Wednesday 30 May 2012

Wordy Wednesday

Phew! A lot has been happening at Chez Nous over the last week which is why I haven't been posting a lot.

Lots of packages arriving from various corners of the world pour moi. Lots of goodies for the stash and lots of fabric fondling going on.

A few weeks ago I received a huge box of "stuff" (as The Old One calls it) from lovely Bridget. She lives in New Mexico and has the most amazing greenhouse for growing all her veggies. Hop over and take a look.

I can't show you the goodies she sent as they've been rehoused amongst my stash, but suffice it to say an Our Lady of Guadalupe quilt has joined the list of Things I Have to Make Very Soon.

Then last week an envelope arrived from the States containing some fabric I'd ordered. This was a "I need this fabric" buy. I don't usually splash out on fabric unless it is really really necessary. This WAS really really necessary.


Brandon Mably for Rowan bought from Material Girl Chic. The middle one is from the Casbah range, the other two are from the Ripple range, and there is one helluva a lot of fabric there. A lot more than I was expecting.

I hadn't heard of Brandon Mably before these fabrics arrived. Looking at his web site he's based in London and works with Kaffe Fassett. No wonder these fabrics are 2000% gorgeous. The colours just zing. I have an idea brewing which involves liberated stars and letters, but we'll see how it grows before I start cutting these gorgeous babies up. I'll just sit and fondle them for a while.

We've been having serious serious swimming pool problems. I've nurtured the filter along for the last 2 seasons, treating it with kid gloves. When I opened the pool up this season I decided that enough was enough and it wasn't going to get through this summer without some TLC.

Along came Mr Wonderful Pool Man who knew at once what the problem was. No. Not another filter, just a part. He returned yesterday with said part and we now have a working pool again. Phew! That was a close one. Thought we'd have to fork out hundreds of Euros.

To keep my mind off having to fork out hundreds of Euros, I decided a bit of quilting therapy was needed.

My lovely friend Pippa keeps sending me envelopes of "stuff" and in return I've been sending "stuff" back. I made her a name quiltlet for her to hang in her sewing room (forgot to take photo when it was finished, but you can see it here (she's not as good at taking photos as "someone"!)).

Pippa has a gorgeous little girl called Amelia. What do little girls like most? Well, pink of course, especially with hearts.

Photo is clickable so you can see the fabric

I originally did a lower case l, but it didn't work with the i. It looked silly. Like two strips.

That is now waiting to be posted, but Pippa is flying to London to attend the Fat Quarterly retreat on Friday and she's so excited I can't get a sensible word out of her. Not only that, the postal service is so awful at the moment, I'd prefer to send it when she gets back from London. (We won't talk about the postal service thank you very much. I've been waiting for a parcel to arrive from the UK for nearly 2 weeks. I hope it hasn't got lost. It's a very special parcel, but you'll have to wait on that one).

Oh and a big woot for me!

Look what I did yesterday!


My very first appliqué heart. A bit messy round the edges and the zig zag went out of control, but I'm really chuffed I plucked up the courage and did it. It's amazing what you can do with freezer paper and spray starch.

And on that note (if you are still reading and haven't fallen asleep), I'll leave you with a photo taken the other evening.


I have no idea what I pressed to get this shot and will probably never find the setting again!

More soon.

Thursday 24 May 2012

Going, Going, Gone!

Strawberries & Cream has raised £200 for the West Suffolk Hospital children's ward.

I am thrilled to bits!

More soon.

Saturday 19 May 2012

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Spring 2012

Amy's Creative Side


I don't usually enter Amy's quilt festival as I don't have that many finished quilts.  The tops are hanging on coat hangers waiting to be quilted.  At the last count there were 4!

Anyway, I decided to this time, just because I'm missing "my baby" and showing her off to the rest of the world might help ease the pain a bit.

For new readers, I make quilts for children suffering from Leukaemia.

Last year I made a quilt for a special little boy called Morgan, who unfortunately became an angel in April of the same year. So sad.

I had already started making a red and white string quilt, based on Mary's Heartstrings's pattern, but had put it to one side as the fabric was getting repetitive and I was getting bored with  it.

A nice person in America took pity on me and sent me a box filled with red and white fabric.  My juices started flowing again and within a few days another 4 blocks had been  made.

But what to do with what was turning into a large quilt?


Morgan's mother had started to raise funds for the children's ward where Morgan had been treated so I contacted her asking if she'd be interested in auctioning this quilt in Morgan's memory and to raise funds for the West Suffolk Hospital.  She said yes!

So I sewed and sewed and sewed, showing pictures here as I progressed.





Last November she was finally finished


I used the berthing/pillowcase method to back her, with a very cuddly cream flannel, and tied her with red and white DMC Perle Cotton No 5.

She had been part of my life for over a year and I was devastated when I had to pack her up and send her on her way to England.


I finally heard this week that she will be auctioned at the West Suffolk Hospital ball in a couple of months and the money raised will help buy equipment for the children's ward, as originally planned.

I'm so pleased that finally she will find a home and hopefully will be loved as much as I love her.

I have 3 blocks left over so I'm going to make myself a memento quilt.  It won't the same as my lovely Strawberries & Cream, but at least it will be something to remember this quilt by.


So there you have it.

The story of a very much missed quilt.

More soon.


Tuesday 15 May 2012

Trying to Get Back into the Groove

I'm trying - I really am.

I've been doing a lot of web surfing. Trying to find things that will give me some inspiration.

Gwen's new book, Liberated Medallion Quilts, arrived about a week ago. I took one look and put it on the shelf with the others. No inspiration!


I've also been having a lovely time on Pinterest, adding the odd photo, but generally looking through to see if there was anything which might just kick start the sewing juices.

I spotted a sweet pincushion with a link to the tutorial and hopped over to have a look.

Ummmm - just might be what I need to get my confidence back.




Isn't it cute! You can find the tutorial here.

Then I remembered a mini quilt that needed binding.

My friend Julie shared a binding tutorial she's recently found. I'm always keen to shorten the time I have to do, what I think, is the worst part of quilting. I hate binding with a passion!

So I hopped over to that tutorial (click on the link in Julie's post here), printed it off and got to work.

Apart from a slight argument joining the two ends together (which I always have anyway), it worked like a dream!


A mug rug/table mat for the kitchen table as I can't think what else to do with it!

Now I think a little bit of stash fondling is in order and then I might chance my hand at machine quilting The Young One's Music is Magic quilt, which I don't think I've shown here before.


More soon.

Sunday 13 May 2012

Praying for a Miracle

Lovely Michele at With Heart and Hands gives a lot to the quilting and charity world.

Now it's time to help her.


Click on this link to read more.

Remember the Twilight Barking in 101 Dalmatians? Well this is similar. Please spread the word to help Michele's sister in law.  Blog it, Tweet it, or share her post on Facebook.

Thank you.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Wordless Wednesday


Sorry for lack of quilting content. My muse seems to have gone on holiday.

Friday 4 May 2012

Friday Fings!

I found this at a vide grenier a couple of weeks ago.

It was pouring with rain and we very nearly didn't go.


It's really a curtain, but the fabric is quite thin.



I'm going to use it as the backing for my batik log cabins.


Which reminds me. I can't keep on calling it that. Anyone got any ideas?

More soon.