So much sewing... Sew little time..

Life can be so frustrating..... I failed to get my Pieces of Cake quilt finished in May....

In the first place I had forgotten I needed to put more borders on... So maybe I set my sights too high.. I did get about half of it quilted but have been distracted by a 'poorly' father... (It's never my fault really!)


My Bloglovin feed comes in each day and I see so many prolific quilters out there.... fitting in work & children around their sewing.... I definitely agree to the old adage "If you want something done ... Ask a busy person". Cause the more time I have... The less I get done!!

I did manage to get my Zakka make done....... Only one but I liked the method & want to find some better fabrics to make more..

I'm also making a present for someone at the moment..... I'm making it up as I go along but I'm pretty pleased with it at the moment....
Here's a couple of shots so far..... Reveal later on.

Siblings Together Bee....

I feel very fortunate to have brought up 2 happy healthy sons who, despite all their childhood squabbles, are the best of friends. They live miles apart now but still keep in touch and enjoy each others company when they get together. It warms my heart to see this..

Sadly not all families are this lucky and for a variety of reasons children get separated from their siblings to live apart. including Adoption, Foster care & Kinship care ....
Siblings Together is an organisation that aims to keep brothers and sisters connected. They organise holidays so that children can be together in relaxed fun surroundings away from the outside influences on their lives.  Lynne of Lily's Quilts brought this organisation to the attention of quilting blogland last year and quilts were made and sent to the children to have while they were at camp and to take home as a link with their siblings...
 This is an ongoing project - there will be more children this year and more quilts are being delivered... So this year a few groups have sprung up on Flickr to organise ourselves into Bees to make  quilts to be delivered for next year - I'm in and will hopefully be reducing my stash for this wonderful cause...

To cut down on postage costs we are making the quilts from our fabric stashes, each month has a 'Bee Mama' who will choose a block and colour scheme for the rest of us to follow, we then make one or two blocks and send them to her. Each months Mama then provides the backing, wadding and binding etc to  complete the quilt for delivery - our Bee hopes to donate 12 quilts this way.
 Bees are such a fun way of connecting with fellow quilters and as there are only so many quilts you can make for your home, the surplus can help keep a child connected with their siblings, hopefully making that connection last for life.

I will keep you in touch with how we get on.....

Many Happy Returns?

Well not me but my 'baby' turned 27 yesterday.....

 and I have a question to ask...

Every year the night before Ross's birthday I have a terrible nights sleep... he woke me up at 3am to arrive at 5.30am. It's not something I am conscious about until the morning of his birthday when I am calling him..... its weird.

He says he slept like a baby - funny boy.....!!

So does this happen to anyone else?

His brother was an afternoon baby so I don't have the same thing happening...

A finish for May...

Ok... here we go for May in the Lovely Year of Finishes project....

I think most of my finishes are going to be quilting... I seem to be a piecer and not a quilter, so this challenge is perfect for getting my tops done..

This month I will be finishing a quilt top I made last year from Camille Roskelly's book Simplify...   Pattern - A Piece of Cake...... (I'm a big fan.. Can you tell?)  I recently bought her Pre-Cuts class on Craftsy and this quilt was part of the class... it prompted me to get it out again and get if finished... Its a really simple pattern & was made with a Layer cake and yardage....
Have a look a the class... it is currently 25% off... Craftsy classes are great value - you can return to them again and again. If you are a fan of Camille's patterns then you are in luck.. you get the pattern for this quilt and Swoon included (amongst others...)

I'm not advertising... I'm spreading the love....

Its a lovely day and I got a sunny snap in the garden...photos are so much better in sunlight..

Ok.. off and running - A quilting I will go.....

A Lovely Finish....

I have managed to finish my April challenge.... This was a small quilt that I had made when following the Zakka Style Sew a Long last year.. I had used a Charm Pack by Cabbages & Roses instead of yardage, together with Essex Linen to give a really soft 'shabby' look.
So a quilt style to match? I chose straight line quilting about 1/2" apart... this was the width of my walking foot.
You can't see it on these pictures but through the strips with floral blocks I quilted with a variegated cream King Tut thread and to ring the changes on the plain linen strips I used a variegated pink one...

I like this close straight quilting as I like to see a soft 'rumpled' finish - so after quilting the top I sewed a line of zig-zag close to the edge, trimmed  it up roughly and then put it through a wash and tumble dry. Then I squared it up and put the binding on.... followed by another wash and pinned out to dry on old towels to keep it square.

So here it is ... all soft & shabby -  with (hopefully) just a hint of chic?

Baby Baby Baby...

Is there something in the water around here? or is it just that having been married for 33 years all my friends children are starting their own families.... as I just seem to be making an awful lot of baby quilts..

This is the 3rd quilt that I have made using the 'Little Man' pattern from Camille Roskelly's book Simplify. It is so simple and so effective... just 4 fat quarters (this is from Lily & Will by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda) and some plain yardage. However I did cheat on the yardage.... I have used a cream jelly roll as the pattern uses 2 1/2" strips and I have enough strips from one roll to make 5 of these quilts. Then just a bit for the top & bottom borders and its all done. It is about 40" wide so fits one width of fabric for the backing too (around 1.5m total) so altogether it is not an expensive quilt to make.

I have quilted most of the top but I am waiting for this baby boy to be born and then I can quilt his name on the bottom corner - so I am well on time with this one.

A Lovely year of Finishes

I'm back on track... Linking up for my April finish.. This is a quilt top that I started last year in the Zakka style sew a long... so it just needs to be quilted and bound.

Not a good picture sorry... but Linen & pastels are not high contrast....