I seem to be in bag making mode.

I really enjoyed making this little bag yesterday morning before work. I used my seam guide for the first time to quilt lines accross the bag rather than meander all over it.

I started at one end and worked my way along the length. Making forst narrow then wide stripes and back to narrow. On the whole I'm rather pleased with what I did.

I folded my quilted piece in half, then stitched diagonally from the bottom to the top before 'cutting the corners' to make a smaller base.
When I turned it out here's what I had. I used the outer fabric to self bind around the rim and stitched on some handles.
Which I adorned with buttons. I bought a bag pattern the other day. I'm beginning to wonder why. The fabrics used for this one are some of those I've recieved from my scrappy club.

Have a great day.

Goodies to play with

Yay! Some of my goodies have arrived. Including one I'd forgotten about! LOL

First up the fabrics I ordered from a shop here in GB. DS1 said he wanted a nautical quilt. I've played about with a few ideas and didn't really settle on anything, so decided to get some fabric and kind of force myself to make a decision. I'm still not decided, but my options have narrowed now that I have some fabrics.

In the lower half of this picture you can see two 'coffee and cream' charm packs, they are the beginnings of another plan don't hold your breat though, it may take a while. And finally a 'special stash pack' all in blues. I know it doesn't look it in this picture, but that batik is blue! That was a freebie cause I spent so much money.

Next up is a little roll of fat eigths, all in pretty spring yellows and greens. This is the one I'd forgotten I'd ordered. I have a distinct lack of these colours in my drawers, plus I have lots of lovely fabrics which I just had to have, but nothing that will blend with them as I discovered when I went looking to make a 'Spring' quilt.

I thought I had uploaded three pictures? Hmm, well you know me and pictures. LOL I'll save the last one for another day. I'm off to play.

Happy stitching.

Lots of news and pictures.

OK, so I've done it again and all of my pictures have uploaded willy nilly! I really have to practice at getting my pictures sorted out.

Yesterday was rather eventful and I took loads of pictures, here they are .......... in no particular order!

I finished the binding on the Scrappy Dresden plate. Here it is modeling on Grandads chair. Some of you may remember Grandads chair from an earlier post. You'll meet it again, very soon.

Next up is my niece Lala! She came to visit, she asked if she could come as she had not seen my new house. She used to visit with me a lot but we've not spent much time together since she started at school in September. Is that the toothiest smile you have ever seen? She was very proud to show off her tidy writing. Thats not her real name I hasten to add, I'm not sure how it came about, but it's a nick name which has stuck.

Lala is my sister Moyas little girl. You remember Moya, she's the one who collects huge themed piles of fabrics, like 20 sunflower fabrics or 25 Russian Doll fabrics! Yep, she brought them all to see me! I wonder why?

I think she was hoping I would inspire her. Huh! Instead of inspiration she found yet more Russian Doll fabric on Ebay. My internet connection is faster than hers, so I think really she comes to browse, while I get on with my sewing! LOL We do have an S&B sometimes though. LOL I have to say I really wasn't inspired and was not much help to her. I'm sure she will think of something.

I promised you I'd get back to Grandads chair, and here it is. It struck me yesterday that although I had told you the story behind the chair, I had not actually shown the chair behind the quilt.

It's a very comfortable seat to be in, especially when my back is sore, easy to get out of too at those times. I think thats why dad likes it too, aside from the obvious. Now it has two small lap quilts adorning it. I'm sure there will be more.

Finally, I've made another bag. While I was sorting strips for the binding on the little Dresden quilt I came across the strips left over from that log cabin quilt I made. I had cut far too many and had stashed them away for 'another day'. Well their day came. I fastened them all together like this. (Sorry these pics are a bit dark, I hadn't realised how dismal yesterday was.)

Then I tidied the edges and closed up the bottom and sides, I made a tuck at each end of the bottom. I also made a lining and put in a little wadding, though I didn't quilt it.

I then bound the top, like the layers of a quilt and added tabs to hold some handles. The ticket peeking out of the bottom of the tab is my 'made with love by Loulee' ticket.
Voila!! One shopping bag for our baby sister.

