Pretty patchwork

This year I have mostly been patchworking... I started paper piecing a number of hexagons after Christmas and have been very slowly putting them together ever since.

Once all the hexagons were completed I had some fun arranging them along the bottom edge of the curtains I was making, I then took a number of photos of them to act as a patchwork map for joining them all back together.

Months later I had finished joining them and sewing them onto the curtains... final seams and bits were done last night and today I finally have put them up, hooray!

Don't they look so very pretty and lovely hanging up in Emily's room?

Patchwork weekend

Last weekend was spent at a sewing machine in North Yorkshire.

My lovely husband was in charge of the kids for a three day weekend while I got to spend all that time learning how to do patchwork. I stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast in Burniston (near to Scarbourgh) where I was provided with plenty of lovely food as well as being surrounded by so many beautiful patchwork items that it almost made you dizzy.

The lady who taught us (we were a group of 6 ladies all working on different patchwork projects) is called Maggie Martin and she runs regular courses in all aspects of patchwork. As well as keeping all 6 of us busy with our various projects and helping some of us more novice patchworkers (ie me) she also kept us provided with some very lovely meals. Her courses are well worth the money so if you are local to Yorkshire then definitely give them a try.

I really loved making these two cushions (in case you are curious the block design is called 'dutchmans puzzle') and I now have a much better appreciation of the time and effort that goes into doing patchwork!

Finishing off - continued

So far I seem to be doing quite well with my resolution to finish off some of my long forgotten projects. I've finally gotten round to putting the last touches on my patchwork - all that was needed was a lining adding and then it was done.

Did any of you manage to guess what it is?

Top marks for anyone out there shouting "it's a tea cosy!" go and make yourself a cuppa right now as a reward for your good sense.

For a girl who loves her tea as much as I do it seems crazy that I've never had one of these, so when we were given the option to try making one at my local mum's craft group I jumped at the chance. Now I just need to invite some friends round for tea and cake and show it off to the world.

I've also finished off some more squares for the SIBOL project which got sent out a few days ago. Sue who runs the project has already written a blog post about them (she is so very organised!) which you can find here. So much granny square goodness over there, even though I've just finished up a pile of squares it gets me itching to make a few more.

So now I'm off to sort through some more of my neglected projects, but perhaps I'll have a cup of tea first to get me in the mood...

Patchwork progress

Some of you may remember my post back in September about trying a bit of patchwork at my weekly craft group.

Well I thought it was time that I showed you how it was getting on. As you can see I've joined all the little hexagons together now (using something called the "English method") and I'm almost finished sewing it down to the backing fabric.

It looks a bit of a strange shape doesn't it - can any of you guess what it is going to be?

Miniature patchwork

For the last week I've been sewing like a maniac trying to finish off what is probably my oldest UFO.

My older sister used to do a little part time work for a local fabric store and her one perk would be that she would get the occasional offcut. One day she came home with a small plastic bag full of these tiny squares of fabric - they had been samples that the shop owner had given her. She gave them to me and so the patchwork began. These squares are tiny - 2cm x 2cm and all of them I've had to hand sew together (324!)

Well that was about 14 years ago now and this patchwork has been done in little bits for many years in a number of different homes. Every now and then I would take it out and add a few more squares then put it away again. Now in my fever to finish off all my different projects I have finally put the last squares together and I'm ready to turn the
whole thing into a cushion. I've added a border of purple corduroy fabric and once I've bought a suitable zip I'll finish the whole thing off. I love this cushion and I'm so excited that it is almost finished - but I probably will have to keep it locked away for fear of ruining it.

Tomorrow I'm off on holiday for a week - but hopefully when I get back I'll have something to show you for my time away, I just have to decide what crafty goodness to pack!