WIP Wednesday - Baby quilt

Wednesday again and I've had a moderately productive week.

I've not been sewing much during the week at present as my darling little lady has decided to go through one of her periods of refusing to go to sleep!  As a result by the time she finally gives in I haven't had the enthusiasm to get all my sewing stuff out (I sew in our dining room so everything has to be packed away every night).

Then we had to replace the towel rail in our cloakroom and I decided I'd paint the room (as you do) so that took up what would have been my sewing time on Saturday.

However I had a good session on Saturday night and an hour on Sunday afternoon and so I've finished my current baby quilt top.

Pattern : Building Blocks Baby Quilt
Fabric: Mixture of Anne Kelle and Michael Miller prints and Kona solids

I'm really pleased with how it has turned out - initially when the blocks were finished I was worried it was going to be too busy but the sashing and border have calmed it down.  I do like the mix of colours  - when my son was born everything we got was blue, I like blue but it gets a bit boring on its own.  This combo still says 'boy' to me but is more fun than just blue on its own.

For the back I've got a lovely Riley Blake flannel that coordinates nicely:

I'm hoping to get it basted this evening and quilted & bound by the weekend.

No progress on our bed quilt and no new projects started.

Linking up with

 

I'm off over there now to check out what everyone else has been up to.
Sarah

Fabric envy - Oakshott shot cottons

Given my lack of blogging I almost forgot to mention this amazing giveaway that Lily's Quilts is running.

The prize is a Colourbox of Oakshott shot cottons - 100 fat eighths of wonderful shot cotton.  Just imagine the possibilities (believe me I have)!

I'd love to win but even if I don't I definitely see this fabric in my future!

There is still time to enter - the winner will be picked on 24th February.  Good luck!
Sarah

WIP Wednesday

Not much sewing (or blogging) over the last week.  It was half term last week and my Mum kindly came to look after the wee chap from Monday-Thursday so it would have been a bit anti-social to head off and sew.  J was away as his Mum had an operation last Tuesday (all went well) so he went down to stay with her to help out and didn't get back until Sunday.

I did have a lovely time on Saturday - one of my great friends (and a fellow fabric addict) and her daughter (same age as the wee chap) came over for a sleepover as her husband was away too.  The kids had a great time playing, we all had pizza and then after the kids were in bed we had wine and sewing chat.

However I have one finish as I managed to squeeze in a bit of sewing time on Sunday afternoon

Cushion for the little lady - Meadow Friends by Deb Strain.
Decided to go for a slightly different layout than originally planned but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

And it was a big hit - she wouldn't let go of it for the rest of the day and both kids made beds on the living room floor with their cushions & quilts.

I've finished the blocks for my next baby quilt and decided on a layout

I'm pleased by how the turned out and I'm hoping to get the quilt finished by the end of this weekend.  But I so need to sort out some sort of design wall - I'm hoping I can persuade J to make me one for the dining room.  We moved things about in there before so now there would be a good spot on one wall.

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday

Hope you all had a more productive week than I did!

Sarah

What a week!

Well I've not done that much sewing this week  - it is amazing how distracted you can get by a few inches of snow.

This was the view from our front door on Sunday morning - we live in Cambridgeshire so we are not used to getting this much snow (about 4 inches).  We also live at one end of a private drive and we couldn't get the cars out!  We have a sloping garden and we had the area next to the house flattened and a patio put in last summer, it has a two foot retaining wall and the snow had drifted and practically filled it places!

The kids however thought it was fantastic - I managed to persuade my 4yr old that we should wait until it got light before we went outside.  We built a snowman (during the construction my 2yr old shouted "Frosty snowman carrot nose" repeatedly), had snowball fights and built a fort.

Monday my son's school was closed.  I walked into town and bought snow shovels and a sledge.  I pulled the kids around on the sledge for and hour and then we dug out the drive - I certainly got a cardio workout that day!  After seeing Mum & Dad with the snow shovels the kids wanted a go too.

However I have managed to get a couple of things done.  My batik quilt is bound and finished and was made good use of over the weekend.  Gratuitous quilt in snow shot coming up!

 I also chose fabric for the new baby quilt I'm making.  It is the David bundle from Emma's Fabric Studio (plus some left over fabric from the Rainbow Charm swap - the orange at the bottom left). 

This is the first time I've ordered from there and I was very impressed - Emma responded the same day about the best coordinating flannel to go with the bundle and when my parcel arrived there was a free extra fat quarter!  I will definitely be ordering again in the future.

I'm hoping to get a bit more sewing done this weekend - but as I type it is snowing again so time will tell!

Sarah

WIP Wednesday & Small blog meet

A new month and a productive week!

Thanks to my lovely husband taking the kids out for a long walk on Sunday I managed to get the bulk of the quilting done on my batik quilt and then I got it finished up last night.

I wanted something other than straight lines but I'm no where near ready to try free-motion quilting on something I actually want to use!  So I tried some of the decorative stitch patterns on my sewing machine and I was really love how it turned out.  I used a variegated thread (YLI Mediterranean) which was the perfect combination of colours.

I did alternate rows of two different patterns.  The patterns mirror on the two halves of the quilt - basically because there was no way I could fit the entire bulk of the quilt through my machine.

I did have a little 'help' with the quilting.  When they got back from their walk my 2 year old decided that Mummy had spent enough time sewing and she wanted a hug - as I was mid row I let her sit on my knee and help hold the fabric and push the start/stop button.  And of course when my 4 year saw that then he wanted a turn too!

Binding is made and I'm hoping to get it bound tonight.

I also finished the quilt top for my Alice Mixtape quilt.  I'm so glad I did because it has turned out so nice and not nearly as wonky as I had convinced myself it would be.

New projects

Baby boy quilt - a friend had a baby boy yesterday so I'm at the planning stage.  I've found a nice bundle of fabrics and am trying to decide between two patterns.  This one will jump up the list as I want to be able to send it to her as soon as possible.

I also started making a cushion for my wee girl.  I made a cushion for her brother last year that matches his quilt (it was just 4 sample blocks I made to try out new things before I made the quilt) but they both like it so I thought I'd use up the left over HSTs from my pinwheel baby quilt

The blue block will need to be unpicked - I shouldn't start things late at night as I was tired and tried to rush it and my seam went wonky!

I'm linking up with

and

Sarah