And now I don't know what to do with myself. Lisa suggested I do a tutorial for my little book bag. I'm waiting on 3 parcels to come from the States, and another parcel from the UK mainland. I'm itching to get on with all of the things which are in said parcels, but not really interested in anything which is to hand. Isn't that just typical?

I could always do some cross stitch. LOL I keep threatening to do some of that, but never seem to manage more than a few stitches. I'm sure I'll think of something. Have a great day all.

Two things.

Phew! I got my life back. LOL Things have been pretty busy here for a few days, this is the first chanceI've had to get near anything quilty. I did manage a quick blast through my bloglines and do a bit of reading, but no time to stop and comment. The Easter weekend meant that Hunney was off work and we've had visitors everyday.

So, onto things quilty.
The Dresden plates got this far on Thursday, then stopped. I'm not overjoyed with my efforts at quilting this one, but it will do. The sashing went on ok, I'm pleased with myself for that much, but the corner stone which was supposed to be in the centre......... Hmm, see the blob which is there instead? It speaks volumes. LOL Never mind.
I have some strips of fabric out ready to start binding this today. Hunney thinks I could do something really fancy with the binding, personally I reckon I'm better off just sticking to my scrappy idea.
Here's a pic of my not quite perfect quilting, at least it's better than my last two efforts. :-)
I also stitched in the ditch along the sashing and around the blob!

Finally an appeal. Does anyone know what this fabric is called and where my sister might find some? I had a fat quarter, don't know where from. We've trawled through all of my usual haunts and can't find it anywhere.
You can just about see on this pic that there is a very fine glitter over the fabric. It really is a very pretty.

I'm off to put my binding together and attach it, then I can watch a movie this afternoon while I close it up.

Have a great day.

Maxine, if you're reading this. Come back tomorrow!

Maxine is my penpal. I'm not sure if she reads my blog or not. I have invited her to do so several times, but........................

Anyway, on to the quilty stuff. I spent yesterday morning procrastinating, and doing nothing very much. After lunch I got my backside into gear and started producing. In true Loulee style I've uploaded my pictures in reverse order, so these first pics are from the evenings efforts.

I had a sort through my scrap basket and was wondering what I could use all these bits for, I thought about chopping them all into squares as I've seen some of you out there in blogland do.

Then I thought if I do that I can only ever make scrappy square or triangle based quilts, so I started to play about and came up with these!

The white background squares were a find next door in the Hospice shop. Two packs of 12 mens white cotton handkerchiefs. Just great I thought. The piece of pink lying underneath is auditioning as sashing, there's just enough for that, I'll have to find something else for borders though and I've already sorted some strips for binding. Maybe it doesn't need a border? I'll see how it feels later once I've got it all together. There is still loads in the scrap basket, and I even managed to keep some useable sized scraps from these scraps! LOL

Now for the bit Maxine is not allowed to see. LOL It's her birthday soon, and this little number will be on it's way to her later today.

I took two fat quarters, and chopped them around a bit. Added a little medium weight interfacing and some rickrack.

And came up with a little reversible grocery / book bag.
To be honest it wouldn't hold much in the way of groceries, so I think I'll call it a book bag.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I may make some more of these and experiment with a larger size.

I'm outta here, got to go to the post office.

Have a great day.

A Quilt for Grandads Chair

Thanks for your kind comments and ideas yesterday. I got on and started quilting as soon as I'd blogged though, or I would certainly have tried something different.

I meandered around in alternate squares, and it actually looks ok. I'm rather pleased with myself, this is the smalllest meander I've done to date.

It looks OK that is, so long as I don't try to lay it flat! LOL There is lots of extra fabric and wadding that has been pushed to the edges. So I haven't quilted the border at all, I just left that bit alone. I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that quilts shrink when they are quilted, seems mine has grown as I'm sure I had it good and flat before I bound it!
Anyway, here it is on Grandads chair, it looked lonely and bare sat in the corner on it's own, now it's bright and cheerful.

