What a Clever Boy

All summer, August 27th has been marked on the calender. It was the date of my son's GCSE results. (For any of you not from the UK - these are exams taken at the end of Secondary School when 15/16yrs old).

Although he had achieved good marks in his Coursework, the final grades were also dependent upon how well he performed in his exams.

I don't know who was more nervous going to school to collect them - but we both took a deep breath and faced the music.

The outcome was that he passed all 11

• Mathematics - B
• English Literature - B
• Divinity - B
• Biology - C
• Chemistry - C
• Physics - C
• English Language - C
• Geography - C
• Design & Technology - C
• History - D
• French - D

They were great results, but not quite good enough though to let him stay and study his A'Levels at his current school (he needed 5 x B's). So after an afternoon of letting everything sink in - we plowed on with Plan B.

He will now be going to the local 6th Form College instead, and will be studying Biology, Chemistry, Psychology and Business Studies.

We are so very, very proud of him.

I'll leave you with a picture of the electric guitar he made for his D&T course. He used the neck and electrics from a second hand bought guitar but designed the shape and cut it from a block of wood and fitted all the fixings to it.

Meet Barry

In my last post, I gave you a sneeky peak of what I made for Blinking Flights Bug Swap.

Well now since the bugs have passed in mid air (to and from The Land of Oz!) and arrived safely I can now introduce you all to Barry.

Barry is both a spotty and a stripey bug!!


He has very unruly hair and a cheeky grin.

He likes Beer, Babes and the Beach. But dislikes Brocolli, Beards and Baseball.

TwoCheesePlease who was my swap partner sent me Penny.

By a weird coincidence she is both spotty and stripey too!!

I love her pigtails and glasses. She is also really cuddly as her back is made of fleece.

Her likes are the smell of old books, stationery and macaroons, but she has a dislike of windy days, crabs and brocolli!!

I really enjoyed making my bug and have agreed to make one for a special "ginger" lady.

A Heap of Bees, Swaps & Quilt-alongs.

The observant ones amongst you might have noticed that I have a few new buttons on my sidebar. These are all links to a new heap of bees, swaps and Quilt-alongs that I've joined.



In no particular order, I'll tell you a bit more about them.


I've joined another quilting bee called Eurovision Quilters.






We are a group of 18 ladies all based in Europe! We have members in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, and Norway. We are not all originally from these countries for it's a real eclectic mix. We start in September - so look out for future posts to see what we're up to.


As I enjoyed being part of DSQ6, I couldn't wait to join Doll Quilt Swap 7.







This is a secret swap in that we work on information provided, but our recipient won't know what they are getting until it lands on their doorstep!! I have a design in mind for what I'm making, so I'll be cracking on with it in the next couple of weeks.



Another exciting swap I've signed up for it the Scrappy Christmas Quilt Block Swap.






For this swap we are using Oh Fransson's Hedgerow Blocks Pattern but using Christmassy fabrics. We could sign up to make either 6 or 12 blocks (I chose 6). I will be sending 2 blocks each to 3 seperate people and will receive 6 blocks total in return. My idea is to turn them into a table runner.



I had planned to make my blocks this week but when I raided my stash I realised that I had 9 panels for making Fabric Advent Calenders but no fabric for making the blocks - but I've now got some on order.



One swap I have completed is Blinking Flights Bug Swap.






Blinking Flights makes really cute softie bugs and a group of us signed up to trial her pattern and tutorial and as a bonus get to receive a bug!! Mine has been sent to my swap partner and as I don't want to reveal too much before he arrives, here's just a sneaky peek. I will show more in a future post so you'll have to pop back.





The 3 remaining buttons are for Quilt-alongs. All of them have been going a while, but time has prevented me for partcipating to date - so they will all be works in progress for a while to come.

Firstly - Oh Fransson's Mod Sampler Quilt-along.

I shall be using a variety of rainbow coloured fabrics in my quilt, with black sashing, and backed with a rainbow mosaic stained glass effect fabric.

Secondly - Old Red Barn Co's Sew-along.

I was given a Hoffman Fabric Bali Pops Batik Jelly Roll last Christmas that I shall be using for the quilt top.

Lastly - is ComfortStitching's Half Hexagon Quilt-a-long.

I love the idea of making a traditional hexagon quilt but I would never ever have the patience to hand sew them together, so this is a great way of getting the effect without the work!! I haven't got any fabric in mind for this but I'll probably again use a jelly roll but not necessarily in "traditional" patterns/colours.

Well that's all for now. We are off to West Devon for a bit of a holiday in the next few days so when I return maybe I'll have some pretty purchases to show you all. I can use the excuse of my birthday at the end of the month to warrant these - can't I??

