Shameless Self-Promotion

Thought I'd share this - not sure if you are all familiar with the blog Subversive Stitchers - interesting blog, actually, I think it's going to be a regular read around here. And that's not simply because she talked about one of my pieces in a post about quilts with pockets. Go on, have a visit!

Big Bloggy Picnic

Well, today was the long-awaited Bloggery Picnic Party, organised by Lucy Locket & her Bossy Big Sister, Ally. Lots of people were there, including some I "knew" already, like Penny, Jane, Moogsmum & Trash and some I didn't know, like Ali , JuliaB, Kitty, Eve and Julie. And all of our kids (well, not Eve's kids, who are more or less grownups) - frankly, I'm not completely sure about all the kids, but I reckon there were about 20 there, most of them seemingly 9-12 year-old girls. OK, perhaps I exaggerate about the girls - after all, there were enough 5-9 year old boys for a small football match - but it sure seemed like that at the time. Fun did seem to be had by all in the end, with the possible exception of one rather bored but fairly tolerant (and extremely polite) teenage boy, who was one of the few teens and the oldest boy by far. Luckily, he had electronics, so didn't suffer TOO much...

The great pile of loot above was a super idea for the kids - we each brought the same number of Easter Eggs as children (except for Moogsmum (I think) who brought an extra, somehow (egg, not child!) and me - as my slightly odd younger daughter doesn't really like chocolate, she had her own tub of Easter themed jelly sweets instead - in fact, you can see her eating them in the background of the photo below) and they were all piled up in a big pile. Then the kids took turns picking, from the youngest up. The youngest was 5, so Alex was very near the start of the pick, which delighted him as he really wanted to take home the Mini Egg egg we brought (yeah, I know, I know- but hey, he's happy).

The grownups had loot, too, though we didn't pile it up in a pile and go from youngest to oldest (this might be because no one really wanted to own up to being at the latter end of that spectrum). Instead, we all put our names in a bag and then took turns drawing - whoever's name you picked, you gave that person your present, then they drew a name, and so on - obviously if you had your own name, you could put it back. I can't remember all the presents, but there were some great ones. Kitty drew first, and picked her own name (of course!) but eventually ended up with some homemade preserves from BossyBigSis, who in turn drew Kitty's name and received her gift, a great sock monkey. The draw was then passed to JuliaB, who picked my name and gave me the lovely gift below, which is a pedicure set (good timing, as I do paint my toes in summer and haven't started yet) and some lovely soap, which smells quite mild, but apparently has chocolate in it. Anyone who knows me well knows how I feel about soap, so really, this gift suited me well! Thanks again Julia.

I drew Ali's name, and gave her a bag - the December bag from last year's BQL challenge (looking back over my blog, it doesn't seem I ever posted a photo of this - I know I have one, though, so I will dig it out and post it below). She picked Trash's name, and the gift was some gorgeous pegs with words - you can write poetry while you hang out the laundry. This is where I began to lose the plot (as I was busy unwrapping and exploring my own treats at this point), but I know that Penny received a lovely fish textile from Bossy Big Sister's DD, and that Julia got a funky bag with multiple pockets from Penny. Other gifts included several small knitted rabbits and a very cute chicken and hmm, I'm sure I saw more things, but well... Oh, just remembered an echidna-shaped pincushion from Trash for the lovely Jane - I think - pretty sure Trash made it, because of the Australian thing...

We were lucky with the weather, which was sunny for most of the day, although the wind had a slight chill to it - but no rain and warm enough to stay outside all afternoon. The kids all seemed to get on okay (once they actually started talking to one another - mine took a while to warm up, but by the end, my girls and Penny's were very sorry to part and probably would have spent several more hours - at least - chatting happily about school, braces, DS games and I don't know what all else) and although trees were climbed, no one fell out and broke anything or got sick - frankly, I count it a huge success, despite some rather SLOW traffic on the M25 on the way home (only to be expected).

Thanks again to Lucy for organising it. I'm sure some of the others will blog about it, in fact, Julia has already done so. Much more eloquently than I.

