I have done my Winter 4 Seasons swap quilt - talk about last minute!
Here is a sneaky peek, until I can get the whole thing photographed.



Hopefully I can get it in the post and on it's way by the end of the week.

I had a nice bit of post this week. I know I'm supposed to be using up my stash, but I couldn't resist, and I don't have fabrics like this in my stash! These are Japanese Daiwabo fat eighths from the Antique Angel bi-monthly club. I already have the perfect quilt to use these for, so my aim is that I can get the pack cut up and start piecing the blocks as I go along. Famous last words huh?
But they are just soooo lovely.

Great day yesterday!

Yesterday I have a lovely indulgent day full of great quilts! I went to a workshop with Ineke Berlyn at Busy Bees in Newport.
We did the Pieced Landscapes class, which was great fun. I have often admired landscape quilts, but haven't yet had a go. I didn't manage to finish the centre of my piece yesterday. I always find classes quite intense, and by the last hour I was starting to make mistakes, so I stopped. I've carried on a bit today though, and have got this far....



I still need to put on the borders and some little houses and trees, but at least I can see the beginnings here.
Gina from Quilting in the Valleys was also attending the class. It's nice to meet a fellow blogger - some of my flesh-and-blood friends think I'm a bit odd messing about in quilty cyber-space! Gina's quilt was looking lovely, I'm sure she'll post pictures of it soon.

I'm going to head back to my little room for now with Hamish MacBeth to try and get my 4 Seasons quilt finished - talk about last minute! This little quilt has a long way to go and I need to get it in the post this week.

Baby steps

I haven't been able to devote much more than small periods of time to playing in my little room, but I am making progress. The blocks for the Crayon Box quilt are almost done, and I'm ready to start putting the sashing strips on. I do like the way this quilt is turning out, it's certainly bright!

I'm really hoping that I can get all of the blocks done before the weekend, when I will be distracted by a class.



I have a new little helper, not too sure how safe she would be with a rotary cutter though! LOL!

Getting some stitching done at last!

At last I seem to have got over all of the goings-on round here and the funk that have kept me out of my little sanctuary lately.
I haven't managed anything major yet that's worthy of photographs, but I have done some more scrap cutting and worked on the blocks currently in progress. I have just finished another 3 Crayon Box blocks, and the final 6 are in progress. Hopefully I should get these done tomorrow, then I can get going on the sashing.

As well as cutting-and-stitching, I have been trying to pull fabrics together for some classes I have coming up. I need plains for a landscape class with Ineke Berlyn, scraps for a class with Katherine Guerrier and 6 fat quarters for a class with Judi Mendelssohn - all in the next 5 weeks! I don't normally take so many classes at once, but it just so happened that these were all not to be missed opportunities that have come up. Perhaps I had better book some time with the local long arm quilter. I have had a king sized quilt quilted by her, but I have also used her for basting smaller tops for me. Sandwiching and basting are my least favourite quilting tasks and I am more than happy to pay to have this chore done for me!

Vacancy has been filled

The vacancy in this house for Official Quilt Tester has now been filled!

This is Icicle, she is 3 years old. We picked her up yesterday from the Cat Protection rescue centre, and already she is marching about like she owns the place!
She has also found a wonderful place, full of soft fabrics, to sleep in - aka Mum's Sewing Room! LOL!



As you can see, she is a very pretty girl, and Bronnie is completely besotted already, fortunately the feeling seems to be mutual!

Four Seasons Quilt

I have my little winter quilt all mapped out and ready to go.
These are the fabrics I bought at Busy Bees on Friday last week - I think that they're very frosty. I hope that the recipient will like the quilt.



I still haven't managed to get to the sewing machine yet this week what with working late, DD's school parents evening etc. Tomorrow I will be back to finishing work at the normal time ( ready for school getting out) so I have high hopes of achieving something. I was chatting with a friend who is currently working on a little top using big stitch quilting. I'm determined to have a go at this myself, it would be a good project to do while watching television in the evening. I have some nice sherbet coloured Perle thread with which I can quilt the confetti quilt from a few months back. It will be nice to get a completion so early in the year!

Saturday catch-up

There has still been no quilty stuff going on round here lately. I'm getting quite twitchy now - I really need to get into my little room and make something. I managed to iron some fqs ready for cutting up last night to finish of the blocks for my crayon box quilt, but that's as far as it goes.

After a hectic and stressful week at work, I took a little trip to my local quilt shop on my way home yesterday. I had to pay the balance on a workshop I'm taking at the end of the month with Ineke Berlyn. While I was there, I picked up some fabrics for my Four Seasons swap quilt. As usual, I've changed my mind about what I'm doing several times, but I have fixed on one idea now and am raring to go. I've missed the light today as we've been out, but Ill post a piccie of the fabrics tomorrow morning.

We've been out for much of the day today, first off was a visit to the Cat Protection rescue centre where we have chosen a new member of the family. Her name is Icicle a lovely friendly tabby and we hope that she will come to live with us next weekend. Bronnie is beside herself with excitement, its just as well she's gone to a sleepover and the girls will occupy her for the evening.
We finished off the day with a trip to town once we'd dropped Bronnie off at her friends, it's her birthday on Friday so we needed to get some gifts for her. It being so close to Christmas, she doesn't really want anything in particular, but we got some books and a dvd, and I think I'll take her for a little clothes shopping trip next weekend, she'll enjoy that.

Goals for 2008

I have quite a few ufos kicking around here, to be honest I'm a bit scared to count them! But I have listed the ones that I really want to work on for the time being. I have a quilt that only needs the binding stitched on - it has been in that state for over a month, so hopefully now that I've fessed up to it this one will get finished quick sharpish!

I look forward to moving some of these projects into a 'Completed in 2008' list on the sidebar. Wouldn't that be great?

Sudoku Quilt

Bronnie and I are are getting on very well with the Sudoku quilt ( better, in fact, than these photos would indicate!)
These are the fabrics Bron chose, they are very sweet. She has got her heart set on some 'numbers' fabric for the border though - so that everyone will know the quilt is a puzzle. Who can argue with child logic!



We've only got 2 blocks left to stitch together, but here are the first 3 blocks so you get the idea.



I was planning to use some of the leftovers to make a mini version for myself, but I couldn't get 9 squares out of a couple of the fabrics, so I've just added the scrap squares to my leaders/enders box. I need to replenish this a bit, as I've stitched a lot of 4-patch blocks while I've been working on the Sudoku. But first I need to clear the cutting table of all of the junk that's been piled onto it over the holidays!