One of my friends, Sue, asked me if I could do a commission for her. Sue's daughter is getting married today, and Sue wanted a matching toiletry bag and cosmetic bag to give to her daughter to take away on her honeymoon. I can remember Lizzie when she was a little girl, running around when her dad used to play cricket against Mr F's team, many many years ago before I had my own girls (gosh that seems like another life!!) Sue said the wedding colours were purple and cream, with a little bit of green. Well, of course it just HAS to be Lecien fabrics, and of course it HAS to be an AnnAKa pattern! The cosmetic bag is based on the pattern "Anna's Sminkepung", and is available from Lappedilla and Lapp-Elisa. I had some gorgeous velvet ribbon trimmed lace, in green and purple, that went perfectly with these fabrics. (This lace is from Little A Designs).....

.....once the cosmetic bag was completed, it was time to get started on the toiletry bag. "Toalettveske" designed by Elin R Roland was my choice for this - I used the same fabrics that I'd used for the cosmetic bag, (I really do love these Leciens!) and added a strip of cream swirl fabric too. There are pockets inside the bag, to keep smaller bits and bobs in, and the long zipper ensures the toiletry bag can be opened fully..... 

.....and I embellished the cream strip of fabric with some vintage buttons, these colours matched the fabric perfectly! The toiletry bag was decorated with different lace trimmings so that both the front and the back will look slightly different. The ties keep everything neat and tidy at the sides, and finally one of my labels is stitched into the side seam.....

.....I delivered this to Lizzie's mum a few days ago, and she thought Lizzie would love it! Well she's getting married later today, at 1pm, so does that means this will be packed in her case ready for her honeymoon? - I do hope so!

I've been a huge fan of Lecien fabrics for quite awhile now, and was thrilled to see that I still had some fat eighths from the Flower Sugar collection, that were just waiting for the perfect project!! Well of course I knew they would look perfect as cosmetic bags, so using the pattern "Anna's Sminkepung" by the Norwegian designer AnnAKa, (her patterns are available form quilt shops in Scandinavia - try the links for quilt shops on the side of my blog). I used some red cotton lace by Sass and belle to trim one of the bags, and love how this looks. I've also got a piece of this fabric in the pink stripe too, so maybe that will also get turned into a bag over the weekend! 

Last week I managed to machine the binding onto this "Rhythm and Blues" quilt. You may remember this was purchased a few years ago as a kit from my local quilt shop Quilters Haven. It included the pattern and a fabulous fat quarter bundle of these beautiful Tonga batiks and was by Karen Montgomery for Timeless Treasures. I had made the quilt-top, sort of forgot about it, then re-discovered it! I finally sat down this morning and hand stitched the binding into place. This was rather an arduous task, as I've mislaid my thimble, but I think you'll agree it was well worth it! I used the same fabric for the binding that Janette had used for the backing - it really seemed to pull all these colours together - and as a bonus it saved me from using the precious batiks in my stash or even better still it saved me from buying yet MORE fabric! Alice is really pleased with her new quilt (she's going to take it to uni with her) and this morning she's got it on her bed so I think that means she's really REALLY pleased with it!! Oh and yes, I added one of my labels to the corner too - just for the final flourish! As this is finished today, I can add this to "Sew Cute Tuesday" on the Better Off Thread blog too. Now I'm off to search for that thimble!!

Block 2 of "Down In The Garden" is all prepped and ready to go! I struggled a bit with block 1 when I was tracing the stitchery design, then I remembered that when I did "Butterfly Garden" a few years ago, I traced the stitchery on the small blocks before I joined them together - so that's what I did this time, and found it so much easier! Then I pieced all the mini-blocks together, ironed the fusible interfacing onto the back of the whole block, and I was ready to start stitching!

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A few weeks ago I delivered this quilt top to Janette, who has a longarm quilting studio in East Bergholt. It has been ready for a few weeks, but I wasn't able to drive following surgery, and then Janette was on holiday, so I've been patiently waiting for her to return! On Monday morning I drove over to collect it and WOW!! I was really thrilled with what Janette had done! I was going to post some pictures once it was completely finished - with the binding AND a label, but was so excited that I couldn't resist sharing some pictures of it now! We chose a beautiful mottled purple Moda extra-fabric for the backing and a purple quilting thread to match. This will be the quilt that my daughter Alice takes to university with her in September to remind her of home. All I need to do is sew the binding on, and it will be finished! I had originally bought this as a kit, containing all the batiks and the pattern, and although I knew it was by Timeless Treasures, I couldn't remember the name of the pattern - but when I posted some pictures of this quilt on some FB groups that I belong to, a lady very kindly told me this kit was called "Rhythm and Blues"!!  Originally I was going to use a batik for the binding, but now I'm thinking of binding this quilt using the same fabric as Janette used for the backing, as she's kindly given me the left-overs and there's plenty to use. And I think the purple would really set this off a treat! I promise to post pictures on here when it all done!!

OK so here is what you've REALLY been waiting for... the pictures of the shopping that I did at FoQ!! Well of course the first stop was the lovely Lynette Anderson Designs stall, where my daughter was working. There were so many wonderful things on display it was hard to decide what to choose!! There were books and patterns and bag making accessories (this leather bag flap and strap are just wonderful!) and fabric bundles and buttons..... 

.....here you can see a better picture of these gorgeous zippers - the end tags were so beautiful - these will be the perfect flourish on a cosmetic pouch or on a sewing bag. Oh and yes, some wooden bobbins for winding embroidery thread onto, and yes, there's a kit lurking under there too, the "Orange Tree" pillow, complete with fabrics and a hand painted wooden button to embellish it with. Lynette very kindly gave me a copy of her latest book (thank you SO much for your generosity Lynette!!) and I couldn't resist getting one of these beautiful handmade scissor fobs - yes that really is made with Lynette's fabric, all foundation pieced - I'll have the poshest scissors in Suffolk!!.....

