5 More Sleeps!

Good morning lovely people! What a difference the beautiful weather makes huh? So today I'm linking up with the Fat Quarterly Linky Party, for all of us crazy people going to London!


I was busy yesterday, doing this:

AND I'm actually going down to London a day early (Friday), there's only 5 more sleeps for me!! Yey!


For those of you who don't know me already, I'm Laura (you can call me Lauli) Jane, Hello! My friend Lynne says I have hair like Farrah Fawcett, which sometimes is true:

Other times, like today, I slap on a bit of red lippy and try for a "Rosie the Riveter" kinda look:

I'm always wearing those giant specs though, so you should be able to tell which one is me. Don't confuse me with Katy. She wears giant specs too. But she is tall and skinny.

I'll also be wearing this name tag, made for me by Teresa Hilly Filly:

I'm driving down to London on Friday, stopping half way to pick up my partner in crime, Susan and that uber talented Canadian one, Leanne. I am staying at The Grange Strathmore,  sharing a room with Susan and Annabella, which if I have anything to do with it, will be where the party's at!

Those of us staying at the grange are thinking of having an impromptu PJ party on Friday night. I wanted to wear this:

Available from New Look

Unfortunately, they were sold out. Shame.

Class wise, I am taking Frame Purses, Embroidery, Freezer Paper Piecing and Portholes. Holla if your in a class with me!!

I can't wait to meet you all! Loves xxx

Pouches!

I've been starting to get my stuffs ready for the Fat Quarterly retreat this weekend  (yes, I know there's still 2 weeks to go, I'm just an eager beaver!). I packed up all my separate bits for different classes into folders, and sorted out all my tools. My this quilting habit accumulates a lot of stuff doesn't it?!


I realised, as I was practice packing my bag (yes yes, geek alert... I practice pack) , that I don't have a pencil case! Or at least, I couldn't find the one I used to use for Uni... Well, I thought, that just won't do!

So I made one :o)

I've been crushing on red/black/grey quite hard recently, but don't really want a whole quilt in that colour scheme... this has definitely satisfied my cravings!

And then, as I was getting ready later on, I saw my poor excuse for a make up bag, and decided to make myself a new one of those too!

I think I've pretty much got zipper pouches down to a T now :-) Funny to think that a few months ago I was a big old scaredy cat when it came to zips!


The first one pretty much came out of my head, but the second one is loosely based on Noodle-Heads fab tutorial.


Don't they play well together? ;o)

There will be a fancy schmancy zipper pull on the make up bag too, I've just ran out of key rings!



A little bit of self indulgence does make the heart happy ;o)


Hope you've all had a good weekend too! 

Bloggers Quilt Festival - The Star Beast

While what seems like the rest of the population is lording it up at Quilt Market, I'm partying with the #notgoingtomarket crew on instagram and twitter. Come join us if you too are #notgoingtomarket!



The other good thing about quilt market time, is the bloggers quilt festival! The Star Beast is my entry to the festival. Its one of my most recent finishes, and my very favourite of all. 

A lot of my regular readers will be familiar with the story of the Star Beast, but if you are popping in for the first time, Hello! Grab a coffee and stay a while?

This quilt is the culmination of 6 months of work, by 13 different ladies, from 3 different countries. And I am so chuffing pleased with it... It just makes me smile.

Worst quilt picture ever, I know. But look at my dad, standing on a wall, in his slippers, in the rain , for me... ♥ him

It started here, in October '11, with an inspiration mosaic of stars, and a stack of Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley.11 smaller stacks of Hope Valley were sent out to far flung corners of the UK, where my girls worked their magic, and sent them back on their way.

I made a couple more stars and then pieced the top. I had a bit of a wobble while I was making it, and decided to send it out to be quilted. I'd never done that before, but I really wanted to love this quilt, and I was working myself up into quite a stress thinking about how to quilt it.

As it turns out, Long Armed Chris is some sort of quilting goddess! I knew I wanted a geometric pattern, like the Baptist Fan... but I was also toying with the idea of some sort of loopy star or flower design. Hey presto, Baptist Fans WITH flowers. How awesome is this???

I LOVE the quilting. The quilting just makes it.

I pieced the leftovers from the blocks into a long strip for the back to include all of our "siggy blocks", and used the very last pieces to make a scrappy binding.

Which I love.

I'm all about the scrappy binding recently. Which is weird, because I never used to like them that much.

I may have said it before a million times, but THIS is my new favourite quilt. Oh yes it is.

