HEXAGON JOURNEY AND ANOTHER GO AT A GO

When Ros came to visit us last week she brought gifts with her as I said in the last post, what I forgot to tell you was she had brought a little zip-loc bag for Rebecca, inside were papers, fabric, needle, in fact just about everything she needed to get started on making Hexagons. Ros thought Rebecca would like to do these.

Well I have to say on the day Rebecca was not overly bothered which I think may have upset Ros a bit, [sorry] it made me cross because Ros had made such a lovely gift of this for Rebecca, but I told her I would get her making them and we would do it together, and guess what?

Today Rebecca asked to start her Hexagons, Ros had sent her some pictures of things made with them and she was really taken with the Bookmark. So we picked up her zip-loc bag of goodies and I printed out some for myself, oh yes I am now a Hexagon maker!!! [Stop laughing Di.] I had awful problems with my printer trying to get the size Ros had brought, it would not print them that size, so the odd ones I have given to Rebecca and we have marked them either 1, 2 or 3 so she doesn't mix the sizes up. Mine have OK on them!!!!

We sat in the garden and I showed her how to tack them up ready ala Ros. Then she wanted to know how to sew them together so I showed her the way the Ros had shown me last week - I have to say it is a much nicer way of doing them, very relaxing - and off she went, stitching away. She learnt very quickly NOT to have too long a thread, how many knots did I have to untangle!!!!

Here you go Ros, pictures of Rebecca starting her Hexagon journey.

Cutting the papers very carefully...

 Next sheet...

 Joining the shapes...

 Concentration is the key...

 Needle poised...

 Look Ros, two joined together...

She actually got five joined together at her first sitting of Hexagons, I am not going to push her,

much better for her to do these as and when she wants I feel,
rather than spoil everything by saying we WILL do them today.
I got my papers cut out and about six tacked up with the fabrics.
I am using my collection of 30's fabrics for them and have a plan............

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If you are looking for my Give Away info, it is in the previous post.

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I have just seen this -

WOW

What a fabulous Give Away,

you can find it here -

http://littlecottagecomforts.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-go-baby-again-giveaway-and-some-free.html

Follow the instructions on her Blog to be in with a chance of winning one of these fantastic machines.

Good luck everyone

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NINE UFO's COMPLETED - YAY

I have been stitching up a storm on my sewing machine, I have managed to get 9, yes NINE UFO's finished this week. Some are small I have to admit, but still nine is good isn't it? I am so pleased with myself I have decided to have a give away, more about it later in this post. SO here are the pictures of the 9 items completed, there are some close ups as well so don't go thinking I have done more than nine will you! I took the pictures out the front of the bungalow this time as hubby has put up our gazebo and there is no way I can get to my bench for the photos, but I am pleased with these anyway, so may use the front again. I have to say my new neighbour over the road was giving me funny looks!!!! hahahaha

Bag made with the batik strips...

 close up of quilting on above bag...

 showing the handles, I like these handles very much...

 Different bag so this is No.2 ...

 No.3 this one is GI-normous folks...

 No.4 using strips this time...

 close up of quilting on above...

 No.5 black and white strips...

 quilted with variegated red thread...

 all together now...

 This is NOT one of my set of nine -

 this is the give away-

leave me a comment on this post and you will be entered to win this bag,

simples...

 close up for you...

 Small Trapunto mat finished - UFO No. 6

 close up for you...

 No.7 slightly larger mat in a tessellating pattern, fun to do...

 and this is the back of it...

 No.8 is a Quilt, one of the ones I designed way way back for Makower...

 sunglasses on, this is the back...

 No 9 of my set of 9

yet another Makower Quilt designed for them by me,

I love this one because it used a range called Nettlebed

which is a village close to where we used to live...

 Close up for you...

 and the back...

 There you are then, the NINE UFO's done and dusted.........NEXT...

When Ros came on Sunday she brought these flowers for me...

note my machine gets in the picture too...

 aren't they beautiful...

 and she made me a MORSBAG,

thank you Ros...

