A Hot (Lacey) Mess!

I had recently been given a stash of vintage lace and trims, some of which were still in their original packaging.

Some if it had become discoloured and stained over time, so I unravelled the lot, and washed them on a 'delicates' cycle.

This is what they looked like after being in the tumble dryer!

Clean and fluffy, but incredibly tangled!

So while watching team GB completely fluff the 4 x 100m this evening, I unravelled, untangled and made sweet little balls of lace!

What I should really be doing with these next is ironing them out and re-carding them.  But after spending 4 hours helping the oldest teenager gut her bedroom today (4 bin bags later!) I have run out of steam! 

They are safely back in their vintage tin, and I just know I won't ever get around to re-carding them.  That doesn't mean I don't have lots of plans for these lovelies - they will most certainly get used!

Tomorrow is my first of two 'Christmas in August' open workshops.  I briefly thought about bringing in the Christmas cd and tinsel, but I just can't bear it! But I am looking forward to seeing what Christmas delights folks decide to make!

Hope you've had a great end to the week!

Sew Bee Relieved!

This month in Sew Bee Happy, queen bee Hilary asked us to make a foundation pieced kaleidoscope block in blues and greys.

I downloaded the templates as per Hilary's instructions, but the block finished at 12" instead of 12.5"!  Oh no!  I don't have a good history with downloading accurate templates!

Thankfully Hilary didn't mind, and will be sashing the blocks anyway, so this block is now on it's way to Australia. Phew!

My Brit Bee blocks for this month didn't go too smoothly either!

Despite the pre-cut pieces and brilliant instructions from queen bee Katy, I still managed to mess up the trimming! 

Not having made this block before, I was more worried about sewing the curves, but using Leanne's tute they came together like a dream!

Thankfully I realised my trimming mistake early on and Katy was able to send me a couple of extra pieces to get back on track.

So these retro flowers are now on their way to bonny Scotland!

And if you love Art Gallery fabrics as much as I do, check out a fab giveaway here!

Stack 'n Whack Cushion

I while ago I had bought the Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 layer cake to use for the designing of 'My First Quilt'.  When I made the quilt top, I really didn't like it - too busy and clashing without any sashing in my opinion.

Never one to waste fabric, I unpicked it all and reused most of it to make this:

This is a floor cushion, made using the Stack 'n whack patchwork method, which I'll be teaching in class this Autumn.

The black sashing really lends itself to this fabric collection and seems to calm them down somehow!

The stack 'n' whack method of piecing is great fun too, and I love the crazy patchwork effect you get from it. 

This is another great project to use with a layer cake.  Even though the blocks finish at approx. 7", they need to start off at 10" due to the number of cuts and seams allowances that go into them.

I feel much happier now that I've used Cosmo Cricket in a way that suits the fabric.

Coming Out!

It's time I let you all into a secret!

I LIKE BROWN!

Now some of you will be gasping aloud and frantically reaching for the number of your therapist or psycho-analyst at the very mention of the 'B' word!

Well I'm secure enough in my skin to admit that I like brown.  It seems to sit v.well with my inner Granny, right along side my inner flower lovin' Hippy!  (I might be needing the number of a good therapist if I identify any more multiple personalities though!).

I was recently commissioned to make my Value Charm Quilt for a friend, and the remit was browns, teals and cream.

I found this cute charm pack online, called Late Bloomers and teamed it up with some Kona Cream.

I've managed to get the half square triangles made, but not yet trimmed.  Oh the trimming!

I might be needing porridge for breakfast in the morning before tackling this lot!

I've also cut up a 3rd vintage sheets quilt today, a birthday pressie for a friend, and got another bee block done.  But more on that another day.

For those of you not blowing hard into a brown paper bag in the corner of the room, I hope you've had a great day!

More Wonky Houses!

Agnes is our Queen bee this month in the Modern Irish Bee.

She sent us the most wonderfully bright fabrics to work with and wasn't fussy at all about what dimensions the blocks turned out!

I had no more of Agnes's solid blue left to finish the sky, so I've asked her to add another strip to the top.

We were also allowed to throw in a few of our own fabrics too, so I added some daisies and the bird in the first block, and a few more girly pink squares to the 2nd block.

There are some really funky and wonky houses popping up in the group - you can see them here.

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You might be pleased to know that Martha now has 3 legs, albeit one of them wooden! 

Now she stands upright in my sewing room, and frightens the life out of me everytime I turn round and think someone has crept up on me!  She's got a naughty side that one!

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.