February Already

Where did January go?  The month has flown and here we are into February already, the wintery weather is still with us and some of the pavements are treacherous but it was bright and clear yesterday and again this morning.  I think I even see some snowdrops peeking through the snow. 

An outing to the quilt shop was planned, I did say I was going to buy some new fabrics.  My 11year old nephew is due a new quilt.  He treasures the one I made for him years ago and he has played with the roadways and construction site quilt for hours on end.  Apparently it still has pride of place each night at the bottom of his bed.  He is an avid fan of Transformers and I managed to acquire some fabric with Bumblebee and Optimus Prime and some of the other characters,  names unknown to me!  The background of this fabric is black and grey but I hope to brighten it all up with red yellow and blue solids.  As always watch this space.

The little Rays of sunshine are coming along nicely I have completed another one and already have another few 'blades' cut up ready to sew together.  I can manage to sew a 'sun' in an evening after dinner if my mind is made up and set to it.  

I have been knitting this week too - I so enjoy spending an evening just knitting especially with nice fine 4 ply wool.

This week is our Show and Tell at class and I will be really struggling to find something to show and tell this month - no completed projects, just lots of pieces in progress.  I haven't even done any of my appliqué this week for block 5 the 'big one' there is a lot of little pieces in this one. I've decided I'm going to do this one over two months. 

Another 4 quilts were delivered to Project Linus this week.  I met a few ladies of the ladies who meet once a month in Hamilton, their sole aim is to produce quilts and blankets, and to sew on labels of donated quilts to be distributed to hospitals, and children in need of a hug.  More quilts are needed so if you are a quilter have a look in your stash and see if you could perhaps make a small child sized quilt from some of your scraps to be donated to your local group.

This week promises to be chilly again I plan to get 'Optimus Prime  and friends' fussy cut, finish my sunshine blocks ready to place on my background and start on my block 5 of the block of the month.  My fabrics on my shelves need a tidy up too - more than enough to be going on with this week perhaps a little to many things here to achieve but I'll try.  Keep cosy.

Rays of Sunshine and Ice Crystals

 

Last week I mentioned I was doing a little practice for our class.  I always try out before asking others to make something new.  What a lovely block this is and so much fun to make, Lucie Wakefield who lives in Northumberland and blogs at   http://luciethehappyquilter.com  was my inspiration for this one.  I follow her blog regularly and she always seems to be doing something different with lots of projects going on at the same time.  She has time to teach at a local quilt shop and takes in longarm quilting for clients - a busy lady.  The pattern for this quilt block was printed in the January Quiltmaker magazine and called Midnight Snowfall and I thought I would do it with a twist.  Sunny yellow fabrics and icy blues as a variation for my class mates.    It will be interesting to see the group finishes in a couple of weeks time. I have asked everyone to bring along their finishes for the Show and Tell on the first Tuesday of the month.  Here is the process and some of my finished creations.

 

There have been a few comments and discussions on the world of blogging - I am not the only one who has noticed change.  It has been said by a few that it's a pointless task, you never know who's following - especially if you are a no comment blogger - which I must be as I never seem to get any comments.  I think there are settings you can change etc but as you know I am not that technical, and to be honest while I would love to get some feedback I'm afraid I just don't have time to reply to comments I may receive which I would feel obliged to do.  I'll just continue doing what I'm doing and hope there are some people out there who enjoy my ramblings.  I know there are some followers as I can tell from the statistics there are some hits on the pages.  Whether or not these people enjoy what I write or whether they just look as my pictures who knows.  I know of a few good friends who do follow along, in Canada, in Wales and a few much closer to home.  Thank you all for following I hope this makes you smile, and say ooh that's me! I hope you are all well and managing to do a little stitching now and again.

I will continue this week with the Rays of Sunshine - I appear to be producing more of these than the Ice Crystals.  Maybe I would just like to see some sunnier days, there have been enough enough icy snowflakes outside this past week.  I will continue to use up my scraps and smaller pieces of fabrics and I have another two projects in the planning and drifting around in my head.

Have a good week everyone and keep cosy hopefully under a quilt hand stitching, if you haven't tried hand stitching for a while give it a try this week, it's so relaxing!

No Finishes but Progress

I have been working on a few projects this week.  The main one being a demonstration/tutorial I am giving on Tuesday night at class.  I can't give too much away at the moment but I found this delightful block on a blog I follow and I will give credit where credit is due next week when I show you what we achieve.  I know I was a bit derogative about blogs last week however this lady manages to blog most days and has produced some lovely projects she designs herself, although this block is not one of her own designs.  I asked the class to bring along some 'icy' or 'sunny' scraps of fabrics for Tuesday so I am looking forward to seeing what arrives.  Here are mine

Do you remember the Farmers Wifey Blocks - I made another three this week - I am almost getting to the end of my layer cake so I think although I have only made just over 30 of these little blocks I might just be coming to the end of this project.  When the fabric finishes so will I.  I have fabric for the sashing already so no issues there.

