Blog Hop Update, and I need advice

Hello, how are things with you?

It's only a few days to the hop, Creating a Quilted Legacy - Following in Paula's Footsteps.

I hope you are looking forward to it. A reminder, it runs from Wednesday 6th May, which would have been Paula's 79th birthday, until Friday 8th May.  If you are reading this for the first time let me explain. Paula of PaulaB Quilts was a well known and well loved quilter who died in February after a short illness.  Paula had been quilting for many years and blogging since 2015.  Almost all of the quilts Paula made in the last few years were for charity, including Jack's Basket and Project Linus.  The hop is to honour Paula, and all the other quilters who make quilts for those in need.

There are prizes, which have all been donated by wonderful quilters, pattern designers and bloggers, especially generous at this time, with so much uncertainty. I will be giving the full list on Wednesday, along with details of all the wonderful participating quilters who have so generously made quilts which they will be donating to a variety of charities.

So, what have I been sewing recently? Well apart from making masks, which I won't be showing you as I'm sure you know what a mask looks like, not an awful lot to be honest. I'm still working on,

the wedding quilt. It's come on a lot since the last pic hasn't it? I have completed it up to the original design by Nydia, this is the tricky part now, adding another two rows one side, which as you can see I have started, and three rows on the bottom. However, since I took this pic I have completely changed the extra rows I started, twice.  I'm a bit further on but not much.

The thing is I will be ready to quilt it soon and the back is the autograph panel.

This is it, well, I still need to add the border which I think will be a triple of the background with a scrappy coloured strip in the middle, if you see what I mean.

My problem is what colour quilting thread to use? With all that silver grey Kona background I need to keep it light or it will detract from the messages, there again the colours on the front range from white to a dark blue, and I do prefer to use the same on both sides.  Get where I'm going here? I will be using Aurifil 50 thread and I'm leaning towards a grey, but what shade? Should it be Dove, Aluminium, or Light Grey?  Then there is the quilting itself, which needs to be light. The blocks on the front are 5 inch half square triangles and the wadding is Warm and Natural. I'm thinking the easiest option would be just wavy lines, I'm not a fan of diagonal quilting, I've had a bit of bother doing it in the past. I really want to get the thread ordered, just in case I have problems getting it. I noticed some waddings seem to be running out in some places and I want to make sure I have the thread I need, just in case a supply problem develops there too. I have a couple of quilt tops needing to be layered, I had not long since bought a twin size wadding and I admit, I just ordered a second one, although I won't be ordering any more, once I use it  any more flimsys will just have to wait.  While I think on, what colour binding should I use? There are very few colours included on both sides.  I really need some help here.

The only other things I have been stitching are cushions tops.

These are to match the little sofa quilt I made, Sarah loves the back as much as the front so I used up a lot of the scraps to make these three to match the back, although only one is quilted so far and I haven't put any backs on yet, and I will make another two to match the front.

That's all my news today, I do hope you will join us, there are a number of ladies posting on all three days. I will be posting on all days, I will show you my own contribution plus quilts from ladies who do not currently have blogs themselves but wanted to contribute a quilt for charity anyway.

I'm getting so excited now,
Until Wednesday,
with smiles from
Kate x

A Finish At Last

I know you don't believe it, I can hardly believe it myself, but it's true, I have actually finished a quilt. It's Confetti, the quilt made from the leftovers of the autograph panel I made for Chris and Sarah's wedding quilt.

And here it is! Made from the bonus half square triangles from the stitch and flip corners, plus some extra ones I made to bring in some more colours, and some plain squares. I kept the quilting simple, a quarter inch each side of the seam lines as it looks in the quilt from the free pattern from Kitchen Table Quilting. It was fairly quick and easy to do and I like the look, it keeps it nice and snuggly too, which is not always the case with heavily quilted quilts. I used two of their favourite colours for the binding, mainly the turquoise with just a splash of pink.

My favourite way to make a quilt back. I just cut a standard width of fabric lengthways, about a third from one edge, and insert a panel. I make the panel from the scraps left over from the adding a strip  of background to the top and bottom.

