleepy Sunday head on as I kept getting the configuration wrong!

Then I moved onto a granny square, I only had enough white solid left for one of these, good job too as I could have spent all day making them, I am hooked! I had to get this one packed up as soon as I finished it or I would have had a hard time parting with it.

If you want to help head over to the flikr group here. You don't need to make a whole quilt you could make a few blocks, donate some fabric or wadding or backing. Perhaps even offer to put together a quilt from a top for someone who doesn't have the time. Anything will help.

Having topped up my warm and fuzzy feel good level to the brim I became wonder woman for the rest of the day. I grabbed my Sew.Happy.Quilt top and set to basting, quilting, binding and burying thread and had a finished quilt by 10pm last night! She is in the wash and I'm hoping to get her dry today to snap some pics before we loose the sun for the rain tomorrow!