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!

I'm Back!

Hi everyone!

It's great to be back home again, after a brill 10 days travelling through Ireland, Wales, England and back again!

Much fun was had by all, and it was so lovely meeting up with family and friends.

The main reason for going to England, was for a family wedding.

And one of the highlights for me was meeting up with some of my bloggy friends, at Susan's house.

Photo courtesy of LJ, more of which you can find here.

Susan and her hubby were the perfect hosts, spoiling us all with a fantastic barbeque.  And they even managed to make the sun shine!





L-R: Laura Jane, Jennie, Terri, Me, Trudi, Nicky

The kids having lots of Fimo Fun!

All in a day's work!

LJ needing the patience of Job to teach left-handed Terri how to crochet!

Susan's AMAZING homemade Ben & Jerry's ice-cream!!

Thank you my special friend for such a wonderful day!

I managed to get around a few fabric shops on my travels, so there will be some fabric pics to show you another day!

Hope you are enjoying the summer, which I'm told has just arrived in England (they must have been waiting for us to leave!).

Road Trip!

"We're all going on a .... not so summer holiday!"

Tomorrow we leave for a our big road trip across the British Isles!

The black line indicates our journey to Oxford, (via an overnight stop in Llandudno) for a family wedding, and then eventually down to Bournemouth for our mainstay holiday. 

Now you may notice a significant stop en route from Oxford to Bournemouth in the Northants area!! 

I am super excited to be calling in with a v.special bloggy friend on Sunday!  And several other bloggy friends are coming too!  Squeeee!

If you haven't already guessed who it is, then you will have to watch this blog to find out more and to view the photographic evidence of our post FQR mini reunion! 

After a few days with family and friends in Bournemouth, we begin our return journey home (red line) via Beford, where we will visit more good friends.

A final stopover in Telford will set us on the last leg of the road trip back to Ireland on 21/7.

It is 14 years since we last drove this journey as a family (with only 1 small child!).  Let us hope that we will return with the same 3 children intact that we started with!!

I won't be taking my laptop away with me on holdiay, which means no blogging or reading blogs for 10 days!!

I will miss you all, and I wish you happy holidays, whatever your plans!

Getting Ready

We will be staying and visiting several families while in England next week, so I wanted to bring a little something homemade to say 'thank you for having us!'

I hope these will do the trick:

Big Bro tells me his newly painted hallway is grey!  Let's hope this goes ok!

For another family we will be visiting - no clue what colour their hallway is, so I've taken a risk!

Unfortunately, there are more people we are visiting than time left to make gifts, so the shop bought ones will have to do. 

I don't know if it's just a Northern Irish thing, but we seldom visit empty handed!

I got a few more things ticked off the 'Things to do before you go on holiday' list, but it keeps growing with more stuff I keep remembering I need to do!

Tomorrow it's the hairdressers, the bank, a visitor to the house, and then out to a friends house.  That leaves Wednesday to wash, iron, pack & clean the house and chase away the spiders and rats ready for the house/dog-sitter!  We leave on Thursday!

I am keeping a close eye on the weather forecast, especially for the wedding on Saturday.  Thank goodness we are driving over, so we can pack for all seasons and not worry about weight restrictions!

Looks like I need to add 'Wellies' to the list, and scratch 'sun cream' from it!!

I'll check in once more before the off!

Have a good one!

P.s The pattern for this Welcome Wallhanging is available in my Etsy Shop.

Always Work with Children (but never with animals!)

Today was my Adult/Child workshop, where 10 children (aged 10 - 15) and 10 adults came together to have a fun day making slouch bags with mums, aunties and grannies!

This is by far the biggest class I have ever taught, but I have to say, it was also the best behaved (!!).

The girls were brilliant, and here's the proof that they did most of the sewing themselves!

There were 3 different versions of the Slouch bag to choose from. What I love about working with kids is that they are uninhibited and not afraid to take risks and rise to the challenge (probably because they don't see it as a challenge).  Kids keep things simple, and while there were a few potential perfectionists in the group (don't worry, I'll soon knock that out of them!) wonky lines became design features rather than design problems!!

Isn't it lovely to see all these proud faces!!  It makes my heart sing!  And just look at my own 2 grinning away there in no. 6!  That's them sorted with a bag for their holidays!!

And not forgetting the 2 adults who were also attending the class.

Beautiful bags ladies!

Well done to everyone today!  You were amazing!

I will soon have the pattern for the 3 versions of this slouch bag in my Etsy shop, just as soon as I can work out how to shrink a ginormous paper template to an A4 size PDF!!

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.  Stay dry!

July Bee Blocks

I go away on holiday next week, so I wanted to make sure I was on top of my July bee blocks!

First up - Sew Bee Happy.

Nicky is making an inspirational wallhanging for her sewing room and asked us to make improv word blocks from a list of words she had chosen. 

I've done improv blocks before, but not lettering.  I thought it was going to take longer than it did, but this one was done in half an hour!!

I can't wait to see Nicky's finished wallhanging!

Next up - Brit Bee:

Fiona sent us out the most amazing wee pack of fabrics. She is making a low volume quilt with some of her most special fabrics. For example, some hand made lace, her Grandmother's table cloth, vintage sheets - and more wee bits and pieces that hold particular memories for her.

But within each low volume block, Fiona wanted mini hits of high volume traditional blocks, made with more modern, loud fabrics.

I went for churn dash and trusty log cabin.  It was a joy and a privilege Fi to work with your most special fabrics.  Thank you!

And finally, Modern Irish Bee:

This is the first month of MIB, and Sarah asked us to make one of my favourite modern blocks.

Mod Mosaic Block

The requirements were, 1 small block in low volume fabrics, 1 larger block in high volume fabrics.

I love the improv style piecing of this design by Elizabeth Haartman, and it's a great way to use up scraps.  I may even get my Brit bee ladies to do this for me when it's my turn to be queen bee!

So that's me up-to-date with my bee commitments.

Tomorrow I have an Adult/Child workshop, which is my last work-day before holidays!

We are all heading over to England next week for a family wedding, which I am still not kitted out for!  There have been several rounds of sickness through the house the past 2 weeks, which means I've got a little behind. Better get my skates on or at this rate I'll be going dressed like Sandy Shaw!

Happy Friday!

Stained Blue/Grey Complete

My 18th birthday present to my lovely nephew is pieced, long arm quilted, bound and washed!

I made this quilt as part of the Stained Quilt QAL, hosted by my roomy and friend, Sarah.

Thank you Sarah for hosting such an awesome, detailed and well thought out QAL.  You rock!

When the fabrics (It's a Boy Thing, by Michael Millar) arrived all the way from USA, they seemed very aqua/blue, and the quilt was quickly named Stained Blue.

But now, the quilt is predominantly grey.  I love the Klona grey skinny sashing (thank you Fi!) and the snuggly soft grey flannel on the back.

So I think a new name is in order! 

Now I don't know about you, but something about the words 'stained' and 'teenager' in the same sentence makes me feel a bit icky (if you're wondering where the 'Stained' came from in the first place, you need to ask Sarah!!).

I'm wracking my brains to come up with something arty, funky and cool, but so far, all I have is ...

BLUE SLATE

I would love to hear your suggestions (just as long as they are clean!).  Birthday boy doesn't officially become a man until September, so I've loads of time to stew over it.

And if you want to be inspired, check out the other amazing 'Stained' quilts in the flickr group.