I had some more leftover scraps, and a few more HSTs too, I have three cushion tops made to match the back and I will make a some extra HSTs for two to match the front. Unfortunately I don't think I will have enough of the silver grey so I will need to order more, but I really don't want to do such a small order, so I will make those in a few weeks.

I have another quilt almost finished too, a Linus quilt for the blog hop next month, Creating a Quilted Legacy, but of course I can't show you that haha! If you missed it you can read more about it on this post, and we will let you know about details and prizes next week.

How are you all holding up in these turbulent times? It's pretty awful isn't it? Here in the UK we are in lockdown, as is half the world it seems. My husband and I are staying home, we go out to walk the dogs for about half an hour every day and the very occasional shopping trip. I try not to go to the supermarket, although I do need to go now. There is a small bakery a few minutes walk from us, just over the little bridge in the next village. It has a cafe normally which is closed of course, so they are now selling fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs, flour and sugar, and a variety of other stuff. I even bought loo roll there last week, well, it was a pack of toilet sheets that go in a dispenser, but it's the same sort of stuff and much better than to risk running out!  All that on top of the fresh bread, cakes, pastries and other bakery lines they usually sell. It's where I go for all my fresh stuff, about once or twice a week, and I will continue going there when this is all over too. After all, they are supporting the local community so it's only right we support them.

Did I tell you I was having a new kitchen installed? I did, and luckily it was finished just before we went into lockdown. I say finished, it needs decorating, I have bare plaster in places and the new radiator isn't connected yet as it needs the wall painting behind first. We were supposed to have it painted in April, but it's a casualty of the virus and will have to wait. I haven't a pic of the finished kitchen to date but I do have a couple of work in progress pics I can show you.

Oh yes, it was that bad. Two weeks it took, I had the little fold up table from my sewing room with a kettle or a toaster on (it was only big enough for one or the other at a time), and a microwave on the polished top of my little side table. I had a washing up bowl in the bath to wash the dishes, nightmare I can tell you. fortunately it was just me, hubby too the dogs up to the holiday home to live in relative luxury. Just as well, I couldn't have coped with them living here with the house in uproar.

So, what did I do while the kitchen fitters were here? Played in my sewing room of course! Apart from quilting Confetti, I did a little work on the wedding quilt.

I'm a lot further on now but this is stage one. I'm so pleased with it I just wish it was for me! I will tell you all about it later, it's not my design but I did get permission form the designer, Nydiak who is on Instagram, she also has a website. Check it out, she is so very talented, and she has had first place at QuiltCon for improv too. I think her work is stunning.


Ok, I wrote this about three weeks ago and I'm posting it now. Why the delay? I have been on information overload with the dreadful news echoed in almost every country in our world, I haven't been able to think about much else.  I am on awe of all those who work to keep us all safe, the doctors and nurses, healthcare assistants, cleaners and porters as well as all the others who work in healthcare. Then there are the other key workers, police, government officials, shop assistants, refuse collectors, bus drivers, delivery workers and all the others who work to keep everything in life going. Every one is a hero, all I have to do is stay home and not spread the virus.

I'd like to leave you with one thought, everything in life is transient. My grandmothers wore skirts down to their ankles, as a child in the 1960's I was in one of the first generations to wear a mini skirt. Yet in the grand scheme of things very little time had passed. It wasn't so long ago that people were dying of polio, now it has been eradicated from the world. This too will pass, I just need to keep reminding myself, and keep the television and radio turned off during the day.

There is so much in the world to be grateful for, I have a wonderful family, husband, children, grandchildren, parents and siblings, and I will have a new grandchild in the autumn. I am thankful for my blogging friends, for Janice from Color Creating and Quilting and Karen from KaHolly, you both supported me through one of the worst times of my life and support me still, and we haven't even met in person. I have much to thank you for. For my friends in this country too, Jan and Wendy, who saw me at my worst and didn't turn away.

Hold your family and friends close and love your neighbours, the world is a better place when we all help and support each other.

