brusher brusher brusher....

Where does the time go? It feels like only yesterday Michaela was a babe in my arms and she is now 21. So it should come as no surpriase that time is going just as quick for my little man, who is already 15 months old. He is quickly discovering he can do things for himself, one of these indepentent things is bruhing his teeth. Michaela sent me this photo a few days ago and I just had to pop it on the blog because it makes me smile everytime I look at and I am sure it will make you smile too.

Its in the bag???

I have just made this calico bag and added hexagon roses on either side. I wanted to show something else that can be done with a hexagon rose for my micro teach next week. I was going to make a cushion cover but changed my mind due to time restrictions and decided on a tote bag. The added bonus of the bag is I now have something extra to carry all the things I need for the micro teach. The bag was so quick and easy to make, I now know what I will do with all those hexagons I have made for demonstration purposes once the micro teach is over. Simples!!!!

Thank goodness for friends:

Firstly let me say I am sorry that my last posting ended rather gloomy but it certainly triggered some much needed positivity. Previous to the posting I texed my friend Judith, as I vaguely remembered she had a hexagon quilt. I asked if I could borrow the quilt to use as an example for my micro teach and Judith kindly agreed. Then I wrote the blog, no sooner had I wrote it I received a call from Judith and this gesture alone, not to mention her words of encouragement over whelmed me. We met up yesterday morning and Judith kindly brought the said quilt with her. It took my breath away. The quilt is full of wonderful memories through the fabrics Judith has used to make the quilt. Left over dress fabric that her mother used to make summer dresses. Curtain fabric from an aunts set of curtains and one of the fabrics is from a bridesmaid dress Judith wore in 1973. I had a very enjoyable morning, cake, coffee, a quilt but best of all the wonderful gift of true friendship. Thank you so much Judith for yesterday and the loan of your lovely hexagon quilt. Judith kindly gave me permission to post a picture of her quilt also a hexagon tea cosy she made, I hope you find them both as wonderful as I do.

Hexagon fool:

A couple of weeks ago I started a PTLLS course(preparing to teach in the lifelong learning sector) because I thought I could teach patchwork and quilting to beginners. A week on Monday I have to do a 30 minute micro teach on my chosen teaching subject. I decided to do English paper piecing and demonstrate how to make a hexagon rose. Now I am up to my eyes in hexagons. Whilst the hexagons are growing my confidence is dwindling and self doubt is eating away at me constantly. Wouldn't it be great if we could just go to a shop and by some confidence. I think I need to make a telephone call for some much needed advice.

Three, four and five days of....

More days of Christmas. So far I am delighted with these blocks and I am enjoying making them. Each one takes a considerable length of time to make, because it is all about the layering and then blanket stitching around each layer. I have however been working on black and gold quilt in between Christmas day blocks and I only have one applique pannel left to complete, then I can add the final boarder. Hurray. I have promised myself I will complete this pannel tomorrow night before I start another day of Christmas.

Twelve days of Christmas card:

Especially for you Kath, here is the card that I have taken the images from to make my Twelve days of Chrisrtmas quilt. I bought the card in November from a delighful little quilt shop in Chester called Liberty Bell. If you back a bit on my old post you will see it in another image when I was free hand drawing the images to enlarge them to fit on A4 paper.

Two days of christmas:

So far so good, here are my first two blocks from the twelve days of Christmas quilt I have designed from a Christmas card. I am thrilled to bits at how they have turned out and I am looking forward to making the other 10 blocks. Hope they will turn out just as good. this is also my first attempt at quilt as you go, so fingers crossed. How is this for irony? When I was gathering the fabric to make this quilt I fell in love with the green back ground fabric, it has little streams of red and green ribbon on it. It reminded me of streamers the kind you throw at parties and I thought it would be ideal as the background for this particular quilt. When I asked for several yards, the lady in the shop told me it was from a the range of fabric called the twelve days of Christmas!!!! Now how spooky is that,lol.

Mug rug:

My friend Janet kindly gave me her copy of Nov/Dec Mcalls quilting magazine so I could make the Christmas rug mug designed by Kathy Brown. Here is my finished Mug rug. I throughly enjoyed making this little project it was quick and easy to follow and I found it to be very relaxing. I have been working on my black and gold quilt now for sometime and I have almost finished the top. It has become quite stressful completing this quilt top becuase I made several silly mistakes and spent hours correcting them. Oh well, soon it will be finished and I will post a picture.

I saw these and thought of you?

At last I hear you cry! my first blog post for 2011. The truth is i have not had anything to blog about craft wise. I am trying to complete the final boarders on the black and gold quilt but so far I have had three set backs so i decided to have a break from it for a couple of days. If was our first night back at Liverbirds Wednesday last and look what a lovely gift I received from my dear friend Hilary. A gorgeous pair of sparkly high heals Christmas tree decoration. How ironic she should give me such a gift and I wondered if she had read my last blog alas Hilary does not read my blog she had just seen the little shoes and thought of me. Well Hilary even though you are not reading this thank you again i adore them and they will be hung on the tree with pride.