Category Archives: frugal quilting

Finally finished - Scrappy Trip around the world

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(there’s a dent in this bed - I questioned Dolly to see if she had been sleeping on it but she totally denied it )


Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve been neglecting my quilts! I have three UFOs and this is one I finished yesterday. I had quilted it but it wasn’t bound. I finally got round to it. Of all the quilts I have made so far, this is my favourite. It used up all the odds and ends of fabric I had left. When I look at this I can also see so much of the fabric that you, my dear reader, have sent to me. I can also see thrifted shirts and gent’s pyjamas, vintage pillow cases and some real treasures that I’ve bought from the quilt festival. It’s so easy to make .


I bind my quilts by machine by sewing them onto the reverse of the quilt and having a ‘neatish’ stitch where it can be seen. If I were to hand bind my quilts, in truth, I would never ever finish them. I’ve backed it with an old 1970’s single St. Michael quilt cover that I’ve unpicked and opened out. Even that wasn’t big enough and I’ve used the backs of thrifted shirts to patch alongside to make the backing big enough.


I’m far more forgiving of my quilt making now. I know it’s not perfect and I can’t sew a straight line if you were holding a ruler next to me. I’m a wonky imperfect kind of girl and so is my quilt making. I know Dearly Beloved really loves this quilt and he wanted it on our bed instead of the Jubilee Quilt I made last year.


Here’s a close up for you.


You sent this fabric to me Dear Reader and there’s loads of it. I’m going to be making a girly quilt for a very special baby and this will go onto the back. Today, I used it to bind my scrappy quilt.



I love the tutorials by the Missouri Star Quilt Company and this is the tutorial I used to learn how to bind quilts with a machine. It’s really quick and I had my Queen size quilt finished in a couple of hours.



I have an unfinished quilt that was one of my earliest quilts and it’s massively out of kilter, needs patching in on one side to make it even and the colours are not great. But, I’m going to finish it any way. I’ll use it on a spare bed or for a chair throw and I’m also going to forgive my mistakes and remember that it was an early quilt and it still needs finishing. I’m free-motion quilting this one and it’s a monster to handle even with sticky gloves. I’m setting myself the target of a UFO a week as I have two quilts that I have been asked to make and so little time………….I better get going!

Over to you. Does anyone else bind with their machine?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Lazy Sunday afternoons

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Hello Dear Reader,

Many thanks to Barbara for sending me the huge piece of red canvas fabric, which I will use for bag making and the surplus damask table napkins which I will add to my vintage linen collection. I can’t abide paper napkins on my table. They will all be well used and I really appreciate the fabric for crafting.

Thanks for the interest in my weight loss. I mix my workouts. I’m in the gym three nights a week and outside two nights. I work for an hour on both cardio and weights. I use the myride bikes (spin bikes with an on screen and in ear instructor) for the full forty minutes one evening and use the twenty minute cardio programme) as my warm up the rest of the time. I work with the heaviest weights I can and work everything starting with shoulders, back, arms, legs, core and glutes. When I’m outside I work on cardio with some running, short bursts of runs with active recovery, leg/glute and core work by pushing my way up and down very steep inclines, using steps for lunges and glute work, using walls and benches for tricep dips and push ups. I think I mix it quite well. My weight loss is slower than the way my body actually looks. My legs, waist, hips, bust and arms are all slimmer. I have a way to go but it’s only been a few months……when it’s been a few years then I should really notice the difference. On weekends and evening, I build in a four mile power walk and some bike riding and will be doing more if it only stopped being wet, cold and foggy.

Yesterday was all about cooking, cleaning and general housework and today has been about travelling to Truro and back, being on the radio with Tracy Wilson, cooking Sunday lunch and having some time to quilt. I couldn’t work out why I’m so tired and then a small dog came and rounded me up again!


I’m trying to get the Scrappy Trips quilt finished before examiner season starts. When it does, my time won’t be my own for a month. It all goes towards the mortgage even if I’d like to spend it one a bike and ride it on one of the Tour de France stages! Anyone fancy riding the final stage into Paris with me one weekend? (118km………..set off early and take a break every 25km?)

