So no sewing here.

My husband Charlie ran the Belfast marathon this morning in a very respectable time of 4 hours and 4 minutes.

When we met him at the finish he was a funny shade of grey and he was quite emotional.

He has been training for it for months and has worked really hard.

He has raised close to £1000.00 for The Northern Ireland Children's Hospice.

So I am very proud of him.

I spent yesterday at my much neglected allotment. I have been so busy sewing and doing I don't know what, and haven't made enough time for it.

So it was in a bit of a sorry state when I arrived.

I felt so guilty

5 hours of digging and weeding and I made some progress.

I still have a lot to do but I fell in love with all the digging and the allotment thing all over again.

(my chickens are at this present moment chasing a starling with a piece of bread in it's mouth all around the garden) so funny. They are comical.

So yesterday I planted my onion sets.

I didn't leave them like this. I tucked them up nicely in the soil.

I am sure the mice will get a few.

So no sewing here.

Bags Bags Quilts

This morning Amanda Hall from Monkey Buttons joined us at our monthly meeting of the Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild.

www.monkeybuttons.com

Her bags were absolutely yummy.

Then she showed us some of her quilts which were equally scrummy.

I think her muted colour choices are fantastic.

Look at those chickens!

This one, above, was even more lovely in real life. Made with one jelly roll.

xx

More than a tin full of pins.

After the quilting was complete on my flora piece it didn't sit quite flat enough when hung on the wall. 

So I stretched it on the sewing room floor.

If you are wondering why the carpet looks so bad it's because I used to paint in here and drop and spill paint all over the carpet.

Now it just gets covered in thread!

Along with the rest of the house.

Anyhow, to stretch it I measured it width and length, then taped up a bit on the carpet about 3mm bigger than the quilt all the way round. 

I then pinned the quilt to meet the edges of the tape, pulling it quite hard in some places. And using a lot of pins. More than a tin full of pins.

It was then sprayed with water until it was very damp. Then allowed to dry. I resprayed it about 4 times over 3 days. I removed all the pins and presto, it now sits nearly perfectly flat.

I quilted it in a kind of wave pattern.

Which I like.

So that's all done and dusted and all the mess of it tidied away.

Then this came in the post..

I spotted it on ebay and bought myself a fat quarter. It's quite a heavy Japanese fabric which would make a gorgeous shopping bag. I think I'll buy another fat quarter and make it up into quite a biggish bag.

And talking about bags my friend and neighbour has asked me to make 3 bags for her daughter and two of her friends. 

Made with this fabric...

It's Australian fabric which they were given by an Australian author at a children's book event in Belfast.

So that's next on the list.

And here's my mum peeping over her latest quilt.

I think it's a Pam and Nicky Lintott design from The Quilt Room.

I love that my mum and I share a hobby.

And I love that it's May and the summer is coming and there are so many birds in the garden. And the odd bee.

xxx

Honey

flora top finished whoop whooop

I have eventually finished the top layer of my piece for the Flora exhibition.

I still have to layer it with some wadding and backing fabric and then quilt it in some way (which I haven't finally decided).

Here it is pinned to the back of my bathroom door, which I have come to the conclusion is the brightest area for taking photos unless I venture outside.

This also allows you to see the scale of it.

Some details..

xx

Now it's 12 out of 16, not bad.

I seem to be making progress with my 'flora' wallhanging.

I had intended to have 20 floral pieces 5 along and 4 down. 

However, I think that the dimensions of the final piece will work better with 4 across and 4 down.

So I have 4 more to make.

I am quite pleased with how it's looking so far. I love the colours.

There is still a lot of work to be done.

But i will let you know how I'm getting on.

The sewing room is a disaster. Fabric and thread everywhere. But heyho. 

Just keeping the door closed.

xx

Oh I nearly forgot....

front

back.

Pamela, one of my friends from the Merville sewing group, made this absolutely gorgeous cushion.

I love it, and I want one.

xx

Jayne's Quilt

After a frenzy of stipple quilting that I think gave me motion sickness for a while... the quilt got finished last night.

I washed it at 30 degrees and hung it on the line. Then popped it in the tumble dryer for half an hour.

It came out lovely,  just ready for folding and wrapping.

I used different strips of the Amy Butler jelly roll to bind the quilt. Love a scrappy binding!

The reverse is a pale blue with red spot Cath Kidston print from Ikea.

Ok, you get the picture.

I got a bit carried away taking photos.

Even this rook was fair game.