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Friday 29 November 2013

Quilting Bee or Knitting Bee.

This week our quilting group were at the Bee. The Bee Hive, to give it it's official title, belongs to All Saints Church in Wickham Market. It is their church rooms. 

It's such a lovely warm friendly place, just the right place to hold a hand sewing group. 

Well yesterday, it was more like a knitting group, as lots of us were doing knitted things for Christmas. I was sewing in the ends of yet another pair of socks and casting on a further pair, hopefully the last ones for this year..

Here are some of the girls, all deeply concentrating, Alison, Jenny and Liz all knitting for their grand children.


On the knitting theme, this is my latest shawl residing on the dinning room table. Meals on laps for the next couple of days as I have another shawl to block tomorrow.

This one took some knitting, there were an awful lot of stitches on the outer border.


Some sewing did get done. Annie and I were working on our 1/2" hexes, and Ann had been sewing little Christmas stockings.



Today, the machine appliqué was finished on the Rainy Day's quilt, and it's been sandwiched, ready for quilting. At the moment I think it will be hand quilted, but I like to leave it for a couple of days in case I change my mind.


 Hand quilting is so therapeutic and with Christmas coming up quickly I will need something gentle to be getting on with. 

I have the new BOM pattern for the Floral Impressions quilt by Deborah Kemball, using my lovely Oakshotts fabric, but I have to concentrate so hard on that. With so much going on, not sure that is a good project for this time of year. We shall see however. I intend to get it all cut out today, and then we shall see.. :0))








Keep safe and keep stitching …..Doti...








Sunday 24 November 2013

I am Working.

Just to let you know, and to give you all a good laugh, I am indeed stitching away. 

It was a glorious November day, very very cold but the sun was shining, in fact so brightly I should have drawn the blinds, but who wants to shut the sun out in the middle of winter? So to keep the sun out of my eyes, I borrowed one of Mr M's hats.


I know, not very elegant, or a very pretty sight.:0))

If I had been using my big machine, no problems, but as I had to use my old machine ( it does better button hole stitch) the only place to put it is bang in front of the window. Hence the sun, shining right in my eyes. Mr M laughed so much when he came in, he took this photo.

And this was our lovely Gladdie watching proceedings over the top of the couch, not quite believing she had got it all to her self for once.

Gladdie our Scottish Deerhound.

This is a short post today, got to get back to my appliqué. There will however be no hat today, it is a very grey and miserable November day here in the UK.





Keep safe and keep stitching…….Doti..

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Shopping in my Stash.

I follow a blog by Jenny of Elefantz. She does cute little embroideries among other things, and the other day she made me think, yes real hard,
about all the fabric in my stash.

My friend Alison was sorting out her sewing room, folding and sorting out her stash, and I am not sure which of us has the most fabric, believe me we have a lot. I was pretty ashamed of us both.

So this week I have shopped from my stash. Its not a big quilt I have put together, at the moment it is aprox 40" x 40", not sure if it is going to get a border or not yet.

Quilt so far, might add a few more leaves.

The pattern is by Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts,and is called Rainy Day Trio. It takes just 4 fat 1/4's for the background, and scraps for the appliqué. I just love the background. This little quilt is going to be machine appliquéd, and hopefully hung on the wall in my guest bedroom.
To say the least, I am feeling very pleased with myself, as everything was from my stash. And as Jenny of Elefantz said give the fabrics in your stash a "Moment to Shine".

I finished the two pairs of PJ's bottoms too, so a good sewing weekend.

There is no way to make PJ's look good in a photo, unless someone is wearing them and Mr M refused.:0))
love the neat pockets.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I even had a lovely email from the Designer, Deborah Kemball, encouraging me on my BOM Floral Impressions. She is here in the UK, meeting up with Michael from the wonderful Oakshotts Fabrics. I wonder what they are cooking up, whatever it is it will be beautiful.

Now I must get on with our BOM. I have not yet stitched block 9 or written the instructions, it's all still in my head. I also have to go and makes some muffins as we are at the Bee tomorrow.





Stay safe and keep stitching……..Doti...

Thursday 14 November 2013

When things go Wrong.

As you may know, if you follow this little blog, things often go wrong :0)) or not how I expect them to go. But all is usually alright in the end.

I have been trying to get back on track after our wonderful holiday, firstly with the appliqué BOM. 
November's is finished and while I am not 100 % happy with it, there is only a small area I would like to do better in, and I am thinking 'stick with it girl after 12 months hopefully you will have improved'.

 So then it was on to the Siblings Together blocks for this month. Sue had asked for two 12" churn dash blocks, with a slight difference and called them Funky Wrench Blocks, one is a nut and one is a bolt ( not even sure now which is which).

Now I do usually read tutorials all the way through first but not this time however, gaily plodding on, cutting every thing out, and then merrily sewing things together.. Then shock horror, my two blocks were just 6 1/2"

Now it could be that I have a cough at night that would make Methuselah wince. So I am not sleeping too well, so hence, not concentrating properly, but I think I need to start over.. 

 Here are my two new blocks.



These two little pin cushions are what was made with the little 6 1/2" blocks.One for me and one to add to my gift drawer. So indeed, it did all come right in the end.


