Goals - Setting and Missing

Well hello there! I'm not sure that I remember how to do this blogging business. I could go on about life getting in the way yada, yada, yada but I'm sure that you don't really want to hear it so lets get straight to business shall we?

Today's the seventh of October and the last day that I can link up with Leanne over at She Can Quilt with our finishes from Q3 of the Finish Along. You might remember my goal setting post from three months ago where I listed 18 projects that I wanted to finish during the quarter. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha!

I have made progress on some items but only actually finished three - and only one of these qualifies for the FAL as I hadn't started the other two at the start of the quarter.

The list of shame - 

1. Anwen's quilt. Not finished :-( 

I really am struggling to decide on how to quilt this. I think that the main problem is that it's double sided and I really couldn't decide which side to make the front. Soooo.... I've 'unbasted' it and am going to turn it into two separate quilts - one for Anwen's bed and the other as a rather large lap quilt.

Anwen has decided that she want's me to finish the one with her name first and after a lot of deliberation has decided which vintage sheet she would like for the back.

She actually went for the blue sheet at 9 o'clock (not the pink one she's pointing at)

I'm determined to get this one done before the month's out so I'm going to set it as my October goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes over with Shanna at Fiber of All Sorts and Melissa at Sew BitterSweet Designs.

2. Get Shirty. DONE!

Can you see those dark clouds rolling in?

I decided yesterday that I had to get at least one qualifying finish for Q3 so starting quilting during afternoon nap time, got some more done whilst Dadi took Marged for a two mile walk and then just about managed to finish the quilting and attach the binding to one side in time to finish the binding in front of Downton on +1.

I knew that work would take me to Aberaeron and Cardigan today and as both towns have some beautiful spots where a quilt shoot would be possible I bundled the quilt in the car and hoped I'd get a spare minute in which to take a pic. On my way home I was thinking to myself that it was getting darker earlier everyday and before long after work quilt pics would be impossible. I suddenly remembered that I hadn't taken a picture of Get Shirty! I pulled into the next lay-by, threw the quilt on a hedge and took a few snaps before the light completely vanished. Hence three terrible shots of a crumpled quilt that don't show any of the quilting detail.

Although you can't see it in these pictures I've used three different quilting designs in the four main areas (clockwise from top right) stipple, stars, flowers and loop de loop. I also tried a different quilting design in each of the squares including pebbles, checkerboard, organic fmq straight lines and a square stipple.

I used a cream Coats 100% cotton for the front and am happy with the result but regret my choice of bobbin thread.

You can see the quilting a little better on the back

I used a variegated Gutterman sulky in blues and greens. It was far too dark and shows all my quilting imperfections! I think that a lighter aqua/lime variegated thread would have been better or even maybe a lilac to match the border.

This quilt was only ever supposed to be a practice quilt and will be keeping me company on the sofa until I one day manage to make myself a liberty quilt - hopefully my quilting skills will be vastly improved by then.

3. House quilt. Haven't touched this in ages. No reason why not just need to get my bum in gear. - untouched

4. Nephew's quilt. Done!

My first nephew!!!!!!

And received. Proper blog post to come.

5. A quilt for another baby due at the end of July. Nobody knows what colour (pink or blue) this baby's going to be so I haven't even bought the fabric yet. - Baby boy Cian has arrived and I've got a charm pack to start on.

6, 7, 8 & 9 Osian's, Elisa's, Rhys' and Megan's quilts. I think getting even one of these done during Q3 is a long shot but who knows? Yeah right!

10. Mum's quilt. Before the end of the year? Although her birthday is in October. - I bought her some flowers.

11, 12 & 13 Zig Zag quilt, impromptu along and distribution. These have all moved way down the list. Main reason for this is that they don't have recipients, they're just designs that I'd like to try. Nope - not touched them.

1. Charms cut for Zig Zag quilt        2. Fabric for impromptu           3. Inspiration for distribution

Oh, so only 13 quilts on the list. Completely manageable! (boy do I make myself laugh!)

On top of this there are a few other projects I'd like to get under my belt.

1. A few zipper pouches. Anwen really liked the way I'd appliquéd the butterflies onto Cadi's Quilt and as her birthday is coming up and I have some of the Cocoon fabric leftover I thought I'd make her a zipper pouch. Her friend had her birthday a few weeks back and is still waiting for a pressie and another friend has her birthday two weeks after Anwen. I thought that it would also be nice for Cadi's two sisters to have something to match their sister's quilt. So that's five pouches in total! - I've cut the butterflies out for the applique! 

