With a little help from my friends......

Over the last couple of weeks I have become addicted to stripping like many others in blogland at the moment.  It started when I joined in with the No Strings Attached Challenge hosted by Loft Creations.  I have almost finished my first quilt but got distracted when a special person who is getting married this year fell in love with it.  I decided to start one for her as the perfect wedding pressie. I worked out I would need over 160 squares and after raiding my own large stash I wanted a bit more variety so put out a call for help on the SSC - Did anyone fancy doing a 'strip swap'??

All of the lovely ladies below came up trumps to help me and little strip parcels were exchanged.

I added a few red strips along the way, but here are the special squares with the swapped strips

these 4 below are from Boysmum3, but somehow they lost the label when I took the photos!

I have labeled the squares on the back at the moment and need to think of a way to ensure the recipient knows who they are from

I had lots of extra strips so mixed them up with my own for the other blocks

I love the way that all the fabric is different but somehow it all works together.

So a big thank you to everyone on the SSC for sending the strips, I hope you have as much fun with your little swap parcels as I did with mine!

If anyone in blogland wants to join in with the strip swap just leave me a comment below.

Tea cup candles

I have been buying lots of pretty tea cups and saucers from charity shops for some time now in preparation of my darling step daughter getting married.  She has booked the date in September this year, so now I need to think about how to turn some of the pretty cups into candles.

Have any of you lovely bloggers done this before? - would love any hints or tips please.  Suggestions on buying the supplies online would also be great.  I have been told that Soy wax is the best to use as it does not get so hot, the last thing i want is a pretty cup cracking and leaking wax over the table!

Work In Progress

After working over most of Christmas I just managed to get 6 days off in a row. Unfortunately the snow meant that some of the planned activities could not take place, but that meant I did lots of sewing. My Mum has been staying with us since we had 18 inches of snow and lost power several times, so she has been knitting and I have been having patchwork fun!.

The hexey quilt top is almost finished - I ended up having to use cushioned plasters on my fingers as all that hand sewing made them really sore (wish I could use a thimble!)


Its a real mix of vintage finds, Cath samples, and stash fabric including some Laura Ashley fabric from when I was patchwork crazy in the 80's

Each patch has a memory attached to it, some from swap parcels, bits friends have given to me and even a couple of bits from old dresses when I was a child.

Just a few more bits to add at the edge and then it will get its backing, wadding and binding

I must be mad as this is going on the sofa for the DOG to sit on!!

Work in the extension has stopped whilst we are waiting for a bit of the bathroom to be delivered - its been over 3 months now since we ordered it - Bathstore.com do not get any votes from me for customer service.

However I have been using the new bedroom as a sewing room extension and laying out curtains I am making. I had collected lots of lovely vintage floral fabric and old curtains but they were all too small for the new windows, so with a bit of Cath and some cream linen thrown in they have become patchwork curtains

Still a work in progress but you get the idea - this is just one half of a pair and each patch is 18 inches square

The landing connecting the extension is almost finished, just need to stain and wax the floorboards to match the rest.

And the on suite to the new master bedroom is usable but has no door on it!

Need to find a nice pair of mirrors to go over the vanity unit - wish I could find another one like this old French one I picked up years ago............

So if that was not enough works in progress i started another quilt yesterday. I have signed up to a lovely challenge called 'no strings attached' - if you want to join in click on the link on the right of my blog - it is open until the 15th Jan. a couple of ladies from the SCC have joined me on this so it will be fun to compare progress.

What fun I have had sorting through all my fabric and it is so lovely to use the scraps that have have never thrown out.

Colour wise I really have used a bit of everything, but to provide some unity I have included red on every patch

The blocks still need to be squared off, but I LOVE the way it is looking. It grows so fast compared to the hand sewn hexeys - I made 30 7 inch squares yesterday. They will get trimmed to 6 1/2 inches and once sewn will be 6 inch patches.

its a great mix of vintage and new again

Hope the snow is not causing you too many issues, it is starting to thaw here, although this brings its own problems as we have a split pipe on the family farm that is now gushing water, but at least the milk should be collected from the farm today, as my brother has had to throw it down the drain as we have not had it collected for 4 days. So sad that he works so hard on the farm and then has to throw away one of the main incomes - he is not even allowed to give it away!.

TTFN

MM

Happy New Year

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and the New Year brings you everything you dream of.

I wanted to share these images with you before Christmas but time ran away from me. They are from my mothers scrapbook created almost 80 years ago - enjoy xx

Let me know your favourite image xx

Bargain Hunt - Monday

If you have access to BBC1 tomorrow at 12.15 and you want a giggle at my expense you may 'know' one of the contestants!

Getting crafty again

Hello Lovely blog followers, I hope you have stuck with me whilst I have been busy working?

I finally managed to get back into my workroom over the weekend, its still a work in progress with floorboards still to be screwed down and a new storage unit to be built, but I thought you would like to have a look through the new window

I have had a few projects that I wanted to get underway and fancied one that used lots of fabric scraps (am I the only person who NEVER throws scraps away no matter how tiny!?) it was great to get delve into fabric that i had to pack away months ago

i used a real mix, a little bit of Cath, some spotty that came from Australia, some of my vintage Laura Ashley, and lots of vintage bits

Stitched them all together and created some fabric stars for the Christmas tree

I also raided the button tin and made a few wire hearts.

The inspiration for the stars came from here

I got a bit carried away with the pictures!

Another plan that I had come up with some time ago finally got started. I can not resit collecting old fabric and when I visited CTC a while ago i picked up this small table cloth.

It was passed its best with a few holes and a couple of stains that I could not get out, but I felt the lovely printed flowers deserved a second chance.

So I raided the ric rac box, got the scissors out and after a wizz on the machine I came up with these lavender and wheat drawer fresheners

Some are backed with French vintage ticking and the others with some upcycled gingham

They are extra special as they are filled with lavender I grew in the garden and wheat my brother grew on the farm. I love to give old fabric a new life - I like to think I "add value by design" - or I may just be a really good horder!

As for the building work, it is still not finished - we are 3 weeks over the original completion date and will be lucky if it gets finished before Christmas - Henry belongs to the builders but he is like one of the family now as he lives in the hall and I talk to him every day :-)

TTFN

Mitty xx