Until next time,
with love from,
Kate x

Following in Paula's Footsteps - A Special Blog Hop

On Saturday, February 8, the quilting world lost one of it's true treasures.  A sweet and generous quilter named Paula Budinger.  

A celebration of Paula's life will take place on Sunday March 1st in her home town. In honour of her life and love of quilting we would like to invite all of you to participate in a blog hop to commence on May 6th, which would have been her 79th birthday, until May 8th.

Creating a Quilted Legacy - Following in Paula's Footsteps

Before I give you any more details let me tell you a little about Paula.

Paula of PaulaB Quilts, began quilting in 1980, she was a consistent supporter of multiple quilt charities such as Project Linus, Jack's Basket, and Covered in Love.  Quilters are such generous people, most of us make charity quilts, some of us occasionally, or for appeals, and others, like Paula, make most of their quilts for charity. These are the unsung heroes of the quilting world.

Paula started her blog in 2015, you can read her earlier posts on Blogger here and her more recent posts on Wordpress here.  She enjoyed collecting vintage doll quilts and 19th century quilts and developed an interest in studying old vintage quilts.    She often spoke of her daughter and granddaughter with great pride and lots of love.  We want them both to know how much Paula was loved here in our online community.

Paula loved bright colours and tackling new challenges, she took part in lots of challenges, like the RSC, and more recently joined a group called The Endeavourers which has a quarterly challenge to make a quilt by interpreting a theme.  Paula followed lots of blogs and was very supportive to other bloggers with her lovely constructive comments.

In the blog hop we would like you all to make a quilt for a charity, whichever is closest to your heart, and share your creations in the hop. This is open to all quilters, and if you are a new quilter we would be delighted if you joined in. If you don't have a blog no problem, just send one of us a picture of your finished quilt and we will post it on our blogs with your name and the charity to which your quilt will be donated (or you can remain anonymous if you wish).

If you do have a blog, we would love for you to post our button on your blog, I'm not very techie, like Paula, but you can grab it from the sidebar at Color Creating and Quilting

Special thanks to Lorna @Sew Fresh Quilts for giving us permission to use one of her quilt designs for the button.

There will also be prizes!

Each comment left on a blog post will get readers an entry to win several prizes, so the more comments left the more chances to win a prize (bloggers as well as readers are eligible for prizes). The list of prizes will be announces later. Participants with blogs are welcome to offer prizes on their own post if they wish but it is not required.

 Please contact either Kate (Smiles From Kate) @ smilesfromkate@gmail.com, Janice (Color Creating and Quilting) @ janice@passionforperfume.com  or Karen (KaHolly)  @ ksroy54@hotmail.com if you would like to participate and let us know which day you would prefer, 6th, 7th, or 8th, and if you can be flexible.

I do hope you will join us in honouring Paula's Quilted Legacy.

Here is a selection of Paula's quilts from her blog.

Getting There

Surprising isn't it? Two posts in a month, I can hardly believe it either. Progress has been made though, in more ways than one, although I still haven't got a finish to show you. Getting closer though.

I started the improv panel for the confetti quilt I'm making, that's what I'm going to call it, partly because a couple of you described it as such last time, which made me think 'yes', it's made from the leftovers from the wedding quilt, and the autograph panel at that, so 'Confetti' is the perfect name.

I sorted out a load of smaller pieces from what I had used on the front

 and started stitching them together. I added some other scraps in leftover from my still unfinished Postcards from Sweden.

I started stitching them into blocks, then strips. I added in some of the grey I was using for the back as I didn't want it to look just a solid piece of colour.

This is what I finally ended up with, not exactly how I envisioned it but it's ok, and it meant I could add a strip of grey to the top and bottom and insert it into a standard width of fabric.

This is how it looks now when layered and pinned on the table.  Want another look at the front?

