Family Day Out with Quilt Inspiration

Today the sun was shining and it actually felt like summer!

We headed out for a while to the Ulster Folk Museum which is not too far from home.  It's an open air museum of traditional homes and businesses from the past and if you should ever visit NI I heartily recommend it for a pleasant day out (especially if the sun is shining).  Many of the oldest buildings - churches, cottages and schoolhouses - were once situated in various parts of Northern Ireland and have been transported brick by brick or stone by stone and rebuilt in the park rather than become lost to development.  Today there was a lot of street theatre happening around the village and at some of the rural homesteads too.

Me and the Bean - in front of the Old Rectory

It was break time at the schoolhouse,
so I tried playing on stilts - not my forte!

This is one of my favourite cottages in the museum park.

Inside my favourite cottage - I'm not arty or good with
a camera but I loved what the sunlight was doing
with this window recess and the geranium.

Cross Stitch in all its antique loveliness

Anyway, among the thatched cottages and workmen's terraced houses, the old school houses and weaver's cottages I found some quilting inspiration. See?

The tiled floor in an old Roman Catholic Church

A hexagon/star/square cushion in the Old Rectory

Bed quilt

Single Irish Chain quilt - though I suspected this one was made
 recently to "assist'" the exhibit rather than being genuinely of the period.

There was a truly scrappy quilt in the courthouse steps pattern in the blacksmiths house.  It was made from pieces which cannot have been more than 0.75" wide and looked to me to be the oldest quilt (certainly the most well-worn) on display in the properties we were in today.  I tried to take a picture but the room was really tiny and filled with other visitors so it didn't come out. I wish the museum would provide a little more information on the quilts, but that's purely because of my personal interest, and probably not of interest to the masses.

There was a tiny bit of mummy sewing later in the afternoon.  As a mum, I sewed the Bean's latest swimming achievement to his swim bag.  Not so exciting to you but a big excitement to him.

And then, for my own mum I made another little pocket tissue cover - this time using a different tutorial (from Sew Much 2 Luv) and to match her birthday handbag.

Wee tissue cover - not the most exciting pic in the world, I grant you.

The birthday bag - blogged earlier

There wasn't maybe as much sewing achieved today as I'd have liked, but as you can see it was never too far from my mind.  Hope you are having a great weekend too!

A Challenge, an Update and a Promise

The Challenge 

Yesterday, my lovely nine year old son set me a challenge - to make something small very quickly and he would be timing me on his ipod stopwatch.  Hey presto, 15 mins or so later and I had a bright little tissue holder for my summer bag.  I've seen these on various blogs and always wanted to try one out, so this was my chance.  In fairness most of the 15 minutes was spent choosing and cutting the fabric strips, not in the actual making up.

Sadly my time doesn't show up in this pic, but my son insists I include it!

Pocket Tissue Holder

The Update

Last night was class night and I made some progress on my Beach Huts Cushion.

It looks nice and tidy all trimmed off and squared up ready for adding the back.  Doesn't it look cheery?  The was a lot of quilting in this little cushion front and my bunting string looks slightly like it was caught in a gust of wind rather than hanging nicely on a calm summer's day, but I tried to smooth it out three times and it just seems that breeze was determined to blow!

The Promise

Just a few days ago I noticed my son eyeing up some of the JoAnn's fabrics that I received recently.   He struck up a conversation and in the end I found myself promising to make him a new pencil case from the fqs he had chosen.  Actually, I was delighted that he wanted me to make him something.  Sometimes it feels so difficult to find things to make for boys - there are loads of little possibilities for girls but no so much for boys. Anyway, here is his new pencil case courtesy of me (and of course Terri's great tutorial) - 

Hope he's happy when he sees it in the morning!  Please note - promise kept!

Actually, all these little things and Agnes cushion are part of my attempt to clear a few things off my list before they become UFOs.   I realised that life has been so crazy this last couple of months and as that looks set to continue I need to be careful not to commit to too many projects at one time or I will end up with the world's largest UFO list!  So, in an effort to keep myself on track I'm keeping a wee note of current projects and what I hope to achieve in a given month.  Then at the end of the month I have something to review and see how I did - hopefully, this will also keep my WIPs from becoming UFOs.

At last Agnes has a cushion!

A number of projects have been sidelined by this summer's unexpected turn of events.  I'd left a little pile under the table in the sewing room and sort of forgot about them temporarily.  Among them was Agnes' cushion front - originally blogged here.  All it needed was a backing and a filler to be complete, and of course to be able to be gifted to Agnes.

I still love those Greenfield Hills blues!

Caroline's All Heart

Yes, she is, 'cos this fab lady is planning to make quilts, yes plural, to raise money for the worthwhile cause that is Cancer Research.  Caroline has sent out a wee call for help in the form of blocks and since 99% of you who read this will be lovers of block-making, perhaps you can give her a wee hand.

Check out her blog for more details, but basically she's after an 8" square block with an appliqued heart on it.

Personally I dithered over opting in, not because I didn't want to help such a great cause, but because I don't really know how to applique except by hand.  Bull by the horns time, Sarah!  Yep, I practiced (no photo 'cos it would frighten poor Caroline) and then had a stab at a simple single heart.

I did it!  I did it!  I tell you, folks, some days I even impress myself (not often mind).  This block is probably officially the world's slowest machine appliqued heart, but here it is, its not fancy but I hope it will suit Caroline's project well.  It's actually a lovely deep red but my pics make it look very orange, and I promise the stitching is nice and neat even if you can't see it very well here.

Beach Hut Beginnings

Made a wee start at the Beach Huts foundation piecing at class last night.  I loved the fun and freedom of this design - choosing cute and amusing fabrics to create fairytale beach huts.  Wouldn't you like to spend a sunny summer afternoon in one of these?

Pulling fabric fun!

There's a new project on the go this week at class - Judith's going to take us through the steps to create her amazing Beach Huts cushion.  So I spent the afternoon hoking (it means having a good old rummage for those of you not familiar with this fab Northern Ireland word) in my scraps box for suitable bits and bobs to make the cushion.  So, here's my fabric "draft"

I love it so far, although it might need a little tweak here or there when wise and critical eyes have had a look too.  It's very bright but I'm going for the children's drawing look.  I love the sea fabric that looks like it has little jellyfish all over it.  Don't the huts look like they're wearing turbans with the fabric folded across them like this?

My plan is that this little project will be the start of my Christmas gifts and if it turns out as well as I hope it will be destined for a special two and a half year old girl.  There is no doubt a small issue of the unseasonal nature of a beach huts cushion gifted in December, but she's two and a half and I am well known for my unseasonal touches (I once made a full on Sunday lunch with all the trimmings in May and it turned out to be the hottest day of the year so we all ate it - apple crumble and all - at a plastic garden table in full glorious baking sunshine).  I may not be seasonal but at least I'm consistent.

Farmer's Wife Blocks

A few more FW blocks to join my first two:

Block 2 - Autumn Tints

Block 68 - Postage Stamp

Block 73 - Rainbow Flowers

Block 92 - Streak of Lightning

Still very much playing catch up with these little blocks, but life is throwing other stuff at us lately so these blocks need to remain a pleasure not a pressure and they have been fun to make so far.  Of this little group I think my favourite is the Streak of Lightning.