Marie Curie Fundraiser

I am pleased to report that the stall at the Christmas Street Market was a success thanks to the band of  volunteers who braved the cold last Saturday.  Hopefully they will have raised the awareness of others, spreading the word of the valuable work the Marie Curie nurses and hospices provide in the UK and hopefully encouraging others to join the team of fundraisers for in my opinion a very good cause.  Each and every one of us has a different charity we support and of course you know the reason for my trying to raise money and awareness in our local community.  We do not have enough nurses to support those who need it.

I was given a list of statistics to allow me to make up some temporary posters for the stall.  Did you Know?

There are only 48 nurses covering the South Lanarkshire Area, they provided 1581 visits during 2016/17.  £20 donation helps fund a nurse for only 1hour.  £35 provides a nurses uniform.  £180 pays for an entire night shift.  On Saturday the stall raised just over £500 which will help fund 25 hours of care in Scotland.  I am pleased I have been able to support the charity once again and hopefully my quilt which was raffled will also keep someone cosy this winter.

The volunteers sold Marie Curie Christmas Cards and bags as well as other craft Items.  As promised here are photos of my donations to the stall.  Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the scarves or the little Christmas stockings which I believe were a good seller.

The Quilt which was raffled

Table Runner

Mug Rugs/Candle Mats

Tissue Holders

The Glasgow Marie Curie Hospice is having its annual Christmas Fair on Saturday 25th so I wish them well in what should be a good day.

As an added aside I have added a few wee quilts which I have made over the last few months to the Selling My Quilts page in the hope perhaps they can be sold for added funds.  Any money I make from these will be added to my Just Giving Page.  Should you be interested in purchasing any of them please contact me using the contact on the home page. The Prices I have listed are minimum guide prices and covers the cost of the materials used only and does not reflect in any way the value of quilters work elsewhere.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

That's just what I have been doing over the past few weeks.  Getting tied in knots over silly things which don't really matter.  I haven't really concentrated on the 'big stuff' with the result I have been getting bogged down.

Once again too many irons in the fire and trying to do too many projects at one time.  I sat down this afternoon and discovered once again I have too many WIPs.  I think I have counted 9!!

Over the last week however I have been trying to get on top of a few small items which I want to donate to the Marie Curie stall at the local Christmas Market which is taking place next Saturday.  At last I feel I have enough small items made for their stall to make it worthwhile.  I am donating Lotta Dots this half square triangle quilt.  

I am not sure whether it will be for sale at the right price or whether they hope to Raffle it on the day.  As always when quilts are made you shouldn't try to put a price tag on the finished item, a donation is a donation and hopefully Marie Curie Fundraising Team will make good use of it and see it for what it is - A Quilt is a Hug you can Keep!  I had fun making it and I hope someone will enjoy having it as a comfort.  

The smaller items - a Table Runner, Mug Rugs, Tissue Holders and Small Christmas Stockings -should help raise a few pounds to help with the care and support for those with terminal illness in our local community.  I will post a few pictures next time.

Advent Calendars have also been on my list.  Fortunately I am now confident enough to say they will be ready for the 1st of December this year.

At class this week being the first of the month our Block challenge was a Star Block.  What a wonderful array of sparkling stars appeared.  I haven't asked permission of the group to post their blocks but these were my two blocks.  This is turning out to be a really enjoyable challenge for those taking part.  Next month's chosen block will be a Square in a Square.

Techie's quilt is still hanging forlornly on the design wall, looking at me everytime I walk into the sewing room, hopefully this week I will manage to start the process of joining the blocks together.

Until next time, have a good sewing week and keep cosy.

Time Does Not Stand Still

I am not sure where the hours, days, months are disappearing to this year.  I seem to have been very busy but I don't think I have achieved much or have a lot to show.  I cant believe it has been two weeks since my last post.

I collected my sewing machine from the shop and the technician has given it a good clean and service, he replaced the thread cutter which when pressed was making a dreadful noise and of course wasn't cutting the thread.  The machine itself sounds much healthier and is running smoothly.  I took the opportunity while it was away to give my frame a brush down, secured all the screws and gave the rails a polish which was recommended on a post on the Grace Frame users Facebook page.  So I duly loaded it all up last week and finished off the zipper quilt I was in the process of quilting when the machine had a tizzy.