Here it is on my lovely Horne table which goes up and down and so is easy on the back for basting. Can you see what is on the floor? Apart from the mess of course, it's a tennis ball, one of my dog Indi's, she has emergency tennis balls hidden all over the house but I didn't notice it until I viewed the pic. Have you noticed how narrow my room is? I usually have the table against the wall, I have to be careful when I'm basting, I have been known to crack my head on the sloping ceiling. The room is a bit longer though.

That's the rest of my workable space, with more mess on the floor, it's difficult when I need the table. So, where is my machine?

That's relegated to the floor too, there's nowhere else to put it. It is heavy to move though.

That's better, nice and tidy again. I have a large cutting mat to the side and a little folding table I can use for my wool pressing mat and iron when I'm piecing, or at the other side to form an L when I'm quilting, I adjust the hight of the table and chair for whatever I'm doing at the time.

I did have a bit of an accident because of the lack of space though Just before Christmas I was doing some cutting, and you know what it's like, you move stuff. In this case it was my big Creative Grids ruler, with the non slip dots on the back. So where did I put it? On my chair. Then what did I do? Oh yes, I sat on it and broke it. I was devastated. THEN when I went to order another one I nearly fell off my chair, the price of them WOW! With postage it wasn't short of £30 So I went looking for alternatives and I found one, I shilli-shallied, should I risk it? I did and ended up with an

Olfa frosted one. I have to say, I didn't think I would like a ruler better than the Creative Grids but I do, this one is at least as good and I actually prefer it. The Creative Grids one used to slip occasionally but this grips the whole of the fabric and doesn't seem to slip at all. As my husband bought me the large one I treat myself to the 6 x 12 small one and the 6 1/2 inch square too. As long as the frosting doesn't wear off the back it will be fine, it was just two thirds of the price and no postage. I did like the size of the other one though, it was 24 1/2 x 6 1/2 and I do like the extra 1/2.

I'm now doing the actual quilting bit but I haven't any pics to show you yet, I am keeping it quite simple though. Even so it's taking ages and I now have my fabrics for the front of the wedding quilt and I can't wait to start cutting it out. I say I now have them, I got them but some seemed to be too pale. I ended up buying more, that's the problem with buying online. I wouldn't mind but I used a Kona colour chart too. Anyone else find the same?

So that's it for today, you never know though, by the time I post again I may even have a finish. That's if I have enough for my binding that is, I didn't have the sense to check it out before I put my order in!

Until next time,
With smiles from,
Kate x

January Post

I did say I was going to post every month this year and here I am on the last day of the first month scraping in. I didn't mean to leave it until today but every day something seems to come up and I put it off again. Do you ever feel like that?

First of all, do you remember me showing you these?

Bonus half square triangles from the autograph panel I made for Chris and Sarah's wedding quilt. I made some more using leftovers from my Postcards from Sweden quilt (no I haven't finished it yet), added some blank background squares and.............

This was it on January 17th, all I had to show. At the top of the pic you can see the aforementioned Postcards from Sweden, pined up because I really want to get on and finish it this year. How long has it been there? Going on two years I think, but who's counting?

But, here it is today

Too big for the wall even (well it is a rather small wall but better than no wall at all). I took this pic on the floor, the lighting isn't great but it is what it is I'm afraid.

It's 15 blocks square and measures 56.75 inches. The biggest size I could get from the leftover blocks was 4 1/4 inches and I didn't see the point in cutting them smaller to 4 inches, the 1/4s added up to an extra 3 3/4 inches on the finished top.
It's a free pattern from Kitchen Table Quilting, here is the link for the pattern. It comes in two sizes, I did the largest size but omitted the last row and added an extra one on the side to make it square.
I have a grey solid ordered for the back and I will insert some sort of improv panel using up bits and pieces of solids I have to make it wide enough, it's my favourite way of making a quilt back.

That's all I managed to make this month, I've been rather busy with the final edit of my husbands new book, the second in The Enlightened Spaniel trilogy which will be published the end of March. I must tell you, the first book is now available on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have it you can read it for free. On February 1st Amazon are including it in their monthly specials and it is only 99p in the UK. I don't know the prices in the rest of the world but I think it's on specials in other countries too.  I have to tell you I am so proud of Gary, almost all of the 45 reviews on Amazon UK are five star, it's incredible. The book won't be to everyones taste of course, what book ever was? It's an unusual storyline.