Oh, and there was a little craft shop on the premesis - mostly paper stuff (and lots of stamps), so not of interest to many of us, but I did pick up a few papers to use as backgrounds for ATCs - I've used up my stock now, and will have to make new ones for the birthday swap from May onwards, so I might well do some with mostly paper, rather than fabric. Or at least, rather than solely fabric. Hard to tell in this photo, but some of these papers are highly embossed and the plain red one is actually a flock paper, which I intend to try texturing in some way.

Tomorrow we are staying close to home (knowing my girls, a good chunk of the morning will probably be spent in bed - especially as neither is yet asleep and it's nearly 10pm) and I actually think I might have a dyeing day - haven't had time for one in ages, and there are some things I want to do. Watch this space, as they say.

Tada!

Finished! Got the binding attached today and sewn down tonight (we watched an early film, then it was time for CSI, so there was lots of time for stitching). And it's done. I will put a label on it before it goes to Angela, but well, it's finished. Woo hoo.

Tomorrow, there will be no sewing, on the whole (might be a little hand stitching in the evening), but there will be cool bloggy related things as I will be attending Lucy Locket's Bloggery Picnic Party... Now that's, in the parlance of my children, well cool.

Olivia's Easter card & other stuff

We'll start off today with something different - this postcard with an Easter theme was made not by me, but by DD2 Olivia for her friend Jiwon, who recently moved back to Korea. She perhaps left it a bit late to reach Jiwon in time, but it's a lovely card nonetheless. I did help a little - I cut out the sun (the background part) and oversaw the general construction, but the design and most of the work is hers. Not bad for a nine-year-old. I especially like the nest, which was entirely her concept and work - very clever.



What I did myself today, was to finish (!!) quilting the Contrary Wife. We ran some errands this morning, including a trip to the department store for more thread (of which they didn't have the same colour, so I have use a very slightly different colour to finish - I couldn't tell the difference myself when going back to check later, so I don't think anyone else will be able to spot it, even if they look!) and some notions (like Olivia's Easter themed buttons, above, and my booty, below). This afternoon, the two kids who were here (Sarah was at a friend's house for a birthday sleepover weekend - she was there almost two whole days) parked themselves in front of a DVD and I did some sewing. And amazingly enough, finished it. Tomorrow I shall make and attach the binding, then hopefully a few evenings in front of the telly will finish it completely. I did tell my customer I'd try to finish by mid-April, and it looks like this will actually happen, which is great.




Here are the other two insect blocks. Another dragonfly and butterfly, this time I have reversed them so that butterfly is uppermost (or maybe it's the other way around - anyway, it's opposite to the right side, so the ones that are the same insect are diagonally placed from one another).

And here are some treats - the aforementioned notions, most of which came from the sale bin, and the thread to finish the quilt - I bought two similar colours to what I had bought before (which of course, I hadn't taken with me, only having made a note of the number) - one of which was much better than the other, but hey, one can always use up thread, right? And on the right, some yellow fabrics - this month's club from eQuilter. If Joyce is reading, she will no doubt spot the yellow/orange colourway of the blue fabric which makes the border of the Contrary Wife quilt - I know from her blog that she's recently acquired some of this herself...

Contrary Quilting

Today Geoff took the kids swimming (well, two of them - Sarah is at a friends for the weekend) and I did some work on quilting the Contrary Wife. This photo doesn't really show very well, but the quilting pattern is a sort of meander, with some fern fronds thrown in.


In the four dark pink blocks, I am going to do insects - dragonflies & butterflies, I think - here are two - I haven't done the other two yet. They aren't perfect, but not bad for freehand and made up as you go along.




It's now about halfway quilted (not quite) and I hope to get it finished (the quilting, I mean) before the end of the week.

Bunny

I feel a little strange today, not having much to show, as usually Saturday is a good quilting day for me - but there were a lot of things to do around the house, errands to run, and then it was just such a lovely day that I had to spend lots of time sitting in the sun in the garden and the park, reading my book and chatting with a friend or two. What a hard life! Actually, with two weeks off school coming up, losing a weekend day of sewing wasn't such a problem. I know I'll get a few extra days in the upcoming weeks, as we only have a few things planned.

Anyway, here is the finished Easter cross-stitch. This one is going off to a new home, but I think I am going to stitch it again, in a different colourway. I have some pale blue canvas and I think it would be fun with a white rabbit, and pastel abc's and eggs. We'll see. Might even manage to finish it before Easter if I start tomorrow!

