A Friday finish

It's the first Friday in November and I'm excited because for the first time in ages I have a Friday finish. My progress with projects has been really slow this year due to work commitments and a few family crises. I'm trying to have a more balanced life and make more time for my hobbies. 

I have two finishes this week. The first one is the little table topper I made for the halloween haunts blog hop. When I posted it on the 28th October it was just the top but before halloween I had finished the quilting and the binding.

The backing for the topper is very autumnal and so perfect for the time of year. I'm not sure why the photo is so dark. I'm hoping my camera isn't going wrong again.

My second finish is the turtle quilt. This piece of fabric was designed and screen printed by my son Richard when he was at school in year 10 (age 14/15). The fabric has been in my fabric stash and finally made it to the top of the pile to be worked on.

I got home from work after it had got dark so when I finished stitching the binding I had problems getting the photo. I'll take some more in the light tomorrow.

The turtles are outlined, there is a large meander over the cream background and straight line quilting on the sashing. I think the orange binding finishes the quilt perfectly. I still need to finish making the label for this quilt. I haven't always made quilt labels for my quilts but I want to from now on.

Yesterday was bonfire night (also known as firework night) here in the UK. This is celebrated every 5th November to remember Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot to blow up the King in the House of Lords in 1605. You can read more about the plot here Guy Fawkes was arrested and the plot foiled and we now get to enjoy lots of fireworks, parties and tasty food every year. When I was a child we used to have the bonfires on November 5th but now the main fireworks happen at the weekend. This evening the fireworks were incredibly loud and John and I went outside to see what was going on. We were delighted by a fabulous display that seemed to go on for ages. I hadn't got my camera or I would have posted a picture for you. If they are more tomorrow I'll remember to take photos.

I'm linking this post with Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom quilts and Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts.

Lyndsey

Halloween Haunts

Hi everyone welcome to the last day of Halloween Haunts. First I must apologise as I got confused and set the schedule time for my post to publish incorrectly. Last weekend here in the UK our clocks went back and instead of setting it to post earlier I added time. It's been great fun visiting the posts from the blog hop and I must thank Marian from Seams to be sew for all her hard work in organising the hop for us. 

Halloween isn't such a big event in the UK as in America however over the last few years trick or treating has become more popular. A couple of years ago I had lots of children visit and I loved their costumes but last year no one rang our doorbell so I'm interested what will happen this year. I have lots of sweets ready and my son has offered to eat any that are left over! As we aren't meeting for guides this week we celebrated halloween last week by playing several traditional halloween games including bobbing for apples which left everyone very wet.

For this hop I wanted to make a square table topper. I had fabric in my stash from previous years and this was a good opportunity to use it up. Using up my stash is currently a priority as it has been expanding and taking over all available space and needs to be tamed.

I also wanted to include some embroidery and applique if possible.

Here is my my pumpkin table topper. I have started the quilting since taking this photo and it will be completely finished by Halloween. 

I'm using this fabric for the backing. Then once halloween is over I can flip my table topper to enjoy the autumn colour backing. I love it when an item can cover for two events.

The leaves are made from a green wool fabric and the leaf veins on them are machine stitched.

Sewing the project hasn't been the easiest thing as the tension on my machine kept on playing up. I must book it in for a service as I have a couple of quilts I need to finish.

This table topper will be on my coffee table. I'm still using the runner I made in an earlier hop on my dining table.

There several other haunts you need to check out today.Featured Haunts On Wednesday October 28

Bumbleberry Stitches
Meadow Brook
Sew Many Yarns  (You are here)

In Stitches & Seams
Seams To Be Sew

There is also a giveaway for the event sponsored by Fat Quarter shop.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I  hope you've enjoyed visiting and good luck in the give away. Have a great day.

Lyndsey

Hugs and kisses

When I signed up to take part in the Hugs and Kisses blog hop I had never tried paper piecing as a technique. I'm always up to learn something new so I decided that taking part would give me the push I needed to find out what paper piecing is all about. I love English Paper piecing but that is totally different. 

