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Recently, my sister-in-law showed me a tin full of blocks that her grandmother had sewn many years ago. The pieces were all cut with scissors and either pieced by hand or by machine. The pattern pieces were from a newspaper. My sister-in-law had no clue what to do with them all and for years had been holding on to them. And then – you probably guessed it – I offered to do something with them. Little did I know what I was getting myself into! None of the blocks laid flat.

The sizes of the pieces varied. I knew there was no ...

Since the nights are light and none of my kids are home just now I have been working long hours on my Circles quilt. The deadline for the FoQ competition entry is midnight on Monday and the quilt has to be finished and sent to the show by about July 24th. 

Suddenly I needed to get it going and order the backing fabric and decide on further embellishments. I had to decide on a name, write an artist statement, list materials and techniques, declare the size, and upload a photo – all on an unfinished quilt. 

I used my industrial heat ...

Almost my whole week was spent stitching around a seemingly never ending supply of circles. Some of the circle-squares had 8 processes – reverse appliqué circles, stick silver lame to reverse (some with ricrac), blanket stitch around the silver circles, sew in thread tails, cut and heat press coloured and metallic rings, zig-zag or triple stitch around the coloured rings, sew in thread tails, stitch around the big zig-zag rings twice with silver thread, kantha-style stitching around many circles. Finally they can be carefully pressed and trimmed, then pieced together. 

The next dilemma is whether to add blue sashing as “punctuation ...

My wonderful blue fridge conked out after 26 years and I got fed up with traipsing across to the garage every time I wanted milk so I ordered a new, orange one. It is NOT the same. I guess I will get used to it eventually but it has reminded me that the last time I painted the kitchen was 23 years ago. I really ought to freshen it up but that will highlight the disgusting ceiling, covered in stains and cobwebs, and that is a job I do not wish to tackle until it collapses.

I had also considered ...

I made the long solo trip back from Norfolk on Monday, helped along by a packet of M&S giant chocolate buttons. I unloaded the car but still have not unpacked. Before I left I had prepared a customer quilt with a tight deadline so I had to get straight on with it the next day. It was a hexagon quilt that 2 sisters had completed for their 92 year old Mother. The layout was unusual because instead of a simple flower-garden layout, it had random patches of colour as it was actually a herbaceous border, which I thought was ...

The trouble with having a phobia about Maths is that I can waste a lot off time trying to work out a simple problem. I wanted to cut out a lot of concentric circles in t-shirt vinyl that were either ¼” or ½” wide but I had to convert them to decimals and factor in gaps. Long story short – I tried to come up with a new set of circles, even though I already had a perfectly good set of circles because as usual, I was over complicating matters. I eventually spent a whole day cutting out a life-time supply ...

As well as dealing with admin and having the girls home for part of this week, I got a customer quilt done, joined the Caravan Club, and worked on sample blocks for the quilt that I might make next. 

I am still not set on exactly what it will entail. I think it will probably feature silver only centre circles. I have not yet decided whether to stick to one size or whether to make smaller 4-patches. I don’t know whether to keep complementary colours for each block or allow a rainbow of coloured rings. I could also stack ...

Ha Ha! Not Possible! But I do love a scrappy quilt. Recently, I pulled my two inch scrappy squares and then cut white two inch squares. I saw this quilt on the internet years ago and unfortunately, have no one to credit it with. It is an easy pattern to follow from the picture I saved.

Not sewing every day these days, so it took a bit to finish it but was worth it! The backing is an Anna Maria Horner home dec weight and works perfectly for a scrappy. I wouldn’t piece with this weight, but it’s ...

What would you do with 2 weeks to go until an exhibition? Tackle the jobs that need doing OR suddenly decide that you need to make 12+m of over-the-top bunting to hang across the front of the stand? I had a few blocks left from Rainbow Warliors that I sewed together, some leftover squares that I screen-printed, some sequins and pompoms that I attached to bells nylon thread and then I “had to” make about 20 large pompoms from wool! The resulting bunting echoes the theme of Rainbow Warliors and is fabulous but worryingly heavy. I have visions of ...

I probably spend as much, if not more time, researching and messing about with Tech than I actually DO anything with it. I have become a serious Nerd about tripod ball heads, cold shoe mounts and “overhead rigs”. What this really means is suspending a camera above a table in order to get a birds-eye view of a project. The main issue is that even small cameras will weigh down articulated camera arms. My solution was to attach a straight arm to a pole clamped onto the table and use a tripod ball head to change the camera angle. 

I ...

I am back home after a quiet week in Norfolk where I spent some time settling Nella back into Uni life and taking my folks out for coffee. Time passes weirdly quickly without anything much happening there. I did some hand-stitching on my quilted coat pieces and some mending on my Mother’s 50+ year old Bernina Record. 

My sister asked me to help run up some haggis-style beanbags for her Cub Scout group. They are going to be used to play some sort of “catch” game on Burns Night. I made a prototype which passed muster so she did ...

It has been getting colder this week and we had a little snow. I felt justified in spending only a little time in my workshop then coming inside and watching a Christmas movie while I did something else in the afternoon.

I made a cut-out Scottie Christmas card one afternoon so I could make sure that all of my cards got posted early due to postal strikes in the UK.

I cut my crazy quilt into coat shaped pieces using a “Sew Me Something – Bianca” pattern. I have made this coat previously in boiled wool. I have been attempting to ...

December started with a flurry of activity. On Monday I went to Glasgow for Freya’s Masters graduation. The university looks rather like Hogwarts – all Freya needed was a cat and a pointy hat to look like Prof. Minerva McGonagall. It was a proud day – she worked hard on her Masters for two years as well as coping with a full-time job and covid restrictions that affected her studies.

I had two customer quilts on the go this week and since they were Christmas themed, I decided to put on some festive tunes and do some gift wrapping.  I knotted ...

Last Tuesday I went into Aberdeen to do some Christmas shopping but I was sorely disappointed. The pop-up makers’ shop that I wanted to browse was closed, the Christmas market was deserted, many shops had gone bust and everyone looked miserable. I went home lacking any festive spirit. I fared better with some of my online shopping although I do find I get easily distracted. I was looking for a simple hat with ear-flaps but came across an amazing octopus creation instead. 

My workshop is slowly drying out and seems to be less mildewy after I sprinkled the carpet with ...

I've been catching up on the two block-of-the-month programs that I signed up for at the LQS. Being gone for just a little over two weeks seems more like two months when it comes to catching up on what I missed while we were away! The Cream and Sugar class (left) required two more identical blocks for November and the Aspiring Stars class offered another block this month which I was able to

I've been catching up on the two block-of-the-month programs that I signed up for at the LQS. Being gone for just a little over two weeks seems more like two months when it comes to catching up on what I missed while we were away! The Cream and Sugar class (left) required two more identical blocks for November and the Aspiring Stars class offered another block this month which I was able to

There goes another week! Admittedly, most days are the same these days. The unseasonably warm autumn weather seems to be finished – there was a bit of a storm midweek which blew off the last of the leaves off the cherry trees which are now bare for winter. I was trying to make a video but the rain was hammering loudly on my workshop’s tin roof.

I did a couple of customer quilts, using a favourite pattern, “Stacked Snails” which looks like a modern Baptist Fan.

I came up with another project on the L890 overlocker / coverstitch machine. I fed ...