Sewing, Sewing...

Anyone that guessed...guessed right. The project next to the sewing machine was indeed hexagons.  It was sewn together in strips and was very quick to put together.  I used 2 1/2" strips from my scrap box and just used a 60^o ruler to cut the triangles.  The top is for Project Linus and will be basted up and quilted in the near future.



It's not just me that's been sewing. 
My DD2, who is 7, was given an embroidery kit for her birthday.  I honestly thought she'd get all in a muddle with it, but she faired very well.  I started her off and knotted the cotton and away she went.  Here she is sewing the letters of her name onto a felt bag.



And here is a cat she stitched.  I drew the cat and she did the backstitch...again I thought that she might get the cotton in a tangle, but she didn't and she's quite keen to sew some more!



It really isn't a surprise that DD2 wants to have a go when she watches me and then watches her sister sewing too.  My eldest is working on a project for GCSE Art and has incorporated paint, beads and stitching!  I'm really impressed with both their works.



It just goes to show your children do learn through example.  Here I've been sewing away and not even thinking that I'm being watched.  I hope both of them continue their interest in thread and sewing as it can bring so much enjoyment.

Lastly for you...I have a picture of my completed Cheddar Cheese Doll Quilt top.  I'm thrilled with it (though don't look too closely at those intersections!)  So many seams to match, but not all of them do!  I must admit I'm a little tempted to put some borders on it and maybe some applique in the borders...but I can't decided if I want to do that because it is what I have always done....  Or maybe I'm just not used to a quilt being borderless...  I'll wait a bit before I decide and get it ready for quilting.



Until next time...

Picture 40 and more scraps

I've just uploaded this picture as part of the latest Photograph This! challenge.  The theme this time is "40" and the picture either has to have the number or word "40" in it or has to have 40 things.  The first thing that came to my mind is of course a tape measure!



I've also been diving further into the scrap box and have started another quilt for Project Linus. 





Can you tell what I'm up to?

Until next time...

Slow and Steady...

It seems like I'm constantly juggling life at the moment and that I only get moments of time to work on things... but slowly I'm making progress on this doll quilt.  I decided to go quite scrappy in my fabric choices and as a result I've cleared a little room in the 1 1/2" box.  One thing I forgot about when working with these size strips is just how heavy the resulting blocks are due to the seam allowances.  It had been my hope to hand quilt it and I've pressed my intersections open to help matters, but I might wait till I've assembled it all before I make that decision.



In other news, it was Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters this weekend.  If you fancy seeing the latest hop on over.  I have recently discovered that there is a RSS feed for Rocheberie's latest pictures...so if you do use a reader and want to keep up with the news, you can subscribe HERE.

Until next time...

What my weekend consisted of...

This weekend I managed to get started on part 3 of Lori's Doll-quilt-a-long.  As you can see I've only managed to get as far as 4 patches, but they will eventually become 16 patches.  It was nice to get some of the strips in my 1 1/2" box into use.

My weekend also consisted of writing and publishing the newsletter for my sewing group.  January is particularly busy as we issue annual date cards to all our members.  This year I printed, cut and folded over 130 of them.  No need to feel sympathy though, I really enjoy this kind of thing and it gave me something to do while the rest of the family watched the football match.

Until next time...

An interesting read...

I don't know about you..but every so often I find a blog that really says something to me.  A blog that can get me thinking and even inspire me.  Most of the time I read what they have to say and often won't take the time to make a big announcement that I've found something new to me.  But this blog is different...this weekend I found the blog of Kevin and Amanda.  Now you might already be familiar to them, but I hadn't seen their blog before and there is so much there that got me thinking and for that reason I just had to share their link.



If you are at all interesting in recipes, scrapbooking, fonts or how to tweak your blog then you will enjoy Kevin and Amanda's site. 

But besides all this there was a nugget of information that really shocked me.  Amanda wrote in a post about how she and her husband have started calorie counting in order to lose weight and the very first thing Amanda did was start weighing her breakfast cereal and eating the recommended serving.  Now that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but honestly when did you last weigh out your cereal?  I was shocked!  What I thought was a healthy get-up-and-at-them breakfast (ok a full bowl) of cereal is a whooping 500-600 calorie breakfast!  So thanks to Amanda I've cut that right down and for the last 2 mornings I've had a much smaller bowl of cereal and I honestly don't feel any worse for it.  I know "they" keep saying that our portions are too big, but "they" might be right.

Until next time...

Further sewing going on...

I think the sewing bug is kicking in. I'm not sure if it is because of all the snow or whether it's because somewhere in my head I've decided to get more sewing done. In any case I'm just going to go with it! There has been a bit more applique and another block is completed. These are nice easy shapes...nothing too taxing.



Also, parts 1 and 2 of Cheddar Cheese and Crackers are completed with Lori's doll-quilt-a-long.  I'm all set for part 3 and the final assembly.  I think once it is done I'll hand quilt it as it will be a quick project to finish and will give me some hand work to do while I wait for DD2 at ballet.





Until next time...

New lens...new possibilities

I have been having such a good time playing and learning how to use this new lens for my camera.  I just love the blurry backgrounds and the clarity of the pictures.  Here is just a little sampling of the ones I've taken since Christmas.  These are straight out of the camera and have not been altered in any way except for some cropping.

Until next time...

Getting back to sewing...

There has been some sewing going on!!
I thought the best way to kick start the year was to jump on the band wagon of some simple sewing to get the creative juices flowing.  Lori over at Humble Quilts is doing a doll quilt along.  Part one was posted HERE and below are my little pieces.



Here they are sewn in a chain ready for pressing and further sewing to the cheddar centres.



I hinted in a previous post of some applique going on...mostly because I really wanted to try and master Sharon's method of needle turn...not because I need another quilt! LOL  I can honestly say this is a brilliant method and look forward to getting block 2 prepped and ready to go.



And if that wasn't enough to get my sewing fingers going then have a look at what appeared in my mailbox on New Year's Eve!  Back in November I was the winner of a "guess who" competition on Carrie's blog La Vie en Rosie.  She was kind enough to send me 2 quilt kits!  ooh and I can't wait to get started...they are beautiful!



So with all this inspiration going on it really is no surprise that it is catching...


She decided to have a go at a bear's paw block.  The one in the picture is one we did on the sewing machine, but she wants a project that is portable and gets her back to basics.  So we'll see how that goes and I of course will keep you posted on her progress.

Until next time...