Just the binding to do then

Isn't it wonderful when something captures your quilting imagination and keeps hold of it until the end of the job.

Thats how I feel about this little log cabin piece.

Friday night I sandwiched and quilted it continuing the leaves theme.

I'm pretty confident with free-motion quilting - it's just like drawing with the needle as the pencil and moving the 'paper/fabric' instead of the 'pencil/needle'.

However following lines is a whole different ball game to me - one I certainly need lots of practice at.

I was always under the impression it was best to do 'in the ditch' straight lines with a walking foot and had never had particularly satisfactory results. However last summer I had a conversation with a very accomplished machine quilter who told me she does all her quilting whether free-form or in-the-ditch with a darning foot and using her hands to guide everything as you would with any normal free-form work.

I tried this around the stars on Spencer's Stars with mixed results - most of it was okish but I did wander off my lines now and then.

However on this log cabin I could tangibly feel the improvement on each of the four log corners and by the end wasn't wandering too badly at all.

Now I just have to bind it, adding in a hanging sleeve, and I think this one might come to work with me for my notice board above my brand new desk to remind me now and then why exactly I do actually go to work.

The old adage rings true again - 'Practice makes perfect!' - mine may not be perfect but we're getting there slowly!

And the applique finishes the top

What an exciting day Friday turned out to be at work...

Our new desks arrived - Yippee!!!

Yes I know this may sound very sad to you but when I tell you that since September I've been managing on a flat topped table measuring less than 5ft wide by 2'6" deep with no drawers and having to share that space with my monitor, keyboard, mouse, pen tidy, stack of trays and several of those plastic stand up magazine racks to contain all my ongoing paperwork and belongings you can see why a new desk is such a delight. To have drawers to put away my pens and stop any itinerant teachers picking them up and walking off with them will be joy enough!

By moving the photocopier and relocating my colleague to the other side of a short supporting wall I've managed to fit in a corner desk and adjoining set of drawers that's big enough to hold a party on!

Learning a new job is always difficult but this particular one has been made doubly so by a rubbish work station and the constant fear of having so little surface to work on that the risk of losing a vital bit of paper due to it becoming accidentally clipped to the back of something else has been very real indeed.

Hopefully my new area will mean I can do the job much more efficiently and finally get a bit of a grip on things :o)

So having spent the morning helping our handyman remove the old furniture and install the new I came home fired up full of enthusiasm to get straight on with the applique on my log cabin piece.

The top is now ready for sandwiching.

Also in the post yesterday was my final Autumn block - I hope she won't mind me saying it but the lady who made this one was very reluctant to join the swap as she felt she was too much of a beginner.

Well I reckon for a beginner or any other level of quilting she's made a pretty good job of these flying geese and I'm delighted to have them in my quilt

So that's the Autumn quadrant done

Now to wait for everyone's winter blocks - so long as they're not accompanied by wintry weather :o)

PS - I did promise to hold the draw for the purple bag I made to celebrate my first blogiversary. When I was stitching the pink buttons in the middle of the yoyos never did I dream how far it would have to travel.

It's been won by Lori aka Elkhoundmom who is currently in Macao so if she'd care to email me with her snail mail address I'll pop it into the post to her at the beginning of next week.

I only wish I'd had 32 bags to give away - I'd have liked to send one to each of you but even at the speed I sometimes work that would have been a bit of a tall order :o)

Something a little more traditional

I am such a butterfly flitting from one thing to another - only occasionally finishing anything!

First of all let me apologise for using this picture and not crediting the source. If it's yours I'm sorry for not giving named credit where it's due - please accept imitation as the sincerest form of flattery.


On both of our computers I have a file of pictures that I've collected from all different sources to use as personal inspiration for my stitching. I'll often save an image from someone's blog or something I see on a website purely for personal use but don't give it a meaningful label.

This is one of those photos and judging by the fact it's on the older of the two computers I might have saved it well over a year ago.


Nigel was away in Spain again on Wednesday night and, as Sarah's rugby training has broken for the summer, once I'd got the three children in from school and fed them the night was free from taxi duties.


Just the opportunity to play.


The plaids I'd bought in the form of all those charity shop men's shirts were calling my name so I set to and tried to make something similar to the above.

Here is my effort. Some of the plaids are from the shirts, some are from yardage in my stash and yes, for those of you sensitive to wobbly checks, all of them could be offensively crooked so if that applies to you don't look too closely I wouldn't want to be accused of causing undue suffering :o)


However I've really enjoyed playing with something a little more traditional and will probably applique/embroider some leaves in the centre along the lines of the inspirational quilt I saved the picture of up above. Overall my own effort measures about 17.5" square - the logs are 3/4" wide.


Oddly enough in all the years I've been stitching this is the very first time I've made log cabin blocks - can you believe that?

7 Things about me

As I've been tagged by at least two people I thought I ought to enlighten you about 7 things you might not know about me - none of them are that quirky - although you might think some are when you read them - I'll leave that to you to decide......

1. Third time lucky - Nigel is my third partner (married twice and lived together once). I married when I was a young and impressionable 19, first husband was 25, intellectually and emotionally we were probably similar at that time. I guess over the five years we were married I grew up and he stayed the same. Despite various attempts on my part to make the best of things I realised that we had to part, no children involved to complicate matters and he's since found another partner and has two almost grown up daughters.

Soon after this split I met my second partner and we lived together for almost five years. My philosophy at the time was that if you cared enough about each other you didn't need a piece of paper to prove it. Whilst going through a particularly rocky patch when we were contemplating separation he sadly died following a road traffic accident. The ensuing financial mess because we weren't married and he hadn't made a will made me decide that if I was lucky enough to find another mate he must be prepared to make a real committment and marry me.

