Friday 30 May 2008

YESSSS

Another 2lbs gone. :-))))))))))))

MORE QUILTS

Trip Around the World made for Hubby, many years ago, hand quilted, yes, I used to do that!
Little Bird Houses, again made for Hubby, went t town on the vermicelli quilting on this one!
Mm this one was a challenge my friend Di and I set each other, to only use fabrics from our stash...
Title of next Quilt...
This was made for fun, I asked people I knew for scraps of fabric and if they gave a piece to me it went on here, regardless of what it was, there are some strange ones on there I can tell you, then I made flowers for the borders and used the tiniest scraps from what was left for them, the people's names are along the stems or flowers near the fabrics they donated. I have lost count of how many times I have made different versions of this quilt for weddings, birthdays, etc. instead of fabrics you put the guests names in the diamond panels. Change the window shape, people love it.

Made for me by me...
This is the back of the next quilt, I used the leftovers for it, hence the title.... click to see...
Trip Around the World in Blue...

Another for me by me...
I discovered last night a programme to brighten the quilts, did I already say that? Oh well, I have redone them all today so this lot should look a lot perkier.
More to follow....I have made a lot of Quilts!

Thursday 29 May 2008

SOME OF MY QUILTS

If you click on the pictures it says what they are. I hope you enjoy them.

I got these next two pictures the wrong way round, sorry...


More to follow -- lots more!!

WHEN DID I START THIS?

I have been reading other people's Blogs this evening for relaxation!! Lots of them have been putting 'give-aways' up for their 1 years Blogging celebration. I checked to see when I started. Can you believe - 29th October 2007. So I have a way to go yet to my 1st year celebration. I shall have to think of what I will offer.

Wednesday 28 May 2008

TODAY I TOOK SOME PHOTOS

Well, actually it was yesterday but it took so long to load these pictures the time flipped over to Wednesday!!!

I took a photo of each Quilt that is on this chair. The chair is in the corner of my bedroom, as my Quilts are finished they stack one on top of the other. Occasionally I get them all off and refold them and just look and remember. Another day I will post all the pictures here so you can see all of them. I couldn't believe how many there were. Good grief. These are the finished ones. The unfinished will have to wait a while for their piks to be taken.
Some of my Ted's sit on them, guarding them for me.

Tuesday 27 May 2008


I knew that if I waited I would find the right person for this small hanging.........I hope she will like it when she eventually gets it.



This was a bag I made for a competition in a magazine - didn't win but hey it's fun entering. The rules were that the bag had to fit on the pages of the magazine which was a little smaller than A4 size.


This is the back....I am afraid my photographic skills are zilch, it sparkles in real life.
This is the front , it has a shaped flap, the water lily stays put when opened. Sadly when they put it in the magazine, no-one thought to put the lily over the flap so it looked a little odd!This bag is leaving me too. Again the right person has appeared.

QUILT FOR 'J' CONTINUED

Oh my goodness! When you see it like this it does look a mess. You will have to trust in me that a respectable Quilt will appear eventually.

QUILT FOR J

These are a few of the pictures I have taken so far of a Quilt I am making as a 21st birthday gift to a daughter 'J' from her mum and dad A & P. They recently came along to my Quilt Set meeting and chose the fabrics they liked from the Poppy Patch stall we had. These I took home, washed and ironed ready for the big cutting session.
On looking at the book they had chosen the design for the Quilt to be from, sort of a shock to realise there were no patterns given. Ho hum got the drawing pencil and paper out and drafted the pattern. It was easypeasy really, so that was good. I couldn't find a name for this block in any of my books. Never mind I guess it doesn't really matter.
You will see I have 'zoomed' along and got the top reasonably put together...read on....

IF by any bad luck you recognise J from these pictures, PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT tell her about this, it is, as I said, to be a surprise.


Things have sort of come to a halt as A & P are waiting for the special photo fabric to arrive from
America!!! The birthday is 25th June I believe. I have a motto it is......DON'T PANIC.....
The pictures printed out onto the special fabric, so far, are a bit of a problem. Some of them are use-able, I know the secret code we used to attach them to the base. Flower pins use it, my pins DON'T.
All the 'my pins' are unusable as they turned out with a yukky hint of green to them. Also the printing of some words and pictures --were in reverse!!!
P has sorted that out hopefully, but hey America.....we need that fabric...like NOW!
The pictures all have a 'frame' around them, using the fabrics in the Quilt, these A & P sorted the other Saturday. They were going to sew some on but we ran out of time!! So I will be fixing them on with my trusty machine.
I am enjoying making this Quilt, OK I know it is nowhere near finished - yet - I have promised it will be, by the date needed. I had to draft the pattern out, it is ages since I have done that. It was good to 'tax' the old grey cells for a change.
As you can see from this picture, some of the photos will have double frames.
I am so pleased. A and P have allowed me to put the pictures of J's Quilt on my Blog. OK it looks a bit weird at the moment as it is in a strange state, but you can probably see what it will eventually turn out like - I hope.

MINI QUILT

This was made for a competition I entered in a magazine. You had to make a picture 12" square, it could be anything you wanted it to be, and as I was going through my dragon fly period!!! I decided I would do this. I called it The Dragon's Dance, I didn't win of course, but was glad I entered. It made me try something I had never done before.At the moment I am doing a similar thing for one of the groups I am in, we have to make a mini quilt either 8" or 10" square, I have chosen the bigger size - (chicken) It is coming on slowly, lucky for me the lovely lady who organises us has given us more time to finish them. I took bits of it with me at the weekend when I was HS to do the beading so I am slowly getting all the components sorted.

