YD has a finish!

Celebrate!! YD has finished her first quilt!

Before Christmas last year, our Youngest Daughter decided she really needed an advent calendar for HER house... she's a chocolate fan, my girl, and she knew an advent calendar would be a perfect excuse to have a little more sweet stuff in the house!
She raided my Christmas stash and came up with this design. YD hasn't done a lot of sewing - a bit of dressmaking at school and the odd outfit for her pets but that's about it, so I was as proud as punch of her efforts here. (Although she has hand sewn at least 6 teddy bears).

Cross hatched the 3 layers together, and added the pockets afterwards.

She got it to a usable stage by Christmas (ie it could be hung and filled with chocolate Santas) and it has sat until now waiting for finishing...yes, it became her first UFO - or was it just a wip?

Love what how she did the borders and corner stones. Plus the binding fabric
is perfect. See, she even fussy cut that cream border so the writing was the correct way!

We finally tracked down some numbered buttons for it (Nikki Tervo Designs) and she spent this weekend tidying it up and sewing them on. Her mum (yes muggins here) then unpicked the tacked on binding and sewed it down properly for her. All finished!

Isn't it lovely? Well done Laura!!

The reason she was at our place visiting was to be nursemaid for her little dog ... he had to have back surgery last week for a prolapsed disc. Very ouch-y and if we hadn't operated when we did he would have ended up paralysed. SO it was a worrying time.

Oscar-riley on bed rest.

Now the worry is to keep him calm, not jumping around and keeping him off the stairs.... he is feeling so good about himself again he wants to do everything he used to do, but hasn't healed enough yet.

I got some stitching done while sitting with him too  - it was actually nice to have an excuse to sit and stitch during the day - usually I only do it at night. This is what I've been working on lately - I don't think I have shown it before. Each year my local and favourite Quilt Shop (and home away from home!) runs a mystery stitchery BOM programme. This year's one was very popular and all the places sold out so I have to do my own version in my own fabrics.

These are narrow strips, I kept them in one piece to make stitching easier.

As you can see it is a seasonal theme - only a few more months to go.

I haven't yet decided what other fabrics I will put with it, probably some reds (me being me) and I will pick out more colours from that gorgeous Cottage Gardens variegated thread I am using.

SO I've managed to fit some creative time in lately :-), hope you can all too,
Have a lovely day,

Calling all Jesters....

Jesters with small heads, Jesters with big heads, those with skinny heads or fat heads... I have the hat for you!!!
Those of you doing the SewCalGal 2012 FMQ Challenge will know what I am talking about...
This month's tutorial/challenge was by Wendy Sheppard of Ivory Spring. She discussed and guided us through the Jesters Hat quilting design she has come up with and used recently.

Jesters Hats; August Challenge.

I must admit I approached it with a bit of trepidation after reading on other blogs of some of the difficulties people were having with it. I was sure I wouldn't cope with changing direction all the time (for each side of the hat) but in the end it was linking from one hat to another that gave me the most trouble.
I did practise on paper a lot, and finally decided I needed to do a sweeping curve from the end of one hat to the start of the next, and that got me into a nice quilting rhythm.

Hats for any sized Jester head!!

I was interested to read the post by Wendy on her blog today (after I had done my piece) regarding
a) getting stuck in a spot with nowhere to go.... I backtracked when that happened but didn't think of actually finishing off and re-starting in a new spot (duh!!)
and b) the size of motifs... I do notice that I am often micro-quilting with my motifs so want to try and get them a bit bigger for a different effect.
Anyway, I've completed August's challenge piece and I enjoyed it a lot; maybe it 's the fun name but I found this fun to sew - once I got a handle on it! A big thank you to SewCalGal for organising and hosting this challenge, and also to Wendy for this month's tutorial.


And there's been more quilting going on in my cave too, I finally got organised and finished my mini Friendship Sampler hosted by Joanne of Thread Head in May. I just had quilting to do on it so I am happy that it is now done.

Had fun with feathers in the borders - very free-flow!!

I followed Joanne's idea of using 4" squares folded into triangles stitched to the
corners on the back, to form hangers for dowelling.

Joanne is running another quilt along which looks like it will be fun, too. She has given several different versions of the intended quilt on her blog (I love the zig-zag setting) so pop over there and check it out. She is a lovely lady who likes to help and is always very generous with her instructions. It starts Sept 18th.

And in case you are wondering what has happened to Dad's fruity quilt - here (below) is Nigel looking after it. Now that I have the two above items above out of the way, my head is clear for starting the quilting. Once I realised I wouldn't have it done in time to post for Fathers Day, I relaxed a little.

Nigel's content with looking after my quilts for me!

So it's nearly the weekend every-one - hope you have a nice one,

Happy creating, 

Some houses and a tour

Having mostly moved back into my sewing cave, I thought it time I took you on a tour—

This is my new sewing desk. I LOVE it. My Bernina sits in a little cavity, just like in my Sew-Ezi table. I made sure the desk was nice and deep for handling big projects and also that I had some decent cupboards underneath. 

Yes, that was a new little house sitting under the sewing machine. Thank you Maria for this little window decoration.

At the end of the desk is my little computer space. I made this as small as was feasible so that I had more sewing room. It works well so far but I will tweak it a bit so that I have little cubbyholes under the monitor and printer.

Oh look that was another house block hanging on the computer screen.

On one wall I have put Nanny's old sewing cabinet. This is what I used to sew on before I got my  Sew-Ezi table. I have my old Janome set up at the moment but the flap folds up and the machine slides into the cupboard on top if I don't want to sew with two machines at once. Just to the right is the butterfly-type table I used to use as my cutting table. Every time I grizzled to myself about how small and wobbly it was I reminded myself that it used to be Mum and Dad's kitchen table when they were first married!

And the Janome is looking after another block... thank you Annette for the lovely lady in the window.

This isn't a very good photo sorry as it is too sunny outside but this is another huge change in my cave. This desk used to be my computer desk but I decided I would rather have it for cutting, etc, instead. The MOML heightened it for me and it is perfect for cutting. I can also use it for preparing my tops for quilting too. Nana made me the cane baskets a long time ago which I treasure hugely. Oh and there is my ironing board too, nice and handy to my sewing machine.

A change in purpose.

And here is the house on my cutting mat. 

Fun to make some houses again - it's been a while.

I am very happy with how it has turned out and it is so nice to have all my bits around me again. I still haven't cluttered up the walls with quilts and 'stuff' but it wont take long, I'm sure.
[EDIT - to answer Suz' question re stash and scraps. They are in plastic bins and drawers under the cutting bench - still a bit messy to photograph!!]
So now it is time to get back to my fruity quilt for Dad--I'm up to the appliqué stage -- moving along nicely.
Thanks for touring with me, happy creating, everyone,