Tree Skirt

Last year I sent my husband to buy a Christmas tree - he returned with a rather short offering which must only have been a metre high! This year, seeing that we moved house in March and the living room has a 10 foot ceiling, I decided to supervise the purchase. I am happy to report that I have a 7-8 foot spruce in the bay window! Also after years of refusing to buy a Christmas tree stand and subsequent years of innovative methods of housing trees, I gave in and bought a green metal stand.

Last week, while recovering from a nasty chest infection, I made a tree skirt to cover the stand and I am very pleased with the results. I adapted the tree skirt tutorial on the Crazy mom quilts blog. Instead of making log-cabin blocks I used a 'Crazy Eight' charm pack and arranged 6x6 charms. This was basted , backed and stippled before cutting an opening in the quilt sandwich. The skirt was then bound with a complimentary fabric and applied to the base of the tree. I really love it and am pleased that I've managed to complete one Christmas sewing fabric project. There are a few UFOs floating around - I think this year's Christmas quilt is going to be a New Year quilt seeing as the matching backing fabric I ordered has been stuck in the snow post for the last week ...

Christmas Baking

I am sort of snowed in...
We had snow on Friday and again yesterday - a bit of a surprise given our coastal location. During the previous snowfall at the end of November/beginning of December I think Swansea was pretty much the only green spot in the country! The snow itself wouldn't be a problem if I didn't live on a very steep hill (see pics in previous blog entry) and wasn't nearly 34 weeks pregnant! My husband gave me strict instructions not to leave the house yesterday and today - all the snow is frozen and quite hazardous! He had to park his car at the bottom of the hill so he would actually be able to get to work!!

We've been indulging in crafting and baking in our house instead. Last week I made a batch of peppermint cream dough and made Sophia's teacher some peppermint stars as a thank you gift. These were wrapped in cellophane and decorated with a handmade knitted stocking! The pattern can be found on the Little Cotton Rabbits blog.

Yesterday Sophia and I made a gingerbread house - I've made one every year since she was born! We still have a little bit more decorating work to finish - but that can be this afternoon's activity! I hope to try some Christmas shortbread and Rosie's chocolate star recipe too!

Snow Day!

More Wedding Quilt

Here are a few more snaps of my brother's wedding quilt shot with the Hipstamatic app on my iphone. I hope to post pics of more festive projects this coming week as well as Maggie's quilt- which I MUST take to the post office!

Wedding Quilt

My brother's wedding quilt top completed. This was made using a Moda 'Botany' jelly roll. This, would you believe, has been basted, quilted and bound and pics will be uploaded shortly - as soon as I've downloaded them from my phone!

School Quilt

I made this quilt for Sophia's class at school. Year 1 is now part of the 'Foundation Phase' in primary education and over the summer break a new class was prepared at the school for this purpose. Previously the classroom had mainly been used for music lessons and storage so the teachers had their work cut out getting it ready for the autumn term. The result was fabulous considering the state of the room to begin with - we as parents were asked if we could donate any fabric/coloured paper and the like to help in the decoration process. I offered to make a quilt for the class - this has now been placed in the 'Cwtch Darllen' (best translation I can think of is 'Reading Snug').

The quilt is made using a 'punctuation' charm pack by Moda. The squares were cut in half to form 2.5" x 5" rectangles which I then sewed in rows. Initially I had a stacked coin quilt in mind but then decided to arrange the rectangles horizontally instead of vertically. The sashing is also a moda print from the 'Whimsy' range, while the backing fabric was purchased in Ikea some 3 years ago and has been waiting for an appropriate project ever since.

I am quite pleased with the quilting - this consists of quilted parallel lines along the whole quilt. Actually parallel lines are featuring largely in several of my ongoing projects this week!

Colour Day

It's 'Children in Need' today. Sophia's school is having a colour day to raise money - every year in the school has to dress in a different colour. I am pretty sure that year 1 drew the short straw as they have to dress in orange! As a natural redhead I do have a slight aversion to the colour orange so had nothing suitable in the house. I searched high and low online and locally in a bid to find an orange garment with no luck at all! In the end I resorted to good old home sewing and (call me mad) made Sophia a dress in the offending colour! I adapted a pattern from 'Carefree Clothes for Girls' This is a Japanese book with some lovely ideas for girlswear - I have to admit that the hems and edges are a bit raw and unfinished for my liking but very inspirational ideas none the less. I snapped a few pics of the work in progress as well as the finished article. On the camera front I have retrieved the memory card from the computer, however, these pics were snapped with my iphone - I gave in and bought the 'Hipstamatic' app everyone raves about. I thought the blurred edges complemented the retro fabric used in the dress. Incidentally this was from Jeanean Morrison's 'California Dreamin' range.

