We're back! And the Ugly Quilt is ugly.

Well nearly a month on (8 days later than planned due to the volcano), and we are back in England! Reunited with the kids!
Scott and the kids had to go to work and school the day after we flew back, so I got the house straight, and carried on with my Ugly Quilt...
I felt very noble cutting out all the squares, and finally using up all those bits of fabric that have been under the bed for so long. Here are some of the squares (mainly old curtains, Scott's shirts, upholstery fabric etc.). Sadly though, most of them ended up in the bin, because when I laid them all out, they looked really ugly, and the miraculous transformation I had hoped for did not occur!I narrowed down the colour palette, and started sewing squares together yesterday.
I was thinking I would back it with a fleece blanket that is lurking in the back of the airing cupboard, and add green quilting (using up some old green POLYESTER thread... how bad is that?! My quilting teacher would NOT be happy - she of the '100% cotton' variety!), and then green binding (it's the only fabric I have enough left of.) Truly a scrap quilt.
I thought it would be good to use in our new (2nd hand) playhouse that we just bought off some friends, which is in the garden, lying in about as many pieces as this quilt. (Trying to reconstruct it is a fun job for another day!) Our middle son, Tom saw the quilt after school, and wants it for himself now though.
It's not quite as bad as it could have been, but still pretty ugly!

Our holiday in America is now longer than planned thanks to a certain Volcano (which I have no hope of spelling correctly here). Our flight home was cancelled, and we are booked on one in another week and a half, if the ash has cleared!
We're staying with some of my Sister-in-law's family in up state New York at the moment, though my husband is eager to hire a car and carry on with the holiday!
I did visit a knitting shop this morning though, and bought a very lovely book...oh no.....another hobby coming on!!!!!!

Love it!!

Our holiday is going wonderfully, brilliantly well! We have squashed in a ridiculously lot of stuff so far! (Salt Lake City for our church conference, Arches, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and now I'm in an apartment right on Venice Beach, L.A!)

Anyway, as this is a craft blog, I wanted to show you my latest quilting buddy who I met today...

He was sitting in a quilt shop in the ghost town Calico, CA, when I came in, and we got talking and found out we have both just started quilting... ie. we speak the same language!! He showed me his first ever quilt that he is working on (in a pile just to the left of him, in the picture) It's actually his wife's shop, and he showed me her long arm quilting machine etc. Fun!!

Now I can tell my boys that quilting is cool - even cowboys do it! Calico Ghost Town:

(P.S. Yes, I have found time to visit Jo-Anns and Michaels!)

Tomorrow I'm off to America for a couple of weeks, with my husband (obviously to buy crafting & quilting supplies...), so no pictures here for a little while! Bye bye!

Ugly Quilt

I decided that it is all very well buying gorgeous new fabrics, but what about the stuff I have hoarded under my bed for years?
I am going to make a quilt with them. I don't even know why I have saved them, but they will not be wasted! Even if they are definitely NOT 100% cotton, NOT similar thicknesses, NOT new, and NOT pretty.
It's going to be my 'Ugly Quilt' - great for muddy picnics and soggy beaches.
I've sorted fabric by colours and want 6'' squares in a kind of rough rainbow, from top to bottom. The squares combinations I've sewn so far are still looking pretty ugly, but I am hoping for a wonderful caterpillar-butterfly transformation near the end! Wish me luck! Little scraps kept being asked for while I was sorting... I discovered their purpose: beds for my 4 year old's 'ratties' & other friends...

Quilt No.2 Finished!

I got my wonky squares quilt finished off this morning! I'm pretty happy with it - and it seemed to get done incredibly fast compared to my first quilt. My lovely daughter (who is not a giant, just standing on a chair) helping me: (Dull wet day here, so very gloomy pics.)I'm glad my sums worked and that I divided up the pieces for the coloured strip on the back, right!
This was only a cheap quilt really - I used a white sheet for most of the fabric. It has a slightly different feel to the nice Kona solids for example, kind of less 'absorbent' feeling. It's OK though.

