Transformation

This weekend Hubby and I set about transforming my cluttered and uninspiring sewing space. These pictures don't really do justice to just how untidy the room was. Mission Impossible moves were required everyday to negotiate the clutter between the cutting station and the sewing machine, and once the ironing board was up....blue air!

Before

So on Saturday morning we ventured out to Ikea (Hubby's least favourite place) and by Saturday afternoon I was filling the new furniture with my sewing goodies. It's beyond awesome to have everything out of boxes so I can see it all! My sewing room is now a place I can't wait to get creative in :) It's not quite finished yet as Hubby has to make me one of these and sort out my 'design wall' but it's well on the way!

After

I'm going to show you some of my favourite bits here and put the rest of the photos I took over on Flickr if you fancy a nose around ;)

Cheap-as-chips, glass spice jars filled with ribbons and beads.

Embellishments

This wall makes me so happy! All those minis were made for me by other talented ladies and I'm so thrilled to have them up in my new space :)

Made by others with love for ME!!!

I'm also thrilled to have the treadle sewing machine out on display at last! The poor girl has been hiding away in her cabinet for well over a year just waiting to be released ;)

The old girl

Then I guess I should give you a peek inside my fabric cupboard :) I could probably set up shop, not that I'd be able to part with it! Close ups of the goodies are in the Flickr set. Top shelf is Moda precuts, 2nd shelf is solids and linens, 3rd shelf is mainly Freespirit - Tula Pink, Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Joel Dewberry, Ty Pennington... 4th shelf Denyse Schmidt, Anna Maria Horner flannel, Laurie Wisbrun, Heather Ross, Karen Lewis, Leanne Fanny, Lucie Summers, 5th shelf Quilt backings and random fabrics I can't remember and finally bottom shelf is Home decor weight fabrics and dressmaking fabrics.

There is also a large wicker ottoman stuffed full of home decor weight fabric and another ottoman full of offcuts of batting. Seriously, I have a real problem if I need an ottoman for scraps of batting! I also have 2 large plastic boxes which house my scraps and my WIPs. Let's just say the WIPs box is rather fuller than I would like ;) Now that the room is nearly organised I think I'd better get cracking into that stash! Thanks to Hubby for indulging me with a room all to myself and my fabric addiction, he's a star. Catch you soon x

Just popping in to say...

it is done! The Marcelle Medallion quilt top is all finished and waiting for me to fight with the batting and backing ;) I hope to get some better photos when the daylight returns but I was just so excited to show you what it looks like now. 

I totally underestimated the finished size, it practically fills the void in our upstairs landing. There's just about enough room to move around it when I'm sandwiching it. I absolutely love it as this stage :) I even think I like it enough to do some hand quilting! Catch you soon x

You know where you are with rectangles

Progress on the Marcelle Medallion quilt has been good this week owing to my close friendship with rectangles and squares ;) You know where you are with them and not a flying goose in sight!

 Now that I'm over the stress that was induced by the triangles and flying geese I can look at the quilt without swearing. I think this one might actually be one of my all time favourites!

 I'm on the cross border now and I'm really enjoying it :) Look at all that yummy fabric!

 One row of crosses done... three more to go. I love the way the cross hatch from Lu's Summersville range contains all that riot of colour in the centre :)

I've had really irritating tinnitus since Wednesday so I gave myself a break from thinking and made a mindless Scrappy trip block in Shelburne Falls offcuts left over from making Katy's cushion. I really love this range, it's got something for everyone! Both Shelburne Falls and Chicopee are so much better in real life than they are the computer screen. If you haven't seen them for yourself you can take my word for it ;)

Talking of Katy's cushion, I've entered it in Rachel's Shelburne Falls Contest. There are some fabulous entries over there so make sure you take a look :) Entries are open until Sunday evening so there's still time to enter yourself! I hope all is good where you are. Catch you soon x

If I never see another...

... flying geese block it will be too soon! In the last 5 days I have made 80 of the sodding things and I'm sick to the back teeth of them now! Rant over ;-) In their defense, they do look very pretty but they are so tedious to make. First up was this block for Rachel in the HipBees. Rachel entrusted us with some of her Liberty stash and asked us to make this Puss in the corner block. So that's 8 flying geese right off the bat.

Next up I got round to making the October block from the Fat Quarter Shop BOM. As I've mentioned before I'm rather behind on this one. I received the tenth block today and the one I'm showing you is only block number 5. It's a rather lovely block with another 8 flying geese, taking my total to 16.

The remainder of the flying geese blocks were for my Marcelle Medallion. Before I show you the flying geese I need to show you the other borders. I'm not giving you any close-ups as frankly my piecing is pretty dire. I'm definitely applying Sheila's 20mph rule to this one. The equilateral triangle border should have been a breeze but somehow it finished up too long to line up with the previous border, as I said shoddy piecing. I love the overall effect of the fabrics that I've used and if I don't stare at all the triangles that are missing their points or the ones that actually have four angles then I'm happy with it.

