A different four seasons and a giveaway

I've just looked at my dashboard and realised that this is my 300th post - what a gas bag I really am

Anyway for all those of you who leave a comment before I go back to school on Wednesday 5th September I will put your name into a hat for a giveaway - not sure what it will be yet but probably a little wall hanging with some stitchery.

As for today I spent the best part of the afternoon cooking in bulk for the freezer - a huge pan of chilli con carne which we had some of for tea (the rest will freeze into family sized portions to make easy meals during term time) and my largest casserole dish of Pork Casserole with Honey and Mustard - this will be tea tomorrow and of course the rest into the freezer.

Anyway once I'd finished all this I felt like a little stitching

You may recall the block swap I did with three other ladies in the UK depicting our interpretation of the Four Seasons. Mine has been sitting on our notice board for weeks, nay months, with no further work on it.

However DH and I have taken on the role of joint managers of Sarah's Rugby Team and so Nigel decided he really needs to reclaim the notice board to put the planners on to work out all the fixtures.

This was sufficient impetus for me to try and get my Four Season Swap quilt a bit further down the road instead of just taking it off the wall and stuffing it into a bag in the cupboard.

Here it is with all 16 blocks put together with their relevant seasonal sashings and cornerstones. I managed to get the first of the two outer borders on. This one measures 2" finished width.

I now intend to put a four coloured 4 or probably 5" border around the outside, one colour for each season but still with the relevant matching corners. On each of the four colours I shall applique the relevant season's name in the same fabric as its sashing to the RH side of the corner block and applique a relevant collection of objects to the LH side. This will be butterflies for summer, acorns for autumn, snowflakes for winter and...... who knows for spring, maybe little lambs or chicks. A bit confusing I know but at least I understand what I'm talking about.

I do now have to get Nigel to bring down some boxes from the loft to select these four main background fabrics as they will each need two pieces 5.5" x 23.5" so I can't raid the scraps for that.

Tomorrow morning we have to be up bright and early as it is Registration Day at the Rugby Club so apart from taking peoples membership forms and payments the Fillies are running the barbecue making sausage or bacon rolls (luckily we do have some parental help for this). Registration starts at 9.30 so we need to be down there by 8.30 at the latest. So much for a Sunday Lie-In.

Still we should be finished by lunchtime so as tea is already cooked from today that should give me the chance to sweet-talk Nigel into heading up into the loft for those fabrics to at least finish the piecing on this quilt top.

Then I can applique the writing and the objects and of course make that 300th post giveaway gift