Tour de France

I live in West Yorkshire where the Tour de France is starting from and our MQG is entering into an exhibition on the theme of wheels.  Of course I did not read the instructions fully and now realise after reading Quilt Sue`s blog that mine in incorrect.  Apparently it should have a white background,  no white at all on mine!  The pieces are then going on the the quilt show in Harrogate at the end of august but mine does not qualify for that either as the cushion size must not be more than 18" and mine is 19", never mind I quite enjoyed using up some old batik fabrics,  the test was getting the circle right,  not 100% circular but have done my best.  I have hand quilted it with Oliver Twist hand dyed threads.I will take it to our next meeting just to show what should not have been done

wristwatch quilt, CQJP june

This last few weeks I have been doing the wristwatch quilt that Paula of Sassy quilters did through Bear Creek web site.    Once again it is for Helen hence the pink and grey.   Now all blocks together and it is at the flimsy stage but problems re the quilting,  as there is so much blank space it needs accurate quilting so think it needs to go to bed for a few years.  I have lots of the grey fabric,  5 yards which I picked up for £5, she wants that on the back too, rather boring but if it is what she wants!

Helen is not only  into pink and grey   she is also into butterflies so this fabric has worked very well.  Now you can see the problem with all the plain areas for quilting.  The quilt measures 60" x 60"

Yesterday I worked on Helen`s crazy block for june

  I have more to do on this one, the grey cat fabric at the bottom needs seam treatment and a few more bits would not be a bad thing but it will be cut down slightly when I put them all together.  Rather like my butterfly,  it is from the fabric I used in the wristwatch quilt, I bonded the butterfly then added some straight stitches and french knots.   I struggle with this colour range but Helen seems to approve so that means all is okay.

I live in West Yorkshire where the tour de France starts so our MQG have been invited to make things based on wheels for an exhibition that will run in july in Harrogate   I have made something,  not sure it will be accepted, I take it to the meeting on 21st, if approved I will put a photo on here.

a finished quilt

I have finally finished the mini 24 block Tula Pink sampler quilt,  it has been waiting for the quilting and binding and now it is done.   I used my bernina and walking foot but still having problems re the weight and sometimes not feeding through but I will improve in time.  Each block has been quilted individually with a matching thread for the block and different patterns too and the black sashing has just been straight line quilted either side of then seams.  Finished size 33" x 38"

Overall I am happy with it and it sits on the back of my 2 seat sofa,    will probably do another one the same size for the other sofa and then use the left over 52 blocks for a larger quilt.

Also done the bee blessed block for june, called a scrappy  but classy block.There will  not be another one till september.

Another block also from the QCQAL with Alison at little bunny quilts, the Dutchman`s puzzle,  I am not so sure using the green as a background fabric is the right choice but too late to change as I have done 8 blocks and green is my favourite colour.

I have decided to ignore google + completely so anyone that has asked me to link to it it is nothing personal but I do not understand what it is all about. and it seems it effects blogger so will keep my distance.

Embroidery friends, Malvern

I am a member of the group Embroidery friends,  it was formed when the Embroiderers Guild updated there web site and decided they would no longer have a members forum so this breakaway group was formed which is open to anyone not just Embroidery Guild members,  just as well as I did not renew my membership last year.   Anyway some of us got together to do a round robin.  There were 10 of us from around the globe and we each choose what we wanted our piece to be based on..  My theme was gardens and I posted a photo of the bird bath I had stitched.  To cut a long story short I received my piece back a couple of weeks ago and I am delighted with what everyone has stitched,  here is a photo

Isn`t it a beautiful piece,  have now to decide what to do with it once I can get the creases ironed out.

Now for a few more photos from the Malvern quilt show

              this is to me a cheerful quilt   not sure why but it reminds me of smiley faces

maybe one day I will have mastered applique,   well in my dreams if not on a quilt

                                  love quilts that tell a story  and this one has lots to see.

                               I would not mind living in one of these cottages

                                 as you can see this one got some awards,  beautiful isn`t it.

   hope you enjoy these

Malvern quilt show

I am now home following my few days in London,     re the quilt show,  unfortunately I woke at 3.30am with a bad migraine which did not shift and led to violent sickness but by 9.30 we left for Malvern,  I slept all the way in the car and napped throughout the  day too but fortunately Cheryl took photos which we transferred to a memory stick for me to bring home.  Did not even manage to see the quilts properly but will share a few photos with you today.

