Well that was an embarrassment wasn't it...and I don't even particularly like football! Please feel free to make two conjunctive verbs from paid, performed, over and under ;-)

Moving on to this:

 I'm slightly cheating here because I made this last year before I had a blog but then we took it to the beach yesterday (to sit on primarily, not to pose on rocks you understand) and I realised I've never actually taken any photos of it.

It's just one jelly roll cut up and then sewn back together in a bento style...I think.

I think it looks a bit washed out in this photo above.

 That's a bit better colourwise I think.

Actually...this one is better...

 ....and here is the back...

And what do you think this is? Clue: it's not a raspberry!

Go England Go...

I say that without a shred of confidence but hey, who knows.

Thank you to Lynne  for a fun Union Jack tutorial.

Psssst...don't enlarge the image because then you'll spot that on the blue fabric it says 'Millennium 2000'.

Note to self: Fabric is like a fine wine...it improves with age.

OMG!

The last time I did two posts in one day it was to have a moan but this time it is to admit to having succumbed to buying some fabric full price as soon as it appeared. A big thing for me, I normally, always, pretty much most of the time, go trawling through the sale section of fabric websites. But this was different, love at first sight. So I rather rashly sensibly bought  a half yard of the whole range in all the colours. Look at this...

 ...and these...

...and this.

No idea what I am going to do with them just yet but then that is not the point, is it?

I bought from here but for those of us this side of the pond, Mandy is going to stock this line too.
Definitely my latest favourite fabric line until my next OMG moment.

Don't hang a quilt on a rose bush...

Bored with hanging quilts off half-finished kitchen units, I thought I'd venture outside into the garden and seductively hang a quilt from a climbing rose in full bloom.

Possibly not the right thing to have done. Took 10 seconds to throw it on the bush and 10 minutes to gently dislodge the quilt from all the thorns that were sticking into it.

Anyway, continuing with my pledge. This quilt came about because it was a fat quarter pack on sale (always attractive to me, the word 'sale') here. It was my first purchase of gorgeous Lecien fabrics and the feature fabric was a panel of squares of little French scenes (think Eiffel tower) with French writing. Definitely meant I was going to keep it simple and just cut up into squares.

However, when I started sewing the squares together it looked...well...just square really and didn't do anything for me. So, I decided to group the squares into blocks of nine (three rows of three) with the centre panel being one of the feature French squares. I then separated each block of nine with a thin line of white Kona.

The back was a complete act of randomness. I just strip pieced together all the left-over bits.

Having pieced it on a sewing machine, it then became a 'downstairs' quilt (see previous post for high-level explanation) and I hand-quilted it.

Another Kaffe explosion

I've had this on my side bar for a few weeks now and not really entered into the spirit of it yet. I do agree that perhaps it is better for others to read and see more than just your final 'tah dah' of a quilt and explain the process behind it. However, all my quilt ideas are not sketches or long thought-out plans. I have ideas...but they are other people's ideas. And then when I get an idea, I never write it down and I never buy fabric specifically for that idea. I revert to my stash to see what I have. And I never work out if I have enough of a particular fabric before I start because I am happy to discover half-way through that I don't because that makes me make another different decision than I had perhaps first planned, which invariably turns out better. Each to his own but I am not a fan of 'safe' quilts. By that I mean where the whole quilt looks like the fabric allocation was planned from the beginning. It's nice but it is 'safe' and doesn't excite me.

So, my inspiration for this quilt initially came from here and how beautiful is this one? I see someone else's idea and I have that 'oooh, I want to make that' thought. But I wanted to make a quilt for two work colleagues who are getting married later this year so the circle idea morphed into...

...hearts. I already had a set of heart templates so all I did was cut out the shapes on as many different Kaffe fabrics as I could lay my hands on.

I then placed each heart on a square of fabric (Kona Coal) and machine satin stitched in a metallic gold around each heart thereby attaching it to the square. I then sewed all the squares together, added an initial border in Anna Marie Horner's first fabric line - Bohemian Beauties - before adding a final border of scraps of the same (and more) Kaffe fabrics that appeared in the hearts.

When it came time to quilt, I decided this would become a 'downstairs' quilt. I can make a quilt in its entirety in my sewing room at the top of the house, or 'upstairs'. It has been noted more than once that if I am awol, this is where I can be found. So...to still appear sociable, I have to have a 'downstairs' quilt to work on when I am with others. I am not very good at just sitting in from of the tv or just talking...I like to multi-task with a quilt as well. So this quilt could well have been finished a long time ago (like last year when I originally pieced it) but hand-quilting it meant it took a lot longer.

A close-up of the quilting, or an ant crawling across it - the choice is yours.

For the back I used a Jinny Beyer fabric I have had for yonks and yonks and as it wasn't quite wide enough I used alternating fabrics to make a strip down the middle. The binding is the same fabric you can see in the stripe that looks like beads/sweets.

And here is the 'tah dah' moment...

I hope they like it.
And all quilts from me that go as a gift have to have one of these labels attached. Just the funniest comments, particularly the 'This seemed like a good idea at the time but now I am not so sure' labels ;-)

Postscript.

A conversation I had today with Daughter No.2 while waiting in a waiting area (with other parents)for Daughter No.1 to finish her music lesson.

Daughter No.2  'Mum, you've brought your quilting with you, people are staring. Put it away and just talk like normal mums do.

Daughter No.1 then appears, looks at me quilting and says in a withering tone)'That is soooo not cool what you are doing.'

A girl can never have too many bags can she...?

This one I am thinking will be heading towards Daughter No.1's Year 6 teacher at the end of term...

...although I am sorely tempted to keep it myself...

...so I may yet downgrade my generosity to a box of chocolates.

And this one...

 ...I thought was mine but Daughter No.1 thinks it is 'cool', so has already appropriated it for a sleepover.

Dear Mr Kitchen Fitter/Maker: Should you perchance be taking a break from what is the long and arduous task that appears to be our kitchen and instead are gaining a little light relief by reading this blog, I would like to bring the following to your attention:

• On your website it says 'from consultation to completion in eight to twelve weeks.' We've been ready since January and although my maths is not brilliant I think that may be a tad longer than you have on your website.
• It also says on your website that you make quality 'kithchens' What may I ask are they?
• And it also says 'When we design your new kitchen, we will spend time with you assessing your own individual requirements.' To be honest, a fairly major requirement of ours was that we had it completed some time this year. I've loved staging my quilts and bags across half-finished units with no counter surfaces but it's starting to wear a bit thin now. Surely you could pop in some time this month and give us some work surfaces?
• And I also see that every kitchen from XX XXXXX is unique . Would that be the lack of work surfaces that you are referring to or that half my knobs are missing, that some of the doors don't open (or shut) properly or the cracks that appeared in some of the doors you very helpfully used wood-filler in to patch up?
• And it's very reassuring of you to put on your website 'you are making a substantial outlay and you will have to live with the end result for many years to come.' Believe you me, we have been living with the end result (no kitchen) since August last year. Eight more weeks and then it will be a year.