Almost a year ago I said I would make quilts for two little doggies - my heart has a not really been in this project however the tops are done.  Need to get them sandwiched now.

I have also caught up with my BOM and have now completed block number 4 so all is good, I was unhappy I had fallen behind as I was the one who insisted we all try to keep this project moving each month.  This was a quick and easy block no wee moosie or small fiddley pieces, which takes up the time.  I have made a few purchases to help me will my applique - but that's for another day. Generally there is so much in each block and it will be difficult to complete within the time if we don't do a bit each month.  There is a lot in next month's block lots of wee pieces - I might suggest we do it over two months.  I was surprised to learn that one of our ladies is making two each month - this all started because she was not happy with her first block!!!  All I can say is well done!

So you see I have done some sewing this week.  A lot of time has been taken up with the preparation for Tuesday night however I hope the ladies will enjoy something different.

Have a good week and enjoy whatever's on your to do list.

I Haven't Disappeared - Honest!

I have started this post so many times now over the last week and have been debating with myself whether or not to post at all.  It is very difficult to blog when you have nothing of interest to say to your readers, which inevitably means your followers stop following along.  I have noticed over the last couple of months that a number of bloggers I have followed over the last year or so have fallen by the wayside and have either just stopped posting or have gone over to other things and Instagram.  Now I don't really intend to do either.  I have not been sewing very much recently and to be perfectly honest I think the main problem I have is lack of inspiration.

I usually read magazines, Internet sites and blogs looking out for new things to do.  Magazines can get expensive if there is nothing to catch your attention and in my opinion what I am seeing is repeats of blocks and quilts I have seen in the past just using new modern and brighter fabrics.  I was not greatly impressed by what I saw this year at our local quilt show in Edinburgh - again no inspiration or nothing that jumped out at me and said - sew me!  Is this just a stage in my quilting life that I'm going through,  a mid winter crisis or is this craft telling me to get off the boat and try something else?    Has quilting run its course like so many other crafts?

As you probably know I have been doing quite a lot of knitting over the last few months in preparation for the arrival of our new grandson, however this little lad has now more than enough cozy cardis to do him for about a year!  So the knitting needles are going away again until there is a request for a new jumpers rom his Mummy!  Well I might not put them away altogether I have enjoyed knitting again so will probably use up all the scraps and knit some baby blankets for the Linus Project.

Looking back over the last year I do realise I did achieve something.  How many quilts? 19!!  Check out the gallery.  There are two missing at the moment, both gifts for my grandson and his Mummy. I was so excited to give them to them I forgot to take photos.  One is the blue disappearing nine patch in baby boy fabrics and the other a pretty lemon and grey pinwheel spot for the nursery, hopefully to keep them both cozy and to snuggle under at feeding time.    A few were baby gifts, some donations to Marie Curie and Linus and I still have a few sitting in my display case waiting to be donated to a worth while cause.  

I tried a few new techniques too during the year, surprisingly I think the one I have discovered I like most is Applique. We are doing an on going Block of the Month project at class.  It's the Night Before Christmas quilt by Bunny Hill.  I have a little catching up to do for this month but so far I am really enjoying this project which is in the main hand stitching.  This is what I will be working on this week.

Looking forward into 2015 - what will I be doing?  Unless I get some real inspiration soon - not a lot!  I still have a few WIPs I really must finish.  Last year I bought very little fabric as I was determined to use up some of my stash.  I will continue to do this but I really think it's time to splash out and buy something new and interesting. 

I also hope this year to go back and try freemotion quilting again.  I was given this exciting book for my birthday, it has lots of lovely ideas and patterns, some of which look quite daunting however I intend to take this very slowly indeed.   Being a mainly straight line quilter which works well on some quilts, sometimes there is a need to have a more flowing quilting design.  If time allows that's what I'll be doing - I hate wasting fabrics and threads just for practice though!   I know there are lots of ideas out there to make panels and join them together like a quilt as you go method.

I hope you have been inspired to do something different this year and are not stuck in a rut like me.  If you have any ideas for me I would be delighted to hear them, just drop me a note.  Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few weeks - I will try to do better! 

Merry Christmas to Everyone

'What a wonderful day we had yesterday spending the morning with the newest member of the family and spending the afternoon and evening with the eldest.  Almost 86 years of a difference in ages but both have brought such delight to me.  Of course every one else is important too and each in their own ways have added to a lovely Christmas and filled me full of pride and joy.

I am now able to show you some of the things I have been making over the last few months. I am not going to show them all today but these are just a couple of pieces I made for my Grandson.  Of course the Santa Sack has been made for some time however the last minute name tag was only completed at the beginning of this week!

