Christmas Quilting

Like it? My Christmas table runner. I checked back on my blog to see when i started this. 3 years ago I took a quilting class with my mum over at the community centre. We were both beginners. My mum fell in love with quilting and has made some amazing quilts/tablerunners/pram covers etc etc since. She really got into it. I enjoyed the class but never really got into it....im not so keen on all the measuring and cutting of fabric, the concentration thats required and the endless sitting at the sewing machine. Anyway, i found this in a bag of fabric and all that it needed was the binding put on around the edge. I'd done everything else. So i gave it to my mum to do and within a few hours....voila! I really like it and am pleased with the fabric i picked for it even if it was 3 years ago! I couldn't get a good picture as the light is bad from like, 3pm.

On to our advent activities. Yesterday (day 20) we went to Sainsburys, bought nice cakes and came back and ate them sitting on the rug in the living

room. I made the mistake of leaving my half eaten cake whilst i went to put the kettle on and when i came back Caleb had scoffed it. It made me laugh anyway.

Today (day 21) we wrapped the door (an idea i stole from Rebekkah's blog)! We basically covered one of the doors in the hallway with Christmas paper. Caleb loved it! Here he is taking a bow

Made with love by Gran

My mum made this quilt for Caleb. Isnt it lovely? I want to get into quilting, even took some classes a while back, but it just doesnt appeal to me as much as stitching

I love the label on the back.

A quieter week this week. Caleb has really bad skin at the moment after a bad reaction to cream prescribed for his infected cradle cap. His face and head look terrible. Im sad for him but glad it doesnt seem to bother him. We see a dermatologist on Monday. Poor baby. Always something for Mummy to worry about!

In other news, DH's grandpa passed away this week. Although we're sad, it was expected, he lived in a nursing home in Bath with his wife. Its strange because for years it was DH's Granny that we thought would go first, shes so frail, has severe dementia and is really just existing, if you know what i mean. Gramps was always fine, physically and mentally. He just declined really quickly this month and ended up dying first. He was a man with a strong faith and will be in a better place now that's for sure. So DH's folks fly over from Canada on Monday for the funeral on Wednesday which DH will fly down south for too. Then the inlaws are coming up for a weeks visit after that.

Thank goodness for Friday!

Another busy week at work is over and i'm glad! Unfortunately i have to work on Sunday but im not thinking about that at the moment. Im going to relax tonight, stitch and watch ugly betty!

Here's my latest progress on my tablerunner after last night's quilting class. I finished the logcabin last night. This is my favourite one so far. Here are my 3 squares lined up on my ironing board. I havent completey finished the fan one yet. The light is bad again (stupid winter weather) but the dark colour is actually green.I now have to start working on joining these ones together. I am enjoying learning to quilt and am hoping for lots of quilting books for Christmas as well as a bigger cutting board, my one is just too small.

No stitching this week but i did receive my names for the SBEBB Winter Quaker and the SBEBB Winter House. Im looking forward to working on those. I did receive these lovely squares today from Donna for the Fair and Square Exchange. She also included a JBW designs chart - thank-you so much Donna!! I love this santa and i plan on making it into an ornament for my Christmas tree.

Tomorrow we are going to our friend's wedding at Stirling Castle! Look at it:Isn't this just the most gorgeous place for a wedding?! Im so glad the weather forecast is good for it.

Have a good weekend!

Just checking in

It's been over a week since my last post. Im so busy at work at the moment. A lot of projects ive been developing are all coming together at last and im busy, busy as a result. I was also away at the weekend. Remember the camp i went to in the summer? Well, we had a reunion weekend for the kids. Friday night was the coldest night of my life. The weather was so bad. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves though!

There has been little stitching done recently. I did finish this ornament from the 2006 JCS ornament magazine. It's a design by Cherished Stitches.
The rest of any free time i have is going into sewing my tablerunner for the quilting class i attend. I had to miss last Thursday night because i was working, so i am behind. My mum has been showing me what i missed though. Im trying to get this block done before Thursday. I believe this is the logcabin pattern.The lighting is bad in both these pictures. The clocks went back at the weekend. It was dark by 5pm tonight!! I don't like it.

