Secret Santa!

I've had a very busy time recently so sewing has taken the back burner for most of it. I do have bits going on which I will blog when I'm closer to completion but this weekend has been sew sew sew! to get my secret Santa prezzie completed.

I subscribed to Karen Lewis Textiles fabric club http://www.karenlewistextiles.com/
and her November fabrics are beautiful and autumnal! I used small strips of them with chambray to make a bag. No pattern really, just 2 rectangles, a pocket in the side and FMQ in contrasting colours to make it extra special.

I love it! and I hope Rose loves it too :)

Hiawatha Quilt Finished!

As I promised (but very late!) I took my quilt outside in the sunshine and took some great photos of it.

It is my quilt of firsts, and you can read the story about how it progressed in an earlier blog post!

I've lost a La Passacaglia pentagon :(

So there I was, holidaying and quilting in the van, then a week in Saltburn and I get my first rosette almost complete.

On my last day I decided to cut all 30 pentagons out and wrap the papers so I had something to do on the 5 1/2 hr journey home.

I have to say quilting in the car is difficult. I like to make small stitches, just catching the fabric and with the car movement I find that difficult, but not impossible.It was much slower but I did do all 30.

So, the next step with the rosette is a row of stars, but it appears not to go the whole way around in the matching colour. But I digress  - I haven't got out of the car yet. It was late and dark as we pulled up to the house and I was gathering my quilt stuff together to bring inside. Disaster! the templates - which had been happy in their original packing with the top resealed, decided that this was the time to escape and drop all over the car floor. Even worse the packaging blew under the car!

I counted all the pieces and I was one missing - I guessed it was in the packet that was adrift in the wind! Oh no!!!. I enlisted my husband's help and there it was, stuck on the wheel, and the piece was inside! Yippee!!!

I stuff it in my pocket and the rest into a plastic bag with the wet towel inside, counting them very carefully.

In the morning I unpack and don't think much about them. I'd counted them - they were all there. However the box had been moved around a few times and when I come to start the stars... one of them is missing!

I've looked in the car, under the car, in my coat pocket, in the towel, in the bag, under the sofas and everywhere I can think of. Nowhere to be found.

😭

So I decided to start the next rosette while hunting.

Fingers crossed I find it - I need it soon!!!

When you go on holiday AND start a new quilt!

I went away for a few days in a campervan! great :)






















and what do you do when you go away? You start a new English Paper Pieced quilt!





Here's my box of fabric ready to go on the camping table, with wine and a view of course!

I've liked the fussy cutting in the la passacaglia quilts I've seen on Pinterest so I thought I'd have a go.




Here's the inner rosette





and the next rows!

I'm up to the stars but its time to go home! So I shall complete those in another post.

When you have very little notice!

AARRRGGGGHHHH!

I took my mini quilt present to work to show my friends and discovered one of them is getting (quietly) married this holiday too! She cooed over my quilt and I said I had had lots of time to work on it then she came out with she was also getting married and it was just close family. But we can't have that! She needs a present and a congratulations on her marriage! It's part of what quilts are for! Especially for me - I love giving someone something special.

So this weekend I have non-stopped sewed and quilted to try and get another wedding quilt ready. I used the same random method and different fabrics from my scrap bag but I didn't have the head space to come up with a new idea - so it again was hearts and initials.

I think my quilting is better on the top - I did some echo quilting which I really like - but I didn't spend enough time securing the layers so I have a couple of pleats in the backing. I learn from my mistakes and will be more thorough next time.

I put on red binding rather than the green - which do you prefer?!

Finished my Wedding Wall Hanging!

I'm done!

And I absolutely adore it!

I quilted it with different patterns. When I made a baby quilt for a friend who was a geologist, I chose strata, pebbles and fossils and Vicki loved it - she is also a geologist! She said that she wanted the same when she had one. I think she had a premonition!!

So I have tried to include lots of fossil, strata and pebble type patterns in my quilting. I hope she loves it!

I love the green binding. Perfect.

Here are lots of closeups!

the whole quilt!

I took it outside in the sun :)

For Vicki and Richard <3

Hope you love it as much as me!!!!

Now to put the binding on Hiawatha.