SURPRISE PARCEL!!

Thanks, Jackie (Charndon Quilting) for the yummy parcel I received this morning.....

How cute is this little bag!!! Complete with instructions too.

I love this little felt button.

And Jackie has sewn a little buttonhole loop to fasten the bag pockets.

mug rug monday....

I finished a little mat for my dad for fathers day - but I forgot to take a photo - fortunately I made one for myself!  The one for my Dad had 'motorbike' fabric on the back and my Dad said that it was 7 different types of Harley!  He normally visits Scotland every year for the Scottish Six Days Trial.  But this was about the first year he'd missed in 50 years!  I made mine to remind me of my recent holiday in Scotland with scotty dog tartan on the back that I bought there.

And here is the full photo of the little crazy patchwork heart that I made for my son's wedding anniversary!

I printed out the label and then appliqued it on the back!

And here is my daughter-in-law's latest quilt - I hope she doesn't mind me showing this on here as she doesn't have her own blog.... she's very new to quilting and found this idea on a blog and made it all by herself!

Don't these little books look cute on the wooden shelf?

And for the backing she has found this lovely 'book' fabric!

Japanese Bobble Bag

Here's another Japanese bag with tulip tassels.

Close up of the tassel - cute!

Mug Rug Sunday

I made my first mug rug!  Well actually I finished it on Saturday.  I cut a rectangle of blue and inserted strips of white, then cut the strips of white and inserted strips of red.  It is quilted with sparkly thread and I just had to use the WC fabric on the back!

Detail of the in the ditch quilting with sparkly thread.

I have now quilted the green hanging with green sparkly thread and it looks a whole lot better!  Thanks, Jackie, for the great idea and the use of your green sparkly thread.

On the way home from Embroidery club on Friday night I just had to stop and take some photos.

The sky was quite a lot redder than showed up in this photo - it was also quite difficult to get the windmills in focus and at the bottom of the picture!

A mile or so later on the hills were this magnificent graduated blue - now this would make an interesting quilt!

Diet pancakes! (I don't think!)  Blueberry and raspberry vegan pancakes with soya yogurt topping!  So YUMMY.

Alizarin completed, framed and off to the Embroiderer's Guild Regional Competition

Well I don't often enter competitions, but it seemed that not many were entering so I put my hand up and said I'd do something for the Chemistry competition.  So here it is......

If you click here you will go to Wikipedia which tells you all about Alizarin!

The quilt is red work with beads and crazy quilting techniques.  It measures about 10 inches by 7 inches.  On the border is free motion machine quilting stippling; but you can't see it because it is red thread.

Surprise!!

Now what can this be????

Lovely photography - although I do say so myself.  It's not often I get it all mostly in focus on the first attempt!  Subsequent blogs will tell you all about this and give you the full photo and lowdown on the embroidery too.  Bet you can't wait!!!!!

While you are waiting - hop on over to apple tree crafts to see what else I have been up to lately. (In the crafting world of course).

Quilt in a day.....

Today we had a sewing day at the church hall in Kirkheaton and the Annual Art Festival was in the Church next door. I needed to get a quilt ready for the Aldwark Gallery at the Quilt Museum in York. Our region has been asked to make quilts 8-1/2 inches wide by up to 1 metre in length using a single colour of the rainbow.

Before I left home this morning I cut strips about one and a half inches wide from all the green fabric I could find. This was made with a stitch and flip method then I bonda-webbed the leaves and free machine quilted them. Jackie has given me some sparkly green metallic thread and I shall do some more quilting and maybe add some beads. It is 24 inches long.

At the begining of May I was at a quilting retreat at Cober Hill, a hotel and conference centre near Scarborough (don't go there if you are vegan and like to eat anything healthy!!!!!! - but that's another story!). In the week I was there I managed to do this much of a rainforest quilt which was a pattern in a 2002 Quiltmaker magazine.

This quilt is foundation pieced onto papers.

A royal wedding must for all quilters! This is going to be for a cushion, but as you see I only got as far as this - I can't decide on the back - I may have to do a US flag for the back and zip it together! The pieces were cut out and stitched together, from a pattern in a recent UK quilting magazine.

This is a mug rug so not much bigger than your average postcard - made by cutting and inserting strips. I am going to quilt in the ditch with a metallic thread by hand to see how this will work for the rainforest quilt by quilting in the ditch around all the creatures.

My birthday pressy from Anne - a basket and workshop on making the fabric insert - this is the one Anne made - mine is not at all in one piece yet! But I used fabric with cupcakes on for the centre of the pockets.

It was cold yesterday morning and the cat from the end of the road was curled up on my bird table keeping warm!

Workshop today..

........... with Imperial Quilters and made a little quilt.... have actually put the strips on all of it and joined it together - but don't seem to have taken a photo of it.....



The next is the one that the teacher had done to show us....



I spent ALL last week at a quilting retreat and have so far accomplished this... sorry it's on it's side, but my software doesn't seem to turn my photos round when they are uploaded to the blog. That's linux for you and free software!! It is from a pattern in 2002 Quiltmaker magazine. I made this much about 9 years ago for a wallhanging for a little girl I know, and now I am going to make it all for myself. There is quite a bit more to do, another toucan, a treefrog and another dragonfly and several more leaves. Am planning on hanging it at the top of the stairs.

Tombolas and Raffles

Alizarin is coming along v - e - r - y s - l - o - w - l - y. As you can see I have only done the redwork embroidery so far. Will keep you posted with it's progress.


This little bag was made for the Quilters Guild 'put-em-ins'. They will be selling them at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August in a tombola style thing to raise money for the upkeep of their quilt museum in York. This was a little pattern that Jackie brought with her. I also made one for myself.


Jackie and I had a Sewing Sunday - but without the Soup this time - instead we had South Square Salad. Jackie had brought this pattern along - we are making cushions so we can sit in comfort to watch the Royal Wedding. The top one is mine and the one underneath is Jackie's.


Other news - I won third prize in the Imperial Quilter's raffle on Monday night. I got some wadding!! Very exciting - never won their raffle before! Didn't bother taking a photo of it because wadding isn't terribly exciting to photograph!

Mothers Day in England

I was inspired by the mothers day cards on this blog click here and scroll down to 23 March 2011. My printer has stopped working - how sad - so I could only write my greeting - I made one for my mum and one for mother in law. Let's hope their eye-sight isn't up to scrutinising too closely!!!! The yo yo flower is a brooch, which can be removed and worn. I thought about getting a little American red white and blue theme going for these cards, but they could also wear their brooches for the Royal Wedding.



And this is mine - I was looking for a star-shaped white button, but I'm still looking!

I'm also STILL waiting for the card from my DS - if you're reading this Tom - you now have TWO Mother's Days to remember and send cards - a handmade one will always make it to the blog!