.....would you believe the only fabric (apart from a cute little bundle of "Wildflower Flower Wood" designed by Lynette for Lecien, that's a gift for a friend - so it doesn't REALLY count!) was a couple of Layer cakes "Aspen Frost" - this is the new Christmas collection by Basic Grey. A couple of books were also on my shopping list - the newest book by Nancy Halvorsen, "Ho Ho Ho Let it Snow" (my poor bookshelf is groaning at the thought of MORE books!) and a book "Cushions and Quilts" by the very talented Jo Colwill from Cowslip Workshops - I'd seen this book on her blog, and was so pleased as her stall was opposite Lynette's at the show so got see Jo lots during the show. Oh and yes, some rather strange looking bag clasps that I just NEEDED to get.....

.....and finally it just wouldn't be the same without a bit of shopping on The Fat Quarters stall. It's always great to catch up with Kim, and this year Kim and Debbie were staying at the same hotel as us, so we often saw each other at breakfast time as well as at the show! This beautiful BOM had been on my wish list for AGES and is called "Scandinavian Rose", and is by the Australian designer Rosalie Quinlan, and her latest BOM "Best Friends Forever" - these are both pre-printed handkerchief linen, which means I don't have to spend hours tracing stitchery patterns! Oh and I also bought a real show-bargain of large cans of 505 spray glue, but they look a bit boring so didn't think you'd need to see a picture of them! 

It was great to see so many friends at the Festival of Quilts this year, and I had a few ladies stop and say hello who follow my blog too. I was so pleased to meet Carol at last, and her friend Marion - I follow Carol's blog, Stitch Awhile, and we've been in contact via email and blog for quite a while now. Then the following day I met a lovely lady called Heather and her friend Karen - they also follow my blog!! It was so lovely to meet all of you, even the ones who said "hello" then disappeared into the crowds! 

It's not only the quilts that are wonderful to see at FoQ every year, it's also a chance to meet up with friends that I only see once a year!! Here's Teresa and Holly - yes I know I see Teresa more often, but I only get to see Holly at the FoQ!! They were both manning the Quilters Haven stall. And I also got to meet some famous fellow bloggers too - Katie has a super blog that I've been following for AGES and she's great fun.....

.....on Sunday Philippa Naylor was at the Bernina stand, talking about needles and threads and demonstrating free motion quilting. She asked if anyone had any questions and one lady called out "what is the meaning of life"? - Philippa's reply was quick off the mark - "a husband who's away alot so you can spend lots of time sewing - then everyone's happy!" - hope Mr F is reading this!! I also met up with my friend Helen every day for a cuppa and a natter about the quilts, and she had made this beautiful jacket that was displayed in the "Quilting Creations" section.....

.....Alice met the very lovely Tula Pink, who was happy for a quick photo after signing a copy of her book - an early birthday present for Alice - what a lucky girl! Oh and look - I actually met Hilary who I blogged about when I saw a fantastic exhibition of her work when I went to the Spring Quilt Festival 2013 at Duxford, back in March this year. She was doing demo's and her energy and enthusiasm was boundless! I was exhausted watching her, and she was really lovely too - oh AND she's just written her first book too!.....

.....last but not least I met Ann Rowley AND Stuart Hillard, who both took part in the BBC Great British Sewing Bee a few months ago - Ann was the winner of GBSB and was so nice to talk to - and Stuart was absolutely charming - and I loved his shirt made with Tula Pink fabric! (I even told him about the quilt Alice has made using the same fabric!).

I belong to a few quilting groups on Facebook, and some of them are Norwegian ones. It was great to meet up with some Norwegian ladies that I have been in contact with through FB and have admired their quilts (and followed some of their blogs!) and at last I have met them too!! This is Inger Lise, who had seen a photograph on one of these groups, of some pins that I use with thin "button" decorations on the ends, and she managed to buy some of these from a stall at the quilt show! Anyway, a group of Norwegian ladies and me had arranged to meet up for lunch and as you can see we had a great time - lots of good food, and lots of laughs too. It was great to meet up with Heidi again too, who I had when I stayed in Norway and when I went to Birmingham a couple of years ago too. Hei hei Heidi and Inger Lise and Julie and Annik and Grete.....

.....if you are in this picture, please leave me a comment!! It was lovely to meet with you all, and Annik and Julie met me again for lunch the following day! Hope we can meet up again another year for lunch again ;)

There are several Norwegian blogs that I follow, and one of these bloggers, Hanne Schneider, has been very busy making a beautiful "Just Plain Nuts" quilt. I have been following the progress that Hanne has been making, and was so excited when I knew that her quilt was going to be displayed at the FoQ this year, on the Innova longarm quilting stand. The quilt is pictured below, with Merete Ellingsen, who has done a wonderful job with the longarm quilting. It was simply stunning, and both Hanne's quilt and Merete's quilting received lots of admiring comments during the show.....

.....also while I was at FoQ I met another Norwegian quilter, Julia Kvamme. We were in a group that had met for lunch, and she told me she had a quilt displayed at FoQ, so of course I wanted to see what she had made - it was a beautiful quilt, called Monsterbølger (Monster Waves). She told me that this depicts the monster waves that appear from nowhere in the ocean and can sink a ship. Julia had entered this into the NQF (Norway) and it won 1st prize in the Traditional class and also was the winner of the audience award. I loved the colours and curves, and she had used some beautiful batiks. It was a wonderful quilt, and I was so glad when she agreed to let me take her photograph with it!