The chair has a story too. My fathers mother died while Dad was still a young boy. So one of my aunts stayed at home when she married and looked after Grandad and helped to bring up the younger children. Once Grandad had retired from his work he was lonely at home. It was not so bad in the warmer months when he could get out to work in the garden, but in the winter and later when he got too old even for that he sought out Auntys company, she would invariably be in the kitchen busy washing or baking and cooking. She said Grandad made the place look untidy hovering in the corner by the door. She hated to see him at the table empty handed, but couldn't keep on plying him with tea and cakes. So, she bought this chair, it sat in his corner with a small shelf built in beside it for his cuppa. I don't really remember Grandad, to me he is a shadowy old man who was sat on the swing, and I was too shy to ask him to move, when I came back with my big cousin he had gone. That was the one and only time I met him. When Grandad passed away my Dad brought this chair to our house and in time it has become mine. Now my Dad likes to sit in it here at my house and keep me company while I potter about in my kitchen.

Today I wish you Happy Memories.

WHAT was I thinking?

I must have been away on another planet when I was doing this. Take a look at this pic and tell me whats wrong here.

How did I manage to bind it without quilting it first? DOH! It's thrown together with charms from Modas Garden Party collection and some other bits and pieces. I mean thrown, the charms don't match up nicely at all, but I'm not worried about that, nor am I concerned that one of the border pieces had to be pieced. How the hell did I manage to bind it without quilting it? Well I'm not unpicking it! So I'll be quilting it today, goodness knows what I'll end up with. Wish me luck. LOL

Here's how far 'Trailing Hearts Two' got. I'm waiting on some more of that red I used for the narrow inner border. I've quilted as I went on this one, so I'll be cool to just get on and bind it.

I have another pack of Garden Party charms and I have off cuts from the trailing hearts fabrics, I've been thinking of making some place mats with those. But first I have to quilt the already bound quilt! Have I asked How I managed to do that?

Happy stitching.

A field of sunflowers.

I've ground to a halt on my Trailing Hearts Two quilt, I ran out of red for the binding, so while I wait for that to arrive I'm getting on with something else. I'll show off my project another day! Yesterday my dear sister Moya was here...........

Some of you may remember she has a passion for sunflowers, and had collected just about every sunflower fabric in the known quilt world. She turned all of those fabrics into a Turning Twenty quilt. There is a pic of the top here. Note hers is full size, but I chickened out and only turned nine! LOL

She decided to back it with fleece rather than have a wadding and a backing. We shopped about all over the place and eventually she settled on half in dark bottle green and half in bright sunflower yellow. His and hers! LOL Then she started to quilt it, she was using a sunflower template, but was having such difficulties she gave up and threw it in the cupboard for a while. Now it's been unpicked and is once again on the go. She has a new template and is working in hand with one of my old loose embroidery hoops!

Pictures!

In some places she plans to tie the two layers together with sunflower buttons. She has hundreds!

Here's the new template, the yellow thread shows up well on this black fabric, but she has had problems finding pens and pencils which show up on ALL the fabrics, she has quite an assortment of those now.

So rather than pens and pencils she has switched to this stuff! She did say what it's called, I even looked at the packet and read the instructions! But can I remember what it's called! LOL It's a soluble stabilizer which she draws on then after stitching, she can tear or wash away. The template she is using is going all around the outside edge of the quilt. (P.S. By the power of the www I found and name and a link! )
Here is just half of the quilt, there is not enough room to spread it all out and still have room to work around it. How she managed to plan the placing of her blocks is beyond me, her place is small compared to here!

You can just see the dark green of 'his' half of the quilt peeking out here at the bottom.

A rare pic of Moya, she thought I was after close ups of buttons! Shhh, don't tell her.

Well, thats our news! Happy stitching.

Work in Progress

As promised, pics of my latest project.

I'm playing around with the Trailing Hearts Pattern. I've added some extra stitchery to it.

It's difficult to see on any of the pics I've taken, but the strange lobster claw bits are supposed to be buds and they have pink stitching to, to depict the beginnings of flowers.

I'm once again using an old towel as batting and I'm quilting as I go. Here I've stitched through all three layers around the large heart in the centre and put on the first border.