I think most of you know I am a Jennie Rayment fan and this was based on her designs, being off white it does not show up very well.

beautiful piecing on this one

so colourful,   this was very popular with the visitors

  I loved this one if you click on the photo you should get a better clearer picture    hopefully

lots to see and admire in this one

oh wow, just discovered how to move the picture and write by the side of it!!    This is one of my favourites.

















will post a few more photos tomorrow.

I have made 3 more blocks .

well it might have just been a one off ,  managed to move this to the side but could not write  the text next to it!!  It has now moved back to the centre!!   This is the churn dash block  (6) done for the Little bunny challenge

This block    celtic cross was on the blog simply pieced  that Janet has to celebrate a year of blogging,  this is the biggest block I have made, measures 16.5"

This is off to America to Anna who has requested 12" blocks in pink to make into quilts to raise money towards her Mother in law`s treatment for cancer

hexie, bow tie block,CQJP, Malvern

today I have three new pieces to share with you

Fist the hexie BOM for may is a butterfly

A bit dull re colour but  I have lots of hexies already stitched and these were the best I could us.

Also completed the CQJP for may,   I feel it needs more adding which hopefully will reveal itself when I join the 12 blocks together.

My final block of the monthly blocks is for bee blessed   the bow tie block. This is a challenge I take part in every month through a link in Belfast.

 
Friday I am off to London to say at Cherly`s and on saturday we are going to the Malvern quilt show, will no doubt be taking of photos and marvelling at the most wonderful quilts,  no doubt dong a bit of spending too.  I have already ordered some walnuts shells from Creative grids in case they sell out before I get there,they are for pincushions, have not been able to buy any before. Returning to London in the evening and then I will be coming home sunday evening,  travelling by mega bus which is a very economical way of getting around the country.
I am also looking forward to seeing the quilt, bag, mobile and one more piece that Cheryl has made for her C & G patchwork and quilting course she has been doing at Missenden Abbey, have seen a photo of the bag but will see them all properly whilst at her home.

sewing caddy

This is a sewing caddy i made last week,  I got the pattern through the Yorkshire Modern Quilters Group I go to,   and have just put in "sewing caddy tutorial" into the search engine    guess what the tutorial appeared so if any one wants to have a go they can find the pattern.  I found it quite easy to do but for some reason the lining bottom seems a bit big,   the group made these at a meeting I could not attend and have since heard one or two others had the same problem. For my first go I was quite pleased and Helen has decided she should have it, unfortunately one of her friends is also after one along with Catherine and no doubt Sal my granddaughter too,  I think they want to use them for their hair dryers, straighteners etc.

The original pattern puts the pockets on the inside of the bag but I have mine on the outside, front and back and one on the inside.  Will use a plain colour for the lining the next one I do.



I found this in my kitchen cupboard the other day.

It is a sweet potato!!!  Unlike an ordinary potato it did not go slimy or smelly, I was amazed when I cut it open feel it should inspire me to be creative,   any ideas?  The photo is in a folder called inspiration  along with a few other things that have caught my eye.  Wish I had found the tomatoes I bought over 2 weeks ago! they are on the receipt but not in the house, I must have left them on the checkout

Lots of people I follow have asked me to join google+ but I do not know anything about it, what I have read says it means everyone can see what I write, is that just on the blogs or on flickr and in my emails and everywhere else?  any advice would be good as I am a bit wary of it, so if you wonder why I have not responded that is why, I need to know more about it.  Many thanks