For this hop we received three paper piecing patterns that had been designed by Madame Samm from Sew We Quilt and Soma fromWhims and Fancies. I printed the patterns off and at that point I wondered if I could actually manage to make something. 

The first sheet was fine as it just had the pictures of the hearts and kisses shapes but underneath lurked a confusing diagram. What to do? 

Well as a Brit there was only one thing to do ..put the kettle on for a pot of tea.  A little later feeling calmer and refreshed I decided to stroke some fabric before taking another look at the pattern. I found this lovely FQ from the Lovey Dovey Collection from Riley Blake designs.

So back to the patterns. There was a kiss, a heart and a heart with an arrow through it. I decided the one with the arrow would be good to make.I'd already looked up how to paper piece in my quilting techniques book so now to put it into practice.

I decided that now would be a perfect time to start my double wedding ring quilt that I am going to make to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. The arcs in this design are paper pieced but the pattern is much simpler than the ones for this hop.

The arc worked well and was easy to make. I did find it rather wasteful on fabric but that could be because I'm new to the technique. Having had this practice I was now ready to get on with the pattern. I had decided that I would make a small mat. The block finishes at 10 inches square which is perfect for a candle mat.

As a first attempt at this technique I am very pleased with the end result.  The shaft of the arrow where it enters the arrow head went a little wonky but I enjoyed the process and will be doing more paper piecing in the future.

Thank you Madame Samm for organising this hop, it has been fun and I've learnt something new.  I'm going to make up the other two patterns in the future.

Now you need to visit the rest of today's participants.  There's sure to be lots of great projects to see.

Lady Beth

Beth Strand

Lady Jenny

Squawk That

Lady Britt-Inger

Hill Valley Quilter

Lady Carla

Create in the Sticks

Lady Marian 

Seams to be Sew

Lady Lyndsey

Sew many Yarns

Have a great Thursday

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

Hexie Queen

I love hexies so when madame Samm announced this hop I knew I had to take part. My coffee table is hexagonal and I wanted to make a table topper to go under the fruit bowl that sits on the table. Many Thanks to Madame Samm and to Debbie our cheerleader.

Last year I won some fabulous fabric with fruit on it. I think the line is called farmer's market. I've already used some of it before but I had enough left to make this topper.

The grapes looks so tasty,

 and I love the bananas

Apricots are one of my favourite fruits.


Ah fresh lemons, great as a slice in a gin and tonic but I fancy lemon drizzle cake.

The apples look tasty.

When I'd stitched all my hexie fruit together I added white hexies around them and finally made it into a large hexie using half hexies at the corners.

My finished fruit bowl made with hexies. 

Now you need to go and visit the rest of the ladies taking part today.

We Shall Sew  

  

Life@RuffHaven

Pieced Brain  

   

Den Syende Himmel 

   

Creatin’ in the Sticks 

   

Meadowbrook 

   

Sandra Kaye Designs  

   

Let’s Patch it Up  

   

Sew Many Yarns  

  

Around the Homestead 

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Lyndsey

Trip to Kandersteg

We are now in Kandersteg in Switzerland. The internet where we are is very unreliable and incredibly slow and putting up posts is difficult. I have posted some photos on my other site so click  Here to go visit. The scenery is beautiful. and the weather has been very hot and sunny. The first two photos were taken as we walked along the River Kander to Kandersteg from the International Scout Campsite where we are staying.

The next few pics were taken when we visited the lake on Oeschinensee

Yes that is snow on the tops of the mountains.

The photo below is the white church in the centre of Kandersteg with Oeschinenee behind.

I need to upload photos from various cameras so I can post more picture. We visited the Trummelbach Falls and Interlaken on Thursday so I will post those photos later or tomorrow.

We are having a great time and I managed to sew the binding on my hexie project for the blog hop. My day is Tuesday so I will get it written up and schedule it to post at the right time. . Since the internet is working at the moment I'm not going to risk losing it. I hope you've had some time for some sewing or for yourself.

Lyndsey.