Looking back

As another year draws to a close I thought I would look back at some of my makes this year, it was only until I did I realised I didn't do too bad with juggling life, work and sewing and made a few more things than I thought! There were still lots of things that I wanted to do but hey they will have to wait until next year!!

I've also had lots of happy stitching adventures this year, chatted to lots of lovely new online friends and even had the chance to meet up with some in person!! Had a lovely time at the Fat Quarterly Retreat and The Sewing Directory meet up in London and also joined the London Modern Quilt Guild after meeting lots of the lovely ladies at the FQ retreat. Plus my lovely Bee Europa group is still going strong!

Thank you to everyone for making me feel very welcome in this lovely little online world of sewing/quilting, for every comment and like, it really is appreciated!
So it's see ya 2013!
2014 I'm ready for ya! (Well kind of!)

My first completed quilt!

2013 saw the completion of my first ever quilt!! (Sorry the photos aren't the best quality!)

I've been meaning to write about this for ages so as we near the end of the year its seems about time I get round to it!
The quilt was made and given away several months ago, so I'll try and remember the details!
Not a good start as I can't remember the name of the block or the site where I got it from, so if anyone recognises it please let me know!
After constructing the blocks with a jelly roll and playing around with the layout I managed to make my quilt sandwich and baste it ready for machine quilting. This was definitely a learning curve having only ever quilted bags or items no bigger than A4 but this was my favourite part!!

I went with a stipple design for quilting and for the binding I sewed several remaining pieces of the jelly roll together to make a slightly scrappy but co-ordinating binding which I then machine bound.
I was really pleased with this little quilt and about where it was heading!

Having joined the London Modern Quilt Guild this year, members were busy making and donating baby quilts for our chosen charity so I joined in too. It was handed over to the Octavia Appeal (Friends of Royal Brompton Hospital). The Octavia Appeal helps the paediatric intensive care unit and ward.

Boxy pouch

As you may or may not know by now I love making bags and pouches!! These have been my main makes of 2013.
Quilts well..... 2013 saw the completion of my first quilt, baby sized, but still a quilt! I have a few quilt tops in progress which hopefully will transform into completed quilts in 2014 but for now its all about the boxy pouch!
I had seen lots of lovely boxy pouches on IG and Flickr and could never really work out how they were made with a lining but thanks to a wonderful pattern here I'm now a happy boxy pouch owner and have a few more in the pipeline with a few changes to the original pattern. This pouch is a great size and really handy for storing lots of bits and bobs!

Happy Holidays!!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas yesterday and Boxing Day has been much the same!
No early morning sale shopping for me, can't think of anything worse at this time of the year however I did manage a bit of sale shopping online at the Village Haberdashery - I couldn't resist the 50% off offer plus the comfort of the sofa, TV and chocolate!!
Hoping to get the sewing machine dusted off tomorrow as it's been a while, but I have been busy with lots of yummy holiday baking!!

 

Not long to go!!

Just stopping in to say......

Plus I've already opened my Secret Santa Soiree parcel! We don't know who our partners are yet but thank you!!

Sew Sew Modern continued ...

Yep remember the last post where I said I'll be back tomorrow.... well that never happened!!

So here we are mid December and counting down the days to Christmas!
Anyway as promised here is the gorgeous swap parcel I received for Sew Sew Modern 3 from Gingersnaps Quilts ~

Everything is gorgeous and I really got lucky with my swap partner!