Here’s the link to this mornings radio programme and as usual, I’m in the last hour and you have to move the slider across to get there. Froogs on the radio.


Dolly update. She never leaves my side and likes to sleep on my desk whilst I’m blogging! She is otherwise guarded by our big dog Scruffy who has turned into a puppy nanny.

All is good!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxx

Scrappy Quilt progress

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Hello Dear Reader,

Blogger is misbehaving today! I’ve tried to blog earlier today and the post kept disappearing so I gave up and went and did some sewing.

 I’m 28 blocks away from completing the top. I love the chaos of this quilt. It has lots of donated fabric, some jumble sale vintage pillow cases and some recycled shirts and pyjamas from charity shops. Of all the quilts I have made, I like this the best as it epitomises the spirit of make do and mend quilting. The squares are not all perfect but they all seem to line up on the diagonal even if they don’t on the vertical and horizontal.

If anyone reading this is interested in learning to quilt and wants to come along and try any Saturday or a weekday in the school holidays, then send me an email and I will arrange more workshops. Talking of workshops, the Frugal Dinner party workshop and Sewing for Beginners workshops are full and there is one place left for the Scrappy Quilting around the World workshop. If you grab that last place then you’ll learn how to make a quilt like the one above. If you are anywhere in Devon or Cornwall, or even Somerset and you’re prepared to pay for my transport and you can get a group of three together then I will happily bring my workshop and sewing machines to you.

I’m now going to shamelessly plug our local chimney sweep and blacksmith who came to our rescue this weekend. Robbie, our local sweep is also a blacksmith and qualified hetas engineer who installs and maintains wood burners. The baffle plate fell into the fire, fortunately we’d just lit the fire and it wasn’t as hot as it could be and we called Robbie to come and take a look. Some bolts had burnt through and he took it away to fix it. We called him late on Saturday afternoon and he returned the mended plate and installed it just after lunch today. Thanks Robbie for doing this on a Sunday as you knew it was getting colder and we rely on our stove as our predominant form of heating. If you need a sweep in South East Cornwall, or a stove installing or a stove repairing then here’s his details.


Over to you Dear Reader. Has anyone had a wood stove mishaps whilst it was alight?(Smoky and Scary!) Is anyone else staying indoors to quilt, knit or sew to keep warm? Is anyone down under indoors cooling off by the air con and sewing to stay cool?

Finally, does anyone fancy meeting up at the South West Spring Quilt Festival at the Westpoint Arena in Exeter on Friday 5th April? I will be there and looking for ideas and bargains and to see if I can try an Accuquilt. Who fancies are girly day out? We can meet for coffee, a chat and a wander round together. Email me and we can meet there.

I’m off now to clean up the thread bomb in my sewing room.

Until tomorrow,

Keep warm and lots of love,

Froogsxxxxxx

Thrifty Recycled Fabric for £2 a metre?

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Hello Dear Reader,

I’m a thrifty quilter. I use new fabric when it’s donated but mostly I use recycled fabric and sheets or duvet covers for quilt backs. I bought a king size cotton quilt cover this morning for £3 and it will back two quilts. I’ll use it until I need it and then take it apart for quilts. I know some of you have charity shops that have out priced themselves in your area but ours, here in Liskeard, are still reasonably priced. I’m just going to have a little gloat. Liskeard came 12th in Britain’s best places to live, according The Sunday Times. It’s due to affordable housing, schools, public transport, hospitals and dental services, library and leisure facilities. I knew it was good here and now the Sunday Times agrees.

I bought two cotton pillow cases for 25p each.

I bought the man’s shirt of the right. Which I washed, dried in front of the fire and cut down. I measured it against a fat quarter and there’s easily more than a metre/yard of fabric in a man’s shirt. I pay £2 for men’s shirt, usually from the Woodside Animal Shelter Charity Shop or the Salvation Army charity shop. If you’re ever in Cornwall on holiday please support our local charities by buying goods from our charity shops.

