I spy quilt

I'm a bit slow off the mark, but I didn't realise an "I spy" quilt meant, "I spy with my little eye..." and that children are usually the receivers of such a gift. But, when my aunty gave me the pattern I thought, hey, I have all these novelty fabrics that I brought and can finally put them to use and make myself a quilt, yes, for me! So far I have cut out all my hexagons and halves. The fabrics are mainly animal themed or cute lil kiddies from an age gone by! I didn't have a small rotary cutter so I ended up cutting my shapes by hand. I hope I don't regret that later on when I go to sew my seams...

Bag editing

After making a very successful bag (my first one) awhile ago I received a request to make two more, but with longer straps. The bags turned out quite good, but I had this uneasy feeling I had made the straps a tad too long. Thus here I am unpicking the seams to get to the straps to lengthen them.... very time consuming, but again my patience makes the end result rewarding.

Inside out and on it goes!

Teddy Bear Collector - complete

Well Wednesday the 30th of July crept up on me sideways! It was the day of my sister's special birthday and I was determined to get my wall hanging finished on time. Unfortunately that was not to be and I decided I would have it complete at the weekend instead and deliver it in person (she lives 1.5 hrs away).  Out of the blue I received a phone call, saying "come on down tomorrow night for tea and stay the night". Eeekkk.... I had the hanging complete except for the binding and frame sleeve.

After putting down the phone I tackled these last minute additions which turned out to be a nightmare. For the life of me (probably quilt brain freeze) I couldn't work out how to end the binding with that special mitre. And as for the frame sleeve, which I had never done before, I made the first one too narrow and the second was a struggle to turn inside out. Midnight arrived after 3.5 hours and only had the hand binding to do. I decided to call it quits and take the quilt to work the next day and to finish off my binding in the lunch break. What a mission for such a little project. I really did underestimate totally!

Here it is all with a love heart frame ready for hanging. 

Teddy bear collector lives here

Bear collector lives here - prep work

I brought this Teddy Bear Collector pattern from Away with the Fairys in Cust a long time ago, but finally I had the occasion to make it, for my sister's 50th birthday and because she is that collector!

The stitching took awhile (count quite a few weeks) cos it's not really my thing, but I got there in the end. The set up below is of my initial choice of placement.

New enrichment for puds

It is very rare that I follow a sewing pattern, but this was for a good cause! Here, my two cats delight in taking turns trying out their new house/igloo. They both charged in, pawed up and down on the soft lining and even did u-turns to ensure they faced the right way!

Bella waiting her turn patiently

Aztec enjoying his time in the house

My turn at last!

Ready for next project

As quilters we are always focused on getting our projects completed one by one... yeah right! So here I am starting another project, but one that needs to be completed before the 30th July so it turns up for my sister's 50th birthday. Thus it is small and quick to make (I hope). I have to do a bit of hand stitching, which isn't my strongest task. It is a small wall hanging for the bear collector that she is.

Selecting the colour range with my assistant...

He finally made the move to have a bath

All clean waiting for his next move

Bargello top completed

After 3.5 years I have finally completed my bargello top. The reason for the delay was because of three underlying factors:
1.     I didn't follow my instructions properly.
2.     I ran out of base fabric and had to order via an America site.
3.     Motivation was zip at the end.

So I guess the moral of the story is, read your instructions twice, even three times; measure twice and cut once and for the motivation put on some zippity-do-dah music to crank things up!

On completing I sang (badly) the tune below a couple of times, because quite proudly, I was full of joy :)

1. Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
   God of glory, Lord of love;
   Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,
   Op’ning to the sun above.
   Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
   Drive the dark of doubt away;
   Giver of immortal gladness,
   Fill us with the light of day!

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