Back to the machine after taking pikkies and I now have another bag

ready to be assembled, I did different patterns on the strips on this one,

but I did make a boo boo, can you spot it I wonder???

 the back of it..

 close up for you...

 Last one for now,

this is yet another of my Makower Quilts, pinned up ready for Quilting,

I am looking forward to getting this one under the machine...

So there you have it, piks of what I have achieved this week and it is only Thursday, well it has just flicked over to Friday actually, but I can't do any sewing right now, hahahaha. I also got the backings ready for two other quilts and sorted borders for yet another. I am, as they say, on a roll.

I love Quilting, don't you?

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ROS AND MORE

I had a speedy visit last Friday from my Friend Ros from the PP Forum. Her son was attending a weekend retreat just over the road from where we live so she text me to see if she could call in for a quick visit.

OF COURSE you can, any time Ros.

Anyway, bless her she arrived about sevenish and said she was only here for about half an hour, hee hee, about two hours later, sorry Ros, she went home with a boot full of my junk. Again, sorry Ros. No, not junk really, it was old magazines which I no longer wanted and I knew Ros would make good use of them for herself or for others, also some of Rebecca's old board games which she has outgrown but were in top condition and too good to sling to a Charity shop, I don't know about you but the ones here in Northampton do not look after the items donated to them at all, sooo Ros had about 4 - 5 carriers of those, also I found some blocks and odd bits of fabric I didn't want, oh yes and two quilts which I was supposed to raffle but was unable to, so I know Ros will use them either for her Church Funds or whatever. I have a lovely lot of space now, in fact I had one whole empty cupboard, which Ros was amazed at - hee hee - I had plans for that straight away.

Anyway when she left she told me she was back on Sunday to pick her son up from said retreat sooo hubby suggested she come for the day and have dinner with us and stay til it was time for the pick up. She agreed to come, so on Sunday, we had a lovely time, cos I told her to bring her machine with her and I could show her whatever she wished me to, which was how to do Feather quilting on her machine, which is a Bernina similar to mine. Wahey!

I am so cross with myself for not taking any pictures of the time we had together that day, most unlike me, but I have to tell you Ros picked up the feather quilting very quickly and I am now looking forward to seeing what she does with her new skills.

Thank you for coming Ros I really enjoyed our day and I have to say many thanks for the gifts you brought for us all, plants and seeds for the garden, fabrics and pattern for Rebecca, chocolates for Annette. You spoilt us.

I hope your son has another retreat very soon and that you will come again.

Meantime YOU can visit Ros' Blog here....http://rosa-munda.blogspot.com/

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This evening I managed to finish the nine items I spoke about in the last post. Pictures tomorrow folks. I am really chuffed with myself to get them all done so quickly, even though one of them is tiny. That means NINE ufo's done and dusted.

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I have just realised I haven't heard from my friend Susan, that she has received the Postcard I made for her, she asked if I wanted to do an Alien swap with her, Yes, of course I did I love making the postcards, anyway I got hers and made mine for her BUT she hasn't received it as far as I can tell.

My card FROM Susan...

 My card TO Susan, gone missing....

This really makes me cross as I put it in an envelope cos hubby thought it would get damaged as it has little button airplanes on it. Sometimes I could explode!!!!!!

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It doesn't hurt but why does this happen to me, every time I have a blood test, my arm gets bruised.

 Hooray for Arnica...

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                       I am putting these on here because I cannot remember whether or not I already have and I am too lazy to search....

From Ros...

 From Caz...

 Sent to, can't remember, sorry...

 Sent to - same as above - doh

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HELLO

Have you wondered where I have been?
Actually I haven't been anywhere - unless you class 'round the bend' as some place!!!