finished project

Well the sassy triangle quilt is finished!!!    Sunday I thought this machine quilting I will master,    well I tried it on a small piece and yes it fed through beautifully and even managed to use a fancy stitch so     loaded up the quilt and disaster, the weight of the quilt was too much and it would not feed so gave up! Decided I would draw circles and hexagons all over it and hand quilt. Spent the day doing this but only got about a quarter of the way and did not like what I had done so monday came and decided I would not be beaten so out came the machine again,  decided I needed to lift the weight off the machine so put 2 coffee tables on top of each other next to my left hand side which took the weight and used a longer stitch   guess  what    IT WORKED.  Have to own up to the lines not been  very straight but when I get better will unpick and re do them.  I am feeling so pleased with myself.  The binding I made from various lengths of the left over fabric which has worked quilt well.  Yesterday the quilt went into the wash,    confound it the washable pen I used to draw the circles and hexies has not washed out properly, not sure why as it washed out on a previous piece, fortunately I had only done them on the first 4 rows.It was a bit of a bore unpicking the hand quilting and after washing found one circle I had missed so must do that now the quilt is dry

 As you can see some of the fabric is a bit distorted, there was one cotton that was a bit thinner than the others and that has caused a bit of a problem, never mind I am not showing it to the quilting police and I can learn form my errors.

I wonder why there is so little about the quilting of quilts,   I have lots of books but only one seems to give much information and the magazines seem to be great at the piecing process but say quilt as desired!  I am sure someone could bring out a book to help us beginners.

sassy triangles, CQJP april, assorted blocks

May I wish you a joyous Easter celebrating the resurection of our Lord Jesus Christ.     Do not eat too many eggs!

I have now joined the rows on the triangle project with the Sassy quilter.  More than that I have the quilt tacked to the wadding and backing.   I have used cotton bump, not tried it for a quilt before, it is rather thick and as this is going to be for keeping me warm in the kitchen it might be too heavy,   time will tell.

The star on the collage is the left over from when I trimmed the sides.  The white brushed cotton cord is the backing fabric,  thought it would work well, it has little coloured hearts all over it. Sorry about the wind, it was persistent in blowing when I tried to take the photo.

I have also finished off the CQJP block for april 

I plan to put a spider in the web when completing the hanging,  not sure whether it will be beaded or tatted yet

I have also been following the quillow on create and craft that Jennie Rayment is doing,   we should have done 9 blocks by now but I have only done 8, the one missing is a celtic design,  I have not mastered the bias strips that have to be very narrow so I will substitute another block,  we have one more to do that goes on the back of the quillow,  I will use this on the front and do my own thing on the back!  The five pointed star should also have had binding on but I backed mine with interfacing instead.

 sorry about the sizes of them  they are all the same size in real life,  must have stood nearer to some that others when photoing,   thought a collage was the best way to show them or you would have been here all day looking at photos when you should all be stitching!!  The hexagons were done on the sewing machine    managed the Y seams better than I thought I would, we also had to use them on the goose tracks block.  So what we have here are   petal pattern,  kaleidescope,  dresden plate,  hexagons,  goose tracks,  pineapple,  5 pointed star and bears paw. 

Sassy triangles, bee blessed blocks, hexie block

I cannot believe I had not written on my blog since march      well I will make up for it now.

I was thrilled when my crazy wall hanging from 2013 was shown in the crazy quilt gatherings spring magazine   fame at last!    Maybe I will put it into the Harrogate quilt show in the autumn. Here is a photo for those of you who might not have seen it.

The block for bee blessed for april was the asterisk block which we were asked to do 2 ways,  well of curse I always do as I am told so here is the pair I did. I always look forward to seeing what the next block will be,   so gald I stumbled onto this charity BOM

I also made a mini block to add to my collection of trial blocks.

I am now doing the triangle challenge with the Sassy quilter.  We had to cut out 204  60 degree triangles and last week sew them into 12 rows with 17 in each row.   Today    or maybe tomorrow I have to join all the rows together, hopefully getting most of them matching.  here are the 12 rows prior to joining.

Next week week will complete the quilt,  finished size should be 49.5" x 65"   I will be straightening the sides, having read how to bind them unstraightened realise that is just too complicated and fiddly for me.

The batting /wadding should arrive early this week for the aiming for accuracy quilt so then I will think about how to quilt it,  whether by hand or machine.