The fabulous black, grey and white shirt above was also £2 and I think the design will be a great contrast against pale colours.

Also, one of the best buys for recycling are men’s pyjamas. The shop was selling night wear for £2 and these red and patterned cotton pyjamas had loads of fabric and came to almost a metre and a half.


I cut them down into 2.5″ strips or squares to use in my quilting. This shirt in particular is going to be a welcome addition to my Scrappy Round the World quilt, which is coming along slowly but I have some time off coming up so I’ll be able to get it finished.

Over to you Dear Reader. Are you a thrifty quilter? Do you use recycled fabric? Does anyone else make their own charm packs or jelly rolls? Feel free to have a good moan about charity shops in your area. Did anyone feel their town should have made the final cut in the Sunday Times Best Places to live?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxx

Star Block Quilt Workshop

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My table runner from today. This is made from some of the wonderful fabric that equally wonderful readers have sent me. Can you recognise the fabric you gave me?

Hello Dear Reader,

Three cheers for the quilters who joined me today to learn how to measure, cut and sew star blocks. I’ve been quilting for a couple of years and still consider myself to be in the early stages of quilting. I love star blocks and love the matching of colours, the simplicity of the design and the neat and tidy quarter inch seams. My blocks are rarely perfect (well never actually) and something is always just a little bit off kilter here and there. I am more forgiving of my quilting and know it doesn’t matter. Quilting is about love and care, not perfect symmetry or perfect corners, even though I aspire to be neater.

The ambitious aim of the day was to make a table runner however learning to cut the correct size strips, then cut them into the correct size squares which were then cut on the diagonal to make the perfect triangles can be taxing for any quilter. We got there in the end. I’m more than happy to work at a pace that learners are comfortable with. When I learn something new, I need to take my time, to work neatly and to get it right. There is no rushing a quilt.




Here’s one quilter’s block and I love the colours. Everyone went away with a new skill that they can use to make make into quilts of their own. It’s a difficult block and I’m so proud of everyone’s fantastic efforts and end results. If anyone can email me a picture of their block from today’s workshop, I would be extremely grateful.

Over to you, calling all crafters. What’s on your needles, your crochet hook, under the foot of your machine, in your loom or in your craft room. Share and tell us all about it.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Frugal Quilt in a day

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Hello Dear Reader,
As promised, I’ll share with you a really easy quilt you can make in a day. I’m also going to share with you that I’m taking part in a frugaleur challenge which really is about the frugal way to boost your income and those details will be explained in full tomorrow. For now, here’s the quilt.
I started with a pack of fat quarters:
and one metre of green chartreuse
and some remnants of vintage St. Michael/M&S table cloth from the 70’s!

I started by cutting the fabric into 5″ wide strips.
I then used my quarter inch seam foot and sewed the strips together.
I then cut them down into 5″ strips and you can see from here how I formed the rest of the ‘steps’ pattern. I sewed two of the blocks of strips together and then for each subsequent row, unpicked where required and moved the blocks to the front of the row.
A great way of stretching fat quarters that little bit further is to use sashing around the blocks. It gives a lovely finish and it makes quilt making really quick. I made the quilt top in two hours and got the fat quarters and fabric here as part of their £15 challenge. It goes to show you can make a lovely throw in no time at all and for a low price even if you buy the fabric new. I sometimes buy fabric but there will always be an addition of thrifted or vintage fabric to make the quilt more affordable. As a jumble sale quilter, there is a real luxury of using new fabric. I’ll finish the quilted throw tomorrow, have pictures of it and tell you all about the frugaleur challenge and invite you all to join me and others doing something positive to increase their income.
If you’ve missed the frugal gardening give away, then click here to see my earlier post and follow the t&cs at the bottom of the post and take part in the give away.

