wordless Wednesday

almost!

Pea Room BOM 

and ..

Mod Pop QAL block

Lots of Lovelies ...

first up some beautiful hand prints from the absolutely amazing

 Leanne Fanny of The Little House Martin ...

Really I couldn't resist!

you can read a little more about her here

and then a pile of  fabulous Japanese Charms that have travelled all the way from Sarah in the Shetlands ...

actually I think Ellie had an awful lot to do with this too!

oh, if only I could find more time to sort, organise and discover these beauties

Thank you Sarah for organising a great little swap, and to everyone who took part choosing such fabulous fabrics  ... sign

and then there was a wee surprise ...

from Hadley, a thank you for snapping her Sissix Quilt back in the summer at Festival ...

and of course it's a twin too!

I often get to reading blogs way too late and miss out on some of the really good stuff ...

but this time, I managed to snaffle up the last of these ....

well this design anyway,  

Thank you Aneela, I absolutely love it!

and last, but by no means least, a  very BIG thank you to Judith, who, it has to be said, 

can shop just like me! ...

yes, the most gorgeous Irish Linens this side of Lincolnshire now!

perhaps next time there may be evidence of actual sewing!

Work in progress

Yesterday I rushed home from work, threw a few things in the car and headed to the Pea Room Quilters for a talk by Effie Galletly   ...

 and to save a few miles I stayed with my man over at his cottage and this morning headed back for a workshop on landscapes of the Hebridean Islands ...

Helen, enjoy!

If you are batik sensitive, then please  ... look away now !

We were very lucky that we were provided with some great inspiration to work from ...

if you get the opportunity, do take a workshop with Effie, she is a wonderful teacher, generous with her knowledge and her stash!  and delightful too!

and this is the result of a good days work ... 
a work in progress
And when I got home, I had some lovely mail, more of that tomorrow,  
thank you, you all know who you are :)  x

Surprise Surprise!

On Saturday I was so determined to finish off Cindy's Community Quilt, and I did! 

so Sunday morning I loaded up the next one, 

whilst it doesn't look very inspiring, it is in fact about 3 meters of 108" fabric

same on the back and the top,  pretty little cream on cream

I am tasked with quilting leaves all over, which is going well, and I plan to get it finished today!

Oh the surprise?  

Whilst I was loading up this on the frame and shoving (yes its a technical term) the wadding under the rollers, I managed to catch my thumb on the pins, blood?  Oh my goodness that was deep and bloody!   and that's a cream quilt! 

fortunately not a drop was spilled on any fabric, however, it took a long time and 3 big plasters for it to finally stop.  

Lesson learnt, it's hard to pin a quilt with a plaster on your right hand and you are right handed!

so after that little drama, I wanted to get some photo's of Cindy's quilt to send to her...

looks good?

except when I opened it to lay it out, I got my second surprise!

can you see?  

I missed a whole row of a border!  

So this mornings task is to finish the leaf quilting and load this back on and finish it off!

monday equals mail day

OK lets talk mail! 

firstly, I think credit should go to Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey for enabling me to find some of these beauties!

first up a Low Volume bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics  ...

and whilst I was browsing I found these Tula Pink Swallow fabrics in the sale section 

and then there was this moda marbles that I scored at the quilt group last month, thanks to Edwina at the Stitchery in Ruskngton, technically not mail, but an arrival after all ...

one or two frames for a blog hop I;m taking part in soon ...  

I may need to order more!

and some key fob hardware ...

and a few essentials ...

and then there were these buttons ... oh and I also got given some hand turned wooden buttons too, but forgot to take a pic of those

and I forgot to show you these lovelies that arrived a few weeks ago ...

I was so excited to get these, and the prospect of green bias stripe , oh, but I have to say I was a little disappointed with the green, which is more on the mustard side  ... oh well, still gorgeous all the same right?

and lastly there was this glorious bundle that arrived from Susan of Canadian Abroad, who just happen to be Queen Bee this month for the Brit Bee ...

I cut into them yesterday whilst I took a break from the quilting ... oh, they do make me happy!

so that was the mail, there was also a mahooooooosive roll of wadding too, but lets face it, that's no fun to look at!

I'll show you my quilting progress tomorrow, I had a surprise to two yesterday!

The cake ...

so remember the cake from Monday ...

this was it out of the oven cooling, the crumble topping sort of sunk, but didn't affect the flavour,

the recipe had you cooking off the pears in sugar and mixed spice, I won't add any of that juice next time, it also asks for 6 tblsp of mincemeat ...

I used home made plum and russet mincemeat from last year, but perhaps the whole jar was a little excessive,   very moist, but sort of lost it in the middle! 

delicious all the same, and this was all that was left after the quilting group had done with it!

honestly, only enough for 2 slices!

a lovely afternoon,  I love the look of dark skies and late afternoon sun bouncing off the trees around here ... 

which quickly turned to this ...

and then this ...

I love these moody skies ...

so, then it has been work, with some quilting thrown in for good measure, and tonight I've sewn in all the loose threads and unpinned it from the frame.  The machine is cleaned, oiled and I'm ready to load up the next one in the morning.  

Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to show you what I was talking about ... 

and some of the mail that arrived too!

Happy quilting!

Fresh New Month equals Fresh Sewing Day!

Really?  October already? 

Would someone please tell me where September went to? 

looks like a slower month, but hey, that's ok, my body has yet to adjust to the change in season , so hopefully by the end of this month I will have got used to dark nights, and feeling like I should be hibernating! 

yeah I know, get over myself and get on with it!

so a few Bee Blocks, some sewing, some practice sewing, and some quilting, there may have been a smattering of cake, jam and chutney production too!

Speaking of cake, whilst the Diva lays in bed and off school, (yep poorly child in this house)  cake production continues for this afternoons quilting meeting, and we are trying something new, and seasonal.

I'll let you know how it goes :)

So now you've seen what I've been up to, Head on over to Lynnes blog where the linky party is and see what everyone else has been up to.

And whilst you're there, how about taking a look around some of those smaller blogs, you might be surprised at what and who you find! 

Just Sayin!