A Quick Pit Stop

As I am busy busy busy trying to catch up with loads of bits and bobs, but a wet Bank Holiday weekend has helped me out with some free time for homely things

 A baking session on Sunday morning so there was something nice for Mr T to graze on

Which left me free to work on a project for a very good friend, Her God Daughter has a baby due any day now, and the parents are both in the "Force" so a police theme was asked for
 A bit of sketching and the trusty Bondaweb helped to conjure  up these blocks

 And a few other pictures and lots of bright prints resulted in a finished quilt

I do quite like this!

 And I pieced the back too

But now have a heap of threads to sort through!!

why can I never find the one I want?

 And another Finish! well, nearly . Remember the Mini Challenge that I was sharing with my friend Jo ?
Well mine is finished too, but now I am not sure about the colour of the binding, so this may be replaced with navy or orange - I will sleep on it and see.

 It certainly was a challenge! Those little pin-wheel blocks measure one and a half inches . The whole thing is 13" x 15" !

 There was a lovely reddish hue to the sunset this evening, I wonder if that means good weather tomorrow/

We have a second bloom of Delphiniums, which are looking a bit bedraggled after the weekend downpour.A warm day will see them perk up I am sure

 Oh! and the knitting is coming on. I am on the third set of pattern repeat, so only 25 more to go!

so soft to knit.

Another knitting friend has this amazing gadget that winds the skeins of wool into a ball and she was kind enough to let me have a play.

aren't they neat?

**********

Baby has been born so label can be finished. Welcome to the world, William Harvey "B"

A Heady Trip

 The quilt that I am making for Makower fabric is from the new

Downton Abbey

"Downstairs"range.  They are pretty vintage designs and the quilt top is now complete ready for quilting. These fabrics are not in the shops until next month, so I get to play early!

 We had a trip to the big city with Son and his lovely wife, and of course the gorgeous "O"

The day started with a bit of a hiatus as Bedford station had no systems working so were unable to take payment for tickets by card.  I had a nice bunch of cash in my purse (well - I was hoping to do a bit of shopping) so I strode past the long queue waving notes at the nice young gentleman and purchased my tickets and hopped onto the next train

 We agreed to meet at the entrance to Tower Hill tube station as we arrive in London at different main line stations.
A call when we arrived found the other party already in the little park outside the station entrance.
So out we went - and no family?
 Another call. "right outside the entrance MOTHER!"
But so am I?
"Look MOTHER - can you see the Tower?" (getting frustrated with me)
Yes
"Which side of the road are you on"
 Station side
"Well, we are in the park!"
Not the park I am looking at...... Lets both go across the road to the tower and we will meet where the poppies are flowing down the wall. (trying to keep him calm)

"So meet there NOW?!" (calm not working - he must be hungry)

Well, I will get there when your Dad gets back - he's wandered off and he has no phone.

Hang Up....

Did we all know that there are THREE entrances to Tower Hill Station?   We do now.

But we did find them and the Poppies are a lovely sight

 The queue to go into the Tower was HUGE!  Remember not to do "the sights" when it is still school holidays.

We wandered across Tower Bridge

 and had a bite to eat

 before we made the trip up The Shard (we had been given the tickets at Christmas by some very good friends)

It was worth the wait

 The views are spectacular

 

though it made my knees a bit shaky 

  

And embarrassed myself just a little bit when listening to a man try to tell his wife where to spot Buckingham Palace

"see the London Eye?"

 "yes" 

"well 10 o'clock from the Eye "

 "no still cant see it " 

"10 O'clock" 

'...eer no"  

"10 O'clock - 10 O'clock!! It's there!"

At this point I had to join in  - I cant see it either!!!

"10 O'clock like on the face of the clock!!" (he's getting cross... and we had drawn a crowd)

Oooooh! 10 O'clock (me) I was looking at 10 past!!!

(Wife) Oh yes! So was I!

we then had to listen to a short(ish) lecture on spacial awareness. 

