My New Toy Has Arrived !!!!!

Ok, after having Kerry give me a kick up the backside, I realised I haven't posted about my new sewing machine since I got it. Very lapse I know, but the truth is that I've been so excited about it that I haven't stopped playing with it.

I had lots of things I needed to get done on Saturday, so Jon agreed to drive over to Sheffield to pick up my new sewing machine. I was like a kid on Christmas Day when I saw the car coming up the drive. I anxiously opened the door with a little frustration that he had to take a couple of other things out first in order to get it out. Now, my car is only little (Citreon C3 Pluriel), and the box was absolutely HUGE. I have absolutely no idea looking in my boot how on earth he managed to actually get it in there.

Anyway, he brought the box inside and I eagerly opened it. Gen was well under my feet trying to get in there to have a look, she was as excited as I was (well maybe not quite). I couldn't believe the size of the machine, it really does need to be seen in 'the flesh' to be believed. I was shocked to say the least. I know it was bigger than my old one as the hoops for it were larger, but I wasn't expecting it to be as big as it is.

The other thing that shocked me were the embroidery carriage and hoops, they come in their own hard case, which is also VERY big. It's a great thing to have in order to protect them, but goodness knows where I'm going to store it when I'm not using it.

It took me about 10 mins to get through all of the packaging and set it up in the middle of my lounge (it's still sitting there too, as I keep having a play).

It's arrival is just in time for a craft fair that I am going to on Saturday. I've been busy playing … I mean embroidering with my machine. I've done around 30 bibs with funny slogans on them, and have had a great deal of fun making them. This machine is so much faster than my old one being able to embroidery up to 1,000 stitches per minute! Whereas my old one could only manage 600. Hopefully, the fair will go well and I'll get quite a few orders like I did when I attended the same one last year.

Talking of orders, I'm currently working on a few PE bags for customers who have ordered via my website. Hopefully, people are looking for Christmas gifts to give and more orders will be received over the next few weeks.

New Machine!

I know I'm really lapse in my postings, again it's been about 3 weeks since I last wrote something in my blog. But I really haven't had much to write about lately. Life here is rather dull and boring, as I'm sure I've mentioned before.

I did take my embroidery machine to the Brother dealer that I mentioned in my last posting. They came to the conclusion that the machine was actually beyond repair. Now as you will know from previous postings I rely on my embroidery machine a great deal. I have been completely lost without it over the last few weeks. We made the decision to purchase a new machine. I am currently awaiting delivery of the fantastic Brother 4000. I am honestly like a child waiting for Christmas. I am so excited at the prospect of owning such a wonderful machine.

The facility that this new machine has compared to my 2100 is astronomical. Previously with my 2100 it was necessary to write all of the designs that I wanted onto a Brother memory card. When I needed a different design I had to override the designs were already on there. Due to the cost implication, I had no way of storing favourite / popular designs on memory cards for easy retrieval. This will become a thing of the past us with the new 4000 as this can be linked directly to a laptop containing my designs. The embroidery designs are sent directly to the new machine without the need to use the Brother memory card any longer.

Designs can also be stored on to a USB memory stick of which the price difference is extremely vast. A USB memory stick costs in the region of £8.00 or less, whilst a Brother memory card has a much higher cost at round £65.00!

If you would like to take a look of the details of my new machine you can do so at the following site … http://www.brother.co.uk/display.cfm/id/127000

I think that's about all for now, I've got a few craft fairs booked in during November. Once I get my new machine delivered, I will be an extremely busy bee getting all of the items embroidered ready to take with me.

Happy Crafting xx

 

 

What a carry on !!!

I know it's been some time since I last posted. Things have been rather hectic here that's for sure. Although I guess that is nothing new at all is it. The worst thing that's happened is my embroidery machine isn't working at the moment. I am completely lost without it I've got a pile of things that need to be done, I even mended something by hand the other day!!! I'm taking it over to Sheffield on Saturday to my Brother Dealer and hopefully he'll be able to fix it. If not, it looks like I'm going to have to purchase a new one which I don't relish whatsoever. I've been advised by several agents that the current day equivalent of my machine will cost me £3,300!! I think that if it comes down to it, I'll have to purchase another from eBay as I can't justify spending so much money on a machine.

