SEW CREATIVE ON SUNDAY

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all enjoying a super weekend. It’s a bank holiday here in the UK. Yahoo, three days of peace and quiet. So, I got up early and did my household chores and disappeared into my sewing room and had a little play. Here’s what I have been prepping …..

I’m hoping to be able to give myself permission to play in my sewing room again tomorrow. I really would like to start machining these patches in place. Note that I keep my designs simple nowadays. Doing this kind of appliqué work gives me a chance to use my scraps. If you look closely you see that even the background is pieced using leftovers from other projects. Piecing the background is a boring chore but it’s definitely worth the effort. Not to mention that when I next purchase fabric to be used for backgrounds I won’t feel guilty.

Well that’s my report for this fabulous bank holiday Sunday. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy doing. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching, I kid you not, stitching makes life better.

Lucie x

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CHARITY QUILT SEASON

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’ve all had splendid day. It’s been bright and wonderfully productive day in my little world. I have spent day mooching around doing small jobs around the house. I planted more annual bedding plants, sewed four labels onto quilts and generally just tidied around the sewing room and various other areas of my home.

I longarm quilted a quilt top which I received as a Christmas gift. I have been looking at it for months while my longarm system was not working and longing to get it quilted and ready to use. Well yesterday was THE day. I must tell you that this hexagon quilt top was pieced by my Sarah using hand-picked scraps!!!!! The backing fabric was a bit of a dilemma for me. I wanted something different. Something that would set off the quilt top. While digging around my sewing room a couple of weeks ago I came across the perfect backing fabric. It’s bold and bright and just fits with the bold and bright hexagons. After seeing the finished quilt on my laptop screen, Sarah said “I never imagined you would want such a bright quilt”. Well who wouldn’t to brighten up their life with this magnificent piece of work. So without further delay here is the quilt, you might want to put your sunglasses on before you focus on the following photos …..

Is it cheerful enough for you? I love it. It’s going to go at the foot of my bed. And I know it’s going to make me smile every time I go into my room. Do you have a quilt that cheers you up??? I can tell you without a word of a lie that this kind of an accent can make your day. So, don’t be afraid to use colour in your projects.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been longarm quilting charity quilts. I have done three so far and I hope to do a couple more over the next couple of weeks. I must tell you before I write anything else that these quilt tops were not pieced by me. The charity is Quilts for Comfort and we have volunteers who donate finished quilts and we have a few groups who are not capable of quilting the quilt tops they piece. So that’s where I step in, when I can. Some of the quilt tops are a little skimpy, so I look thru my fabric stash and see if I can find something to add borders making a quilt top a more friendly size. And once that’s done, I load it onto my machine and quilt it and then bind and label it ready to hand over to our Quilts for Comfort chairman who stores and delivers a great number of quilts a few times a year to the RVI hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne. It’s a great cause that makes me feel quite humble. Here are three of the quilts I have done some work on recently.

So, as you can see, I do keep pretty busy. I have been working on my newest project for which I hope to post some progress next week. The blocks are coming along nicely and I am thoroughly enjoying doing the fine hand appliqué work. It’s a soothing repetitive work that slows the day down after a busy demanding time.

Well, I guess that my report for today. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching.

Lucie x

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend. It’s been absolutely the perfect day in my little corner of the northeast of England. The sun was shining and the chores on my To-Do List practically did themselves. It was truly the perfect day.

I have been busy drawing new blocks for my next project. I searched my stash for the suitable fabrics and so I was ready to start prepping blocks. Here’s a little look at what I’ve been working on …..

You may have guessed that the subject of my next project is the garden. I’m going to name this one How Does Your Garden Grow. I do like flowers and plants, so why not indulge myself in a subject that makes my heart happy.

Speaking of garden, I stepped out this morning to do a little tidying up first thing after taking Maisie for her morning stroll. I planned to stay out in the garden for about 20 minutes. Well 90 minutes later I was just putting my tools away. I did quite a lot of pruning and then because it was so nice out, I decided to plant my annual bedding plants. I’m not sure if we’ll be frost free but if the weatherman says that we should expect any kind of frost, I’ll cover my planter with garden fleece.

At the moment there’s a very impressive flower in bloom in my garden. It’s a tree peony …..

Isn’t this a gorgeous flower and the colour is exquisite?

It’s a huge bloom but it doesn’t last very long. So, I step out into that area of the garden to have a look as often as I can. Perhaps tomorrow the petals might be found on the ground.

It’s been a brilliant weekend here. I got so much done. My energy levels are always better when the sun is shining. And you can see that the general mood is improved wherever you go.

I guess that’s my report for today. I am so pleased to finally be getting on with my new How Does Your Garden Grow. My favourite part of any new project is prepping the blocks. I’ve had a great time prepping a few blocks this afternoon. I suspect this project will move quickly because it’s a subject that’s close to my heart. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching.