I have continued with Techies quilt and now have the 4 large blocks and 3 of the 5 small blocks completed and I added a pop of colour to one of them to see how it looks.

All the babies have arrived their quilts have been delivered.  Findlay, Harry, Zachary, Amelia, Ellen, Jack, Imogene and Angus.  The quilt photos are now all on the Gallery page.

The Marie Curie charity have been in touch with me and I have been busy making a few smaller items for sale on the Market Stall they will be having in November.  Good fun and useful for using up my smaller pieces of fabric but a bit disjointed and fiddly.  I hope my wee items will help boost the funds, help them raise awareness and find more volunteers in our local community to support the work they carry out caring and supporting people through terminal illness.

I will be continuing work on Techies quilt this week and I must make a start to some items I need to make for Christmas - I was told its only 9 weeks - I am sure you didn't really want to know that!  Have fun.

Crystal Star

I am delighted to report that Crystal Star is finished and I am delighted with it.  It has been a long process, not so much the actual making the quilt but the time it has taken from purchase of the kit way back in 2013 to the final photo today.  Sometimes things get in the way, something you really want to do but don't have the skill, knowledge and sometimes the inclination just to get it done!  Then when you actually make the decision to start, everything goes ok and the end result is something quite stunning and very much more than you expected.  I overcame many hurdles along the way with this one both mentally and in ability.  I pushed dark negative thoughts aside and travelled along a path which led to new techniques being mastered, extra care being taken for accuracy in cutting and stitching and I have come out the other side and now the owner of a very striking quilt which will hopefully be with me a very long time. I have no intentions in parting with this one.  At the moment I have no idea what I am going to do with it, where I am going to put it or when I will actually use it but when all is said and done - it is Finished and I am happy with it!

I have also made a really good effort to push on with the Farmers Wifey Quilt which as you all know has been a WIP for a very long time too.  The fabric for the setting triangles arrived and have been cut and are now sewn in place.  I decided to leave one of the strips out of the front of the quilt as it was like Topsy, growing and growing and was going to end up so big!  I stopped when it reached 60 x 60 inches and I still have to put a border and binding on it.  I will put the strip on the back as extra interest.  I have ordered extra wide backing for this one and hopefully it will arrive next week, then I will be on the home stretch for another finish. 

My baskets are gradually emptying, but I have plenty of new ideas waiting in the sidelines.  I have added a few more creatures to the Awesome Ocean project 

and Techie's new quilt is coming along nicely too.  

A good week of sewing when all is said and done,  I hope you have had a good week too.

Imagination

This has been an exciting week, no sewing, no knitting, no chores, but I am exhausted!  but in a very nice way.  We spent this week looking after our little Grandson who is an absolute charmer, I know, thats what every grandparent says about their offsprings little ones.  What adventures we had, we visited the Sea Life Centre which was fun although the turtle which S particularly wanted to see had gone on its holidays, we did however see the sharks, and rays being fed and watched the antics of the otters.   Some time was spent in the playpark where he burned up some of his never ending supply of energy.  He was so tired he fell asleep on the way home.

Catching Fish

Planting Bulbs

Digging up the lawn - oops!

Taking water to water the plants

One of my quilting friends commented when I said I was going to be entertained by my Grandson for a week thought that it should be the other way around and I would be entertaining him.  Well apart from  story time, meal times and bedtime I was well and truly entertained.  He has a very vivid imagination and can turn a piece of pipe into a fishing rod, a pair of rubber gloves into flippers for going diving, and on numerous occasions called out the coastguard and fire engine on his walkie talkie to rescue someone in difficulty - all helped of course by Fireman Sam.

So many questions had to be answered, jigsaws made up and stories read and woe betide me if I got the words wrong.  'Silly Grannie"!!

This will be a quieter week ahead, but I am already missing his little voice saying Grannie what are you doing?

