Cherished moments.....

........  long waited for never to be forgotten.  We'd been looking forward to it but were holding our breath in case it didn't happen.  Trying to keep a lid on our excitement so as not to be too disappointed.  Thankfully, most thankfully in fact, it started on Sunday evening and lasted until Tuesday evening and was such a lovely time, I can hardly put it into words. I've been trying to write this post all week and only now feel that I can express myself.  Regular readers will understand why when I tell you.  Here goes:

                           JESS CAME TO STAY FOR TWO NIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We worked it out...... it's been over five years since she was even remotely well enough for sleepovers. In fact, she has very rarely been well enough to leave her own home.... a trip around the corner to see us was a far off dream.  So, this has been a really big event for us all and most certainly a time to be cherished and diarised. I somehow knew that you would be happy for us too.  

     Here she is chilling out listening to Rammstein in the evening while Ralph and I watched the rugby.

We had lazy days.... sitting in bed until one in the afternoon reading books and blogs and chatting...... then lunch together,  such a treat................ and a quiet sit in the garden watching the wildlife and flowers, Jess's photos are much better than mine!!!

Bet you can't guess which are mine!!!  

                                                                 Birds nesting in the hedge.   

                                                            Cheeky squirrel after the peanuts.
                           
  I know ..... it's a rubbish  photo....  I told you Jess' were much better!! Bear with me... I'm excited and want to give you a taste of our days............ 

                                                   Checking out the new shoots and flowers

And our afternoons were spent resting and enjoying being together, looking at old photos and watching home movies from when she was little.

          Seconds after this shot the hat was flung away and she let us know in no uncertain terms that baby                                 girls did not belong in flowerpots!!!  No matter how cute they looked. :-)

 We had such a lovely time together, we are both wiped out after it but it was bliss just being with her and I will treasure the memories always. Thank you Jess. 

And because no post is complete without fabric photos, here's the tote bag I made for Jess as part of her birthday present.  

 















 Rachel Ashwell fabrics sewn crazy patchwork style, trimmed with lace and ribbons and machine embroidered with pastel pink aurifil thread.  

The icing on the cake for me was using part of a handkerchief that I had bought for Mum with an 'N' embroidered on it, you can just see it in the top right hand corner.  :-)

So there we are, thank you for listening to my ramblings.. I really do appreciate it.. I'll be back next week with a little giveaway that I'm working on....  Until then, take care and happy sewing. Xxx

Liberated sewing

This weekend I gave myself some much needed time off from quilt making and deadlines :) Instead I turned my hand to sewing clothes. I've always been mind-boggled by the process of dressmaking and my past attempts at it have mainly been child sized. Last year I bought a heap of Sew Liberated patterns from Backstitch and vowed I'd get a grip on dressmaking. Since then the patterns have mainly been gathering dust on my shelf. I finally bit the bullet and opened up the Esme top pattern...

...it wasn't long before I had all the pieces cut out and ready to go :) I had a large cut of Liberty, that Mum had bought me in the New Year sales last year, that was perfect!

The highlight of this pattern is it comes with a detailed step-by-step video! I honestly can't recommend it highly enough! All the gobbledygook (to me, anyway) written instructions were sidelined for the videos, and within 2 sewing sessions Jess has a new top! It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I think it's fair to say that Jess will be able to wear it out in public without people laughing at the homemade top she's wearing.

 The buttonholes were a bit squiffy but it's not too obvious now the the buttons are in place and the pattern almost matches :)

 I love the lines of this top. The sleeves are so pretty with their cuffs.

I felt particularly smug when Jess tried it on for me, (excuse the pouty teenage face, not best pleased at being roped into a photo shoot), because it fits!

Spurred on by this success I have spent this afternoon cutting out another pattern, for myself this time, but that can wait for another day :) Catch you soon x

Hexiestars

After finishing my last hand sewing project I was keen to get cracking on another one :) So, I had an idea that I'd like some sort of star. A bit of fiddling around, on TouchDraw on the iPad, later I had this plan.

 With my new found love of gluebasting it wasn't long before I had it ready to sew together in fabric form.

