Oh. My. Gosh.

You may have, at some point, popped over the The Rainbow Hare blog where the lovely Janine blogs.  She recently posted this pic of an awesome pentagon,

 
which she made, having received two books about spiral quilts:

(Since I have shamelessly copied her photos, do look at this shot of the centre of the pentagon under construction, isn't it fab)

Where was I?  Oh yes, having wiped the drool from the keyboard, and being sat next to this collection of yummy fabrics sitting on my shelf . . .

. . .  I emailed Janine to ask if the method would work for a hexagon, or an octagon?

You are going to have to accept what happened next, however much you don't believe me - The lovely LOVELY Janine simply packaged up the books, and the CD rom, and POSTED THEM TO ME, so that I can have a go, and then return the books to her, and they arrived today

(I know we have followed each others blog for a while, but we have never met - isn't that the kindest thing!)

Are patchworkers kind because they are patchworkers?, or do kind people patchwork because they are kind? - I don't know, but hand on heart, I have never met a selfish patchworker, HOWEVER - Janine is one of the best!!!!

a bit of sewing

 I have finally finished Sister-In-Law's tablecloth-cum-blanket, and can show it here since (a) her birthday was last week and (b) she's on holiday so no chance she'll see the blog!

I have been collecting wine themed fabrics for a while for this project, and love the way the fabrics have come together.

All the black squares have been embroidered with a wine bottle or a wine class,(black on black) and the middle two squares are also the label with her name, the year and our names, also in black

I have gone as far as I can with my pentagon ball too.  In the photo it may look ready to throw , but it is just full of air as I cant find the bag of stuffing that I thought I had, so another visit to the fabric shop, oh dear, what a shame!

I have also done some work on the Whirly Gig quilt, but seem to have spent longer typing the instructions  than actually sewing it.  It isn't worthy of a photo at the moment, but I am loving the way it's turning out :-)

A few days of work now will interfere with my sewing, but then a week off for half term, although with Niki able to start learning to drive on Tuesday, and her absolute determination to pass in less than 9 weeks means we'll be out in the car more often that I'll be behind the sewing machine.

(ooh, ooh, that reminds me, a friend at church is on a five year mission to clear out her mum's old house.  She wanted to know if I could find a good home for and old sewing machine.  I should have at least hesitated ... I do have 7 at the moment ... but when she said it was a Bernina from the 1960s i grabbed at the chance.  It needs a service but it exactly the same as my mum's friend, Anita, gave me years ago, that unfortunately went BANG in a puff of smoke about 4 years ago.  I loved that machine, such a work horse, so I hope I can get Brian to give it a service ... Thank you Carolyn :-)

A day at the museum

Friday was my afternoon to teach Fun with Fabric at Chertsey Museum.  Four ladies attended for at least a second time, and three new ladies too

Jenny brought her denim bag from last month which she finished for 'homework'.  I love that these ladies, mostly over retirement age, bring along their creations for 'show and tell', just like the 5 year olds at school do!!!

Most of the ladies decided to have a go at paper piecing: pentagons or hexagons.  Barbara made a hexie pin cushion, Jenny and I went for pentagon balls, while Iris, Frieda and Denise went for grandmother's flower design either as a mug rug or a wall hanging.

Deborah didn't fancy this, she's done patchwork before, so she had a play with the gingham fabric I'd prepared for smocking.  I didn't get any photos, but she did a great job . . . and now we've decided that we'll all going to try smocking next month, so I'd better get some more gingham!

Hole In The Ground Panel
When I got home I managed to do some work on my yellow, orange (and now pink) Hole In The Ground.  (I think of it as this name, but Google couldn't find a block by this name, so if you have a proper name for it, please let me know!!!)

It was really easy to make the centre piece: It was from a jelly roll, so there were lot of fabrics pre cut to 2.5 inches x width of fabric (about 42 inches)

• I joined enough strips to make a flimsy that measured 42 x 21 inches, then cut that in half, so I had two striped pieces each measuring 21 x 21.  
• I put these two squares one on to of the other, right sides together, one with the stripes going vertically, the other with horizontal stripes.
• I stitched all abound the two blocks (usual seam allowance) joining them together.
• I cut the resulting block, diagonally, from corner to corner, like an X,
• I then opened out the 4 triangles into squares.  
• They were then twisted to create the design above.

This piece was started pre-blog, in oranges and yellows, with just a tiny hint of pink, but I have some great fabric that I want to add that has a fair amount off pink.  I thought I would introduce some pink, before I introduce loads of pink!

Now off to Windsor Library for the next class!!!

Off Topic - new sitting room floor

On Monday my sitting room looked like this... (self leveling compound)

 

On Tuesday it looked like this (damp proof course)

 

 On Wednesday it had another coat of red stuff

 But today it looks like this

and if you get down on your hands and knees, it looks like this :-)

 Ahhhhh - contented sigh

 Oh, and my hexis look like this 

(and thanks to Plum for pointing out that hexis will NEVER make a ball - pentagons will though! LOL)