I hope I will be able to continue with Techie's quilt, which can be seen over on Instagram, the fabric arrived for the setting triangles of the Farmers Wifey quilt so I can do some of the cutting for that too.

I am off to bed now to try to recharge my batteries.  Have a good week and enjoy whats left of the long weekend.

Three Finishes

Did you pop over to my Instagram page to see my new project?  I am loving everything about it the pattern and the colours seem to be working well.  I am taking this one slowly and so far so good.  Follow the progress and add a few comments if you like.  It won't appear here until its done and that may be a long way away!

So I am still catching up with the UFOs.  The Farmer's Wifey Quilt is on the wall - I have been waiting for some fabric to arrive for the setting triangles.  I was a bit fed up with this one as its been around a while.  I enjoyed making the little blocks then of course it was put in a basket and left to mature.  I was just going to sash the blocks in a square but I was persuaded the blocks would look better on point.........on point it is.  This is where I am at the moment

I finished the Whirlygig Vintage Flower Connecting Thread Kit this week - this was supposed to be a table runner but as always I had more fabric than needed just for a runner so I turned it into a small lap quilt or child's quilt.  

Whirlygig Vintage 36" x 36" 

I think I may have talked about having fleece and batting leftovers lying around needing used up so this is the second Finish

Stripey Quilt as you Go 25" x 25"

This is another little pram cover or car seat cover.  I cut the fleece and batting, sandwiched them together and used up some of my strips from my leftover basket.  The first strip is laid down diagonally right side up then the second on top right side down, stitched the normal quarter inch seam , flip and press, and continue.  Not sure if this should be called quilt as you go or stitch and flip.  Whatever you call it, it worked for me and made something out of nothing again.  I have had that jelly bean fabric for ages and thought it was appropriate for the binding of this wee cover.

This week I don't suppose I will get much stitching done.  I am off to play Grannie for a few days and have fun with S.  This is the third finish and not quilting.  Its been on the needles a while and when I started this I thought it was going to be a bit big however its taken me a while - I almost gave up as I didnt think the wool was going to stretch far enough - but of course over the summer he has stretched so hopefully it will keep him cosy as the days get cooler as he travels to nursery in the car.

Until next time happy stitching.

Another Basket Empty

The successful stash busting and finishing off UFo's continues.  I am working through a list and that seems to make such a difference ticking things off as I go and feeling good about it too.

This is the quilt I have been working on this week and now that basket is empty.  The half square triangles were made up from some left over 5inch charm pack squares and some Dashwood Studios Flurry in cream. Just to be different I used the different colours for each side of the binding.  This is a very spotty quilt!   I finished it last night, sewing on the binding while watching Netflix and sipping a glass of well earned (well I think it was well earned) newly bottled Plum Gin.

Lots of Spots 37" x 41"

Counting Sheep was gifted to Jack this week so I can now show you the finished quilt. 

Counting Sheep 30" x 42"

Finally for this week I decided that I must do something with the shelf in the wardrobe which was full and overflowing with offcuts of Ikea fleece.  The issue is, the offcuts are not really big enough to back another quilt but they are too big to discard and throw out.  I have been struggling to think of ideas of how to use them up.  I did have a couple of pieces which I though might just work for a little pram cover or car seat cover and this is what I produced - something from nothing - the fabrics were from my leftover bin and I cheated and didn't put batting in, but now I wish I had.  I think its quite cute.

Aqua Cover 25" x 25"

Now if you have been very observant you might have noticed a new tab at the top of the page.  I have joined Instagram -  Blogging is fine but with the very nature of it you have to write a story and sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day, week, month.   My Instagram page has been set up with a view to tracking the progress of any new quilts I make.  It will be a step by step photo record of each stage of the process of my quilt making. One quilt at a time. (although I will be working on others in the background)  Well that is the plan.  So I hope you will enjoy the first quilt in the series of many more and follow my page and its progress.  Its called Refraction and it will be for Techie.

Have a good week and keep cosy and dry, the nights are already getting shorter and the lights are going on earlier I hope you have a quilt cuddle under.