Hope you are all having a good week!

100th post

This is my 100th post! I love blogging!

Work is crazy at the moment and life is generally busy so ive not been stitching as much. I only had 1 free night last week and it's going to be the same again this week. So here is an update on what i have been working on. First of all, Edgar's RR (sorry about the lighting of the photos, it's getting dark so early here now!) Im making this RR up as i go along! Edgar's only preference was to have trees in each square. Im not working from any particular LHN pattern, im just adding things as i go along...which is making for slow progress.

Yesterday i was suffering with my startitis problem that you'll know i have by now. I started this one from the 2006 JCS ornament issue. I think i'll keep this for me when's it's done; for my Christmas tree. I think it's by Cherished Stitches.

Finally here's a quilting update. Im finding quilting class hard going....im generally really tired on a Thursday evening and the lighting in the room isn't great. Progress is slow. I find quilting takes up a lot of time - particularly measuring and cutting. Don't get me wrong....i do enjoy it....but i would prefer to use my machine than sewing by hand. After this class is done my next quilting attempt will definitely be machine stitched! Sorry about the bad light in these photos.

Have a good week!

Stitching and Quilting

I love Saturdays so much. It's 10.30am, i havent been up long, im sitting at the computer in my PJ's with a cup of tea. Perfect.

Im excited to say that i have lots to show! First of all here is what i stitched for Donna for the Fair and Square Exchange. It is a Prairie Schooler design from September's Gift of Stitching magazine. Thought it was perfect for this time of year.I posted it on Monday and it got to Donna in the US on Friday. Good going! I wanted to get it away before all the postal strikes over here. We've been told not to expect any mail until next Thursday! Edgar's RR is on its way to me from Donna, every time an RR is sent there is a postal strike over here, so annoying!

Last night, whilst watching the new series of Ugly Betty, i finished my PS stitching into an ornament for my Christmas tree. Im really happy with how it turned out and i love the fabric i used for the back

As well as all this, Thursday was quilting class number 2. It's so much fun. Cutting out and measuring is hard work though. At one point the room was totally silent (unusual for a room full of 12 women!) as we were all concentrating so hard. Even the tea was ignored...even more unusual for women in Scotland! So we cut out our squares and triangles and sewed the triangles together. We didn't get it all done in class, i had to do the sewing last night. We are hand sewing. This is the middle block of the tablerunner. I believe the pattern is called Shoofly?! You quilters out there can keep me right.Tomorrow we have a super busy day at church so today there will be hard core cleaning and tidying for the arrival of the in-laws on Monday. Not my favourite way to spend a saturday but hey, it's better than being at work. Before i go, has everyone seen the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club? You should check it out!

Have a good weekend!

My Canadian/British hubby

It's been a busy week. First things first, on Wednesday my patriotic Canadian DH became part British and gained citizenship to Britain. He had to go to a citizenship ceremony, meet the provost (the guy in the picture) and affirm allegiance to the Queen. This is what he had to say:
I (name) do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that on becoming a British citizen, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her Heirs and Successors, according to law.
Pledge
I will give my loyalty to the United Kingdom and respect its rights and freedoms. I will uphold its democratic values. I will observe its laws faithfully and fulfil my duties and obligations as a British citizen.

It's not as easy thing for a patriotic Canadian to do! I think i'd find it hard if i had to do this in Canada (no offence meant to any Canadians obviously). I must say in this day and age i think it's pretty dumb to have to affirm your allegiance to the Queen. I think i would have an issue having to do that and i am British; born and bred. Don't get me wrong, im proud to be British but i think royalty doesn't hold the place that it used to in this country (which doesn't bother me) and this kind of allegiance pledge is so irrelevant. I think the funniest thing about the above picture is that there is supposed to be a picture of the Queen in the background but the guy behind Matthew is blocking out her head LOL.

