small square cloth, daffodils, Alfie and Sophie,

I have now quilted and bound the small patchwork I did last week.   I am calling it a small square table cloth, it sits quite well in the centre of the kitchen table,  will just have to watch it does not disappear when Helen calls as she seems to think Alfie would like it to sleep on,    will see when he comes to stay if he is attracted to it!    I machine quilted this with diagonal lines through the centre of the blocks,  I drew lines with a washable pen so they kept reasonably straight and even did some in the ditch on the long rectangle pieces.  Think my choice of green for the quilting  was not the right choice but I live and learn,  maybe a lighter colour would have been better.  This is the most machine quilting I have done,  not bad really.  I backed it with some grey cotton,   to hard to resist £1 a yard and extra wide so I think I will be used as backing again.   I rather like the red I used to bind it,   maybe I could have used red for the quilting too.

back of work

spring is on the way!   here are the first daffodils that have appeared in my garden  taken on 26 feb.

They are the mini ones, very pretty,  this morning when I got up at 5.30 there was a thick frost and all the cars were iced up,  I think this is the first heavy frost of the winter and spring starts tomorrow,   we have been very lucky this year.

Now for photo of Alfie   the poser who does he think he is!

Have you ever seen anything as adorable as this? no adorable is not the right word but cannot come up with one that suits him.  

This is a photo of Sophie, Alfie`s Mum who belongs to Catherine my elder daughter.

She is quite an old lady now, about 13  so we have two beauties just wish I had one too but circumstances do not allow.

february heart, scrappy mini quilt, charity blocks

I have just finished the february BOM for the hexie challenge,  this time it was a heart so I have been busy cutting out card for the hexies.   I used the sizzix machine and 1" hexie die and have cut out about 400 pieces,  using old Xmas cards and cereal packets which are much easier to work with than papers.  I take the easy route and cut the fabric in a rectangles,  2. 5" by 2. 75" using the rotary cutter,  I know this way I waste a little fabric but it is so much quicker.   When I tack the fabric to the card I do not stitch through the card, this means it can re reused time and again,    why on earth have I cut so much card out you might ask,   well I am not really sure but I will make lots and lots of hexies ready for the next challenge and quite like the idea of doing  a bigger project too so if they are tacked together it will save time when the next challenge is posted at the beginning of march.    what a woffle that was.

I am not sure what to use as a background so have decided not to stitch them to the backing till all 12 are stitched then I will decide what to use and if sashing is required etc.

Last week I saw a blog about  a fab 4 link up party on quilting lines blog.  I should know to read all the info but no saw the design and rushed in with my scraps.

Having re read the blog today I think I am meant to use 4 fat quarters but reading again I think that might be incorrect as it is all to do with the Beatles. They are the fab 4. Patricia asks us to either applique the names of the Beatles or stitch or applique your favourite verse from one of their songs or add a silhouette of a favourite photo of the boys,  Well I misunderstood all that so will not link up with mine.  When Helen saw it she thought it would make a nice blanket for her cat Alfie  I don`t think so!

Lesson to learn from all this is to read all the details first!   not rush in like a bull in a china shop.   Must own up to being guilty of this in the past and should have learnt my lesson then 

Have now to decide how to quilt this piece. 

Last week I did have a go at machine quilting the sashing on my batik Tula quilt,  just straight lines either side of the ditch and now wondering about quilting the blocks, would like to do them in different colours and different patterns but not sure how that would work . The backing is blue so have blue thread in the bobbin.   Will ponder some more.

Prior to doing the batik quilting I made 2 blocks for little island quilting, she wants 12.5" blocks as quilt as you go so these are my first attempts with the machine quilting.  

Alison is sending the quilts when she has completed them to Mexico for the poor children,   well no not sending as they are unlikely to arrive, not sure who will be taking them but it is a worth while cause.

February block

This weekend I have been working on the crazy block for february.  Not sure if it is completely complete or not but I can always add some more embellishments later   I really like the beaded chain stitch which has been one of the recent stitches from Sharon B on pintangle.  I have not been keeping up with them for a while now but have used  the beaded chain, chain cross and up and down feathered buttonhole stitch here none of which I have used before.  I do so like Sharon`s stencils which I bought last year and they have appeared on this block as well   The grey lace is a piece of white I dropped silk paints onto , think it needs a bit of something on it but so far cannot decide so have left it plain.

The bit of pink tatting I am going to add a little ladybird button to when I make the 12 blocks into the wall hanging.

crocus, finished quilt, blocks

Here is my stack and slash quilt all finished,  I added the binding and feel job well done.

I do think the red is a bit loud and unfortunately the hand quilting does not show too well in the photo, I used hand quilting cotton,  next time   if there is a next time I will use a thicker thread, maybe a perle 12 or 16,   it is good to be learning as I go down this path of quilting.
I am not sure what I will do with it, at the moment it is on the back of my cream couch which adds a bit of colour.

I have also done the first 3 blocks for the quilt on the create and craft channel with Jennie Rayment These blocks are 14" finished.

Pineapple block,   this one was tricky for me,  there was a template for it but I just used an ordinary square,no point is spending over £20 for something I will only use once.  It was not done the paper foundation way.  This is one block I will not be making many of.

Petal block,    I have not attached it yet to the backing fabric,  they suggest to use interfacing on the petal  to back it with so you get a good shape prior to attaching it to the white fabric by hand.   Was pleased with the points meeting in the centre, quite an achievement for me.

Dresden plate,   this uses 20 pieces and we were told to make it as 4 quarters with 5 in each and mount them individually on 7. 5" pieces of fabric then join them together as the quantity of fabric were told to buy would not stretch to a 14. 5 piece,  I think I will have enough fabric however so I will redo it as a whole plate instead, if you know what I mean,  not sure I do.
The next class is later this month and when complete this will make up as a quag, nine blocks on the front and one on the inside for when it is being used as a bag.

Yesterday I did a block for Sara of Sew me and her charity blocks for  bee blessed,  a heart which I will pop into the post,     Sara has one a month so I will try  and stick to doing at least one a month as they are made up into charity quilts.  Being february I expect you can guess it would be a heart.

Now for as photo of the first crocus that appeared in the garden a couple of days ago,   still a very mild winter, we have had the temperature drop below freezing just a couple of times and today the sun is pouring in on me as I am doing this blog.