2. A new bag for me. Done and blogged (but doesn't qualify for the FAL)

3. After moving things around a little at home the little table that used to hold our printer is now next to my corner on the sofa. It was a thrifty find when we first moved in together and the top has seen better days so I thought a little something quilty might do the trick for tarting it up. I might even drag something out of my ancient UFO pile for this one. It will also give me a good opportunity to practice making bias binding and sewing it onto a circular mini quilt. Not even looked at it.

4. Shorts for Anwen. I now have the pattern and the fabric. This is one make I hope to get finished before the end of the week. Autumn's here - this might find it's way on to next years Q2 list!

Hoping to turn a thrifty old skirt into a pair of shorts with the aid of a free (to me) pattern 

5. Shorts for Marged. I seem to have been neglecting Marged recently so depending on how Anwen's shorts go I might try making a pair for Marged out of some fabric from my stash. See as above.

So there we have it. A very disappointing quarter. All that's left to do now is link Get Shirty up to 

And Anwen's quilt to 

Here's hoping for a much more productive fourth quarter!

Finish-A-Long Q3 Goal Setting

I was a little late joining this here thing called blogland so missed out on the chance of joining Q2 of the Finish Along over with Leanne at she can quilt. I've also been so busy this past week that I missed the July linky for ALYoF. Knowing that I need deadlines to get things done I think it best that make a list here of all my UFOs that I hope to get finished in the next few months. I also have a few new projects that I would like to start and finish during this time. I know that they won't qualify for the FAL as they aren't UFOs but I'd like to keep all my goals in one place!

So here goes- (I've highlighted my FAL goals in Red)

1. Anwen's quilt. After I finished Marged's quilt Anwen said that she wanted her own quilt and here it is. It's been basted for around two months and Anwen keeps on asking when her blanket's going to be finished. I think that the main reason that it's stayed in this sorry state for so long is because I'm scared of starting fmqing it and don't know what design to use!

2. Get Shirty. Quilt top and back are ready. I even bought the batting ready but I cut into it for this project. Need to get this done asap. The plan is to practice my fmq before tackling Anwen's quilt.

3. House quilt. Haven't touched this in ages. No reason why not just need to get my bum in gear.

4. Nephew's quilt. This baby is due at the end of the month and I still haven't started. I bought the fabric ages ago and need to start cutting as I know I haven't got enough and need to work out how much more to get.

5. A quilt for another baby due at the end of July. Nobody knows what colour (pink or blue) this baby's going to be so I haven't even bought the fabric yet.

6, 7, 8 & 9 Osian's, Elisa's, Rhys' and Megan's quilts. I think getting even one of these done during Q3 is a long shot but who knows?

10. Mum's quilt. Before the end of the year? Although her birthday is in October.

11, 12 & 13 Zig Zag quilt, impromptu along and distribution. These have all moved way down the list. Main reason for this is that they don't have recipients, they're just designs that I'd like to try.

1. Charms cut for Zig Zag quilt        2. Fabric for impromptu           3. Inspiration for distribution

Oh, so only 13 quilts on the list. Completely manageable!

On top of this there are a few other projects I'd like to get under my belt.

1. A few zipper pouches. Anwen really liked the way I'd appliquéd the butterflies onto Cadi's Quilt and as her birthday is coming up and I have some of the Cocoon fabric leftover I thought I'd make her a zipper pouch. Her friend had her birthday a few weeks back and is still waiting for a pressie and another friend has her birthday two weeks after Anwen. I thought that it would also be nice for Cadi's two sisters to have something to match their sister's quilt. So that's five pouches in total!

2. A new bag for me. For Christmas 2011 Endaf got me a new handbag. To say the truth I wasn't fussed, I think that the colour of the leatherette put me off, but after a few uses I was sold. It was the perfect sized bag! Roll on eighteen months and the bag is finished, kaput, really seen better days. I miss it so much so I'm going to try and make myself a new one using the old bag as a template (with a few tweaks). I have the fabric ready so just need to get in gear.

Fabric choice - a little bit of Bella and a heavier weight solid from Ikea

3. After moving things around a little at home the little table that used to hold our printer is now next to my corner on the sofa. It was a thrifty find when we first moved in together and the top has seen better days so I thought a little something quilty might do the trick for tarting it up. I might even drag something out of my ancient UFO pile for this one. It will also give me a good opportunity to practice making bias binding and sewing it onto a circular mini quilt.

