Another quick quilt!

I managed to whip this is up in less than two weeks!  Bought the kit from a super store on East Katella in Orange http://www.orangequiltbee.com/ - the lady had pointed OH and the boys in the direction of a local park so I could wander around the shop by myself - whoo hoo - and I fell in love with this at first sight:

(the quilt not the boy - have loved him for years!).

The quilt was $92 and when I said to the lady that I would treat myself to it as it was my birthday she said "If your birthday is 7 days before or after todays date you get a 25% discount" - swoon - what a fabulous birthday present is that!  So of course I bought it (and a few other items) - would have been rude not to wouldn't it!

I kept it the same as the sample apart from the borders where I added in the extra red and yellow bits on the sides - because doing so meant I could keep a big piece of the border material to make a super backing:

I have only quilted around the edges of the black pieces on the front and backs.  To do so I put the front piece and wadding together and quilted around the first set of black strips, then I tucked and folded the front piece in on itself to fit within that quilted square and pinned it all, I then positioned the back piece onto the wadding and quilted around the black strips through just that piece of material and the wadding - managing to avoid the front piece as it was all pinned out of the way.  Then I refolded the back piece on itself in the same way and unpinned and flattened out the front and quilted around the outer black strips on the front piece.  That way I haven't had to have any sewing lines on the back that I didn't want.  I am not really a fully fledged quilter yet so I am not sure whether this is the correct way to do it but the Quilt Police havent knocked on my door yet and the quilt hasnt fallen to pieces either so I am assuming I am ok!  The lady who created the quilt had done some lovely free hand quilting all over the front but I have left mine plain.  Now we are all fighting over it as to whose bed it goes on!

Thanks for looking and don't forget to join in the blog hop tomorrow if you love quilts, the link is here Red, White and Blue blog hop and my blog hop day is 11th July.

Off to the school Summer Fayre from Solihull

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge week 10

Not been able to join the last couple of weeks of these due to being Stateside - however last weeks challenge which is Tissue Wrap Flowers on page 37 of T!ms A Compendium of Curiosities vol 2, which is also sponsored by The Funkie Junkie has been extended a further week so I have found some time this afternoon to put this together:

Background is done with Picket Fence, Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans distress stains.  The stamps are from T!ms Nature Collection and Indigo Blu's Wild Meadow sets and are inked with Peeled Paint distress ink.  The tree and bird are from T!ms Bird on a branch die inked with Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade.  The tissue flowers are white tissue stamped with a script stamp in either Wild Honey or Spiced Marmalade - they are all done with 1" tissue squares.  Inked the edges of the whole piece with Vintage Photo and popped a bling eye on the bird to finish. 

All in all a fun afternoon!  Also managed to finish my huge Dr Seuss quilt today but need to wait for OH to get home to hold it up to photograph it as its far too big for the children even if I got them to precariously balance over the banister!

Thanks for looking - Feeling Like I have Achieved Something from Solihull

T!ms June Tag

Here is my take on T!ms June tag:

I used Barn Door, Vintage Photo, Broken China, Worn Lipstick and Picket Fence stains on the background tag along with some new Artistic Outpost London stamps (ironically bought in the States last week).  The piece behind the image is a Union Flag which is done with Broken China and Barn Door with a Creative Expressions template.  I didn't have a black and white photo to colour in so I stamped out a London image (Penny Black - again bought in the States last week!) which I coloured in with various distress inks.  Finished off with a metal bicycle, key and pen nib - I am sure I have a Big Ben charm squirreled away in my stash somewhere so when I find it I will add that on as well, Union Flag ribbon and red, white and blue twine.  The ticket is from a huge roll I bought from Target and the photo slide is T!ms attached with a tiny attacher - I might add 2012 on to this just need to find the right font or pen!