SewConnected3 - July

This was stitches&scissors month and she asked us to make String Blocks.

"That sounds easy" I thought to myself until I looked at the tutorial link she supplied and realised they were paper pieced!!

This is new technique for me, but once I got going they were quite easy.

Each of the four blocks made were 7" square so when sewn together make a master block of 13".

The fabrics she sent were mainly Park Slope by Erin McMorris, in hues of turquoise/aqua and limey green with some orange thrown for good measure. The only stipulation was that we used the solid white fabric in all 4 sections.

I kept opposing squares the same to give a bit of symmetry, and after lots of rotating settled on the final composition.

All Dressed Up ....

.... but we had somewhere to go!!

I tend to focus on my crafting/sewing on my blog, but thought perhaps it was time to add in a little bit of personal/family stuff.

If you've been dying to see me (ha ha!) - here is a photo - but please excuse the funny looking others in it!

It was taken just a few weeks ago when we went to a family wedding. The clan consists of me, DH (Z), DS (emoboy) & DD (dancing-girl).

Z and I met when we both worked for the same company, but bizarelly only got together as a couple when we were both about to leave it. That was in Jan. 2000. He proposed on my birthday that year whilst we were sitting beside a pool in Tunisia. I valiantly put him off until Nov 2001 when we tied the knot. He is the Managing Director of a Plastics & Rubber Consultancy company - and as we like to tease him, he's "big in rubber" - in more ways than one!!

Emoboy has just turned 16 and is awaiting his GCSE results next month. He has taken: English Language, English Literature, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Divinity, French, Design & Technology, History and Geography. He is hoping to start studying for his A'levels in September and ultimately (after University) discover a drug to cure the world of Cancer and AIDS.

Dancing-girl will be 5 in September and will be starting Primary School (Reception) full time then. She was a much wanted baby who couldn't wait to be born as she popped out onto the bathroom floor whilst Z was on the phone to the Ambulance Service!! And she seems to have been in a rush ever since. She is on the go for 12 hours a day - but luckily has always been a good sleeper at night (she takes after her dad) so we get a bit of a break from her chaos. She sings and dances all the time and has a great imagination.

And then there's me! What can I say? I'm the oldest of 3 sisters. As a teenager I wanted to be a vet - but was never a high enough achiever academically for that to be a real option. I have indulged my passion for horses over the years by working as a groom and also on a Thoroughbred Horse Stud. It was great following the foals from conception (in some cases) through to their first outing on the racetrack.

I started sewing at school - as I was of the generation where the girls were taught Needlework and Cookery, whilst the boys studied Woodwork and Metalwork - the lucky beggers. Throughout the years I've done some dressmaking (including the dress for my first wedding) and made basic items such as curtains and duvet sets.

It's only been since I've been at home with Dancing-girl that I've dusted off my sewing machine and started sewing again. I love being part of the Blogging community and find Flick a daily inspiration.

Well best get back to it - I have a couple of swaps to work on (but more of them another time)

See you all soon
Leah xx

Charity Quilts Updates

As you all know, some time ago I joined a couple of projects designed to make quilts for charities.

The first was TallGrassPrairieStudio's Project Improv.

I made 2 blocks for this project - a red/aqua one and a pink/orange one. Well, the quilts that my blocks are part of have now been finished. I think that my blocks hold their own amongst the others.

The second was the Bushfire Quilt Project organised by CampFollowerBagLady, set up to provide victims of the Australia Queensland bushfires a little wrappable comfort.

I sent 6 blocks in the end and these appeared in 2 seperate quilts.

In the end over 100 quilts were produced by this project alone (by quilters all over the world) and they have now gone to Victoria to be distributed.

Being part of this project really makes you appreciate what you have.

SewConnected3 - June

This was the Belgium month of SewConnected3 as both ladies sending fabric live there - and are the only 2 other 'Europeans' in the group.


ForTheJourney sent fabrics with an autumn/fall theme and wanted something made that was both geometric and modern.


In the end I plumped for a pattern which I later found to be called Bento Box.


I reversed the fabrics in opposing corners and am very pleased with the results.






Craftywaffles set a much harder challenge. She wants a "Bubble" quilt!

I was sent a selection of Shabby Chic fabrics in pinks and greens that were to be cut into circles and attached to the plain white background.

She helpfully provided a list of tutorials that showed different methods of achieving this. After thinking long and hard about what I would like to do and then honestly about my sewing abilities I plumped for attaching the circles with Bondaweb and then used a stitch on my machine that gives a traditional blanket stitch effect.




The 'design' I went with was a mix of 2 circle sizes spreading out from a larger circle - the idea of which was to give the impression that the smaller bubbles were being blown out of the biggest bubble.