Quilt Qwazy Queens

Hi everyone, it's great to have you visit for a while. Come in and sit down, maybe make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and let's talk about quilting. Many thanks to  Marion from Seams to be Sew for coming up with the idea for the hop and for doing all the organising. 

Many years ago my mother taught me to sew, both hand sewing and using her hand cranked Singer machine. Most of the sewing we did was dressmaking and as a teenager I would use the money I earned from my Saturday job at the kennels to buy fabric to make myself up to the minute fashion items. One day she showed me how to do english paper piecing and I spent many months sewing together hexagons to make a quilt top. During this time I moved to London to start my nurse training and when finished the top sat in a cupboard for a few years as I couldn't work out how to do the quilting. In the end I turned it into a duvet cover rather than a quilt. I loved using the cover as the fabrics were all left over scraps from dresses I'd made and I knew at some point in the future I would make quilts. I continued sewing, making clothes for myself and the children when they were younger but as they grew and my working life got busier this tailed off.

Now fast forward to October 2011 and I decided I wanted to try and make more time in my life for sewing, knitting and other needlecraft. My quilting journey started with this quilt kit that John bought me from the Stitching and knitting exhibition.

The quilt on display at the exhibition looked fabulous and I was sure it would be easy to follow the instructions. It took until February 2013 to make the quilt and I learnt a lot along the journey. When I first read the pattern it was very confusing as there were many new terms to get to grips with. From dressmaking I'd learnt to read the pattern through and make sure you understand it all before you start. I employed the same theory and so the first few weeks were just spent making sure I understood the instructions until I was finally ready to get cutting and stitching. I love the quilt and it lies along the back of the settee ready for snuggling under when needed.

In April 2012 at Guides we started a project to make rem baby quilts and we extended the project to include the younger girls. My love of quilting grew as we taught the Guides how to make the mini quilts. The Rainbows designed their quilt and they also learnt to use the sewing machine. The quilt was donated to project Linus. Scamp is posing on the Rainbow quilt in the header photo and the photo below is of the top part of the quilt.

Part of my delight in quilting comes from being able to turn scraps into useful and pretty quilts.  This one was made for the Tetris quilt a long run by Melissa at Happy Quilting. I won a jelly roll as one of the weekly winners

Here's the Christmas quilt made from the jelly roll.

The internet is a great source of quilt patterns and I followed the block of the week to make the Votes for Women quilt. Quilts are fabulous because they can help celebrate events. This quilt was made in the colours of the suffragettes to celebrate my paternal grandmother, I enjoyed making the blocks and learning more of the movement across the world to secure votes for women. Putting the two hobbies together, quilting and history is a great idea. Some of the blocks were very challenging to make and involved learning new techniques. If you want it to, quilting can challenge you and push you to increase your skills.

Quilting lets you make the perfect gift. My son is a Star Trek fan and his quilt went down a storm 

This quilt gave me the opportunity to practice circles using free motion quilting. The meander was mastered a little earlier. I was also able to finish the quilt on my home machine although it is 90 by 90 inches. So this really is a hobby that you can do at home.

Of course quilting isn't just about the big pieces, it's fun creating smaller items,

 Mug rugs are fun to make and are perfect as presents.

Several friends asked for tea cosys

It's fun making book and folder covers.

An original piece of quilting made from a drawing done years before.

Finally I love the historical aspects of quilting. It was very interesting seeing the quilt produced by Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit now you need to visit the other blogs on today's hop

March 25
Just Let Me Quilt
Sew Many Yarns
Quilting Queen Online
Jane’s Quilting

There is also a giveaway for you. This will remain open over the weekend. I'm away on holiday and I'm not sure about the internet access so Marian is going to notify the winner. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Today I'm going to be catching up with my visits to the participants of this hop. I've visited several of the blogs and it's been fascinating reading about the various quilting journeys. Today I'm not working and I'm having a little me time. Mmm a nice cup of tea and reading some blogs. Sounds like a perfect morning.

Lyndsey

Good gracious where did the time go?

Good gracious where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday I was writing my post 'for the boys' and here we are a week and a bit later. I had promised myself that I wouldn't let the time run away from me this month but as always it's proved impossible. Still moaning about it won't make the time reappear so I'd best get the sewing machine wound up and get a wriggle on with my projects.

Back in September, Sandy, the owner of one of my local fabric shops asked me if I would be willing to teach a beginners quilting course. I agreed as it sounded fun and I wanted to pass on my skills. The idea was for the participants to make a quilt 30 x 42 inches. Around the time the course was due to start Moda, the cutting table were running their 'Size Matters' blog hop. This gave a range of different quilt blocks with a variety of sizes. This certainly made my job easier. We decided to concentrate on squares and rectangles and make the blocks 12 inches. 6 ladies joined the course (all there is room for) and we had a fun time. 

