FNSI success October

Well I didn't make the ipad case but I did finish this week's Christmas SAL block from Sewhappyme. I've kept up to date with this one and there's only two more blocks to do. Again I was able to print the stitchery direct onto the starched fabric.

October crop catch up

Whilst everyone revisited colour blocking and shaped templates, I tried to tidy up the unfinished kits and class layouts with some small success. The layouts made with the templates were all first class and showed that unloved doesn't mean dated or unusable.

Gogogetaway kit from June 2011

Scrapbook Generation sketch club - just needed journalling


Page from September crop which just needed professionally printed photos as my picturemate is malfunctioning


September scrapbook generation sketch club with blokarting photos from September

October FNSI

September FNSI didn't happen for me, but I have high hopes for this month. Lizzie is going with four friends to have some professional photos taken and then they're coming back to ours for homemade pizza before going to JACY. Oops, better get a new oven before Friday then.

Look at what arrived in yesterday's post

One of these pink bags of goodies from the Urban Stitches retreat in Australia ordered from Under The Mulberry Tree Sold out now unfortunately.



Contents including the necessary fabric and threads for each project:
Melly & Me Sketch & Stitch (now finished)
Leanne's House Sew Laugh Love
Rosalie Quinlan Dance of the Hearts
Charm pack of Lecien squares of Old New Fabrics 30s
Two FQs of Lecien fabric

Here is a photo or two of the finished Melly & Me project. My quickest ever finish and just in time for OPAM for September. The kit contained a busy green floral which I swapped for some Bonnie & Camille turquoise Bliss. The kit contained hanky linen which is used often in Australian stitcheries and I was surprised how open weaved it is.





I have also downloaded week 2 of the Christmas Stitch Along The first pattern which I've finished is up for two weeks and each subsequent pattern is up for one week. So don't delay. I have printed the pattern straight on to the fabric as I hate the tracing. Another reason why I love the Urban Stitches kit as the patterns are preprinted onto the linen.

CQ Farmer's Wife blocks month 1

Last night we introduced the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt to 49 members and guests at Caesarea Quilters' September meeting. My turn to introduce and demonstrate the first four blocks. Four blocks was a bit of a high expectation!! I finished one doing the demo and two more were finished this morning. The remaining block - 68 postage stamp will wait until we have more scraps to use up as they are 1.5" squares.



The fabric is Grace by Moda and was chosen by Anne. All of the demonstrators will use this line of fabric so at the end of the year we will have enough blocks for a lap quilt which will be raffled.

Design Seeds

I'm not the only person to struggle with picking colours for projects, but I'm sure I'm one of the last people to find Design Seeds. Several colour combos are published each day along with the picture source.

I love this Neighbourly Hues



This combo reminds me of Sweetwater Sunkissed so I may pull some out and use them for Lily's Quilt a Long. Not that I should be starting more new projects - I should be doing things with Allen keys and a spirit level.

Another quilt top finished

I have been awaiting impatiently the light blue patterned fabric to finish the blocks for this Quilt Book Club quilt called Modern V from Modern Basics. I picked up the fabric from the Post Office yesterday morning and it is so quick to go together that it's now done and just needs to be quilted!!



Today I want to trace Elephantz Block of the Month - block 3 to take to quilting tomorrow to handstitch. Not that I've finished months 1 or 2 yet. No change there.

Holiday photos

I think this photo tells you a lot about the weather we had for most of our two weeks in Saumur. Even Lizzie had a go and made a block. She's very good at selecting fabric in combinations I wouldn't have chosen but they do work. Time to update the spreadsheet for those I have finished, I think almost two thirds are now complete.

Foundation piecing

Jenny, Lorraine and I had a fun morning doing some foundation piecing. Even though the plan for the Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt at our guild is teach foundation piecing again in March, someone couldn't wait!! Here's my block for today.

94 tall pine tree



I will be taking this project on holiday with me so I hope to have some more photos for you in two weeks time. Meanwhile there'll be more blocks on the Cottonberry blog

Back from the Festival of Quilts

My feet are very sore and my purse a little lighter, mainly due to several trips into Birmingham. The winner of the Festival was a beautiful piece called Octopussy. There was a huge variety of quilts to view, including many hexagons and union jacks. The group winner featured meerkats which was very amusing.



My purchases from the Festival of Quilts comprised of some raffle prizes for Caesarea Quilters and the following for myself:




A jelly roll and layer cake of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille which I have waited for impatiently so I snapped it up on our second visit.
Fusible wadding for some bags
Big reel for rolling binding on
A subscription for Irish Quilt & Craft Magazine. A great size to pop in your handbag and has similarities to Vignette in that it combines garden, cooking and other articles but at a great price. Look out for this one in the CQ raffle in December. They also sell kits for the projects in the magazine which is very useful. This is a quarterly magazine.

