Essex Air Ambulance Cheque

The Dovercourt Quilters had a Quilt SHow on the 15th and 16th September to raise funds for Essex Air Ambulance. On the 24th October we handed over a cheque for £1060 and here are the pictures.

Sewing Machine quietener

My sewing machine is relatively new and doesn’t really make much noise, but I have always intended to make a mat for it to sit on. This helps to deaden any sound, protects the table and seems to hold the sewing machine in place better As most of the sewing machine mat will be hidden underneath the machine, I chose a really simple pattern for the patchwork. I rather like this quilt block because it can give the illusion of squares behind squares. My sewing machine base is broadly 8” by 16” so I made two 8” blocks and sewed them together to give the required size. The fabric came from my scrap pile and I chose white plus three fabrics that were basically light, medium and dark. Fabric requirements for both blocks are four 4.1/2” squares of the dark fabric, four 2.1/2” squares each of the white and medium fabrics and eight 2.1/2” squares of the light fabric. Lay the patchwork squares out as shown with the dark squares alternating with four patch units made with the other fabrics. Sew the small squares together to make the four patch units first and then sew the four patch units to the dark squares. Make two of these quilt blocks and sew them together. Layer them with slightly larger rectangles of batting and backing fabric. Here again I was able to use scraps. The simplest method of quilting would be to stitch in the ditch along the seam lines but there’s no need for a huge amount of quilting as this will be sitting underneath your sewing machine – unless you want to use this for quilting practice, of course. Trim the edges of the sewing machine mat and attach binding as for any quilt. I used standard 2.1/2” strips of fabric for the binding, although for such a small project I could probably have used a smaller width of strip. Sorry the pictures for this did come out.

Creative Net

Bag

June 2011

Well I wrote a whole spiel here and lost it all when I went to download the pictures, so only hope I can remember it all again, pictures first I feel.
It is June now and East Anglia has been declared a drought area as it has been so dry, have had to water my little veg patch every day, but am getting some lovely spinach, rocket and strawberries, so not all bad.
Have been quilting as you cans ee, the Fairy quilt is for my Granddaughter as it can get quite cold in Townsville in the winter months. then started a Hnad quilting project of a wall hanging, which had me doing some knitting with Kebab sticks which were only 3 1/2 inches long, great fun though. will take a picture of the bag I also made so I can take some hand sewing when we go out, as sat outside a camera shop for ages the other day, and was wishing I had taken my hand sewing with me, oh well next time I will be prepared.
I have also been down to Jaywick Martello Tower doing some Pottery, had a great day with friends Nick and Lindy and made a pot too, hopefully when it is glazed and fired I can put a pic on here.

Pics of Quilts

April already, goodness how time flies, I have been busy making Quilt squares for the Brisbane Floods, a lovely lady in Melbourne is sewing the squares together and then giving the finished Quilts to people who have lost everything, which is nice, also a quilt for Japan which I have yet to finish,
This first quilt is for my first Great Grandson Zack.
Also Pillowcases for a Cancer Chriuty in Oxford.

Quilts

February 2011

February goodness shortest month and has been really bad for people in Australia and New Zealand.
Floods and Cyclone and then Earthquakes too. have been busy making quilt as you go blocks for flood relief in Brisbane, must get them posted off too, and have finished 2 of my quilts, one just a top which I am really pleased with, hope I have a picture on here soon too, also am finishing the 25 sauares quilt, this is for me as a laptop quilt, as we are off to Luckshall in Herefordshire, for a couple of days with SGL 6, new place so should be cool. we have some tents we thought we'd sell so we took a drive up to my friend Chris and used her grass,(we don't have any) and Bob drove the Camper on tothe grass and got bogged down we had to wait for about 4 hours for a guy to come over with a truck and pull us out, thank you, they were great.
when we got the tent up we had not brought the poles, so good job we had not gone camping, or that would have been terrible..
we are still waiting for our Great Grandchild to be born, The midwife said to wait till the 12th March and then they will induce her, Zack is being difficult.
then we had a another radiator leak in the hall, needed a new radiator. Our daughters x hubby died from lung cancer and we had his funeral, the kids were really upset, then the next week it was Sarah's 21st and alos news that Sev was going in the Navy on the 25th July, Paul would have been so proud of them all. so another fun filled Feb.

New Year

We have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year,
we spent Christmas with friends, Dennis is just recovering from a heart operation and Madge his sister is over from Sydney to look after him, the meal was fantastic and great company too.
New Year we rented a house in Walton for 11 people and our family all came down and stayed over the week, which worked out really well, Kayleigh who is 7 months pregnant had to go home early as she was not feeling very well and needed to be at home, then our daughter and husband with Daughter Alice came up on the Thursday. then Rebekah, Alysha and Haydn left on the Friday.
Stuart, Susanne, Isabel, Jace and myself went to a Pantomine on the Sunday in Clacton. it was a brilliant show and so much fun, we shouted ourselves hoarse,
Annemarie took some really good photos even in the fog.

End of November 2010

Have been working like a little trojan all month, even managed to have two rotten head colds as well, really not nice, have done four place mates and a gorgeous casserole Pot holder, and a coupole of random pot holders too, oh and a christmas neck bag. also started to make baby's quilt, must also try and do the curtains for James and Richard mattress cover for when he comes over in April to see his Grandson.

November

Well November is here and next month is December, oh gosh am not ready for this year to pass sooo quickly.
My todo list is getting longer but at least I am getting through it slowly.
TO DO
--Phone Opticians. *
--Passport photos *
--Check Wills *
--Do Xmas Cards *
--Make Pot holder *
--Finish placemat *
--Post parels *
--Post Blue Badge *
--go to Tip *
--Postage stamps
--ring Sue about 17th Nov and 21st Nov

am recovering from a nasty cold, very bad headache and sore throat. not a good start for the new month,
but have had a visit from an old friend which was nice and had a long chat with Stuart on skype which was lovely.



well nearly done.

