Scraps, glorious scraps!

So I treated myself to some new FQ's and some scraps from the fabulous Fabricshoppe, I know they are based in america, but there isn't many places in the uk that supply such modern and fresh fabrics at an affordable price so occasionally I do tend to splurge a little!

Does anyone else enjoy sorting out their scraps into colour ways? I adore sorting out my fabric and matching it together into different combinations. I think if my SO knew how much I enjoyed doing it he would probably have me sectioned! Hehe!

I am hopeless at using scraps, or strips that aren't 2 1\2" or the such like, so one night I got my rotary cutter out and cut strips that weren't equal!! 

I then stitched a pretty easy wonky log cabin block, which I love and am now quite addicted to using scraps and making wonky blocks!

 I think next time I will use a fussy cut piece for the centre, so it has a sort of focal point. It will eventually be a cushion, I like cushions.

My new design wall in my workroom at mums (where I run my business from) I have it half divided for work, half for sewing. I say workroom lightly because actually it is just a converted garage!

Also last summer I bought myself something I have always, always wanted. A VW campervan. She is my pride and joy, and although we didn't stay anywhere in her as she wasn't ready I did use her a fair bit for general driving. At the moment I have my v-dub off the road and Im doing up the interior and getting everything I need for camping. And obviously I need some patchwork cushions, see I told you I like cushions!

I made two wonky star blocks, using some scraps of pinks, and some plain and some special fabric that I bought for my camper! (you will see why)

When I finally get some feather cushions to go in them I will take a better picture of them in my camper, with my newly covered seats ;-)

That's all for now! Kellye xxx

Long time no blog!

Is it too late to say happy new year? I mean it is february after all.. Well anyways happy new year, hope it's a good one!
So I made up a few presents in time for christmas, but actually forgot to take photo's of most of them! Silly me!

Some of the things made included
- A fake fur zebra print pouffe/beanbag for my bestie
- A pin cushion made with a little screenprint and fabric made by Laura and Linda Kemshall for my lovely mumma.
- And two quilts of sorts..... (Pictured below)

Firstly, this was a quilt I made for my SO and his two boys. My SO has a habit of throwing out a t-shirt when he buys a new one, and he always gives them to me to dispose of, so I have been collecting them in preparation to make a t-shirt quilt. I backed the pieces of t-shirt with a lightweight fusible vilene to make them stronger and less stretchy, so I didn't get any movement when quilting.

I had a small remnant of this fighter jet material which I used for the backing. I know its not in the same direction as the patchwork, but my SO and the boys love it all the same.
I also didn't quilt it too much as I didn't want to quilt through all the logo's/motifs and blur them in any way.

I made this simple, neutral coloured quilt for mum for christmas. I used simple four patches with sashing around them. I quilted it on our large quilting frame which was tricky because it is at mums so she had to be banished from the sewing room for the afternoon whilst I did it, as I wanted it to be a semi-surprise!

Oh, and meet Holly our lovely labrador, she gets a fair amount of use of the quilt too, she is 13, a bit fragile and gets a little cold and Dad has a habit of covering her at night with whichever quilt is closest, spoilt pooch hehe!

My new years resolution ( I know, I know its february, bear with me) is to blog more, so here's hoping!

(sorry about the squiffy pictures, they were taken on my new phone)

Kellye xxx

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