Inside were a few handmades, a red christmas cardigan knitted in the newborn size, really cute but a little large for him, I may re knit it if his Mum will let me ( I wasn't happy with the pattern).  My pentagon ball was a big success, I used bright colours and patterns (I know babies  don't see colour just yet but the patterns were bold) and of course the jingle made a lovely sound.  

I know the burp/washcloths will come in handy for mopping sticky face and hands.  I made up a changing bag His and Her style for Mummy and Daddy, enclosed in each a changing mat, wipes, muslin and burp cloth which can mutate into a bandana bib there is room too in these little pouches for nappies and a babygro!  Each was made with little significant icons, Mummy's have her favourite elephants and Daddy's has fishes and trees!

These are only a few of my finishes but unfortunately when I look back through my photos I seem to have forgotten to take a record of some in all the rush to get things finished and wrapped up and gone off to recipients. Ho hum!  That's life.

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas Day and haven't indulged too much.  Now we start to get back to normal routines but today will be a relaxing one I hope for everyone and I for one am hoping to sit down and do a bit of hand stitching of my third block of my Night Before Christmas Quilt for next year!  Enjoy whatever you are planning.  

 

A Baby Boy

Struan Ian Paterson Mackie arrived on Sunday morning 14.12.14 at 05.35am weighing in at 6lb10oz. Parents and baby are all well and now home from hospital.  What an exciting weekend - is there any wonder I missed posting on my blog?  We are delighted, over the moon, overjoyed, and thankful to welcome our first grandchild into the family. This little bundle is a real cutie, just like his parents he has long legs, long fingers, long feet and just perfect!  I can see a few problems in the future when coming to buy school shoes just as I did with his Dad.  What a wonderful Christmas present we have been given - the most precious gift of a beautiful Grandson.



Maybe now you will understand why I have not been showing off any of my finishes over the last few months.

I asked throughout the pregnancy if there were any specific items I should knit or sew and was given a blank canvas and free rein. There was only one specific request -  just last month, to knit little black and yellow bootees to match the baby's coming home outfit - a strange request I thought at the time, but in true Grannie fashion I did what I was asked.  I did make a couple of other pairs just in case Mummy changed her mind on the day, however all became apparent when I was sent a photo of him in his bumble bee coming home outfit. So cute!

Well here are a few of the finishes I've had to resist showing you over the last few months

..........The big knitting project - hours and hours of concentration, and worth every single minute.

..........The first of many quilts, this fabric you have seen before, I bought it some time ago in Canada and have been saving it for a special event.  This quilt was made earlier this summer as was a quilt for a girl just to be on the safe side.  The little girly quilt will head off to Project Linus to give a hug to a less fortunate family.

.......... And all the little knitted cardis, mitts and hats, carry bag etc I've produced. I am so glad I'm a knitter  - it's so nice to have some traditional handmade items to pass on to the next generation but it's good to try out the more modern styles too.  Many of the patterns I have used were knitted 30 years ago and looking back through photographs I see my own two boys wearing similar garments knitted by my Mum.  Old traditions are lovely but it's also nice to make new ones for the next generation.

........... Last night was our class Christmas Dinner, what a lovely evening we had, enjoying the chat and a lovely meal.  I can now reveal what I made with the fabric I showed you last time.  These two little items were really fun to make.  What a variety of lovely projects appeared for our lucky dip, all sporting a piece of this fabric.  there was a cushion, a little bag and purse, scissor keepers, book covers and a glasses case, a table topper, mats and runner.  What good fun we had sharing our projects.

Hopefully you will have another update soon but I may not have time to sit and blog - I will be too busy cooing over Struan and doing what Grannies do! So forgive me if I miss a few instalments. 

Negativity

I am sorry to say I have no news for you this week - so rather than witter on I am just going to say sorry, no news, no photos (ok I've managed one), no inspiration. Unfortunately I have not been feeling 100% this week.  I have had a horrible head cold which I  am pleased to say is now getting a bit better.  So to everyone out here who is feeling a little sorry for themselves and has a cold my sympathies are with you.  Keep cosy, drink lots of fluids and do nothing. Relax and listen to your body until it mends itself. (Maybe someday I will take my own advice).  I think we are needing a good frost to kill all the germs out there at the moment, lots of folks with colds and tummy bugs.  Having seen the weather forecast though maybe the wind will blow the germs away - I think we are set for a stormy week.

Here I am, doing just what I said I wouldn't do - wittering.  My stitching last night was a little project for our Secret Santa for our Christmas night out a week on Tuesday.  All our class members were given a fat eighth of this fabric which was used in one of our colour tutorials earlier in the year and each gift must include at least a small  piece of this fabric.   It will be fun to see what ideas everyone has managed to come up with.

 

Keep cosy this week and perhaps by next week I will have something finished I can show you - or then again .......maybe not.