Easter wishes

Sending Easter wishers to you all in blog land    He is Risen, He is Risen indeed Alleluia


Now for a few more photos, these are by the contemporary quilters group, a branch of the quilters guild. Each member did a series of 12 pieces, 4 yellow, 4 red and 4 blue but they only had room to display 3 of each colour.  Sorry the photos are so poor but they give you an idea,  if you hold the Cltr key down and scroll with the mouse on the photo it will enlarge, at least it does on my computer, not sure how you do it on laptops or on the phones that have internet,   far too complicated for me!

I also bought some batik,   it was in bundles of 10 fat quarters so got the blue/green range and the orange/yellow set

the bottom photo is not true to the colour they are not quite as wishy washy as they look! Now I have these fabrics added to the stash, wonder if   or when  I will ever use them.

stitching show

I had a wonderful time at the stitching show in Birmingham last weekend,, snow all the way down but the coach was only delayed by 30 minutes so that was not too bad, the problem was pulling the suitcase along through all the snow!

So much to see and do,  demonstrations and lots of quilts to look at, the Quilters Guild,  Contemporary Quilters Guild,  Pat Archibald,  Linda and Laura Kemshall .   Wow what a lovely time looking at all these things.
Was hoping to put some photos on from picasa but did not work so will just share a few photos.

the 3 above where from a collection by members of the Quilters Guild.

these African themed ones were done by Pat Archibald who had her own exhibition, 

these were done by Linda and Laura Kemshall, a mother and daughter team,  I gather they are teachers. The one of a swallow in the hand was breathtaking. Unfortunately I do not know who did each one.

think that is enough for today will add some more tomorrow,  happy viewing

CQJP march

Here is my latest block for the CQJP challenge.    Bit of a mish mash this time,    started with a tree in the centre, spring time here in England and the trees in the garden are beginning to form buds.
I then went on an Easter theme,   He is Risen and the Cross to proclaim our risen Lord.

The Easter bunny and the chick came next along with some seam treatments and some tatting and a little beading.  The corner in the bottom left hand side is a little bare but I will add to this at a later date.

once again the colours are not too good.                                                                                                         

On friday I am off to a show in Birmingham,    Sewing for pleasure,hobbycrafts and fashion, embroidery and stitch. . Looking forward to it, there for 3 days and staying with some friends who are exhibitors, and who I used to work the shows with. Hopefully there will be lots of inspiration but looking at the list of exhibitors there is far more in the paper craft side than the stitching.Paper craft seems to have taken over everywhere.

absence

Just a quickie to say after spending 6 days in bed with a very bad chest infection I am now back and promise to try and catch up with all your blogs, might take a few days but bare with me,  I did not forget you all.
Not sure how I succumbed as I do not do illness, apart from the odd migraine when I have had to have a day in bed it must be years and years ago since I felt so ill.  Here goes will start now on all your bloggings and see what you have all been up to.

tast stitches

I have finally caught up with the tast stitches from SF.  They are square herringbone 53,  laced square herringbone 54,buttonholed herringbone 55, sailor stitch 56 and sailor edging stitch 57.

I own up to struggling with the laced herringbone, if I tried to do it once I tried 5 times but the instructions did not seem to make sense then after a few days break I went back to it and I seemed to have no problems!!   confused brain syndrome.

Problems too with the buttonholed herringbone, it would not sit nicely, the thread kept twisting, seems strange as when I did the beaded hedebo edge sample there did not seem to be a problem and I used perle thread for both.  No problem with the sailor stitches, had not come across these before, good to have a stitch I had not heard of.
Apart from the buttonholed herringbone I used a rayon type random dyed thread for the other stitches. I bought these threads years ago at a show in London, have about 10 but have never used them as they are so slippery, what a waste must use them more.
Stranded cottons I rarely use either and have loads of them but I do not like working with more than one strand at a time, maybe it is time to donate them to a charity or something but I am sure to want one if I do that!

Herringbone square around the outside with a smaller one inside each square, the laced ones are in the centre with small squares scattered around them

buttonholed herringbone stitch

sailor stitch, the first 4 rows and sailor edging stitch the next 2 rows and the squiggly bit!