crazy quilting

Today I would like to share first of all a photo of my beautiful granddaughter Sal     here she is about to go to here prom.

It seems strange that she has reached the age of 16, does not seem long ago that we welcomed her into the extended family,  my only grandchild.

Today is her Mum`s birthday,  even more amazing that it is 42 years since Catherine was born.

We now wait to see how well Sal has done in her GCSE`s and what she will do next,  a few ideas floating around from doing A levels to health and beauty,  the police force was considered but this seems unlikely due to her ankle that was so badly broken 2 years ago,  she is still unable to play contact sport and is not a lover of exercise anyway, the police force needs you to be pretty agile!

I am a very proud grandmother.

Now for my CQJP piece for july

I am also sharing the little bunny quilts BOM which this month is a Martha Washington star

I am enjoying this BOM, I expect it has something to do with having my background fabric green which is my favourite colour and I got a massive piece of this fabric,  think it was £5, the man was clearing out his warehouse,  when I washed the fabric and checked there was over 8 metres in the piece so a fantastic buy   100% cotton too.

We are enjoying a lovely hot spell here in Leeds,   schools have now broken up so no doubt the weather will change now the children are home for 6 weeks.   I thought I would share a few photos of the plants in my garden which when I moved in was just privet hedges, grass and weeds.

this is a close up of a rose bush I bought in memory of my dear Mum.   It has been in the garden for nearly 7 years and has the loveliest  flowers plus a nice scent.

here is my magnolia, another rose bush, the tree trunk is a gum tree which I need to cut down as if it were to fall in the wind it would land on my next door neighbour`s greenhouse.  I will crop it then keep in pruned as a bush, hopefully that  will work. Like to have a gum tree as my Dad was born and brought up in Australia.Memory has deserted me for the moment  re the other bush oh yes   memory back I think it is a fatsia japonica.

 

This is the top of the back garden,  the fence was put up last year as there were privets that were tree size that I could not maintain. The oak tree will take years to establish, must have been in 5 years now also there is a holly, broom, white lilac. pieris, large rose bush and other bits and pieces, to the left I have planted a silver birch and to the left is a  mountain ash (I think) that has got berries on for the first time this year. I also have 2 apple trees, one cherry, 2 pear and 1 plum,  apples are doing well, no pears and 5 plums,  all the cherries the birds have eaten.  Various other shrubs etc down the sides of the garden,  will share some more photos another day

this is the rose bush that the earlier photo is of. Also a hydrangea which the rose is tending to take over, will prune the rose right back when it is time to prune,  and a mahonia

                                                           What a beauty this hydrangea is

think that is enough for today  I will be sharing the 6   yes 6 flimsies I now have waiting to be quilted in my next blog

spring has sprung

Today I have been playing with picasa again using some of the latest photos I took of the garden so thought I would hare them with you here.

 most of these I can recognise but on the bottom collage the middle one on the top row is baffling me. It has come through from the next garden and is spreading at a rapid rate, however it is covering up the soil in front of the dreaded privets which surround the whole garden back and front so I am nuturing it and will move some to other bare patches as even if it is a weed it is ground covering and very pretty, hopefully it will see off the dandelions too.The bush next to it is so very pretty when in full flower, just coming into flower now but can not for the life of me remember what it is called,   can anyone else come up for the name of either of these please.

CQJP april

Today I am posting my block for april, I am disappointed with it but never mind I will get better. The top right hand side as you look at it is some cotton fabric I dyed but I did not like what I had stitched and when i unpicked it there were holes where the stitching had been so did a sort of botch job to cover them up with a crocheted flower and a bit of twisted chain.
I made all 12 blocks prior to any embellishing,   another regret,  I which I had put more fabrics on so the outer areas were not so big, also all blocks have been made in greens, green being my favourite colour, feel by the end I will hate the sight of green. Next year if I take part I will have a different system. I am not having a moan  at least I do not think I am , maybe you think differently.

Still waiting for spring here, today we were promised warmth and sunshine but it is dull, windy, drizzly and cold!Not sure when spring will come, I do have daffodils  and crocus out but the trees are showing very litle sign of life, never known spring be so late before. Did read somewhere the gardens are 6 weeks behind where they should be

CQJP project

Toady I am posting the photos of my 12 blocks for the CQJP 2013 challenge.   I have made all 12 not sure if this was the right thing to do but have more fabric so can replace some if I do not like them. I was surprised how much fabric I had in my stash,  both bought fat quarters and fabric I had coloured myself with silk paints sponged onto the fabric, some were also sprinkled with rock salt to make the colours run.  I had bought some Egyptian cotton at the K & S show in 2011 and it coloured beautifully so the other day when I got the news email from Empress Mills and they had the cotton reduced from £12.50 to £8.50 a metre thought it was too good an offer to refuse and now waiting for a metre to pop through the letter box, it really is lovely quality.

The blocks have all been made with an assortment of greens and I plan to introduce other colours in the embellishment,   originally thought yellow and orange, maybe a bit of purple and red,   not sure will ponder some more.All suggestions greatly received.  Suppose I should start embellishing ,    maybe after the weekend.

The one below is the first one I am going to use.

 now I look at it again not so sure I like the colours, will have a go embellishing and see what happens,   maybe practise will make perfect.

Thought I would post a photo of my mahonia in flower, it is lovely to see a bit of colour in the garden at this time of year.

tumbling and tatting

 I have just made my first patchwork block using papers which I am quite pleased with, I only used some poly cotton I had at hand to try this method, the block now needs mounting on a square piece of fabric. I think I might prefer this way by hand rather than machine patching, it is easier to get the corners meeting and think it is more relaxing stitching by hand if some what slower  well I expect it is but have not tried it on the machine yet. On friday I got a quarter inch foot for the machine so will have a go shortly.

Now for my latest piece of needle tatting, I found this necklace pattern on the internet, it went together very well but the chain part is not long enough for me to wear it, not sure I would if I could anyway

 I have now quite a selection of tatted pieces which I hope to use on some crazy blocks in the near future.

When I went out today I saw something odd on the garden by the path, touching it gingerly with my foot I decided it was a fungus of some sort, not sure what has made the holes in it but thought I would share this thing with you all, maybe it was something to do with halloween, I did not open my door to some knockers as they frighten me, no eggs or flour thrown at my windows which is quite common, maybe the fungus was deposited instead although it appears to be rooted in the soil, will keep my eye on it and see what happens.

knotted buttonhole stitch

my latest stitch from tast knotted buttonhole.
Rather a lazy attempt, I seem to be struggling as there is so much I want to try in the stitching world and feel a bit of the "what should I do next" syndrome so find myself just pottering and doing lots of unnecessary things,so putting off what I could be doing,  a good sort out of all my clutter might be a good idea but at the moment a good idea is all it will be! I try and keep everything together in the box room but do not work there as it is too small and cold, bring things down to the kitchen and they then pile up all over the place and spread to the lounge and even the utility room,     yes that is what I will do this morning return some of the clutter back upstairs!Have been doing more needle tatting in the evenings, trying to get the tension more even but I know that will come with practise.

The garden does not know what is happening this autumn, the other day I found a flower on the magnolia tree, fruit trees been very poor, no pears, few cherries, one apple tree with no apples but the plum tree planted last year gave me 20 delicious plums and my James Greer apple tree has about 30 apples, this has been in for 3 years now but lost the main branch with lots of apples when it was very windy in june.