I know I have been neglectful writing a blog but did not realise it is nearly 2 months!

In may I celebrated my 70th birthday so here is a photo of the cake Helen had made for me,  not only did it look wonderful but the sponge was coffee flavour   my favourite.  One of her friends made it and she is not a professional just does it as a hobby.

a selection of things I made till the end of may

tablecloth for tv table made from fabric that was donated   some had been made into blocks so added to them with the left over fabric   (hand quilted|)

large sideboard runner using the donated fabrics and also hand quilted.

lap top bag for Sal

bag for FOQ show but think it is to big

handbag that Catherine has laid claim to

stack and whack bag   enjoy this technique though could have got the blocks put together in a better design  will use this for the quilt show.  I used car headliner for the padding   it is so much cheaper than bosal and though not iron on works perfectly well   a great buy,  will be making more bags and baskets.

fabric basket

make up bag for Sal   she chose the fabrics for it   very fussy she is!

I also made 150 scrap blocks using lots of tiny bits and pieces, a stack and slash quilt that I am now hand quilting and 2 more that have been quilted this month by hand   will share another day

I am enjoying smaller projects at the moment and as I have run out of wadding cannot do any more quilts though I have 3 or 4 waiting to be sandwiched up form ages ago.  Will hope to get another roll in a couple of months but had to buy a new washing machine a couple of weeks ago,   the previous on lasted thirteen and a half years   fingers crossed the new one will too even if I don`t.

Ione star 1, baby play mat, more bags

I have now completed my first lone star quilt,  this one went wrong but have decided to finish it anyway,  it will keep the second one company!

I have also made a play mat to go with a baby quilt I made for one of Helen`s nursing friends. This is the first time I have backed with a fleece,  I also used wadding to make sure it was nice and thick for the baby to lie on.Sophie was born last week so they will soon be receiving both this mat and the quilt.

Here are 3 more bags I have made using samples from when I did my C & G embroidery   sorry seem to have misplaced the third photo.  Not sure where I go wrong but save everything to the computer, memory card and also a external hard drive but often when I do that I seem to lose them all.

The holly bush has come in handy to photo them on.

I have made 3  heart blocks for the quilt appeal following the tragedy in Orlando and closer to home the Leeds MQG that I have joined are making quilts for the children of Jo Cox who was the MP so brutally murdered in Birstall which is very near where I live.  We hope to get enough blocks to maybe do a quilt for her sister and Mum too.  So many terrible things happening in this world these days   why oh why cannot people live in peace and harmony with one another?  Will share these on my next blog as still to make the ones for the children

Jennie Rayment twiddly bag,pin cushion swap, Podunk Pretties pieces

Little bags are  being made.  This one is Driven dotty by Jennie Rayment   it is from one of her books Tucked up in bed and there is also a tutorial on   http://www.justhands-on.tv/website that I subscribe to,  some of the videos etc are free not sure if this one is though.  The twiddly fiddly bit is made from a 23" square of calico/muslin depending on where you live,  I decided to add a border and make a little bag once the twiddly bit had been done.  I am one big fan of Jennies  have had a go at lots of her twiddly bits but this is the first one I have made into anything,   watch this space will be making others too as I have all her books so no excuses.

I received these 2 lovely pin cushions from Bea last week   I am spoilt as the swap usually involves one not two.  One with a lovely FPP cat   cats are my favourite animals and another with a Bible quotation on,  Bea knows my faith means a great deal to me and I will be taking it with me to my Bible reflections group today.
Thankyou Bea  I am thrilled with both of these.

This is the one I sent to Bea,  her favourite colour is blue and I used left overs from flying geese to make the pin wheel

One more month to go and I made the swap cushion yesterday so will be posting it in a few days,   will share when I get my swap one .