Final Countdown 4-3-2-1 to 2013

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Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve had a lovely day, busy but useful. I’ve been and collected a chair I bought from an ebay seller, would be £1800 new and I got it for £23. Hand made English armchair, recently recovered but will be recovered again as soon as I’ve saved up for it, along with my good sofa. All part of my house renovations. I also freecycled my large, many times repaired and far too low for my long legs, old sofa. It was twelve years old and we’ve mended it many times over. It now has a new home and a couple who were very grateful to have it. Talking of being grateful, thanks so much to ‘Stash busting nurse’ for sending the most fabulous parcel of fabric; there are so many lovely ideas all wrapped up in that fabric and I’m really looking forward to setting them free.

So, where was I? Arm chair here, sofa gone and fabric arrived! I’ve also finished some quilted table runners that I started before Christmas. Even though the decorations are boxed and back in the loft I’ve still enjoyed finishing them and they will be carefully put away for next year.

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for, my second resolution:

2. Make good use of everything you have.

Let me think of all the things I have that I can make good use of. Firstly, those long legs! I can and will walk more. I always walk to the local shops and carry my shopping home. I can walk on beaches and the moorland, I can meet up with friends and go out for walks with them. I can take a walk at the end of the day instead of even thinking of joining a gym (which we all do in the new year). We all have bodies, do they do enough for us? Do we make good use of them? Or do we leave them sat on a sofa? Next, I have time. I need to use my time really well. It takes me fifteen minutes to give one room of my house a quick clean and I can do a room a day. Do you use your time well?

I have a really good sewing machine and need it to pay me back for what it cost me. I shall make quilts for sale and now I have a paypal account will link them to my blog so they can be bought. I have skills and need to use them to hold more workshops. If there’s something I do, that you want me to teach you to do, then contact me and we’ll see, distance permitting, what we can arrange.

I’m going to make really good use of my resources, from my bread machine, to my sewing machine that I’ve already mentioned. I’m going to learn new quilt blocks and designs and I’m going to use up all my odds and sods to make a scrappy bargello quilt!

I shall use the library more, if we don’t use them this ConDem nation will close them down. I shall use the coastal footpaths more, I shall make good use of the moors and beaches. I will use my garden furniture more and sit more often and enjoy the view. We all have a lot that we can make good use of.

Let’s hear from you all on this one. What do you have that you don’t make enough use of?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Chilli anyone? Let’s quilt!

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Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve had just the best day ever! The cakes went down a storm and let me just say, it was a brilliant day! It’s getting colder and colder here, which for temperate Cornwall, is a bit of a shock! I came home wanting something simple warm and comforting and it had to be chilli. I used:

450g of minced beef
3 small onions - finely chopped,
4 mushrooms - finely chopped,
150g of cooking bacon - finely chopped
1 teaspoons of cumin
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of mild chilli powder
200g of tomato puree (I still have masses from Approved Food)
enough water to get to consistency you like
1 tin of kidney beans.

To make it:
Fry the first four things on the list until browned and then add the last six items and bring to the boil and then simmer gently for about 40 minutes.

I serve this with a veggie rice mix which I buy from Lidl (about 39p) and then serve it all with a dollop of fat free cream cheese as I didn’t have any sour cream.


On a night as cold as this, I can think of no where nicer to be than learning a new quilt block. I bought this pattern from the last jumble sale I went to and it’s been calling to me to have a go!


A bit of geometry later and I was ready to go. Thanks Mr Buscombe at Fowey Comprehensive all those years ago and still to this day, I like a bit of maths! I needed to cut:

1 square - 4″ by 4″ - for the centre square
4 squares 4 3/8″ by 4 3/8″ - I then cut them on the diagonal to have 4 triangles
2 squares - 3 1/2″ by 3 1/2 - I then cut them on the diagonal to have 4 triangles,
4 squares - 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 in a contrasting fabric, which I cut on the diagonal to have 8 triangles

I then had to sew it together, the centre first. I then put the three triangle blocks together and added the corner squares to the ‘top line’ of the block. The final block is sewn together in rows.


