Sew, sew, sew!!!!

I woke up this morning, got out of bed and started sewing, didn't even have breakfast, just got right into it. Sometimes I struggle with motivation but having had a week off work I feel much more relaxed and have so much more energy. Hooray for holidays!

First up I made this pretty block for the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery Block of the Month. I am loving making these blocks and adore working with the, very lovely, Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille. These are not my usual colours but I am really enjoying doing something a bit different. I am even imagining a time when I only have one quilt project on the go and make a block each month in a calm and restrained manner rather than my usual manic multi-project craft-mania. This is Block Two.



Next I made these two blocks for the Lone Star Bee. It must seem like this is all I sew, sorry if it is getting a bit boring, hopefully this change of colour scheme will add a bit of interest.

It is hard keeping up with four of these blocks a month, I may have mentioned (several times) that they take me two and a half hours to make, or ten hours sewing a month. I have managed to keep up but our Bee Mama has decided to give us August off so that people can catch up. So you won't be seeing new lone star blocks here for a while, except, of course, for the ones people send me as July is my month - so exciting!!!

I also managed to finish binding my Flea Market Fancy Quilt, it's got to be washed before I can take any photos, I'm ashamed to say it is covered in cat hair ooops! Just as well one is bound as my lovely longarm quilter Debbie phoned to say my radio way quilt is on it's way back to me, another one for me to bind now. I am also going to send my yellow and grey quilt to her to be quilted after I have added the borders tonight. Then I am going to try to get my punctuation quilt bound before the LMQG meeting on Sunday. Hmmm this is why I fantasise about only having one project on the go at a time.

Happy Monday everyone.

Olympic Sewing

So I have been watching the olympics and getting on with some hand sewing, not much to show yet as is takes me ages to hand sew. I wasn't really into the Olympic spirit but on Thursday I went into soho to get my hair cut, then I wandered around Liberty for a while and suprise! suprise! bought some fabric. As I came out of Liberty I found myself slap, bang in the middle of the olympic torch relay (yes the same one I slept through on Saturday when it went right past my front door). It was pretty amazing, the whole of Regent Street was packed with people, everyone was standing in the middle of the road. You really could not see a thing but the atmosphere was amazing, so happy and enthusiastic, so different to the usual London vibe.

 People were hanging out of the windows of the buildings and look at this guy on the roof!

 When the torch came past there was an almighty cheer, I could hardly see it but I did get this snap - can you spot the torch among all those phones?

It was fun to be part of it in such an unexpected way and it made me decide I should watch some of the Olympic coverage and at the same time finish binding my quilts (I admit it, I love the sewing of the top but I am not so keen on the quilting or the binding).

I have managed to do a bit of machine sewing too and finished up my second block for Anna in Bee a Lone Star(burst). Anna wanted low volume which was a challenge for me as I like bright colours but I am pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Hope you are all enjoying the Olympic coverage and that your team is winning gold!

Today's Sewing

I stitched up all the blocks for my grey and yellow quilt today. I still need to square it up and add borders but I am pleased with how it is looking.

It is so great to have some sewing time :)

A pretty parcel and a holiday!!!

My sister was in Singapore on holiday recently and this lovely fabric arrived in my post box today. I love it that my sister sent me fabric rather than souvenirs.

The embroidery on the fabric is really amazing. Now I just need to work out what to make. At first I thought I would make a skirt as it is a border print but now I am thinking that if I make a top I will have enough fabric left for a clutch bag so I will probably go with that, not least because I have hardly any bags!

Other good news, Yay!!! I am finally on holiday and I am NOT going to check my work emails for at least a week (I promise).

My craft room looks like the room of crafting insanity, I'd post a photo but it is too embarrassing. I am using this post to organise my thoughts so I know what I am going to tackle in the holiday. Roughly the list is;

• Finish binding FMF quilt
• Bind punctuation quilt
• Finish yellow and grey quilt top and get backing ready to go to Long arm quilter
• Get backing ready to go to Long arm quilter for Echo and Star quilt
• Finish 6 swoon blocks
• Make sidewalk satchel
• Make art student tote
• Lone Star blocks for Anna, Dar and Katy
• See Bee Blissful blocks for Kris
• Make baby dresses for my neice
• Make bags for my sisters (3 of them - I hope they are not reading this)
• Finish paper-pieced hexagon cushion
• Lay on the sofa watching tv for hours on end

Hopefully I will get some other stuff done too. It is suprising how much you can get done in a day if you focus and don't spend time watching daytime TV, drinking tea and surfing the internet (or so I am told.)

I also hope to enjoy the sunshine that has suddenly arrived in London after months and months of rain. It is a bit of a shock, I even saw a sign outside a local cafe saying "OMG the sun is shining!!!" I think that is exactly how we all feel.

