It was going so well.....

Remember the lovely wonky star quilt top I finished a while ago for 'Little Miss H'?

Yeah? Well last night I basted it and began quilting it, it was looking good even if I do say so myself!! I quit at around midnight, dreamt about the quilt all night (sad I know) and so was up early to do some more quilting this morning, you know before the little peeps woke up!!!

So there I am happily quilting away when 'Mr. G' rings me, I stopped, leaving said quilt under machine and had a 5-10min chat with the hubby. When I returned to the quilt I could smell burning? I switched the machine off and checked round the house to make sure we weren't on fire and couldn't find anything??? Curious I thought, switched the machine back on, rotated the quilt and saw it.........

It appears the light bulb has burnt the quilt top whilst it was scrunched up under the machine. Its entirely my fault as I was sewing without the cover on that bit of the machine, which I'd taken off to make it easier to attach the walking foot.....then being lazy I didn't re-attach. Pap.

So what to do? I'm thinking hand applique some circles of fabric onto the top, one of which will cover the burn mark??? Any ideas greatly appreciated!!

Here is a close up of my favourite star on the quilt, quilted of course:

This is my favourite quilt I've made so far, just need to sort that burn out. Damn.

Fresh Sewing Day #3

Hello! I'm back!

Seen as it's the 1st of the month I'm linking up with Lynne of Lily's Quilts and her monthly feature 'Fresh Sewing'. Basically it's a chance to show off what you've been sewing up and also lets you see what everyone else has been doing too! I love a good blog hop don't you?

So without further ado here's what's been keeping me busy the last few days.

I've made some adjustments to this cute top I made 'Little Miss H' a while ago. I've taken the length off the sleeves and added elastic to what remains as well as adding a pocket. I'm much happier with the top now and so is the little lady!

I've resewn and trimmed my Modified Bento Blocks, I just need to make 6 more blocks and sew them all up!

I've got until the weekend to do this as I'm entering the finished quilt top into the naked bed challenge, organised by fabric designer and quilter extrodinaire Sarah Fielke. Wish me luck!!!

Finally I've pieced this baby boy strip quilt for my friend:

Now it's all pieced I've realised I need to add some strips about another 15" to make a 42" square baby quilt.

So what have you been sewing???

this, that & the other

What a busy few days I seem to have just had! So much for getting in some sewing time! 

The little bit of sewing that I have managed is:

This is what I've made up so far from the 'Little Apples' package that Katy brought me back from quilt market, I'm hoping to get this finished by the weekend and below is the layout of the baby quilt I'm making for my friend's surprise baby boy! 

If you remember I was waiting on the solids to arrive so I could get the layout, the quilt will be the full width of fabric from the bolt, backed in grey and bound in the green. Bold and bright, just the way I like it!

Over the weekend we were really busy with family time which is always good. We headed to Harewood House again on Sunday for the Kite Festival - it was soooo windy, perfect for flying kites.

Here are 'Little Miss H' and 'Master M' rolling down the grass banking, always good fun!

Squeeling with delight at feeding the ducks!

Playing in the adventure playground.

This was a rare smile from the little lady! She hates the wind and it was very windy, so windy I couldn't even capture the kites flying!!

And my fave picture from the day of my boy. Did you run your hands across railings as a child? I know I did!


On a sad note now we lost both our bunnies yesterday. I found Troy dead in the cage and Roger was in a real bad way, he had to be put to sleep when we got him to the vets. Here's a gorgeous picture of him shortly after he passed

It looks like some awful viral thing had got to them over the weekend, it really is very sad and the kids and I are feeling it, the bunnies were such a part of our lives.


Tomorrow sees a girly day of sewing with my fab friends Katy, Mandy & Lynne - to say I can't wait would be an understatement!

Slightly Distracted? What Me?

I was doing so well on the quilt front, yet somehow I've kinda got waylaid with some yarn love this last couple of days?

It started when I saw this gorgeous yarn in my local yarn shop. Helen who owns the shop then showed me the ideal pattern for a little shrug type cardigan for 'Little Miss H' and I just knew it would look great over a vest top in the summer months. So I bought it. Its from an Italian company called Adriafil, the line is Knitcol and its 100% Merino wool.

Like many other crafters the nation over I've also whipped up these from the fab new craft lifestyle magazine Mollie Makes:

How cute are these? Crochet apple jackets to protect your snack from getting bruised. Genious!

All this has meant that not much has happened on the sewing front since my last post, I have however visited your friend and mine, the lovely Katy of I'm A Ginger Monkey. She filled me in all the Quilt Market gossip from Salt Lake City where she also got me this lovely little package::

I squealed with delight as it's a little craft pack of the coveted, yet to be released Little Apples by British designer Aneela of Comfort Stitching. I'll be making up this little project over the weekend and will show you the result soon. Promise!

