Mum'n'daughter time

I hope that you're having a nice weekend. Today has been pretty hectic, but great fun. My quilting group, Cardiff Quilters, were hosting a visit by the Swansea Quilters so the day started early with setting out tables etc. Various members did demonstrations and I did the stamping on fabric one that I did at the Festival of Quilts. It seemed to go down well, and lots of ladies made quilt labels with some of my Welsh/Celtic-themed stamps to take home. Late in the morning my husband picked up DD, Bronwen, who was at a friends sleepover party. She joined us for lunch and then the two of us went to a local quilt shop for a little class in the afternoon. This is the first time Bronwen has been to a grownup quilting class, and she enjoyed it, although she did get a bit frustrated with the hand stitching ( tired from the sleepover I think!) We made pictures with Suffolk puffs finished off with a button. Bronwen needs to complete her background, and then I'll post some photos tomorrow when they're done

Slow but sure

Progress here is pretty slow at the moment, I'm not managing much more than 15 minutes per day on sashing the 'pretty' blocks. Still my husband will be out all evening tomorrow, so I can indulge myself for a bit longer!
I had wanted to have all the sashing attached and the rows sewn together before Saturday, so that I can get border fabric before they sell out of it. But that's not going to happen now, so I shall carry on slow and steady.
This is what the sashing will look like once it's done. The colours haven't come out brilliantly, the lavender looks quite blue here, and the blocks themselves do look quite a bit stronger in real life. I do hope that this is not going to overwhelm them.



But then, it's my quilt isn't it, and I can do what I want with it! LOL!
Take no notice of my bravado, I've made a quilt that didn't turn out how it looked in my mind and I was very very disappointed ( in fact it doesn't live on the wall, it lives in a cupboard!)

The first of the month..

I have been mooching around various blogs and decided to pinch an idea I have seen in several places.
I will set myself a couple of tasks to achieve by the end of the month. I'm also going to try to prioritise my ufos as well.

So, here I am committing myself.

I want to

1) complete the Christmas table runner

2) sash the pretty blocks from Saturday's class

3) make a sample project for the Young Quilters ready for the Guild Regional day at the end of October - I haven't decided what this project is going to be yet, but as there is limited space at the venue, it will have to involve hand sewing rather than machine, and may well use black fleece ( as I picked up a cheapy one from Ikea last week!)

There we are, I think that will do for now. If I put too many things on my list, I will just get overwhelmed ( and work is doing that for me just now!) and not get anything done.

Lets hope that I will have progress to report on October 31st.

More quilting ........

I had a lovely day of quilting yesterday. I took a class, surprising 4-patch, with Judi Mendelsohn at Busy Bees. The class involved making 4-patch blocks in a stack'n'whack technique to produce simple kaleidoscopes, and I was very pleased to come home with 30 blocks, more than enough for a quilt! So, my quilting today has mainly consisted of cutting sashing and cornerstones to put the blocks together with. I still need to think about borders but I hope that I can get the centre of the quilt done this week.

This quilt in very untypical of my usual style - in fact a couple of the ladies in the class who know me were rather surprised by my 'pretty' blocks - they don't photograph too well, but what do you think?

Posted!

My little quilt for the Four Seasons Swap is complete and winging it's way to someone! I do hope that she likes it! I spend too much time agonising over my choices, but people who have seen it in the flesh assure me that they would be happy to get it, so that will have to do for me.

Now, can I wait for the next round? LOL!

Quilty Weekend

I've had quite a busy weekend here in Wales. We celebrated my birthday and went for a nice family meal out and went to a quilt stash sale with on Saturday. I managed to pick up a few useful bits and pieces, little sample squares ( I can now finish off the quilt I started with some of these once before!), some pale scraps and strips ( my stash is predominantly bright, so neutrals will come in handy) and a couple of larger bits of fabric.

I have managed to get the borders on my Four Seasons quilt, and have completed the quilting. I just need to get the binding finished now, it should be in the post by Wednesday I hope. I will post a picture of the completed quilt once it has arrived at it's destination - I am very pleased with it, so lets hope the recipient likes it!

We spent yesterday in Swansea where DH was running in the Swansea Bay 10K. He had another good run (20Th overall) so the soaking we had from the rain was made worthwhile! LOL!

For my birthday a quilty friend gave me a lovely Moda tin containing the pattern for a mini quilt and a pack of Sanctuary charm squares. I had planned to go onto a ufo when the Four Seasons quilt is finished, but it looks like I may get distracted by this little project instead!

I like the 4 Seasons Quilt this time!

Well, at last I am pleased with these blocks for the Four Seasons swap. I think I was right to forget about the other top - I would have just worried that the recipient didn't like it. And, added bonus, I can keep the other one! I have some fab fabric for the borders of these blocks, which hopefully I can get on tonight before I go for my riding lesson ( have to get my weekly fix of horseflesh!)



I think I'll stay and mooch a while on here looking at some other blogs. I've managed to kick DS off to do his homework, which means that I have Napster to myself. Don't get me wrong, I do like the music he plays ( most of it!) but sometimes I like a bit of nostalgia, so I shall sit here and enjoy the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Armatrading and Roberta Flack.