A cruise and a couple of cushions!

Just returned from a brilliant week in the Eastern Med on a short cruise- great itinerary and lots of sightseeing! Here are a few pictures to whet the appetite!

Venice at sunset from atop the ship!

Boats at Katakolon, Greece

Poodles in the sky or are they chariots? 

Statue from Olympia

Temple of Zeus, Olympia

Olympian statue

Waterfront at Katakolon

Santorini Donkey

Stunning Oia , Santorini

Iconic church tops Santorini

Painted steps in Kusadasi, Turkey

Theatre in Ephesus, Turkey

Library ,Ephesus

Rooftops, Dubrovnik, from city walls

More rooftops!

A bridge in Venice

Venice again!

And finally, the meagre bit of sewing I have done over the ;ast few weeks- 

This cushion is made from authentic feedsack fro  USA, machine pieced and hand quilted, bound with Amy Butler polka dots.

This one is made from Benartex fabric purchased on a trip to Australia! Machine pieced and hand quilted, bound with a tiny polka dot fabric. 

TTFN folks

Hx

Making a comeback!

  

Well, what can I say? My last post was in May and I must confess that I just haven't got around to posting for no reason in particular , just been busy with life!

Let me try and give you a quick resume : 

I had the most amazing trip to Alaska at the end of May .it has become my favourite place because of the incredible scenery and the most awesome wildlife. I stayed in the national park at Denali with stunning views of Mt McKinley, and explored the tundra getting wonderful sightings of grizzly bears and their cubs! From there I took a cruise down the inside passage , where the magnificent glaziers provided spectacular demonstrations of deafening calving! 

On arrival at Vancouver, I had 3 days to explore and take in the vibrancy of the city with all it's fantastic First Nations art. I will post just a few of my favourite pictures

Mt McKinley ( or Denali according to some) 

Moose!

Dahl sheep

Caribou

Mummy bear and baby bears

Nice totem!

Bald eagle on ice!

bald eagle on a buoy

Hubbard Glacier -6 miles wide!!

Seals and that eagle again!

View from Mt Roberts Tramway

Having a few problems blogging from my Ipad, and accessing photos, so thats all for this blog, but 

more catchup to come!

Scrappy cross finish!

This baby quilt/playmat used up lots of my stash scraps, and gave me a chance to do some more hand quilting which i am determined to improve on!

It turned out really well, love the colours!

I have put my sewing machine away, getting ready for my trip to Alaska and have made this baby quilt with my beloved Liberty fabrics to hand quilt on my trip!

It weighs next to nothing and will take up very little space in my suitcase- leaving enough room for any random fabric purchases I may have to make!!

TTFN x

Mama's wagga!

Wonders will never cease-  2 posts in as many days! Just had to reveal the latest quilt finish- inspired by my love of recycling, this is made almost totally of recycled shirts . It came to be this improv design because I saw some wonderful Australian wagga quilts on Pinterest. These were made from warm scraps of fabric for use in the outback I believe, and they can be very colourful and haphazard!

I thought the red polks dots was perfect for binding- this is the only part of the quilt not made from shirts

I had great fun searching for the shirts in charity shops, and I have masses of cut strips left over- plenty for 2more quilts! I may have to lis them on Etsy!

The back is shirts including one pocket and the front buttons!

Ta da-  I love the finished quilt, it is really cosy and warm, with flannelette in the middle. 

Happy Easter folks! xx

Liberty lust/love!

What a bargain weekend! A bit of thrifting at Ford car boot sale, and a mooch around the fabric shops of Chichester, and a Sunday car boot sale to bag some bargains! I love weekends like this. Now I must show off the wonderful things that I got-

Ths is a lovely hand pieced baby quilt with flannelette backing and satin ribbon binding, made probably in the 50s or 60s I guess. I just couldnt resist it for a fiver!

Now for the Liberty love- 

The darker piece my friend Susie ( more of her in a minute) donated to me- I bought the lighter piece along with these at the Clothkits shop. I paid full price so not so much a bargain rather more of a must have!

Now the bargain- the 2 pieces of red add up to 3.5 metres, and the blue is 3.5 metres- total of 7 metres, rough retail value £112, if it is £16 per metre- mine for £42 ! Brilliant for backing my Liberty patch quilts as they are  large pieces. 

Now for the piece de resistance!  This gorgeous Liberty cross over drss with a double layer skirt all the way round must contain at least 3 metres of fabric if not 4- so approx 40 to 50 £ to by fabric- 

Mine for the grand sum of £2.50p!!!!!!! Thats about 80p per metre!!!! 

Beat that! 

Feeling very smug......

And now back to my demented friend Susie who cannot get enough Kaffe fabric- one day they will lock her away! Anyway, she bought her latest batch and wanted me to run up some pillows- 

here is the result! 

They are gorgeous, but she just doesnt know when to stop!! 

THats all folks, enjoy the sun! x

A stool story.........(not toilet humour....)

I have been looking for a footstool for a little while and found just what I needed yesterday in the junk shop- a fiver ! I gathered together my stored denim stash and decided to recover it with denim just like the ones you see in arty farty places like Anthropology!

Here is the before-

Pretty grotty really! I did thnk I may have wasted a fiver!

Here is the finished stool

I included one patch of union jack print on Japanese Kokka fabric! I am really pleased with the result- it is going to get a lot of use!

I finished a lovely baby quilt this week too- hand quilted this one with a bamboo batting, love the result!

I recovered my baby ironing board as it was threadbare from ironing all my quilting fabrics-

Very Aussie looking!

And finally- a sneek preview of the shirt quilt-heres the top, I have sice sandwiched it and begun hand quilting- will post finished quilt soon. 

Cheers for now

Hx