Holy making Batman!

I'm afraid the shortest day, and not a second's respite from the rain, wind and clouds, and having to have the lights on all day* means shocking photos!

So as best as I could...

The individual Batman and Robin blocks measure up at 10", 3" of sashing and I did that reverse french seam edging so it looks like binding, sort-of, but no raw edges on the inside.

So the 'black' is Charcoal Sketch flannel, the background is Kona Aqua and the faces are some unknown off-white from a scrap bag, all from Simply Solids.

The back is a simple envelope in more of the flannel.  I added fusible fleece to the back of the blocks and then top stitched to keep it from going anywhere soon; so inside looking tidy, and fancy on the outside.

The girls snuck in-progress peeks, and the consensus was that there will be a happy boy opening this up on Christmas.  Result.

We had visitors and swapped pressies, ate chocolate biscuits and watched Christmas films, and I managed to get the remaining 7 table mats quilted - finishing them will be easy now after the miles of straight-lining.

My Brit Bee secret santa cushion cover arrived, (well I am assuming!), and has been popped under the tree for the big day, and hubby made an executive decision for Fish & Chips for tea.  I wore my lovely Christmas jumper too, and when I took it off, *the power went off for over an hour, I am not sure what to make of that!

So that's enough excitement for today, time for a Lemsip and the last of the choccy bics; phew. xxx

Twiddly diddly dee - twiddly diddly dee...

See what I did there...

Since photographing Robin, I went on and made Batman, and have just finished turning the dynamic duo into a cushion - woo hoo!  Photos to come tomorrow.

The paper-pieced patterns, freebees, are fantastic, the only unpicking I did was due to my stingy cutting, and even using dark grey Sketch flannel caused no problems.

I will go into a bit more detail with the grand reveal tomorrow; I am going to rest my bunged up head for now, I have one of those colds that makes your teeth ache and lips split; still no more waiting at the school gate for a while, and I do not need to leave the house until Monday!

The outlaws are popping round in the morning, then all I have to do is finish the 7 table mats, wrap a few straggling presents and relax.

I have abandoned the basting plan, but hexies have been cut and if the urge takes me, I have something to keep my fingers occupied with, should I tire of eating chocolates, (like that will ever happen!).

Hello my deer!

I mentioned yesterday that the cushion for my Dad's birthday was finished, so here you are...

I'm sorry, dodgy indoor photos are all you can have I'm afraid, and now it is all wrapped up and ready for delivery tomorrow.

This is a fantastic pattern, and easy to piece, even with my mechanical complications; so if you are thinking about it, stop right now, and get on with it! 

I used some great crossweave fabric I got at C&H, really soft and I love the way the colours change in the light.  I picked up some grey and aqua too.  A little light quilting with green Aurifil 40wt, having backed the front panel with some lightweight fusible fleece.  Simple envelope back, and a 16" insert.  Done.

So another tick; plus I just finished the hexie panel for my Mum's Christmas cushion, and sorted through all the bags of pressies I have been snaffling away for the last month.  I have all the supplies I need to make the last Christmas presents, so my plan to be finished by this time next week doesn't seem so crazy after all!

I hope you all have a peaceful weekend; my thoughts, as I suspect yours are too, are with all those poor families in Newtown, Connecticut.

My 12.12.12

Loving the date!  If only it had all been so perfect.

Last night the heating decided to switch off at 7pm and not come back on for love, money nor swearing loudly.  So we went to bed early, but I was so annoyed, and cold, I could not sleep, so I was up at 5am, again switching the thermostat, timer and boiler on and off again.  After doing the packed lunches and de-icing the cars, minus 4 degrees, at 7am I finally got the bloody thing to work again; so at least I was warm after the sleety school run.

I set to making my Dad's birthday cushion.  As soon as I saw Julianna's paper-pieced Not So Spring Deer pattern linked up as part of Jennifer's Deck The Halls blog hop, I knew it was going to be the one!

I printed, taped and cut my paper templates; traced onto freezer paper, cut and affixed those and then cut all my fabric, all with a decent amount of time left before Nativity-duty; so I plugged in my sewing machine; tried to wind a bobbin, foot to the metal... nothing.

More swearing, switching on and off again, fiddling about and then I saw this...

The foot pedal cable had pretty much sheered off at the point it goes into the box!  Arrrrgh!!  How???  With a little perseverance, wiggling and squeezing, I could get it to work, but having to use my hand not foot, making precise paper-piecing a little interesting to say the least!