You can see my (far from perfect) quilting better here. I just did it by eye, and it turned out pretty much how I imagined it. I am not keen on the quilting bit though - probably because it is hard to do perfectly. (I unpicked a few lines where the fabric had little folds, and some of the lines do not flow smoothly). I don't know if I will get better with experience, or if my small & old machine is not ideal - probably a combination of both. Maybe I should try a quilt that just uses straight lines next!I used the Amy Butler for the binding (3'' wide) because that was the only fabric from the quilt that I had enough of... the rest I had only bought in fat quarts. And now this quilt has a new owner - my 4 year old went crazy for it, and he's already got it laid out on his bed. I didn't think he would like it because of all the pink - I had a nice cars one planned for him - but orange is his favourite colour and he loves the quilt, so it's his.

Wonky Squares Quilt put together

I got my squares for my wonky quilt finished on Wednesday night, then yesterday put them together. The quilting bug has got me bad - I was so excited seeing it all come together!Oh how much I enjoyed last night! - kids in bed, me with some great music on the big old headphones, and pinning up my quilt... I love how this quilt is turning out - it's totally impractical, with so much white and 4 muck-magnet kids, and the colours match nothing whatsoever in the house, but the colours and fabrics just make me smile!

Water Bottle Holder

Spring is in the air today - it was actually warm, and Harry got thirsty from running home after school. I said I'd make him a water bottle carrier, to take with him in future.

I'd seen the idea here for one, some time ago.

I didn't make mine the same way though - instead just made the body of the holder out of one rectangle of fabric, sewed it into a tube, sewed across the bottom, and then sewed across two of the bottom corners to make a square bottom.

Not exactly sure about the fabric combination here, but Harry chose, and he's 4, so I suppose it could have been worse!

We also got a new vacuum cleaner today (after the old one blew up last week), and Harry spent quite some time this afternoon trying it out - with his trusty water bottle at his side of course!! He is very proud of it!

Quilted Pillow & Birthday Card

I put the back of Jack's pillow together yesterday - fitted a zip etc, and then attached the quilted front and put on the binding. We couldn't decide which fabric to use for the binding, so used lots of different ones. It measures about 30 inches across.

Also made a card for a friend - it's very similar to a past one I've made, but I really like the glitter and weird colour combination!

I used StazOn ink to stamp a Melissa Frances sentiment onto acetate, and attached it with a foam pad cut into tiny bits, then hidden with gems. I used acrylic paint on the edges, with Doodlebug glitter and Stickles glitter glue. The stamps are from Gel-a-tins Spring Garden.

Happy Mother's Day!

I had set aside yesterday morning to make Mother's day cards for my Mum and Scott's Mum, but most of it got spent at the doctor's with my youngest, so two very quick cards here! I used the layout from Papertake Weekly, and the idea of using Daffodils from DCM, for Scott's Mum's card.

For my Mum's, I used the idea from Wednesday Stamper to do some hand doodling.

Mini Quilt for Charlie

I made this mini quilt last night for my friends' fantastic little boy, Charlie. He has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, and is due for his third open heart surgery later this month.
I wanted to send him something bright and cheerful to wish him well.

My first quilt finished & New fabrics

A few photos... I have finished my very first quilt, that I started as a New Year's resolution this January. I just love how weighty and kind of crinkly it is!Harry, my youngest, modelling.

(Somewhat reluctantly...)

I stitched some writing for the back.

Ermm... In the short time I have been quilting I seem to have developed a fabric addiction...

These all arrived in the last week or so. I like too many different styles of fabric, and have SO many ideas buzzing round my head - my skill levels and free time just need to catch up now!

I love these ones best

I didn't realise I had chosen so many spots!

And a few more random ones...

Now it's just a question of where to start next. I also need to make some cards... we celebrated seven family birthdays this past weekend, and I only gave 2 handmade ones - the rest were actually bought! I hadn't bought a card for literally years. Oh well, blame quilting.

