BossyOz

The amazing hand made pall which she was the driving force behind Hand flower including hexagon Vila i frid / rest in peace

Having refocused my life to prioritise things I enjoying doing, rather than letting work rule everything, I am spending more and more time volunteering. One of the organisations I support is the Swedish Church in London. The ' Syjunta ', sewing club in English, meets every two weeks during term time. All of the ladies speak Swedish and most of them are well and truly retired, some having moved to England more than 60 years ago. I affectionately call the ladies who are part of the Syjunta 'my sewing grannies'. I never met one of my grandmothers (mormor) as she passed away when my mother was a teenager, and my other grandmother (farmor) passed away when I was still very young, but I remember her lovely singing voice and painting talents with fondness. Recently, the Syjunta lost one of our amazing members to cancer; her quilting skills were second to none, but she never ever wanted to hear how good she was. A lovely, humble lady, who never had any children of her ow...

As part of the work with the UKQU website, I was given some Makower Christmas fabrics to make something with - more or less free marketing for Makower and a chance to play with some fabrics for me... I don't often accept 'making something for nothing', but this being the Scandi 2018 range and being allowed to keep the makes, I couldn't resist. With the bright sunlight this weekend it was rather difficult to get great pictures, and one is definitely out of focus.. Head over to  ukqu.co.uk  to see the full article, including a short tutorial on how I made the runner.

My sister bought a new sofa and the parents said it was purple / plum. Not knowing the exact colour I opted for a scrappy cushion cover in various purple and lilac colours. As I had some leftover, I also made three coasters.  By reusing the hardware from lanyards at work (we rebranded and everyone got new lanyards), I made around 50 new lanyards, some of which were donated to charity. DD1 made me proud whilst designing and sewing this LOVE-ly quilt for her little sister's dollies. One of my work colleagues emigrated to the United States and couldn't bring all her fabrics with her.... This is one of the bags I made with the fabrics I got from her. Thanks Jo ! As DD2 already has a large-ish quilt, it was time to make one for DD1. Her favourite colour is yellow, as may may have guessed. It still needs to be quilted, but at least the top is pieced! 

Having had a break from quilting bees for a while, I volunteered as an angel block maker for the Siblings Together Bee 4 which started at the end of this year. These are some of the ones I made.

As usual I made and donated various items with Dala horses (dalahästar) on to the Christmas Fair at the Swedish Church in London. The best sellers, by far, are the kitchen towels and the dribble bibs.

To celebrate that Camilla, one of the members at the Swedish Church in London has been ordained, the "sewing grannies" / stitch and bitch / the sewing club / Syjuntan made her a surprise gift and memento of the event. Those who could contributed a block with a green shirt. I turned them into a wall hanging which we gave to Camilla today. In the Swedish Church, the deacon wears a green shirt, hence the symbolic choice of block and colour.

The work with the pall for the Swedish Church in London is entering the final stages. After almost three years and over 1,500 hexagons pieced together by hand by 10-15 volunteers on a monthly and sometimes bi-weekly basis it has now returned back from the long arm quilters. The quilting was made using a leaf pantograph with a medium green thread. Detail from the spring season The pall is huge almost 4 meters long and a bit over 2 meters wide. The ladies are busy finishing off the edge by hand. Hopefully it'll be fully finished in a few weeks time. Long arm quilting by The Quilt Room in Dorking ( link )

This cover fits UK standard packs of soft packs of baby wipes., e.g. the Pampers packs with 56 wipes. Approx finished size is 18 x 11 x 3 cm (7 1/4 x 4 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch) If this is the end of the tutorial, please click the link below saying READ MORE >>

I haven't had as much time as I have hoped to get things ready for the Charity Christmas Fair this year, as DH has been doing lots of travelling and I am also busy preparing for Baby 3 arriving some time in October.  Currently I am working on five of these star blocks. I haven't yet decided if I make some more and turn it into a larger rectangular table runner, or if I keep them as separate blocks. Individually they'll be almost as place mats or "mug rugs". In the end it really comes down to what I believe we'd get most money by selling. There seem to be a magic limit for how much anyone is prepared to pay for a table runner, and based on that we'll probably raise more money by selling them individually. I have based these on the blocks we used for the Hugs Quilt , but simplified it down to only two colours.

