Lace progress

My lace shawl is coming on quite nicely, although I must admit that in this photo there was 1 stitch too many on the needles! I've managed to sort that problem out though.



This scarf is nearly finished. I'm on the final round of the pattern. It wont be a big one, but I'm very happy with the way it's turning out. I should be finished soon and then I can get back to stitching again.

Lace

This week I have had a really yucky head cold, and so I've been home from work for a few days. I didn't feel well enough to do anything initially, but have just found the energy to pick up my knitting needles again after a very long time.

I've fancied trying my hand at a lace scarf for a while now, so I have started this. The yarn and pattern were bought some time ago at a craft fair in Cardiff, and the yarn is a Greek cotton. It's coming along quite nicely now, but initially I had a real nigtmare with it. I think I ripped the firt 20 or so rows out at least 10 times. Each time I had the wrong number of stitches on the needles at the end of the row. Hopefully I have now got the design fixed in my head. The pattern isnt difficult, but obviously it took a while for my 'knitting' brain to kick in.



Not bad progress for now.

New Toy!

The summer holidays are now well and truly over now, and the nights are drawing in ready for winter. This means that I'm back to leaving work in time to meet the children after school ( I know that they're teenagers, but I like to be around for them). My quilting life can start again now properly now that I have more time.

I also have a new toy!
My husband gave me my very own net book for my birthday today. This will help with keeping my blog up to date. No more fighting with the family to use the PC coz this dinky little machine is all mine! And the main thing I'm going to do is keep my blog up to date! I promise!

I'll have to have a think about what happened over the summer.
I did get to the Festival of Quilts with my daughter. We had a lovely 3 days together, took some classes, caught up with other quilters and generally enjoyed the show. Bronwen was lucky enough to win one of the Little Gem quilts in the Guild tombola. It's very cute as you can see.



I have done the odd bit of stitching, applique melons and hexagons, but I did make this table mat. The idea came from the Moda Bake Shop website. To make a floor mat would use up quite a lot of scraps I think, so perhaps I'll carry on braiding.



Now I'm going to catch up with some blogs ....

Holidays over til next year

Italy was fabulous! I cant believe the summer holidays are over for another year - I already feel like I haven't been away. We all really enjoyed Lake Garda, and even managed a day in Venice which was just beautiful. Lots of inspiration there for quilts.
I took a bit of hand sewing on holiday with me, and managed to finish some more of the applique blocks. I have a couple more prepared, but I think I need some more to make this into a reasonable sized lap quilt



While we were travelling along some steep roads, complete with hairpin bends, up to the Ritten Plateau I was able to concentrate on basting hexagons. They took my mind off the precipitous drops outside the windows of the bus!
I have just started to put the hexagons together into little diamonds. I think I will border them with black to make a cushion. They should sparkle with the bright batiks.

Back from York, but only for a short while!

We have just come home from a short break in York with the family and my Mum.
I ad never been there before, and we had a lovely time ( the weather was even good to us!) There was so much to see and do, that we only managed to scratch the surface of this lovely city, so we'll have to go back again some time.

I did sneak in a quick visit to the Quilt Museum though! It's well worth a visit if you are in the vicinity. The building it is housed in is beautiful, although the single photo I managed i quite poor as you can see. And there was a lovely garden to sit in as well ( which I completely missed photographing at all!)



I took scores of photos of lovely old buildings, the Minster, city walls etc, but this one really took me down memory lane. When I was a child the Rag & Bone man was a common sight as he collected scrap metal and assorted junk on his horse and cart. I think it must be about 35 years since I've seen one, so we were thrilled to catch sight of this man as we were all walking around the city walls.



We are now off to Italy for a week with the children. I have a pile of hand stitching all ready to take with me, as I hope to spend some time lounging by the pool. I should have plenty to show when I get home again.

Painting

Yesterday I took my Mum to a Quilter's day run by Region 12 of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles. These are run every quarter or so and usually consist of a variety of activities followed by a speaker in the afternoon. The speaker this time was Ann Jermey - It doesn't Matter if it's Not Finished! This was a very liberating talk for those of us who have lots of UFOs as Ann brought out one after another of the 50 unquilted tops that she has! I know that I have lots of unfinished things that often make me feel quite paralysed, but now I'm going to organise them and finish them when I'm ready!

In the morning there were a variety of demonstrations - my favourite being the freezer paper stenciling by Debra O'Hare of Quilt Routes. Debra creates beautiful hand painted fabrics .
I made this little bird yesterday at the Regional Day



But the we carried on playing with freezer paper and paint today at home

These are DDs samples...



And this one is my Mum's.



My Mum is not a quilter, and would say that she is not artistic either, but this is great! And before she knows it, I'm going to get her putting borders on it and turn it into a small wall hanging!

These are some more birds I did today.



I think I'll add some leaves and flowers as well and then see where the pieces take me.

It's been quite a while.....

I didn't realise just how long it has been since I've been on here, I was away on a course from work for a week, had my MIL staying for a week, and was just snowed under for a while too.
While my MIL was staying with us, we spent a couple of days up at the Hay Literature Festival doing a mixture of the intellectual ( Steve Jones) comic ( John O'Farrell) and downright entertaining ( Hot Leg - Justin Hawkins new band - I thought I might be too old for this one, but enjoyed it in the end). There was no quilty content to this time, although I did find this at the knitting stand on the festival site. They had turned them all into french knitting doodahs, but I just loved the spool!



This weekend I have made friends with my machine once more ( it was feeling most neglected) - this citrus jelly roll was one I got at a show some time ago. It's nice to be making something with it at last. I know I have lots of unfinished items hanging around, but I just want some nice easy stitching to get me back into the groove.



I think I'll sash the blocks with a wide black/white stripe. This fabric is DD's, she plans to make a vest top with it, but it's helped me to make up my mind about how to continue.


I just need to cut the remaining blocks out, and I can carry on with this quilt.

While I was playing at my machine, I tried out the Dresden Plate template that I've had for a couple of months. This was really quick to make using some fabric strips from a Moda scrap bag, although I'm not sure if I've done something wrong somewhere along the way. The instructions said to cut 20 wedges, which I duly did, but when I came to stitch the 2 halves together, they just would not go. I had to unpick a seam and remove a pair of wedges to get the thing to lie flat and circular. Ho hum!



I don't know how many of these blocks I'm going to make, perhaps I should be realistic and go for a cushion!