Lucie x

CUSHION COVERS IN THE SUN

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’ve all had a great week. It’s been a great week in my little corner of the northeast of England in terms of productive accomplishments. I longarm quilted a few charity quilts and designed and pieced a couple of new cushion covers. I kept the design simple and doable in one session. Here’s a little peek …..

I am the queen of meander freemotion quilting but this time I kept the quilting very very simple by quilting in the ditch. I used that funky sewing machine foot that helps me stitch along the seam without wibbling and wobbling all over the place. I love it when a plan comes together.

The sun has been shining all day long here. The last few days have been sunshine free for the most part. And don’t let’s get started about how cold it’s been. It was like winter! I have really appreciated seeing the sun today. Perhaps that why I zoomed thru making not one but two cushion covers!!! The sun spurs me on.

So, I guess that’s another week behind us. We’re almost halfway thru the year. I suppose that’s my report for today. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy doing. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching.

Lucie x

WAITING FOR SUNSHINE

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all enjoying a glorious Monday. It’s a holiday here in the UK. I seem to have spent quite a lot of time waiting for the sun to shine this weekend. It’s sunny as I write this post but for most of the weekend it’s been dark and dreary. While I waited, I decided to do something useful. I have been working on piecing a new design this past week or so. And because it didn’t look like we would get any bright weather making it more interesting to step out into the garden to do some tidying, I decided to load my quilt into my longarm and give it a simple quilting job. I love adding texture to my appliqué designs. Here’s my little bit of sunshine while there was none outside …..

Somehow, I managed to machine quilt and hand finish the binding on this quilt all in one day. Mind you I did very few household chores and basically concentrated on my quilt.

A few days ago, I decided to play with some fabric scraps. I simply gathered up mini scraps of fabric and cut them into small triangles which I placed on a foundation fabric approximately 6-1/2” x 10”. I just kept adding scraps and moving them around until I was happy with the layout. I chose a thread colour that I liked and began to sew the scraps in place. When everything was anchored down, I chose a piece of course grain ribbon which was on a gift set which I got for Christmas and a piece of cotton lace which was also on a gift parcel. I played around with the scraps of ribbon and lace until I decided to set them out in a hashtag design. Then I decided to add some netting to form pockets which I filled with a paper word in one pocket and a few loose buttons in the other.

Don’t even ask me what I will do with my play time effort! I may add another border and then place it in a frame or possibly just square it off and add a binding but I’ll be sure to play around with this liberating technique again. My effort, to me looks like a mess but I think if I have another go, I might learn to accept my freestyle pieces of work better. I have plenty of fabric scraps and oodles of embellishment supplies. As hard as I try, I am still all about the ¼” seam allowance brigade. I spent so many years making traditional quilts that it can be quite difficult to step away from the quilt police rules. I have said it before and I’m saying it again today, it’s OK to give yourself permission to play often. This is how we introduce new trends.

It’s been a lovely quiet weekend here in my little corner of the northeast of England. Like millions of others, I watched the final episode of the Line of Duty last night. I won’t spoil it for those of you who have not watched it yet but I did not expect that ending at all. The good news is, the BBC have commissioned another series of Line of Duty for next year.

So, I guess that’s my report for this week. I hope to give myself permission to play again sometime soon. Who knows how my next mess of fabric scraps will turn out? I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching.

Lucie x

FEATHERED VISITS

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all enjoying the month of May so far. It’s been pretty good in my little corner of the northeast of England. It seems the weather has taken a downturn for the moment. It’s brrrr cold. It’s a bank holiday weekend and quite often we have rain on these holiday weekends. So not much change there. I have a great weekend planned full of chores and fun things to do. So, watch this space.

I have been doing a little bit of designing and block piecing of late. I finished piecing the project and spent part of the morning adding a border …..

And here’s a little sneaky peek at two bits of my quilt top …..

I might reveal a little more once the quilting is done.

Now while I was piecing and attaching the border to my latest project, I saw some movement outside my window. It took me a little while to work out what said movement was. There was a wee robin flying around my back garden gathering twiggy bits. I suspect that the wee robin is building a nest somewhere nearby. And of course, the wee robin was moving far too quickly for me to snap a photo. However the wee robin kept flying into my little teapot ornament to have a rest …..

I don’t think the robin is building a nest in my teapot because the opening is far to large but it was nice to see it standing/sitting in the teapot resting now and again. We always had a resident robin in years gone by but I haven’t seen it in a while. I hope the wee robin visits me again and often. I’ll be sure to top up the feeders and bird bath regularly just to encourage such birdy visits.

So, I guess that’s my report for this week. I hope you’ve all had a productive week. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK. I there’s nothing like a long weekend to get a few seasonal jobs done. I was kind of hoping to plant my annual bedding plants this weekend but the weatherman is forecasting frost at night so I’ll leave it for a few more days. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy doing. I plan on doing some hexie work while watching a new episode of The Bletchley Circle. I do enjoy a good murder mystery. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching.

Lucie x