I've even used some of the layer cake in some Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks. These three block make 37 blocks done in total - a third of the 111 blocks. Unfortunately they are the easier blocks in the book!! I hope to get to 50 by the end of the school holidays as my sewing machine is coming to France with us.

54 kitchen wood box



95 temperance tree



102 whirlpool

Mini design boards

I have just made some of the design boards shown on Lori Holt's blog To see the instructions on how to make them go to this post.

I have made two small changes to the construction of the mini design boards:
1. Her tutorial calls for foam board which is hard to get and expensive so I used some free mount borad which I got from a local framer and for that reason I also reduced the binding to 2" as the sandwich is thinner; and
2. I am not an expert with a glue gun, so I just used fabric glue and popped it under my cutting mat when finished to dry.




I have made eight boards in all, four for myself with trim to match my Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt fabric (Bliss by Camille for Moda), one each for Jenny and Lorraine, and two for our guild raffle for September (if they want them).

More Farmer's Wife blocks

I have been busy prepping some blocks and sliding the pieces into a binder ready to sew them up. It's lovely to be able to sit down for 15 minutes and sew up a quick block. However I know that I'm coming to the end of the easier blocks so progress will be slower.

In other news, my long arm machine came home on Friday. I took less than five minutes to fix it. It is still in the box as I am more than a little nervous that I will kill it again. We have nothing planned for tomorrow and I should have recovered from the sleep deprivation of ten 13 year old girls sleeping over last night.

69 practical orchard

68 postage stamp

111 wrench

73 rainbow flowers

55 Linoleum

29 Economy

21 Contrary Wife

12 Broken sugar bowl

5 Bat Wing

Scrapbook Generation July kit

Saturday was our monthly crop (note no crop in August)unless someone else organises it. I just picked up my July Super Sketch Club pack and printed some photos at the last minute. I have to say I thought the 4th July themed layouts of which there were three, were going to be hard to use. However I used all three on Saturday. All complete including any journalling. I was particularly pleased with the Kennedy Space Centre page as I'd forgotten there was a stars and stripes flag on the building.




Two layouts of our recent trip to Coutances via Granville and that was three double layouts done at the crop. I even finished constructing the other two from the kit on Saturday evening, so I just need to add the photos.

Farmer's Wife Quiltalong

Yes another project, but it'll be done two blocks a week over the next year. The group are on week 5 so have finished 10 blocks. Here's those I've done so far using Bliss by Bonnie and Camille by Moda with any white on white scraps I could find to use up.

Block 1 attic windows


block 2 autumn tints


block 3 basket


block 4 basket weave


block 6 big dipper


block 9 box


block 10 bow tie


block 11 broken dishes


block 14 butterfly at the crossroads



block 16 calico puzzle


block 48 homeward bound


block 81 snowball


block 92 streak of lightning


For those who go to Caesarea Quilters, we are planning to demo blocks 2,4, 48, and 68 (to come) with blocks 55 and 92 as extras at the September meeting. The book shows the blocks in reproduction fabrics, mine are the Bliss range by Moda and the group will make 50 blocks for the lap quilt and are planning to use Grace by Moda to give three different looks to inspire members. I think I need to finish block 68 and do block 55 next.

Riley Blake

Go over to Riley Blake to see their current contest.

Hexagon progress

I demoed the stitchery hexagons at our May CQ meeting, in preparation for the July meeting where we're going to put together some hexagons. They really are addictive and quick to sew together. I have prepped all the hexagons I'm going to do but have left one to do as a demo example. A friend has one for her holiday to Switzerland as an aide memoire, so I will have made eight of the 150 needed for a single bed quilt. I think this is going to be a fun summer sewing project for members and they won't get bored of them as they only have to do a few.

Just two more groupings of four flowers to sew together and a couple of stitcheries to do. I want to include the year 2011 and our name into the two blank cream hexagons. The fabric is all Thimbleberries scraps from the four Blocks of the Month I've completed.

July's ready

My July hanging is now complete with it's new unchipped red buttons. Maybe I should try and start June next or perhaps August?



I also finished a Scrapbook Generation sketch kit layout this morning. I started this on Friday evening when scrapping with my sister, Joanne. Just four more layouts to complete. The layouts have gone together quickly as I did most of three other kit layouts in the same evening. Now I just need to print out some photos to the right sizes.