Quilt Stats

Namesake: The Star Beast by Robert Heinlein
Size: approx 70" x 70"
Fabric: Denyse Schmidt - Hope Valley for the front and binding,
plain sheet for the back.
Pieced by: Sarah, Fiona, Judith, Hadley, Jennie, Susan, Trudi, Judith, Terri, Jo, Ceri and me!

Quilting: Floral Baptist Fans by Christine Marriage 

Grannies gone wild

Or rather, I've gone wild. With grannies. Giant ones. 



They have taken over my life. 


I made 2 on Saturday evening.

Then 4 more on Sunday morning.

Then 3 more on Sunday night.

I've completely ran out of the Summersville now, and on friday, I had 3 metres of the stuff.That is the slight drawback with this pattern... very wasteful on the background fabric.


This quilt is going to be big, with each block finishing at 20" square (or near enough)... and I'm hoping to make it 5x5!

Saturday Sewing

We actually had some sun today, and it was so lovely! It must have nearing on the 57th day of rain... or something like that.


This morning I had to wait in for a techniciany person (yey for new TiVo, boo to not enjoying the sun). Since I had to be at home, I figured, why not make the most of it, and start piecing my fourth and final quilt top for siblings together. I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to do a giant nine patch, simply because the prints have such a large scale.

Well, I did that. And the guy still hadn't turned up. So I started quilting. And finished quilting. And cut the binding. Just as I started sewing it on, he arrived, did some magic with the telly, and left. I quickly finished the binding and headed off to my parents house for lunch (and better photo ops).

My dad knows the score now... at least this time he's not wearing slippers!

I had an extra helper today, Mr Walter Goggins, maine coon extraordinare :o)

Meanwhile, Winnie looked on disapprovingly...

And I got a few fancy pics of the flowers...

I backed and bound this quilt in the same fabric. A putty coloured gingham print which I got recently at the fabric guild.

So, just the 4 quilts to take to the retreat and drop off with Delma! Those, plus my Brit Bee Star Beast quilt, 3 sewing machines, 3 woman and all the kit required for a weekend of sewing debauchery, is going to make the journey down a bit of a squeeze! Leanne might even have to sit on Susans lap ;-)

Quilt Stats
Size: approx 56" x 56"
Fabric: Stockholm collection, by Holli Zollinger, provided by Spoonflower 

Sashed in Kona Coal

Backed and bound in a random gingham print

Pattern: Giant nine patch, with sashing
Quilting: Large scale free motion stipple

Lately

I feel like I've been being particularly un-crafty recently. I think its a threefold thing. Firstly, a lack of quick-finish projects. I've got some long term things on the go... but nothing very satisfying. Secondly, I've been busy sorting things out. Things for the retreat, things for holiday, things for work. Many things, most of them boring.  All of this topped off with my desire to save money for London. No new fabric for a while makes me drag my heels a little. Plus my weekends have been usually full of social activities recently! I don't know what's going on!


But, I do have a new quilt in my head. And a few things on the way. I'm waiting for some Summersville to arrive for the backing, then I can start piecing, yey! (This new fabric doesn't count in my fabric-diet. It can't do, I'm going stir crazy here!). Actually, whilst writing this post, it just arrived! Eeep! Its pretty!


So what have I been upto recently? Well, from my instagram feed, it looks a little bit like this:

Baking for the Kitchen Guild. Love this JosephJoseph bowl set!

A new knitting project, a Boneyard Shawl, in Malabrigo sock. Yey for knitting again! 

Double Kitty love!

Knitty Kitty Love!

A possible new quilt? Trying to decide whether a giant nine patch is a bit lame? Its for siblings together, and I don't have much time left before the retreat. Also, the patterns are very large scale, so I don't want to cut them up too much. Thoughts? (Obviously I would replace the cat with another, less furry, FQ).

And finally, my Summersville! 3 meters of Weave in Coal. Its hot off the press and I'm more than a little excited to cut into it... 

Everyone's a winner

Well, Denise is:

Because she won this fabric stack that Spoonflower provided for the Siblings Together Cause. Denise, I'm sending you an email right now!




And I am, because I got my name tag for the Fat Quarterly Retreat:

Its from Teresa and its very cute! Teresa also send a gorgeous Zakka pouch thing, but I failed to take a picture of it for some reason.   And look! It has my nickname on it!  I've seriously wanted a nickname for my whole life, and nothing good has ever stuck. But I like Lauli, and it does seem to have stuck, at least amongst you online peeps. I have Hadley to thank for that one I think!


My mom still calls me Lubes... but thats a different story.


Here I am modeling said name tag, looking like a bit of a loon:

So if you see a loon wearing this name tag at the retreat, it will be me... come and say Hi!


(Apparently loon is my word of the week...)