Well I managed the cushion top before heading out, which I am completely pleased and relieved about!  And I reserved a replacement pedal at The Sewing Machine Shop, which kind hubby duly collected and bought home with him after work so I could get on.

To cheer my day, I did receive a lovely parcel from Julie of The Intrepid Thread; I won this bundle of lovelies from Market in her Thanksgiving Giveaway...

I love those mini Charm packs so much, and I got some Posy, so very very happy about that.

The Nativity assistance was relatively painless, and I got to sneak into the back and watch today's performance; hubby and I are officially in the audience tomorrow.  My girls did great, more on that tomorrow, but who could hold back a tear, standing next to the headmaster whilst he sang along to Take That's Rule The World!?

So there you go, the reason I have lots of emails waiting for replies and blogs to be read, and I want to get the cushion finished before bed; the binding is on.  I am so tired, I feel like I have jet-lag, but needs must... so I'll be off xxx

The start of something secret...

I have been busy pondering my next strip-block for the secretive Stitch Tease International Bee, as this month I am making for our Bee-Mama Di.

Di has asked for a paper-pieced, word-influenced quilt.

So after dithering and changing my mind a dozen times, I have finally started, slowly...

... I think it is going to take a bit of time to get the full 72" wide block made!

And following on from my embroidery posts, and all things less stressful, please pop over to lovely Lucy's if you fancy trying to win yourself a Sublime Stitching embroidery pattern, you know you want to xxx

5.4.3.2.1!

Over the last couple of days I have been working on the final FPPFTT piece, the rocket, and turning said rocket into a cushion for dear son.

He chose the colours when he got back from my parent's on Wednesday; OK, he was given a rather limited colour palette it has to be said.  Anyway snatching a few hours here and there, I got it made, saving the binding until last night, for the perfect sewing end to the week.

I admit this is not my finest paper-piecing, sorry Katy; I used all Klona, and I think on such small pieces its' stiffness is its', or rather my downfall; pressing was not so effective; some of the seams mismatch because of it, but not enough to raise complaints from the recipient.  I didn't have to unpick any seams, so I am pleased with it for that reason too.

I added some craters to the moon, a few stars and a planet just to break up the solids...

Simple envelope back; 16" cushion pad and ready for lift off!

This is number 2 out of 5 on my FAL list - so I have beaten the last quarter already in less than a week!

Next mission, finishing my Retro Flowers background cutting; this involves concentration, and over the last fortnight with the house full of kiddies, this has been seriously lacking!

I've also started pulling fabrics and cutting the linen for my FQ Retreat swapsies; I am heading down the Zakka Style route; so maybe more on that tomorrow, unless anything unexpected and totally exciting happens in the meantime!

Happy Saturday everyone x

Paper Paper Everywhere!

I am loving all this paper-piecing I have got embroiled in.

Last night I worked on the third block of Katy's Foundation Paper Piecing For The Terrified, and I think I did OK...

I wasn't consciously planning on a square in the middle, which is fortuitous really, because it isn't, but it was fun none-the less!

Then this morning, after a stint reading at school, I made a teacup to go with Ceri's Teapot for her February Brit Bee wall hanging.  I used Leila's pattern, scaled it down a bit so that it was smaller than the teapot and left out the beautiful heart from the original as the pieces came out so teeny tiny small I didn't want to push my luck.

Hope these meet with your approval Ms Feb.

Although not paper pieced, I then spent this evening making a couple of dancing girls for Judith and Sarah's Bee Blessed which I will show you tomorrow.

But that's not all!  I got mail.  My brilliant winnings from Isisjem's Jan; a Melody Miller/Keyka Lou wristlet with a tale to tell, some great key fob hardware, and maybe some chocolate... there is photographic evidence, but I can't find it anywhere now.

              

Jan also enclosed a lovely notecard with this felted embellishment...

Thank you Jan, I know this was not the simple giveaway you were hoping for, but it turned out beautifully.  Aren't I a lucky duck!

A Little Bit of Magic!

OK, not really, I could do with a cooking, cleaning and sleeping spell right now, my first emotionally-stable day off in weeks and I am exhausted.

As I am sure all you Mums will know already, tomorrow is World Book Day, so as is customary round these parts, all the children will be going to school dressed as book characters.  Last year I created the Where's Wally extraordinaire, for dear son, this year he wants to be Dumbledore.

So out came the Nativity outfit, perfect robes eh, and this morning I made some accessories to match, hat, hair and beard...

