2002 Wk 45 - Where does time go?

 I actually done some quilting!  I'm part of a FB hexi flower swap: we get a different theme each month.  I made six roughly the same, keep one and post the others out, and bu the end of the next month I should have 6 (including mine) Here are my November (poppies theme) ready to be posted)

And my October forget-me-not themed flowers that have arrived

I joined all the previous ones together into a flimsey and quilted it

And have now added the binding, so it's all ready for Linus Quilts

The vicar's wife sent me this message and photo!  It's so lovely to see quilts being used and loved after all these years!

Husband and I had a day out (just before lockdown 2) at Saville Gardens.  I didn't take many pics but I rather liked this installation which has water continuously cascading down the discs 

And we were rather taken with this too

I have been EPPing - triangles rather than hexies this time - it's growing

and I've had yet another attempt at my circular crochet - clearly I've just found yet another way to make a bowl rather than a flat circle!!!

Two friends came and sat socially distanced while we have a lovely "Crafternoon" thank you Lynne and Tara for your company and a lovely afternoon (as well as the cakes and scones!!!)

I decided to go large for a Remembrance Day ginger

And made this for friends who are moving out of the village.  I cant find a photo of all the house but here is part of it and my version.  They were delighted!

2019 Wk 39 - whole piece quilting and a day out

The whole piece quilt is rather lovely even if I do say so myself!  I have a plan for it, but then I had more ideas of what to do with it . . .  so I started another one!  This one doesn't have any specific negative space, and it has more hand stitching than is planned for the bigger piece, and I just used the machine running stitch.  More hand stitching is on the cards

It was my birthday this week and Plum and Avril have blogged about Chihuly at Kew Gardens.  It's not that far from us so we booked tickets and went for the afternoon.  I thought we would see them lit up, but we went on Wednesday and the "Chihuly Nights" session are Thursday, Friday and Saturday :-(  We had a good time though, although I declined the opportunity to buy a small bowl for £6000!!!!

 

My favourites though are the pagoda I remember from going there as a child and the dragons on every corner of every roof

and the wrought iron spiral staircases - I cant help feeling my life would be complete if I had the space for one of these!!!

This week end I did a bit more hand sewing on the second whole cloth piece

and found a purpose for the amazing folder Plum sent me for my birthday

(My friend Sharon gave me a journaling bible for my birthday and a guide book . . .and persuaded another friend of ours to get me some journaling pens . . .  and they all fit perfectly in the folder - thank you Plum (and Sharon and Alison!) no comments on lack of artistic talent thank you!!!!

2019 Wk 38 - Quilting!

I'm not really a quilter - more a patchworker (as husband explains, I cut up fabric and sew it back together!)

But I woke up at about 3am the other morning with a vision of a completed whole cloth quilt.  I basted it a Crafty Church on Saturday, and marked off 6.5" squares, and on Sunday I started sewing.  Very liberated machine running stitches, a few fancy stitches from the machine's memory, and later will be adding some hand stitched running stitches sort of Kantha style

I'm using each thread no more than once on each line - and each line may have just have one or two decorative stitches: either from the machine or hand stitched.  It's taking about half an hour to do each colour - On Sunday I clocked up 2.5 hours.  There may be some paralleled sections but not many!!!

And today I took the total up to about 4.5 hours.  It doesn't look much from a distance

but close up I'm loving the colours.  Next I need to add the hand stitching and I have an idea for the squares . . . watch this space

 Just thought I'd confess to a total inability to sew parallel lines, but I don't care!!!!!!

2018 Wk 41 Finishes

I have been frantically finishing the quilts on the rail of shame as they will be on show in two week's time at the Richmond and Kew quilters exhibition

Finished but need sleeves:

Also being finished is a quilt both Jackie and I have worked on - it's being finished in Ireland ready for the show . . .  My Small World.  I am SO looking forward to seeing it in real life!

I got this pack of lush fabrics from Lisa's Jim for my birthday - he's a good boy!!!

On Saturday I attended a wet felting class at Chertsey Museum - and made this poppy

And on Sunday my oldest friend (should I rephrase that?  The friend I have known for the longest time) came over with a suitcase of her late dad's shirts.  Linda and I have known each other since school age and I knew her mum and dad very well - a lovely couple.

Anyway, she and mum have cleared out dad's clothes: most have gone to a homeless shelter, some jumpers have gone to the grandchildren and the rest came to my house.  We turned a lovely jumper into a cushion

And are in the process of turning the first 1/4 of the shirts into a patchwork for mum (and will gradually work on the rest for Linda, her sister and her daughter)

It was an honour to be allowed to be involved and lovely to catch up with what the two families have been up to!

2018 Wk 10 - two quilts!

Quilt 1
After the previous disaster with June's quilt I have now made a replacement. Amo suggested a way to salvage the original which I will do, but for now June's replacement is ready to go to Texas, and with the right name!

Quilt 2
I was inspired, many months ago, by a quilt I saw in a fabric shop in quaint village called Grayshott.

My version was planned last August

but never got stitched until this weekend.  I considered the lines of quilting in the white sections, to make it look as if they were pieced, but didn't feel the love.  I rummaged in the quilting threads box and found threads that were close to the colours in the fabrics

and I quilted and quilted and quilted - something like 130 yards of quilting, all triple / bean stitch, and I'm really pleased with the result

I just need to find suitable fabric for the binding

We've had  few days of the country going into panic mode - Brits can go through a World War or two with nothing defeating their spirit, and have shown terrorists that our best comes out in times of disaster - but a few inches of snow has achieved the results that the terrorists planned and hoped for! The country shut down!  Schools were closed, flights were cancelled, people panic bought at the shops that were open.  Niki was flying back from Budapest: the flight was delayed not due to the two foot of snow there, but the two inches of snow here!

Another casualty of the weather was Niki and Lisa's front door.  They could not get it open!  Their home insurance comes with an emergency call out service - but the operators couldn't get to the call centre so they were no help at all.  so . . . Daddy to the rescue

It was the only way in!  He did manage to remove the lock and fix it so at least he could leave by the front door rather than the kitchen window!

And finally, Janet from Crafty Church has created another "Horton Hug".  Completed blankets are appearing in church and then being taken to a good home - to someone who needs a hug!  I love the colours on this one

The snow has now gone, the weekend has nearly gone, and this blog post is done!  Hope you had  good weekend