Eurovision Quilters Bee - Block 1

September was the staring month for the other Quliting Bee I'm a member of.

Wen_ot (a.k.a. Wendy) was the first to go and as she's from Holland, wanted a Dutchman's Puzzle block.

I took a great big gulp when I saw this as still being a bit of a beginner there seemed a great deal of accuracy needed. I started off on the wrong foot by cutting my first rectangle too small, so from then on everything was measured at least 4 times before my rotary cutter got any where near the fabric!!

In the end it wasn't as bad as I imagined it was going to be and I did feel quite proud of myself.

Due to the error above, I didn't have quite enough fabric left to finish a second block but I did as much as I could and Wendy can add the last sail herself.

As it seemed such a waste to throw away the cut off bits (technical phrase!!), I turned them into half triangle squares and had enough to make a third pinwheel-esque block.

October's fabrics have arrived so you'll have to come back to check them out.

I'm swimming the English Channel ...

... well not literally, but definately theoretically.



I've needed to get into shape for a good few years now, and when I saw the Aspire Channel Swim, I knew this was an opportunity to good to pass by.





The idea is to swim the distance of the English Channel (22 miles or 35400 metres) over 12 weeks (14th September to 6th December). This is a sponsored swim and all money raised goes to helping people suffering from spinal cord injuries.


My local pool is 25 metres in length so I need to swim 1416 lengths. If I swim 3 times a week, that equates to 40 lengths per visit.


This morning I got my bag packed, and headed off to the pool after I dropped DD off at school. As it has been a while since I've done much more than paddle about in the shallow end, I took it easy and completed 30 lengths in around 40 minutes which I didn't think was bad!


Apart from yawning a fair bit this afternoon, I don't - at present - have any aches and pains. I plan to go again tomorrow and Thursday, so I'll keep you updated weekly as to how I'm progressing.


If you'd like to sponsor me, the link to use is below.

http://www.justgiving.com/Leah-Day/

The Big Day Arrived

Today was the day that my little girl started Primary School.

She left pre-school a whole 10 weeks ago when we moved house - so we both have been climbing the walls a little. There is only so much soft play that a girl can take!!

We bought her shoes (black patent) and got her hair cut last week, and I finishing sewing on the last of her clothes name labels yesterday.

So this morning, after a good breakfast, she got dressed in her new uniform.

We headed off to school for the alloted time and met with the headteacher first. After H showed off writing her name we went round to her classrooom. They staggered everybody's entrances so that the children joined the class one by one, which I assume is no make it less scary for them as well as treating them all as individuals.

She waved us off with a wave and not much of a backward glance.

When I collected her 6 hours later, she presented us with her first artistic creation. She even told me she had eaten some potato for lunch. Not a big deal I hear you all say but she's the only child I know that doesn't really like chips/fries!!

She likes school so much she wants to go back not only tomorrow but every day. Phew. Thank goodness for that.

And as an extra, her older brother starts 6th Form College tomorrow!!

Doll Quilt Swap 7 (DQS7) Revealed

I was provided with a little info about my secret swap partner for DQS7. But what interested me the most was that she has "a little helper" at home - who loves fairies!!

I picked out my fabrics (the easy part) - but what to do with them?? (the hard part). The deadline was drawing near, and still I hadn't decided on a design until at last my late night blog/Flickr-hopping came to my rescue - and not for the first time!!

I decided upon a Disappearing Nine Patch pattern, and fussy cut the main fabrics. I made the quilt 3 patches wide by 4 long - each patch of the block measured 4" when finished.

I had some scraps left so after sewing them in a long strip, used this down the backing of the quilt, accompanied by strips of 2 butterfly fabrics and the fabric I'd chosen for the binding.

For the quilting I used a mix of straight-line in the ditch and a wavy-line.

Lastly I made a little written label using of all things the Laundry Pen I bought to write DD's name on her school uniform!!

I had 4 blocks left over and what do you need to accompany a doll's quilt? A pillow of course!!

It is now heading west and I hope the little lady it's for loves it.

Please forgive the pictures - I decided to be all arty and photograph it on my washing line - but it was almost a Force 10 in the garden!!

Scrappy Christmas Blocks

Remember how in this post, I mentioned the Scrappy Christmas Quilt Block Swap? Well I finished my blocks and they have been posted off to my 3 swap partners in the good US of A.

For the centres I used little squares that featured Christmas fairies.

For the logs, I used the same 7 fabrics throughout. A star pattern with 3 different coloured backgrounds - white, red or green, 2 plains - red or green, and 2 with a tiny gold spot on either a red or a green background.

I placed fabrics in alternating rings of colour - which started in the middle with either the red or the green. The white star fabric was used in every round and which travelled around the block in a spiral.

I hope that my partners like them. I'm either going to use the blocks I receive to make a table runner, or maybe a tree skirt.