Jon decided over the weekend to sell his car. He's been contemplating this for quite some time. I think the fact that he's had to call the RAC out 3 times over the past couple of months was the deciding factor. Don't get the wrong idea, there's absolutely nothing wrong with his car at all. The problem is that now he's commuting to work on the train, he was only doing around 6 miles per week. Now with a 3l engine, it just wasn't enough to charge the battery, and it was constantly going flat.

I've been desperate for a new laptop and finally managed to get one yesterday. Jon kindly bought it for me with some of the money he got from the sale of his car. It's a wonderful machine, and I've finally come into the 21^st Century with both Office '07 and Microsoft Vista. I know I'm probably miles behind everyone else with that one, but it's a huge thing for me right now. I've been very anti-Vista since it was launched, but after spending a few hours on it with the kids at school and last night, I'm finding my way around it slowly but surely. I'm even typing this in Microsoft Word for publishing into Blogger … hopefully it will work first time. So far, I've managed to set up my email accounts in Microsoft Outlook. I thought it would take ages for me to work it out, but actually took only a couple of minutes …. Am | good or what! Lol. Isn't it typical though that I obtain Vista just prior to Microsoft launching their new 'Windows 7'. Oh well, I guess that one will be a few years down the line. My biggest challenge right now is how I'm going to get all of the information from my old machine onto the new one. When you consider the fact that I have around 250,000 embroidery designs on there, it's not going to be easy ….arrrrrrrrghhhhhhh.

My studying seems to be going well. I'm still waiting for a lot of information to come through from the college, but I'm really enjoying it. As part of my studies, I'm working in school all day on a Monday and Friday and then on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Hopefully this leaves me the time to go to sewing club on a Tuesday, that's if the work doesn't overtake me and I end up writing essays on Tuesdays (on my nice new laptop of course!).

Talking of sewing club, Jo showed us how to make some Christmas Decorations this week. They are really cute, and a lovely size to place on a Christmas tree. I made a small star by folding material. I then covered a polystyrene ball with material and finished off with ribbon and a few beads. Finally, I made an adorable Christmas Tree using yo-yo's. These were extremely simple to make and look lovely. I made mine with the same material, but they looked just as nice using 2 or even 3 different fabrics which some of the other ladies did.

I guess my next task is to start thinking about Christmas presents. I haven't got a clue what to purchase for Genevieve, she has everything that she needs. I was going to buy her a new Nintendo DS as hers has a broken screen. However, she used the money that she had been given for her birthday and bought one herself which has been delivered today. She has absolutely no idea either what she would like. Maybe I should write to Santa and ask him what girls are asking for this year.

Craft Fair Preparations

Well, preparations for the craft fair are coming along very nicely. I've had a bit of a dilema knowing whether what I've got is sufficient or whether it's too much. I guess I won't know until Monday when it's all over and finished.

These are the little girls tote bags that I've made. They are available with either a matching or co-ordinating purse. They really are a sweet item for those little girls who just love to be all grown up and carry a shopping bag 'just like mummy'.

I've embroidered a few bibs that will be available for sale at the weekend. These look so cute and most would suit either a baby boy or girl.

I've also got lots of PE bags made up ready, I hope that they will sell as well as they have from my website. Keep your fingers crossed!

I am also taking some ceramic items that I've painted which I hope will sell.

I'll update early next week and let you all know how the fair went.

To digress a little .....

I've set up an embroidery gift section on my website. It is up and running, and orders can be made on there. We have found a few teething problems that I hope to sort out soon.

I'm also hoping to set up a Personalised Ceramic Gifts part within my website soon - watch this space !!!!

Busy few days.

I seem to have been suffering a little from insomnia over the past week. Two nights I've not actually got to sleep until around 5am, and the others it's been at least 2am! You'd think going to bed at that time, that I'd still be there around noon, but no, I was actually up and around no later than 8am all week. It all well and truely caught up with me yesterday.

I decided yesterday was the day that I was going to go in and sort out my sewing room. Over the past few months, things have been steadily creeping their way in there and generally making the room a dumping ground. Well no longer, I've sorted through everything. Thrown out loads of rubbish that seems to have been accumulated in there. I've moved all of the furniture around (with a little help from hubby). All my U.F.O.'s are now neatly sitting in a drawer rather than all over the cutting area. I've found material that I didn't know I had, that is now neatly folded in another drawer. I have now also got a drawer for scraps that Genevieve has already claimed for her crafting projects.

I have a few things left to do in there, which I'll hopefully manage to finish tomorrow afternoon. I'll then take a couple of snapshots for all to see.