I’ve had more fabric sent to me this week by dear readers and I’m so grateful. I’ll be posting some on as part of the love bomb which keeps exploding! I now need to make six Christmas blocks to make a table runner to decorate our table this year. Is anyone else addicted to Star Blocks? I love them!

Come back tomorrow and throughout the weekend for back to basics and how to use a sewing machine from threading, how to get the bobbin in and out and basic sewing and seams. I have a brand new medium range sewing machine that I’ve been given to review and keep and I’ll be showing you that you don’t need an all singing all dancing sewing machine to achieve some really good sewn items. Also, watch out for the information all about the New Year Workshops which will turn even the basic beginner into a quilter.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxx

How not to quilt - quilt along with Froogs

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Hello Dear Reader,

Someone very very lovely, sent me a quilt to finish. It is made by hand and I’ve spent many evenings unpicking the tacking stitches, removing the paper templates and machine sewing block together. I’ve been given enough blocks that I’m using them to make three small quilts. One will be a throw for our arm chair, one will be for mum and one for DB’s mum. I think they will love the traditional designs and I am in awe of the tiny hand stitches. Today, I backed and quilted the first of the three. To back and quilt a quilt, you will need fabric for the backing. I have used a length of cotton flannel, its lovely and soft. I had to cut and sew it to the right size. I bought it from the jumble sale I went to. I stick my backing to the floor (right side facing the floor) with duct tape! I know this is not the ‘trad’ way but it works for me!


I give the backing a light spray with 505 spray, it’s a temporary adhesive which disappears when the quilt is washed. I buy this locally from the craft shop in Liskeard, called Painters - Here’s the link to them.


I then lay the batting on top of the backing. You can flip it back and relay it flat if there’s any wrinkles as the adhesive just make it tacky. I buy the wadding or batting from Painters in Liskeard too! Np-spend-vember was well and truly broken today as I went there and bought batting and adhesive spray to finish some quilts.
They are not paying me to advertise, I just think they are brilliant and sell everything I need for quilting and the people who work there are lovely.


I then lay my quilt top on to the two layer, with the right side up and position is where I want it. I kneel on the quilt itself and peel half of it back, spray with 505 spray and then position the quilt as I want it. I then do that with the other half of the quilt.


The whole process takes about half an hour for a small quilt. I king size quilt requires furniture removal and the use of the dining room for the day! I then put my hand onto the side of the quilt and pull the duct tape carefully and slowly away. I’ve not ripped a quilt yet!


You can see I have a ‘bubble’ so I pulled the quilt top partly off and laid it down again but I’m never exact or perfect and usually other people don’t notice it. I then trim it and iron it which takes away any wrinkles or bubbles that I don’t want to sew into my quilt.


I’m simply sewing along the edge of each individual block of fabric in a simple series of sewing up and down, side to side and then all the diagonal lines. I stopped when I lost the light this afternoon as it’s easy to make mistakes in dim light. I’ll get another one done tomorrow and I can start ticking UFOs off my list.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx






Fireside stitching

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Hello Dear Reader,


It’s cold and dark and I can think of nothing better than being fireside with some un-picking on my lap. This quilt is hand stitched and I’m removing the tacking and paper backing. It’s a great lap job.


As usual, I do what ever I do with an animal audience and laundry drying from the heat of the fire. I’m sure you can see how happy I am just quilting the night away. I love to spend some time every evening making something useful and being purposeful with my hands.


I love the way this quilt has been made and I would love the time to finish it by hand but it’s going to be machine sewn. I’m so honoured than a dear reader donated this unfinished project for me to finish. I can no longer imagine just walking into a shop and buying a blanket or quilt. Every quilt I work on tells its own story which is retold every time it keeps me warm.


When I use this quilt, I will remember winter evening burning the cherry tree branches which ranged around the fire to dry. I’ll remember Tiger growling at me because I won’t let him sit on my lap and the dogs at my feet whilst I picked at the stitches.

I’ll get back to the quilt.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxx