CHARM ABOUT YOU

**If by any chance you are my mother, stop reading and LOOK AWAY now!!**


My son says it every time he finishes or wants to show us something, so to borrow his current favourite phrase...

Ta Da!
Here is my finished Dead Simple Quilt!


I thoroughly enjoyed being part of Lynne's Dead Simple Quilt Along over at Lily's Quilts and I learned a lot about solids and palettes, so thank you so much to Lynne for running such a fun and different QAL and thank you to everyone that took part for the inspiration and encouragement!

I did some organic straight line free motion quilting and it's not bad for a first attempt, although far from perfect!





And the little girl couldn't keep her hands off it!! But this one is a Christmas present for my mum!


I'm very excited by this finish, I loved working with the solid fabrics (with a few patterns on the back) and really enjoyed putting it together. I'm linking up to finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Finished It Friday at Stitching by Starlight and TGIFF, which is over at Bending Pins this week!




 


I'm also linking up to Leah at The Free Motion Quilting Project because she's exploring modern quilting and I think this is a modern quilt!

Yes I am that proud!! ;)

That's it on the making front, apart from my aforementioned son's school were raising money for Children In Need today so they were allowed to wear spots to school! This is easily done with hair accessories for a girl, but a boy?! So this is the result:


Lastly but most excitingly (what??!!!)... I had a good post and news day!

This gorgeous fabric arrived from the very kind Kaelin over at The Plaid Scottie, she knew I couldn't get it here in the UK and I just adore her Sweet Caroline Quilt. Thank you so much Kaelin! It makes me smile so much :)


I also won 2 giveaways and found out today!! One is 8 products for my sewing kit from Korbond, I'm really looking forward to getting it (partly because it will be a nice surprise, can't quite remember what I picked but I spent ages choosing!). I entered this competition on the sewing directory and it's well worth checking out if you're in the UK, there's so much cool stuff on there!

The second giveaway was from Crazy Old Ladies, I was one of the winners of ten fat quarters of Emily's newest line for Michael Miller 'Hall of Fame'. It looks gorgeous and will be available to buy towards the end of January/February:



Just look at those plaids, stripes and hoops, I adore the numbers too!! I hope she doesn't mind me using the pictures but I had to share!! You can read more about it and Emily's design ideas here, she also has some great patterns so you should check it out :)
I've never had anything so new before and I'm super excited to receive it!! I loved her Going Coastal collection but haven't got my hands on any yet - those prints (esp. crabs and bottle caps) are calling to me though - maybe a treat to myself after Christmas?!

Oops, how could I forget... I did one more sewing thing, here's my fmq practice for Free Motion Friday at Fluffy Sheep Quilting:

front

back

I thought I would hate this but I actually had a lot of fun, all the encouragement you guys gave me last week meant I felt more relaxed and wasn't bothered about being perfect (good job too!!). I suck at travelling, whether it's straight lines or curves, I can't seem to go over myself properly - I'm sure I can get better though. I like the pattern, they are like little aliens (rather than water molecules, which they're meant to be!) but I enjoyed doing it and this could be fun on a kids quilt in a small area (unless you have a mountain of thread you need to use up!). Honestly I'm really looking forward to next weeks superstar, it looks amazing! If you've not tried free motion quilting this is a great way to try it and join in the fun, please go and take a look at Cindy's post to find out more about Free Motion Friday!

If you're still reading well done and sorry for the ramble, I'm so excited about all the goodies and I think that the universe is showing me I'm on the right path! I'm on my chocolate comedown now but I was harking on about how much I love quilting yesterday!! I've never been so lucky but then I've never been so grateful for finding a hobby that I love and bloggy friends who give me so much support. Thank you.

I'm linking up to the wonderful Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting :) for the great experiment that is Free Motion Friday!

I love doing this, I do but honestly I'm despairing. I'm getting worse. Fmq is not my friend right now *pouts*
Here's my go at pine needles:


I mean really. I can't even follow a line!! The first 3 lines are not even going in different directions because I was concentrating so hard I forgot that bit!! The 2nd column I did backwards (away from me) hoping that might help - clearly not. Here's the back:


Huh?? I've not had anything to drink (maybe that's the problem) but no matter how I tried it it wouldn't work!
I do really love this pattern so it's a shame this is crap but I tried and I think I'll call this pine leaves ;) Not one I'll be using though!
Nor will I ever use stomach lining because I simply can't do it. Last week I said I'd try again (why??!) so I did:


It's like a carnation made of jelly! oh well.

After that failed attempt I thought I'd have one more shot at doing straight lines and pine needles. I sewed a solitary pine tree:


Am I better at lines or curves?? Neither but I'm hoping to improve and next week will certainly be a challenge. I've got so much to do but this week I really want to take some time each day when I can to practice rather than leaving it until the last minute. I did this at 2.00pm today!

I wore tights while I did this fmq (yes I realise that may be a lame excuse but I'm taking anything I can!!) so I'm going to take them off now and try to do more fmq lines on my Dead Simple quilt :)


p.s.  Honestly I think I'm usually quite cheery and positive, this might be a little too much information and I really apologise but want to explain that I think I'm PMSing really badly so sorry for being grouchy the past few days. Sometimes it's hard to be a woman.

