Bank holiday sewing...

Yes, I have been sewing... but as so often happens, just too busy, and some secret bits, so it does not get itself up here!

 The last of my Lazy Bums Flying geese has got itself started... This is for Laurie, and will need a few more to go with it.  She asked for a grey, low volume background and bright colours against it.  So, here is the first of four 6" blocks.

Then, we have the fat Stash Brit Bee. It is DD1's month this time, and she has kept it simple. Log cabins, with a good red centre, and low volume on two sides, and cheery brights on the other two sides. Some low volume strips were sent, and one bright, and the centre square, the rest to come from stash.

 A second block whizzed up in next to no time..











 It will be a bright and cheery quilt when she gets it all together.





















And the big event happened yesterday. We had a tutu bodice sew-in.
Our lovely teacher had some tutu bases to use, but wanted pretty bodices to make the girls feel special and different. There were three of us, but four tutus, so, as it was a learning day as much as anything we played with fabric and selected what seemed suitable for three of them, and we each made one. Some fabric was brought, some came from my stash. And the effect of some fabrics is very different depending what lies below...

so this red organza looks delicate and pretty over white, but quite different over a red backing. Quite solid, really.

and is a pig to sew... but enough of that! we did not use that one this time.

 This delicate printed sheer fabric was mounted over a pink, and again, is a bit of a trial to sew, as it stretches in it's own fashion, and slips, but can be tamed with a wee bit of patience and an overlocker!
 
 My poor old overlocker is seeing plenty of use, and I trust it will go on providing its great, if temperamental, service...

 Elaine was an overlocker newbie, but within seconds she was confident, and got all her pieces neat and ready to go in short order.


between the three of us we used four machines... including my elderly Singer, which came out of retirement to fill that gap...

And she sewed the gold ribbon at the bottom of the net...

She has made a beautiful job there... Just hope these actually come near fitting- Having no child to fit on is a problem, as I do not finish edges before fitting usually. but hey, It was as much an exercise in how as anything else...

'I really made it!'

Yes, it will need trimming yet, but, the basic is there!


and both new to boning as well!

And, yes, I made this one. But then, I have done a few before...

In the middle of all this we had lunch- just quiche and salad, and then stopped for tea and cream cakes in the afternoon.... I had fun, and I hope the other two did as well, .... and, just perhaps, next time, I may have someone else doing tutus with me....

June bees

Ok, we are now well into June. And bee blocks to be made. When do you sew best? and do you have sewing clothes that work better than others?

It seems I sew best in nightwear. Perhaps the relaxed feel is what gets me going? Do not fret, Fat Quarterly Retreat folk- I will get dressed for that!

Anyway, I was up a tad early this morning. For reasons best not discussed here. And I had blocks to do. So I did one. It went really smoothly, and was a dream to put together. About an hour after I got up, I was back to bed, and off to the land of Nod.

This block is for the lovely Lynz , who wanted an improv log cabin style block. She provided a set of solids, and asked us to put in a little bit of our own, that would go with her solids.
To tell the truth, this block slightly frightened me. Yes, I know you do not get much more straightforward than a log cabin, but I find they do not always behave for me. I think this one behaved quite nicely, thank you!

This is now packed up, ready to post, Just hasn't quite made it to the PO yet!








Not quite the same story with the Stash bee block!  We had been asked to do this monster!

Nataki wants blocks which are either colour graded, or same colour blocks. Blue green yellow was one of the preferred options, with Kona black as the background. This one took me about 5 1/2 hours to do. No, it was not difficult, just fiddly and time consuming.
The instructions include a template, to cut the 45 degree  sections. I am afraid I took a shortcut on that. I have a 45/ 90 creative grids rule, and I put the PDF template on my computer screen checked the inch square was an inch ( it wasn't, I had to shrink it a bit) and marked the alignment on my rule with a sharpie.  I was then able to just use my rules and cut to size without the template. It ends up 17 1/2 " square.

It is done now, and if I do not do another one, it will be soon enough!

Effective though, now it is done!


And again, a small garden update, my favourite flower, I think,

This lovely lady opened yesterday, and makes me smile whenever I look out to see her. 

Wonky February starts

The stash bee queen for February has called for her blocks. She wanted wonky blocks, one each of a log cabin and a star. I think I am not alone in fnding wonky difficult at times. Apart from anything else, the frugal bit of me hates to cut off that seam at an angle, and screams 'you can't waste that bit! Make it straight, it is so much more economical' .

But, as you can see, I have managed a wonky star, and most of my log cabin is wonky. Ish. Sort of. It will have to do.

 Joining in the wonky theme. An amaryllis. Yes, I know, they are not called that any more. There was a name change. But that is what it was when I was little, so I shall still call it that. But an amaryllis with a wonk!

Why is it wonky?

Normally you would suppose I had it with that bud toward the window.

But just look at the other side.

 You can just about see, the bud the other side, is trying to grow wonky the other way....


I think I got a wonky amaryllis!












 Signs of spring are starting. First primroses, and the very first snowdrops are making their presence felt in the garden.





We were out for an hour today, pruning and chopping- maybe a little early, but the day was clement, and no guarantee of another such day in the next week or so, so we filled the 'green' bin, and then some. And called a halt once that was done.











And this is for my daughters. She only wants some more food! Poor half starved little Genny cat!

Hello!

Ok I already have a blog, so why start again? I suppose the other one was really started for the purpose of recording the garden, but it spread into sewing. I thought I could do with a separate place for sewing stuff. So this is it.

I started watching Amanda at crazymomquilts last autumn, and this year I thought I would be really daft and try out the skill builder at Sewn. I am going to have to work a lot of stuff out now, as I will need to learn how to add addresses and buttons to the blog. It will be good practise!
So all those blocks you see come from the skill builder.
http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com
There is a nice button on this site to add to say I am trying to participate but I have yet to work that one out!So I am also going to put in my ha'porth for some giveaways, you never know someone has to be lucky!