Cute little bag.

I got busy with my sewing machine yesterday and a pattern I bought at a quilt show recently. I have always had a penchant for bags so its no surprise I came away with 3 different bag patterns, and this pattern has 3 different sizes to it. I reckon I may just try and tweak the pattern to make the bottom of the bag a bit more square to fit my lunch box in.

UFO Sunday

I have finally finished my project for UFO Sunday. I love this idea as it helps me focus on finishing a previously started project, I can start new projects any other day of the week but not on a Sunday!
This week's UFO is my very first piece of patchwork. I had avoided sewing since a nasty experience at secondary school but when we went on holiday to a craft and sports hotel I thought I would give the patchwork class a go while the boys went off to play some sport. I chose 4 jelly roll strips, the log cabin pattern and a needle and thread. That was nearly 4 years ago, my fabric stash still has lots of gaps in it although my pattern book collection is coming along nicely,  I soon decided to give machine quilting a go and haven't looked back since!

The middle bit is hand stitched and the cream border has been machined on. I miscalculated the borders, I had planned for the cushion to be slightly larger but just pleased that it is finished. I've got another one nearly the same I had hoped to finish today but lots of unpicking put paid to that, I tried stitch in the ditch quilting but as I had pressed the seams open lots of the stitches disappeared so I had to unpick and go back to the drawing board.

Cot quilt for Elliott

 I've not managed to post much over the last week, as I've been busy finishing off a quilt I made for a niece who has recently had a baby.

The dark blue fabric was so cute I didn't want to cut it up and its such a shame as the design I was using doesn't show it off properly.

I've taken some close ups of the different characters.

Here's the finished quilt, I was really pleased with it, although I now remember why I prefer working with the thinner wadding.

It's such a shame I won't get to see little Elliott wrapped up in it as he's up in Scotland - unless I can wangle a visit......

Another scarf, another colour and a patchwork cushion

It's been a while between posts again but hope its worth the wait - here's the scarf in the other colour as promised in my previous post.



Love knitting these, so easy to knit and it makes me sit down otherwise I seem to spend the evening pottering about the house doing chores....

Also completed another Christmas present....



Cooking on gas with my christmas preparations this year, not worked out how come, but long may it last!! Got a couple of cards to make, so had better be off to crack on with them as they should be in the post soon.

Quilting

Here's the black and white quilt I made for my daughter during my blogging break.



The pattern is from a Jelly Roll pattern book but I used fat quarters of 4 different patterned fabric in white on black and black on white. I'm not very good at doing random, I like there to be some kind of sequence.

I'm working on another quilt at the moment, nearly finished the patchwork, I just need to put the squares together but have spent the last day or so trying to work out some kind of pattern while keeping the random effect :S.

Cosy and warm...

at least that's what I hope to be now I've finally finished my first lap quilt! Anyone who reads my blog regularly will have noticed that I've not been around as much as usual lately and this is the reason why....



This has taken me some time to complete, several sewing machines and lots of unpicking... until I was lucky enough to get a fantastic, all singing, all dancing, super dooper patchwork sewing machine which made quilting a dream rather than the nightmare it had been before.

I have a stash of material building already and have been perusing a pile of patchwork books trying to decide which one to make next!