Off on a tangent

The good weather is holding - well with some monumental rain showers last night which saves us watering the plants this evening anyway

Last Saturday Nick's football (soccer) coach hosted a barbeque at his house which, combined with a communal viewing of the England v USA match, included the team's presentation evening

Much to Nick's (and our) delight he was awarded the trophy for 'Most Improved Player of the Season'.

His footballing skills have improved quite dramatically this season - maybe it's his age - but combined with the fact that his diabetes was diagnosed two weeks into the season, and he's had to factor in balancing all that too, this award was extra special

I'm always very good at shooting off at a tangent, especially when I'm bored in the middle of something.

Caroline's quilt has reached over exposure with me at present, there's only so much cream and pastel a girl can bear - so I've put it on one side and decided to play elsewhere

In my last post I showed you the pale grey, lilac and purple fabrics that I wanted to make a two colour quilt with

I couldn't think of a design off the top of my head so had a little search around the net

I entered 'two colour quilt designs' into google images and enjoyed a little bit of time browsing - well quite a lot of time actually

Finally I spotted something 'doable' without too many horrid triangles or set in seams

Very remiss of me I didn't take a note of the website from where I discovered it - I think it was a picture from a company that sells old quilts but if it's your quilt I apologise. I also have no idea if this design has an actual name - maybe someone could enlighten me

I liked the design but have more of the purple than the grey so I decided to reverse the colour placement - incidentally the lilac check went back into the melting pot of my fabric stash - this is too much of a purist design to complicate it with a third tone value

So here we are - progress so far..........

I keep chipping away at it - the 9 patches measure in at 3" square finished so it has a long way to go to make anything of a decent useable size but I shall keep constructing until I start to run short of fabric - I probably wouldn't be able to get any further supplies as I think both fabrics are quite old - so this will be the natural limiting factor

Surprisingly for me I'm enjoying all this piecing - must be sickening for something I think :o)

I've also made progress on the little heart wall-hangings to offer up for swapping

Here are a couple of tops ready for quilting, embellishing and binding. So far the yellow one is spoken for and will eventually travel to Julie across the pond

However there are lots of others including the pink in the photo - they finish up about 9" square and each one is similar but unique

So anyone who'd like to receive one don't be shy - they are up for grabs to anyone near or far in exchange for some fabric in neutral shades to bolster up my sadly depleted stocks of creams and pale beiges

Who's up for a swap?

and back to stitching............

The weather for half term down here in Somerset has been glorious

Hot sunny days are bringing on the garden a treat

A little rain the other day helped too

We've had many feathered visitors in the garden

Our blackbirds have fledged their second batch of chicks

The young goldfinches and bluetits are being taught how to help themselves to the sunflower hearts and niger seeds in our feeders


and for the first time ever we've had a pair of bullfinches in the garden

Louise's strawberries are starting to fruit

And the other day she and I took the opportunity to indulge in a somewhat wet and messy pastime out on the patio in the sunshine

Here's the finished piece of felt - I can feel some free machine embroidery coming on - the idea's bubbling away in the back of my head - no doubt it will come out sometime soon
I've gradually been working on Caroline's soft and gentle quilt - adding the outer borders

I did have a full photo taken hanging from my washing line in the garden - but some helpful soul accidentally deleted it and it's a big job to re-stage the photo without getting the quilt dirty that it will have to wait for another time - however you can see from this picture a section ofthe outer edge and also that there is still much floral applique to work around it's final plain cream border

I've taken the time to sort out some brown and pink fabrics for a friend who's short of these colours in exchange for some neutrals - Caroline's quilt has almost exhausted my stash of creams, pale beiges and tone on tone pale fabrics, so Karol-Ann offered to do a swap

I also found a piece of pale grey which didn't really fit in with the creams of Caroline's quilt and have a mind to make a two colour quilt using it with possibly just the darker or maybe both of these purples - any pattern selections anyone?

As I am so short of creams and pale beiges I thought one or more of you might quite like to do some trading so I've made a start on some small heart wallhangings in various colours to swap if anyone has a mind to, I will complete one to show you in the next day or two - please just comment or drop me an email if you're interested...................