Tiny touches of Christmas

We are slowly getting ready for Christmas in our house.
As we are having our windows replaced in the week before Christmas (it seemed like a good idea at the time) our main decorating will have to wait until afterwards as it seems silly to add to the chaos, but I have managed to get a few little hints of Christmas out.

I had the day off work today with a cold and I pulled out a little day project that I could do with little concentration and with a lot of enjoyment. It turned out to be a good day for quilting as our boiler broke this morning =( so I tucked up in front of our log burner with Max and we sewed the day away.

It was very productive and Hubby was surprised to see my table mat finished. 

I look forward to putting our tree up in a couple of weeks, but for now these few hints will have to do

Now back to the sewing table... I am still crazily making Christmas presents. Two quilts waiting for binding and one waiting for basting...It's going to be a busy December.

Clearing up!

I decided a couple of week's ago that my sewing space wasn't working for me. I use our spare bedroom but when we have guests would love everything to be packed away and for everything to have a home.
I discussed with hubby and we decided that I needed more storage space, some shelves and a new desk. I looked online and found a great desk which would fold flat against the wall and we went straight out to the hardwear store for some shelves and baskets etc.
All was going so well until the drill came out. Hubby drilled the first hole and all the plaster started to fall away. Then he drilled another hole and the same happened. He eventually managed to get some screws into the massive holes he had created and get the shelf bracket up, but it fell out straight away. The holes couldn't even hold the weight of the brackets let alone the shelves or anything on them. I was hugely disappointed as I realised that not only could I not have the shelves, the desk was also out of the picture, as it screwed into the wall.
After much disappointment, I had a great idea. My old desk would have worked fine with a few tweaks and would quite happily hold a very large cutting mat. Off I went to my local craft shop and bought myself a new mat. I wanted all of my rulers and my rotary cutter to hand so I put loads of hooks on the wall and hung them all up. I have a small basket on the side for my on the go bits and pieces which my laptop sits on nicely out of the way. All was looking good...

I put a quilt on our sofa bed which was made by my mother-in-law (GORGEOUS!!) which ties the two ends of the room together, but I had a small space behind my desk which was missing something.

Then discussing with my mum over the weekend, she told me that she had a sewing cabinet at my Grandad's house, which he would be needing to get rid of before he moves into a smaller house and would I like it (DUH!). It belonged to my great-grandmother originally and is a bit bashed up but fits like a glove in my little room-and Max still has room for his bed! It will need a bit of fixing up but I have plans for that (more later...)

Now all I need to do is get sewing =)

Autumn is approaching

We are feeling the start of autumn here at the moment which means that all I want to do is sit inside and hand sew with a cup of hot chocolate and a good film. I have finally got into the Sopranos (I know really behind the times) and I am madly sewing Christmas presents for my family. Two presents are done, one is waiting basting and quilting (I hate basting) and one is miles behind the rest.
We have turned our clocks back this week which means I have a few more weeks of light mornings with Max. It is nice to be able to run around in the park with him and let him wear himself out.

This morning the trees were really showing the start of turning (it all happens so quickly and before we know it we will be at Christmas)

In true Halloween style, I think a night on the sofa with 'The Nightmare before Christmas' and some quilt binding. Nothing scary as hubby is out for the evening =)

Enjoy Halloween!!!

Local talent

The Cambridge Quilters had a quilt exhibition last weekend which was fantastic. They are a group of very talented quilters and I hope one day to be as skilled as many of them.
A few highlights of the show were...

My little helper

I have the best little quilting apprentice in the world. I call him my inspector and he will quickly tell me if I am doing anything wrong...

He watches my machine quilting...

He shows me how to lay the quilt flat on the floor properly...

and he checks that i'm basting it correctly...

How did I ever get by without my little helper??

Back to normality with a bump

Hubby and I decided to have a last minute break to Turkey to enjoy the sunshine and have a good relax. It was wonderful and I could not recommend it enough to anyone. The people there are lovely and the hotel we stayed at was so luxurious. Neither of us tend to do beach holidays, but this time we loved every second of it and a week was no where near long enough.

Max was very glad to see us when we got home, but I think a week of playing with his buddy Megan tired him out. We didn't hear a peep from him in the back of the car on the way back from the hotel and he stayed like this for the morning (close enough to my suitcase to make sure we weren't going away again without him)

On the day we got home, I asked hubby if we could go to our local department store and have a look at sewing machines as mine was really not doing everything I wanted and I would like a new one for Christmas. I had been eyeing up the Singer 160 Anniversary machine which is only on sale in the UK in John Lewis but I took one look at it and realised it was wrong for me. It is a beautiful machine, but too big and not enough features that I would want to use. The lovely sales assistant spent a long time chatting through options and I decided that I still wanted a Janome. She did me a special deal and 20 minutes later it was strapped to the back of my bike heading home before hubby could change his mind...

It does make my old Janome look tiny, but already it is performing wonderfully. I love how it sews and as I have stuck with Janome nothing feels too different. I will have to play with it a lot before I feel very confident on it, but already I love it.

Now all it needs is a name...

The best day of the year

Last Thursday I went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham. I woke up more excited than I do on Christmas Day!!! It was a fantastic day and the exhibitors had some beautiful items. As usual my shopping bag was way too full. I think I have managed to stock up for another year (well maybe for part of another year =) )

Photos of the quilt show to come later ...

What a wonderful start to the weekend

I found out this morning that I have won Rosalie Quinlan's giveaway of her Scandinavian Rose pattern!



I LOVE Rosalie's patterns and have done 3 of her stitcheries in the last 6 months so this makes me a very happy girl.


