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!