Sewing again at last and a winner.

Having had almost two weeks of no sewing due to an arthritis flare up affecting my shoulder, elbow and wrist on my right hand I am once again able to sew. The swelling has gone and the pain has subsided so all I need to do now is catch up on the lost time.

My objective for April was to quilt the It's a clue quilt. I am doing an all over meander well not quite all over. I am meandering over the white background missing out the question marks and patterned squares. I found a shop in Kew that stokes Aurifil and having listened to you all say how good it is for quilting decided to give it a whirl. OK so I am convinced. It goes through the quilt sandwich beautifully and doesn't break or knot up. My machine appears to love it and for the first time I had no problem whilst FMQ. I also very carefully followed all the advice and help on FMQ about stitch length speed etc. I am very pleased with the results so far and the question marks really pop out. I finished half of the background quilting so I need to think about how I'm quilting the border.

I've also been working on my piece for the 'Shake your pom poms' hop which starts on Wednesday. My day is Wednesday so I'm a little stressed about getting it finished. Two weeks ago I was well ahead but now its play catch up. I still need to make the pom poms as well. Here's a sneak peek bet you wont guess what it is.

I also need to announce the winner from my blogaversary give away. Who is Mystica who said.

16 April 2013 12:16

"Happy blogoversary. I do have a blog but its more or less a reading/reviewing blog. I do so love to quilt but with a lot of work it has taken a step aside for the moment. However I love to follow the blogs and also get new ideas. I want to do a nine patch quilt top for a baby girl soon."

Mystica is from Sri Lanka. I have sent her an email 

Now I'm going to do a little more work on my shake your pom poms piece and I may finish the quilting later if I get time.

I hope you're having a good Monday.

Lyndsey

Nancy Drew- is this a clue?

Today is my day on the Nancy drew blog hop. Thanks to Madame Samm for organising the hop and to Carol from Just let me quilt for being our cheer leader.

If you had asked me when I was growing up who Nancy Drew was I would have had to admit I didn't know. Eventually Nancy Drew was shown on British television when my daughters were children and at last I found out what all the fuss was about. It is always fun to have a girl taking the lead in solving mysteries. Since then I have read several of the Nancy Drew books and found them enjoyable. Here in the UK we had the Famous Five written by Enid Blyton although the characters were younger and only four were human. The fifth was Timmy the dog.

Anyway the daughter of one of my friends loved the Nancy Drew stories and when I said I was going to take part in this hop asked if I would make a quilt for her daughter to snuggle under when reading. She's too young to enjoy Nancy Drew yet but the books are all lined up in the bookcase for when she is older.

I wanted to keep the quilt simple to make and decided on Irish chain. So I bought a charm pack which I cut into 21/2 inch squares.

On the white squares I stitched question marks and on two the words 'is this a clue?'

The question marks are machine appliquéd using buttonhole stitch. I had originally planned to use some fabric  from my stash as the border but my friend's daughter decided she wanted the red magnifying glass instead. I thought it had been difficult to find the Nancy Drew fabric in the first place eventually resorting to buying online from America. It has been very difficult to get the red magnifying glass fabric but that is now ordered, again from abroad. It should have been here on Saturday but still has not arrived and so my quilt is still waiting to be finished. Here is the top so far.

I love this fabric, its so bright and cheerful. By the time the borders are added the quilt will be very cheerful for a young girl. I'm hoping the fabric will arrive this week so I can get it finished.

Now why don't you visit the other places on today's hop.Here is the schedule. There's sure to be lots of fun things to see.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Kris Loves Fabric

The Slow Quilter

Accio Fabric!

Sew Many Yarns (you are here)

Lixie Makes It

Betty at That Other Blog

Marcy M. at That Other Blog

Pigtales and Quilts

Enjoy the hop and I hope you have some time today for sewing.

Lyndsey

Mug rug swap

 

I've been busy finishing the mug rugs I was making for Quilting Gallery's swap using the patterns from the patch smith. These are the first mug rugs I have made and they are such cute patterns.

I really love these cute owls.I hand appliquéd them and I must admit to altering the pattern slightly by adding extra flowers.I used flowers cut from a FQ as I liked the centre designs on them. The pattern was great for using up some scraps.

The second one is a winter birdhouse. The roof of our garden shed was a little covered in snow today but it didn't last.

These are now in the post to my secret partner and soon I will be receiving 2 from another secret partner.

On Saturday we had our guide county day which is a training and exchange of ideas day. In the afternoon we showed some of the leaders how to make prem baby quilts. One of them had sewn her own clothes years ago but had never tried patchwork. They all loved the Kate Spain charm pack. This is the happy group that were there at the end of the afternoon.

Yesterday was Mothering Sunday in the UK and I had a great day with all my three children at home plus older daughter's boyfriend. Lots of lovely presents and cards. It was great to have them all here and dinner was very noisy with several conversations going on at once.

My give away for the Quilting Gallery blog hop party is still open go here to read this post. Click on the button on the side bar to visit more sites for give aways.

I'm linking up with Connie at Freemotion by the river for her Tuesday linky party. Go and see what everyone has been doing this week.

I hope you all had a good day today with time for some sewing.

Lyndsey

It's all about me

Today is my day on the 'It's all about me' hop. Thanks to the amazing Madame Samm  for organising the hop and Marlene from Stitching by the Lake for being our fantastic cheerleader. Thanks are also due to Amy Bradley for her lovely design.

It took me ages to get started on this piece. I had the pattern and lots of fabric but I could not decide how to make the design more about me. Then I was reading through some old work notes and in the middle I found this poem.

Warning

by

Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children. 

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

I have always liked the idea of doing what you want as you get older and I already wear purple as it's one of my favourite colours so that made my decision on the dress colour.

I also knew that I didn't want to make a wall hanging as I don't have a sewing room or space and we have lots of paintings and embroidery on the walls already. It was at this point that I was going through my folder where I keep the information relating to my current projects that the idea hit me. I would use the design to make a folder cover. As my folder has lots of projects in it that must mean that I'm busy? So I changed the word biased to busy and added things I do to the frame.

My hair is slightly longer than this at present and has always had a tendency to be unruly so I had to add in some stay hair. I also tend to put my needle into my top rather than the pin cushion.

The words on the frame pick up on my hobbies - all that is except cleaning. Cleaning is a necessity that gets in the way

Look what's the top project in my folder. I'm also about to start work on my Double wedding ring quilt as I've now got all the fabric I need - I just need to get my nerve together.

Why not hop over to the other folks taking part today and see what they're doing as there's sure to be lots of fun and creativity about.

Kris Loves Fabric
The Quilting Alleycat
Cat Patches
Bumbleberry Stitches
Chickadees Country Cottage Crafts
In Stitches and Seams
Why-Knot-Kwilt
Quilting Unleashed
Rosemary at That Other Blog
Thimblemouse & Spouse
Sew Many Yarns

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll visit again soon. I'm off to make a cup of tea before I go hopping over to see what people have made and then I think I'll do some more sewing. Hope you'll have time for some sewing today.

Lyndsey