I spent 6 hours in there sorting and sifting and moving yesterday. After I had finished, I was feeling really tired and my back was aching. I laid down on the bed about 5.30 and promptly fell asleep! I woke up when Jon came to bed around 10.30. I laid awake for a while and considered getting up as I was now wide awake, but decided to persevere with it and after a while, I fell back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 8.30 this morning! I think I had around 13-14 hours sleep. I obviously needed it and I do feel a lot better today.


On a high note today - Ferret's book arrived! It certainly hasn't disappointed, the book is absolutely fantastic! Check it out http://ferfab.blogspot.com/2009/08/theyre-here-and-they-are-ready-to-go.html

When do you stop??

I've been extremely busy this week making items for the Craft Fair. I've got loads done. So far, I have about 12 PE bags made up with about another 5/6 that I've embroidered and are sitting waiting to be made up. Hopefully I'll get round to doing these over the next day or two.

Today, I've embroidered 12 baby bibs. I have taken pics, and will hopefully get them posted on here soon. I have updated my other blog with PE bags that I have available for immediate despatch. These are limited in availability as I will be taking what I have left to the craft fair.

I went to my local fabric store this morning and purchased some wonderful material. I have the same design in 2 colours (pink and yellow) that I'm going to make some tote bags suitable for little girls complete with matching purses. I'm also thinking of making some drawstring bags with this material, as it is sooooo pretty.

Secondly, I got some 'camouflage' material in blue that I thought would make some nice coin purses for boys. I've cut this up to also make 2 little tote bags for the 'tomboy' girls too. And lastly but certainly by no means least, I purchased some denim to make purses with.

All of the material is currently sitting on my table, all cut up and waiting to be either sewn up or embroidered onto. This is my job tomorrow.

Once I've finished sewing, I then need to pack everything back upstairs so that I can get some glazing done. I've got loads sitting waiting to be dipped from recent events. I've been putting it off because I've had all my sewing stuff all over the kitchen table. But if I don't get into the swing of it soon, I won't have them all finished for delivery when the kids go back to school.

Jon has next week off work, we were hoping to get away for a few days, but unfortunately, that's not going to happen. I'm going to sewing class as usual on Tuesday, then hopefully we're going to go out for lunch somewhere. I've got a pottery painting workshop booked in for Wednesday, and as it's in Grimsby, if the weather is nice, we're going to take Gen to the beach (don't tell her though as it's a surprise!).

Thursday is going to be the best day of all next week. I'm off to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=22. Originally, I arranged to go with the ladies from sewing group, however when I mentioned it at home, Jon said that he would like to go too. Maybe he's making sure I don't spend any money lol. Anyway, I knew that Genevieve would love to go too, so we're having a family day out. It's going to be a very tiring day, but well worth it. I can't wait to see Ferret's creations (http://www.ferfab.co.uk/). I know she has been working extremely hard to get new creations made in time for the exhibition. One in particular she was working on when she was up here to teach. From viewing her blog, her ideas and designs look as amazing as always, but photographs, especially when they're only snippets do not do the finished articles any justice whatsoever.

Will take lots and lots of pics (where I can anyway).

C x

Purses :-)

As some of you know, I've decided to do a craft fair over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August. I'm planning on making a few PE bags to sell on there, along with various other embroidered items. I realised in my planning that I didn't have many 'pocket money' items that children could purchase on their way around.

With this in mind, I purchased an 'in hoop' purse embroidery design. I was a little unsure when I downloaded the design - I hate instructions, those who really know me know that I would much rather do things, and look at instructions when I get stuck. But this needed careful reading as I had no idea where to start. I cut all my material to make a purse and set to sewing. WOW how easy they were to make. Once you've cut to the desired lengths, that's completely it. ALL of the hard work is done for you. There's even a little 'notch' to show you were to position the little 'money pockets'. I've made 16 of these today in various colours, some with little embroideries on the flap and some plain.

I really did enjoy making these, and hope that they will sell well at the craft fair.

Ferret Fabricates: A wonderful weekend

Ferret Fabricates: A wonderful weekend

As previously mentioned, I was extremely lucky enough to attend a 2 day workshop recently to learn 'ART QUILTING'. We had a fabulous weekend, and I learnt a great deal. Here are a few photographs of the samples that I made during that time.


Our workshop got off to a flying start on Saturday morning with the unveiling of a quilt that I've been in awe of ever since I saw it on Ferret's website. (photograph courtesy of http://www.ferfab.co.uk/). It is a truely stunning design, and upclose it certainly didn't disappoint. It's one that I truely hope to aspire to (with lots of time, and even more practise!).

