A Star Finish

The ‘Quilt for an Hour’ quilt was finished a couple of days ago but I left it for today’s post to brighten the weekend. Judy Laquidara designed and stitched her own version and then generously offered the instructions as a quilt to be completed in stages of one hour done each day. Anyone could join in so out came my fabrics and choices were made. I decided to go with the colours that Judy showed on her Blog and although I had to change one of my fabrics half way through because I hadn’t got enough I am really pleased with the resulting quilt. I was a little late in joining in with this quilt because I was waiting for some rulers but luckily I caught up over the holiday weekend. I kept up with the remaining stages but for the last two or three days I think for every hour that Judy said she has done – I took three hours.
It is the first time I have done anything like this before, but not the last. I have loads more fabric to stitch and all I need are ideas to get me going.




Don't you just love it? All I need now is time to quilt it.
A big thanks to Judy for all her hard work, a brilliant experience and a brilliant quilt.

Sadly with a smile.

I heard yesterday that Beryl Cook; well-known English painter of humorous situations has died at the age of 81. Her work was admired by many for her humour and she was a well-respected artist.
I belong to the New Horizons Textile Group, all of which respected and enjoyed Beryl’s work. So much so that a couple of years ago we made a mixed technique group wall hanging called ‘Daphne’s Show and Tell’

As you can see it was done in the style of Beryl Cook and like most of Beryl’s paintings this wall hanging was made to make you smile.

Beryl Cook – Remembered with a smile.

slowing down

I just wanted to give you a quick update on the Quilt For An Hour quilt run by Judy. This quilt is coming along brilliantly, I love it. You will see I have changed colour with my sashing, this is because this quilt is being made with fabric from my stash and I ran out of the first shadow fabrics. But that’s OK as Judy gave various options of arrangement and I really like the change of colour.

Here you will see I have attached the blocks and the 1st border. According to the instructions this is hours 6 and 7, two hours work. It took me at least 4 hours to do these steps. Measuring and pinning the fabrics to make sure that the sashings were correct slowed me down somewhat but even so I don’t think I could do this stitching at the speed that Judy does.

Rainy Monday

Well what do you do on a rainy Bank Holiday Monday – well I sew. It has been so cold I decided to flip the heating on for a while during the day but it was good to just relax. DH was on the computer and DS was playing the piano while I was at the sewing machine.
Due to the time difference, Judy’s instructions for the QFAH project didn’t come through until late afternoon and by then I was well into finishing another project.

No photo’s tonight of the QFAH because it is still in pieces but a picture of this finished top. It is another mystery that I have been following for a few weeks, and yes it is another stash buster but really only with the white fabric. All the coloured fabrics came out of my scrap bin.

It is a little smaller than the twin size it was supposed to be and I have a few blocks left over but it has worked out a good size so thanks to Nancy for all her hard work.

All caught up

I seem to be getting good at stealing. Stealing time that is. We had a wonderful time with our grandson staying over last night and didn’t get the promised early morning as he decided to sleep in until 7.00am. Apparently that is an hour later that usual so all was calm. His Mum and Dad came to collect him late morning and stayed for a while planning to return later in the day for a family meal.

I stole an hour before lunch and then another hour before the family arrived for a lovely Bank Holiday roast dinner. Four generations, my mother, me, two of my sons, one daughter in law and grandson. A full table but a happy one, it is tiring sometimes but so worth it to see them all together tucking in.

I stole another hour this evening and at last I am all caught up. It has taken me longer than Judy predicted but I didn’t want to rush it and I only had to do reverse stitching (otherwise known as unpicking) once and that was the first one. All the 24 stars are completed and I even spent sometime deciding where all the colours will go when the sashing is added.
I am really please with it so far, what do you think?

Getting there

Well not a bad day, lots of interruptions, gardening done, plants watered, shopping achieved and grandson entertained, fed, bathed and in bed.

On top of that I managed to get all my star points sewn.

And the first star block stitched up.

What do I think………Could do better.

The others will have to wait until tomorrow.

Catching Up

This is a very quick post to let you know where I am this weekend. As the title of this post suggests I am catching up and will be at my sewing machine for a few hours this holiday weekend. I decided I would like to join in with Judy Laquidara’s ‘Quilt for an hour’, and last weekend collected the fabrics I wanted to use for this star quilt together and started cutting out the fabric for the half square triangle units.





Unfortunately I couldn’t go much further with my cutting as, while I thought I had every ruler under the sun, when I did a search I found was wrong because I was missing these two little ones.

The fabric was put on one side until my friendly postman came knocking on my door with a little parcel later in the week. Due to other things, (yes, I do other things besides sewing) I couldn’t start cutting the other units out until this morning. So now we have these.


And these


I do realise that this is a holiday weekend and the garden is calling me to pot up and plant for some hours. I also am having my grandson to stay overnight. But I am really going to steal a few hours this weekend to get caught up with this project.