Isn't sewing a funny thing, one minute you can feel so pleased with your accomplishments and then the next it can turn into a disaster...
Let me explain...

I decided to do my Blogger's Block of the Month, this month the tutorial is by Vicki Welsh, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out:


My block last month wasn't looking too good, I wasn't happy with my fabric choices, but I think I'm starting to make it work now. A few more and it might even look good!!


I had to do a bit of unpicking with this months but overall I'm liking where this is going.

Since I finished a block (not a lot done, but it's something!!) I'm linking up to TGIFF. Laura at Quokka Quilts is hosting this week, go and check it out!




And now the disaster, the part where I start free motion quilting. I'm joining in the Free Motion Friday over at Fluffy Sheep Quilting and linking up, I need support! I stayed up last night to do it and after a bit of a battle with my machine (hence the mess in the middle) I got going. Man this is totally hideous. Completely shambolic (it reminds me of Mr Messy):


It doesn't look good from either side. Maybe it could be called useless stomach lining, or exploded stomach lining - whatever, it is not good :(


I got really fed up and another go wasn't even any better. I took these pictures late at night and they turned out really bad but I DON'T CARE - no amount of daylight will make this look good. After I thought I did well last week I was maybe expecting too much, and I knew that Leah jinxed me when she said it was easy in the video!! I can't do curves. Just can't do it. In the spirit of Free Motion Friday, I will persevere, I will not be free motion quitting. I intend to look at all your successes, read all your advice and try again for next week. Off to cry about it some more,

Presenting my Dead Simple QAL top, I'm so happy with how it turned out! Also pleased it was sunny this morning so I could get these pictures (yesterday was a wash out despite our best wishes Nicky!!). I love the palette and the colours seem to change so much in the light but I love these bright shots:



Having a helper makes taking pictures so much easier!

Here's one taken in a shadier spot (with feet!):


I'm going to piece the back using scraps from cutting the fabric and what was left over. It might not look as tidy as the front but I have a few patterned fabric scraps to add in to so it should be fun.

On to this weeks Free Motion Friday courtesy of Cindy over at Fluffy Sheep Quilting (she is doing such a fantastic job and I always really look forward to seeing what challenge is next!)

This week was Bright Star and honestly I didn't think I was going to like it... so wrong!! I loved it! It just made lots of sense to me and was the easiest for me so far, I would definitely use this in the future. The only thing that sort of annoyed me was getting the lines an equal distance apart from each other so that the spaces between the lines were even but really I'm pretty sure fmq isn't about being perfect and it would maybe look too 'done' if it was (yeah, totally just telling myself that but don't really believe it!!).
Here's my effort from the front:


and the back:


I'm a happy fmqing bunny today!!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and Thank God It's Finished Friday, which seems to be having a house party this week ;)

On Monday I managed to finish the 'Dotty Simple Stripes Quilt' and it was given to my friend on Wednesday, happily she loved it :)



I'm linking up to TGIFF which is being hosted by the wonderful and brave Erin this week despite the fact that her sewing machine is kerplut :(  Go show her some love!




Also linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish it up Friday!

Even though my machine is working I have a confession! We've had lovely family come to stay so I've not done any sewing since Monday. What with all the lists I've been making and all the fun and frivolity round here there's been no time! Today, though, I was determined and got down to some fmq practice.

I'm linking up to the wonderful Fluffy Sheep Quilting for the Free Motion Friday. This week it's Slate Tiles, so here's my first attempt:



Not totally horrendous but no where near good! I started on the left (shocking) and got a bit better as I went on. If forgot to set my stitch to small so the length was all over the place, it's still so hard to stay consistent.
I'm also really bad at straight lines! See how these 'slates' looked more curvy at the corners?


I tried again and got them a little better:


Then I had a second attempt, this time my area was much smaller so the whole thing was a bit tricky but it's not totally awful:


There's still lots of room for improvement, clearly!!


I tried going much more slowly but I find this very difficult - I tend to race along!! Must resist the urge for speed!

The fluff I'm referring to in the title is not the sheepy kind (although I must admit I have a deep rooted fear of the little blighters - don't ask and NEVER baaaaa at me!) but the fluff in my machine. Inspired by Helen giving her machine some TLC over at Archie the Wonder Dog I thought, after having it for over eight years, I should give it a good clean - I know, I know, I'm very lazy!!
Here is the fluff monster:




Honestly, it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting but it's still pretty gross. Here's what I gathered:


Since I'm not sure he ever really reads this I'll share that this looks like what often accumulates in my husband's belly button!! Hahahahahaha!! *oh dear, I really hope he doesn't read it now!!*

The only thing I have managed to achieve quilting wise was some cutting for the Dead Simple QAL. Finally! As I was doing it I have fallen more in love with the palette:



Now I need to get to piecing, tonight me and A Boy Named Sue are going to get reacquainted!