Rainbow Bright Recovery Blanket

I loved Rainbow Brite when I was growing up, hence the inspiration behind the blog post title!
This project is a brightly coloured rainbow blanket I'm making for a friend's baby:

I saw an amazing baby blanket while browsing on Pinterest earlier in the week and decided I had to make it or something similar.  I'm using my leftover stash of Rico Creative Cotton for it.
The word 'recovery' in the blog title is a reference to why I'm sitting around knitting during the school holidays when I should be rushed off my feet.  I alluded in a previous blog post to a challenging time in my life.  Three weeks ago I had my fourth miscarriage and it has been a devastating and difficult time.  Given the school holidays and my husband starting a new job I opted for a 'watch and wait' policy rather than any medical intervention.  Despite the events of this week, I still maintain this was the right choice for my family and myself.   On Monday afternoon I started bleeding heavily and this persisted into the evening.  After three near faints at home I was admitted to hospital.  They thankfully managed to deal with the cause of the bleeding but after fainting twice due to the blood loss, I ended up staying two nights in hospital and having a blood transfusion.

I am now home and on the mend, albeit very tired and a bit weak!  My parents and my amazing church family have been great in helping with my children and words can't even begin to describe how fabulous my husband has been.  I am resting up, hence plenty of  knitting time and the project is progressing well.  Bizarrely my friend had her baby while we were both in the same hospital at the same time but obviously in very different circumstances.   It seems appropriate that what has been a bit of an outing to say the least, a  is channelled into something positive!

Feeling Groovy

The groove is back!  I have actually managed to channel my restlessness into some creative energy.  This is a completed quilt top that I've made for a friend's baby:

It is very simply made with 5" squares framed with 2.5" strips.  I'm not entirely sure I was concentrating when I did the colour placement, but with only three main colours there wasn't much to play with!  I think it works and I'm sure the binding and quilting will make a difference.

I'm also working on a project for another friend - this time a birthday gift:

A nice pile of 9 patch squares - 18 in total!  There's a way to go with this one and I'm yet to decide on the final design of the quilt top :-/  I know it will be based on an Irish Quit design but there ends my decision making thus far.  Two weeks to decide and finish - it will be fine, it will be fine...!

Restless

I'm experiencing a bit of a challenging time in my life currently.  Consequently I seem to be extremely restless - I'm finding it very hard to maintain interest in any of my usual enjoyable, crafty pursuits.  My work room is covered in fabric - I've started three projects in as many days - but I have no inclination to finish anything.  I hope this unnatural phase will pass soon!

I snapped a few pics of my snowball quilt last week - just to show the detail.

Grey Day

It's a grey day here today.  The weather is definitely not summery - it's raining and the heating is on.  What's worse is the fact that it's that horrible penetrating drizzle which makes everything and everyone miserable!  As a result I'm having a cwtchy sort of afternoon as I've nowhere to be til this evening - not even a school run.  While the Baby Boy sleeps I am crafting - cutting fabric for a quilt for my friend's new baby.  I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with the design yet though!

In contrast to today, the weekend was lovely - the odd shower but plenty of sunshine.  We had a relaxing weekend in Warwickshire at the in-laws, where I managed to finish the snowball quilt!

It was sunny and dry enough to photograph the quilt on grass!  I must try and get some pics of the detail this week but I just wanted to share the overall effect. 

Wild West

My son's bedroom is decorated with a Cath Kidston cowboy theme.  You can never have too much cowboy print in a boy's bedroom in my opinion!  I've completed the quilt I started for the Baby Boy just before we went on our family holiday.

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It is a simple charm quilt - I never tire of this sort of quilt.  The cowboy print is obviously Cath Kidston while the majority of the checks, stripes and plaids are from a barginous fabric bundle which I got from Fabric Rehab as a mother's day pressie (I chose it myself).    The starry prints are from an old Moda range called 'Bar Harbour' which I had in my stash.  I loved this range which is now discontinued, although you occasionally come across the odd few meters online.

The backing and binding are two different colourways of the same print from the  Moda 'Reunion' line - another range I absolutely love.  I just seem to be drawn towards nautical and red, white and blue prints!

The pattern reminds me of cowboy scarves!

The quilting is practically invisible in the photos - I did actually use invisible quilting thread!  The quilting is a free motion hoopy loopy design which I love experimenting with.

The long drawn out snowball quilt is nearly bound so should be shared very shortly.

Have a Happy Wednesday!

Holiday!

I've been off the radar for a bit recently as we've been on holiday.  We've just returned from a lovely trip to Northern Ireland.  I fell in love with the north coast of NI last year while over at a family wedding so I wanted to return for more exploration.  We based our time around the town of Portstewart, where my mother-in-law and family are from, and the causeway coast.  Although I live by the sea here in South Wales, the north coast of NI is something else - dramatic, unspoilt and beautiful.

I had planned to make a crochet blanket and complete some more hand sewn hexagons whilst on holiday, neither of which materialised!  I did a lot of reading and chilling though and I do feel refreshed coming back to everyday life :-).

Stunning Giant's Causeway:

Portstewart Strand:

Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge:

(can't quite see the rope bridge in this pic!)

The highlight of the trip - Titanic Experience, Belfast:

 (Outside)

 (Beautiful reproduction crockery in the museum's cafe!)

A trip to Avoca in Belfast City Centre yielded one beautiful blanket:

Fantastic week!

Red, White & Blue

Don't tell my parents, but I celebrated the Jubilee!  I was brought up first and foremost Welsh, rather than British, so I'm not sure if my weekend festivities would be frowned upon.  Above is the red, white and  blue quilt top I worked on over the weekend.  I've had these fabrics for some time - a selection from Cath Kidston, Moda and various checks from Fabric Rehab - with a view to making a small quilt for the Baby Boy's cowboy themed bedroom.  It is pure coincidence that I sewed the quilt top over the jubilee weekend - a happy coincidence none the less!  I love charm quilts.

We were, as a family, poorly over the weekend and most of the Jubilee TV coverage was viewed in bed as we were feeling rather miserable.  Happily we were all recovered enough on Tuesday to host a small Jubilee afternoon teaparty with some friends.

The menu included a selection of sandwiches, coronation chicken, sausage rolls, jubilee cupcakes, Welsh cakes (with dried blueberries, cranberries and white chocolate), scones with clotted cream and jam, pink lemonade and sparkling wine!  As well as copious amounts of tea in the obilgatory china cups.

I attempted some Jubilee jellies:

And we had some delicious shortbread from this gorgeous vintage style tin:

A happy long weekend!