The sun has come out!

The sun has come out so I ran outside to take a photo! The idea for both quilts came from 'Spectacular Scraps' by Margaret Rolfe and Judy Hooworth. I love this book - such a simple idea to just use triangles in 2 contrasting colours but so effective. And now that I have the Easy Angle ruler - so much easier because I can cut the triangles from strips instead of having to add an extra 1/4 inch to a square. I'm really a scrappy quilt kind of person - I seem to remember reading somewhere that to the writer a quilt isn't a quilt unless it has at least 30 different fabrics in it and I'm keeping that as my mantra.

I wasn't looking forward to going back to work today after the holiday weekend - it's half term here in Leicester and the kids have a week off school. DD is meant to be revising for her exams but DS is going to stop with my mum until Friday. DH had taken the day off so I came home at lunchtime to see DS before he went with my mum and dad and guess what had arrived by post? Lovely yards of fabric from the USA - 6 full yards for £18.34 - including the postage. They only took a week to arrive and they are so much cheaper than comparable fabric here in the UK. I know they don't go with each other - they aren't meant for anything in particular - I just thought they would come in useful and I absolutely cannot resist anything pink or lilac (especially if there's a bit of green in there).

Postcards

These are my first fabric postcards which I made this morning, just to see if I could! As you can see, I didn't go wild and stuck to cutting round fruit and flower prints from fabric, arranging them and then just stitched them down onto the background. They're not perfect, but I feel they're OK for a first attempt. I followed DebR's excellent instructions at Red Shoe Ramblings. I didn't know if I would take to them or not, because I am not much of a detail person - think I will try doing some as Christmas cards - yes, I know it's only May but I can't bear rushing around at the end of the year.

P.S. No rabbit hutch as yet!

Looking forward to the weekend

Well, I did manage to get the crib quilt done so I'm looking forward to this weekend - feels like the first weekend in ages when I can just please myself.

Hope the weather here starts to improve - seems to have been raining for ever but hopefully we'll get out somewhere on Sunday. I also have projects for my DH to work on - we don't have any pets and DS really wanted a rabbit, so I've bought a hutch which DH still has to assemble. BUT we do have urban foxes living at the bottom of our garden so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a good idea and that the foxes don't prove to be too cunning.

Son of seaside quilt

When I had finished cutting out the pieces for the seaside quilt, I had left over 2.5 inch strips and squares, so I cut them down until I had enough to make a crib quilt. A bit of a miniature version of the bigger one, I'm hoping to be able to quilt this one this week as a gift to a colleague who is leaving to have a baby.

I'm also making a quilted bucket bag - BUT when my son saw it laid out on the floor earlier this evening he asked if I was planning on taking it out in public - and if so, he didn't want to accompany me! So I'm going to hold back on the pics for now and hope it looks a bit better once it's finished.

Have nearly recovered from my cold (and the job interview) - too much stress!

Grumpy Me

I have a streaming cold so I haven't felt like sewing and I have a job interview first thing on Monday morning which I have to prepare for and haven't felt like doing that either.

So... the picture is of my one and only piece of hexagon patchwork (can't really call it a quilt because it certainly isn't quilted - more like a wadding sandwich but hey, I didn't know any better!) I started this in 1990 just after DD was born. My then boss at work used to send me fat brown envelopes full of work instructions that she thought I would love to be reading whilst on maternity leave - I threw them away but I kept the brown envelopes because they were nice and thick and ideal for the paper hexagon shapes. I didn't finish the top until 1996 when DS was born. I suspect I will never make another one because I don't like hand sewing that much.

Busy Weekend

Haven't had much time for sewing this weekend - my brother got married on Saturday so it was busy! I have been wanting to do something in pastels - maybe with a 1930's feel - I thought Dresden Plate so tried out this colour combination. I don't have any reproduction fabrics but am hoping that by using similar colours I will still get the look. Think maybe these colours are a bit too bright but I'll carry on experimenting until I get there. I have just placed the circle in the centre to see what it looks like.

Seaside Quilt

I promised my DS that I would make him a quilt as I had just finished a crochet afghan for my DD and it was 'his' turn. This is what I am making - DS was very particular about the fabrics I used - definitely no flowers or girlie stuff. So I decided to make something with a seasidy feel in red, white and blue (with big squares so it gets finished quickly). I will quilt it myself on my ordinary sewing machine so it will be straight and simple!

First Post

First post - so original I know! I have been inspired to write this blog from being a keen reader of the Quilt Maverick and Stash Quilts blog rings - looking at everyone's fabulous work and the fact that they are prepared to share it with others has made me want to do so too.

Although I have been a keen sewer for all of my adult life, my interest in patchwork and quilting has waxed and waned through the years. For many years I have to admit I was frightened of buying a rotary cutter in case I cut myself instead of the fabric. Now of course I'm thinking WHY DIDN'T I BUY ONE YEARS AGO! Still, it might have been a bit difficult when the kids were little.

So, once I have worked out how to upload photos, I will share my creations, such as they are.