Little apples (AKA I love my post man!)

Helooooo!
I am bowled over by the response to Franky. Who knew that wine and fabric could produce such lovely thoughts from people :D Honestly though thanks everyone Franky is glowing with pride, as is Issabella!

Lets face it I couldn't have picked a better time to get sick. I've sat on my, now very rounded, butt and looked over some truly outstanding quilts at Amy's creative side for the WHOLE weekend. Him in doors topped my faboo weekend off by cooking the most outstanding dinner...Well ever! He made Delia Smiths roast tenderloin of pork with cider apple sauce, roast potatoes, roast apples and carrot and swede mash! I was in food heaven :D I will prod him for the recipe and share it out here, yes it was that good! :D If your in the UK, yes it's the one that was on the TV last week.

Ok so fabric and getting onto why I love my postman :) He brought me goodies! These came today -

Tasty Apple charm pack

I may have been drooling after Little Apples for a while when Laura of Quokka quilts ran a give-away and you guessed it I won! I'm embarrassingly excited as these are the first things I've ever won in blogland!

 I don't think my guy, or anyone else I know, can face me waving them in their face with a "How'd ya like 'em apples!?" shake any more!

 I'm lusting after a lap quilt or maybe cushions for my sofa or just petting them lovingly for a while.

So a big THANK YOU!!!! to Laura for sending them from across the planet (and for the chocolate but heck that was long gone before the camera got involved!) 

Hope you get a chance to get some sewing done this week and have a fun night tonight if your out and about! 

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Meet Franky (Again!)

So I'm putting Franky into the Bloggers Quilt Festival, this quilt's name comes from the fact it's a Frankenstein's monster from the scrap bin! How this beast started is documented here and is an utter testament to what happens when you mix wine and quilting. 720 1.5" squares of madness later this is what I have to show for it. My inspiration for Franky was this picture from...you guessed it pinterest! I love how the little squares of colour, not much when alone, came together to create an awesome wall display and I thought "Hey I want some of that action!" 

This little quilt is being entered into the Bloggers Quilt Festival because if you had told me 2 years ago I'd make a quilt with this many fiddly itty bitty squares I would've laughed at you (in a nice way!) But as they say at my LQS quilting is an illness and this is the proof! 

Things I learned while making Franky

I become obsessed with each new thing I sew.

It's ok to be proud of something you worked hard on.

Satin stitch rocks.

Don't throw scraps away there is ALWAYS a use for them and from that...

Keep scraps better organised!

I sew faster with music on. A little Audioslave, Soundgarden and Rage against the Machine really do make the day go faster (And to anyone that knows these bands and their history you can see the musical regression as the wine bottle emptied!)

So here are some arty farty shots of Franky, I got a new iPhone app :D

I want to live my life through a lomo lens, all retro and funky!

Franky is like a grown up fabric hoarders I spy quilt "Oh that is from Amy Butlers line" "Hey that one is a kokka one!" and so one and so on!

And finally after I made her look like Golem in my last post here is a pic of 'Bella trying her best to look pretty while I take a gazillion photos so I can play with the new app!

As some of you know blogger has me confused 50% of the time with it's changing things around when I'm not looking, however thankfully I figured out how to use the "drafts" feature! (Yeah I know, but it was Big Cheese to me!) This post is testament to the fact I didn't mess it up, I typed 75% of it up last night! Go Team Me!!!!

Feel free to leave a comment about Franky, my inability to hold my wine, my *slightly* dodgy musical taste, 'Bella or anything else you fancy then get yourself back over to Amy's place and have a look at the other fantastic quilts on show :D

Have a fantastic weekend

Quarter log cabin quilts and some old school AMH embroidery

That one picture can sum up the last two weeks for me, meds and tissues. Now I'm thinking I need one of those swanky tissue box covers :) I obviously have too much time on my hands as whilst watching yet more TV the Kleenex advert came on and 2 of the quilts look like they have been made from Little folks by Anna Maria Horner.
The other thing I noticed was how stupid and politically correct ads are, two examples Firstly Cadburys fruit and NUT has a "May contain nuts" warning, well I'd bloody hope it does really! Second is the Kinder egg advert (Yes I pay attention to sweets adverts!) that one warns you that it contains a toy! I don't know one child that gets them for the rotten chocolate do you? Anyway enough of my TV ramblings moving swiftly on!
When this came I nearly had a cow!

