Busy Weekend

Saturday we had a great Regional day at Braithwaite Near Keswick, with speakers Eileen Blood, and Anja Townrow. Lots of people there plenty of things to enable us to indulge in a bit of retail therapy including a visit from the Guild President Margaret Hughes. Who happened to be having a couple of days off in the 'Lakes' so she popped in to say hello, which was really nice of her.

All this excitement was followed by, on Sunday, an excellent workshop with Anja on curved piecing . You can see my pieced but yet to be quilted sample above. As someone who doesn't do curves (I applique drunkards path) this workshop was a revelation. I finished the piecing at home yesterday, which is unlike many pieces I begin in workshops that never see the light of day again!

Beaded Necklace

This is what I have been making since Sunday in any spare minutes available.

Unfortunately my pix do not do it justice. You can see it at the Bead Merchant its the deep purples.

9-Patch

This is what I have been doing creatively today.

Yes 2 x 9-patch blocks I didn't have a lot of time, they measure 6" when finished.

Not sure what I will do with them yet, I may even make some more, today I just wanted a little playtime:0)

Yet another little gem

This is the latest little gem.
Size: A4 (approx 11 3/4" x 8 1/4")

Techniques: Fabric weaving, machine quilting embellishment.

These are great for experimenting and playing with new ideas and techniques without too much commitment. I think am getting a little addicted:-)

Another Little Gem

Here is my latest Little Gem 'Pink & Pretty'.

Size: A4 (approx 11 3/4" x 8 1/4").

Techniques used: machine embroidery, applique and quilting.

Delights of dog walking

I remembered to take my camera when I took the dogs out today. We take them down to a long ago abandoned quarry, now reverted back to nature, and around the fields, hence the pics of the flowering hawthorn and gorse. It all looks very beautiful, the hawthorn is incredibly pretty and delicate unlike its thorns!

I took the camera with the intention of taking a pic of a flowering tree, wouldn't you know it that is the only thing I didn't manage to get a half way decent pic of, will have to take the camera again tomorrow and try again, hope it is still looking as magnificent.

Gorse

Hawthorn

Finished Little Gem

Here it is in all its glory my own Little Gem - 'Sunflower'

My Little Gem

As promised I sarted a little gem, I cut it out, and using bondaweb, I glued it down, then life, stuff and small boys though perhaps I should call them teenagers at 12 and 13, required feeding. On a side note just how did my baby get to be 13 so fast, it was only yesterday he was a toddler... wasn't it?!

Then my nephew needed taking home, relatives had to be visited with as I was in the area, and before you know it its Saturday already and my little gem sits all alone and lonely on the ironing board!

Now to cheer it up I'd best go find some wadding, backing fabric, do some quilting!

Littel Gems

I really need to begin making a Little Gem I have been procrastinating about doing this for weeks now. How hard can it be to make an A4 journal type quilt?
I have been procrastinating about a lot of things lately come to that, but my 'Get up and Go' seems to have got up and gone!

Click on the link to find out about the CQ Little Gems fundraiser.

In the meantime I really must go and start one.

Eye Candy

I know I know I don't 'do' pink, but they just go so well with the green


I've went shopping only went for a look and maybe get a new stamp, but I couldn't resist these fabulous buttons. Couldn't you just eat them?!
Buttons are soooo tactile I remember as a child routing in both my mother and my grandmother's button tins they had a unique smell which mine doesn't. Maybe I should put them in a tin, at present they are in a plastic container.
Now to think of a use for them other than drooling over them of course!

Austrailian bush fires - what we quilters can do

I have just read Jenny Bowker's blog about what we as quilters can do to help quilters in Australia after the devastating fires in Victoria. Please read Jenny's post and see if there is something you could send.

Thanks to Freida Oxenholme for posting the link on the cqgb yahoo group, I now feel I can help in a very small way, so I'm off to rummage through my stash!

Re-organising the house

Today we had the dining room chimney swept, and have had a fire going all day to warm the chimney and the room. Why am I telling you this? Well I finally bit the bullet and decided to rearrange the house. What was the dining room has now become the sitting room, the sitting room has become the dining room and (this is the best bit for me) I shall be able to use it as an extension of my sewing studio.

Some time ago I blogged about how my studio was too small or maybe my stash is too big, but lets not go there. After lots of thought, discussion, and procrastination we decided to have the chimney swept to see if the fire was viable, the house is old and cold the central heating does little other than take the chill off so a viable fire is a necessity.

As the fire seems to work just fine I have spent the day cleaning and moving furniture, the sitting room is now organised so I can go and flop later. The dining room is getting organised
and if I can rearrange the furniture some more tomorrow I will hopefully finally get a dedicated design wall. Ooooh I'm soo excited!

Why we have not done this before is a mystery as the new sitting room is much cosier and will be much easier to keep warm. Oh the wisdom of hind sight!

The dining room/studio is usually reasonably warm during the day as it gets plenty of sunshine but will be quite cool in the evenings, so I will have to organise my time accordingly.

Two steps forward one step back

Look what my little piles have morphed into, long piles of fabric.

Oh how I have cursed my original P&Q teacher today as I sat unpicking yet another seam. When she taught me to quilt we weren't allowed to proceed until every point matched as it should, and so we learnt the delicate art of unpicking, something in which I now consider myself something of an expert! As I removed each piece from the machine I held my breath as I checked the points did they match? Well most did but some were not quite there. All I could hear was Babs saying "would you like me to help you unpick that bit" grrrr, of course then I had to unpick and redo the offending bits!

The progress of the quilt

As you can see I'm a messy worker (I thought I'd tidied up before taking these pix!) I just shuv things out of the way as I go. I am always impressed by the tidy way most people seem to work when I am doing workshops, unfortunately it seems I'm just not made that way!

The tree outside the gate.

Welcome Signs of Spring

There are lots of snowdrops flowering in the orchard and the hedge bottom.

The daffodils are pushing through too, does this mean spring is on the way? It doesn't feel like it!

There's snow on them there hills!

Snow on Caldbeck

We had a good covering of snow on Monday, which it is mostly gone now but as you can see its still covering Caldbeck.

Puppies

Trixie

Tigger

The puppies are now 11 months old and still as excitable as ever especially when out for a walk. Cathcing them on camera is not easy, we have a lot of pictures of their bottoms!