Max and I are having a quilting weekend while hubby is away being active in the countryside =)

I think I will have a big grin for the rest of the day =)

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Still here and busy =)

Needless to say with a 4 month old puppy our house is chaos at the moment. We can barely turn our backs without Max getting into mischief, but he is so adorable that it is impossible to be cross for long. He is a diva when the camera comes out and I only normally manage to get a flash of his black and white fur. This is one of the few photos where he was lying still- I think a spider caught his attention and distracted him.

We have decided to update our computer system in our house, as we now spend all our time downstairs (Max is strictly a downstairs dog) so we are in the midst of changing round and setting up =(. I hate changing systems so it will be interesting to see how we get on.

The sewing machine has been surprisingly busy though, with three quilt tops and a couple of stitcheries finished. These are the photos from my phone-more to follow when I can connect up my camera to the computer properly.

I made this quilt for a friends baby and loved it so much I decided I needed one for myself. This is my one half sewn. It is now waiting for basting and quilting.

For last month's sew-in Sunday on Connected Threadz I dived into my stash and pulled out a pile of Christmas fabrics. These have been in there since I first started quilting and I have held out cutting into them, but I bit the bullet and cut away. I'm really pleased with this and can't wait until we can get it out at Christmas. (apologies for the rubbish photo)

I am also attempting to make quilts for my family's Christmas presents this year (it seemed like such a good idea in January) so those are now going to be my focus projects. I have decided that I don't work well flitting between all of my fabric stash, so I must finish a project before I start on the next. It is working and I am managing to clear my stash out successfully. Let's see if I can be as strong when i'm at the Festival of Quilts next month.

A wonderful start to the weekend =)

I went home at lunchtime to give our monster his lunch and a run-a-round in the garden and a wonderful package was waiting on my doorstep.
Last week I had ordered some patterns from Patchwork Orange in Australia and it arrived today-YAY!

I love these patterns as they are sooo girly, and I though my niece might like the fairy on a swing stitchery.

These will go into my suitcase for our holiday to Cornwall. Our poor car won't know what has happened with the weight of all of my sewing equipment as I am also going to a day's quilting course while away with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. I can't wait as it is my first ever course.

The weather is gorgeous here, so I will make sure to enjoy every second out in the garden.

Tomorrow we have puppy class number 2 (hopefully not as disasterous as class number 1) which will be much nicer in the sunshine.

Enjoy your weekends everyone =)

Making a house a home

As we have now lived in our little house for over a year it was really overdue for me to start making some pretties for my walls. It is nice having the quilts about, but I wanted something to brighten up our cream (and very plain) walls in our living room.
I fell in love with this kit from Euro Japan Links at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year and it has been in my pile of things to do for ages because I was really scared of the applique.

Hubby went out for a day and I set to work on this. Although it did take a long while, I loved every minute of working on it and am quite tempted to buy another to make for my parents.

In last month's issue of cross stitcher I saw this cross stitch and knew I had to make it. It hangs above our coat hooks and is the first thing you see when you come in our front door. I love it and was so happy with it.

In very old news, I completed this little stitchery which I had started 2 years ago. All it needed was a few french knots and framing. It sits in a little nook in our spare bedroom, which can only been seen from the bed.

We have family coming to stay this weekend and hopefully we will get to take Max out on his first walk. Fingers crossed the sun stays out and some of the mud in our swamp of a garden can dry out =)

Enjoy!!

Distractions

This blog has had to take a little bit of a rest for a very good reason...

We have had a new addition to our family. Max is a 10 week old Cockapoo who is soooo gorgeous and I can't get enough of him. He hates having his photo taken, but this is the best of many blurry, fuzzy photos, normally of him shooting past. Hopefully once he settles down a little, he will let me take a photo.

The sewing room was a hive of activity with many new finished pieces and I promise I will blog soon to show you.

I'd better get back to this naughty bundle of fluffy cuteness =)

Spring is in the air

Finally spring seems to be poking its head up.
I love this season and try to make sure I have spring flowers in vases as much as possible.
I feel a spring clean coming on!

Finally- a quilt of my own

In between all my friends having babies I have never had time to make a quilt for Hubby and I.
I decided to change this about 6 months ago, and bought the fabrics but never really got round to making the quilt. About a month ago, inspiration took over and I started cutting and took over our living room when Hubby was away on business. Last night, I finally finished piecing the top.

(Sorry for the bad quality photo-taken with Iphone this morning in my excitement)

We have decided that this is not going to be a quilt for our bed, but will be a HUGE wall hanging as we have a large white wall we have never found the right size picture for.

I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew as it is so large (Floor to ceiling square) and I only have a tiny sewing machine, but I have decided on a nice simple straight line quilting pattern which should compliment the piecing nicely. I'll save that for a rainy day though =)

My favourite... So far

My grandad is a wonderful person and treats me like a princess.
We have always been very close and when I starting quilting I really wanted to make a quilt for him. He is in his late eighties and since my nan died six years ago, has adapted to do everything for himself.
I saw moda's range 'twiggy' and thought this was very apt for him as his surname is Wood. So two jelly rolls and some yardage made this...

I love this quilt and he likes it so much it is in his guest bedroom where everyone can see it.
I can't always be with my grandad as much as I would like but it is nice to think that he can have a visual reminder that I do think about him a lot when he is not with me.

I'm still here

Sorry for such a long absence.
I have been unwell for many months with a suspected stress related illness and it has really knocked the wind out of my sails. I am now working with doctors to find a way to help me and I am so grateful to have a caring GP who seems to understand that being unwell is severely affecting my life.
Crafts have still been going on in our house and I will report back with pictures later.
Back really soon (I promise!)