I sew all the thin triangle pieces to the central hexie then fill in with the larger grey triangles. They are quick, fun and addictive :)

I've been showing my progress on Instagram and quite a few people had asked where I got the pattern from so I thought I'd share the templates here for anyone that might fancy a go at there own :) If you do have a go I'd love to see! #hexiestars

You'll find the EPP template pdf here

Catch you soon x

An awesome finish!

Fair warning, this is a photo heavy post!

Today the postman delivered the most awesome package from Trudi! I had handed over my precious Not-so Lonestar quilt to Trudi at the last meeting of the East Midlands Modern Quild Guild. My vague instructions to Trudi for quilting were "all-over feathers, just do your thing." I've seen Trudi's work in person before, it is fabulous but nothing really prepared me for how awesome my quilt would look once she had worked her magic! When I opened the parcel this was my first peek at what was in store for me.

There was much squealing and petting of fabric. There were almost, but not quite, tears and lots of crack your cheekbone grinning! Take a look at these next few photos of the corner stars...

 ...I mean WOW!

There were all kinds of bias issues in the centre of those stars but you'd never know it now! Here's the centre of the Lonestar... again no sign of my dodgy bias issues. Those feathers are perfect!!

Here's a close-up...

...the texture is amazing!! I asked for a grey thread as I wanted it to blend in with the riot of colour in the fabrics. Aurifil to the rescue of course ;) 

I had cleared my afternoon to make sure I could get on with the binding, all 10 and a bit metres of it! I was lazy in the end and applied the binding by machine. I justified that to myself by wanting it to stand up to the many washes that it will undergo in its lifetime. I fully intend for this to be a well loved and well used quilt! I took my time to make sure it was as neat as it could be. Front..

 and back.

Then it was time to dress the bed :) I think we need a bigger bed. It's very difficult to get the whole quilt in the shot!

Here's a final shot of it from another angle :)

It's safe to say that this is my most favourite quilt to date! Trudi's quilting has pushed this quilt into the stratosphere! I am so proud of our combined efforts :) Enough of my gushing for now. Thank you Trudi, you rock! Catch you soon x

Diamonds, kites and stars - The free pattern

Well guys and gals there was enough interest in the pattern for me to knuckle down and get it written :) I've added the pattern as a page at the top and the blog. You'll find links at the bottom of the pattern to a PDF version, along with PDF versions of the paper templates.

In a weekend of madness I've gone ahead and chopped a very limited number of scrap packs from my rather fabulous (even if I say so myself) stash. Many of the prints I used in these two cushions are included in the scrap packs which you will find in our Etsy shop. There are only 3 pink, orange red and radiant orchid (purple) packs and 3 navy, green and radiant orchid packs. I have learnt that I don't really enjoy cutting up fabric knowing that I'm not going to be sewing with it, so you can rest assured that scrap packs from me are going to be as rare as rocking horse poo!

As always I'd love to see any WIPs or finishes of this pattern so please do feel free to email me or upload a picture to our flickr group or use the hashtag #diamondskitesandstars on Instagram. There might even be a special little something for the first person who finishes their own version...   

I hope you've all enjoyed the weekend. Catch you soon x

Diamonds, kites and stars revisited

After making my first Diamonds, kites and stars cushion someone suggested that I should enter it in to the Pantone Quilt Challenge. Unfortunately as I'd started making it last year it wasn't a candidate for submission, so I resolved to make another one to enter. Rather than bore myself senseless by making an exact replica I went for a different colour scheme. The Radiant Orchid was a prerequisite (being the Pantone colour of the year) and I decided to throw blue and green into the mix this time.

I crazy straight line quilted with a 'radiant orchid' Rowan thread. Slightly tricky to capture the colour in the photo but I'm sure you can imagine it ;)

I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned it out! I couldn't resist taking this shot on our bed with the original cushion. It would appear I have a thing purple...who knew? ;) 

This time around I tweaked a few things in the construction process and was delighted how well it went together. I've taken loads of process photographs and I'm now contemplating writing a pattern for it. I'm taking a straw poll here: Would anyone out there be interested in the pattern and/or a scrap kit to make your own? I promise not to be offended :) 

I've got a ton of sewing to get done this month so I'll hope to be back with updates on progress soon. Catch you soon x

Edited to add: This cushion finished up around 18" square :) Free pattern now available here.

