Mid month review

Time for a mid month review of what I've been upto. I had planned on posting this last week but I got busy and never managed to post it.

I've been out a couple more times geocaching but the darker nights are drawing in now up here and it's been cold so I suspect we'll not be heading out to do much more geocaching this year unless we get a really nice autumn day when I'm off work.

A wander at about 7.30pm gave us this wonderful looking sunset over St Mary's lighthouse. Pity we live on the east coast so don't get really good sunsets.

I also got some really exciting things in the post this past fortnight!

A box of goodies and some post from Australia!

Here's what I got from Australia! Dasha who blogs over at Patching Pixies read about my charm hexagon quilt and very kindly sent me a load of squares over from her stash to turn into hexagons! I am so grateful for them and they will keep me busy for a while.

The box contained some new Guide uniform just in time for the start of the new year of Guides over here. I've lost weight so I decided to treat myself to some new uniform that fits a bit better. I'm lucky that it turned up on the Tuesday right before Guides started!

The friend I helped with the giant green quilt gave me my reward for helping out too. It's a jelly roll of glamping fabric. Just what every Guide leader needs. This fabric will be to make something for me!

Pretty fabric and it's all mine!

Wedding quilt number 2 is coming on nicely. Not as fast as I'd like but I'm making progress. All the rows have been sewn together so I just need to get the long white strips sorted to join them up. That giant gap is where the pictures will go once I have them sorted.

It's been ironed since this photo. I promise!

I have managed to get some more hexagons made even though I've not managed to get any photos of them. I promise them next time.

In other news for those who have regularly read my blog I've had more disturbing spider experiences. But fear not this time it's me that came out on top. In August my sister and I came across a very large (by UK standards) spider in our hallway. Neither of us are big spider fans so by the time we'd argued over who had to get it with the hoover it was on the move. I chased it into our dining room (or my sewing room as I like to think of it) and lost it in there because it was so fast.

Fast forward to last week when I was sat minding my own business and putting together some strips fro the wedding quilt. My sister walked in, looked at the wall behind me and ran out the room screaming. Apparently the spider had taken up residence behind me to watch me sew. This time I wasted no time in getting the hoover and sucking him up. No more need to worry every time I go to sew about spider attacks now. Phew.

Tomorrow (or Friday for those of you in different time zones so who are already there!) we're taking th dog for her checks at the vets so she can start her chemo. Hope all goes well and my sister doesn't faint when the vet takes blood from the dog. 

...and finally

Apparently Christmas is coming. I know this because in the first week of September I walked into our local ASDA supermarket and was greeted with this selection in the bakery. I've also seen a chocolate advent calander in a shop today.

This is what ruins Christmas for me. In my head it should not even be considered until December. We should at least be allowed to enjoy autumn and bonfire night first!

Mince pie or Christmas pudding anyone?

P.s.. for a change this post actually shows no fabric that I have bought. My bank account is very happy with me at the minute!

Back again and inspired by great British sewing bee

Well yet again I'm back. I'm awful at this blogging thing. I suspect this is because I only have 1 follower and so I doubt that anyone actually reads these! Although who knows. Maybe if I posted more I would get more followers?

Well onto a catch up of what I've been doing.

Remember those hexagons I was hoping to turn into a tablemat for Christmas? Here they are all finished.

Yay! I do like them and I think they work well with the linen.

That starry quilt I was making for my friend? That's been free motion quilted too. I finally plucked up the courage to do it and managed to do the whole thing in a day. It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but for a 1st attempt it's OK  It looks really good from afar. The quilt just needs binding now and I've cheated and bought some binding to do that.

Since my last post I've also gained more fabric (oops) including some very funky tube map fabric that I got for my birthday, rather a lot of Amy butler fabric that was on sale in hobby craft for £6 a meter (silly to pass up that chance) and some home dec fabric from ikea to make a bag. I would to to make Amy butler's weekend bag but I suspect that's a little beyond my skill level so I'm going to limit myself to something from the bag making bible instead.

