Happy Houses Quilt progress

I had done a few blocks for this quilt ages ago, and have gradually been adding to them. I'm fed of making them now, so am going to join all these up with green sashing (pretty much as they are laid out here) and then put a big border of brightly coloured little patchwork squares around the outside (I think.) I love that fact I have measured not one thing on the quilt so far!

Quilting for a year

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2010 was to take up quilting. I did it! I don't know how to do one of those nice pictures made up of lots of little ones, like I've seen on other people's blogs (if anyone knows, please tell me!), but here are my quilts of 2010...
I will have to post some pictures too of all the lovely new books and fabric I got just recently... no chance I'll be giving up quilting any time soon!

Aviary Quilt Finished

I finally got round to finishing the Aviary fabric quilt, which I pieced together last summer in France.
I added on a border in Kona Snow, and then did simple quilting in the ditch for the main piece. I don't think I like quilting on the bias, because the quilt seems to come out a bit 'puffier' than when I am quilting normally.
I couldn't really decide what quilting to do in the border, but came up with this scallop & lines pattern. The resulting quilt is quite old fashioned looking I think, and I'm not sure if I 100% love it yet. I rounded off the corners too (using another dish!), and cut my binding fabric on the bias, so it would stretch nicely round.
It's the largest quilt I've done - an English double bed sized.Ready for trimming, and binding.

Advent Calendar

An advent calendar which I made for my sister-in-law. (I made it the same way as a normal quilt, just with pockets sewn on, and some thin dowel threaded into the top edge of binding.)

Smells nice around here!

Some small gifts I made yesterday, to give to some friends. I have a food dehydrator, and I LOVE it when the oranges slices are done!

A Snow Card

In keeping with the snowy week we've just had, here is a snowy card - on dark blue sparkly cardstock, to go along with the 'Blue' challenge at Cute Card Thursday.

Bits and Bobs

I've been pretty busy lately, and not had much chance to quilt or make cards.
I painted this MDF board though, and stuck on little paper houses, with button door handles, for a stall at the school fair - people paid to choose a house and one of the houses represented a prize. I was also asked to make a cake for the 'Guess the number of sweets on the cake' stand. it turned out to be a hefty old cake... 12 eggs, 24oz flour etc... and in case anyone is wondering - I put 381 sweets on it!

Also, on Tuesday morning I got to see our charity quilts all together for the first time. Here they are with some of my quiting friends from church.

More Bunting & A New Machine!

My brother and sis-in-law bought a new house a while ago, and my niece's room has a bright red carpet, which they won't be changing for a while, so I made some bunting to match it, and tie in some softer shades at the same time. I sent it as a present in a muslin bag which I embellished.

I did my little craft stall last week too (forgot to take any pictures...) I didn't get round to making lots of things for it, but made well over £100, and had a few other orders. I was quite happy with that, and enjoyed myself!

Also last week, my old sewing machine sewed it's last stitch, and I bought a Husqvarna 850. Haven't had much time to make anything with it yet, but I can already tell it is sewing in a whole new league!

Birthday Card

I used the sketch from Card Patterns for this card, and a QuicKutz rainbow die, that I bought on eBay from America last week.

Charity Quilts Finished

I finished off the second of the charity quilts today... I wasn't sure what to do for the quilting, and ended up with a flower at each junction, and (not very) straight lines joining them all up.

My two little models, Tom and Harry.

Both the quilts together.

I have not loved making these quilts, but I do hope that they will bring some cheer to the elderly Alzheimers patients, to who's home we at church are donating them, plus several other quilts.

Fab 5, and some other bits...

Just had a nice surprise, and seen that I am in the Fab 5 over at 2 Sketches 4 You! (a card making challenge blog.) It was for my pink & blue Christmas card.

I have been having fun making little odds and ends for the stall I've been asked to do, in November.
A little bag with an applique house. (I was trying out a new way of appliqueing - where you make a kind of pillow with the shapes and a backing lining, then slit the lining and turn it right-way-out, before hand sewing the shape into place.) I've also been making Wheat Pillows (that you heat up in a microwave and use like a hot water bottle.) I sew some whole wheat into a lining, then make a cover with a velcro fastening.

I'm waiting for some lavender to arrive (from eBay) before I make any more, so I can do wheat and lavender bags. I'll have to experiment a bit with the quantities.

While I was sewing today, Harry asked me to make him a boat. Not the neatest-ly sewn thing in the world, but to his design, and he is very happy with it. I've made plenty more things - will have to take more pics sometime.

Happy Birthday Trev

Another yucky boy's card... (I'm not saying my brother-in-law Trev is yucky - I just don't like doing male cards!)
This card uses the sketch from CPS.

Christmas Card

I really enjoyed making this card for the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge... lots of inking, and stitches, and glitter...

Autumn Birthday Card

A card for my Father-in-law... a double challenge for me - 1) using Autumn colours, for the Shabby Tea Room blog challenge, and 2) doing a male card!
I got a chance to use my new Sizzix/Tim Holtz leaf die cutter though, and I quite like how it turned out. (Glitter chipboard is always a good thing!)

Birthday cards

Harry went to a double party yesterday, and so I made these simple cards for him to take.
The challenge at Papertake Weekly is '3 of a kind' - to use 3 of something on your card. I just used 3 elements - the Cuttlebug 'Seeing Spots' embossed background, Cricut dinosaurs from the Paper Doll Dress up cartridge, and the names cut from the Cricut Base Camp cartridge.

Thank You Rafael's Mum!

I had a lovely surprise in the post this week. Rafael's Mum (Marguerite) blogged a little while ago about a quilt being made for a terminally ill friend of a friend, and some of us made blocks for the quilt. Anyway, she kindly picked out of a hat one of us to receive some material from her, and that was me! Here are some of the blocks that were made, including my two. The fabrics I was given are gorgeous!! Many thanks again, Marguerite!

A couple of scrappy quilts

The first is one of the charity quilts which I finished last night (kindly modelled for me by Harry), and the second is my little hand-sewn hexigan quilt, which is very slowly growing...

I'm not happy with the colour mix in this one yet - I don't have enough of the right colour fabrics - need to get hold of some more true yellows/royal blues, at least.

Quilting in the sun

I had an unexpected morning at home today. I was meant to be at an organisational meeting for our church women's group, of which I am on the presidency, but two of my kids were off school ill. They were pretty happy reading, so I got on with pinning and quilting one of the charity quilts I am working on. I thought the colours just looked so nice in the sunshine.
(Can you tell that I am not a 'roll the quilt up all nice and neatly whilst quilting-type-person'?? I do try, but it always ends up in a massive mess.)

A card at long last...

Time to make a card before I forget how!! I did stare at the blank card for quite some time at first... (Been too busy quilting to paper craft!)
The challenge at DCM is to theme the card on Opal, so my card is mainly milky coloured, with green.

Charity Quilt Tops

Well we had our charity quilt day at church yesterday. There were some wonderful ones made, and the two I was responsible for turned out better than I was fearing. For total scraps, not too bad!