Bit Of An Updated Needed

Wow, it is ages since I last posted. I've just been so busy I haven't had chance to post individually so here's some of the things that have been keeping me busy:

Edward And The White Bear Quilting Retreat
It's not often I get a weekend away without the kids so I jumped at the chance to do not just that but to spend the whole weekend playing with fabric! There were 3 projects on offer and I knew I wouldn't have time to do all three and I didn't want to add too much to the UFO list so I decided I wouldn't do the Zig Zag quilt.

I started on the Friday with the cutting out for the other two projects so that I could then spend Saturday and Sunday relaxing with the sewing. I decided to start with the table runner and really liked the block (good job Sarah was on hand or I'd have sewn the last sections in the wrong places as it is so tempting to sew them where you last cut!).

Having got the three blocks sewn together I decided to leave the quilting until I was home and get to work on the bag, since I knew I'd probably need help with it. I have been wanting to make a bag for my mat and rules for ages so this was my first choice of the 3 projects. I didn't get it finished so it too has joined the UFO pile, fingers crossed I finish it at some point. After making the incredibly fiddly ties I am sure I won't let this hang around as a UFO for too long.

We also had a Kantha demo from Gilli Theokritoff and were given a kit so we could have a go. I'm not great at hand sewing and wasn't sure it would be my sort of thing really but the design (a bird) was really lovely so I made a start in front of the tv one evening when I was home. Well, it is so relaxing. It's not as fussy as a lot of stitchery/embroidery kits so felt more relaxing.

Starting out

Finished and Framed

Graduation Ceremony
I had a bit of a surprise back in August when my degree certificate from the OU arrived as my ceremony was booked for November. So it felt a little odd when I went to graduate on Friday roughly 3 months after getting it. The ceremony was really nice and the kids were permitted a day off school to come and watch.

And congratulations to everyone else that graduated that day too!

Felting Workshop
I taught a felting workshop this weekend at RiversMEET. A lovely way to spend Saturday afternoon, covering wet felting and needle felting. I think everyone had fun. I even managed to remember to take a picture at my workshop, so here are some of the sample wet felted pieces:

Fingers crossed it doesn't take me so long to make my next post.

Back From Holiday with a Finished Quilt!

It has been a really hectic month or two. I've been working full-time, planning/teaching workshops, had visitors, been on holiday, been to a quilt show and trying to fit in all the usual kid/house stuff too.

So, our holiday...what can I say?! It was just so lovely. We booked a week at Wildside Highland Lodges near Loch Ness to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. I think it might be the first time we've ever stayed somewhere where we felt our accommodation lived up to the pictures on the website.

The lodges were lovely and clean. The kids loved the hot tub (and so did we!). We were really pleased with our visit. We had been a bit worried about it being so far to take to the kids but it wasn't a problem and we were slightly worried that there might not be enough for them to do but they loved it. Neither of them wanted to come home.

They enjoyed the walk to Falls of Foyers:

And they got 'Nessie' t-shirts when we went to Inverness:

Their favourite bit of the holiday was doing a RIB boat trip on Loch Ness.

We had no mobile signal in the lodges and WiFi wasn't available in the lodge we stayed in (we could get a signal at Reception and at the play park area) and it was quite nice to feel so remote! I managed to read a couple of books on my Kindle and start a third, as well as finish the binding on a quilt.

It's probably a good job I've finished something as I bought quite a lot at the Festival of Quilts - more to come on that soon!

Still here...and still sewing!

I've just realised it's quite a while since I did a blog post. I've been really busy the last few weeks. Being back at work full time has been really great. I'm really enjoying it and the kids are enjoying before & after school club. We're all settling in to the new routine well. Mondays and Thursdays are busy, with Erin going to activities in the evenings.

I've also gained another degree. I got the exam result for my second Level 3 module the other day quite unexpectedly (I thought they were due out a bit later than this) and that made me eligible to claim my BSc. My OU studies aren't totally finished as I can take another two modules to get the Honours part of the degree but I'm going to see how it goes - there isn't a lot of time with working full-time, the kids, teaching workshops, going to workshops, etc. but, being under the transitional fee arrangement, it's a lot cheaper to do it now than leave it until later.

With all that I hadn't had much time for sewing but I forced myself to baste the two quilt tops I finished in May's quilting class. I was then able to take the first one to Monday night sewing and get it quilted, the other I took to yesterday's quilting class and started the quilting. I finished the second one last night while Alan watched the football.

The granny square quilt above was quilted with diagonal lines in a green thread. This was made from a very badly cut jelly roll and is definitely far from my best work!

The other quilt is hopefully going to be a Xmas present for someone. I took some time to decide how to quilt it. I didn't want to do straight lines that went through the green triangles. Equally the diagonal lines created by the green triangles didn't work as the angles would have caused the lines to cross into other green triangles (does that make sense?!?). I also didn't really want the hassle of going around all the hexagons and lines with my walking foot as it's quite hard, slow work turning the quilt around lots and the blocks were a bit large for just quilting the edges of the blocks.

So, I decided it was time to get over my fear of the meander. It's one of those free motion quilting 'patterns' that looks so simple until you try to do it. It's basically a squiggly random line. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the problem is that I don't really think in a random way when I have to fill a quilt top with it. I start going along a side to make sure it's filled or I start going left to right so as to not leave any gaps. I have to really focus on not doing those. I think the end result was pretty good. I could definitely improve as my stitch length is a lot more uneven than I'd like but it has definitely got that random look to it.

Here's a close up of the quilting:

My next job is to make the binding for these two quilts and get them finished.

FO: Zippered Pouch

I have some big news. Next week I'm going back to work. From Monday I'll be working in an office, full-time for the first time since mid 2006. So I'm now the proud owner of a normal sized handbag. That perhaps sounds a funny thing to mention but when the children were babies I carried around a huge, huge bag full of cloth nappies & wipes and bottles with my purse and keys and not much else (who wants to carry more than that?!?). Since the children potty trained I've been pretty minimal as I'm so used to not needing anything else.

I have a small basic zippered pouch that holds a few pens and similar that I made ages ago. It makes them easier to find in your bag. This time though I wanted something for a few bits of make-up so it needed to be lined. Most of the tutorials online are similar in the technique used with just a few subtle differences. I decided to follow this one by Flossie Teacakes. It has covered zip ends, which I liked the look of.

I picked out a zip first because I had a limited selection in the size needed. Isn't that always the way? The fabric was a Christmas present from Alan back in 2012 I think!

I struggled with the sewing around the outside (the final stage before turning through) as my machine doesn't really like sewing through bulk so it's not as neat as the one in the tutorial but it's good enough.

I lined the bag with the same fabric as the outside, not least because I was an idiot and cut two rectangles for the front and then realised the picture/text would be running the wrong way. I was so concerned with remembering to double check the picture/text before stitching to the zip that I totally forgot to do it when cutting out.