A "Nearly Finish" Quilt!

Readers of my blog on Monday will remember that I mentioned another summer holiday craft project that was "finished".....

 Quilt #3! In truth, I've only finished the top so far but I think that counts, doesn't it? I've now washed the backing fabric and sorted my batting so I'm ready to get on with basting and quilting but I wanted to share this project with you all the same.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out! You may recall that I had wanted to arrange the HST's in a colour rainbow-sequence pattern but the recipient (son #3) preferred a random placement of blocks. I'm not going to say he was right but I'm more than happy with how the random-ness has worked out. I decided to space the extra blocks around the centre piece because the centre on its own wasn't big enough. And then I decided it needed a little more width so went with the loud lime border. Since this photo was taken on Monday I've been asked a thousand times if it's ready yet, so I had better get cracking at the weekend!

I'm going to link this post up with Finish it up Friday over at crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk I spend far too much time on Friday evenings reading the many wonderful blogs over there. If you are reading my blog via this link up, thank you for stopping by!

Love Natalie x

Crafty Catch Up

I hope I'm not the only one who has struggled to keep up with their blog during the hols? An actual holiday, combined with child care juggling has left little time for crafting let alone telling anyone about it. With a week and a bit if the holidays to go, I thought I'd do a catch-up post and then get back into the regular swing.

My catching up started with the fact that I "caught up" with my machine today, having not had time to use it much for weeks. What's a girl to do on a rainy bank holiday? Stay in her PJ's and sew, that's what (I cried through Pollyanna at the start of the day as well). My first couple of projects are photo less I'm afraid but just so you know, I cut down 2 old pairs of pyjama bottoms to make them into shorts. I also had a go at recycling an old t-shirt into a tank top using the tutorial at http://www.crafterhoursblog.com/2011/08/tee-to-tank-tutorial-by-jen-from.html. 

I've photos of the other makes for today - I made a new peg bag based on the storage bucket pattern found at http://filminthefridge.com/2012/11/23/round-bottomed-fabric-storage-buckets-a-tutorial/. I don't like the hanging peg bags you can make (I've been using a small cube-like bag) so I thought a "bucket" would be good.

I was using up "scraps" so this is made using a couple of the leftover blocks from the quilt I made for my niece at the beginning of the year. To be honest, this photo doesn't do it justice! I lined the bucket with shower curtain just to make it a little weather proof and decided when I got to this stage that I needed a handle so the finished article looks like this:

I used another left over block (it was a practice one from an early Bee month) to make another of these to store my threads in.

I did have one more sewing project completion today but I'm going to save that for a post of its own.

My other summer holiday makes have included homemade strawberry jam and blackberry jam - my sons and I picked the fruit and I made jam for the first time in about 30 years. Let me tell you - it was worth the wait! 

During August, I'm Queen Bee, and I've received  4 blocks so far:

And a really quick make came in the form of a patchwork key ring that came free with Love Quilting and Patchwork Magazine.

Phew! Catch up over

Love Natalie x