FINSHED QUILTS - No, really, I have completed articles to show off!

Firstly may I say a big thank you to all the readers who have been visiting my blog even though I abandoned it for a few months.  

I make no excuses for my absence.....I just didn't have time to blog.  Okay Im going to make a few excuses; actually Im going to list them!

1. Got a new addition to the family - Charlie. 

She is lovely but SO energetic.  So she needs a good walk every morning.  I have been walking her on the beach daily - this completely wipes me out for the morning.  This is where we walk....nice aye?!

2.  It was Big B and Big G's birthdays....bit lame that excuse.....!

3. We had bathroom leaks, which resulted in kitchen ceiling leaks, which explained the MUSHROOMS growing out of the kitchen walls....so that took up quite a few weekends. 

4..... This one I'm very excited about.... I bagged myself a pitch at the newly opened Petticoat Lane Emporium in Ramsgate.  

It opened on 14th Feb and I got my pitch on the 11th April.  Very exciting as I was given 48 hours notice to get up and running.  Luckily, the ever patient and accommodating Mr J sprang into action and we had a pretty corner all ready for eager buyers!

Here are some pics of my pitch over the last month, they aren't in chronological order.

I added these last night!  I hope they are a big hit.

Anyway the reason I started this post was to show n tell two projects that I finally finished after months and YEARS in the making!  I kid you not...YEARS in the making.  Shame on me.

The first is this baby quilt, here is an upside down pic!

It is cot sized and it is for my nephew...It was his first birthday pressies... mum liked it a lot and so did my, frankly BEAUTIFUL nephew! When he saw it he squealed, laughed and ran around on top of it and then lay on it smiling!  

It is made from new and old fabric.  The most amazing bit about this quilt is the fact that I quilted it on my machine. Big achievement for me.  It isn't perfect, I'm sure some of the lines are wonky, but hey the overall effect is lovely.  The binding is a different story -to be honest its shockingly bad.  It was a mare to do and I swore a lot whilst sewing it on.  Hideous experience, one I won't be repeating, EVER AGAIN.

The other finished project is this one...any of you recognise this quilt?  

Yes it featured in my very first blogpost!

Should you wish, you can read about my quilting optimism here; and then my wavering optimism for ever finishing it here......!

It turned out okay in the end.  Because it was put together in only a way that I can manage, it was a pain to quilt; and finish.  The corners of this quilt are all different, some bulky, some 'sticky outy' - but Big G is happy with it, even if it didn't get completed during her primary school years; or for her 16th like I promised..,or her 17th!!!  

IT IS DONE - it no longer sits on my desk looking at me. 

 Because it was sitting on my desk (so that I wouldn't forget about it), Big G would use it, half finished, pinned together, as a blanket on the sofa!!!!!  Talk about making me feel guilty!  

I hope this post wasn't too waffly, mis -matched and weird.... I hope to be back soon guys, in the mean time enjoy the sun.  It is out today and it is glorious!

Claire x

Finding my feet

Hello my dears

The past two weeks have been about finding my feet.  I stumbled across a knit and natter evening in a lovely teeny weeny pub in Ramsgate.  

John plays his 78s whist we knit, or in my case, crochet away over a glass of wine.

That is a dog buried between my legs...not mine, he came along whilst his owner sat knitting him a wolly coat for the winter!  He decided that the sofa and my legs were where he would wait it out!

As you can see my ENORMOUS blanket is coming along.  I just chained along until I couldn't face doing any more and as a result, the blanket is ridiculously wide!  Should be finished by next winter!

All the ladies there were so welcoming, and so talented!  My one stitch won't cut the mustard for long!

I have actually run out of wool and in the absence of any crochet to do this evening I'm bringing along my diamond patchwork quilt that I'm also working on...sporadically, and slowly.

I have been also been deciding on wallpapers, you can see a strip in the living room photo that I have chosen.  Very pretty - even Mr J has given his seal of approval.  

I have chosen this wallpaper for the dining room...and then found an adorable clock to match! What are the chances?!  I have a big strip of it washi taped to my dining room wall at the moment with the clock in the centre of it.  Looks a bit bonkers; this particular wall is turning into a bit of mood board/try it out wall/see how I feel about it a week later wall.   

A friendly neighbour invited me to her MacMillan coffee morning last week so I popped along to that with my mum and sister...she had a beautiful garden.  I love the use of the ladder as a prop.  

I found this biscuit tin in TKMAXX...had to have it...

...and finally I have been enjoying having a mantel piece to decorate!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the unfriendly hens we have adopted have been named... Barbara and Chocolate.

Barbara is still chasing me around the garden and chocolate still looks as though she may die of 'her nervous' at any moment.

I don't think we'll ever be friends... they tolerate me because they feed me... sometimes I get the same vibes off my children!

Til next time...

...Claire x

Diamonds are a girls best friend

Hello all

I recently sat down to look and admire some quilts on Pinterest, I gazed at many, and thought about how wonderful they were and what skill and time must have gone into making them.  

