this blog post will read like the 6 o'clock news.....

...with lots of stories to tell, some of them you will be interested in, most I suspect you will not!

Firstly, the reason why I have been so absent this week:

Yes that's my eldest girl off to her school Halloween disco, no she is not ill, its face paint and yes, she has grown up faster than I can comprehend!

We have been busy this week putting together her outfit. I've also re-discovered what it is like to have a social life! I have been out no less than three evenings this week and another planned for tomorrow, oh my. Bring-a-dish Italian Dinner at a friends house on Monday night, Hosting the Meet and Make workshop on Wednesday night then an Ice-cream and foot spa night at one of my Besties last night.

All this gallivanting about has left little time for sewing. I did however have a major score last weekend. My wonderful husband took both the girls out on Saturday and Sunday leaving me to sew to my hearts content, and boy I did! I made a start on my Modern Christmas Table Runner for the Swap on Saturday and by Sunday I was all done!

I tell you what, I hope my partner loves it more than anything in the whole world because I am so mega mega pleased with this one. I think it is quite possibly the best thing I have ever made, I am in love with it.

In order to make the separation process easier I quickly made up an ornament to go with it today and got it wrapped and in its packet pronto before I could think of stashing it in some secret place behind the sofa for myself!

Another finish this week was my Sew Happy Geek Swap item, a wall hanging. This was a strange process for me, because I was trying so hard to make it perfect for my partner I went right out of my comfort zone and don't actually like the result! I do hope that means that I've got it just right for my partner, not that it is awful!

This too is sitting patiently in a jiffy bag, waiting for the mailing date.

With 2 big jobs crossed off my list I moved onto my weekly fix of free motion quilting, courtesy of Cindy's Free Motion Friday! This week we had to practice slate tiles. This is what it should look like

And this is what mine did look like: 

the back is not so great, I forgot to trim my threads at the start and one got pulled about but other than then just a very slight tension issue.

Whilst I was on a roll I had a go at next weeks 'Bright Star' but I will save that for next week ;-)

I seemed to get into a real productive run after that with a few makes for Christmas

The little hoop is inspired by one over at OCD and the stocking tutorial is over at Diary of a Quilter.

Lots of news too in the Christmas Fabric Swap department. With 22 of the 28 fabrics here I am sure it wont be long before I can send them back out. It seems that being a swap host can be quite a sweet number, that I never realised. My pal/partner for the goodie swap Nicky is a gem, not only did she send me her beautiful fabric but she also sent me this awesome mug rug!

She is rather clever isn't she! I am also one super lucky lady! I think know I actually went EEEEEEeeeeeppppp when I opened her parcel. Not only that but another wonderfully lovely present from Helen, a scrumptious lip balm (that lady must know I have the driest lips ever in winter)

I am certainly being spoilt, I thought all the work of organising the swap would be made worthwhile with a bounty of lovely fabric at the end, I never dreamed I would get presents too!

And in final news.... I seem to be having a design block when it comes to my Brit Quilt Pillow Fight swap! I had run up a test pillow top with a Dresden plate but I'm just not sure its right for my partner. Perhaps too autumnal?

So I thought Id make the most of that productive streak and have another go today. I was feeling in the mood for festiveness and saw this tutorial on Diary of a Quilter and used it as a jumping off point. Only problem is I appear to have made a festive ships wheel! Oh crikey, that is the least flakiest looking snowflake I have ever seen!

Back to the drawing board AGAIN, for the third time, that is unless by some miracle my partner likes festive ship's wheels??!!

A flurry of charms, a gaggle of geese & Free Motion Friday

Wow, Ive had a busy week!

I knew it would be when I realised I had to start work on projects for 3 swaps, plus my own Christmas charm swap kicked off, all this on top of getting a tutorial ready for a workshop next week!

Firstly, my postman is much beloved at the moment, I've had the first flurry of charms popping through the letterbox already, what quick ladies there are in the group!

Aren't they just fab! I'm so lucky being the swap host and getting to fondle all these yummy fabrics before anyone else!

Mary at Handmade By Mary was so sweet and put in a little gift for me with her charms

Isn't it adorable, it even matches the charms! I've secretly been wanting one of these for a while now so Mary must have read my mind! In fact had I known she would send me one I would have set up the swap just to get my hands on it ;-)

Today is week 2 of Free Motion Friday and I'm linking with with Cindy for drop art practice!

Strangely enough I got going really well. It usually takes me a little time to relax into the flow of fmq, especially with curves but I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt! I realised I forgot to show you the back of last weeks examples. So here is the back of my drop art

Goodness me that tension is awful!

And here is the front of my second attempt:

I'm pleased with the nicely defined stitched, just not the shape of my blobs drops!

And the back of try 2, yet more hideous tension. Secretly I rather like that effect you get on the tight curve of the drops, I know its technically terrible but I like it and that's my excuse (which I am sticking to!)

Pop on over to Cindys FMF and give some of the other linky ladies some encouragement too!

Finally onto that gaggle of geese......midweek I started my swap item for the Sew Happy Geek Runner/wall hanging swap. My partner likes batiks, lots of contrast and Kate Spain, here's what I came up with

To be honest, I hated it! It is such a departure from my usual style I just couldn't judge if it was any good or not. I'd tried so hard to make it perfect for my partner. I duly popped a photo in the flikr group and await comments. I had lots of lovely comments, mostly telling me how they thought the construction and design were great (hurrah!) but that they really didn't like the batiks with the Kate Spain Terrain (poo poo). But then a miracle - my partner commented and she likes it! She suggested some ways forward with it and I found myself tackling a gaggle of geese for the first time.

Man are geese time consuming! And wasteful. I hate to throw fabric away, especially when it has cost good money, so throwing away all those little triangle offcuts from the geese was painful for me. They were too small to save but all I could think of was how much terrain was wasted when you put them all together. Never mind, the end result was enough to make me forget the pain (a little like childbirth!)

I love the geese and think they have really turned the wall hanging around

Its all basted ready for quilting with the backing, I did a scrappy pieced back because I didn't have much fabric left. We also had to label our work so I decided to do this before quilting for a change. I hate it when my labels look like a stuck on after thought. This time I went for a complete change of direction and stamped the quilt using Versaink and set it with the iron.

I'm mega chuffed with how it came out, but you know I couldn't make it look that good again if I tried!

Anyhoo, I need a little help! After all that designing on the quilt top I'm a little drained and cannot for the life of my think how to quilt the monkey! Ive never done such a dark top before so I guess I will have to go out and get some darker thread. I did toy with doing fmq flowers in the dark purple batiks with a lovely orangey variegated thread but I'm not sure I'm brave enough! If I mess it up it will be so obvious with the contrast. What are your gut thoughts?

Free Motion Friday (and yes I know its Monday!)

Recently Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting mentioned she'd like to get more practice at FMQ. I said I'd practice with her, along with a few other bloggy mates and TA Dah, Free Motion Friday was born.

Every week Cindy will be setting us a challenge, week one was Shadow Waves. I'm a little late joining in but Ive done it and boy was it testing! This is supposed to be beginners stuff!

My first go was jerky, I couldn't get my arms into the groove! I love free motion embroidery but I always find it takes me a little while to loosen up and go with the flow. By my second go I was feeling the motion of those waves a lot more clearly and I'm really pleased with my attempt. Just don't look at the tension on the back - but that's why we use a patterned backing for quilts right? To hide the mistakes!

Hop over to Cindys to give the other Linky girls some FMQ encouragement!

Next week, or rather this week as I'm behind we will be quilting drop art, well my interpretation of it anyway, this drop art may turn out to be a bit on the impressionist side of art!