A quick press then I started making a pieced border of 4 inch squares, they do sound big, but they suit the design, I have three of them stitched on, but hey guess what? One of them is upside down. So before I can do anything else today I'll have to rip, rip, rip. I have fabric here for another solid border then a lovely red binding. I hope to get this one finished tomorrow.

Happy Stitching.

Show me yours, I'll show you mine!

I've seen various games and challanges of this nature lately. I couldn't resist joning in.

Here's my pin cushion, little mousey. My penpal Maxine made this little guy for me, he was a birthday gift last year, prior to his arrival, I just tucked pins in my mouth!


Heres our delightful old iron. I like it cause it has a large reservoir and is good and heavy. The heel is pretty shonkey these days and Hunney has replaced the cable for me because it was frayed and getting dangerous. But I still love it. I really wouldn't like to guess at how old it is.
Hunney nearly snorted coffee down his nose when I told him why I was uploading a picture of our iron to my blog acount! LOL

And finally my ironing board. It's about 7 years old and has two covers which I change about twice a year. They are washable so off they come. Nothing very remarkable.

Well there you go, a peek at my tools! I enjoyed the exercise to be honest, seeing some of the ironing boards out there in blog land made me feel pretty good about mine. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves her old iron. And where would we be without our cute pin cushions.

On to quilty things. I'm working on another lap quilt for in our sitting room, this one will be a bit special though. Remember this quilt? Well I've played about with the pattern a wee bit and enlarged the thing. It's being produced in reds, pinks and creams. Pics soon.

Another Finish.

No not me!! My sister has finally finished her Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

It's taken a while because when she tried to quilt it things went a bit wrong and she had to do a lot of unpicking, which resulted in one or two holes in the fabric. Needeless to say, Sue sat in the cupboard for a while.


Eventually rather than being quilted this one was tied with little silver butterflies at the corners of the preprinted Sue blocks. On the second block down on the right there are two tiny Sues and a butterfly, they are patches over the holes. Moya may not love it any more, but her daughters do and the pair are arguing over who gets it.

We also had a day out yesterday, we visited a fairly new sewing shop here on the island. It was like an Aladdins cave, all kinds of goodies hidden away, but very expensive! I'll stick to shopping on the WWW I think.

I've decided the colours on my stitchery are all wrong, so I've abandoned that for the time being, I'm off now to have a dig in my thread box and see if I can make some better choices.

Have a great day.

A finished article.

Finally!! Boy have I had the run around today.

First off I couldn't get my picture manager to play! Had to Ctrl, Alt,Del several times as it was freezing up the puter, then I had to crash my puter cause nothing was working, it wouldn't even shut down! Hmm, I'll have to set Hunney onto this thing.

Then to add insult to injury, when I finally get things running smoothly my service provider has a go slow!

Well, I'm here now, I've managed to upload pictures of my completed quilt. If you remember I was using some fabrics I recieved from a scrappy club. I turned them into a hit and miss top, with an old towel for wadding. I haven't quilted this one, I simply sewed all the layers together along with the binding. I'm going to 'tie' it when I find the right buttons, I know I have them, somewhere, problem is a lot of my stash is still lurking in boxes.

I remember seeing a pattern that stuffed the binding, so I thought I'd give that a try this time.



I don't think I'll be doing it again, but it is nice to experiment, and well, you don't know until you try do you?

Here is the almost finished thing, (still not tied,) on the back of one of the sofas.


This photo really doesn't do it justice, it fits very nicely into the room, I think todays beautiful sunshine is rather spoiling this picture.

On to other things, you know me, I don't hang around.

I have a stitchery on the go, I'll show that once there is a bit more than a green stem!
I also have a hankering to do a little of my cross stitch, maybe I'll get to that today or tomorrow. I love working shifts and weekends, it means I have so much time at home alone. Peace and quiet to just get on a do my thing.

I ordered some fabric for the second lap quilt, It's going to be a bit different, I feel some more applique coming on, though it will also be layered with an old towel.

Hmm, who is shouting the loudest?