Josephine the Jellyfish & Frances the Fish

Under the sea by Cheryl Goss is a free BOM download on her blog Willowberry Designs.

I just could not resist joining, and have downloaded the first two patterns and purchased a set of Derwent watercolour pencils. This is all a new adventure for me, I cannot wait to get started. Check out Cheryl's site.

Design wall Monday 1st February

These are the four blocks joined to make a cushion, that were left over from the leaf quilt I am making. Design wall a bit of a rush today as I went to my quilt group all day and we had a sewing machine service engineer call and service our machines.

I took my Bernina and Pfaff, so they are both ready to go go go.. all I need is some time!

Visit home of birth!

As I am very keen on researching my family tree, I have always wanted to go back to see the house I first lived in and where I was born. The 2nd house on the left is where my mother lived when I was about to be born, as my father was away in Ireland during the war.

My mother's sister and family lived there. 83 Doncaster Rd, Leicester. This area is now completely taken over by Indians with their beautiful sari shops and corner shops selling strange [ to me] food.

The right hand picture is the Westcote Maternity Home Leicester where I was actually born in 1944, Mum remembers the sand bags up against all the windows.

Stash report 31 Jan 2010

Managed to use another 2 1/2 yds of fabric this week. Still have not bought any fabric, although did purchase Judy Laquidara's new book.. cannot wait for it to arrive.

Yesterday attended a new workshop venue for me. Sew n' Social with Tilly and Fran at Pitsford. We were treated to home made biscuits in the monring, a two course lunch and cake in the afternoon.. such luxury. Normally it is take your own sandwich!

I made the organizer pictured. www.sew-n-social.blogspot.com

25th Jan Design wall and family tree

Not a lot happening on my design wall this week.
Just a rearrangement of the leaf blocks. I like this
arrangement, but not too sure it will work with
quilt-as-you-go which is how I would like to finish it.

My big excitement this week was to have my family
tree printed on an A1 roller printer, it is 12 metres long, thats 39 feet and will almost wall paper my workroom!!

IAM workshop 21st January 2010

Eight of us, called the IAM group had a wonderful day making memory pictures in my workroom. My picture is of my parents wedding, where the guard of honour was performed by St John Ambulance Brigade Nurses holding splints. The small piece of white fabric is actually part of Mum's wedding dress. The bobbin lace in the bottom right hand corner was made by me.

Leaves on the design wall

Blocks were made by cutting out a leaf shape with Heat n Bond ironing it onto a piece of fabric, cutting this out and ironing it onto a 9" square. Cut this in half diagonally. Make another pair the same and join back together. When the blocks are completed I will blanket stitch on my sewing machine around the leaves. Really easy! I managed to draw out 21 more leaves yesterday, ready to iron onto fabric.

Design Wall 18th January 2010

I had hoped to join in with Judy Laquidara's weekend Quiltathon, and thought the fact I was on a workshop on Saturday would be a big boost to production! But Sunday was spent chasing around for a new fridge / freezer as my fridge packed up. I now have to wait until Friday for delivery, good job it's cold outside, the milk is on the doorstep! This is my design wall today with the blocks I made on Saturday. I still have 22 more to make.

Stash report 17/24th Jan 2010

17th Jan
Used so far this year 9 yds
Used this week 1 yd pillowcase for Eleanor
Bought this year NIL
Total used this year 12 1/2 yds

24th Jan
No extra fabric used, I have been catching up on my Family tree and lacemaking, plus using fabric already counted!

Bobbin Lace Cowboy Boot

One of my New Year resolutions was to start making bobbin lace again. Since retiring from teaching lace I have done very little, and let quilting take over my life!

This week I put on a Russian Tape design for a Cowboy boot and have just made a start. The bobbins I am using were all made by Tony Archer many years ago, and are some of my favorites.

Design Wall 11th Jan 2010

At long last my design wall is up and running!! Actually it is just clipped to the hanger I have from Ikea for clipping my quilts to, but it works well. The two pieces are for a sweatshirt jacket I am showing as a workshop to my local group.

Made based on mile a minute technique, and a brand new sweatshirt cut up. It has a lovely summer feel while looking out my window at snow and ice!

Stash report Sunday 10th January

Used so far this year 9 yds

Used this week 1 1/2 yds sea horse backing 1 yd pieces for quilts for soldiers

Bought this year NIL [ well I've lasted one week so far!]

Total used this year 11 1/2 yds

Design Wall Monday 4th January 2010

Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times has a design wall weekly feature that I really wanted to join last year, but did not get around to it. Or should I say Hubby did not get around to fixing one up for me!

This picture shows the design wall fabric I was given about 6 years ago, and so far all that has happened it is out of the packet! 2010 will see it up on the wall.

Stash Busting 3rd January 2010

This will be a quick stash report today, the start of a New Year.
Purchased NIL [so far the NY's resolution is working!]
Used: 9 yds cut out ready for up and coming workshops I will attend.
3yds Pink Sweatshirt jacket
1yd Calico pictures
5yds 78 Squares for scrappy quilt with Jenny Almond

Quilted jacket from a sweatshirt

Preparing for up and coming workshops, I have cut out 10 FQ's into strips and cut up a brand new sweatshirt.

Next step is to sew the strips together, join them to the sweatshirt and quilt a design, then sew it all back together again... what a strange occupation quilters have!

Abigail the ballet dancer

Granddaughter Abigail's first Ballet award ceremony. She gained a distinction for her ballet exam, and was awarded a beautiful trophy for the most improved student in her year. It was definitely a night to celebrate.