I will let you know how it goes.

My Mini-Quilt has arrived!

Wow, is only one of the words to say about the luscious parcel that my friendly postman brought me today. My partner in Lucy Locket’s Mini-Quilt Swap 2008, Fran (who by the way still hasn’t got a blog and certainly should have as she is the nicest, funniest person and she can also write so well) Sorry about that Fran but you really must get blogging. Anyway back to what I was going to share with you, Fran’s parcel containing the Mini swap quilt arrived this morning and I did stop myself from ripping the wrapping off and go and find my camera first. When I opened the padded envelope I found these exciting packets wrapped up in the prettiest pink tissue paper.

Of course I opened the squishiest softest one first, good guess that this one would have the mini quilt inside and I wasn’t going to wait any longer, sorry Fran the tissue was torn. My first peek was the label and the great fabric on the back.

Opening it up and turning it over I found the bestest mini-quilt I could ever imagine and in my very favourite colours, isn’t it great, aren’t you all wishing that Fran was your swap partner.

Thank you so much Fran, it is really super and is already up on my wall, I love it.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I am so pleased that I joined this swap not only have I a new friend I also have some one's art on my wall.

And the other parcels, I don't know how I stopped myself ripping the paper off in my excitement, I love all the sequins, ribbon, needles, buttons and ooh the fish, I haven't seen one of those for years, they are just so much fun. You are a naughty girl and way too generous with your gifts.

The next parcel had a cross-stitch kit in that is delightful but the most important thing is that the name of it is 'Best Friends'.

That is special, as are all the things you have sent. Another thank you to you for this special card, can you see the cheeky pussy cat!

BUT, we really want you to start Blogging Fran; you will be brilliant at it.

But as Fran hasn't got a blog just yet, this is the mini-quilt I sent to her.

And as this mini-quilt swap is now revealed we must also give Lucy Locket a huge thank you for making all this happen..............Thanks Lucy.................

I'M BACK

I’m back!

Yes, finally I am back in blogland, well I really wasn't away for very long, a week away to the sunnier climes was all I had. It was so full of relaxation, rest and reading of novels with no work, ironing, cooking, housework and even sewing that when I got back home I just couldn’t get back into work again.

Just so you know how good my holiday was here are a couple (or more) photo’s of where we were staying.

This is one of the local harbours.

A view of the sea

A local cove

The sky, isn't is wonderful

I then had a fascination with reflections, the boats on the water made some great photo's.

and another

and another

and one at night.

Brilliant holiday, but then I came back home and had to get back to the real world and WORK.

I have had a busy few weeks, lots going on and apart from classes which are always busy I have been making quilts. There have been large ones and small ones. The small ones are rather special as they are for ‘Lucy Lockets Swap’. I joined this swap after being part of the Valentine swap and the Bunny swap that Lucy arranged over the past few months. I had a super parcel from Sara and another brilliant one from Polly so when Lucy set up a mini quilt swap I just couldn’t resist joining in. I just love making quilts, large or small.

This time I have been partnered with Fran who is a really nice person but unfortunately who hasn’t got a blog………..at the moment that is. Yes Fran, I think it is about time to come out of the cupboard or where ever it is you are hiding and get your blog set up. You will make a really good blogger as you are a brilliant email writer, much better than I am, I have had quite a few emails from Fran and we have got to know each other quite well. We have now finished our mini quilts, Fran finished hers way before me and has had to wait until I finished mine before we posted off our parcels so they would cross in the post and we would hopefully get them on the same day.

NO, NO, NO, you are not going to see them yet, we are posting today so hopefully if you pop in again soon I will have some photo’s for you. We are both quite excited by the prospect of receiving someone else’s work in the form of a mini quilt.

Watch this space. I am at the moment working on Lucy's mini-quilt so hopefully it won't be long before I show you that one as well.

I know you all have a need to see sewing items so here is one that has moved on a bit since here.
I have been doing more work on this mystery quilt with Bonnie Hunter, the pile of fabric I had for the project is getting smaller and the pile of pieces that are stitched together are getting larger.

I have finished part 2 and made these little units

And a pile of half units for part 3.

Now we are starting to make larger units in part 4, it's beginning to get exciting.

As you can see lots of cutting and stitching and I have still no idea how it is all going to come together.

I am still chopping up fabric and using up scraps that I have had for many years, I am involved in making another couple of mystery quilts. One of which has only just started in the British magazine, Popular Patchwork.

So far I have cut the fabric and made 180 little four patches, some of my students are joining in with this one as it is an ideal project to enjoy over the summer months when there are no classes to go to.

If you can get the magazine it is worth a look, it is a stash buster and should be relatively simple to make even if it goes for a Linus project quilt.

The problem with not blogging for a while, is that now I am thinking of all sorts of things to tell you so I will be back soon with lots more photo’s and things to tell.