2 of the ladies decided they wanted larger quilts and made 9 blocks.

One of the ladies made 6 different blocks including some with HST's. She was very pleased with her quilt which is a present for her baby nephew. I love the musical notes on the one fabric.

Several of the ladies hadn't even used a sewing machine before but all of them completed their quilts and were looking forward to starting another project. Sandy has asked if I will run another course in the new year and maybe a follow up one for people who have already got the basic skills. I must admit a fun class to teach  and there's no marking involved!

I recently took part in the fall mug rug swap at Quilting Gallery. My partner was Meg from Japan. I received two beautiful mug rugs and additional presents.

The rugs are perfect for Autumn and I love my Tokyo Starbucks mug. The coffee is also lovely. Thank you so much Meg.

I had a little space last weekend to make 4 more blocks for my Votes for Women quilt. I'm nearly finished making all the blocks but I have some appliqué ones to do.

I've also been knitting. I bought the wool for a jumper for John when I visited the Stitching and Knitting exhibition at Alexandra Palace back in October. This is supposed to be a Christmas present but I don't think I'll have knitted it by then. The pattern doesn't really show up very well unless it is across the two needles but it has cables and chevrons in it.

Tomorrow I won't get much time for sewing as I'm out all day at a training for Guides but Sunday is free so I want to try and finish the remaining blocks I need to make. For now I'm going to deal with some emails and finish some marking before bed time.

Lyndsey

October round up.

It's time to look at October achievements.. I'm feeling rather pleased with myself this month as I met most of my goals.

Goal 1 Complete the 'Happy Anniversary' quilt and give it to it's new owners.

The quilt top was finished a couple of months ago and I've been working on the quilting. The top is 80 inches square and I must admit I found this tiring to quilt on a home sewing machine but at last it's done.

As I was rushing out of the house last night with the quilt all wrapped up to give to my friend I remembered I hadn't taken a photo. I stabbed myself with the needle when sewing the binding on and bleed on the white so as soon as I finished the binding I put it in the wash and simply forgot I hadn't taken a photo. I was already late but unpacked it and laid it over the settee quickly to take the photo. 

The white in the blocks is quilted with a meander and I have done a tangle of hearts in the centre of each red and grey block.  I have asked my friend to send me a photo once it is on her bed.

Goal 2 Complete the baby quilt. 

I had made two baby quilts using the same fabric. One had 6 blocks and the other 9. I finished the one with 6 blocks and this has gone to its new home. The 9 block one was put on hold so I could complete the 'Happy Anniversary' quilt.

Goal 3 Make my project for the wicked blog hop.

For this hop I made two mug rugs. These are also the only new fabric project I started this month and so is my NewFO challenge piece. Never mind I have a new quilt to start next month.

Goal 4 Complete the block from the 'It's a dogs life' quilt.

Done with time to spare.

Goal 5 Complete the 'Votes for women' quilt top.

I haven't done anything on this goal. I've not even looked at the remaining blocks I have to make or stroked any of the fabric.


So only one goal not completed. Now that is what I call a great month..

Note to self - make sure I always take photos of what I've done. This process need to be added to the time frame for completion of projects.

I'm linking this post with ' A lovely year of finishes' at Sew Bittersweet designs.  Over the year this link up has really made me focus on the big objectives I've wanted to achieve. The little projects are easy to get done but the big ones can so easily become long term UFO's.

(Added Later) I'm also linking with Richard's Link a Finish Friday as it is so great to celebrate a finish.

I hope your October has been successful for completing some of your sewing projects.

Lyndsey

Having a Wicked Day

Today is my day on the Wicked blog hop. It is such a fun hop with lots of great quilting projects and ideas. Thank you Madame Samm for organising the hop and to Wicked Wendy for being our fabulously wicked cheerleader.

Here in the Uk Halloween is slowly gathering momentum but is still not a major event. Last year the weather was a little cold and we only had one person ring our door bell all evening. It will be interesting to see what happens on Thursday. 

I decided that what I really needed was a couple of wicked mug rugs. For the first one I visited The Patchsmith and bought one of her cute patterns.

The witch silhouette is hand appliquéd and the moon is attached with machine appliqué. Both are raw edge stitched.

I was a little worried that the witch appeared to have lost her cat. So for my second mug rig I created a silhouette of her cat against the moon.

