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!

of fabric and fudes ...

well, lets start with the pretties shall we!

The week started well, with good mail 

and the Good Fortune of  a wonderful visitor ,  

which in itself calls for cake!  Right!

yes that's on a dinner plate! 

I can highly recommend Chocolate Mayonnaise cake, I used this recipe, if you are interested.

a wonderful day of crafty chat, playing with curves and cake ensued ;)

there has been a lot of this ...

and yesterday, well a morning spent out shopping!

Look away NOW!  

My lovely friends from Doughtys were in a town close to me!

and these Heirloom by Joel Dewbury made a dash for my bag!

I had a FQ pack of these in another colour way last year

plus a couple of rogues into the mix

the palest green was on my list since I've just made a mahoosive quilt with it as the background and didn't have enough left for a makeshift backing ... but now, the end of the bolt lives here and I can get on and  finish it :) 

the palest blue, just a pretty colour, the green is for backing, and the wavy stripe, oh I see this one being binding, don't ask on what yet, but it will come good I've no doubt!

other must buys were to stock back up on the white on whites which was almost depleted, 2 meters left of the last batch is never going to keep me going til spring!

so if you fancy a little shopping spree, you can find out if the Doughtys Roadshow is coming to a town near you right here!

and I came home rejuvenated and happy ...

in between more quilting, and texting, with a testing teenager,

 I came in last night thinking this didn't look right  ...

and it's NOT!

now, to engage a little reverse stitching and see if we can end the month on a positive note!  

Planning ... and scheming ...

I'm busy quilting away, 

but in the mean time, 

whilst I have plenty that could do with being finished ...

I've been making plans :) 

these little lovelies from Tanya Whelan, I got this time last year when Doughty's came to town ...

and I've got them ear marked for a Jack Attack from Lynne ...

there's a button the side there if you are tempted too! 
And then the lovely Leanne of She Can Quilt, who I had the great pleasure to meet and get to know earlier this year at the Fat Quarterly Retreat, announced a Quilt Along of the Mod Pop quilt she recently pattern tested for Julie of Distant Pickles ...  
I love that quilt, so retro ... so I delved into that enormous stash and pulled out the 30 or so (or something like that) fat quarters and some white on white to get me going  ...

and my templates have arrived, I have the pattern and am ready to get going chopping up a little fabric for this one!

And most recently, I spied something really pretty on fellow Brit Bee'r Fiona's blog, now I'd spied it, but was resisting, after all , I need to finish a few things before I start yet another project right?!

but I was lost, once I saw how wonderful Fiona's rows look, I knew I could resist no longer!

So I went back to Lori Holt's site Bee in my Bonnet and sussed out the fabric requirements ...

now I've been sitting on a fq pack of Sew Cherry since I got it on sale earlier this year, not knowing what I was going to do with it, but as you know, I couldn't help myself!

well, I took out all the lights, and then added some more fabrics from that lovely fq pack of Ruby, raided my scraps of Its a Hoot, and delved into the stash for some more!

So if you are tempted with a little pile of fabric, and want to spend some quality time piecing a quilt, one row at a time, I can highly recommend the Bee in my Bonnet Row Along.  This is a long term project aiming to finish next spring
Go on, you know you want to!
Now, back to the quilting!  I just though I'd pop in while I took a break to let you know I'm still here!
What have you been planning lately?
(oh, and Doughty's are back this coming Saturday, I've got a list!)