Hope you are having a good week.

Stress

My actual job (that I need to do to support my fabric habit) has pretty much taken over my life the last few weeks, leaving me with precious little time for anything else. It has been immensely stressfull. I am sure there are lots of good ways to manage stress, far better people than me go for a run, do yoga or meditation but for me there are only two ways to feel better - eat or shop!!!

This gives you an indication of my stress levels over the past few weeks

These are the purchases that have cheered me up and kept me sane. I have a couple more days then holidays so I will be working on these projects over the holiday too (ok I am just trying to justify my massive fabric binge, I don't really know what I am going to do with some of this stuff!)

 

First up, block number 2 for the DM BOM from Fat Quarter shop, such a pretty block, this will be one of my first things to make up.

I've had my eye on the Retro flowers quilt over at the sometimes crafter for a while now and it is definitely one of my holiday plans. I am planning to mostly use  fabrics I already have but couldn't resist these gorgeous fabrics I've always loved Hope Valey and it is even lovelier in real life.

I also bought the templates for cutting the fabrics and got these freebie hexies too.

Then I desperately needed some Tula Pink Birds and the Bees because it is totally adorable

I love those squirrels so much. Not sure if they will be a bag or a quilt, whatever I make I am sure it will be fabulous, you can't go wrong with Tula Pink.

Then came some Thomas Knauer Pear Tree (on sale - how could I resist?)



Then some Flea Market Fancy, because I just might need it, no real plans for this but that fabric has been calling me.

I also got some Anna Maria Horner Good Folks for a suprise block I am working on

I finally got my hands on some Brrr! I got some off spoonflower ages ago but the fabrics and colours now are so much better. Would it be wrong for a grown woman to make herself a quilt in this fabric? I totally adore those polar bears.

Finally I needed this book so I can make some scrap quilts over the holidays to use up all my scraps.

 

Well running, yoga or meditation would be a much cheaper way of managing stress and I am totally skint now but I will have lots to keep me busy over the holidays.

Have a great weekend everyone. 

Oooooops...........

It has been a very busy week with a few late night work events so not much chance to sew anything. This blog post is really an apology......

Apologies to the London Modern Quilt Guild. I was meant to go to the meeting this morning and bring cupcakes. I made all the cakes and decorated them yesterday

I packed them all up and was ready to take them this morning.

 Like I said I had a few late night events at work this week so I was pretty tired. I forgot to set my alarm. I woke up just as the meeting was starting - oooops!!!

Now I have 24 (well I admit it's 23 now ) cupcakes, I am going to be popular at work tomorrow :) although I am sad I missed the meeting - sorry everyone.

I did make one block today, it is the Lone Star Bee block for Anna who wanted low volume fabrics. I have to admit I struggled with the colours for this one but I hope Anna likes it.

Have a great week everyone!

Bee Blocks

This week I have mostly been working on Bee blocks. I finished the second Lone Star block for Solidia. She asked for a christmas block in red, green, aqua and pink. After my first block, that was not at all festive, I felt a bit bad so I spent ages going through my stash and found a mini charm pack of blitzen by basic grey that I got as a freebie at the Fat Quarterly retreat and used the little snowmen. The charms were not big enough so I gave them a pezzy extension, mostly because pezzy was the only thing I had in red and green but also because I think you can't go wrong with a pezzy. Here is the finished, very christmassy, block (most unusual for me as I am a total scrooge).

Next I made my second sample block for my month. I am going with a rainbow theme and had a fab time using all my favourite fabrics and fussy cutting them, I am totally in love with this block.

I also made two blocks for Amy at Bee Europa, I feel I slightly cheated with these as she sent me the fabric early to check if she was sending enough so I had them done before July even started. I waited until someone else from the group posted a photo of their finished block before adding mine

Amy used the lovely green and purple colour scheme and went for wonky log cabins. Being an uptight kind of girl I struggle to make things wonky as somehow my eye just wants to straighten them up but the blocks came out ok in the end.

Finally I made up the first block from the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery Block of the Month. It was a lovely block to make and I am really happy with it but I seem to have an awful lot of fabric left over. Has anyone done one of these BOMs before? This is my first time and I am slightly worried that I have done something wrong, although if I have done it right it is great to have so much of Bonnie and Camille's Vintage modern to add to my stash. Is it usual to have so much fabric left over from a BOM?

I can't wait for next months instalment, it is quite exciting to do a quilt when you don't know what the blocks actually look like.

I hope to get a bit of sewing done today. I have had Anna Maria Horner's Sidewalk Satchel pattern and fabric for months and need to get on with it. The end date for purse palooza is 11th July so I hope to get it done before then.

 Happy Sunday everyone, hope you get some time to sew too.