During the Christmas holiday Abigail [age 6] managed to make a Christmas hanging for her mantlepiece, using my featherweight to sew some of the points and sewing on the bells by hand.

All aboard for a Cruise

Anyone that knows me, will know this is the nearest I will ever get to cruising.. I cannot stand anything on water, but the SS Gt Britain is a restored ship in dry docked at Bristol. Chris seems to think he's a First class passenger, and I'm ready for lunch!

Stash Busting 2010

Stash busting in 2009 seemed to go to pot half way through the year, I was doing well until a local trader decided to sell up her fabric and I bought far too much!

I will again join Judy Laquidara's stash busting group in 2010 and have to try and use only fabrics I already have. Two reasons, One is my cupboards are full to bursting, Secondly I need to save hard for an exciting trip to Wyoming, the Tetons and Yellowstone later in the year.

Does buying fabric in a different country count !! Like eating chocolate when away from home does not have any calories!!

2010 quilt meeting dates and events

Listed here are details of quilting events I have found for 2010

(picture of a quilt-as-you-go quilt made for grandaughter Eleanor)

Busy Quilters and Stitchers 10.00 to 3.30pm
Goldington Middle School, Haylands Way, Bedford MK41 9BX
13 March, 5 June, 4 September, 6 November

Hamtune Quilters 7.30 - 9.30pm
Parklands Community Centre, Devon Way, Northampton NN3 6DX
First and third Tuesday of every month

Patchwork People 9.45 to 3.30pm
Lovat Hall, Silver Street, Newport Pagnell
6 March, 12 June, 11 September, 13 November

Spring quilt festival Chilford 12- 14 March
Quilts UK Malvern 13 - 16 May
National Quilt Championships Sandown 18 - 20 June
Festival of Quilts NEC Birmingham 19 - 22 August

Christmas Count down

This has been a fun project for a Christmas Count down...

Pattern taken from 12 Days of Christmas by Art to Heart.

Night of horror!

7pm Sunday evening an almighty BANG and all our Electricity went out, a car had run up the path at the end of our drive and demolished the Electricity Cabinet and lamp standard, smoke poured out and then it caught fire! The female driver was out of the car. Police and firebrigade arrived and questions were asked!! The electricity finally came back on at 3.30am the next morning as engineers worked through the night to clear up the mess and dig up the pavement.

It is now Thursday and we have huge holes in the pavement around our house but the power is back on. I think the police took the woman away probably to breathalize and question her! Next doors car was hit in the accident and looks like a right-off! A tree is now half burnt away and 3 or 4 dustbins melted into blobs of plastic.

Abigail's Christmas quilt

As it is half term, my granddaughter Abigail came to stay for two days. Age 6 she loves to do craft work with me, so we organized a Christmas quilt. She traced the pictures onto Heat n Bond Heavy then cut them out and ironed them onto fabrics herself under Grandma's watchful eye!
I think it may have been the first time she had used an iron by herself.

Having arranged the snowmen and trees and ironed them to the background fabric I machined around the edge with batting in the middle.. we didn't have time for her to use the sewing machine.

Busy busy busy

Busy busy busy, I seem to be always on the go. BUT I have found time to make this fun Santa, with all his bells. I thought my Mum would like it as she has little sight and the tinkling sound would be nice on her front door at Christmas.
This has been the month of birthdays, Granddaughters 6 and 2 years, son Richard, husband Chris, sister Debbie and my Mum will be 95 in 2 days time!

Final 10 fish for the fish swap

The final 10 fish blocks ready for the swap. There will be 25 fish in the post 15th September.

Green Lane Day in the sun shine

Friday 11th September as members of GLASS the Green Lane club, we went off the beaten track through glorious countryside in beautiful sunny weather. I must have opened dozens of farm gates, and while I lept out to take photo's Chris enjoyed splashing through the streams.

Fish swap

I've been fishing all morning!!!

15 fish ready for the no-sew fish swap, 5 more are waiting to be cut out and five more are still in the "thinking about it" mode.

Here we go again............

Here I go again....

Really decided I was going to finish all those UFO's that are still waiting from January BUT Sindy who runs www.fatcatpatterns.com/fatcat_swaps.htm

has just started a fuse only FISH block swap through her yahoo scratchingpost group, and I just love these fancy fishes, so I have signed up for "between 5 and 25" just to cover myself, but hope to get all 25 sent in. I will start by spending tomorrow drawing the patterns [all free to download] and then look through my stash for fabric.. at least that way I will still be stash busting! Why don't YOU join me and give Sindy a bumper bundle of fishes to swap for us.

Little bags for bag swap

A few little bags quickly made. The first was for a bag swap, but then I got carried away and could not stop making them... I have 7 more cut out ready to make, I thought they would make great little gift bags filled with goodies.

Thank you Rachel for sharing the pattern on your Blog.

rachel-griffith.blogspot.com/2009/08/friendship-bag-tutorial.html

Paper pieced Teddy Bear quilt

Paper pieced, using a very cheapo block of paper which was very easy to see through and easy to remove.

This pattern was offered on Carol Doak's yahoo site as a mystery, but I did not get around to making it until after the mystery had finished.

My colour choice was based on a teddy bear fabric and plain colours I had in my stash... didn't have to buy a thing! It measures 40 x 40 inches.

Pfaff-ing about

This is a sample of stitches used on my Pfaff sewing machine some years ago.. I decided to make it into a wall hanging to remind me of what I could do!!