The kitty outline is drawn and coloured with a fabric pen. To set the design the piece was ironed for 2 minutes on the hottest setting. The cat is outlined with orange thread to match the moon.

I usually mitre the corners of the binding but I only had short lengths of the fabric left  and that would have meant a lot of joins in a short distance..

The two mug rugs match very well with the table runner made for last years Wicked hop which is currently decorating my dining table. Now John and I have matching mug rigs that we can use whilst working on our laptops at the table.

Now you need to grab your broomsticks and fly off to the rest of today's participants.

October 29^th

Sew Many Yarns

In Stitches and Seams

A Little Bit of Lorene

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Transitionsformeee

Quilter in the Closet

Seams To Be Sew

BQuiltin Studio

The Quilting Queen Online Blog

Pig Tales and Quilts

I hope you have a really wicked day.

Lyndsey

Am I a Quilter?

Jacque, or Snoodles as she is known at Lilypad Quilting is having a link party to ask the question 'Are you a quilter' Is there evidence of your quilting around your home? Well when I first read her post I said 'no'. Coming into my home you will see I like embroidery or painting as there is some of my work,and both my mother and fathers work on the walls but I didn't think there was much evidence of quilting .......... well so long as you don't count the sewing machine on the dining table and the bag of work in progress!

It turns out I was wrong. As I looked round I realised there is evidence of my work plus that of others who I have swapped with. In our living room there is the quilt I made for the tetris quilt along at Happy Quilting. The quilt lives along the back of the settee and makes a comfy perch for Scamp our Yorkshire Terrier. It's great if it gets cold in an evening to snuggle under (once you've moved Scamp. He really needed a hair cut when this photo was taken.

Also in the living room is our hexagonal coffee table. As part of the 'Hexie Queen' blog hop run by Sew We Quilt I made a hexagonal table topper for the coffee table. Here it is being used as a background for my bird pin cushion.

Also in the house are two pet baskets and each has their own quilt. Here's Picasso relaxing after a busy morning chasing anything that moves outside.

Scamp loves his quilt but often Picasso pushes him out of his basket. He thinks both quilts should be his.

I went to my bedroom and over the foot of our bed we have a quilt. It is quite old now and taking the photo made me aware that it needs a little repair work on it.. This gives added warmth if the night turns cold, keeps the duvet tucked in at the foot of the bed and provides a resting place for Scamp and Picasso. 

Also in the bedroom we have two mug rugs. These were made for me by my swap partner. I'm using the picture from my post when I received them rather than taking two photos of our bedside tables. The two owls is my mug rug since I am Brown Owl at Brownies. One of John's hobbies is bird watching so he has the winter bird house on his bedside table.

Finally my quilted knitting bag is always around somewhere in the living room.

I'm saying finally but I forgot the table topper on the dinning table and the little mini quilt on the middle of the kitchen table. Both were minis I received as part of a swap. There are other table toppers and runners so I can decorate for the different seasons. Which reminds me I need to get the Halloween items out this weekend.

Ask the question again next year 'Are you a quilter' and I should be able to provide more evidence as I must finish Lucy's quilt and I've promised to make my son a quilt as well. If I get enough time I'm also hoping to start my double wedding ring quilt for my room.

For now I'm going to curl up in bed with a good book. I hope you've had a good Friday

Lyndsey

Stamp on it.

Welcome to my day on the Stamp on it hop. I should have posted last Thursday but unfortunately my computer developed a fault and just wouldn't work. Now thanks to my son all systems are go again. I have no idea what he does to make it work again. As soon as he starts to remove the screws on my laptop I go and find something very important to do so I don't have to watch. 

So before I show you what I made I would like to thank Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt for organising the hop and to Thearica Pig Tales and Quilts for being a superb cheerleader. Thank you Thearica for re-arranging the schedule so I could post today.

I spent some time thinking of different things I could use on my stamp to represent London. Maybe Buckingham Palace or St Paul's Cathedral or just the skyline. Unfortunately I threw out these ideas as they were rather complex. I then thought about making the stamp about me but I really wanted it to relate to London and the UK.

Whilst browsing through Barbara Brackeman's Civil War Quilts posts I discovered a block called London Square. You can read about the history of this block on Barbara's blog. The colour scheme was no problem as it had to be red, white and blue for the colours in the Union flag. We had to include the cost of the stamp and I put 60p which is the current cost of a first class letter. 

I made my stamp into a mug rug. It is big enough for two mugs to sit on. I'm taking it to work tomorrow to protect my desk. It will make a pleasant change from just putting my mug on a pile of papers!

The mug rug is quilted in the ditch and the writing is machine embroidered. I forgot to take a photo of the back but I just used the blue fabric.

