A Seasonal Blog

Happy Christmas USA or Happy Boxing Day England.....

Little S made this foundation pieced bookmark from his mum.  Hope she liked it!

H made this for her Dad and she then made another one for her mum, but I forgot to photo it.

Big S made this for her mum.  There are some lucky mums around this year!

And I was lucky too, because I treated myself to this book after seeing it on a blog.

And another little book too.

Thanks Jackie for the quilting notebook!

Thanks to Auntie P and Uncle G for these lovely lavender sachets.

Thanks also to Auntie P and Uncle K for the recycled denim fabric notepaper

Three new pairs of scissors - really cheap £2 for all three - the expensive pair that I had self destructed the other week!

Christmas stitching

Tinkerbell doesn't seem to be bothered that this quilt is unfinished.  It still needs binding, but then I did start it for Christmas 2009, and quilted it 2010 and will take it to my mums tomorrow to trim before binding.

She's helping make the Christmas wall hanging.

Stippling with random holly leaves.

And here it is finished - not easy to take a photo of it when I haven't put a hanging sleeve on yet.

Imperial Quilter's challenge fabrics - make a spring wallhanging using these fabrics and adding no more than two others - to be displayed at the April Quilt Show.  The purple one has the same pattern as a green one that both me and my DIL liked and I bought some when in Atlanta in October.... so I think I'll have to add that.

Team Textile and other stuff...

I have a few things to show you today.....

Georgia Mug Rug - made for Lesley to advertise in South Square Craft Shop......

The back...

cute cups and jugs with matching spots - bought the fabrics at a new shop near Northampton a while ago and can't remember what it was called or where it actually was!

Little old fashioned tea cups

fruit and veg

apples and cutlery - bought these fabrics in Atlanta

the back.....

At Embroiderers Guild, we were given a shape and asked to make a double sided decoration out of any media - so here is my crazy quilted star in white with beads

Close up of the machine Embroidery

More close ups

yet another view - we had to put our star in an envelope and write the colour on the outside and swap with another member - I have a green one to open, but will save it until nearer Christmas - watch this space.....

Team Textile - now consists of three quilters - two female and one male - these are our mini quilted bookmarks from Left to right - big S, H, mine and little S - first time little S has ever been and he did enjoy himself and worked very hard to get this far.

H did some quilted stars using her favourite machine stitch....

.... and she added some sparkle to the meadow!

Team Textile is a name I suggested to another group I belong to - but sadly no one liked my idea - so I have decided to call my little quilting group Team Textile - as they are all textile apprentices and it sounds such a topical title - If you don't live in UK and watch The Apprentice, then you probably won't appreciate the link!

800 Page views.....

I'll have to think of something exciting for the 1000 page views... watch this space (or rather watch my blog!)

Now here is a little quilted postcard.... at Embroiderers Guild we were given TOGO as our country - each group was given a country that is participating in the Olympic Games London 2012 - we have to make an embroidered postcard (6" x4") using the colours of the Togo flag which are yellow, red and green.  I chose the logo of Djanta Kan - the best Togolese hip hop band 2004 and 2005.  Their music is a fusion of African folk music and rap and they regularly represent Togo in international festivals.  So now after your cultural education here is the postcard.... applique with machine quilting......

Close up of the wobbly lettering

And this is the back - all machined

A little Challenge

The quilters' guild regional challenge was.... wait for it..... a Christmas placement....

After the mittens project I just had to do some more random coloured strips.

applique trees and silver and white quilting

The quilters guild regional display that was in the York Quilt museum.

We made this at the mystery workshop at Imperial Quilters a couple of weeks ago - a little lavender bag

This is my little gathered basket that I made with H a couple of Sundays ago

And here is Tink trying it out for size! - Sorry Tinkerbell - it's too small for a bed!

Happy Birthday S....

Hope you liked the little pleated pouch I made from Georgia Fabric....

This is a spare one.

This one was for S's birthday....

This one is for me.

This one was for the lady next door who looked after my cat.

The other side....

This afternoon H came for more sewing lessons.  I found a tutorial on the internet here for this little gathered round basket and we both made one from Christmas fabric.

This is the inside of H's, she has taken it home to finish sewing the binding on.

You can just see the random diamond quilting that H did on her basket.  Looks good H!!

And for some reason I can't get the photo I have just taken of mine to upload.. so I will post that tomorrow (or the day after).

Foundation piecing lessons...

While in Atlanta my DIL and I were foundation piecing.  We both did a simple design to start.

I decided on a Halloween theme for mine.

I love the colours J chose for her block.

The same block can look so different when done in different fabrics!

This is J's little sewing machine - it does very nice stitching...

I then carried on with this tree block....

.... and a little heart block....

... then a house block....

.... all to make this Christmas wallhanging.

We also found a tutorial on the internet to make this little pleated pouch.  You can find the tutorial here.

This is mine with a lilac lining.

J's was a bit bolder!

Hey guys.... Atlanta calling...

I went to a quilting workshop in Atlanta at the weekend and they were all using this fabric marker pen for needleturn applique - so I am having a go.....

The marks from this pen iron away!

I collected these leaves from the oak trees in the forest in Decatur where my son lives......

Something for winter...

What do you need for winter?  Mittens of course!  Well you do if you live in Bradford - its cold up north!

I started going to Calder Quilters last month (after seeing their marvellous exhibition at Bankfield Museum.  They were reminding everyone to bring their completed challenge quilts for the next meeting and I asked if she could tell new members what it was - and she said we wouldn't have much time to make anything - well red rags and bulls spring to mind here....  The theme was winter and you had to put lace and beads on.... and it had to be smaller than some measurement that I forgot, but mine is very small!  Oh well I had lots and lots of fun making it and I think it will look very cute hanging on my wall!

So here is my quilt - in two parts - Mittens for Winter.  I drew around my hands for a size guide.

The foxy is the only thing I copied from a book - but he is lots smaller than the pattern in the book!

Close up of robin (with embroidered red breast) and holly (with french knots for berries).  And tiny size 15 seed beads to make the snow sparkle.

A close up of the beads at the top of the cuff and the machine quilting for the sky.

A tiny star in the sky.