Whilst she was there, Ferret was working on another 'Portrait Art Quilt'. It was great to see how she takes a photograph and looks at the shades and hues in the colours to turn it into a quilt. I hope that she has had the time to complete this one, as it would be lovely to see the design from the conception to completion.

We started sewing in my 'comfort zone' and made a quilt sandwich using approx 1m square of black fabric. We divided this into 4 squares which was then to be used as our sample / practise piece throughout the weekend. Firstly, we played with decorative stitches on our respective machines. This is quite easy, I thought! I can do this. Hmmmmm .... cocky? Stupid? Idiotic? All 3?

For the second square, we were asked to 'write' our names using the machine. Ok, getting a little trickier now. There are a few letters in my name that don't flow naturally when you don't have a choice but to do 'joined up' writing. You can't take your needle off the canvas as you would a pencil. It's not precisely hand-written quality, but I don't think that I did too bad a job of it.

Next, we were all shown various drawings on Ferret's white board. (I'm sure that girl has shares in the whiteboard marker company, as she seemed to have a never ending supply!). Now the designs she produced on the whiteboard were beautiful, many were totally stunning. As she drew them, they flowed so naturally, and looked fairly simple when you knew where you were going. However, when you were then told to go away and stitch them .... hmmmmmm not as easy as it seems.

I had big problems with my machine as I started to the 'free motion' quilting designs. I broke 4 needles within a very short period of time. I was becoming more and more stressed as I carried on. I was very wary of moving the fabric by this stage for fear of breaking yet another needle. Fortunately for me, Jo brought out her old faithful Husqvarna D1. This worked a dream - it didn't make my stitching any better, but it sure made it an awful lot easier now I didn't have to worry so much.

Unfortunately though, the psychological damage had already been achieved. My confidence had taken a great knock in the morning with all those needles, I was so convinced that I was doing something wrong that I just could concentrate completely. Even with Jo's machine, I was still waiting for a needle to break.

However, on Sunday, after a good nights sleep, I came back to the workshop with a whole new attitude to it. I sat down, and completely ignored my machine that was sitting at the back of my table. I set to work quilting my 'mini wholecloth' that I had prepared on Jo's machine. I divided the square up into different shapes which I then filled in with various designs. There's a lot of flaws on there, but for a first attempt, it isn't too bad. Some of the designs maybe difficult to see as I played rather 'safe' with the colours that I chose to use in both the material and the threads.


The photograph on the left here is of the back. the designs can be seen a lot clearer, however so can the mistakes including a few 'bird nests'!

All in all, I had an absolutely fabulous weekend, however next time, I would ensure that I had a different machine from the start so that I wouldn't have to cope with the stresses of machine errors. I know a lot of bad workmen/women blame their tools, but in this case it truely was my machine that has taken a dislike to free-motion quilting.

Bags

Wow, how busy was I last week. As I mentioned in my previous posting, I needed to make 17 bags in rather a short period of time. However, I managed it, and here are the results of my hard work. Fifteen of them were for a nursery. The manager chose a beautiful spring bug and very cute butterfly. Both of which stitched out lovely.

They were all personalised with the children's names and then the nursery on the back. Please note, that to safeguard the children, I have not taken photographs of the back of any of these bags.

Jorja's mum chose a catterpillar for her design which fits in nicely with her class theme. These were stitched and made into both a PE and matching shoe bag ready for Jorja to start 'big' school in September.

What's been happening?

Anyone wondering why I haven't posted the photographs that i promised? There is a reason - and a good one too.

On Monday evening, I received an email from a lady asking me to make her 15 PE bags. She runs a nursery and had a great idea of giving each of the children one to take with them as they leave to go to attend 'big school'. The only problem was that she needed them before Monday of next week!

Impossible task? ? ? You may think that, indeed I certainly did when I received the message. Surely I would need all weekend to enable me to make this quantity and the PE & Shoe bag that I had already received an order for. Especially with the amount of time that I've been in school this week.

Well I certainly love a challenge and rose to the task in hand. Each bag needed to be embroidered with a cute design (a spring bug for the boys and a butterfly for the girls). I also embroidered each one with the childs name on the front, and the nursery on the back. I knew that they would take around an hour each to complete just the embroidery. So time was very precious indeed this week.

I spent all day Tuesday embroidering the designs on the front on the bags.

