Just lately..

Just a few things I have been up to lately!

Firstly, I decided to treat myself to this lovely bundle of fabric from fabric worm the colour combination just caught my eye instantly and I knew I had to have it..

At the time I had no Idea what for until at my local group the topic of our next exhibition came up! We have a list of 9 challenges, one of which is a stay-at-home mystery quilt, we start with a 12" block, and each month we get a new border to add, for example, the first one was half square triangles, you can make them as big/small as you like and you can add borders to one side, two sides or all sides, whatever you want. You can also add sashing in between borders if you would like. So here is a quick pic of mine so far... I have made the triangles, they just need squaring up and adding with some sashing..!

We have had a new border assigned, which is flying geese, oh and we will have another new one at tomorrow's meeting, so I am a little behind.. But as somebody declared last week, 'Oh another new border, well I haven't even started mine yet' I think that I'm doing ok :-)

Also for our round robin within the group, here is a picture of the blocks I have made for my first partner! The theme is stars, so these are some simple machine appliqued star blocks.

And lastly, here is a sneak peek of my finished piece from a Sheena Norquay workshop I did for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was brilliant, and Sheena is so inspiring, her work is truly amazing. I will post some better pictures soon...

Thanks and enjoy, Kellye xxx

Festival of quilts 2010

Well, I am a month or more overdue with this post, but better late than never hey?! This year we went on the thursday, thinking it may not be as busy as the weekend, but boy were we wrong! Luckily it is only about an hour and a half away from where we live so is a nice easy journey, but you could really do with two days to be able to see everything±

We had a great day, if somewhat exhausting, and Mum and I got to meet the lovely Amy Butler, who is so nice and down to earth, I got a little fan-girl-ish and started blushing when I met her, such an amazing woman! Also met Linda and Laura Kemshall who are just lovely as always, and picked up a copy of their latest threefold journal book which they happily signed for me.

Anyway, these are a few of the many pictures I took on the day, unfortunately I think I missed a large portion of quilts, but here are a few anyway!

Apologies about the picture quality, all the pictures were taken on my phone!

Enjoy Kellye xxx

Some firsts!

I thought I would post a few quilts I have made in the past! (just to prove I actually quilt and don't just collect masses of fabrics and notions, although I am very good at the latter)

This is a small cot quilt I made using a charm pack. We (mum and myself) had just taken delivery of our big quilting frame and this was the first quilt I quilted on it. I think it turned out ok for a first attempt!

A close up of the quilting, its a leaf and vine pattern.

Next, this quilt is my first attempt at log cabin, well a variation. I have to say I love log cabin, I love how quickly it grows, and well look out for more log cabin quilts in the future.

Anyone who knows me knows I love pink and purple and all things girly so this quilt was very unlike me, colourwise. It was very simply quilted on my domestic sewing machine, that is about 30 years old and has no fancy quilting settings, or drop feed facility. Needless to say it worked fine, but I had a few puckers in places.

Lastly, this was a quick quilt trying out a block that I liked the look of. I only had enough fabric to make 4 blocks so this is more of a wall hanging. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, as once bound I really wish I had quilted it more, but hey-ho, I am a new quilter, and my adventures are not all as successful as I would like!

(apologies about the pictures, I am no photographer!)

Enjoy kellye xxx

Quilt retirement..

Well, it is official, the first quilt I ever made has been retired from service. Made from various patterned black and white squares, backed with fleece (instead of the typical 3 layers) I made this for the home my OH and I moved into 2 years ago. We have since gained :

- Two quilts, one for each of his boys, made by my lovely Mum, for birthdays.
- An Aston Villa thick fleece blanket (big football fans in our household)
- A thick chenille throw for the winter.

My OH decided something had to go, so my quilt it was, first in, first out... So she goes back to my workroom at the farm (home no.2) to live somewhere warm and quiet.

Here are a couple of pictures,

Hopefully some use will come of my first quilt again one day! Untill then...

Kellye xxx

Scrap Sensations!

So, yesterday afternoon mum and I attended our local quilt group, Welsh Heritage Quilters which we have recently joined, to see a wonderful talk given by Katharine Guerrier, she talked about how she started quilting, and showed us a wonderful range of quilts, from her very first hexagon quilt, to many of her more famous quilts from her lovely books and cd's. I was totally intrigued particularly with her quilted postcards, and also one of the different ways she finishes off her smaller pieces, instead of binding. I have taken some photo's (with permission kindly granted from Katherine herself to post them here) so here you go!

Katharine

These are the lovely quilted postcards! There is a workshop coming up with Katharine at WHQ group soon, which I am tempted to go on, but shall have to justify the cost! Watch this space!

Kellye xxx

My Maiden Post!

Hello, my name is kellye!
After spending hours trawling the web admiring people's various blogs, I have decided to make the leap and join the blogging world! I hope to share my sewing, patchwork, quilting and general craftyness with you all, and *fingers crossed* I hope you enjoy what I do :-)

Kellye xxx