If you would like to make a little pin cushion from an orphan block, it's only 3 seams.



Fold block right sides together and stitch both sides, now pull the centre of the open sides, till the top edges meet ( top of sides are now in the centre) pin and stitch along leaving a gap to turn out and stuff. Then sew up opening. Voila, I found an orphan log cabin block as well and that too is now a very smart pin cushion..

I am now off to cut out my pyjama bottoms, going to do the red ones first, now if they go wrong that is going to be some pin cushion…:0)))






Keep safe and keep stitching….Doti..









Monday 11 November 2013

Mystery Quilt Block 8.

We are getting near the end of this little mystery wallhanging, just one more month. It has been fun for me and hope it has been fun for you.

Well here is Mrs Owl sitting with her owlets.Not sure that is the name for baby owls.


Cut a piece of background fabric 17” x 7 “
and trace the design on to it.
You might want to iron on stabilizer on to the back at this point.

Embroider the birds and appliqué the flowers, in colours of your choice. Instead of appliqué for the flowers I have coloured them with Crayola crayons.

When embroidery and appliqué are finished.
Cut to size 15 1/4” x 5 1/2” and stitch to the top of blocks  6 & 7. Month 8 finished.



Line drawing for block 8.

The top part of your quilt should now look like this…

 

Sorry about this photo, it was taken out side and was blowing in the wind, so the top looks bigger than the bottom.

Now, I have to make up block 9 for next month, which is in my head at the moment, but not down on paper or stitched.Then of course, the dreaded "How am I going to quilt it". Probably by hand as its not very big, and gives me another excuse to sit by the fire. :0))


As you know, I am doing an appliqué BOM called Floral Impressions designed by Deborah Kemball with beautiful fabric from Oakshott.

It is all hand appliqué. I have only ever made one thing before using hand appliqué that I thought was OK and that was a little bag. The rest sadly I have binned . Yes they were that bad..

 This is to be my final attempt at hand appliqué. I hope by the end of twelve months I will have conquered it.  
Month one, I was so pleased with. Month two well...I am leaving it how it is at the moment as I have un-sewn the petals so much. Just hoping I will have enough fabric at the end to redo this block…


Months one and two of the Floral Impressions Quilt.





Keep safe and keep stitching…. Doti...

Thursday 7 November 2013

Back to normal?

Everything is getting back to normal, it was a day at the Beehive yesterday, our hand sewing group. everyone was busy stitching away on different projects. I took several photos of what was going on. So here is a little round up.

Ann's baby quilt.
Cute bird from Ann's Baby quilt.


 Annie was hand quilting her baby quilt.


 Liz was stitching a little bird from our Mystery Quilt.

 Sue was embroidering around her appliqué fairy panel.

 Maggie was putting the binding on her quilt. I did take a full length photo but it was a bit fuzzy, maybe next time. The colours she chose and the fabric are lovely.

 Fiona was stitching a little wallhanging, a copy of a wedding invitation, as a present for the happy couple.


and Jenny was doing some more hearts and snowmen. We made these last year in a class we did with Mandy Shaw.

I should have been working on my Floral Impressions Quilt by Deborah Kemball, but as I really need to concentrate, I thought it was best if I left it at home. Too much chatting,laughing, and eating of cake is the order of the day at the Bee..

I have however got it all prepared for the off.


Templates are cut, fabric all sorted, I have even had encouragement from the designer, the lovely Debbie on my last post..so watch this space..

Now to sit beside the fire as it is cold after Key West, and start Block 2 of the BOM.





Keep safe and keep stitching…..Doti...

Friday 1 November 2013

Home again..

We are indeed home again. We had a wonderful holiday and my, oh! my, were our dogs pleased to see us. We would have stayed longer if it was not for them. I do miss them so much.

One or two pictures from our holiday, and then, it's back to sewing for me. I have to finish writing up Mystery Block 8, which I hope to put up on or around the 12th of Nov..

 I have just downloaded the BOM pattern for this month Floral Impressions by Deborah Kemball. (and she did warn me in advance), but it's still a case of goodness gracious me or OMG to put it bluntly.
I did think much the same last month, and then I was pleased with the finish, so we shall see.


 This is one of the modes of transport around the island.  It's called the Conch Train, there is even a song about it called "Stuck behind the Conch Train ".It only travels at 20 miles an hour, and even cycles over take it. Though we walked everywhere, to combat all the extra eating and drinking we were doing. :0)

This Kapok tree is down the street from where No 1 son lives, I thought you might like to see the roots on it.



Aren't they incredible! This is because it is only 12 feet above sea level in this part of town, that however is the highest level on the island…




Had to show you this as it was one of the last fish I caught, though No1 son had to help me land it, then hold it. My, it was a fighter, and slippery as hell. He also lived to fight another day as we put him back in the sea. Someone said they thought it was a king mackerel..

The last fish I caught was of similar size and as we were both trying to reel him in, a huge Barracuda was circling and ate said fish, my hook and line.. ta da…



This was the sewing that I did manage to get done, all 175 1/2' hexes. Gee this quilt is going to take a long time..

Now back to sorting out sewing jobs.






Keep safe and keep stitching……..Doti..