OOh, I forgot to say....

... How could I!!!!

I was a winner in a giveaway!  I left a comment on Clare's blog, Dordogne Quilter about some name banners that she had made and I am going to have one made for me!  I am really looking forward to this as David will be decorating my sewing room at the end of February so it's really well timed.  I have been following Clare's blog for some time as although I don't appear to do much liberated quilting I do like the liberated look.

Friday Night Sew In - Catch up Saturday

I thought I would post a catch up after the Friday Night Sew In.  I should have posted earlier, but I went out to join a friend for a knit and natter, then lunch out with David followed by the supermarket shop has taken care of most of today.

My Friday night was a late one continuing another Dresden Plate block, pieces of which I started to cut out and tack on Thursday.  Yesterday evening I tacked and machine sewed the plate pieces together, then pinned and tacked onto the background fabric.  I'd also cut and tacked around the middle circle to the freezer paper.  So this was the state of the block by the end of the evening.

As David was working all evening and into the night, this morning while he was still in bed and I'd got up I carried on with the sewing by appliqueing the plate to the background and afterwards I sewed the circle in the middle and it now looks like this.

I have since cut the background fabric away and removed the freezer paper from behind the shapes. Another block done to add to the other two here and here.

I also have another block in progress, but I'm getting fed up of dealing with the very pointy points on this DP.  I have tried trimming the allowance down so that there is less bulk in the point but I'm not happy with this.  If anyone has any ideas how I can make this look better I'm open to suggestions, but here it is:

And lastly on this, there is picture of the pattern of the DP blocks.  After the pointy one, there's just 2 to go.

When shopping today the bunches of flowers were drastically reduced and I got a £7.50 bunch for just £1.88.  I could not resist this bundle of colour, if it just lasts the weekend it'll be good, any longer a bonus.

And finally, my daughter, Sarah, has got to LA.  She has contacted me though facebook that she arrived safely.  As she travels on her own, I get a bit worried about her safety, so I hope that she'll keep posting regularly.  She is out there for a week and it'll be good to hear her when she gets back to the UK.

My daughter has a blog

My daughter, Sarah, will be going to Los Angeles next week on her own.  A very brave girl, I think, but then she lives on her own and is happy to paddle her own canoe, so to speak.  So she's off to see a Nightwish concert and to explore LA and she has started her own blog to diarise her adventures.  Just the first posting so far and it can be found here

Getting started

This year is off to a slow start due to a bad cold/flu virus that I've had since New Year.  I struggled back to work as I'd already had a fortnight's holiday and it seemed pretty bad show not to go back, but I got through it OK.  This virus really got to my sinuses so not only  did I have a headache for days but a face ache as well - yeauch!  Anyway I'm getting back to normal and I have been making a few postcards and making progress on a sewing machine cover (more of that later).

Made any resolutions?  Mine is to try and "get out there" more - get to know of challenges, giveaways and other things going on out there.  This might also be the year that I'll sign up for City and Guilds, which has been a long held ambition for me.   Family and work have previously got in the way of this - I still have the work but only for 4 days a week and the children left home a few years now so the timing might be right for this.  I'll do this by distance learning and it'll either be the School of Stitched Textiles or Designmatters, must weigh up best move for this.

I've also got a course lined up thats run by West Country Embroiderers at the end of February using the embellisher machine and looking at the tutor Sandra Coleridge's website looks like it could be very good.  I'm going with my friend Brenda, or rather it was Brenda that talked me into it! But I am really looking forward to it.

Meanwhile in the gap between Christmas and New Year I made an iron cozy for my travel iron following the instructions here on Sew We Quilt.  It looks like a very cute iron shaped mob cap!

I've also signed up for BQL Postcard group's birthday swap again and with 3 birthdays this month - one in a couple of days I've made some postcards.  I bought a new Really Useful Box to keep my postcard supplies in as I make the backs in advance with the fusible already ironed on.  Another thing that I've tried is using the T-shirt transfer paper to make "Postcard" and also return address labels for the cards here's the mock up on paper

And above are the finished labels on the back of one of the cards.

This one is for the birthday girl, Lois whose choice was butterflies, flowers or cats and I managed all 3!

BQL's challenge was to make useful items each month, either to keep or to make as a present for someone (hopefully to be prepared for Christmas) and the first one set this month was a sewing machine cover.  If you read my blog post here I already made a start on this - now I have a deadline so I am progressing this further. This will be for my small sewing machine and another resolution - I really must get my main sewing machine serviced - it hasn't been done for at least three years!

Happy New Year

I hope that you all have a Happy New Year.   

I will be posting again very soon.

Best wishes

Sue

That was Christmas

With Christmas over and heading fast towards the New Year, I thought I would post with images of Christmas this year.  I had some lovely presents, though no quilty ones, but I've got some Christmas money to spend so I may have a go at the online sales and see what I can get. 

This Christmas Day was spent with my daughter-in-law Carly's family, with a lovely lunch and it was nice to catch up with them all.

The day after Boxing Day the children and grandchildren came over for dinner and tea.  Despite the lack of room in our downstairs living and dining rooms we did manage well.  As soon as my camera came out Sophie wanted to have a go at taking photos.  She's getting quite good at it, though I did have to delete a few photos which were blurry or with heads cut off!  She then turned the camera on herself to take a photo  (I'm standing behind her).

Our daughter in law, Carly, has a professional camera and at my request took a photo of the (grown up) children here

 And the five of us here, which is a rare sight.  It's taken until Christmas to get all of us together.

Sophie go her own back on Carly, taking a photo of the photographer

Boxing Day itself was a quiet day but we managed to go out to a very cold and windy Canford Cliffs beach, walking down towards Sandbanks. There were a lot of people walking off the Christmas excesses and children trying out new bikes or scooters on the prom. The weather must have been just right for the sailors going out in their yachts.  I took a photo with my phone and you can just about make out 3 yachts out at sea.

Just before Christmas I also sent out a birthday postcard in the last birthday swap of the year to Rosemary.

The theme she chose was water and I was a bit stumped with this one until I found some blue batik fabric with circles with gave the impression of puddles.  I used some Angelina fibre and organza and free machines with spirals to give the effect of ripples in the water.  Not sure if convincing or not at the time but looking at the photo above it looks pretty much how I wanted it to look.

With tomorrow being New Year's Eve I'll post with a review of the past year. See you soon.

So Here It Is...

Merry Christmas! (to quote Slade)

I looked for fancy clip art or images but decided on my Christmas tree photo from a year ago when we were in Yorkshire and had a white Christmas!  How things have changed in that year.

After spending time with my parents today, David and I are looking forward to spending time with our youngest son's extended family.  After a quiet Boxing Day our children and grandchildren will spend the day with us the day after. So a busy-ish time. 

However you spend your Christmas I'd like to wish you all a happy and peaceful time and look forward to catching up with things in the coming week.

Sue 
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