Photo Crisis!

I have been very busy with multiple crafting projects. Sadly there is no photographic evidence of this for now. This is basically because last Friday (a particularly bad day) in a cloud of pregnancy brain fluff I put the memory card from the camera into the wrong 'hole' in the computer (am not very up on technological language!)and it disappeared! My husband, who has been on nights, has yet to retrieve it for me! The whole saga just added insult to injury as the very same day I managed to forget it was non-uniform day at school,a crown designing competition (school again) and also managed to wash all my husband's bank cards as well as his memory stick with important work data on!

On the crafting front I have completed a house warming cushion, a quilt for Sophia's class for their reading corner and am just finishing a quilt for a friend's new baby girl. I am also on a mission to complete my brother's wedding quilt before they visit next week and an array of simple Christmas decorations for the after-school craft club I am helping to host! It's making for a few cozy afternoons in front of the fire!

In-law preparation

The in-laws are coming for the weekend and I am now officially baked out - well, nearly! The scofa bread and ciabatta rolls are made, Welsh cake dough ready for the griddle (ALWAYS better warm!), so just the garlic and parsley flatbread to prepare. I should sleep tonight after my hard work - although to a degree this depends on a rather nocturnal unborn child!

Cupcakes for Cath

My lovely friend Cath celebrates her birthday on the 30th of October. This year her husband, Mr Geography (as he is known amongst ourselves, as he is a Geography teacher!) is on a half-term school trip to Canada so she has decided to celebrate without him! Last weekend she had a bit of a 'girly night' as an early celebration and these were the understated, yet elegant cupcakes I made her for the affair!

Happy Campers

I finished this Happy Campers quilt a couple of weeks ago but completely neglected to post some pictures. Nothing exciting here really but I do like a charm quilt! I cut up a layer cake into 5" squares and sewed into strips. I especially love the vintage camping scenes! The quilting is very uninteresting to be honest - straight lines parallel to the seams. I must confess that, when I'm not having tension issues, I do prefer stippling as a general rule - but it is so time consuming! This quilt was meant to acconpany us on family camping trips and picnics during the Summer months. Alas, the British 'Summer' put paid to that!

Secret Project

I've started knitting a secret project - a striped baby blanket from 'Blankets, Bears and Bootees' by Debbie Bliss. The pattern is not a secret - just the colourway, as we already know what variety a certain baby is!!

Ryder Cup Breakfast

Saturday 02/10/2010 8:55 am
European coffee and American pancakes!

Autumny

I've been very lax with my blogging over the summer months. There have been two main, even good, reasons for this. Firstly, I absolutely love it when Sophia is home on school holidays and very little sewing gets done as the two of us hatch various plans. Secondly, I am 21 weeks pregnant, thus the summer months have been plagued by sickiness and exhaustion! Having suffered three miscarriages after I had Sophia it has also been a very anxious time for us as a family. However, all was well at last week's scan so I find myself a little bit more relaxed this week - I don't think I'll chill completely til February though!
School has been back for 3 weeks now, the weather has got a bit chillier, but we are still enjoying sunny days. Autumn is my favourite time of year - I love the colours, the weather and the sense of getting ever-so-slightly closer to Christmas. I've indulged in various Autumn pursuits - blackberry picking, apple crumble making, soup making and knitting! I've also placed a new basket in my living room to hold blankets and quilts as it gets colder. Hopefully over the coming weeks the basket will accept more quilts as I have loads of lovely projects lined up for those shorter, darker evenings...

Binding Interrupted

It's hard being 5 years old! My 'Happy Camper' charm square quilt is done bar finishing sewing the binding. This did not deter a very tired Sophia who fell asleep under it anyhow!

Busy Day

60 wedding cupcakes and 51 placename cookie lollipops completed! I am very tired but thoroughly looking forward to Chinese tonight as a reward!

Efa's Quilt

This is a little quilt I've been making for my friend's 2 year old, Efa. It's made from a Oh-Cherry-Oh honey bun and leftover layer cake of the same range. As you already know, I LOVE this, now hard to find, Moda range! The colours are so vibrant and cheerful - just like the quilt's recipient! I used some Heather Bailey fabric to add two strips at each end of the quilt. The backing and borders are made from various spotty fabrics in my stash. Oh I love spots and dots!

Summer!

