scribbly daisies

The summer is flying by faster than I can keep up with. The kids went down to my Mum's for a wee Parent-free holiday, while said parents worked.... and quilted ;)

I got the third quilt that I have made as part of the Joy Circle of do.Good Stitches finished up! For this quilt I asked all the lovely ladies of the Joy circle to use the Patchwork wheels tutorial by Don't Call Me Betsy, and asked for summery colours that reminded them of summer fruit and blue skies and they sent me the most amazing blocks! I think it's fantastic that women from all over the world can make blocks that work together so well together, following "summer fruits and blue skies"!!!

I really wanted to practice my FMQ with this quilt and decided to try something different. I found Leah Day's tutorial for Dresden Daisies which she described as easy. and though it might work well with this if I made it bigger as an all-over patten.

I went to a lovely sewing day last week at Jo Bearpaw's shop and had the BEST time and took this quilt along to try a little FMQ demo (don't know why I agreed to do an FMQ demo because I don't have a clue!!!... anyway)

The lovely Jenny (who doesn't have a blog but is Sarah Narcoleptic in a Cupboard's Mum) and Katy both had a wee go at quilting this too, and doesn't it look lovely??? I think they look like scribbly daisies :)

I really really love this quilt! I love that 10 women from all over the world made blocks for it, and 3 Scottish women had a hand in quilting it. The backing and binding were donated by the lovely, generous Jo who blogs at A Life in Lists, and has a gorgeous  Etsy shop. She offered fabric to charity quilters for free and refused to to take money for postage! She reckons she sent me a "pile of crap", but look Jo, look at how lovely your "pile of crap" makes this quilt top!!! :)

This lovely quilt, and it's predecessor are destined for Project Linus, in Glagow in Scotland. I think they will end up finding new homes with children who are attending my local Children's hospital. I really hope they brighten up a difficult time in a child's life (and the life of the child's family)

I had a couple of days down at my Mum's too and it was lovely. It looked a bit like this

and this

and this :)

oh to be 8 years old! :)

Fiona x

I Spy with my little eye..... snowballs!

Thank you so much for all the well-wishes for wee Murphy after my last post. He's slowly getting better, but he's still a very sore, tired little pup.

I promised I'd show the I Spy quilt that I finally got finished at the weekend, and Ta Da! Here it is :)

This quilt was made by the lovely ladies of the Joy circle of do.Good Stitches. I asked them each to make 2 blocks using fabrics that would be suitable for a boy's I Spy quilt. We all used the brilliant snowball tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out! 

The fabric those lovely ladies chose are just amazing. So much thought has gone into choosing each one, and together they all just look fantastic! My photos really don't do this quilt justice  

I chose an Ikea print for the back and found a perfect black spot in my stash for the binding. The quilting is just a loose stipple and I think it makes it look soft and cozy.

The quilt measures approx 48" x 48" after washing. When the lovely lady from Project Linus came to pick up the last quilt I put together for the Joy circle I showed her the snowball blocks that I had received at that point and asked about the best size to make the quilt. She assured me that any size quilt would find a loving home, but she mentioned that 48" (four feet) square was the perfect size for a wheelchair quilt, and told me that they didn't get as many boy quilts.

This quilt has taken me a lot longer than it should to make, and I've already got started on our next one for Project Linus. This time I asked for patchwork wheels following Don't Call me Betsy's tutorial, and asked for summery colours that reminded us of summer fruit and blue skies. Yet again the lovely ladies have made some super blocks and I think they look fantastic all together.

 Hopefully I'll be showing this quilt off quite soon :)

And here is a picture of little Murphy today. His little toddle around the grass has wiped him out and he's now fast asleep in his bed.


Hope you're having a good week


Fiona x

Fabric Fiona and other Bee blocks

So this is my attempt at a self portrait for my Brit Bee block for Miss February. you can read about what the lovely Jennie asked us to do here, and you can see another couple of Brit Bee portraits here and here. It's not quite what I had in mind when I set out but I *think* I like it.

When I first started planning this block I wanted to be peacefully sitting under a tree, in the sunshine reading a book. It's how I would love to spend an hour, if I had a spare hour, a tree to sit under, and some sunshine. I was a bit worried that if I put a tree trunk in, it would be really hard for Jennie to get my block to fit in with all the others, so I've left it out.

I chose turquiosey blues because they are colours I think of as calm and peaceful. I really hope Jennie likes it, and it fits in okay with the other portraits she'll be making into a quilt.

I've also finished adding to Em's block in the Be Free Bees. This Bee is great fun, if a little scarey. Each member of the bee made a starter block, which is then mailed round each member of the bee and each person adds whatever they like to the block. The rules are there are pretty much no rules. When Em's lovely block of birds arrived I just had to put them in a tree. After 7 attempts to get the cat sitting on a branch I almost gave up and appliqued a tree, but I got there in the end :)

I've also finished my do.Good Stitches blocks. Jolene from Blue Elephant Stiches asked for rainbow stripes. I can't wait to see the quilt she makes.