I have blogged before about my love of quilts and in particular this beauty that I snapped up, well I say snapped up, I practically dived on the item when I saw it at a car boot sale one Sunday morning last year.  I could not believe my eyes.

Why would anyone NOT WANT THIS?

How could you bear to part with it?

How could you let it go for £6.  

Obviously I'm delighted that said owner did not want it, did not care for it or appreciate its beauty as it is now in my, full to the brim, linen cupboard.  Actually its in the hot press (as Mr J would say) as there is no more room in my floor to ceiling linen cupboard.  That cupboard makes me happy. It makes me go all gooey inside.  

 My favourite part of the quilt - I love the blue flower, so delicate. 

Anyway, back to the point - sitting at computer, lusting over quilts, when I decide that I am going to make one.  Yes I know I haven't finished Big G's one...

and I have still to finish this one...

 Its too plain...

there is something missing...

cannot decide if buttons are the answer...

...I'll let you know...

but the urge to make one was overwhelming.  I googled how to make a hexagon quilt, found a brill tutorial on you tube and then set about looking for a hexagon shaped object about the house.

A stressful, near tearful hour later, NO HEXAGON shaped objects to be found.  Quite unbelievable considering the amount of stuff I own!  Anyway I was not to be dissuaded or put off, so I changed shape.  

Ummmm...yes!  

A diamond.

That'll do.

I have a diamond shaped thingy, it is a regular shape, it can tessellate, and it only has four corners to grapple with.  

One dismantled and cut up cereal box later, I had tacked some material to several diamonds and sewn them together - ta DAH!  

A star is born.  Ooooh how pretty I thought, so I kept going, and this is the quilt, thus far!

As usual I didn't actually think the project through.  I should not have made a star (but how could you not) because I now have to keep adding to it, I cannot start another star and add it to what I have put together already as it doesn't fit!  

It was at this point that I thought - maybe I'll turn this particular project into a cushion!  

Making these little diamonds is so easy, quick (once you've cut out the templates) and a super duper way to use up scraps, I knew this of course, but I'm amazed at how little material you need for a diamond.  

I ordered a hexi paper punch last night as I am going to make a hexagon quilt in the not too distant future.  Cutting the shapes out is the dodgy bit, I'm sure my diamonds are getting bigger...must keep an eye on that!

And so a new found love for hand sewing has been born.

xxx

The ups and downs of quilting and being a mum

I didn't know what it was called before but thanks to the very talented Modflowers I now what it is that I suffer from...quilting fear. Yes, quilting fear, it is awful, the self doubt and loathing because you know what you want your quilt to look like, you know how to do it, but can't quite pluck up the courage to actually put needle to quilt.  The anxiety. 

I suppose quilting is quite an investment.  An investment of your time. An investment of your precious material.  

....okay that was written about two weeks ago...What a lot of tosh/wishful thinking on my part...I do not suffer from quilting fear, just plain incompetence.

I cannot stitch in the ditch...successfully.

I am really fed up of unpicking 'gone wrong' bits.

I am not sure Big G will ever get a finished article.

I may have to go on a course so I can find someone to stand over me whilst i attempt the last two lines of stitching in the ditch.

I can't even think about the binding...don't think I have the stomach for making my own, even though I really, really, really want to have a go.  

Sometimes I know my ideas far exceed my actual ability...but I do like to have a go.  I must stop doing it to myself!

I know a bad workman blames his tools....but my table is only 1.5 m2 and my trusty sewing machine doesn't have a walking foot and the table cloth keeps slipping (take it off then...yeah I know) and how am I supposed to stuff half of a single  quilt through the right side of the needle bit and concentrate on what I'm doing?  

I was so excited today as this was the first day in yonks that I've had the day to myself, no important calls to make, errands to the post office, children to take to appointments, a tonne of washing to be done.  Every thing is done...except the quilt!  

Anyway it all went pear shaped again and now I'm completely deflated.    

Humpf....

Sorry for the rant.  

Will be back on my best behaviour next time. 

Here are some nice pictures to cheer us all up again.  

Big G is growing up, it hit me this week.  

She sat her last GCSE exam on Monday, and then travelled to Broadstairs by coach to stay with my sister for the week.  ALL BY HERSELF.  

She is perfectly capable, very sensible and I'm not worried about her safety anymore than I normally worry (!) - its just that she took it all in her stride.  Didn't need directions to the coach station, booked it online herself.....

...don't think she needs me as much any more.  Something I've been longing for...but now that it has started...I'm not ready and I'm sure sure that I even like it!

Bloomin heck - this parenting lark is hard work!

Til next time my lovelies

x

PPS - Just as I was about to press the 'publish' button, the postman  delivered the mail.  I noticed a brown padded envelope addressed to MUM!  

I opened it up and this is what I found.  Thank you Big G it is beautiful.  Just like the scottie dog on my Cath Kidston pencil case I had at uni! 

Ignore the stain on my old tea towel.   

So although Big G may not need me quite so much anymore - she still thinks about me.  Yay!

x