CHARM ABOUT YOU

drum roll please....


The winner of the Fugly Fabric Party 2 and the gorgeous fat quarter bundle of Blend Fabrics from Prints to Polka Dots is:


Number 4 - Amy of Crafty Shenanigans

Huge congratulations Amy! I have sent you an email :)

Thank you to all of you who linked up and everyone that played along, I hope you enjoyed the party.

I want to say a massive thank you to Claire from Prints to Polka Dots for sponsoring the giveaway and being so incredibly generous. Go and check out the shop! It has a great selection of haberdashery, precuts, patterns and the best bargain basement!

For those of you a little sore that you didn't win I'll be having a giveaway very soon as part of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day so stay tuned (does anyone say that anymore, I mean you don't tune into anything with digital do you?!!)

I've started quilting my Stained QAL quilt.

I sat and stared at it for a ridiculous length of time trying to decide how to quilt it. I had a nosey at the Flickr group to see what other folks had done. I contemplated straight lines, which I love but I was in the mood for something fancy!

I started quilting concentric circles, like I did on my Drunkard's Path QAL quilt.

Then I unpicked it.

It just didn't feel right.

The friend I'm quilting it for is an awesome guy, I've known him practically my whole life, he's also an amazingly talented comic artist and now journalist. I wanted to do something cool.

I just had a hunch there was something better...

So I turned to Leah Day's wonderful designs. I knew there was something in the back of my mind (but couldn't sort through all the crap to find it!!) and then I saw this design again...

'Broken Glass' fmq design by Leah Day source: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/day-54-broken-glass.html

I remembered reading that she'd been inspired by Marvel comics and the glass that always seems to get broken!!

This is so perfect, not only is my friend a comic book fan and artist but this is a Stained glass effect quilt top!

It just felt wonderful to have this combination! So I started, then I panicked that it just looked like a random mess of lines (some of it really does, I don't have her talent!!) but regardless I'm still in love with the notion of it and the texture it creates feels SO good!



I'm not doing this design in every panel, it would take forever and I'd probably end up hating it! Also I think it really does detract from the fabric because I've used a dark thread so I'm going to leave some of them plain and just quilt lines around the edges of a few panels in the sashing. I also want the quilt to have some movement!

I'm really pleased with the effect so far.

I've also decided that it will be called Shattered Stained Navy (AKA the SS Navy, thought I'd chuck a boat theme in there too randomly), ok Sarah?!


I better get back to quilting it...

Just before I do I have to tell you I was lucky this week :)

I won a great giveaway at Don't Call Me Betsy, a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks and I chose Elizabeth's wonderful Fabricland pattern! I'm so thrilled, she's uber talented and I'm sure I'll love making that great quilt and getting lots of inspiration! Thank you Elizabeth :)

I also just discovered that a won the first giveaway from the London Modern Quilt Guild Blog, a gorgeous bundle of Laura Gunn fabrics! I'm really excited to receive these, they look beautiful and my cogs are already whirring about what to do with them!

I kind of feel bad because I only entered after a blog post from Kelly, it feels like stealing??!!! That ever happened to you?!

To ease my troubled mind and if you're feeling a smidge jealous can I remind you that there's a heap of giveaways and swaps linked up to the Fugly Fabric Party and you can win some lovely fabric of your own from Prints To Polka Dots if you link a blog post, I'll stop harking on but...

source: http://flippistarchives.blogspot.co.uk/ by Professor Batty  - go look, you won't regret it!!

could I make a quick plea? Some of those fuglies are a bit lonely over at the party. I know you're all very busy but if you get a chance could you go and visit them and stop them being wallflowers?! If you win some of the fabric you could always use it in a charity quilt!

There are some great blogs linking up so pretty please take a second to visit the new links and you still have until Monday to link up a post to win the giveaway :)

Wednesday already?! **Warning this post contains swear words**

I didn't link up last week because of all the ill but we're all doing so much better and here's what I managed to do while sitting round the house over the past few days!

completed

- Rug. I finished up the kitchen rug I made using the Scramble Net piecing tutorial. The thing is I couldn't risk Hadley never talking to me, and it's just so pretty... so it's not going in the kitchen!! It's safely (??) in my son's bedroom.


This was the first time I used spray basting and I'm not that convinced, although I didn't see Judith's tutorial until later!! So I'll try again using that but for now I'm sticking with pins.

- Four pouches. I made these as parting gifts for some ladies whose group I'll no longer be part of (not sewing related). It was time to move on but hopefully they'll enjoy using these.


I was thrilled to discover that I had thread to match all of the different coloured zips so they all had nice coordinating top stitching!


And as a reminder not to take life too seriously or get stressed, here's the labels I included inside:


Now the swearing is out of the way, I also got some little makes done for the kids...

- Two tote bags. I followed this ridiculously easy tutorial to whip these up for the kids to carry around their favourite toys:


- Following on from all our silly cardboard creations, I thought they deserved something a little more robust. We're loving superheroes right now so I made these reversible capes. The boy has Superman and Batman, the girl has Superman(girl?!) and Wonderwoman:


I used this tutorial, I did make hers a little shorter because I was worried she might get herself caught up in it!! They love them. He even wore his when we went to Chester Zoo this weekend!


Don't worry they don't actually have child eating dinosaurs, there's just the best exhibition of robotic dinosaurs. It is really cool!

- Hexie Pin Cushion. I just adore this!!!


It is totally hand sewn but came together so much faster than you'd imagine. It's a great little storage basket too, so handy!

I used my precious DS scraps again from Deborah and Susan, thank you ladies :) I will think of your kindness each time I stick a pin in it!


There was a need for another pin cushion because I kept spilling pins out of my beautiful tray, well my sewing desk is a total mess still so it's not surprising. I used this tutorial, which is fabulous!


ongoing

- Stained QAL, the top's all done and this baby is basted, ready to quilt!!
My camera died and I'm charging the battery on my husband's. The late nights phone pics are not even worth showing so you'll have to wait until I'm done, sorry!

- Fat Quarterly Retreat swaps - I've got two more little stitchings to do and then some hand sewing. Here's some hexies ready for the tea towels:


I should get these done fairly quickly so hopefully I can show them finished very soon :)

no progress

- Retro Flowers, not even done cutting, I completely give up trying to actually quilt a long!

- Rose Star blocks, I feel sad this is still stalled

stats:
completed: 5 (technically 10 items!!)
new: 0
in progress: 4


If you haven't seen it yet the FUGLY FABRIC PARTY is in full swing!! I really should come up with a different name though because there's no fugly in sight! Just plenty of yummy fabric offerings.
The point is to pass on fabric to someone who'll love it and it would be great if you could dig deep and link up a post... I really want to see some horrors in there!! ;)

Check it out and go visit all the fab peeps sharing the (not so) Fugly! And keep checking back, the fabric is literally flying away!

A quick reminder of how to party Fugly style:

- Write a blog post and offer some Fugly (ugly, unwanted, unloved) fabric to swap or as a giveaway

- Please include the Fugly Fabric Party button in your post so people can come and join the fun! (you can grab the code over on the right)

- Link up ONE post below and then go and see what everyone else has to offer :)

- Blog, Tweet and Facebook about the party!

If you just came to look around and not link up, that's cool but for those of you that do there is an awesome giveaway up for grabs!

Just by linking up you will be in with a chance of winning this gorgeous bundle of fabrics from Prints to Polka Dots





I really hope you enjoy the party and please visit the other links, it's fun seeing people's fuglies and also a cool way to check out some other great blogs.

Are you sitting comfortably?... Then let the Fugly begin!