I haven't told you what did happen to me this month, apart from getting locked out of my bedroom when the latch broke on the door, it took a professional to get it open, fortunately he managed without having to break the door down!
I digress, this month I became eligible for my state pension!!! Oh yes, I am officially a pensioner, I don't know wether to laugh or cry, although I was surely laughing when I got my first payment two days ago!  I stopped working two years ago when I hurt my back so not going out to work isn't new to me, but it's lovely to have the income. I have a bus pass too, I can travel on local buses all over England for free, that's worth leaving the car at home for, the price of petrol.

The block of the month programme I was in last year is now finished, unfortunately my top isn't.

This is the most recent pic I have, I have done most of the next round but not the corners. I loved doing a quilt with Sarah Fielk, everything was very professional with the pattern released every month accompanied by a video, including videos for techniques that some may not have done too. The Facebook group was very active and Sarah was very approachable if anyone was struggling. I'm not taking part in this years but I wouldn't hesitate on partaking in another of her programmes.

That's all for this month, I will try not to leave it so late next month when I should have a finished quilt to show you, or at least have a layered part quilted one anyway.  I should also have started the front of Chris and Sarah's wedding quilt, Sarah saw her perfect quilt on Pinterest, it's all HSTs, a bit like Postcards really, sigh............ Here we go again!

Until next month,
With smiles from
Kate x

Planning for 2020

It's that time of year again, I didn't plan anything last year and due to circumstances I didn't complete anything of what I planned for 2018 either, but the thing about planning is, you can always make new plans, and start again.  There is no time like the present so here goes:

First, here are a couple of the quilts I did manage to finish this year.

Oh I so love this one I made for my grandsons first Christmas, I found it in my stash and I think I bought it in Walmart Florida in 2000. I am particularly happy with the quilting which, while far from perfect, I so enjoyed doing and I played with new quilting designs.

Ok well, yes, it's another panel I found in my stash, but my baby grandson didn't mind and it's a floor quilt.

1 Blogging

Monthly Blog Post

Since my health problems about eighteen months ago I have been pretty absent from the blogging world, both posting and reading. It's funny but the more I stayed away the harder it has been to return. You wouldn't believe the number of posts I wrote in my head, but only a very few ever made it here, and even then some I deleted rather than posted. So, why do I want to return? When I blog my quilting flow improves and this year, although I started sewing again, I haven't actually done much, and what I have was more basic stuff. I feel cut off, I miss everyone, it seems I'm out of the habit of reading blogs like I used to, and after I read them I rarely leave a comment, sorry. This year I aim to read and comment more and post at least once a month, if I can't get back into the flow by next New Year I will probably give up the pretence........sad

2 Quilting

This is to be the year of the UFO

It was meant to be 2018, then 2019, I got one done in 2018 and one in 2019, which I started in 2018 so it actually didn't make a hole in the pile.  So, what will I finish? The first thing has to be a wedding quilt, before their second anniversary. The back, the autograph panel, is finished and after a recent conversation with the bride I know exactly what they want for the front so this week I am planning out exactly what fabrics I need. I have lots of leftover HST's from the back too and I will make a lap quilt for them to use them all up. After that it's take your pick. I have a gypsy wife top to layer and quilt, and a Postcards From Sweden with half the top done, they will be first I think. OH, I haven't finished the Coming Home quilt I started this year, I really want to finish this too, I certainly don't want that to become another UFO.

This is the back of the wedding quilt, I'm thinking about using the silver grey background for a narrow border, then maybe a scrappy narrow border, then another grey, then piano keys again in the centre colours, please feel free to give any opinions.

Gypsy wife, I haven't even trimmed the bottom yet, and I'm sure I bought the backing fabric........

3 Personal

Improving my health and wellbeing, I want my life back.