Learn 2 Quilt Online: November Giveaway - Learn 2 Quilt Online

Learn 2 Quilt Online: November Giveaway - Learn 2 Quilt Online

October

This October started with my -- Birthday, am going to forget what year it was, but had a lovely day, phone calls from each of my children which was lovely, and Grandchildren too.
I have been wanting to have a proper computer table and we found one on Gumtree in Braintree for £15, it fits a treat and now have a command desk for all correspondence will take some pictures soon and put them on here, Chris from across the road helped and he was a great help, did most of the bending.
Then a week later we had a look AGAIN for a cover for the little plastic greenhouse as the little plastic bits had fallen olut and were letting the water through, Homebase had a bigger one so we got that, came home and NO Instructions, WELL, no can do so we hauled it back and said no we'll have the money back. so we wandered outside into the gardening area and found a 6' X 4' aluminium framed greenhouse for nearly £60 cheaper than the label which was great. Then we spen the next 4 days with friends Nick and Lindy putting the thing up, Poor Hubby hurt all his finger tips, BUT it is UP and have one set of shelves and looking to get a potting table, which is prooving really difficult, but maybe have to build our own.
And wednesday went to my Quilting Club in Dovercourt which was good fun and we raised £606 for the Essex Air Ambulance, which we willl be giving a cheque to next month. When they were told this they were really amazed at how much we had raised in days and were really pleased.

Long Time

Goodness it is a long time since I wrote anything. have been busy quilting the last few weeks and have been away to Holt for an Astronomy week which was really good, we had a couple of good viewing nights, and had a nice break, met up with old friends too. Also met up Cousins who live in Norfolk, Ephne and her daughter Alaine, and also Ephne's sister and husband from America, we had a great day and the weather was wonderful, really great to catch up, Melva and Davis got home safely too after all the Volcanic ash in the air, no planes were flying, but they flew after the al clear.
Had a great month in May, had to have a blood test which was amazing as have very bad veins and he got the needle in first time, good!!!!
Also got to see the Grandchildren in Ipswich for a few hours, nice to see them. also got to talk to our son and his wife and children in Australia, Skype is wonderful. Last Wednesday went to the Quilting Forum and met up with Janet again, she was in Italy so connection very intemittent, but she'll be home for the June one, also go to meet Thea and added her to Facebook too which was really great, received an email shortly after for the BOM and realized Thea was the Tutor, really nice lady and hope she joins us again in June, was good to meet up.

Kitchen

Oh what a couple of weeks we have had, Thanks goes to Rod for all the hard work he did and the excellent job he did with the boiler and heating, also great work James, who has taken the kitchen apart and then rebuilt it, and done the painting as well, also thanks to John we have swapped breakfast bar stools for a table and chairs, gorgeous ones too.

The first week Bob and I had a cold and felt rotten, Bob had a nasty cough too and then I got a urine infection, the following week I developed a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotics and was covered in a rash head to foot and now have to wear an ID bracelet, not to ever take them again as could be dangerous to my health.

Now we just have to get rid of all the wood and cardboard boxes and just dust and hoover all over the house, amazing where the dust gets too,
Have a new cupboard upstairs as the water heater has gone, is also nice and warm too.

My month in January

Had a good start to the New Year, spoke to the kids which is always nice. everyone said they had had a good time. went downhill from there though, cannot start the Campervan and cannot find anyone to fix the Gearbox, don't hear back from the garages we have rung, then go to Nurse for HRT and now have High Blood Pressure, so no HRT and new pills to see if HRT causing the HBP. don't know how long it will be before Doc decides what is causing it and then what to do about it. then we had the snow, oh that was lovely, built some lovely snowmen only some people just cannot resist knocking the heads off. oh weel build it again! Bob had a blood test and his cholesterol was too high so have to go see the Doc again!!! good telling off from her. Four birthdays this month, Dad this will be his 91st so doing well, this is a bad month for me as is the month my mum died and is always hard.Had a visit from my brother who was 61 this month, he is waiting for a hip op, IF we get campervan fixed will go up and help as cannot look after himself for a few weeks. Fingers crossed e are getting a new boiler and two new radiators upstairs which will be absolute heaven.

Sewland Overlocker Manual

This is a manual for a small Overlocker

Richard quilt

This is a quilt I made for my son Richard, who lives in Australia, this quilt is made from Flannette material so has no batting only a back.
He lives in Queensland so it only gets cold in the winter and he used it to snuggle under when watching the television in the cooler evenings.
I started this quilt on a "do your own thing" quilting week at Belstead in Suffolk in September 09.
It was a challenge as I had never done the sugar bowl pattern around the edges, but it came together really well and was very pleased with it,
It is now in Australia

Quilt for James

This is a laptop quilt I have made for James my youngest son, it is a reversable quilt, and I have had great fun making it, he is colour blind so the main colour is Black and White and mainly earth colours on the reverse.

Salisbury holiday

We went to 6d handley in August for a meeting of Astonomers with lots of telescopes. great fun was had by all. there was a beautiful church in the next grounds and a really peaceful cemetary. We spent a week here and made loads of new friends.
there was a BBQ on the Saturday which was very tasty and then as a surprise the organisers had a Planetsphire show and that was truely amazing, I had not realised the sun was quite as big as it is.
The weather was glorious and hot with a few clear nights for the Astronomers. We are off again in September to Kelling Heath for another Sky Camp so fingers crossed for the weather and nice clear nights.