When I came back from school on Wednesday I got straight to work embroidering the backs of the bags. I programmed the name into my machine and made it into an arch and added the year. I loved how well they stitched out.

Finally on Thursday, I spent the afternoon sewing up the bags and added the cords.

I completed all 17 bags just before Jon walked through the door at 8pm. I was so impressed with my time management. They're all now sitting in a box in my lounge awaiting a trip to the Post Office tomorrow. I hope that they will all be received in time after all the hard work that I've put into making them.

It was too dark to take photographs this evening after I'd finished, so that's a task for the morning before I visit the Post Office.

UPDATES

Oh my, how time does fly when you're having fun. Things have been rather hectic here recently with one thing or another - although there's nothing at all unusual in that now is there.

I finished my swap pincushion, and after a slow start due to missing emails eventually sent it to my partner. I decided to hand sew a felt cushion which took me most of a day to make, however I was really pleased with the results.

The pincushion I received is absolutely beautiful, unfortunately, my camera isn't working at the moment so I haven't been able to take pictures. However, my brother is visiting at the weekend and i've already asked him to bring his over so hopefully I'll manage to take some then.

Gen was extremely happy with the 4 letters that she received. She does keep asking why she hasn't received the 5th letter, which I haven't been able to give her an answer. She's hoping to write back to the children that have written to her, hopefully she'll manage to do this soon.

Last weekend, I atttended a workshop at Jo's http://hobbyholidays.blogspot.com/ . The tutor that she had invited to run the workshop was the fabulous Ferret http://ferfab.blogspot.com/. She was an inspiration to all who attended. I will post a seperate update regarding this, hopefully with photos.

I was back at Oasis Academy this week to complete a tile project with the Year 6 transition students. I had a great time meeting everyone, and am really looking forward to seeing all of their glazed masterpieces displayed when the school re-opens in September after the Summer break. Again, I will post photographs when I can take them.

I've received 2 orders for PE bags from customers who have found my website following a Google search which is fantastic news.

ooooooh .... last but certainly not least ... I've finished the top of Gen's quilt this week!!! I just need to buy the wadding and backing and then quilt it up. Again, pics to follow soon.

letter swap.

Here is a very proud Genevieve with the first letter that she received as part of http://pigeon-pair.blogspot.com/ 's kids letter swap. She was so excited to receive the letter from Eamonn a couple of days ago. He included a picture that he had drawn of a platypus which Gen had never seen before. She also received a lovely pencil with pictures of Australian animals down it, this has now gone into her desk drawer and she has assured me that she won't sharpen it as she wants to keep it to remind her of her penpal (sweet!)

She has also received a letter yesterday from Jade who is another Australian. Jade sent a map of Australia to show where she lived and a lovely letter. Gen particularly liked the picture that Jade drew for her too.

I had to laugh as when I picked Gen up from school yesterday, I told her that a letter was waiting for her from Jade in Australia. She said that it would be nice to communicate through MSN and wondered if they have computers in Australia! I didn't go into how she thought that they had signed up for the swap if they didn't have a computer! LOL.

Swap Update

Well, I now have one even more excited little girl. What great news to give her when she came out of her exam.

Christie has sent details of her swap partners. Her face when I told her she would be communicating with children from different countries was so wonderful to see.

She will be exchanging letters with :-

2 boys - One from America and one from Australia

2 girls - again one from America and one from Australia

and last (but certainly not least) sisters from America who have joined the swap together.

She has already drafted her letters, she just needs to print them out and get them posted which will hopefully be on Saturday.

I really do hope that this is the start of long lasting pen-pal friendships.

Good luck to all those participating, I'm sure your children are just as excited as Gen is.

Another Swap!!!!

This time I've signed Gen up - Every time the post lady arrives, she asks the same question 'why is there never any letters for me Mum?' .... well now there will be 5 of them for her! woohoo she'll enjoy this one for sure. Although it does mean that she has to write 5 letters too LOL.

If you would like to sign your kids up too, then the link is http://pigeon-pair.blogspot.com/2009/05/kids-mail-swap-2-sign-ups.html

Happy Crafting xxx

Pincushion Summer Swap

I've just signed up for Sandra's (http://www.quiltathome.blogspot.com/) Pincushion Summer Swap .... why not join me in this creative crafting swap .... just click on her link for more information.

Beads, Beads and even more Beads!

First of all are you impressed .... two postings in one day! Maybe a hangover isn't such a bad thing afterall LOL.