NOTHING WASTED

This is a sink from my mum's old house - it was going to be thrown away!!!!! It has only just been planted up so doesn't look anything special yet, but I would like KR to take note of it!!!!!?????This is also from mum's. It was in the wash house. An old tin bath. I just knew I could make use of it.
It is standing on my old Step Aerobic Step - it is the blue you can see through the Campanula in front of it. I will try to remember to take a pik later in the year when the flowers have - hopefully - improved.

THAT'S MY GD


Look what Reb made...

Monday 26 May 2008

PRETTY IN MY GARDEN

This has gone up here cos I forgot it before and added after I'd published once. Anyway it is a pink Azalea. Hopefully it will be better next year!
These are pictures of plants that are in bloom at the moment in my garden, they looked so pretty with the sun of them, I had to take some pictures for you to share. Then I took better ones when the sun went in, found it gave a bit of a 'glare' to the flowers on the photo. I am no David Bailey!Clematis - no idea what type, but the individual flowers are HUGE!
Iris - yellow, what more can I say?White Azalea - not strictly a lover of white flowers but heyho, giving it a whirl.
Pink Rhododendron with a Blue Ceanothus just peeking throughClose up of RhodyThe Ceanothus - I love Ceanothus's, so many different shades of blue.

Friday 23 May 2008

ELAINE'S BLOG and NOEL'S BLOG

Elaine is a friend I met through a group that does postcard swaps. She is a very talented lady, I want you all to go visit her Blog, it is over there in the list, what she can do with card and paper is just amazing. The shops shoud sell her cards, the ones in the shops here are pretty abysmal compared to the ones she makes. I wish I lived near to her I would buy all my cards from her no fear.

I have just been to visit Noel's Blog, it is over there in my list. Do go and see what she has been posting lately. Some wonderful things on there. She is so talented. I am in awe of her work. Noel I know I owe you a picture, I haven't forgotten if you are reading this, just time is not my friend at the moment. Also you have to tell me your favourite colour then I cna let you know which to choose from the list. Bet you thought I had forgotten that too.
I know I could have done this in an email but I am here and I am guessing you will be visiting me some time or other and was too lazy to go back to emails. Bad girl :-(

Since joining the postcard swap groups I have met so many lovely people, these are just two of the many. I will point out others as I go along my merry way, I would hate for you to miss them.

FAT CLUB

It being Thursday - well it was yesterday - weight been added over there............>>>>>>>>>>>>
ALSO the inch check has been added. YESSSSS....5" gone.

HI NOEL

I am sorry I was a bit fast on those pictures...me....fast??? You jest surely. I am still finding my way round these new screens. Very strange. I did it all on autopilot before, NOW I have to stop and think. I deleted a whole bunch of stuff earlier as the button I clicked was the DELETE not POST. ARGH!!!!!! Anyway I do appreciate your kind remarks. Thank you Noel.

Had a fairly busy day today. Had to collect GD from school early as she was going to the dentist to have a tooth removed. A baby tooth that was still in situ behind a brand spanking new big one. So sadly it had to come out. She tried wiggling it, but nothing happened. Anyway it is gone now, and I should imagine the Tooth Fairy is collecting it as we speak!

We went into a shop that is closing down up at the WFCentre. I bought some candles, ohhh lovely aroma of sticky toffee pudding now permeates the house!!
Some cheap earrings that I am going to dismantle as the beads and bits on them can be useful for my cards.
Some super baskets for bits and bobs. Oh and some trays that stack.
You should have seen me manhandling all that lot on the bus!!!!!

MORE CARDS FINISHED

Birthday cards ready to goThis card I made for fun, just to see.....
So you see, whilst I was off the Internet, I was busy doing these cards and other things. I am hoping I will get permission from the couple who I am making a quilt for their daughter for posting pictures of the quilt here. I must email them tomorrow, Not that the quilt is anywhere near done.

FIREWORKS

These are what I call my 'Firework' cards. I just love making these, I find it very relaxing to do.I always make sure I take some of these for beading when I am house sitting for my daughter.
I also have to make really sure all her cats are safely away from all my beads!!!
Can you imagine the fun they would have with them all?
Nightmare!
You will see some have either 1-2 or 3 fireworks on them. The ones with just one on, like this one for instance, are a new take on the cards for me. I wondered what one would look like, I think it seems to be okay.
So I made another one!
I am not sure if you will get the full effect of all the beads from these pictures.....I have just discovered if you click on the individual cards you may just get to see the sparkle. Enjoy!
The cards really 'sparkle' when you have them in your hand.....
I haven't counted, but I would guess there must be a hundred or more on each card...beads that is.
Even so, my bead stash is not going down by much. So.........................

I can make some more!! Yay.

Thursday 22 May 2008

MY CRAZY CARDS

Well here they are, my crazy cards. I have never done Crazy patchwork before, always thought it a bit 'messy'. But I have to say once I got into the swing of these I really enjoyed making them. Took a long time to do but hope the people who get them think it was worth it!! They are not in the correct order here, but they are numbered so you can see which I made first. Each one does have a spider with it's web. They aren't that good I am afraid, I really struggled with the webs, and the spiders come to that.
Another thing they all have in common is a shisha mirror. I had forgotten I had those.
Oh, and a teddy is on there too somewhere on each one, sometimes two.
I have put my little logo on them too and the year.
I raided all my embellishments for these. Great fun. I can see me making more of them some time in the future. Possible with a colour theme next time though.
The background fabrics for all of them is Sari Silk and crushed Velvets. I randomly stacked the fabrics then cut shapes loosely with the rotary cutter, jumbled the piles up, put the fabric on the cards, machine stitched across all the seams with the fancy stitches on my machine, using random threads. I did as much of the sewing as I could by machine. Then I started the embellishing. What fun I had! Card number five, has some Fibonachhi on it, can you see where?

I will sit back and await some remarks on these....there are bound to be some..... Hi Noel!!!!!