4. Shorts for Anwen. I now have the pattern and the fabric. This is one make I hope to get finished before the end of the week.

Hoping to turn a thrifty old skirt into a pair of shorts with the aid of a free (to me) pattern 

5. Shorts for Marged. I seem to have been neglecting Marged recently so depending on how Anwen's shorts go I might try making a pair for Marged out of some fabric from my stash.

Right that's it. I think that eighteen projects (but only four qualify for the FAL) is more than enough for three months! I'll be impressed if I even get three ticked off. I can but try.

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced as it's Wednesday and I have more than one Work in Progress!

WIP Wednesday on Thursday. No wait a minute it's Friday now!

So I went back to work on Monday and I've already given up on keeping up with my blog reading and I haven't touched my sewing machine since Sunday afternoon. Work hasn't been too bad but trying to do everything that I already wasn't doing very well when I was home all day has proved to be near on impossible!

Anyway I had hoped to post this on Wednesday but I haven't been near the laptop all week (I do my blog reading on my mobile) so here it is.

We visited Cadi a whole week after she was born. Considering her parents and sisters visited us a few hours after we bought Marged home from hospital this was very tardy of us! Unsurprisingly I didn't manage to finish Cadi's quilt in time so I promised that they would receive something before the end of the month.

So this is how far I've gotten:

The idea was to fussy cut the large flower and then fussy cut some of the petals and scatter them along the quilt as if they were being carried away by a gust of wind. I like it but I think that I should have added some more scattered petals. I've already made the binding out of the same cream background fabric but with a scrap of the Madrona Road for the corner opposite the large fussy cut flower but I still think that it's a little too bare. I had planned to use the same cream fabric (I have quite a bit of it) for the backing with just Cadi's name (made from scraps of the Madrona Road) appliquéd in the bottom left hand corner but since then I've acquired two vintage sheets that I think would fit the bill just right - what do you think?

I love both of them and can't decide which to use

A close up

My husband thinks that this would make the quilt a little 'too blue' for a baby girl and although I don't think that a presant for a baby girl has to be pink I think that it would be a little 'too blue' full stop.

So I was thinking of adding a little something to the quilt top. I don't like spending too much time with Mr Seam Ripper so instead of taking it apart to add more petals I thought that I'd appliqué some butterflies to the top. (As inspired by this wonderful quilt by Emma @ Sampaguita Quilts) I don't have that many scraps but I think that I've got enough pinks to add a splash of colour to the top.

So what do you think?

1. Do I go with the cream backing as originally planned or do I go with one of the vintage sheets?

2. If I go for the vintage sheets which one? The blue flower on white (on the top in the pictures) or the white flower on blue (on the left in the pictures)

3. Should I add the butterflies to the quilt top or leave it as it is?

I'd really value your opinion.

And here's a list of my other WIPs in the order that I hope to finish them in.

1. Cara's quilt. Hand sewn half of the binding on. Hope to get the other half done on a road trip on Sunday.

2. Get shirty. Quilt front and back ready. Need to piece the batting (lqs only sell 45" wide 100% cotton batting!?!?!) and then baste.

3. House quilt. No Progress.

4. Anwen's quilt. No Progress.

5. Nephew's quilt. Still haven't started. Really should think about starting to cut!

On Hold - not allowed to start these until I've finished at least two from the list above.

1. Zig Zag quilt
2. Osian's quilt
3. Elisa's quilt
4. Rhys' quilt
5. Mum's quilt
6. Impromptualong (Fabric arrived yesterday!!)
7. Megan's quilt
8. Another baby quilt
9. Distribution

I also have two quilt tops that have been UFOs for over ten years. I'm hoping to share these with you one day but as I'm planning on hand quilting then (they're hand pieced) there's plenty of time for that!

As an extra incentive to finish it before the end of June I'm going to link up to A Lovely Year of Finishes for the first time and making Cadi's quilt my June goal!

Since I'm in the linky mood I've also linked up to

this week with Annabella @ Life's Rich Pattern (very, very late)

And because a blog post from me isn't complete without a family snap an explanation of the crinkly quilt top above.

Need I say more?

A week away?

So we're home from our yearly family holiday. We spent four nights in Butlins (Minehead) and had a great time. Butlins might not be everybody's cup of tea but when you have a thrill seeking water loving four year old (fun fair and swimming are included in the holiday - she could go on as many rides as she wanted as many times as she wanted - Dadi was looking a little green by the end - and go swimming everyday!) and a seven month old water baby it's ideal.

