Amanda's Musings

I've made a few small things over the last week or so; having finished my Spring Fling I didn't feel like doing anything large for a wee while.

I've taken up Jenny's (at Elefantz) challenge to make a cover for my sewing machine. It's not particularly pretty, but I wanted to use up some of my leader/ender four patches and then added in some strips to make it fit (this is me using up my stash).

From August 2009

We had visitors last weekend, one of whom kept banging his head on the way into our kitchen, where the doorway is pretty low. I'm so short that it doesn't bother me, and Christopher has got used to ducking his head a bit, but it's a bit unfair on our taller visitors, hence the warning sign.

From August 2009

Through World Vision I sponsor a child in Ethiopia, and it's the time of year to send of Christmas cards, and very small, flat, light gifts. So I made her a little Christmas ornament, using a link that Candace (Wraggedypatches) sent me. Cute, isn't it?

From August 2009

And finally, this picture is for Gina (Quilting in the Valleys). Gina visited me a couple of months ago and brought me a lovely rose. I planted it in the garden and pruned it a bit and it's just rewarded me with a second flowering, and still several buds to open. Thank you Gina.

From August 2009

There's a lovely giveaway at Calamity Jane's Cottage.

I have at last finished my Spring Fling quilt. I started this back in January, at an intermediate quilting course. Unfortunately I missed the last two sessions because of our move to Somerset. However, I finished the top fairly quickly after our move and have been intermittently hand quilting it ever since. Another self imposed deadline helped to get it finished and up on the wall before our weekend visitors arrived (about an hour before they arrived!)

This is by far the most complex quilt I've made and it is quite heavily quilted, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. The colours are brighter than in the photograph, but it was a bit of a rush to grab the tiniest bit of sunshine to take the photo before putting it up on the wall.

I've not done much foundation piecing before, so this was something new to try. The pattern is based on one in Popular Patchwork magazine and was made much easier because they gave instructions on the size of fabrics to cut. In the past when I've tried I've ended up with bits of fabric cut far too small. The signal flags fabric is some that I bought in a sale a year or so ago, and works beautifully with this quiltlet. Now all I need to do is get Christopher organised to hang it up.

I have just finished my Butterfly Quilt, except for the label. This is to be a donation for a friend's charity. I had many lovely suggestions for this from many blogging friends, but in the end went for a pattern in Popular Patchwork magazine. The quilt has finished at about 2 feet by 3 feet. I loved doing the machine applique, which I did through all three layers, giving the butterflies a slightly puffy effect. I used fancy machine stitches on the sashing and meandering for quilting the background to the butterflies.

It is of course properly rectangular, it just looks a bit squiffy because of the way I had it laid on the garden bench!

We had a very pleasant couple of days last week, when Number One Son came to visit. He was able to stay for three nights, which was great. On one of the days we took a trip to Bath, and visited the Roman Baths. We've been several times, but it was Oliver's first visit and he found it fascinating. I never mind visiting again, as there's always something new to see or to learn.

Whilst I was there I went into Country Threads and bought some fabric that I needed for a workshop that I was going to on Sunday. I had hoped not to buy any new fabric for a while yet, but just didn't have the colours I needed. However, I was lucky and was able to get most of them from their sale table.

The workshop was very good, but very intensive. I made about a third of the blocks needed and came away with an understanding of what was needed in order to finish it. Though I've been so tired since that I've not sewn a thing.

This was one of my July finishes - a needlecase and scissor keeper for my sister-in-law's birthday. I used the patterns in the Angels Story book. The scissors are really pretty, with marbled handles - I'm rather reluctant to part with them!