I've also for some reason agreed to make a quilt for my friends wedding which is in October. Plenty of time right? The theme for the wedding is a vintage tea party and so I've had to buy a lot of fabric to match this theme. I had nothing in my funky stash that would work. It's a basic quilt with lots of squares for people to sign and we ate hoping to transfer some photos on too. I've put my friend who is one of the bridesmaids in charge of gaining photos. It's all a secret from the bride and groom so I'm having to be very careful what I say on Facebook.

my newly gained fabric. lots of flowers

I'm not alone in making this quilt though. I have help! The friend who is a bridesmaid is helping me make it. She's never used a sewing machine before which is just a tiny problem so last weekend I spent a Sunday afternoon letting her loose sewing straight lines and we got a few blocks made. She loved her time using the sewing machine and is really looking forward to our next sewing get together in a few weeks.

7 of 66...

And then we get to the great British sewing bee TV show. For those who don't know what it is... If you've ever seen great British bake off its the same thing but sewing. Lol. Basically a group of very talented people complete challenges to make items every week with people being knocked out every week until the finale. I have no idea how they are making those things in that time. I mean seriously I takes me months to make anything. Never mind making an evening dress of a tailored jacket in 8 hours from start to finish! Utter madness.
I was given the book for my birthday last week and I also magically at the same time managed to gain a dress pattern from as magazine. It's a sign I tell you! I've always quite liked slightly vintage dresses (not so much the flowers. Kath kidston flowers make me cry so you can imagine how I'm feeling about that wedding quilt) and with my recent (and hopefully continuing weight loss) I've decided now is the time to try and make a dress! You never know. Summer may appear yet. I'm also aware that making a dress may be a stupid and expensive thing to so when I'm still loosing weight and planning on starting the insanity workout DVDs so I've opted to just have a trial run and see how it goes since its the first item of clothing I will ever of made and will be only the 2nd zip I've put in (everyone has to start somewhere right).
The fabric has been ordered, the invisible zippers and zipper foot for my sewing machine have been ordered, the book will give me hints, and the pattern gives me basic instructions. How wrong can it go? I'm hoping to blog the lot so you (dear reader who has done very well to get this far) can see. If I can make a dress anyone can.

The pattern. Can I do it?

Coincidently the woman who won the sewing bee had never made a quilt before. At least I've done that even if I've never worn anything I've made! lol. Hopefully next time I post I'll have started making that dress. Or have more of the quilt made... I'm rather excited about the dress option tbh...

An Update - and a resolution

Well It's been a while since I last posted on here.
Since then I've finished my sister's quilt

Finished my Queen's Guide award

Bought a kindle and made a funky cover for it

 ... and made my gran a scrappy quilt for Christmas this year which used leftovers from my 1st quilt!

I've just saved enough money up to buy a new sewing machine so hopefully I can have a go at free motion quilting or at least now it has duel feed and posher stitches than the last one at least make some funky quilts!

Plan for the year...
Make the quilt I promised my friend. She wants it starry and colourful
Finish the friendship braid quilt I started last year
Make a Dresden plate quilt of some sort
Make a sampler quilt using funky fabric (yes, I'm a newbie who didn't start with the traditional making a sampler quilt thing lol)
and finally make the sparking gems quilt from the jelly roll book because it just looks fab.

I think I'll be a busy bee this year if I get all that done and manage to fit in going to work and running a Guide and Ranger unit too!

At a standstill (and not just becasue of the weather!)

I've managed to get the centre block of my sister's xmas quilt made but have now come to a standstill. I don't have enough fabric to make the border and until I get paid from my new job can't afford to buy any (the curse of car mot and insurance both due in December!). I think it looks rather good so far though. Here's a pic I took before I finished sewing it all together.

It's a pity it's so wintery outside now - it was very sutumnal when I started this quilt. Sis likes it though so far :)

I did have a bit of luck too when I won from fabric from sew me happy in a givaway. It's a lovely collection of xmas fabric and because I can't do any more work with my sis's quilt it means I can make something with that instead :)

I'll have to keep the blue one seperate I think as I love it so much and it's a different colour that I think I'll do a mostly blue and white 'snow' quilt for that one.

Any ideas for patterns for a christmas quilt anyone?