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My Mum turned 80 in August.  What do you get for your Mum when she turns 80?

What do you get someone who has most things and has just decided to start decluttering after 30 years in the same house?

What do you get for someone who, after a few hard years, decides to buy herself a soft top sports car a week before her birthday?

What do you get, or make, for someone when there is only a week left until their birthday?

Why you make a Scrabble mini quilt of course!!

My Mum and I, and indeed all the children, often play Scrabble so it seemed appropriate.

My daughter, 12, now plays with my Mum, 80!

I loved the way this turned out in the end .... although part way through I was beginning to worry it wasn't going to look as good in real life as it did in my head!

I used twin needles to attach the white grid fabric and decided to use those as the quilting lines aswell.  It gave a zig zag appearance on the back of the quilt, which I actually quite like - speed, efficiency and good looks too!

Now the question is what to make her for her 81st?!!

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday today.

My kind of birthday ....

Today is my birthday - hip hip hooray!!  Yesterday a card came through the post and I assumed it was a birthday card when in fact it was a card from the lady whose quilt I recently returned after longarming it.  This is what she had to say:

 

"I would like to thank you so much for the lovely quilting you have done for me on my applique quilt. In particular the additional spirals on the sunflowers and the extra detail on the leaves. I am sure ...... will be most thrilled when they receive the quilt ....."

 

The quilt in question can be seen over here.  What a fantastic birthday present to get!

 

The morning started with presents .... lots of handmade ones and my youngest daughter made us all pancakes.  It doesn't get any better than that.

 

I thought my daughter had bought this set but when I asked her where she had got it from she told me she had made it and just put it in an old package she had!

 

 

I am just blown away by their creativity sometimes .... and all this made in secret without me knowing about any of it!  My eldest daughter is cooking dinner tonight and I don't have to do any clearing up - bliss!!

 

 

 

I have also had time in my studio and am well on my way to finishing my Rainbow Mini quilt for an IG swap.  Hopefully it will be a finish tomorrow for Finish it up Friday and there will also be a giveaway announced. xx

Finish it up Friday .....

I have a BIG finish this week but ....... I can't show it to you yet!  It's a quilt for my daughter's birthday next week .... but even then I can't show it to you ......  It was made to be part of Lorna's Dog Gone Cute Blog Hop and my day on the Blog Hop isn't until 29 October.  How am I going to wait?  I am literally bursting to show people because I LOVE it!!!  Here's a peek ......

 

There's another small finish aswell .....  My daughters went to a Home Ed Circus Skills workshop recently and fell in love with juggling.  The next morning my youngest and I were at the machine making up some jugglings bags.  'Mum they were like bean bags but like a pyramid' I was told.  I picked some fabric from my fabric-I-don't-like box to practice on.  Well it worked straight away and my daughter did like the fabric - 'It's the colours of the circus'!!  Three were made in quick succession and I then decided to make four more and a bag to keep them in.  This is going to be another birthday present for her next week.

 

 

A simple drawstring bag to encourage her to put the bags back it in and hang it up ..... Let's see if that works!  The casing was some grosgrain ribbon I had to hand (not quite the right colour but it works) and the string was an old shoe lace - got to love recycling.

 

I linked up to the next quarter Finish Along over at On the Windy Side yesterday and this is No 1 of 20 completed - hurray!!  What is it about publicly stating your intentions that motivates you?  My full, rather long, list can be found here.

 

Linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.