I attended the second meeting of the Leeds Modern quilters group yesterday, there were about 20 of us there,  I am sure it is going to be a great group to belong to and not far from home either. I took the aiming for accuracy quilt and they suggested I just quilted in in diagonal lines by machine,   will ponder on this as not sure if I will manage it on the machine    how I would love one with a bigger arm space. I will still go to the Yorkshire Modern quilters, it is further away but do so enjoy meeting up with the ladies.I missed it last month as I was down at the Sewing for Pleasure show and will miss May as I am going to the Malvern quilt show,  I go via London and stay with Cheryl and we then go to the  show together, returning home sunday evening,    real quality time with my great friend who is a wonderful quilter,    along with many other stitching talents.

Also finished the hexie block for april,  it is a basket, not mounted onto fabric yet, will wait till the end of the year before I decide what fabric to use.

well that will do for now,  have one or to other things to share but I do not want to send you all to sleep.

Many thanks for your encouragement and comments etc I feel I know so many of you and count you as real friends.

CQJP march, aiming for accuracy quilt, sewing for pleasure Birmingham

I suddenly remembered I had not shown my crazy quilting block for march so here it is

I am struggling with these blocks,  I expect partly as I do not like the colours chosen by Helen.  We decided it needs more colour so she said to put a bit of yellow and orange in too hence the yellow tatted butterfly, have also put some yellow french knots in the centre of the pale pink crocheted flower in the bottom right hand corner.  Oh well only 9 more to go!!

One of my goals for 2014 was to attempt the aiming for accuracy quilt of Michele Foster`s, this was done as a BOM last year but I bought the pattern this year and on friday plucked up courage to start it,  I had picked lots of fabrics from my collection,  of course some greens and tans/orange shades then threw in a few pinky ones and a bit of red.    Well I have been very busy and have now got the main part assembled,  it needs a one and a half inch sashing around it then I will add some colour in the next sashing followed by a wider border in the brown. Not sure about the coloured sashing, on the pattern it is little squares but think I might use longer pieces of fabric that have been used in the quilt.  It is now on hold for a week or two.  It was not such a problem as I thought it would be, needed a bit of tugging in places. What appealed to me about this quilt was the blocks being different sizes etc.  No clue what sort of quilting I will do on it yet or whether it ill be hand or machine quilting.

Sorry the photo is sideways,  do not know how to flip it.   I planned to photo it on the washing line but it is so very windy today so had to put it on the bed instead, you can see how big it is.

On thursday I am off to the Sewing for pleasure show in Birmingham at the NEC.   I will be staying with friends who I used to work for at the shows in Buckingham which will be great fun and come home saturday evening. Also will be seeing Cheryl my good friend from London who is coming up for the day on friday, so looking forward to seeing her.
Not sure what I will be tempted to buy but I am sure some fabric will find its way home with me and I would also like to find Anni Downs angels quilt pattern if possible.  Jennie Rayment will be there doing a workshop and that is also on my list to do     I am getting so excited thinking about it.

bee blessed, shamrock hexie, the hairbrush saga, 150 blogs

I is now march so Sara over at sew me released the latest block for bee blessed    Pippa longstocking.   I struggled with this one, chopped off the feet on one so started again,  the one with the continuous fabric border is the one I am keeping as it is not correct and it will go into my box of assorted trial blocks,   but the second one I am pleased with so will post it off to Sara today and it will go into a charity quilt during the year,   I believe they are using the hearts from the february block in the same quilt.

The child like fabrics I used here I could not resist the other day, maybe it was 6th sense that I would need them for these blocks.

I also did the hexie challenge for march,   a shamrock,  the 4 leaves have not been attached yet as I am waiting till all blocks are done to decide what background fabric to use,  the 4 leaves are not attached to each other either.They will be sewn as you see it now     more or less.

My girls say I am quite tight with my pennies,  well yesterday I spent £1 on a new hair brush,   I have been pondering when I bought my old one, I am sure it was before my divorce in 1986  so it  has done well.   It was from Avon but when I looked the other day they are no longer available!!   I am sure this new one will not last as long.   Had a comb too that I bought in 1996 whilst in Australia for my niece`s wedding and unfortunately I lost it last year so that was another  £1,   how I love the pound shops.

    No doubt you can spot which is which,    the old one has now been put in the rubbish bin.


Just noticed that this is my 150th blog  had no idea I had done so many,  it is about 2 years since I started blogging,   pat myself on the back,  good girl Margaret!