Brit Quilt Swap R3 Mini Received!

I wasn't expecting to receive my mini so soon, but just look at the wonderful post I got today:

I have been wondrously blessed by the uber talented (& Chief Tease!) Suzan of Quiltitis!  Suzan only gave tiny snippets of clues in the flickr group as to what she was making!  But boy oh boy, did my ship come in!

Apart from the delicious devon fudge (my most favourit-ist kind, which didn't last too long!) here are the details of my spectacular goodies.

I love everything about this fab set; the colours & design of the mini; the just as beautiful back (how did she know I love elephants?); just about the best made label I've ever seen; scrummy scraps; and the cleverist of mugrugs, with a matching id tag attached (Suzan had the last picture on the top of her covering letter, showing how to use the mugrug! She'd thought of everything!).

And just take a look at a close up of the stunning embroidery that is on the back:

This reminds me of the lovely embroidery on my Nanny's tray cloths I've been recycling recently!

I love my wonderful BQS mini!  Thank you Suzan so much!

I can't wait to see what everyone else has got, and what the reaction will be to the mini I sent out this week!

Buttons & Blessings!

I wanted to make my secret Brit Quilt Swap partner a wee handmade something, to go with her mini quilt and charm squares.

This particular person loves buttons & linen (a girl after my own heart) so I made her this:

This pouch gave me another opportunity to use the vintage lace I've aquired and a recycled Pilgrim necklace made the perfect zipper pull!



So now I've got something to put the charm squares and ribbon into for my secret partner!

And today my daughter got some long sought after sewing time with mum, and made an Antique Tile block for Bee Blessed.

Would you just look at that sneaky Martha trying to photo bomb!

Another one of my very talented students has started her own blog!  I'd love it if you would pop over to The Flax Mill and say hi to Ainslee!  She is about to have her first baby in a few weeks time - I see lots of baby quilts in her future!

The sun is shining, it's a glorious day!

I hope you are enjoying this day, whatever you are doing, wherever you are doing it!

A Vintage Celebration!

It was a golden day for our atheletes today, and it was a mini golden day for me too!

I found out today my Mini Brit Quilt ('Sing Your Song') picture made it onto Flickr Explore!

'Explore' is the top 200 most interesting pictures selected from the hundreds of thousands downloaded that day!

This is my 4th Explore pic!  Not bragging or anything!!

And another cause for celebration is reaching 200 followers!  Thank you all for showing an interest in my ramblings and creations!  I never think I've anything of much interest to say, so thank you for sticking with me!

The sun shone all day today (can we have a cheer please?), which gave me no end of problems trying to photograph this:

This is the vintage sheets quilt top for my niece, but despite trying several locations, I just wasn't able to capture the beautiful soft colours in the quilt.  Isn't it funny how some fabrics are just harder to photograph accurately than others!

It won't be that easy to tell, but there is an intentional colourway happening in the quilt, starting with the dark pink centre and working out in colourbands from there (green, orange, blue, pink, yellow).

And this is another 'soon to be quilt top' laid out on my design board, ready for me to sew together. 

This one is for me and I love it! 

I've stuck to the colourbands design again, just changing the order according to the charm squares I had leftover.  I even cut up my Liberty handkerchief that big sis bought me for my birthday, and put it in there! 

Perhaps I'll call this one 'A few of my favourite things!'

Hope you've had a wonderful Saturday!

Brit Quilt Tweet!

I've been working on a mini quilt as part of the Brit Quilt Swap Round 3.

I was allocated a partner who was so easy to make for because she likes lots of different things!

Let's hope I got it right!

I decided to pick out a few key elements that my partner said she liked, and put them altogether into this birdie quilt!

My partner hasn't made any comments yet on the progress pics on flickr, but it has been a quiet round this time.   I expect lots of folks are on holiday!

I really enjoyed making this one!  I hope my partner gets lots of enjoyment out of it too! 

I'm putting in these extras for her, as well as some chocs which I've yet to buy!

The posting window is the end of this month, so it feels good to get this one finished ahead of time.

I've finally started!

Well the rain hasn't stopped ALL DAY!

Not that it mattered as I was pattern writing for 5 hours of the day!  Not my favourite pastime, but oh so satisfying when I get another one finished!

I did manage to make a start on my Brit Quilt Swap R3 mini quilt though!

7" square

I was initially delayed on this one as I waited for a book to arrive.  Then I went on holiday!

But I got this wee block paper pieced today in about an hour.  My secret partner loves paper piecing, birds & log cabins among other things, so I thought I'd roll a few of her favs into one design.