Last night i went to my first quilting class with my mum. There were 12 ladies there and i couldn't believe it when i met my neighbour in there. She's my age and i see her quite often and never even knew we shared this interest! She even has a sewing machine! I was so glad to have someone my age there at the class, my friend was supposed to be coming but she had to pull out. Anyway, last night was a general introduction to quilting. Rita (the class leader) showed us what we will be making over the next 10 weeks. We're going to be making a tablerunner for Christmas and the design she has chosen will incorporate all the basic techniques we will need for quilting. I can't remember all the technical names yet though! So, we had to pick out and buy our fabric last night. Here's what i chose

The red starry piece will be the big main border. The stripey piece will be the inner border and then i have 3 fat quarters for all the squares/triangles/strips etc that will be in the middle. It took us all ages to choose our fabric. Im happy with my selection anyway!

So, quiltorstitch I may just be coming your way for advice in the near future!

Im not looking forward to my weekend ahead as i have to go away for work again. I hate going away overnight for work. This time, one of the young people i work with is taking part in some training. She has a 3 year old and doesn't want to go alone with her (which is fair enough). So as im her support worker, im going too. It's going to be hard work looking after her 3 year old all weekend. We leave this afternoon and will be there until Sunday. Wish me luck!

Yummy Fabric

I can't believe it's September already. Summer has been pretty non-existant here this year, its so depressing! I keep thinking it might still come but when you see the leaves changing colour you know that's wishful thinking.

On saturday i went fabric shopping. My mum told me about a material shop in town that i never knew existed. I think i'll be in there quite a lot from now on :) Check out all this yummy fabric i bought

The next picture shows my favourite fabric purchase! It was quite pricey but i loved it so had to get it! Im going to use the red piece for Amitie once it's stitched, i think it'll be perfect for it. This weekend I have again been so touched by the kindness of my blogging friends. Regular readers will remember the story of the most expensive rr ever. Well today i got an email from Donna with a gift certificate for Mary Kathryn's online store!! Ive already emailed Donna but i'll just say again - Donna, thank-you so much!! That was just so kind of you. Im completely overwhelmed by your generosity, you are such a lovely, kind friend :)

Speaking of Donna, here's her RR update. You can see ive been making good progress on this one.

It's been a lucky weekend - Hazel emailed me to say i came 2nd in her competition!! Can't wait to see what gift i win! Thanks so much Hazel, it was so great of you to offer up all those prizes on your blog and im excited to be a winner :)

So ive got a busy week ahead. As well as the usual work each day, i have a post-camp evaluation meeting tomorrow night, my friends birthday meal on Wednesday night, a baptism to go to on Friday night and a busy day next saturday too! Hope i get some time to stitch ;)

Im gonna be a quilter!

Im going to quilting classes! I've been wanting to learn to quilt for ages but just haven't had the opportunity to try it yet. My mum has started getting interested in it too after visiting one of her quilting friends. Anyway, last week we found out that there is going to be a quilting class in the wee community centre in my village which is right opposite my house. The lady that runs the class (which is for beginners) is only taking on 6 class members so mum and i make up 2 of those. We start at the end of september and it runs one night a week for 10 weeks and is a good price too. Im a bit worried about it as i'm hoping i will be able to do it as im not experienced at sewing at all. Least my mum will be there and can help me out though.

When i told my sister about this she couldn't stop laughing and said "What are you going to do when you're old? You're going to have no hobbies left, you're using them all up now." The cheek of it! It did make me laugh though.

Here are some stitching updates. This is where im up to on your RR Donna. LHN's "The counting house." Im using the recommended WDW, Crescent Colours and DMC threads. This one is an enjoyable stitch as it's nice and simple. A good tv stitch (a piece you don't have to concentrate too hard on).I haven't done much on Amitie recently but i got home from work earlier yesterday and sat in the sun for a while (yes, you read right - we've had sun...and heat!) and worked on it for a little while.As usual, im glad it's the weekend. No plans tonight which is fine by me as we were out last night and im tired today. Tomorrow night i'm dragging DH and 2 of our friends along to a work event. Im taking some of the young people i work with to a concert organised and performed by other young people in the area. Not sure what it'll be like, just doing my bit and showing face at it!

Have a good weekend everyone!