He wasn't happy that we both couldn't stop giggling

can you spot it?

We spent a couple of hours spotting landmarks and trying to find all of the London football stadiums and trying not to show the family up.

And being entertained by a very cuddly little one

  

After which, we stopped here for a spot of shopping

it really is a beautiful building

even the entrance is impressive

 I bought a small gift for my new Son in Law (feels funny to call him that)

 then strolled down here before heady for home.
A long and tiring but really good day out


I have also started on a project which will be a gift.

 It is beautiful wool (Alpaca and silk) and was a silly price but I think the
recipient is worth it

 And I did get a shiny bag to carry it home in......

Have a great weekend
x

Flippin Tired!

After a really busy few days at The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham
It was packed!
People were spending money like there was no tomorrow.

It was great!

 I spent most of the time helping friends from New Zealand on their stand. They have the most beautiful selection of patterns for making quilts for children.

 I did get to have a bit of a look around at the Quilts.

But... I was disappointed at the lack of traditional pieced quilts that had been entered and on display, compared to the "art" style quilts.

It's not that I don't appreciate the work that goes into any piece, but I really do wonder "Why?" at some of the entries.
I didn't take pics of those

Here is a selection of some that caught my eye

 There was a lovely selection of miniature quilts

 And some clever ideas too

 This one was very effective

 And a close up

 Simple, but lovely

 A pixelated portrait

 More traditional pieces

 A very nice beach scene, the hand stitching brings this to life

Philipa Naylor won the Traditional category

 which had some exquisite free motion quilting.

This was my favourite

and it has given me an idea...

The rest - well - maybe you saw them for yourself.

 Anyway - that's all for another year and a quick recovery before the next exhibition - a MUCH smaller one - at the beginning of September in the village.

The quilt blocks that I started in the previous post are all done and are ready to join together but I have more important things on my mind...

Tomorrow I am of to catch up on MANY hugs and kisses from this little squidgy thing, who has been in France for three weeks and MUST be missing me!! 

Off to prime my lips now. Poor little thing.....

A Bit Like Buses!

When you are happily playing with one project and then more come along that have a timetable with them.

You may remember that a friend and I have a bit of a Miniature Challenge theme going on

 We are using this design, the miniature in this pattern finishes at 25" -- but we didn't want to do that....we decided to do the bed size quilt (68" square) but in miniature. So we started out something like this

each square finishes at half an inch!

a bit of progress

 Et Voilà
After much stitching - and unpicking - We have finished the top!

 Now it just goes to show what a difference the seam allowance makes!  Mine is a full 1 1/2" bigger than "J's"

how did that happen?

 Mine was a shy 1/4" seam allowance "J's" was a full 1/4" . All those seams make such a difference.
But the top is done and just the quilting to go.

Meanwhile a call from my friend who works for Makower asking if I had time to make up one of their samples. Me -- Time -- Of course I would love to do it! (what am I saying!!!)

This is the quilt

 It is using the new Downstairs collection from the Downton Abbey 2 series of fabrics.
So after cutting 300 x 2" squares, 100 x 1 1/2" squares and goodness knows how many one and a half inch strips, I got down to sewing them all together.

working till way past daylight

neat little prints

strip piecing the little beauties

 And we have ended with lots of these blocks.

block measures 6 1/2"

 Off to put the borders on them in a bit.

 AND sorting out a request from a dear friend who wants a baby quilt with a Police theme for a new baby due to be born in a couple of weeks. ( They know for nine months! how come the request comes with a close deadline!!)

BUT -- I have had quite a bit of fun sorting out some appliqué images and designing this quilt. I will show the progress once I have got past the paper stage.

 Back to The Confetti Garden quilt. Only today to get on with it this week as we have an Australian group visiting the shop on Wednesday, and I am working at the NEC on this stand  on Thursday Friday and Sunday - in the shop Saturday so not much spare time this week

Hey Ho - It's good to be busy - Yes???