Straight lines

I do like a bit of straight line quilting!!!

Tomato Haul!

Not a bad collection of tomatoes from the garden this year.  Don't they look pretty, all those beautiful colours.  We had far more than we could possibly eat, so we decided to roast them up in the oven, and then freeze them.  

The black ones looked very interesting, but were very disappointing when it came to flavour.  The tastiest ones with the orange ones, I can't remember the name of the variety but they were absolutely delicious.  

This was our first year doing tomatoes,  and it was such a success that we are looking forward to having another go next year.

  We took on an allotment this year, it was great fun to start with but we have very quickly realised that time is precious and unfortunately with the hours that we both work it was adding unnecessary stress,  especially to me.  I really enjoyed my garden last year and this year I don't feel I have as much.  Any spare time that I have had I have been torn between the garden and the allotment.  It's all about keeping the balance isn't it and I have enough to worry about without having to worry about the allotment as well.  And so the decision has been made to hand the allotment back and hopefully someone who has got more time will be able to enjoy it to the full.  I feel like a big load has been lifted off my shoulders!

English paper piecing - cheats way!

I love English paper piecing, always have done, always will.  My first two quilts were made using this method, not particularly successfully looking at them now.  My first ever quilt was made for my sister, I did everything you could possibly think wrong with this quilt but it is still around even now.  It certainly doesn't have pride of place, I think it is tucked away in the cupboard somewhere but it's still there and a lasting memory of how I started.  It was made using the honeycomb shape, a shape I decided I would come back to again this summer.

English paper piecing is the perfect project takeaway with you on any trip. I was a little worried about getting the necessary implements i.e. pins and needles through customs but as it turned out I had no problem at all, I sailed through, unlike my youngest son who was stopped and searched and also had a bottle of water in his luggage!  I didn't even try to take scissors though and decided I would get some when we got to Italy.

I used a new method for me this time. Traditionally I have always pinned the shapes to the fabric and then tacked round as we all used to do. This time I took a glue pen with me.  These are special fabric glue sticks and they are washable after you have finished.  You just put some glue along the paper,  fold the fabric over, work your way around the shape and you're done in half the time.  Gets my vote!

This is my first layout and I have stitched this together.  Then I started adding in squares…

I would do eventually but you'll have to use your imagination with the gaps on the table for now.  Love the look of this one, the centre fabric in particularly as it creates the lines as it goes round.

Used Aurifil thread to see these together with a small whipstitch.  It works really well and seemed to disappear nicely.  I know some people don't like seeing the stitches but I actually love seeing those little bits of thread anchoring it all together firmly for me.

Holiday time!

It started with a plane ride over the Alps, the view was incredible we were so lucky with the weather on the flight.  Unfortunately the landing was in the middle of a lovely thunderstorm, we weren't quite so lucky then.

Can you guess where we went? Yes you're right the leaning tower of Pisa and it really does lean!  Quite shockingly so actually I was really surprised at how much it does lean over.

We had a lovely day walking round Pisa and then the following day we picked up a hire car and headed out to our villa, again unfortunately in a wonderful thunderstorm.

The weather was very undecided for the first few days but from the Wednesday on for the rest of the week it just got hotter and hotter. Our villa was situated on the side of an Italian hill and the views into the valley were just amazing.

We had a really relaxing week just reading books, sitting by the pool, eating and of course there was some patchwork involved.  More on that to come later.  

We have been to Italy a couple of times now and we just love the country and the people there. It makes you realise how lazy we are as a nation really, as most of the people we came across could speak English. Our Italian is a little bit more limited but we managed with lots of gesturing and perhaps shouting a little too loud.  

So we all came home with a little bit of a tan and a few extra pounds heavier but it was well worth, it was a lovely lovely holiday.  

I got a new phone!

New phone, which hopefully means more photos and posts - maybe.  Latest quilt on the frame,  have practising swirls and there is a big improvement.  I am really out of practise and after a visit to the Festival of Quilts the other week, I am all inspired again - just before we go on holiday! 

New Tracks - new quilt

 I got new tracks.

About a month ago, no probably nearly two months ago we had the pleasure of hosting Martha and The New English Quilt Frame at work- we had a great time.  Lots of people came by to see us, old friends and new.  Lots of interest in the frames too.  I took mine in as well so that we had two frames on the go for people to try.  Whilst it was in, Martha recognised a small problem with my tracks.  Now, to be honest I thought it was just me and never really thought about it much, just worked around it as you do, so it was nice to know it wasn't me!!

Anyway, Martha took my old tracks and replaced them with some nice shiny new ones.  This is the first quilt on them.  They are taking a bit of getting used to, they have a completely different feel to my old ones.  I have now finished this quilt that you can see loaded on, and I think that I am getting used to them.  I have struggled to get this one finished and mainly because it seems the wrong season to be doing it.  This is a jelly roll quilt from ages ago (common theme with my quilts) and is very autumnal and I decided to quilt leaves all over it, which suits it perfectly.  But I am crying out for sun and warm and summer and this just doesn't do it for me at the minute.

I have used a lovely muted variegated So Fine thread in browns, really nice.  But because I didn't have bobbins in that colour I decided to wind my own - tedious!!!!  Pre-wound bobbins are definitely the way ahead in my book.  Like I said I have finished this quilt and I am about to take it off the frame - that wonderful moment where you see whether it has actually worked or not.  Will let you know.