Do you see that hostage note!?! £93.25 that about $140 I think I shall with hold my customs rant for another day! Once I got over my shock and got the parcel opened this one shot out of nowhere and claimed it for her own

If I spoke Siamese I would hazard a guess I'm being told to bugger off, either that or she has adopted a Golem voice and is warding me away from her preeeeeecious  

Once I managed to actually get into the fabric madam claimed a beautiful pink dot as her own instead of the whole lot

Ah yes those are man feet, the man attached to them was making all of the correct "Oh I like that one" noises so I was a happy woman :) And yes that is a pile of Christmas fabric, would you like a closer look? here you go then

I swore no Christmas themed quilts unless I loved the fabric because as you may have worked out I like some really bright fabric and you don't tend to get much for Christmas time. So when I came across this lot they jumped into my cart before I could say "what will I make?" (Christmas quilts was the answer)


So other than glugging down cough medicine I have made some quilt tops (I'm quite pleased with the 'S' on that!) So as I can't really sew right now I'll do a show and tell of my wip list :)

This is a teeny tiny receiving quilt I say teeny as its 35"x 40" but if i'm being honest I just wanted to play :) I mixed up some Joel Dewberry prints, as they all go really well together, and this little quilt is what happened.

Sorry the blue in this looks really washed out :( it isn't in real life though so thats my photography skills for you. I have always wanted to make a quilt with only one block so this is it. Its lap quilt size I can't remember exactly and can't be chewed going to measure it up again. Again I wanted to play so I did.

This bad girl came from the ladies of the Sew Modern Quilt Bee I have a few blocks left to make into a giant floor cushion which I think will rock when we're chilling out on a weekend. Thank you ladies for helping me put together this quilt :)

If anyone has any thoughts on how any of the 3 should be quilted please let me know, right now I'm toying with ideas but haven't pinned one down yet.

And lastly some embroidery, as I've sat on my bum for quite some time I thought I had better do something more productive than watch crime dramas and shout at adverts. I picked out some fabric and embroidered it to death :) here are the pics to prove it

Again these colours aren't quite right! that red is purple!

My french nots are a little sloppy but I don't really care :) satin stitch and split stitch have been the heroes of the day!
I may have a massive crush on Anna Maria Horners fabrics, I adore what she does with florals! 

I think this will either be a wall hanging or a cushion but I'm not sure yet.

Ok so after that picture heavy post I'm off to cook some tea then get back to my Google reader list because I swear if I watch any more CSI I could tell them how to run a crime lab.

Have a great week :)

Patricia Bravo and Project LINUS

Hi gang
Thank you all for your well wishes, it means a lot to me that the sewing community is such a kind one and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside to be a part of it :D
As I've had my butt firmly planted on the sofa (Obviously under a quilt!) I've had a load of time to read through my slightly overwhelmingly long google reader list and came across This post by Patricia Bravo and thought some of you ladies might like a look see, I'm now off to see if the UK has something similar for poorly kids.


I will have a post with pictures in at some point soon promise!

Again with the sofa rest

Hi gang
Hope you are all sewing it up like mad things ready for halloween and Christmas :)
Unfortunately I'm laid up on the sofa again this time it's a bit more full on though. I've had what I thought was flu for nearly 2 weeks now but woke up yesterday with a real shortness of breath and pain in my chest "oh bugger" thinks I and duly head off to see the doc! After a 50 min consultation (on the NHS this is nigh on unheard of!) I left with enough antibiotics to heal a third world country and a diagnosis of pneumonia, needless to say it has somewhat curtailed my weekend plans!
I have a few quilt/quilt tops finished up and some embroidery done to blog about but I think I'm putting new projects on hold for now as I'm feeling a wee bit rough around the edges.
Another blogger that could probably use some love right now is Jenna from sewhappygeek who is recovering from an op on her arm poor thing.
I'll try to get some pics up over the weekend of the pretties I've been making.