Finally another fabric treat::

Yep, that's right they are a pair of limited edition Nike & Liberty Tom Jet Skinny Premium Dunks. I almost died when I first saw these online and really can't believe I've managed to get some. I failed miserably trying to get them online on the release day so mega big thanks to Mr. I'm A Ginger Monkey who spotted them whilst shopping in the big smoke last week and remembered I NEEDED them. God love him.

A Mere Flurry of Quilts

Today has been about this:

And this:

The top picture is a selection of fabric that I've pulled from my stash to make a baby boy strip quilt! 

My friend gave birth to a boy last night (quite unexpectedly, she'd been told at 2 scans that he was a she!) and in doing so sent my well made plans right up the swanny! I'd bought a great Cloud 9 fabric girl quilt kit from Saints and Pinners which I was going to sew up this week, instead I've hit the stash and am now awaiting some coordianting solids that will hopefully pull the whole quilt together! It will of course be a fun and scrappy quilt in shades of blue, green and grey. 

The second picture shows some Fairy Tale blocks that I've been whizzing up to make my neice a lap quilt. We'll be going to visit during half term at the end of this month and I'll be taking the quilt with me.

I've also personalised and filled my newly made hoop bag and yesterday I did a little cross stitch:

I pulled my back really badly on Saturday night and so yesterday I was immobile! I spent much of the day in bed stitching and sleeping, oh and tweeting and reading! To be honest I'm only mobile ish today thanks to the power of mega pain killers!

The cross-stitch is a Wee Wonderfuls pattern and is of four superheroes, I plan to make it the centre piece of a cushion for 'Master M's' bedroom.

Bloggers Quilt Festival 2011

Oooo I think I may be a tad nervous! I've decided to jump right in and enter one of my first quilts, for the first time, into Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.

There's nothing brain smackingly ingenious about the how's and why's of this quilt but it has led the way in terms of my quilt making!

Some of you may recognise the pattern as the Vintage I-Spy designed by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter fame! Amy's was one of the first quilting blogs I came across a little over a year ago when my fabric & sewing obsession was in its infancy! I purchased a quilt kit from Amy that had the fabric to make the quilt top and binding as well as the pattern in pdf form and there it all sat in my stash for months! Seriously.

Just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2010 I decided that I really needed to stop procastinating and actually make some of the quilts I'd purchased the fabric for. So with a little help from my talented friend Katy of I'm A Ginger Monkey & Fat Quarterly fame I made this lovely lap quilt for my nephew. Here's the quilt being basted with Katy's cat trying it out for size!

The quilt is around 42" x 42" and was backed in a fun hippo print from Ikea:

The quilt wasn't completed in time for a Christmas gift but when my nephew received it just a couple of weeks later he loved it! My SIL informs me it is used everyday which is great isn't it?

So the making of this quilt taught me lots technically in terms of quilting but most importantly it has given me the confidence (I'm now on my 3rd quilt) to dig into my stash and make all the quilts I bought the fabric for but didn't dare cut into! 

To link up your quilt and to check out the other quilt entries simply click on the button:

Here's to a lifetime of making quilts!

Another day out!!

Time is just whizzing by and I'm certainly not getting my creativity hit but I am certainly getting some fab family time instead!

Last Monday saw us head off to Harewood House, Leeds for the annual Children's Festival. We packed a picnic (well my mum did as I had worked nights all weekend and was heading to the festival instead of sleeping!) and we had a really great day out!

There were these lovely ladies:

Who were driving around with old school dance music blaring out causing much comotion and hilarity, very very funny!

We saw these great characters from Ben 10 and of course the beloved Peppa Pig!

But it was this guy who was the main attraction:

That's right Justin Fletcher aka. Mr. Tumble. Over 20,000 people turned out to see him do a 45 minute show and to fight for a meet & greet space! 

Fortunately for us 'Little Miss H's' Down Syndrome has its advantages and we got straight to the front along with many other disabled children! 

This guy is a legend for us, his show on CBeebies, Something Special has just thrown signing and disabled children straight into the mainstream arena and for that I cannot thank him enough. Honestly I was welling up he was so nice, he bent down to hold 'Little Miss H's' hand and to say 'Hello'! She was beside herself, especially when he signed an autograph for her too!!

Here she is going crazy watching his show earlier:

After the excitement of Justin we relaxed with more food and watched the very talented Team Extreme dudes before heading off home. 

I'm hoping that now the mega run of bank holidays is over I might, just might get some sewing time!!