Little Woollie

I had the great fortune to teach over at Little Woollie at the weekend.  This new little shop is in Bromley, Kent.  Well, I say new, but they have been open since October time last year.    Have a look at what a great space this is:

That's Trudy there in the centre, who owns the shop.  As you can see she is surrounded by all of her lovely crochet - they offer classes in that as well - just saying.  Some of my hand pieced blocks are hanging above her on the washing line - really must those back and finish them off one day.   And this is the wool choice:

Doesn't it look lovely?  All that colour.  

I was teaching a quilting class and had seven lovely ladies all keen on how to finish their quilt tops.  We start with hand quilting in the morning and then quickly move onto the machines in the afternoon - that's what a lot of people want to learn - the free motion quilting.  Although for the first time in a long time I had one lady who, although she had a go at the machine work, decided that by the end of the day that really, she was quite happy sticking with the hand quilting.  I love hand quilting, but as with most people it is finding the time to do it.  So when I got back I suddenly felt the urge to do some hand quilting.  I will show the results soon, but boy oh boy am I out of practise - my hand hurts now!

Still raining here, don't know about you.  

My new love - straight line stitching - love this!  And the best thing is - it's simple,  no major worries but maybe a bit boring to do. 

These are from a table runner that I finished off - only had it made for about three years, but still it is finished now. 

Had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, worked a bit but then had a nice family day on Sunday and then some nice quality time with my daughter.  She has been messing with the family camera - she comes up with some lovely and interesting shots:

This from my wedding anniversary flowers - 22 years and still got the heat!  Or so my husband reckons...

And then this....

Why????

This weather is awful.  Rain, rain and more rain! 

Are these too big now?  You want your pictures to make an impact but I wonder if this size is too in your face!  We have been doing a bit of scrap management in some of my clubs at work - the red pattern in particular.  These all came out of my scrap bins - it barely made a dent in them which was very worrying really.  These are destined to be cushions I think.  See the extra white strip at the top and bottom of the green one?  That's what comes of trimming a block up before you measure it and realised you have trimmed off too much - I am getting really good at doing things like that.

Love the red one, although had a few issues as it was unpicked at one point, and now as you might be able to see from the photo, we have a few stretch issues due to the bias. Talking of bias, I am doing a Lone Star class that has the potential to be a nightmare with all those bias edges - should be fun.

I got new fabric!!

I got some new fabric:

This lovely pile came from Gooba Designs on Etsy and they are LOVELY!  I can't decide what to make with them though.  I can see a shirt or two in some of them though.  I just got fat eights to see what they were like, but I really like them and now want to order more!

I also made myself something!!!  I know - for myself!  I have only wanted to do this for about 6 months.  My pegs were in a horrible plastic box thing and someone (!) kept leaving them out in the rain so all the pegs had gone rusty.  This fabric came in at work and just flew off the shelves; luckily I managed to bag myself some before then.  And so a peg bag was born:

And look - I also treated myself to some new pegs:

It has been used and has also been taken into work to be shown off - now everyone is making peg bags, it's great.  Guess what you are all getting for Christmas family???

Back Again.

OK, let's give it another go shall we?

This is our new kitchen.  Taken on a lovely sunny day.  We are so pleased with it - it's not finished yet, but hey we have waited 20 odd years for this, a few more months won't matter that much.  This is the far end, the other end is a bit darker, but then we knew it would be. I can't show that end as I didn't tidy that one.  We still can't bring ourselves to put any pictures up yet!

Kitchen - well soon hopefully!

This week we are hoping to see some movement on our new kitchen.  We have been at this stage for what seems like forever.  Its not helped when the builder, the electrician and the plumber all go on holiday at the same time.  Still they are all back now, so we hoping to see a big change this week. 

As a result of all this building sewing seems to have ground to a halt!

Rose time

Rose time at motisfont.

Leftovers quilts

Don't you just love it when you get leftovers from one project that make another?

Fat quarter quilt

I don't know about anyone else but I have found myself with huge stack of fat quarters, I just don't know where they all come from!  Well obviously I do but my husband doesn't need to know this.  So came up with this little quilt to to try and use some of them up.  Six fat quarters later and I had got all the measurements sorted (maths was never my strongest subject).  We are doing this in club this morning so I will post some pictures of what we manage to get done.

Jelly roll

Latest jelly roll quilt, enjoyed this one although I have to say it isn't particularly accurate.  Made between work and home and the measuring wasn't very good, I had to make some alterations as I went along.  Its laid out on top of our roof tiles that will, very shortly I hope, go onto our new kitchen extension. 

Sandra finish

Look what Sandra finished, isn't it lovely?

Now that's better!

Ok, changed the thread colour to a cream on Traceys advice and what a difference!  Was trying to hard with the red I think, much as I loved the Magnifico thread.  Sticking with the mussels, and then some wavey lines. Am really pleased with it, its not brilliant but it is getting better all the time. 

My phone keeps deleting all my photos for some reason, so I lost all my photos from the jelly roll race day unfortunately.  Oh well, we may just have to do it again!

Winner.

So Lorinda was the winner of our jelly roll race, not sure of the exact time but it was roughly an hour and a half.  We had a great day, will post more quilt tops when I can figure out how to down load photos from my phone to the computer!

Let's try again!