I plan to do at least one more birdhouse and then see where I go from there (organic designing!).

I haven't managed to photograph all my holiday fabric purchases yet, but here are a couple of vintage sheets I found in charity shops.

I'm hoarding collecting vintage sheets until I have enough to make a quilt (or two!).  I love scouring charity shops for bargains!

'Here Come The Girls!'

I am delighted to announce a new Blogging Bee called:

When Di and Sarah and I met up for coffee recently, Di suggested how she would love to be in a bee with UK based bloggers of small blogs (I keep going to say 'small bloggers' but that implies something completely different!!).

I'm not entirely sure what defines a small blog, but I kind of invited myself along, even though I'm already in several other bees (I know, I'm bee greedy!).

And so Hipbees was formed!  Sarah is the queen of naming things, and didn't disappoint this time either!  How cool is the name! It sooooo appeals to my inner hippy!

The other 11 cool, hip 'n happenin' chicks are:

Tanya - Second Chance Tan - http://sewasecondchance.blogspot.co.uk/

Rachel - Mamma Fairy Sews - http://mammafairysews.blogspot.co.uk/

Karen - Lisnaweary Quilts - http://lisnaweary-quilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Fiona - Sew Fi - http://go-sewfi.blogspot.co.uk/

Collette - Poppie and Poochie - http://poppyandpoochie.blogspot.co.uk/

Renee - Nellie's Niceties - http://nelliesniceties.blogspot.co.uk/

Lynz - Domestic Light and Magic - http://domesticlightandmagic.blogspot.co.uk/

Jan - Isisjem - http://isisjem.blogspot.co.uk/

Catherine - Sew Wonderful Life - http://sewonderfulife.blogspot.co.uk/

Sarah - Sew Me - http://sewmeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

and our uber cool Mama,

Di - Willowbeck Designs - http://willowbeckdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

We will officially get under way in August, but we just thought we'd let you all know what we're about.

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After I had posted yesterday about my birthday pressies, I got one more in the post!

Even the wrapping is adorable!  Imagine saying this with the M&S voice 'This isn't just wrapping; this is Mish Mash Mama wrapping!'

Amazing stitchery, copied from my new blog header!

Terri, you rock! Your creativity and talent are awe inspiring!  I love my special notebook, and I'm even going to keep the wrapping!  Thank you my friend!

And just before I go, the secret partners in the Brit Quilt Swap Round 3 were announced today!  I got a goodun'!

Have a happy, hippee Thursday!

There's life Jim, but not as we know it!

I must be bonkers!  Well I think most of you already know that and are just too polite to say!

Anyway!  My brain really must live in an alternative universe most of the time, because despite being ridiculously busy, I've only gone and signed up to 3 new online ventures!!

The first one is Brit Quilt Swap round 3:

My Inspiration Mosaic for my secret partner.

I loved taking part in round 1 last year, which was my first experience of being in a swap. I opted out of round 2 (a pillow swap) because I was too busy!  It would seem that not much has changed, so I just decided to not let being busy spoil the fun of being involved with a great bunch of talented folks (just don't tell my husband! He has to live with 'The Grumpy Head' whenever I get too tired!).

This year I've decided to hone in on more of my 'loves' in P&Q - free motion sketching and paper/foundation piecing, as reflected in my mosaic.  But I'm really not that fussy, and have always been delighted with whatever I receive through swaps. The fact that someone has made something with me in mind just tickles me!

Sign ups don't close until 24th June, so if you are interested, pop on over to the Flickr group and sign up.

The 2nd thing I have signed up to is another Bee! 

When the call went out from the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland (run by the lovely Cindy & Sarah) earlier this year, I initially said that I would be interested in a reserve capacity i.e. only if they didn't get 12 names. Well guess what?  They didn't and I was offered the place.

This was a group I particularly wanted to join in with, but again felt I was too busy at the time to commit (are you bored yet with the repeating record?).

The funny thing is I won the competition on naming the bee - Modern Irish Bee.  So it feels good to be a part of something I've been involved in naming (I wonder does the Queen ever feel like that -'I name this bee ....').

The bee kicks off in July, so plenty of time yet to panic get ready!

And the final thing I've signed up to? Well I can't actually tell you about that yet!  I will keep you posted though!

So there you have it! Life on planet Judith is definitely warped!  Do the complete opposite of what common sense and a really tired body tells you to and you'll fit right in!

Hope you had a great Father's Day weekend.