Comments

Just wanted to write a quick note here about comments - I'm getting more comments lately from people who have a name, but no blog link and no return email - just wanted to say, I'm not ignoring you guys, but as I can't easily respond under those circumstances, well, I can't easily respond. So, people like Feti and Mikka, who have commented lately - thanks for visiting!

Thrifty

...is the name of this block, which I made some more of today, for the block lotto. You can see why - it would be good block for scraps. I've now made nine blocks, which is my limit for the month (you can make more, but you only get up to nine chances in the draw and as I have loads of other projects to be getting on with, I usually stop at nine).

I also pinned together the Contrary Wife for quilting, a somewhat boring task made much more pleasant by the radio playing I Fought the Law (the Clash), All these things that I've done (the Killers), Like a Rolling Stone (Dylan), Come on Eileen (Dexy's Midnight Runners) and My Sharona (the Knack) all within the same hour or so. Yes, on the same station! How cool is that...

Wednesday stuff

No work done today (well, a little cross-stitch this evening), but a few things to show, nonetheless - a cross-stitch update for the week - as you can see, it's coming along nicely. Should be done before long - just a few more letters, a border and a few doodads to fill in.



And these are the Block Lotto blocks I mentioned yesterday - I intend to make some more for the lotto as they are really sweet, but two is what I've managed so far. I also think this block would be great with a variety of colours - using the black and white as is, but then substituting scraps for the pink squares (the same in a single block, I think, but different throughout the quilt). It would be a nice way to use 5" squares (the pink squares are 2" finished).

Loads of stuff today

Look what I got in the post today - isn't this great? Now I realise some of you probably aren't as crazy about brown as I am, but even so I'm sure you'll admit this is a lovely piece - I've tried to show some of the quilting detail as well. The brown leaf quilt was made by Liliane, who was my partner for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap 5 (Monochromatic). Yes, I know, I'm a lucky person!

Today I put the border on the Contrary Wife quilt, and pieced the backing (the yellow stripe you see beneath the top in this photo). Now it needs to be pinned (perhaps tomorrow) and quilted (Easter Holidays). I also made several blocks for the April block lotto - but it's still in sneak peek stage until tomorrow, so I won't show them yet.

And tonight, I sewed down the binding on a couple of small pieces (and Olivia's teddy bear quilt, which is upstairs with the teddy bear), which I can now hang up somewhere. Where is the question, as wall space is something we're a bit short of around here most of the time - needless to say, I have already found a home for Lil's quilt.

ALQS round 3

Announcing a new round of the ALQS - with a few differences. If you are interested, pop on over and check it out!

Lots of stuff

As I mentioned, I wanted to get the top together today; I did. I will put the border on it at some point later this week (I hope) or early in the Easter Holidays. I want to get it quilted during the holidays - shouldn't be a problem really, as it's not that big and we don't have a huge number of things planned. Yet. Yesterday someone commented that they liked the red in the quilt - the photo doesn't show it well, but it's actually a strong pink rather than a red. I think this photo shows the colour a bit truer than yesterday's.



Another thing I did was to put some binding on quilts in order to be able to do them this week in the evening watching telly. I also put some binding on Olivia's little bear quilt, but she had taken that away somewhere, so it didn't get into the photo. I'll try to do that one first - it's only about A4 size, so it won't take long.



And I finished up the recycled postcards - they will go out in the post later this week. The background is made from a Brownie's t-shirt which I had used to demonstrate free motion quilting and let Olivia practice; the black lace is from an old bra; the metal is from a diet coke can; the red ribbon is from a bag of chocolates we got for Christmas (two, actually); the stamps are self-explanatory and the buttons came from clothing. For the backings, I have used paper which is not recycled, but which was leftover from another project, so that's close, at least!

Contrary Wife Progress

I didn't spend much time today sewing, as there were lots of other things going on, but I did finish putting together all the Contrary Wife blocks. This is now in 9 pieces, and tomorrow I hope to get it joined together, and possibly get the border on - we'll see how the time goes. I have a few other things I want to do as well in March (what's left of it) so I may not put the borders on tomorrow...

Pineapple!

