Last of the Month, Last of the Year...

I haven't had a look back over this month's productivity yet, but I crammed in another finish this evening just for luck.

I came home from work to a pretty bundle of fabric from Nicky for our May Siblings Together block...

The twelfth quilt of this wonderful Bee is under construction!  My contribution was sewn up super quickly after tea...

A smashing 18" finished block; thank you Nicky for a lovely choice to top off this year, and thanks as always to all our amazing and generous sponsors...

      

            

      

I have loved every month of this Bee; I am just waiting on a couple more blocks for April and then I am going to go visit my sponsor, Eclectic Maker and choose my backing.

I can't wait to get stitching, so that the quilt will be ready for handing over at Fat Quarterly Retreat in July!

Ferrero Rocher anyone?

Square eyes...

No stitching, just planning...

Nothing to see here, yet xxx

Patchwork pressies...

Two simple patchwork pencil cases ready for the girls to give as birthday presents in a few weekends time...

Some Posy mini charms, along with mirror ball dots for fun(ky) interiors; and not too shabby zipper end tabs, because that is obviously what the 7 year olds will be checking out!

Being so organised will probably mean that I will put them somewhere safe and have a last minute panic trying to find them again!

I am knuckling down for four consecutive days at work, but there'll be a long weekend reward at the end of it; please excuse me if I get progressively grumpy as the week goes by, I am such a lightweight.

Busy doing nothing...

...OK you know that can't possibly be true, but Mr Chimp had a day of rest, as did we all, but I have also managed to turn these...

... into birthday presents for the girls' friends for a few weeks time.  Photo finish tomorrow, I am back comfy on the sofa now, and not planning to move until bedtime.

xxx

Monkey Business...

Mr Chimp went to the library, Waitrose and the garden centre to see the pets today...

We dodged the showers and got home in time to get in some sewing...

My giant Oakshott Carpenter's Star, in case you hadn't guessed the other day; I see more one-block quilts in my future for sure...

I need to get some wadding before I can go any further with this, but it was great to get this far.  I'll give you the full deets when I am done, deal?

Not sure what Mr Chimp wants to do tomorrow, he might end up watching DVDs if the weather forecast is to be believed; I've got my new issue of Love P&Q to read, so I'm in no rush to go out again. xxx

Life is a rollercoaster...

If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that yesterday had its ups and downs!

It wasn't all gadding about and guesting over at Sara's you know.

I went back to work; 'nuff said, albeit that my day was cut short with a hospital visit; a girly with a hurting hip/leg, which is already pretty much better, but that involved waiting for 3 hours, (even having been referred by our GP!), only to be told to come back if it gets worse... we are not going back!

Yes we have that bloody Mr Chimp again!

And then the arrival of a bundle of gorgeous fabric from Denyse Schmidt...

I say from, as in, it really was from Denyse Schmidt she arranged it and everything, because this is her Hadley collection!!  How bloody thrilled and excited am I!?

We exchanged emails a few weeks back, and now I have the full pre-release in my grabby hands...

Sadly no sunny photo opportunities today; loudest clap of thunder at 6am and then rain pretty much non-stop from then until about an hour ago, so you will have to make do with these; but believe me, I'll be getting more snaps as soon as the sun comes out; I need to capture these for prosperity...

And before you all launch in, I know there is a lot of brown, but Denyse does good brown, rich chocolate, none of that stuff that reminds you of babies or really old ladies!

So I am now thinking on what to make; the prints remind me so much of my 1970s childhood, I may have to go with that and run, and run!

OK, I think I have exhausted my supply of exclamation marks for the day a lifetime, so I better love you and leave you.

Here's to a fun and fabric-filled weekend folks xxx

Jaybird Quilts Sew Along

I am over at Sara's today...

So please pop over and take a better look at this little beauty...

... and don't forget to check out all the prizes on offer if you come and join the fun.

xxx

Jaybird Quilts Sew Along...

I am over at Sara's today...

So please pop over and take a better look at this little beauty...

... and don't forget to check out all the prizes on offer if you come and join the fun.

xxx

A Little Oakshotting...

Today I got to play with my Oakshott WiP/FAL listing, and laid the whole lot out on the lounge floor; oh how I love an empty house!

Having perfected the layout, I then stitched and trimmed a tonne of 9" HSTs ready for another day...

This is going to be a fun, summery quilt, which hopefully won't take too long to get finished; I have managed to clear a load of things off my To Do list since the kids went back to school and I hope I won't lose momentum too much after I go back to work tomorrow... groan.