Oh and ages ago I made a little block to go in a surprise quilt for Rachel, the founder of do.Good Stitches. All the members of the Bee contributed a block. She has now received the beautiful quilt and from the sound of things she loves it :) You can read about it here.

Happy Thursday!
Fiona x

I Spy Snowballs

Yesterday a lovely lady from Project Linus came round to collect the quilt I made with the help of the lovely ladies from the Joy circle of do.Good Stitches. While she was here I asked her some questions about the best size of quilt to be making, and I mentioned I had another quilt in the works.

When I showed her the blocks that have been arriving from the Joy ladies for the last month she got very excited, because apparently they don't get many quilts donated that are boyish. She told me 16 blocks (about 4 foot square) is the perfect size for a wheelchair quilt. 16 was the magic number because there are 8 of us in the circle and we each made 2 blocks :)

After that there was no stopping me, the kids helped me arrange the blocks when they got in from school and I managed to get the top pieced before dinner was ready.

I can hardly wait to get this basted and quilted, because I think this will be the perfect accessory for a little boy's wheelchair!

Thanks again to the lovely ladies in the Joy circle who sent me the most fantastic I spy snowball blocks. I asked therm to follow this great tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew  using boyish fabric, and I love each and every block they made!

Hopefully I can do them justice with my quilting....

Hope you have a great weekend, and if you pop back here on Monday you will find my Modern Mini quilt for the Modern Mini Challenge Blog Hop

Eeek! There have been some fantastic minis so far, I'm a bit nervous!

Fiona x

Quilt of Joy!

My do.Good Stitches quilt is finished!!!!!

I really love this quilt!

For about a year now I have been a member of the do.Good Stitches Bee on flickr. I really love being part of this bee. Each month we make a couple of blocks for a quilt that goes to good cause. I'm part of the Joy circle. August last year was my first month where I designed the quilt that was to be made. I showed my lovely Joy ladies this mosaic and this sketch and referred them to this great tutorial. I asked them to make 2 blocks. They could choose to do girls or postage stamps, and it looks like they had a lot of fun making them!

Every block I received is just gorgeous, and I have to show a close up of some of the girlie blocks that were sent to me. I am so touched by the thought and detail that has gone into them

Look at the bow in her hair, and her pet duck!!!


Love the flared dress on this girl :)


I think this girl is off to a wedding - look at her fascinator!!!


this one actually has birds on her arms and head like Mary Poppins!


Look at those spaghetti straps on her dress!

My quilting is more than a little bit dodgy, obviously I need a LOT more practice, but that's okay. I didn't make this for inspection by the quilt police. This quilt destined for Project Linus and will go to a sick child in hospital in my local area. Hopefully a little girl will be too busy falling in love with all the wonderful details in this quilt to notice the wonky quilting :)

A HUGE big thankyou to all the lovely ladies in the Joy circle, and to Rachel who runs do.Good Stitches

And I just ticked off one of the items for Rhonda's Finish Along. Now I'm off to put my feet up with a glass of wine :)

Edited: I've linked up with Jenna's Manic Monday linky thing - never done that before, but it's fun seeing what other people have been up to :)



Hope you had a good weekend
Fiona x

Hand Quilting

A while back I asked advice about how to quilt my Loulouthi quilt and got some really great ideas from some of you (Thankyou!) In the end I decided to hand quilt it, using perle cotton in a random, butterfly garden kind of thing and I thought you might be interested to see how it going

I am so glad I decided to hand quilt this. I am totally head over heels in love with it and snuggling up on the sofa with this on my lap, doing a little bit of stitching in whatever colour takes my fancy is a perfect way to spend a winter's evening :)

I chose to back it with a print from Heather Ross's Mendocino line (that I got on sale) and it is the softest backing I've ever felt!. The kids keeps squirrelling themselves under it while I work on it because it's so soft.

I did make a rather big error of judgement when I basted this though. I decided to give spray basting a go. It was after I'd spay basted that I decided on hand quilting. I have found that spray basting does not make quilting with perle easy. It is hard to get that needle and thread through the quilt!
But I'm getting there slowly. I've zigzagged it all round the edges so it can be snuggled under without too much worry while I'm working on it.

I've also finished my Brit Bee blocks for the lovely Judith she asked for any kind of log cabin with the centre of it to be our own fabric to remind her of us. I hope she doesn't mind a little bit of embroidery :)

And I've finished my blocks for do.Good Stitches. It's my month again this month and I chose a snowball design for a boy's I Spy quilt for Project Linus. I've already received some blocks from the lovely ladies in the Joy Circle and can't wait for the rest to arrive. I think this is going to be such a cute quilt!

It's a big day in our house today because it is my daughter's 6th birthday! I can't believe she's 6 already!!! How did that happen?!? We got her a new bike and she is chuffed to bits with it! It's her favourite colour turquoise, it has a stand, gears, suspension  and a bell and best of all it has a glittery saddle! I want one just like it for myself!

She took it out for a quick spin this morning before school :)

Happy Birthday Baby Big Girl!

Fiona x