My computer died, it gasped it's last breath and there was no way I could let you know. Annette said I could have used her computer, but I was so worried a nasty virus had got on mine that I refused her offer as I didn't want to pass it on to her computer. As it happens it wasn't a virus after all. Phew. Well, when I say it wasn't a virus at all, I mean it wasn't a nasty one, there was a minor one on here, which apparently was cleaned up and kicked out totally. The main problem can you believe, was my new printer!! Grrrr. It kept sending signals to my computer somehow, [don't ask me, I am not good on these technological doodahs, but the IT man, a NEW ONE by the way, my usual one ignored all my messages of help!!!! Thanks a lot buddy! ] well, suffice to say the NEW IT chappy sorted it all out PDQ for me and here I am, back in the land of Blogging.

Hooray.

I have resisted so far going onto Facebook. I get on there and those darn games call me over and over again and I get lost playing them. I am going to keep off at least until the end of this month and if I can do that, I will return to Facebook but leave the games alone. Sorry if you are one of my friends in the games I USED to play but I have so many things I should be doing instead of faffing about with the games. Help me drop the habit folks.

Whilst I have been unable to go on the computer I have been reading a lot and sewing a lot, I have nine items ready for their finishing touches, as soon as they are done, either tomorrow or certainly this week, I will get them on here for you to see. 

Meanwhile I can put up some piks of the MOLA I have been doing. Popular Patchwork Forum came up with the idea of making Journal size items of things which a lot of folk wish to have a go at. MOLA work is the first item. I had never done this as I really wasn't too fussed about it. I will probably never do it again either now that I have given it a go. I can appreciate the work that goes into these MOLA's but they are not for me I am afraid, I just feel it to be a dreadful waste of fabric. I started out with 5 layers, then you cut away stitch down, cut away, stitch down, etc etc until you reach the last layer, you do not cut into that at all. Then you do decorative stitching on it - if you so wish - I didn't wish to do that, I beaded instead. If that has made my MOLA a non-MOLA now, so be it. I was chatting to my friend Di about it the other night and said I couldn't think how to finish it off, she has given me a brilliant idea of what to do with it - I thought the nearest bin!!! - but I haven't got round to doing it yet. So you will have to be patient with me for the end result, meantime I can show you piks of what I have done to it so far. Hope you like it, remember I am not one of the Panamanian Indians who make the stunning MOLA's, I am just me.

Looking at these pictures now, I am not too sure I have them in the order I did the darn thing!!! These tracing papers are the 'roughs' for me to do the marking and cutting out onto the actual work, I am sure it is not done like this by the experts, but I found it worked for me...

 Here are the cut fabrics for the middle shape which is actually a leaf

NOT a tree as hubby would insist it was...

 See, a leaf...

 Nor was this a 'bit of seaweed' grrr...

 I have kept these shapes because I may find a use for them in something else, you never know...

 Just proving I had FIVE layers of fabric here folks...

 This is actually the back, probably letting you see I machined it all down - shock horror,

well come on, you didn't seriously think I was going to hand stitch it all did you?

You did....hahaha - in your dreams...

 I think !! this is the final tracing for the last layer to be cut away...

 Here it is then with the above final tracing laid on top for me to mark out with the white

pencil so I know what to cut away, what a nightmare that job was, remember this is

journal size, that's A4...

 Marked ready to cut out shapes...

 Before it was marked, see I knew they were out of order...

Just nipped off to load the rest of the pictures and edit them for you, here are the rest then, sorry if you are bored, not half as much as I was making the darn thing I bet.

A teaser picture of the beading I have done on it...

 The back of the work...

 Close up of the LEAF...

 Hmm the back again, sorry, but I do like the back...

 Just showing the FIVE layers to you - again...

TADA, at last, all done bar the edging and backing, it is very heavy now due to all the beads

I have sewn on, I did get a tad carried away with them... :-)

Can YOU work out what I was aiming at? When I explained to hubby what it was - or rather what I meant it to represent, he said ---'Don't leave the day job'   Gee, thanks. I have to say it is a picture I saw somewhere but unfortunately I cannot remember where, I am sure it was copyright free anyway.

THEN

as if I hadn't been Mola'd enough,

I made this for fun, I could not resist...

Bet after reading all that you are really pleased I am back to my Blogging???

hahahahahahaha

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