I have not been doing much on large projects recently but have made the back porch blooms from podunk pretties blog   now lets see if I can add a link   http://podunkpretties.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2016-05-19T18:10:00-04:00&max-results=4&start=4&by-date=false   fingers   crossed this is right,  seems a very long link to me!!also on the blog are the instructions for the flower and butterfly which she has kindly shared with us.

 

I sew enjoyed making these.

syringe driver bags

Whilst wandering through Marks and Spencers on tuesday I came across some sewing machines set up and a crowd of ladies around them.   Such a worthwhile cause   they were getting people to make bags to hold syringe drivers which are given to patients who need continous doses of pain killers to help them manage pain particularly cancer sufferers.  Well of course I had to get a pattern and today made my first bag,   I am so proud to say I have a daughter who is a pallative care nurse in a hospice so I am now making bags for her patients,   she requested I made some suitable for men,   well my stash does not have much in the way of manish fabric!   but did have this piece of fabric with cars on so have run the bag up and will give it to Helen to take in tomorrow and if they approve will go into mass production as the bags once given to a patient are not reused due to risk of infection etc so they need a constant supply.   This could not have come at a better time as waiting for wadding for the 7 large and 4 small quilts waiting to be quilted

http://makingforcharity.co.uk/   this is a link that was shared and has other projects too


I will do another blog with 2 baby quilts and a loan star quilted     all completed soon but felt this needed a blog of its own,

patchwork

Over the weekend I made my hexagon block into a bag for when I go buying patchwork bits and bobs.  I added feather stitch and alternate barred chain stitch to the seams as one or two were not too good then attached it to some fabric.I am quite please but have got the corners a bit to shaped I think but have trimmed the excess fabric so cannot redo.

 

I also made a couple more pouches to keep the 12" square ruler in and another for smaller templates. Slowly using up the jelly roll I bought last year at the K & S show,  off to the show on thursday and no I will not buy anymore as have 2 left.

  this one holds the twelve and a half inch square ruler as yet not been used! Colours are a bit brighter than this but a bit insipid really.

 These hold smaller template and the rotary cutters and they all live in the large one that holds the cutting mat and the 24" ruler.
Now I have so many bits and pieces to make the patchwork easier I will make an effort to take it further.
I have signed up to CJQP 2013 to get me motivated as I have seen so many wonderful blocks others have done this last year.

bag

Yesterday I made a bag to take my cutting mat and rulers. I have just ordered a new mat as the one I`ve had for the past 18 years I have used to cut all sorts, even mount board with a stanley knife and now I am getting my head around patchwork thought there were on or two bits I needed.  I also have a new 24"ruler, a 12" sq,a 6" sq and new rotary cutter, oh yes have got a dresden plate template on order too,   must stop buying now. Quite pleased with the bag, had I thought about it a bit more I would have made it the other way round so it is long and thin rather than short and stout! The jelly roll I had bought last year (along with 2 others) an offer I could not refuse came in handy, still plenty left so think I will make a smaller bag for the 12"sq but not put wadding in it, will see.

Have discovered my nose does not like cotton, sneezing all the time whilst machining, think it must be the tiny bits of fluff, will have to learn to live with it as I am enjoying the patchwork world.

Have also taken the bull by the horns and signed up for the CQ block 2013, well will try anyway.

Now tast week 45 I have nothing to post as I had used the stitch on the casalguidi bags last week, so taking a week off,   maybe I will do another piece, see what tomorrow brings.

crazy and tast

after spending all morning working on the tast week 28to 37 I now find the stitches do not show up on the photo. I decided to piece a crazy block and use the stitches for the seams, have a few seams left so can add at a further date if I get behind again, will post the photo anyway.

Here are two more photos of bags made using crazy patchwork. The blue bag is made from mostly recycled fabric given by a friend to practise crazy patchwork, when I look I can see some of the fabric is rather shabby but it was good to learn.The mainly pink bag is from a variety of different fabrics of varying weights, will have to hide it when I see my younger daughter as anything pink she seems to think is hers!