Best Wishes Card

I wanted a traditional looking card for some friends of ours who are moving away, and used the sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You for the layout.

Materials were all scrap stuff I've had for ages, except for the red and cream fabric button which I just covered myself. I found some really nice and not too expensive metal buttons with the gadget for covering them on ebay.

Painfully slow quilting!

Piecing is fun, but the quilting bit is harder! I have been doing some wiggly quilting, with roses at each sash junction on the big quilt, and some in-the-ditch and big hand stitching on the squares. More wiggly quilting on the pillow. It is slow progress, and my fingers hurt from unpicking!

My Dad's Card

My Dad will be 60 on Monday!! He's too young to be 60! and he is actually the best Dad in the world.

I dug out some glittery stickers for his card - as per the challenge at Caardvarks. Still struggle with male cards though - not that he will mind in the least I don't think! I made it so the card opens out and stands up, and it is pretty big.

A bit more quilting progress

I went to my second quilting class on Tuesday - (not much sewing got done due to a power cut the whole time we were there!) but I was shown how to layer up the quilt parts and pin them, so today I did that with Lucy's quilt. I got the back made yesterday - with 2'' squares left over from the fabric I used on the front, making a border.I used duck tape to stick down the back, used Quilters Dream Poly Deluxe in the middle, and then got the top pinned on and looking nice and flat, though it was a bit tricky as I had to match it up with the pattern on the quilt back (I did it by sticking a pin through the top and making sure it came out in the right place on the backing.)

Hint: Have some 'Sticky Stuff Remover' for your floor, after you've taken off the duck tape!Also, I was happy to get two new feet for my sewing machine in the post today. I'd been worried I wouldn't be able to get them for my machine because it's a good 10 years old and not very fancy. I spoke to Toyota directly, and they were able to supply me with a walking foot, and darning foot, and at really good prices. So I had a go at the squiggly pattern I like, and sewing in the ditch - my first ever actual quilting!! It seemed to work out OK...

Kids' Crafts

My youngest son had his friend over today (who's Mum was poorly) - they spent a happy time stamping a Get Well card for her & making pictures. I was getting on with some quilting in the meantime, and Harry's friend was fascinated by the sewing machine. He wanted to do some sewing on it, and we compromised with the boys pushing the treddle under the table, while I steered the material (to make cushions) and yelled "STOP!" to them at the end of each row of sewing... They were MAJORLY proud of them, and even took their cushions with them on the school run to pick up their big brothers!

Another New Home Card

A friend asked if I would make a New Home card for her to send, so I made this one using the sketch at Mojo Monday. I also had a look through my sticker box, as the challenge at Caardvarks is to use stickers - a good challenge, as I usually forget I have them...

Pink scalloped card: Bazzill
Papers & Owl Sticker: K&Co Berry Sweet
Nestabilities Label 1 Die Cuts
Tag: Sizzix Die Cut
Letter Stickers: Making Memories

More Wonky Squares

A few more of my wonky squares (the younger kids were worried at first: 'Mum - they're not straight!') I'm thinking of alternating 18 of these squares with 17 differently patterned ones - we'll see.

Needle case, Embroidery and Quilt top

We have had to wait in all day for a delivery today, so there has been plenty of time for some crafting, as well as jobs!
A nice little 10 minute project that I have been meaning to do for a while - a needle case. (Our few needles have been stuck in a tatty piece of red cardboard for the past 14 years - my husband's Mum sent my husband off to uni with it, as part of a little sewing kit for him!)
I made a little pocket, put stiff acetate pieces in it to stiffen the covers, and sewed it shut, then added some felt. I like it!
I finished off the embroidery for Jack's pillow case back, the other day. I need to make my handwriting more regular next time I do this, because it's not quite as neat as I would like. Jack loves it though! I found some Amy Butler fabrics on Ebay the other day at quite a reasonable price, and they arrived today.Also today, the Kona Snow fabric that I have been waiting for arrived in the post, so I got to finish off the sashing on my quilt - I have finished my very first quilt top!!