Fun at the fair!

The first time we went to Butlin's Anwen was just over a year old and we got a lovely picture of her in the swimming pool (taken by an official Butlin's photographer). We were looking forward to getting a similar picture of Marged this year but were told that they didn't currently have a CRB checked photographer so wouldn't be able to provide this service! The world has gone mad.

This is the fourth time that we've been to Butlin's and Anwen has been excited for months. Last year she was really excited about seeing characters such as Fireman Sam, Angelina Ballerina, Mike the Knight and Thomas the Tank Engine, this year not so much. This time it was all about the DISCO! She would change into a different dress every evening, wear some of Mami's make up and   insist on having a funky hair do!

There was even some Dadi dancing!

Last year Katy Ashworth from CBeebies' I Can Cook was there and we watched the show. Members of the audience were asked up on stage to help Katy cook and Anwen was really disappointed that she wasn't picked (I wasn't - we're a Welsh speaking family and at the time Anwen could just about answer "What's your name" in English).

This year Katy wasn't there but her friend Julie (one of the red coats) needed help with the cooking and this time Anwen was one of the lucky ones!

 

She spoke really clearly and didn't get frustrated when Julie didn't hear her 

name properly and went on to call her Ann for the rest of the show! 

She really thinks that she's been on TV and can't wait to tell her friends in school and show them the name badge that she got.

The weather was far from brilliant and definitely wasn't beach worthy, however we've had pictures of us on the beach from all out past holidays so we had to get some this year too!

We literally ran onto the beach, took these pictures, and then ran away again. See those clouds in the background? It started raining around five minutes after we took these pictures! It's a pity as the beach in Minehead is really nice.

Marged had a pretty chilled out time which mostly consisted of eating lots and generally relaxing in the pushchair! 

One thing that I'm really glad that we managed to get was a family photo. In the seven months that we've been a family of four we've only managed to get two photos of all four of us together. The first was a few hours after Marged was born. I had just had major surgery and was still wearing my hospital gown - not a pretty sight! The second was at Marged's Christening. We were all dressed up and you'd think it was the perfect photo opportunity - if only Anwen had been in the mood - not a single shot of her looking at the camera. So when we saw that we could get a group shot one evening we jumped at the chance - and yay! everyone's looking in the general direction of the camera - RESULT!

I would have preferred it without the 'Butlin's' in the background but beggars can't be choosers right?

                                           

All in all we had a great time just spending time together as a family without work/laundry/dishes etc getting in the way.

           

Now the eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed the question mark in the post title. I may have had a week away from home and my sewing machine but sewing wasn't far from my mind! When looking through my bag of past patchwork projects I came across these -

 

   

                          

 

Hundreds of little shapes wrapped in fabric ready to be hand pieced. I think that the original idea (all those years ago) had been to use up scraps and sew them together in a completely inprov kinda way.

Anyway as I was heading out the door I grabbed these, a spool of thread and a few needles thinking that I might get a little sewing done whilst we were away and I did:-

           

I set myself up in the car and did a little hand piecing when it wasn't my turn to drive and the motorway scenery was boring me!

I didn't get much done just a few pinwheels (no pictures I'm afraid) but it was really nice to do some hand sewing for a change. I think that I'm going to carry on with this until I've got something big enough for a cushion or something. As for the rest of the ready basted shapes in the bag? I can't believe how much fabric I used to waste when I used this method so I think I'm going to rip off all the Sellotape press the fabric and keep them in my scrap bin.

And just to prove that you never know when inspiration for a quilt is going to strike look at this -

I couldn't believe it when we drove past this just before Bridgwater. (Not the statue - the building in the background!) I think that it's a distribution centre for Morrisons supermarkets. My husband thought that I was mad as I scrambled for the camera and cursed when it hadn't 'woken up' before we'd driven past and the opportunity for a photo had gone. I did try and get a pic on the way home but there was a hedge between our side of the dual carriageway and the building do I couldn't get a clear shot. So I Googled it when we got home and found the picture above here.

I'm really into green at the moment and when I saw the above building it just shouted QUILT at me. I've got a really long 'to-do' list at the moment but would love to make a quilt based on this building one day. Isn't it refreshing to see an industrial building that isn't the usual grey or mock brick? This really cheered me up on what could have been a really boring journey.

Wow. I can't believe how long this post has ended up being! I'll try to keep the next one shorter and less about the family and more about the sewing!