Keep well and warm!

One Green quilt and a lot of Bee blocks

Firstly can I just say thank you all for the lovely comments and emails about my dental appointment, you ladies are super sweet and thankfully the extraction went without a hitch. I had Wednesday evening and Thursday on the sofa (It was great!) eating ice-cream (also great!) watching trashy crime drama's on TV (wondering if I have any other teeth needing pulled!) 

Right onto sewing :)

All of these lovelies are for the ladies in Hive 17 of the 3x6 bee. We are meant to send in blocks 12.5" but I think I'll leave these at 13" so their owners can trim them down to size (Yes I'm crap at squaring up) I had a blast making them, the tutorial I used is fab and funny - this woman makes quilts like I do -  for FUN! and can be found here Badskirt's Japanese x and + tutorial  These girlies are addictive to make :)
I'm thinking about making a full quilt with these blocks, but without the sashing, at some point after Christmas and was wondering if any of you ladies fancy a block swap around Jan/Feb next year (good grief it's "next year" in 2.5 month!) Just checking interest right now though as I think most people, me included, have a load of sewing to do between now and Christmas.

So since my last blog post I've made a lap quilt :) I don't know what happened but I've been looking at the palette inspired quilts popping up in blogland and frankly wanted some of that colour action! I didn't however look for a palette online, my inspiration was the way peoples gardens are looking right now in suburbia. Some are still grassy green, others look like winter is in full force and all sorts in-between so with that mental image in mind I went forth to the fabric stash and started pulling colour combos out like a mad woman (I blame the pain meds I'm taking for my tooth!) This little quilt still hasn't got a name, it's being referred to as the green quilt because I can't think of anything better (Don't ask how I came up with my daughters name!) If inspiration hits you over the head with a name for it please do share :)

I know it's not even that green!

The backing has a story attached, as all good backing should, I was given a humongus roll of...erm gosh I don't know how to describe it now I'm typing *Blush* it's like very light weight wadding, the type you get in jackets, and it's pre-quilted with diamonds. So it's the wadding and backing in one and I was worried how the back was going to look once I'd quilted it, so I tool a picture of it to get your thoughts - 

The squares are the quilting I've done and the diamonds were already there. I'm not sure how I'll use this in future, you may well be seeing a lot more of it as I have a rather large roll of it and its 110" wide so a great size.
I think for future quilts I'll use it and still have a cotton backing over it...Hmm something to think on.

Well hope you all have a great week coming up and loads of fun things planned :)

I Finished something!

So these Wonky 1/4 log cabins are for bee hive 19 of the 3x6 bee on flickr, I hope the ladies in my hive like them.

I'm hoping to get my blocks for hive 17 finished this week, I ran out of white can you believe it! If any of you lovely people know of an online UK fabric store could you please share the love? I get most of my fabric from hawthorne threads they have a fabulous range of modern prints and great customer service however they are across the pond so shipping takes a while.







These next blocks are for Kristy at 107 quilts for the Sew Modern Bee.

I think this will look awesome once it's put together!

Lastly unfortunately the binding fairies didn't come a visiting while I was at work so I had to bite the bullet and bind the Sanctuary quilt myself lol
The pattern is by Pat Bravo and is free from her site. We changed up the prints quite a bit to go with ones Him in doors prefers and I now think he has a rather good eye for colour! This is a monster quilt and it's been raining on and off all day so sorry for the indoor cramped and cropped pics.

Yes Issabella was hiding under the quilt while I was taking photo's!

Please excuse the DVD's and junk! If I had cropped any more of this picture you wouldn't have seen the quilt :)
I honestly think I've sewed more this weekend than in the whole of September. This quilt will go to live with Him in doors next weekend and I think I'll miss it, it's lived with me in it's UFO state since May!

On none sewing news this Wednesday I get to go to the dental hospital for an extraction (Horrid wisdom teeth!) If anyone has any tips for aftercare please feel free to let me know!

Hope you all have a great week and get loads of time for sewing :)