I've been saying for a while now that I really must put some photographs of my beaded jewellery both on my website and here on my blog. Well today I've finally managed to get the time to do them! wooohoooo. I've taken pics of all the necklaces I currently have in stock. I have made more but didn't take pics before I sold them. I will be putting more details onto my website with regards to lengths and pricing etc. so if anyone would like to make a purchase, then please let me know and I will point you in the right direction.

Here goes : -


























































I also make charm, they make fantastic accessories for your mobile phone / PDA / MP3 players etc. I also use them on my scissors to avoid any confusion when I go to sewing class - it's so easy to pick up someone else's scissors if they are the same as yours, these beautiful charms avoid all that confusion. The one on my brown scissors has a little bell so it jingles as I cut :-)

Embroidered Blocks Galore!

I know there will be some reading my postings who aren't sure of what a Tripple Irish Chain looks like. The pic above shows a plan that I worked out on my computer using Excel and colouring in the squares - easy peasy. The middle 'chain' should actually be a darker shade of blue, but it printed out the same colour as the 2 chains either side. This centre chain is the one that I'm making with the lighter fabric instead of a darker one.

Here is the first block finished (I've made 4 so far but need to purchase more material before I can make more). I think that the centre pale chain stands out really well against the other fabrics. Although, you won't get to see the 'chains' until I have put quite a few blocks together.

These are a selection of the embroidered squares that I have done to place in the middle of the second blocks. I've used about 4 different designs and stitched them in various colour combinations. I didn't want these to detract from the chains, therefore I have only used 4 colours (lilac, purple, fuschia and green). Unfortunately I did make an error when cutting the blocks. I knew that I needed them to be 10" finished square. So dutifully I cut them all to 10 1/2" to allow 1/4" seam allowance. As I put the first one in the embroidery machine, realisation hit me - I should have cut them slightly larger as the embroidery will pull the material in slightly. Unfortunately, I was right (for a change LOL). The squares are now measuring approx 10 1/4". I think what I'm going to do to rectify the problem is cut them down a little more and add a border around them in one of the other material. Hopefully, when I've finished, it will look as though this was my intention from the beginning!

This last photograph gives a bit of insight as to how the second block will look when it's put together. The squares aren't in the correct order around the sides as I just laid the embroidered square on top of one of the block #1's. But at least it gives an idea of where I'm going with this one.

Baby Gift

As promised, photographs of the baby gift I made for my friend. I embroidered a bib, face cloth and muslin cloth with this Winnie the Pooh design and added the baby's name. I thought that they looked beautiful altogether. The green in the background of the design is cotton material that is stitched on first as an applique. I've used this design quite a few times and never tire of it. When I've done this for girls, I tend to use a pink butterfly material which looks stunning too.

In doing my bit to save the planet, I try not to use unecessary packaging, so thought it would be a nice idea to wrap the gifts in the muslin rather than using wrapping paper. I added a little blue wool to keep it altogether. I then placed them in a small paper carrier bag made from recycled paper. I loved the end result.

All stripped and ready for action!!!!!

woohooooo ... how many men have peaked because of the title??? LMAO

I've made a start on Gen's quilt (shush don't tell her as it's a surprise for her birthday). I've cut up plenty of strips and am ready for action. This quilt is going to be a Tripple Irish Quilt. She saw the design I had made on the computer and said she liked it. I innocently asked her what colours she would use if she was making it and 'PURPLE' was her answer. I was hoping she would choose blue as that seems to be her favourite at the minute and I didn't relish the thought of another purple quilt this quickly, but if that's what she wants, then who am I to argue.

I'm not going to write too much detail in this posting, as I'll do a full one when I've actually finished the quilt. However, as promised to Kerry, I'll post a quilt teaser of photographs below to make sure you come back to see the finished item (hopefully not too long away).

I needed 4 fabrics for the design, I found a wonderful batik fabric (http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=FQ4355) and decided that this was going to be the material I would base the other colours around. It was a struggle, we had almost every purple fabric off of the shelves to compare them together and spent a lot of time, but we got there in the end. I chose http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=ST3329509 and http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CC575111t. After a suggestion from Jo, I decided that instead of a darker colour in the middle of the chains, I would use the light colour again, therefore only needed 3 fabrics.

To ensure that I was on the right track, I showed Gen the colours last night and she loved them - Although I did fib and tell her that it was another quilt for Jo! lol

FABRICS

EMBROIDERY