I am so much better now. I started 2018 in reasonable health, then halfway through the year I developed a severe form of sciatica, at the worst I couldn't weight bear or walk, I have never experienced such pain before, and hope I never do again, from one who has had three children and had two major surgeries, one planned, one emergency. I had a respiratory arrest due to medication and suffered severe side effects including dementia symptoms to another pain killing medication. On top of all this they didn't work. It was when all the medication was withdrawn the pain started to improve. In the second part of 2018 I lived in a nightmare world which kept coming back to haunt me for such a long time afterwards and it's only now I feel that it's probably over.

I have lost so much of my confidence, even this blog post is a big deal for me, this year I will work to get it back.

In 2020 I plan to start walking my dogs again, I can't continue to live with the fear of falling and injuring my back. I used to walk three miles a day and I want to build up to that again.

I did start pilates last year, I loved it, but it was too soon and I had to stop, so I want to start again and develop a routine.

In all the happenings I did loose weight and dropped two dress sizes, so my goal is to continue maintaining.

And that's it, well, apart from I am planning a visit to Bruni at some point, my daughter is there for three years and although I'm so nervous of travelling all that way on my own I'm going for it.

That's it, I feel that I have barred my soul. I'm going a step further and linking up to Yvonne's Planning Party, my first link up since I don't know when, I only hope I remember how to do it!

With smiles from

Kate x

I Need HELP!!!

This is me complaining, well, nothing new there then! What has happened to Blogger when I was away? I am having sooooo many problems and I just can't sort them out.

Firstly, I can't comment on other blogs, I couldn't even leave a comment on my own blog would you believe? Now I can leave a comment on SOME blogs, but not others. Some give me an option of Name/URL, Anonymous, or Google Account, some I just get Google Account, and even if I choose Name/URL I'm now a no reply blogger.  I have spent HOURS over the last couple of weeks trying to rectify it, I signed in and signed out, cleared all my history and cache, to no avail. I google it and get lots of older posts, but nothing current.   I have checked, double checked, and triple checked my settings and I can't see anything untoward.

Does anyone know if this is an Apple thing? It's all I can think of now.  I just don't know what else to try :-(   If anyone out there knows how to fix this PLEASE let me know, I'm at my wits end with this, it's taking over my life!

I have been doing a little sewing since my last post, well, I trimmed what seemed like a million half square triangles which were bonus ones from Chris and Sarah's wedding autograph blocks (no I haven't done any more on the quilt, they have recently had their first anniversary and they are STILL waiting (blush blush).

Anyhow, I have plans for all these HST, would you believe I have over a hundred of them? 109 to be exact, the leftover autograph blocks seemed to have disappeared you see and I had to make a few more, and so ended up with extra HSTs. I had one trimming issue so I lost one, and now I now need to make a few more so I can turn them into a decent size quilt, with some plain blocks thrown in. It's not my pattern, but when I start putting it together I will show you everything and give you the link.  The blocks are a bit of an odd size I admit, 4 1/4 inches unfinished, but the way I looked at it some were not big enough to trim to 4 1/2 and I didn't want to waste all those 1/4 inches!

I also finished the appliqué for the Coming Home quilt I showed you last time.

Oooops! As you can see I stitched the side on upside down, so out came my unpicker, after I had looked at it for a few days that is!

This is better.  Now the centre is finished I can get on with the first border.

Yes, there are twenty four of these and guess what? They are all paper pieced, and you know how I feel about paper piecing! Actually Sarah Fielke supplied very detailed instructions and demonstrated on a video how to make them, she made it look so easy even giving the sizes to cut, so all I had to do was follow her instructions.  I am so happy with these, I'm even thinking of making the vintage dresses pattern which I bought when having an overconfident 'I can do this' moment. You will have to wait until next time to find out what I will do with them though.

Sadly that's all the sewing I got done, apart from a few other bits that is, but I'm not sure if they will all match in so the jury is out on that one.

That's all for today, I'm going to do some more googling, although google eyed is how I would describe myself just now.

Until next time,
With smiles from,
Kate x