A little bit of cardmaking

Lianne, Jen, Helen & I all descended on Lou yesterday for our monthly get together for paper crafting. I wasn't really in the mood for scrapping so took some bits to make cards with, including some Stampin' Up! supplies I purchased recently & had yet to try

A day of eating & chatting & a little crafting produced 7 cards - not bad, eh?

The birdie is a Stampin' Up! punch, as are the stamped sentiments. The doilie trees are based on an idea Lou found on Pinterest yesterday morning

A fabulous day was topped off with Lianne & I going to see the first part of Breaking Dawn at the cinema. Yes I am a Twiglet fan - great to get an RPatz fix after so long!

A Bit of Lou Lou Thi

*Picture heavy post coming!*

I am still here - it's been a mamouth month with my 39th birthday (eek! Too close to 40 now!!) and our 3rd Sarah's Cards Ltd retreat at the beginning of the month followed by monthly kit packing, grab boxes and then a nasty cold to contend with. But I have still managed a little sewing

I bought a half yard set of Anna Maria Horner's Lou Lou Thi range from Fabricworm a little earlier this year and have been pondering what to do with it. In the end, I made 3 quilts! It's surprising just how far 5 yards (10 x half yards of print) will stretch when teamed with solids - in fact, I still have enough scraps for a few pots or pencil cases if patchworked together. We'll see. I am trying to build my scraps a little to make a string quilt eventually.

So, for the first, I purchased some Kona Ash from Mandy and set to making another HST Quilt. I had slightly miscalculated, so had to order more for the back, but really like how it came out.

I used the same fabric to make a scrappy binding for this one and quilted on the grey Kona, around 1/4 inch away from the coloured fabric. It makes the colours pop more somehow

The next one I made using Bleach White Kona (almost ivory white - it suited these prints - I think white may just have been a little too stark)

I had intended to make a zig zag quilt using these HST's when I first started but really wanted to see how it would look in this pattern (which is my absolute fave right now!).

I do want to make a zig zag quilt at some point but when you've gone to all the effort of 130 HST's (to include the zig zag on the back) I somehow feel that zig zag is the "easy looking" option. I may try Crazy Mom's Quilts zig zag without the HST's - we'll see!

Finally, I made another stacked coin quilt

I just love this and love love love the colours of these fabrics together. I always lean towards blues, aquas, greens, browns & greys so it was great fun using these brighter prints.

The top grey sashing quilt is finished - the other two have backs but need to be basted & bound - a job for the coming week. All three quilts are destined as presents - I wonder if the recipients can guess which is for them??!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Up Friday, week 5 (yes I know that technically it is Saturday here but, hey! It's still Friday somewhere in the world!)

xxx

Oli's Birthday Present

Front

Reverse

It was my nephew's 8th birthday earlier this month. His request was a bright quilt and this is what I made! I used the same stack of fabrics (with a few added from my scrap bins for good measure) as this quilt. My nephew has high functioning Autismn and despite being 8, has become very attached to his doll "Baybo". So, I decided to make Baybo a quilt too

Front

Reverse

Oli loved it and I loved making it. Dolls quilts are the best for using up scraps of fabric and scraps of batting. I shall be making more for future presents, for sure!

Once again both quilts have been quilted using stippling. I just think it suits this kind of quilt best. The countdown is on for our retreat - less than 2 weeks now and I'm busy busy busy! Not entirely sure how much quilting/sewing will be going on but I will give it my best!

Another Baby Quilt monkeying around

Jen has been on our Design Team for a few years now. We were delighted when she announced at our first retreat last March that she was pregnant and even more so when baby B was born last October. Hard to believe that a year has passed and he celebrated his first birthday earlier this month. Because I'd made Abigail a quilt, how could I not make one for B??

This is another charm pack from Adornit - this time their Buckaroo Stack in Blue. I backed it using a remnant bought at the Quilt Show this Summer (brown with tiny blue dots - perfect for this quilt!) and bound using black Michael Miller Ta Dot. Simple stippling quilting all over in white.

And when Jen mentioned that B was having a Monkey party - well, I couldn't resist making a sock monkey for him now could I??!

My two cheeky monkeys saw me making this and wanted to make their own..............more on that another day!

Must go - Ross' 40th tomorrow & his chocolate cake is baking in the oven - nothing like leaving things 'til the last minute!

When it's VAT (Tax) returns time.....................

..............what better to do than sew?

Ross was out Friday night having pre-40th birthday celebrations with work so I had some time to myself. I had promised that I would sit and do paperwork with the VAT returns due again. But no. My fabric pile (which is ever increasing) called & so I started

Trimming

pressing & trimming some  more.....

I chain stitched & pieced & ironed & trimmed until finally on Sunday afternoon I had this:

This is the first time I have used Kona Ash from Mandy's fabulous shop and will definitely not be the last. I am about to order again - I didn't think to order for the back *d'oh* so this will stay as a quilt top until that arrives

So, this quilt is destined as a gift for someone special. I think it may just be called the procrastination quilt or the Tax Return quilt. Isn't it amazing just how much you can get done when there's paperwork calling? I've always been the same. Still, at least I was productive!

Alzheimers Quilt

Our Third Sarah's Cards Ltd Retreat is fast approaching (4th - 6th November) and as we did in March, we are holding another raffle for one of my quilts. I have used Moda's "Blush" range. It had to be - this was originally designed for the scrapbooking market by Basic Grey and then licensed to Moda. What better range to use for a scrapbooking retreat? In March at the retreat and a generous donation from my better half, we managed to raise £500 for MacMillan Cancer Care. Can we beat that for Alzheimers this time around? I do hope so!

The back

The sashing and back are all Kona Bleached White. The quilt has been stippled & bound using those Michael Miller Pindot in Cocoa again

Oh, and if this quilt looks familiar - I have already made it quite a few times, including this one for our neighbour's daughter - just a different colour sashing this time around

Thank you to Lianne for holding the quilt up and crouching behind it after bemoaning that it didn't cover her *love you babe*

Sarahbobsquarepants Quilt!

Too long ago, I started making LynneBobSquarePants squares for this quilt. I have never taken on a challenge quite this big before (each HST ends at 3 1/2" before being stitched together and this quilt has 16 blocks of 36 squares in it ( 576 squares in total). Doesn't sound like a lot but it was, believe me! I cut, I stitched, I trimmed, I stitched, I pressed & stitched & pressed some more...............you get the picture! I have really enjoyed making this quilt and absolutely love everything about it - the colours, the design, the fact that it's MINE and that I will be hand quilting it once I've decided on a backing design. BUT. I think it will be a while before I make another!

Measures approx. 72" square. I did consider adding another row of blocks to the bottom to make it into a twin size, but decided I do like square quilts for snuggling on the sofa on Winter days.

These are the best shots I could get on this blustery, grey Autumn day. Hard to believe we were in sun dresses on 1st October - how it all changes in less than 2 weeks!

The sewing continues (I'm on a roll!) - more to show later this week, once pressing work issues have been dealt with. Juggling a kit club, busy shop and retreat planning is never an easy job! Oh and the blasted VAT returns are due again *humph*