The Summer holidays are here. The last few weeks have been a marathon to reach the end of the school year. I've never known a summer term be so busy with all Sophia's social calendar to negotiate amongst everything else! I am looking forward to lazy mornings, relaxing, catching up with friends and a bit of sewing and knitting here and there! The sewing and knitting has been slow of late but am hoping to have catch up time over the hols. There are still so many projects to complete yet I am still buying more fabric! We've just returned from a fabulous mini-mini-break (basically one night away) in the Surrey village of Abinger Common. We stayed in a lovely B&B called Leylands Farm which essentially had its own guest annexe. It's location, between Guildford and Dorking, gave me the perfect opportunity to visit The Quilt Room. I bought (yet another and pictured above!) jelly roll - Bliss by Bonnie and Camille, which I've been hankering after for ages! Also pictured above is my summer project - the rainbow camper. It is a counted cross stitch kit that I saw on the Clothkits website and I just had to have! I'm not the greatest fan of cross-stitch, well not the framed variety, but this I plan to turn into a funky cushion! As always I have my work cut out!

Things I'm doing

I am plodding along with many projects - as usual! I can't seem to resist starting something new despite the fact I have many WIPs!
I've started a quilt along with Amanda-Jean of crazymomquilts fame. I've made the decision to only use scraps in this one as I can't justify buying more fabric until I've cleared some of my stash. This is partly because a scrumptious new fabric shop has opened near me!
I'm also knitting a cushion from Amy Butler's new book 'Midwest Modern Knits', using her new yarn for Rowan - 'Belle'. It's a quick, chunky knit, made using two skeins at the same time. I'm planning to only knit one side of the cushion cover, using fabric on the back.
My brother's wedding quilt is progressing slowly - a little bit more cutting is needed before I can sew the final blocks. I'm still working on Leeanne Beasley's BOM programme 'Down in the Garden' which is just sooooo lovely. I still need to take some pictures of my finished blocks to post here.
If this isn't enough, I'm still experimenting with my Oh-Cherry-Oh honeybun and this morning I've taken a 'Happy Campers' layer cake out of its packet, wondering if I could possibly make a picnic quilt from start to finish before Saturday ...
Forgot to say, pictured is the fantastic book and catalogue that I bought at the V&A Quilts exhibition. I'm still taking in all the wonderful designs from the past and am in awe of many of the techniques! I wish I could go again and see them - without my 5 year old in tow!

Finally Finished

I have finished the 'Snippets' quilt finally! I'm embarrassed to say that I started cutting out back in January - oops! I wasn't sure if I was going to like the finished article - I was very unsure about how the background fabric would work as the quality of it was not as high as that of my lovely Moda jelly roll. The finished quilt was a pleasant surprise - I fell in love with it as soon as the binding went on. Sophia adores it and has been on her bed every night this week. The quilting was, er, interesting - mainly because I changed my mind, not once, but twice! I started stippling, changed to straight lines and then returned to stippling! Am glad I did though!

Twin Quilt 2

Well, I've completed Carrie's quilt this weekend. This is largely because I've been confined to the house all weekend with a very poorly Sophia - typically on the warmest and sunniest day of the year thus far! Never mind we've had plenty of 'cwtches' and much sewing has also been accomplished - I've had lots of fun with a Moda Honeybun, details of which I'll divulge in another post! Carrie's quilt is made from a mini 'jelly roll' purchased at October's 'Quilts UK' exhibition, consisting of various Robert Kauffman flannel cotton prints. I found complimentary fabric from the same range for the backing and binding fabric. Again, I stippled this quilt, not only so it was the same as Reuben's quilt but also because I love doing it!

Twin Quilt 1

My first twin quilt is done! This one is for Reuben, my friend Rachel's baby boy. There is a sister quilt in the making for Reuben's twin Carrie which is very nearly finished. Reuben's quilt is a charm quilt made entirely from my stash. I chose a feature fabric for the centre square and picked up the colours with various fabrics I already had - the majority is from the 'Hamptons' range by Moda. It is not a very large quilt - I wanted to make something eaily transportable that would be ideal for the pram or car seat. The quilt backing is a navy polka dot, bought at my local fabric shop and the top was stippled with invisible quilting thread.

Catching up

Well I haven't blogged for nearly two weeks - how time flies! Life has been busy here following hubby's hideous work shifts, post-workmen clear up and election fever! The snippets quilt remains unfinished - after starting quilting straight lines, I changed my mind and returned to stippling! I have a few more hours work to complete before it is well and truly finished, but the end is in sight. I have also just completed a charm squares quilt for one half of my friend Rachel's twins - pics to follow! The last few days have been manic preparing for Sophia's 5th birthday - where did the time go! I managed to make her some birthday bunting (excuse the decor in the pics, but we have only lived in the house for 8 weeks!), a Barbie birthday cake and some birthday cupcakes. Tomorrow I am having a well earned break and am heading to Malvern for the quilting show. Lovely fabrics here I come!