Lovely post !

A little while I discovered a great blog by Angela. She had photos of some postcards she had made for a swap and I instantly loved them. I emailed and asked if she would make some for me and I would pay her for them. Angela said no she would not sell me any but she would gladly make some for me in exchange for some fabric. Yippee !

They arrived a couple of days ago and honestly these are SO fantastic. I am now the very proud owner of my first fabric postcards. The attention to detail is wonderful and there is so much work that has gone into them. The little sequins are all individually sewn on. They are truly lovely. They are actually the first fabric postcards I have seen and I can quite see how people get addicted to swapping them and so on.

Thanks so much Angela. My kids love them and I'm going to have to keep an eye on Patrick in case he whips them - lol !

I have other stuff to share but I think these deserve a post of their own. My photos do not do them justice. Good stuff !

In need of a fix !

.......a sewing fix that is - lol ! The only other addiction I have is chocolate honestly !

Anyway all week I have been feeling edgy as I just could not find any spare time to do any serious sewing. I needed about half an hour to finish a small swap and get it ready for posting but just could not get to it. Finally got it done - relief. Just seem to have been chasing my tail all week - cleaning, laundry, running people from A to B and so on. Jess also bought her first car this week and I have been sorting out the sale and car insurance ( what a minefield ) , car tax etc. Also helped her and her boyfriend clean it as they were more interested in having a water fight - kids !!

Yesterday I decided that come hell or high water I would get on my machine today and so I did.

After 10 minutes I could feel the tension ebb away. I actually had the house to myself for a couple of hours and it was bliss. As much as I love my family I must admit that they do not give me a minutes peace.

So the flying geese strips got some attention and I now know where I am going with this. I think I will do 5 blocks by 7 so these 9 are just the start. I must say I am excited by this one. Not a quick block really but I am going to try and do maybe 1 or 2 a day. These are not sewn together yet. I want to add more colours.

Jason likes it too which is good as it will be his quilt. Mind you I don't think he would dare say he doesn't like it the mood I've been in all week - lol !

I also found a little treasure this morning. Just doing some shopping when something caught my eye in a charity shop window. Cost me the princely sum of £1.50

It is the smallest one like this I have seen. The drawers are not lying completely straight so I will get out my screwdriver and have a play with it. It measures 8" by 4" by 4". I have a bit of an obsession with boxes - I'm sure I'll find something to put in here.

Lastly I would like to say a big thankyou to Ann in Texas. She saw a quilt on my blog and asked me for the pattern. As it was one I made up myself I set to and after much scratching of the head and chewing the end of my pencil I wrote out instructions. I drew up some paper foundations for her as well and posted them. Very nerve-wracking as I had never done this before. Ann kept asking me if she could pay me for this but I refused as it was a pleasure to do this. After a few emails we reached a compromise and yesterday I received a lovely gift of something I had seen in the American quilting magazines but have been unable to find over here.

Thankyou so much Ann - I love it and I'm sure I will be the envy of my quilting friends when I go back to my group after our Summer break.. Quilters rule - lol !!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I have a date with a bar of Cadburys :-)

Olympic challenge

OK - here is what I've been doing whilst watching the Olympics. If you follow my blog you will know I started this a few weeks ago and here it is in all it's jumbly glory - lol ! I know this is not a lot of quilters thing but I REALLY love it. It contains one patch of every piece of fabric I own - 577 different fabrics. Actually make that 576 as I used one fabric twice for a bit of fun to see if anyone could spot it. I offered Patrick £5 if he could find it thinking there was no way but the little beggar got it - lol ! Serves me right... There were a couple of fabrics I really could not put in this as I dislike them a lot and it would have annoyed me to see them in it. A couple of new quilters at my group have looked on this with a) horror - as it is so busy and b) amazement - that I have so many different bits of fabric. One lady is making her very first quilt and has no stash at all. Haha - she will soon learn - lol !

This measures about 45 by 60 inches so far. Next I want to add borders to make it bigger. I am going to applique the sides onto long strips of fabric so I don't have funny shaped edges when it comes to binding. I may then add more borders - not sure yet.