I am not looking forward to that one bit, but thank goodness for May Day and bank holidays in the not too distant future.

#DSTTchallenge revealed...

I am not sure why I have been slacking on this reveal, I am normally rather quick off the mark to toot my own trumpet!  Sorry.

So back at the beginning of the month when I read about the Dear Stella/Timeless Treasures 'modern traditional' challenge, I had one idea in mind, an old fashioned block in modern fabrics, (I can see you all nodding off already!), but I just couldn't get enthused about that.

I went back to basics; in fact I went back to the V&A collection of quilts (online) that had got me so excited about fabrics and sewing and all the things that I now obsess over; I trawled for something to get me going, and one quilt immediately did that...

This was made between 1740 and 1800 and look how modern it looks; it was love at first sight!  None of those brown basket type blocks I immediately think of as traditional.

I decided to recreate this in my DS/TT fabrics along with the quilting, which you can see a bit clearer if you look at the link.  Rotary cut, machine sewn, and purely decorative, a far cry from the original, but using only stash fabrics, I have, I hope, combined the best of what both eras have to offer.

So I cut and randomly stitched rather a lot of tiny pieces from 1.25" strips, using some of my Dear Stella Hadley fabrics, (what else!?), half a dozen different Sketch prints, some How to Make A Pillowcase text and more.

To me, the current love of low volume, text prints and pops of colour is not a long way from what was being sewn in the 18th century!

As per the rules, this quilt is entirely made of Dear Stella and Timeless Treasures fabrics and measures up at 20" square...

... and I even used an almost brown Hadley print for the backing as a further nod to the traditional roots of this mini-quilt...

This was entirely pieced and quilted in Aurifil (50wt 2021), another icon of the modern age of quilting.

I took a batch of photos to try and show off the quilt and the quilting as best as I could...

... and then I had fun with the garden centre models...

I really enjoyed researching and making this, which after all is what it is all about; yep the prizes are amazing, but I think I veered off at such a tangent that I can kiss those goodbye!

This mini-quilt really makes me happy in a way that piecing a non-brown basket block ever could; I call that a success!

I hope you have enjoyed my little foray into trying to be a little bit more meaningful in my stitching, but don't worry, I won't do it too often xxx

Popping in...

Well I am not the only one popping in to say hello today.  Just before 9am this morning we were greeted with the sight of an incoming hot air balloon...

It scooted over the neighbour's roof and came down on the cricket pitch/park at the bottom of our road, much to the surprise, delight and relief of us all!

You don't see that round here everyday; in fact you most usually just don't, especially this early in the day/season and heading south!  I am not a balloon expert, but I am guessing that making this landing was more luck than anything, especially judging by the raised voices and frantic burning that was going on!

And so my real reason for checking in is to direct you over to Sara - Sew Sweetness' blog, for full details of the Jaybirds Quilts Sew Along... yep I have a secret to reveal at last, well on Thursday to be precise!

Do check it out, there's also the opportunity to win some awesome swag if you join in the fun!

I hope you had a good bank holiday if you are in the UK, and a good Monday elsewhere; we went to the beach then shopping for a few Cub camp essentials, hence no sewing.

Tomorrow the kids are back to school, and I'll be home alone in a house still ridiculously full of chocolate; complete bliss!

Happy Easter...

xxx

Love Sewing...

Not only a fact, but a new magazine too!  My subscription copy arrived this morning, complete with Liberty bonus booklet and a FQ of Kirstie fabric!

I had about 2 minutes to flick through it before heading out for a rather bracing Easter Egg hunt; 1 hour of clues and questions, up and down some rather big hills, and all for a cream egg for the kids!  Still, it means I can indulge later with a clear conscience.

So back home and after lunch, I pulled out the FQ and knew exactly what I wanted to make...

I used Svetlana's excellent tutorial to make this drawstring bag.  I haven't made a casing top like this one before, and I like how easy it was and how cool it looks.

The casing and lining were scraps I won from Collette, and they match perfectly, and I knew this was the project to use one of my long-time coveted and ultra-precious kerchief girls from Brit Bee Terri...

Finished off with some aqua ribbon, and only after I had finished, I realised not only was it the same colour, but a perfect fit for my filofax.

I would love to be able to tell you more about the actual magazine, but I haven't had the chance to really look yet.  However tomorrow I only have to cook the Easter lunch, so I am planning on putting my feet up, having a good read, and maybe eating a little chocolate; I am looking forward to it!