 The next border went on with no problem as there was minimal piecing involved :)

Then it was onto the dreaded flying geese, 64 of the buggers! Again the piecing is shocking, there are points missing all over the place and again the border ended up too long to match with the previous border but the fabrics make it so pretty that I need to give myself a break.  

I had intended to keep track of all the different fabrics that I used in this quilt but that went out the window fairly quickly. I know that I added Tula Pink and Anna Maria Horner to the mix but beyond that I'm past caring ;) I'm sure I won't hold a grudge against the flying geese for too long but I'm steering clear of them for at least a week! Hope all is good where you are. Catch you soon x

Jumping on the band wagon.

This is one band wagon that I just could not resist! I've seen lots of Marcelle Medallions popping up all over the internet and so I bought myself a copy of Liberty Love by Alexia Abegg for Mother's Day so that I could join in. I am determined to fight my usual safe mode of sticking to one collection per project for this one. It's going well so far!

So far I've included fabrics from 6 different designers in the central medallion. I'm going to try to keep count as I go along :) That's Patty Young, Melody Miller, Saffron Craig, Sweetwater, Sandi Henderson and Helen Dardik (I think...correct me if I'm wrong, it's the dot fabric).

The central medallion went together really quickly and I managed to get the first border on too. That's 2 more designers there...Pat Bravo and ???( not sure on the black and white fabric).

I'm very motivated to get this top finished after seeing Mandy's finished Marcelle Medallion in real life at Lynne's last week!! In other news, I attended the inaugral meeting of the East Midlands Modern Quilt Guild on Saturday thanks to Kerry. It was lovely to meet more mad sewing ladies in person, including Di, the HipBees Queen Bee!! Any lovely readers from the East Midlands area that fancy popping along to join in with other like-minded people can find out details in the flickr group. Hope you've all had a good weekend. Catch you soon x

Today...

...I met some internet friends in person! The lovely Laura drove me to Lynne's house for a meeting of ladies known affectionately as the Kitchen Quilt Guild. I've watched their antics from afar for the past couple of years with much envy so to say I was excited today was an understatement. When we pulled up on the drive I was "bricking it" but put on my best I'm not scared face and went to meet the ladies. I needn't have worried they're a lovely bunch! Katy, Mandy, Justine, Trudi, Lynne and Laura all made me very welcome. There was some quilt flaunting....I tried to swipe this Chicopee Scrappy Tripalong from Katy but she wasn't having any of it!

Katy showing off her Chicopee quilt.

Excuse the terrible photo, I wanted to show you all the ladies but only managed to get this dodgy shot of Mandy and Trudi's hand. Lots of chatting and giggling...

Trudi's hand, Mandy and Lynne with Mandy's scrappy tripalong.

...and there was quite a lot of cake munching too.... sorry Justine, I caught you mid-munch with a brownie.

Justine and Laura packing up the leftovers. 

It was Katy's birthday at the weekend so we all handed over presents to keep her happy as she's so high maintenance ;-) Just so we're clear my tongue is firmly in my cheek here! There was much ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the pressies, you'll probably find some of them on the other ladies blogs. My offering was unsurprisingly a cushion which you saw the beginnings of here. I spent the weekend paper piecing 40 of these...

Shelburne Falls and Oakshotts.

 ...and turned them into this Candy Coated Diamonds cushion. The pattern is from Pillow Pop in case you're interested :)

 I backed the cushion with a baby cord that I'd got from Katy in a destash last year.

I have to admit to having a slight problem handing this one over as I love it! I tried all the tricks I know to make Katy hand it back; second hand tissue paper wrapping paper with bits of selotape(?) still attached and a hole in it for extra panache all presented in a dodgy baby pink gift bag a size too small for the present. It was all for nothing though, she still wanted the present, better luck next time ;) Anyway I'm shattered and rambling now but suffice to say it was a lovely day. Catch you soon x

Whoops

Well I didn't fall off the face of the planet but I do appear to have been rather lax in my blogging again. February went by in a blur and there was very little sewing going on. During that time our gorgeous Jess turned 16! I seriously can't believe how quickly life seems to be flying by. When I finally managed to venture into my sewing room the passage of time was demonstrated to me by the number of unopened white packages from the USA. The Fat Quarter Shop BOM that started in June last year has been dropping through my letterbox as regular as clockwork. How hard could it be to make one block a month? Well, in my initial excitement I got 2 blocks done on time...

June 2012 FQS BOM

July 2012 FQS BOM

and since then...not so much...Here are the packages from August up to February.

FQS BOM pile of shame

I've managed to make up 2 blocks from the pile of shame.

August FQS BOM

September 2012 FQS BOM

 I've still a way to go to catch up but I don't feel quite so bad about myself now that I've got 4 blocks made ;) Thankfully I haven't fallen behind in my HipBee commitments! This rather lovely flying geese block is for February's Queen bee, Di. Obviously I mean the fabric and the pattern are lovely and not my execution of it ;) Di trusted us with her precious stash of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. It's going to be one pretty quilt!

Today I sneaked back into the sewing room to start a secret project which I should be able to show you next week. I think it's safe to say it'll be fab...Oakshotts + Shelburne Falls + Pillow Pop = win!!

Catch you soon x