Open Day 2014

So another year captured in photos for you to enjoy - it all came together on Sunday, another good day made possible with the help of my lovely "volunteers".
My huge thanks to everyone who helped, those who provided yummy baking, goods to sell and lovely things to look at.
I have spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to create a slideshow, used to do it in Flickr but seems impossible now - I have everything crossed that it will work...........and I hope you enjoy it. My apologies to one or two of my students whose bags were not captured for the slideshow, promise to do better next year.

And we raised just over £500 for Alzheimer Scotland. Edited - DO NOT HIT THE BIG DOWNLOAD ARROW after the play button, the slideshow will load.Not quite the format I expected, hope it works for you all.

This digital slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Early Summer

Well we are basking in glorious sunshine up here on the West Coast of Scotland and apparently set fair for a couple of days yet, we must make the best of it as it might be our summer.

Although my regular classes finished at the end of March I had a couple of one day workshops in early April. Last Thursday's was a new one, Mile a Minute quilts - a few months ago someone came along to our Guild coffee morning and showed us her Mile a Minute quilt.............I immediately knew it would be a fun one day project. It's not a new or difficult technique, just scrap busting fun, it's a bit like Crazy patchwork & Log Cabin rolled into one. In preparation I had knocked up a few blocks in a short time and with the workshop date only a couple of days away I converted the blocks into a wee quilt. I had a green theme going on with my scraps (well there's a change!) and decided to sash in brown.......this is a llittle quilt destined for the outdoors so nothing special. Luckily, I was at the quilting stage just as blog pal Nicky was telling us about her FMQ circles. Even though I teach FMQ (for the truly terrified) I rarely actually jump in and fmq an actual quilt. Nicky was showing us the results of some online tuition from Angela Walters and the idea was to mark out circles and quilt within the circles. I found this so liberating even though the circles were controlling me.

Most of the work done by my bluepatch ladies this last year, will be on show soon at our Open Day on Sunday 27th April. As always it will be held in Alloway Village Hall which sits right opposite Robert Burn's cottage. If any of you are within reasonable travelling distance you would of course be so welcome to join us - there will be teas, home baking, a sales table for charity - this year Alzheimers Scotland - and we will also have a craft sales table.

In preparation for the Open Day I have been keeping busy, mostly of a sorting and cataloguing nature but a little sewing too - in September I will be having a Tumbler Cushion workshop. I have had a tumbler die for my Accuquilt Go so this becomes a helpful feature of the workshop - then I came upon Fiona's cushion in a recent I Love P & Q magazine and loved its clean lines. I took them just a bit further and created a fully quilted cushion, back & front.

I woud have preferred a more subtle thread choice but had to use what I had which in this case was a variegated one. The tumblers were chopped from a charm pack.

I managed my Bee Blessed blocks the other day, a bit of slicing and dicing - quick and fun.

Just peeking in at the bottom of the picture is a glimpse of my finished Chinese Whispers wallhanging that I mentioned in my last post. I am unable to share it in it's full "glory" until after the Loch Lomond Quilt Show. not sure if you can stand the suspense!!

Some of us in the Bee a Brit Stingy Bee have had a wee Easter swap, a mini basket with some goodies. I made this little basket which is meant as a thread catcher and was intriguing to construct - I got the tute here.

So my little basket + some extras, went to Janet and then I received this generous bundle from the aforementioned Nicky. Wow!!

And lastly, still on an Easter theme, I made one of my Tiny Totes for my Tiny Tot! I adapted my own wee pattern, for speed.

Wherever you may be and whatever you are up to, have a great weekend.

Finish Along - Quarter 2

I was somewhat distracted at the beginning of the year so missed out joining in with Finish Along First Quarter.
Standing in the midst of the chaos that is currently my sewing room - I am amassing all the exhibits for my Open Day ni 2 weeks - I turned 360 degrees on the spot and clocked 5 wee projects that I reckoned I could pledge finishes for. Apart from number 1, they are all about The Princess!!

1. I hope Katy accepts this snippet as proof of a project - it is to be my entry for the Chinese Whispers exhibition in this year's Loch Lomond Quilt Show - I am not allowed to let anyone see it yet, just as well as I have yet to absolutely finish it.

The Ayrshire branch of the Quilters' Guild are entering two groups of quilts into CW - the idea is that the first person in the group gets a photo and has to make a small quilt, inspired by the photo - she sends her quilt to number two on the list who is inspired by it and makes a small quilt, etc, etc. I was number two in my group. My friend was number 3 so she didn't mind that my quilt wasn't bound or had a hanging sleeve. I made it in November 2012 and knew I had ages to complete it, I now have 2 weeks.

2. I was Queen Bee in the Bee a Brit Stingy Bee last month & I asked for two different blocks to help me make two different quilts for my Princess & the Pea project, the one where I am making 20 quilts for an Ikea dollies bed. My first block was a mini Grannie.

3. And the other was Bright Hopes..........

4. Is another "Princess" quilt that I made ages ago from the scraps of my Mod Pop quilt - it just need a binding, how hard is that on something that measures about 15" x 12??

5. My friend Janet loves a bit of improv and likes to use up the smallest of scraps - she offered me this next little piece recently for the Princess bed - I have trimmed and layered it up, so it just needs a bit of quilting and a binding.

I think all very achievable so I am linking up with Katy for Q2.

March Roundup

It's been a couple of months since I did a roundup to link with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day and I want to get back in the habit. Instead of a mosaic I'll just list my makes as I don't think I blogged them all.

1. An iPhone case - present for a friend and following this tutorial.

 

2. I had an early birthday present this month, a new camera, my first step up from a point and shoot. So I thought it deserved a smart strap..........found the pattern in an old Mollie Makes.

3. I got a sample made in plenty of time for an upcoming 2 day Introduction to Patchwork course (Still have a couple of spaces on this one - email me if interested)

4. And as I posted on Sunday, I also got my Modern Sampler completed in time to show my classes before they finished - this is next session's project.

5. I managed a couple of Pippi blocks for Judith's Bee Blessed - the first needed a diet and as I popped them in the post I noticed I had pretty much cut off her shoes. Hope they are ok.

6. No Bee a Brit Stingy blocks to make in March as I was Queen Bee - I asked for tiny blocks to make a couple of quilts for my Princess and the Pea project. This is how things are coming along so far.......

  Bright Hopes blocks

 Wee Grannies

7. I made another block for Alison's Soy Amado quilts. She is looking for 12.5" quilted blocks so that she can join them into quilts. I have quite a few orphans lying about and although some are pretty much 12.5" I find after quilting they can shrink quite a bit - so in this next one, a Scrap Happy block, I decided to add narrow strips all around, quilt and trim back to 12.5". In reality there wasn't really much trimming to do and there would have been really narrow borders all around so I decided to make it a bit wonky, looks better for it I think.

If any of my ladies are reading this and fancy making a quilted block, I would be happy to collect at the open Day and pass to Alison.

8. I had a nice delivery of fabric but it came surface and my patience almost wore out..

9. I got my Sarah Fielke Mystery quilt layered up and quilted last week. I have one corner to unpick and re-do and then the binding - sent off for some black & white spots, this was a quilt full of circles so I thought I'd keep with the programme. I quilted a sort of spider's web, more pics at a later date!

10. And finally, I got ahead of myself a bit and made the April Stingy Brit blocks for Di - a mix of Maple Leaves in different sizes.

and the siggy,

And that was March.