Procastination

I have many Christmas things to do.. Cards to write, presents to make, presents to wrap.  Instead of getting on with it, I look at my list, make some notes.  Kind of like making a really good revision timetable, and not doing any revision.  I got fed up with the list so I'm blogging instead! 
Here's the quilt I made for baby Sid.  His mum and dad really liked it (yay!).

We had our home ed co-op Christmas session yesterday.  A couple of us took some crafts along, and another made really delicious little pinwheel pies, and chocolate dipped fruit.  The kids either ran around playing, or made angels, glittery pinecones or paper baubles.  Meg so very much loves glitter and glue.

Today we went to the grotto in town.  It's normally pretty good, especially as it's free.  But today, oh my goodness.  The Father Christmas was awful.  Not big (would some padding have hurt?), not jolly, not chatty. We were there maybe 45 seconds, and there wasn't even a queue of people behind us.  Very disappointing.
The weather is cold cold cold and frosty at the moment.  Yesterday there was a hoar frost, like the world had been painted white.  It was beautiful.  Today is was still frosty, and the canal is frozen over.

...and a craft update....

I've been busy making things all summer.  Here's a quick round up:

Craftsy block of the month.  I'm up to date!  Well, I haven't done September, but it's only the 1st today.

My brother and his wife had a baby boy in July, and I made him a little quilt.

I knitted a square for a community blanket organised by the Natural Mamas forum.

I received some *gorgeous* yarn from a co-op (indie dyer Family Pendragon) and so far have made hats for Betsy and Meg, and a cardi for Meg.  There's much more to come from this particular stash!

Jellyroll race quilt

I heard about a jellyroll race quilt on Natural Mamas, a forum I'm a member of.  I loved the idea, and followed this tute to make one.  I used a Moda dark palette jellyroll.   I made the quilt top in just under 3 hours, and then left it sitting in my 'to do' pile for 3 months.
I finally got my act together this week, as I wanted to finish it and give it to Freddie for his birthday.  I'd bought some batman fabric, and made a pieced back with some navy kona and light blue kona.  I embroidered a little message on the light blue, and did a scrappy binding with the rest of the dark blue and some red I found in my fabric stash.
He really likes it!  He prefers the batman side, so he uses that side as the top.  I don't mind which side is the top, I'm happy to see him snuggled under it!

A new quilt

I've made a quilt for my friend Rachael's 40th birthday.  It was pretty straight forward, and used a Moda Wonderland layer cake.  I used the Easy Bake pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I'm very happy with it, thought the binding is not great.  It's my quilting Achilles heel!

Next on my quilt list is Freddie's jelly roll race quilt.  The top is done, it just needs basting, quilting and (eek) binding.

Adventures in quilting (rock and roll!)

I used to go out on a Saturday night, in the olden days.  Now I stay in and knit, or sew.  With a glass of wine by my side!


I've done the next two blocks of the Craftsy Block of the Month.  It was triangles this month, magic triangles for the first one and traditionally pieced triangles for the second one.

Here they are all together.  I'm very pleased with how it's looking so far.

I made a jelly roll race quilt top this weekend.  It's fab - one jelly roll plus 3 hours gets you this:

I've ordered some batman fabric to make the backing, along with some dark blue and pale blue.  It's coming from the US so I'll have to wait for a couple of weeks.  It's for Freddie, I'm really looking forward to finishing it for him.

A new quilting project

I've been sewing tonight.  After a break from the sewing machine and lots of evenings doing crochet or knitting, it's been lovely to sew again.

Craftsy are doing a free online quilting course, Block of the Month  
Each month you make two quilt blocks and by the end of the year you've made 20 odd blocks and quilted it.  Great idea!
I'm using fabric from my stash, though I did order some ruby red plain fabric to use too.


The first two blocks are 'sew and slash', quite quick and easy to make.  


Here is the asterisk block:

and the wonky hash tag:

I'm looking forward to the next two blocks!

At long last, my finished kaleidoscope quilt

Well, I started in June. I intended to give it to mum for her retirement present at the end of July. And then I stalled.

I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, so I could finish it for mum's birthday. And I did it - only just! It was off the sewing machine and into the washing machine at midnight, so I could give it to her in the morning.

It has some major issues with the binding, so much so that I think I'll rebind it at some point. But on the whole I'm really pleased with it. More to the point, so is mum.

Kaleidoscope QAL - some progress

I'm running slightly behind on this due to the holiday last week and kids illness this week.

I've pieced and ironed just over half of the printed triangles, and decided on the design. This sounds like I spent some time on it! It's pretty much the first layout I tried, but I liked it. I'm working to deadline so thought I'd stick with what I had.


I'm making it for my mum, who retires later this month. I really think she'll like it. I think I'm going to order a label I can sew into it, with the date and her name.

I'm looking forward to getting to the next part and making up the blocks.

Kaleidoscope QAL begins

Woo hoo! I spent a couple of hours cutting 240 triangles last night. I'm very pleased with how the fabrics work together. I'm going with the 'scrappy' approach rather than making it more coordinated.


I still have the 120 small triangles to cut, but we're away from tomorrow for a few days, so I'll catch up next weekend.

Find out more about the quiltalong at Don't Call Me Betsy

My first anythingatall-along: Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along

I've never done anything like this before. A lovely mama from the NMs forum posted about the quilt-along at Don't Call Me Betsy , and it coincided with me wanting to make a quilt for my mum's retirement present.

So I ordered some gorgeous looking fabric from Sew Fresh Fabrics at etsy. They were very helpful, messaged me a photo of the fabrics so I could see how they looked together, and were just generally fab.

My parcel of loveliness arrived less than a week after I ordered it.


I have half a yard each of Soul Blossoms Peacock Feather in Sea Glass, Snail Scallop in Aqua, Turtle Bay in Coral, Cartwheel in Lime, Hugs and Kisses in Pink Lime, Coreopsis in Moss, Triflora in Lipstick, and Summer Totem in Graprefruit, and Mingle Polka Dot in Hot Pink . The backing is summer tolem in Streudal, and I have Jade green for my neutral.


I'm so pleased it arrived before the 23rd, when the cutting instructions are posted.