Finished. There are some threads to trim, but essentially, it's done. Oh, and I have about 20 more labels to sew onto the back - everyone who made a block for me for this quilt also sent a label. Some people made more than one block. I've sewed 4 labels on so far - I can see the label sewing taking some time... But it's done, it's usable - and it's very good looking, if I do say so myself. Thanks once again to everyone who made a block for this quilt and double (or more) thanks again to Sophie, who organised it.

Camels...

Although I did attach some binding to my pineapple quilt today (and sewed some of it down at quilt group tonight) the main sewing I did was to make some camel humps - Olivia is a two hump camel in her upcoming play (Noah's Ark theme) and her friend Hannah is a one hump camel, so I made some humps - here is Olivia's double (and her modelling it). Hannah's mum is making two camel masks - yeah, teamwork!

Easter cross-stitch

No birds this week as I have been stitching this bunny - the colour is wrong in both of these photos - too yellow on the left and too dull on the right - but what can a girl do? (Well, I do know a few things I could do to make better photos, but I am too lazy - if I had to have perfect photos in order to blog, I'd never blog!). The rabbit is the main time-taker in this pattern; once that's done the rest will stitch up very quickly, I'm sure.

Doll quilt; recycling

In addition to spending some more time working on the blocks for the Contrary Wife quilt (which I shall spare you a photo of this time) , today I helped Olivia quilt a little teddy bear quilt she pieced together yesterday - I did let her try out a little free-motion quilting, but she wasn't happy enough with her results to do it on her "real" quilt, so I quilted it myself. At her request, lots of swirls and loops and some flowers.

On the right, the start of some postcards for a "recycled" theme. These started with a quilt sandwich made from an old Brownie's shirt of Olivia's (not suitable for handing on as a) it was the really old style shirt and came from a jumble sale in the first place and b)it was covered with specks of paint, etc) - this was the sandwich I used to demonstrate FMQ to Olivia and let her have a go. We did that mostly in yellow thread so it would add texture without really showing - I then added more stitching in various other colours, before beginning to embellish. The black lace is from a bra which was being thrown out (has a tear in the lace of the cup) and the silver punched bits came from a Coke can (ok, Diet Coke really). What's next? Not sure - need to check and see what I have knocking around that falls into the category of recycled. I know my mother brought me a couple of baggies of buttons and other embellishments from yard sales, some of which still have bits of shirts on them, so I know they aren't new! And used postage stamps are always a nice touch. We'll see what else I have in a few days' time when I work on them again.

More contrariness

More progress today on the commissioned quilt - here are some of the blocks laid out as they will appear - you can fill in the rest mentally, as it will be square and symmetrical. Hopefully I will get the rest of the blocks finished tomorrow (all the ones with light blue are done - it's just the yellows to finish).

Contrary Wife

Well, today I made some blocks for the commissioned quilt - I have quite a few more to make, but you can get a fair idea from this photo - they are all the same block, but in different colourways - once I have more of them made, I'll lay them out properly to give an idea of the overall design. (The group of four is only laid out, not sewn together yet, so any lost points, etc are really not as bad as they might look...

I decided on this block partly because I like it, partly because it's not too complicated and therefore won't take too long - although I'm charging an hourly rate, I also know her general budget, and partly because of the name of the block, which makes a nice inside joke. It's called (one of its names, anyway - it probably has half a dozen, as do most traditional quilt blocks) Contrary Wife. As Angela has commissioned the quilt as a birthday present for her future DIL, I couldn't resist.

More fabric

More fabric today, but most of it doesn't really count as I don't get to keep it, and don't have to pay for it! My commissioner (so to speak) got back to me about the quilt and has decided to go with the fabric with the gold touches, so I have been out to buy some more bits and pieces for that project - in fact, I got everything I need including the batting - the yellow stripe in this photo (above) is what I got for backing, from the sale bin - hoorah. The fabric is all washed now and will be tomorrow's main project - I did do some cutting today of the pieces I bought Sunday (which were already washed) and even pieced a few HST units, but trust me, it's not interesting enough for a photo just yet. Maybe tomorrow. I also got a little treat for myself - this package of FQs and box of ribbons in brown & pink - one of my favourite colour combos.



Amidst the ironing and cutting, I also finished up the Victorian house front - doesn't look much different in this photo, but I have added a backing and done the edges, etc. The colour is fairly good here, as well. Hopefully, my partner will like it!