When I showed my son he suggested I make several to take on our Guide trip to Switzerland in August. We try to take a few small light items to give as presents. I like this idea and will try to make several. I will miss off the postage price but will add our Guide unit name.

This hop has also started me on another project. I want to make some table mats and I like the idea of making them as an envelope with a stamp. I'm currently working on the stamp designs. I find these blog hops always set me off on another project. 

Now you need to visit the rest of today's participants. 

Quilt Matters

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle 

Patchouli Moon

The Slow Quilter

A Loose Thread

Janes Fabrics and Quilts

Selina Quilts

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Dancing Thru Threads

It has been a pleasure sharing with you today, please come back and visit soon.

Lyndsey

April NewFO

Today it's time to link up with Barbara at Cat Patches for her NewFO party. Why a NewFO party? We spend a lot of time worrying about getting projects finished and how many UFO's we have. The NewFO is about starting new projects and having that joy of choosing fabrics and deciding designs. The projects don't need to be large just new and the challenge is to start one (or more) new project(s) a month.  This is never a problem for me.

Now let me think what was new for April. Well first up I took part in the mug rug hop organised by Madame Samm at Sew we quilt. I had fun making a cute hedgehog mug rug as well as several others.

This has been adopted by younger daughter.

There was also the shake your pom poms hop again organised by Madame Samm and for this I made a mini quilt which will go at the top of the Guide notice board and replace the scrap of paper that currently announces who the board belongs to.

I have also started a Schnibbles quilt using the pattern Hat Trick from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

I have used only fabric from my scrap bin for the nine patches and pulled some from my stash for the plain squares and setting triangles.  So far I have pieced the nine patches and cut the rest of the fabric. Now all I have to do is sew it all together. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of work to date but will post that over the next couple of days.

I have also started two pieces, one a mini quilt for a swap and the other for another blog hop. Both of these are under wraps but will be revealed in a weeks time.

April wasn't a great month for starting or finishing projects as I had a very painful right arm due to a flare up of arthritis so I'm hoping May will be better.

I hope you had fun with your sewing during April. Good luck with your May projects.

Lyndsey

April Showers Mug Rug Hop (and give away)

Today is my day for taking part in the April Showers mug rug hop organised by Madame Samm at Sew we quilt and with Erin from Sew at home mummy as our cheerleader. For this hop we were asked to make mug rugs using any design we wanted. I loved this idea.

Until March I had never made a mug rug. That changed when I took part in a mug rug swap organised by Quilting Gallery. I was very pleased with the finished rugs that were made using designs by Amanda Weatherill from The Patchsmith

So when planning my mug rug for this hop I decided to try another of her patterns. I also wanted to make some mug rugs from fabric I had bought to make my tea cosy.

Unfortunately these aren't completely finished as I still have to bind them, a task I haven't been able to complete due to a flare up of arthritis which has caused my right wrist, elbow and shoulder to swell and be painful. I should be able to start stitching again by the end of the week  so these will soon be finished. I have six made to this point, all with different cups on them.

I have also made some using up the left over skull fabric. My son requested these for use in his room.

I love the final mug rug which has already been adopted by dear daughter. I'm sorry about the quality of the photo. I've taken about 10 but it keeps on turning out blurry. I think the effort of holding the camera is causing my arm to shake.

Here is the full schedule of today's participants. Please make sure you go and visit everyone there is sure to be lots of ideas to inspire you.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16th Cathi @ Quilt Obsession Jane @ Jane's Fabrics and Quilts Heidi @ Nutz4Redwork Cherry @ Cherry'sPrairiePrimatives Christine @ Quilt Monster in my Closet Vickie @ More Stars in Comanche Pauline @ Stekje Jan @ Jan's Art Friendzy Nissa @ Nissa Made Stuff Robin @ As Sweet As Peaches Lyndsey @ Sew Many Yarns Eleni - Guest Post @ Sew at Home Mummy

Did I mention a give away earlier? This month I am celebrating the 1st birthday of starting my blog. If you go here you will find a give away of 3 fat quarters that is open until 11.59 p.m. (GMT) on Saturday 20th April.

Today's give away is this dinosaur fat quarter. They're very cute critters.

If you would like a chance to win please leave a comment on this post

If you follow my blog you may have another chance (leave a second comment)

This give away is open to anyone as I will post internationally. The give away will remain open until 11.59 p.m. (GMT) on Wednesday 24th April).

Once you've left your comments hurry away to feast your eyes on all the other mug rugs on display.

I hope you all have a great Tuesday

Lyndsey