Here are a few close-ups of some of the fabrics for a bit of fun. Anyone got any of these ? Click on picture for a closer look.

I have had a couple of no-reply commenters lately asking me questions and once I get a bit more organised - ie. when the kids go back to school I will do my best to answer them on here.

I am also doing a bit more of Jason's flying geese strips. They are paper-pieced and each strip takes about half an hour to make. I have roughly worked out I need 70 of these so don't expect any finish pictures anytime soon - lol !

Have fun !

Summer Swap quilt.

As my Summer Swap quilt has now reached it's new home I'm safe to put this on my blog now. This went to the lovely Julia. She was also my swap partner for the Winter swap and I knew she read my blog so I was very good and showed no pictures at all.

I was a bit stumped as what to do for this one but eventually after a false start came up with this.

I even did a bit of applique which is NOT my favourite thing. I need to practise I think !

Anyway Julia sent me a lovely email thanking me very much which was appreciated as I have been involved in a couple of swaps lately where I received no thanks at all. On one I was left wondering if my package had got there.

So that's the end of the 4seasons swap. I did 3 out of the 4 and really enjoyed it. Thankyou to Margaret for all her hard work. My quilt wall is looking lovely. I am also doing a couple of private swaps so my collection will be growing still further. Fun ? Oh yes . . .

I decided this week to have a sort out of my fabrics as they were looking a bit muddled. I tried to get them all in colour order of a sort. During this I noticed my BIG scrap box was very full so that only means one thing..

Now here in Britain our energy prices are going mad. Our heating costs have doubled and a bit more the last few months. So this Winter I am going to be a bit more careful with our heating bills. I must admit I am the worst culprit. The first sign of a bit of a chill and on goes the heating. We keep hearing on the news that Britain is in a recession and we have a "credit crunch" going on. So to do my bit I have decided to make DH Jason his very own "credit crunch quilt" - lol ! In 5 years of quilting I have not made him a quilt to call his own. Bad wife !!! So he is getting one whether he wants one or not.

Not sure where this is going but at least now I can get the lid back on my scrap box.

Both children have several quilts and I have a couple that I wrap up in when I'm reading or something so now Jason can join the quilt gang - lol !

I never watch TV but I love the Olympics and have been doing some hand sewing. Pictures in next post. . .

Could this be . . .

. . . a finished quilt ?? Oh yes it really is..

It is Patricks quillow that has been a long time in the making. As I said it was a real chore to get it finished as I totally went off it once the blocks were together. Patrick was doing a bit of nagging so I thought it should get done. He picked a fabric for the border that I really would not have chosen but I went along with it. And somehow although the blue was a completely different one to the blue in the blocks and was much brighter than any other colour it works. It really lifts the blocks and makes it nicer somehow. Patrick was not surprised that the border blue looks so good as he sais he knew it would - lol !

It is 60 inches square which is about as big as I like to go when machine quilting on my domestic machine. I just did a big meander with a dark grey thread which seemed to look fine even on the bright yellowy-gold stars. I was a bit unsure about that beforehand. You can see this perhaps clearer on this photo with one of my quilt inspectors.

This was actually finished a couple of nights ago but Patrick whipped it up to his bedroom and has slept under it since. He says it is lovely and warm. It is 100% cotton wadding and is nice and weighty. Should keep him cosy in the Winter !

I am glad this is done and even more glad that Patrick loves it. It would still be languishing about in a basket half done if he hadn't kept telling me that he really liked it and wanted it finished.

Here it is folded inside the pocket on the back. Patrick has said when he's slept under it he's used the pocket to slip his feet into - lol !

Job done !

Summer Quilt

I woke up today with a good feeling. I mentioned to my DH that I was sure my 4Seasons Quilt would arrive today and guess what . . . .

I can't tell you how much I love this. It is great and Janey has done such a lovely job of it. Here are some close-ups of the details.

Look at those ants made from buttons.

It is so completely different to anything I would do and that's why I love it. In fact that's why I love these swaps so much as we get to see how other quilters work.

Janey also kindly included some other goodies.

I am very lucky and want to thank Janey very much. All my family love this too. Great swap !!