Sunday 18 December 2011

So I'm still cr*p at blogging..

... Big catch up post to come!

I have been festooning my house, friends and relatives with home made crafty stuff - and getting through the general durge of life too.

I can't seem to understand just HOW it gets so manic around here??

New years resolution, Blog more, FB less !!

Sunday 9 October 2011

Dusting away the blog-webs....

Hello, hello, one and all!

I have been frightfully neglectful of my little space in blogland here... So many days have come and gone and I've thought "I will blog about that later!" and haven't - but now the holidays are over (we had a lovely time, even if the weather wasn't at it's best!) and all the big kids are settled into school, only the baby is at home with me, we have slowly found our routine for the days and weeks with the family - and all seems calm ...for now!

I have managed some lovely projects with the kids over the Summer, not all sewing related as the boys have little patience for the preparation and much more interest in the great outdoors - or Lego.  Mostly Lego now I think about it! But we have mastered reversible tote-bag making, This tutorial from Skip-to-my-Lou is brilliantly simple, and to date my step-daughters and I have made 6 bags for friends and relations (and one for me too, of course!)

I'll get round to photos later :-)

For now, I am looking forward to getting crafty for hallowe'en, and having them at home for the half term break in a week or so!  The house is very empty during the day - my day-dreamous plan of filling my time with sewing for stocking presents, and taking on larger quilting projects has most definitely been thwarted by the baby being decidedly grumpy at only having me for company bless him!!
I am re-acquainting myself with the 'toddler group' social side of things, and it seems to be appeasing his need for raucous en-mass playtime!

Anyway, enough of that -

Time for bed!

Sunday 24 July 2011

It's the Summer holidays!

... so I will mostly be herding, entertaining, and feeding - this gorgeous bunch :-)



AKA - Not getting a lot of quilting done!

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Twinny Quilts

In January of this year, I pledged a handmade quilt as a raffle prize for a forum I used whilst expecting my youngest son, Arthur.

The lady who won it is FABULOUS and I was pregnant at the same time as her - but she had double the joy when she gave birth to two handsome and adorable little boys, Henry and Archie.

I said I would make her a quilt each for the boys, to snuggle in their pram.

I got off to FLYING START!


....Then it all kind of came undone, one thing after another with home, suppliers of fleece, ribbon, you name it - and it shamefully fell by the wayside.

Bless the mama though, she has been so, so, SO patient with me - and last month I finished ONE quilt. *shameface*

They have both turned out MUCH bigger than I had originally planned... I don't know why I get so carried away when making them and they end up huge - probably because I always do a patchwork middle then piece on a border, which is inevitably massively bigger than it should be... oh well!

Here, is Archie's ....


Monday 18 July 2011

Our house it has a crowd...

... there's always something happening, and it's usually quite loud.

In reality I fit very little sewing, quilting and crafting into my everyday life.  So a blog dedicated solely to that was probably a little ambitious on my part!
There are 5 children to chase about after, and we're on the eve of the long Summer holidays - which will probably bring lots of mini-projects with the kids, but nothing on a particularly elaborate scale.

Anyway, too much else goes on here I'd like to blog about - so while you can expect the odd post about quilty-goodness and crafty sewy things, I think I'll morph my blogspace into a little more about 'Us'

.... Promise (again!) to catch up later!

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Blogging....

... I'm crap at it!!

Will catch up soon - I've actually done some bloomin' quilting :-O !

x

Saturday 18 June 2011

Benji and the machine...

Good afternoon readers!

Well, I'm writing it in the afternoon anyway, even if you're not reading it then...

The house has been a whirlwind of activity with Saffy's 6th birthday (and year anniversary since my first quilt was made!) and school, and Beaver scouts and all sorts!

This week my middle boy Benji fancied a spot of sewing, so we cut a panel from some rooster fabric I'd bought the week before (bargain section, £1.54per metre) and got to it...



Monday 6 June 2011

Half-term, DONE!

..... My 'Work in Progress' pile - NOT DONE!

I singularly failed to do a single stitch of sewing this half term <shameface> !!

The kids brought me home a lovely stomach bug, which meant from Friday until Wednesday I was poorly sick, and not much use to anyone - I had a brief respite day on Sunday to watch my step-daughter Maisie perform at the local Well-dressing as a Maypole dancer (we're all very proud!)


 It was lovely to see her dance, and she performed superbly over the whole May bank holiday for a total of 5 appearances :-)

- but then I hit the wall again :-(  !

Thursday was a resting day with just the baby at home with me and the bigger boys off at activities for the day - the girls went to see their mum for the remainder of the holiday.  Then we drove down to see my family for the weekend.  Now it's Monday again, and I feel like a failure!

Ho-hum, this week I will do SOMETHING - I think my aim for this month will be to finish the quilts I started as a raffle prize back in January!

Anyone else have any WIPs they'd like to Name and Shame??   Time to get motivated!

Monday 23 May 2011

Indiana's play mat

I just wanted to share the quilted play mat that I made for my best friend's newest addition baby Indiana last year.  He's coming up on a year old now, where does the time go?!?

After the rush to get Saffy's quilt finished before her birthday (it took me 3 months from the start in total due to time and financial constraints!)  I managed the play mat in a week!  It was a much more relaxed make, and I loved the colours on this.  The more eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that my blog header features the patchwork from this quilt :-)

My middle boy Benji chose the animal print fleece for the backing.  I just LOVE it!  I have a whole stash of it in the fabric box at the moment, most ear-marked for one of my WIPs, but the rest I am itching to make into hats and scarfs next Winter.  It's so cheerful I can't help but smile when I catch sight of it.
I am generally met with strange looks when I mention I quilt with fleece for backing, is it that odd?  I tend to choose it for durability and wash-ability for small people, especially babies.

The bright patchwork middle was lovely to put together, and we chose red cotton to frame it, and a really vibrant green ribbon for edging.


Tuesday 17 May 2011

Starflower block

Well I've done one already!

I had  a quiet afternoon with just Arthur at home, so I thought I'd have a go at a starflower block.

It's pretty rough and ready - but I'm pleased it didn't take too long.  I'm going to make a scrappy block quilt, trying out a few different ones, and possibly getting the kids involved too!

Here are the photos - nothing spectacular, all taken on my camera phone, but you get the idea and can see just how 'rough and ready' my approach to quilting is!!

Looking for inspiration

Well, time for post #2 on my blog... Are you excited?  I am!

After twiddling with settings and designs most of yesterday trying to make it look 'pretty' - I took most of my alterations off and have left it minimalist - the reason being I realised that most of the blogs I enjoy reading are kept clean and simple, so I'll do the same for now.
(Not to mention resizing my photos to use as backgrounds so they were small enough for Blogger to accept them but big enough not to tile randomly was doing my nut in!)

Anyway, enough of that...

Yesterday I came across a wonderful resource - a webpage of free quilt block patterns, The Quilter's Cache 

Monday 16 May 2011

Putting things in a place.

Hello no-one.

This will be a place for me to jot down ideas, works in progress, quilty things, sewing things - and mothering things.

I'm a mother of three sons, and 2 step-daughters.

We have ups and downs and sideways - and I try to keep it all together.