The fitting went down well, I just have to tweak Meg and Mog in the morning!

I did do some proper sewing too - one large (10"x 57"currently) block that I will show you on Friday, and I also started on my March Brit Bee block(s).

As soon as I found out it was kitchen-related paper-piecing, I bagsied Kerry's teapot from Fat Quarterly 8; so this morning all full of bravado I made one!

Ceri is this OK?

All went to plan, maybe a couple of pieces unpicked as I picked up the wrong bit, but no pinning, smaller pieces and minimal swearing.  I think I had missed the 'cut out the pattern/part you are sewing and don't wrangle with the whole A4 sheet when trying to sew' bit before, because I had this sussed, and it even came out the right way round. 

FYI I foundation pieced this, but used freezer paper templates to cut the fabric - best of both worlds I reckon, in my oh so vast experience!

So now I have no fear; however getting an idea onto paper and working out how to go about dividing that up is still some way in the distance, but I am still rather chuffed.

Oh, and I am pleased to say my Mouthy Stitches pouch arrived with its owner safe and sound today, one less thing to worry about x

Paper Pleasure, with a hint of OMG...

Part Two of Katy's FPPFTT was posted yesterday, so I got on and made my second block, and thanks to the great teacher, it went without a hitch...

It took me longer to decide on which scraps of fabric to use than it did to sew.  I think I am getting it... when the pieces are numbered!

My only problem was actually pinning the fabric to the paper without it all slipping out of place, so I resorted to pinning from the wrong side, but I know this can't be right; I'm not sure how I'll cope with smaller pieces.

On to today, and I had 2 parcels waiting for me, the first containing my book prize from a recent giveaway over at Ali's Very Berry Handmade. 

As Ali pointed out at the time, Paris Sewing Cafe - The Sweat Shop Book contains some weird and wonderful makes, and this one was obviously my favourite!

Ali, the honey that she is, also enclosed a few charm squares, some of which were purposefully brown, and lovely!   Pop over now and she's having another lovely giveaway.

My other parcel was from Brit Bee Ceri, requesting paper-pieced food and drink themed blocks for March.  Not having quite the same reaction as last month's request from Jennie, it only took me a couple of minutes, in light of the fact that I am now such a whizz, to figure "I can do that".  Bribery by way of chocolate and fabric certainly helped!

Thank you again ladies for playing with my comfort zone x

Laying the Foundations...

I have ideas above my station.  I really want to do this, and I really wouldn't mind a crack at this, and I mustn't forget about this, but for now, I am doing this...

I have dabbled with a Lily's Quilts Big Little George, way more unpicking than should have been allowed, and then Kerry's awesome Winter Woolies, which I managed to piece backwards; so it's back to basics for me before I get to play with the big girls!

Last night I managed my first Courthouse Steps thanks to lovely Katy and her Foundation Paper Piecing for the Terrified!  An awesome tutorial, and despite me skin-flinting on my scraps, I got it all to work first time, woo hoo...

Look how tidy the back is too...

I know I should have cut the threads, but I was too excited!

So I am on my way to paper-piecing magnificence!  If you are wanting to try paper piecing, or need to get the basics under your belt, why not join in too, Katy is a fab teacher!? 

And whilst I have your attention, and if I may be so bold, may I ask for your vote?

I joined my Valentine keyring up with a linky party over at Melissa's Sew Bitter Sweet Designs last week, and in my 'altered mental state' at the time, didn't realise it was for prizes!  So now voting is open for the next couple of days, I would love it, if you honestly prefer my non-pink Valentine gift, and felt you could vote for me; thank you.  No pressure, but it seems daft not to ask!

Going round the bend...

Apologies for the lateness of this post, I have been busily sewing up my Cosmo Cricket blocks, so I don't have anything I can show you this evening, as I don't want to spoil the 'birthday surprise'!  Having discovered Kerry's method of sewing Drunkard's Path pieces, there has been no stopping me!

I have sewn 50 corners so far and not a single puck up!  If you fear the curve, please have a look at Kerry's video (is that an old-fashioned word, I forget!). 

And whilst you are there, do check out Kerry's first paper-piecing pattern that she has for sale in her etsy shop - I totally love it!  In fact I have just bought it and I am going to put it straight to the top of my Winter Sewing List!   How wonderful if this!?

At the risk of turning this post into a big fat bit of Kerry-love, every time we chat, I end up with this song in my head!!  Dare you to listen and NOT be singing it for the next 3 days!