As I sit writing this..........

......there is a blue sky and a little sunshine peeking through here and there.  The birds are flitting hither and thither. I love that word.. thither...it makes my tongue tickle when I say it.  Go on try it and see...  Go on ...  See it does doesn't it?  And, in my head, it conjures up times gone by, Jane Austen, Elizabeth and Darcy *sigh* ... anyway.. the garden is beginning to throw up shoots and there is that promise of better days to come.  Spring... I am really longing for it this year! I am thoroughly tired of Winter and will be very pleased to see the end of it!! And I'm sure I'm not alone.

We had a pretty busy January working on the house.  Apart from doing a little in my sewing room Ralph tore out dodgy fitted wardrobes in the guest room and sorted out wiring, took out a sink and built a lovely roomy airing cupboard. He redecorated and I made curtains from some vintage Laura Ashley fabric I'd had for ages. We bought a new carpet and  now that the furniture is in and I've added the finishing touches we are really pleased with it. ......Ha...I just read that back and it sounds like we worked like a team doesn't it?  In truth, we don't that often.  He likes everything to be his idea and I know that I couldn't possibly agree with him...or we'd both be wrong..  I'm not sure who coined that phrase but it perfectly describes us.  Our tastes seem poles apart and we have to spend a ridiculous amount of time getting to a compromise.  But we usually do, fortunately. :-) Just a couple of photos of the finished room for you. 
Before...

Airing cupboard before

...and after airing cupboard.

Close up of the Curtains and tie backs

The finished room!

Finished room 

On the proper sewing front, as opposed to boring sewing, I've started a few things and have been working on the WIP's for the finish along with Katy. Unfortunately, I haven't done as much as I had hoped to.  The lurgy that I mentioned Ralph had come down with, in my last post, developed into some awful Noro type virus that made him more ill than he has ever been in the over thirty years I've known him.  He even stayed home for two weeks which is unheard of....And spent one and a half of them in bed apart from two hourly crawls to the loo.  I know I can hear you saying it "TMI",Yvonne way more information than you needed!!!!   Matron would have been so pleased with me though, my hands are still stinging from all the antic bac rub, anti bac soap, Milton, bleach and anti bac wipes that I scoured everything with all day.  I tell you, I even anti bac wiped the bleach bottle!!!!!

So, to my projects.... I made a quilt top and backing for Mackinlay's birthday and started something for a newly 17 year old too.  Both have been abandoned until I regain my energy levels as they are at almost zero now and both projects are machine made and I can't face that at the mo. So I'll tell you about those another time.

But I have done quite a bit to the quilt that I'm making with my 2011 Fresh Modern Bee 2 blocks.   
I have used Cindy Lammon's  book 'Gathered from the Garden' as my inspiration.

 The fabric is Oasis by 3 Sisters for Moda. Really like their fabrics designs.  each of the bee blocks were 12" squares with flowers either appliqued or pieced onto them. Most particularly I'm using Cindy's quilt 'My Secret Garden' as a focus.

I'm placing the bee blocks throughout the quilt and building in elements to connect them all together. Some of it is from the book and some of it is improv and it's a combination of piecing and applique. 

It's very liberating to have no pre planned ideas and I'm forcing myself to NOT overthink every piece.   Way out of my comfort zone but I am thoroughly enjoying it....surprisingly..... 

Close up right

Close up left

I'm almost a third of the way through it, I would think, so I'm beginning to believe that it might be a quilt top by the end of the year!!  

I love that I'm connecting the others ladies work into something for me and am so grateful to all of them for the blocks and for inviting me to join in their bee. I'm really pleased with it thus far, what do you think?

Hopefully, I'll feel up to adding a little more this week even if it's only some applique.  We'll see.

So that's me for today.  Thank you so much for stopping by and keeping me company.  Hope you have a good week.

Take good care of yourselves.

 Happy sewing. Xxx