I think my mojo has returned now as I managed to do this at my crop yesterday (amazing as I never get anything done at a crop no matter how much I prepare beforehand! too busy chatting I guess) and today I finished off the front of a Dr Seuss quilt I bought last week too (it's fab - check back later this week as I am hoping to have finished it by then - I am also taking part in a quilting blog hop from next Sunday too - whoo hooo - my day is 11th July so ages to go yet but I have had my quilts ready for weeks now! very exciting).
Thanks for looking - Itching to get stitching from Solihull

A last goodbye

Finally got to lay my Nan and my Great Uncle Wilf to rest today:

This is Uncle Tony, Great Auntie Diane, Great Auntie Marge, Uncle Dave, Auntie Jackie, Mom, Christopher (my cousin) and me.

and this one has my Dad on:

guess who were taking the photos!

This poem is for both of them:

God’s Garden

God looked around his garden
And found an empty place,
He then looked down upon the earth
And saw your tired face.

He put his arms around you
And lifted you to rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful
He always takes the best.

He knew that you were suffering
He knew you were in pain.
He knew that you would never
Get well on earth again.

He saw the road was getting rough
And the hills were hard to climb.
So he closed your weary eyelids
And whispered, ‘Peace be thine’.

It broke our hearts to lose you
But you didn’t go alone,
For part of us went with you
The day God called you home.

Anon

Slowly catching up

Hi everyone and thanks for all your recent comments, sorry I haven't had a chance to reply to you all but I would just like to say that I did have a fabulous birthday - thank you all - I was whisked away to the Happiest Place on Earth - Disneyland California - unfortunately blogger doesn't seem to want to post any pictures today so I can't share any with you (even though I took 1,414!).

Oooh finally got the problem sorted - here we are were:

We landed back in England late Friday afternoon and then finally got home at 8pm on the evening. The eight hour time difference has taken it's toll this time and we are all shattered! I will hopefully catch up with some crafting later this week although I have such a busy schedule planned that my head is currently spinning!

Thanks for looking - Feeling Sleepy from Solihull

A Birthday card

Here is a card I have made for my father in laws birthday which is today:

I used a creative expressions mask for the background flag with barn door and broken china distress inks.  The bunting stamps are by Inkylicious and the rest are all by Creative Journey.  Finished with the Naturally Serif sizzix alphabet letters and twine.

Thanks for looking - Still partying from Solihull

Another layout

I did this layout a while ago and had left it one side to "finish off".  I got it out earlier today and looked at it but then decided "you know what - it's done!" so apart from adding white pen to give the spiders eyes I have left it as is (no stamping or anything!).

I used a MME Haunted House flock cardstock as the background with a sheet of kraft resist coloured with Barn Door distress stain on the right hand side.  Other items used were: On the edge Pennants die, Once Upon a Time alphabet (the letters "my devils"), Limelight alphabet (the number "3"), black cardstock, the Wrought Iron Gate and Fence are Memory box dies.  The skull and bats are a T!m die kindly lent to me by Jackie and the whole thing is edged with Black Soot distress ink.

It was my other halfs idea for them all wear their no. 6 tops and be called the three devils!  Not a bad title for a non scrapper is it!  although 6/6/6? is also my birthday so I could have gone down that route too.....

Thanks for looking - Off to spend my Birthday money from Solihull

Happy Birthday to me!

Yay don't you just love birthdays!

Last weekend I had the urge to do a layout! I know! must have been the lovely weather we had last week.....  Anyway I sat myself down after a lovely sunday lunch and made this:

Not bad for someone who is totally off scrapbooking at the moment is it!  It is based on a April 2012 Page Map sketch - think I am finally getting to grips with sketches (its taken me about 7 years!) and  uses up some old Basic Grey birthday papers: Make A Wish, Frosting, Assembly Required, Pinata and I don't have the name for the yellow piece as it was obviously used on something else a long time ago! The stamps used are Enjoy the Journey (Vintage Aviation) by Creative Expressions; Compass by Tabbykat; Finger, number strip and fancy strip are Daily Junque by Pink Paislee; Bike, "Travel", "Destination" are by Royal Langnickel; "King of the Road" is from Road Trip by Inkadinkado and the butterflies are from Wild Meadow by Indigo Blu - they are coloured in with distress markers and finished off with Zvacreative crystals.  I also used a black soot distress marker, Vintage photo distress ink and Jet Black archival ink.

All in all a happy way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for looking - all scrapped out from Solihull