Starry night:

This is a picture of my Starry Night quilt. The pattern came from a book called Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts. It was relatively easy to piece but it was by know means quick. I machine quilted stars all over the quilt, it felt like it took forever. I had to limit myself to machine quilting for one hour each day. I was delighted with the end result. I was going to say sadly it did not win any rosettes at the Harrogate show but that did not matter. It was what happened to the quilt that far outweighed any rosettes. I gave the quilt to my niece Paige because I had been promising her a blue quilt for her bed. (She is more of a blue chic, than a pink lady). She adores it, it is very muched loved and is very well used. I love the feeling I get when I see either Paige or my nephew Harvey cocooned in its fold watching T.V. It was her comforter when she was poorly a little while back. So you see it was a big winner after all.

Lady sings the blues:

A few weeks ago I was cleaning my sewing room (never ending job) and I came across all the left over pieces of blue fabrics from my Starry Night quilt I made last year and entered in Harrogate. Normally I would give my scraps of fabric to my friend Lorraine in the liverbirds. I loath to throw anything away especially crafty notions, one crafters rubbish is another crafters treasure and all that. This time I decided to use the scraps myself and make a scrap quilt of my own design. I thought it would be easier to use the medallion method to make my quilt. Once I had got as far as the applique boarder I felt the quilt top was finished so it is a nice lap size quilt. The quilt is called lady sings the blues because I played my favorite songs and I sang along to them as I made this quilt.

Journal quilts:

Some of us at the Liverbirds are making journal quilts. I have finally got arround to taking photos of my journal quilts for January and February and I can now post them here on my blog. I have hand dyed the fabric in a colour relating to something significant that has happened during that particular month. January I was full of cold for several weeks hence the blue colour. February Colin and I went to the Lake District for my birthday. It is so green the lake district even in the middle of winter. The little white embriodery knots represent Wasdale sheep. Can you spot the black one?

Easter Chicks:

These little chicks are all on their way across the water to the U.S.A. This was a postcard Pizzazz swap, with the theme Easter. I hand dyed the fabric, then using acrylic paint added the flowers and the chicks. I finished the cards off with some free motion machining. Hope their reciepients like them as much as I do.

Journal Cover:

This is the journal cover I made from the book Stitch, Cloth, Paper and Paint. I am pleased with the end result, but it was a very long winded process. I did learn lots of new techinques, some of which I will use again.

Mistakes and Postcards:

These two postcards were made from a botched up quilt block, from my Grandmas Country Album Quilt and from my first attempt at Natalies pencil case roll. The quilt block was called Aunt Nonies grape block. As you can see, my grapes must have been on steroids because they were far to big. I had almost finish the block when I discovered that I had cut the wrong size circles for the grapes. I was just about to throw the block in the bin but I felt really bad. I had spent a lot of time on it even if it was not good enough for the quilt. Surely I could use it for something else???? I put the block aside and moved on to the pencil case roll. I had just added the binding when I noticed I had been a bit generous with my 1/4 inch seem allowance. I decided to trim the excess and as I was trimming, I cut clean through two corners on the binding. Another disaster! Once again I could not bring myself to throw it in the bin. All those lovely colours. Then tonight I had a brain storm (oh ok maybe a little shower) I could turn them into postcards. Hurray! What a great way to turn a disaster into a sucess. I think they both look good, even if I do say so myself.

Its a roll over and bingo:

This is the roll over pencil case, I have made for my sister Natalie and filled it with felt tip pens. I made it especially for her to take to the bingo. You see Natalie likes to colour in all the blank squares on her bingo tickets, whilst we are sitting chatting. She never goes outside the lines either, bless her. I thought she would really appreciate this gift as it is not often I can make things for Natalie, she is very fussy. Tonight she will have lots of different colours to choose from. Wish us luck xx.