This vintage fabric was a donation and I decided to create some items which we can sell at the charity Christmas Fair. The little hook is great for little hands to hold and shake (bell inside!).

I know it is August, but it is already time to prepare for the annual charity Christmas Fair in November.   I am really struggling to find inspiration, and there are so many other things I like to do before Baby 3 arrives. I have however managed to "help" the local fabric shop to get rid of some of the Christmas fabrics from last year... A definite win-win as they gave me a rather good price. Thanks!

I am honoured to be part of a group of quilters making a memorial quilt for one of our members who has suffered a terrible loss. We are all making the same block, using our own fabrics from a pre-agreed set of colours. Seeing everyone's contributions so far, it is going to look absolutely fabulous! Although, so sad we are making the quilt to start with  ;-(

The Christmas Fair at the Swedish Church in London opens to the general public tomorrow Thursday. Then it's closed on Friday, before opening again on Saturday and Sunday. Just make your way to Harcourt Street (close to Edgware Road, Marleybone and Baker Street stations) in London. This year I have made and donated only child related items as they sold well last year. The other  ladies have all been busy making Christmas related items. I am going to be in the stall tomorrow morning through to early afternoon. Please come by and say Hello! or Hej! My items include: Long-eared soft cuddly fleece rabbits, wetwipe covers, crinkly squares, pencil rolls and fleece hats have all been delivered ahead of the VIP opening tonight and the general opening tomorrow. 

Today, I have finally managed to create something for the Christmas Fair!!! I made some covers for packs of wetwipes as the ones for pocket tissues  Kickssons made last year sold really well. Hopefully these will be popular too! If you are interested in making these, but don't fancy 'winging it', please come back as I am preparing a tutorial for this simple but fun little project.

I stumbled upon these colourful fabric posters today - they'll be absolutely fabulous for bags to donate to the charity Christmas fair!!! Can't wait to get sewing! Note to self: Next time, get more than three!

The work with that pall for the Swedish Church in London is progressing and I believe we were 14 at the day-time sewing session this week! It was also delivery day for all our hand crafted items to be sold at the Easter fair during the next few weeks at the church. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take photos of all the fantastic things the other ladies had created. Perhaps Kikkan will publish some photos of all the lovely things she had made? If you live in London, do stop by the church and see if there is something that you could find a new home for. Remember, all the money goes to the activities of the church, including the much needed renovation of the facade of the building itself.

For the Easter fund raising at the Church I have managed to make five bags.  Four of them were made using the Retro Bag pattern from One Year Wonders, and one was made using the instructions on Knåpmodern for a nursery bag (dagiskasse).  Dagiskasse and one of the two almost identical bags made out of thick woven curtain fabric. The latter two bags feature a dark green lining and a pocket on the inside. Elephants with a large gingham lining. I am not actually sure what the character is called (any ideas???), but on the inside is a lime green fabric matching the sack on the front. Both the outer fabrics were donations to the church. Work permitting, it's time to meet up with the Sewing Grannies tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed we don't have a disaster on any of my projects!

During the last week I've tested a new pattern for bags. I am hoping to finish these off soon, so I can  donate them to the Easter fair at the Swedish Church in London. Both of the bags have a fixed shoulder strap, a small inside pocket, green lining and pleats on the front. The fabric is thick and was given to me by a neighbour and I believe it has been used for curtains in her house.

The work with the pall for the Swedish Church in London is progressing, slowly. I published a photo of the middle section, the road, in October ( click for entry ). At the moment we are working on the four areas around the road, each representing a season. As everything is hand sewn it is a rather slow process, but great fun! Our latest thinking is that we should try to focus the summer season on blue, yellow and red to make sure they all match each other. Some of the "flowers" in the picture above has therefore been moved to other seasons or been put in the "perhaps" pile. A rough count in the photos shows that we have stitched together a little over 500 hexagons, plus the road; someone mentioned that we probably need around 2000...