Nigel came into my life around a year later and we were married two weeks short of a year after that. He is my best friend and was worth every minute of the waiting. As I said, third time lucky.

2. I almost never had these three. Being totally convinced that I never ever wanted a family, whilst living with my second partner, I was sterilised at 28. I was totally happy with this decision until he died in the accident. Those sort of life-changing events certainly make you look at life a little differently and when I met Nigel I realised that having a good job and plenty of money weren't the be all and end all of life. I was extremely fortunate to be able to have an operation to have the sterilisation reversed and Sarah, Nick and Lou were the wonderful result.

3. In another life, pre-kids, I held down a pretty responsible job with a company that manufactured supermarket chillers and freezers. A boring product maybe but it certainly gave me a very good living for a few years as one of very few females in a very male orientated business. I looked after the company's second and third largest accounts with my order book equating to £4.5 million each year. I had a company car and wore a suit to work, spent time at hospitality functions like golf days and travelled the length and breadth of the UK. This all makes me all the more puzzled why a school office job still has me part beaten even after 8 months in post - maybe I lost my marbles when I was pregnant!

4. I detest the edges of harbours and waterfronts. Not only can I not bring myself to stand near any that are unfenced but I almost have a blue fit if Nigel or the children go near the edge. Even looking a pictures like this makes me shudder. I can swim so shouldn't fear drowning, but it's as if there's a magnetic force pulling me over the edge if I go anywhere near. I'm not even comfortable walking on the opposite edge, say up against a wall - but if there's a fence at the edge it's not a problem at all.

5. I used to bite my fingernails right up to my elbows up until I was about 19. Even now if I'm not busy with my hands, say if I'm reading a book I have my fingers in my mouth and often nibble away. Every so often I do bite them all down until they're sore and then really regret it until they grow back. Yet when I was working before I had the kids they were always so beautifully long and manicured that people would ask if they were false nails - they were always my own and I was immensely proud of them. Sadly now with arthritis in my fingers if I did grow them very long they'd resemble witches talons too much to look glamorous :o(

6. I never ventured out of the UK until the summer after my second partner died. I was 30 before I took this first trip abroad and then took 5 trips in the next 18 months to Gibraltar, Lanzarote, Germany, the USA and finally Bermuda on honeymoon with Nigel. I love to travel abroad given any opportunity and wish we could afford to do more.

7. This one applies to both Nigel and I. We both have (and did have independently even before we met) the ambition to live in a home that wasn't originally built as a house. It doesn't matter what the building was originally - a lighthouse, a barn or even Nigel's favourite a train station. However unless we find something unusual to retire into I can't see it happening for some time as I think we're probably committed to our current abode for the foreseeable future

Gosh haven't I gone on at length? I'm not going to tag anyone else in particular as I think this has probably already caught everyone who wants it to, but if not and you want to enlighten us about your undiscovered depths then consider yourself tagged.

The Four Seasons and not a sign of Vivaldi or Frankie Valli!

Just to say before I start today's random waffling that I will not be doing the draw for the purple bag until Friday night so if anyone still wants to put their comment in you can do so until then.

I will then enlist the help of the three 'musketeers/wise monkeys/ little pigs/ errant children' (you take your pick and delete the least applicable - no only kidding!) to carry out the draw so I can try and get it arranged to take to the Post Office on my day off next Monday

After showing you my 'four seasons' blocks so far and then completing my winter block I decided it was time to take up that gauntlet (or should that read Sword of Damacles) - the Sashing Challenge!!!


Right from the start, as there were to be four seasons meaning four sets of four blocks, I had the germ of an idea about arranging the quilt in quadrants - one for each season.


So I then decided I wanted each quarter of the quilt to have its own identity - hence four different sets of sashings and corner stones

But to try and give it a little bit of uniformity I decided that I'd like all the corner stones to be green, but a different shade of green in each quadrant - each being most suitable to its own season.


Winter was the trickiest - my initial thought was a dark christmas/fir tree green but it just didn't work with the other three paler ones - so in the end looking at the reverse side of the greens in my stash I came across a green that reminded me of a pale dusting of snow or ice on grass and so went with the one in the picture

Then having so many different fabrics in each quarter I decided on the unifying theme of checks for each set of sashings


Once I have all the blocks in I'll put it all together and then put a 2" border round in 4 seasonal colours - one to each corner, but repeating the same green corner stones


Finally I think a 4" border with four separate darker/stronger fabrics again with matching green corner stones and I intend to applique the four corresponding words 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter' on the relevant border sections using each of the central sashing check fabric possibly along with relevant motifs ie flowers, autumn leaves, snowflakes etc

Does that all sound as clear as mud! Yeah thought so - sorry! Read it again once you've had a cup of coffee :o)


Then binding....... mmmmmm........ Anybody's guess really!

One year old!!!

During the Spring of last year I gradually built up a collection of blogs saved in my favourites that I read most days. Loads of quilting and craft inspiration plus an insight into the lives of allsorts of different people from all over the world.

It all started with Bonnie at Quiltville - I'd been drooling over her patterns for some time and then she started to add the instructions from Tonya for her free-pieced letters. On from that there were lots of others I loved to read, Jeanne, Dawn, Mel, Fiona to name but a few.

So I decided the time had come to start my own blog primarily to be able to leave comments on other peoples blogs but once hooked I realise what a proper old windbag I really am and here we are one whole year down the track and almost 250 posts later

What a lot of lovely people I catch up with now most days. It is generally human nature to want to communicate and what other way would we get to 'speak' to people from all over the globe.

So I decided to do a giveaway for my first bloggiversary

I knew somewhere I had the pattern for a reasonably quick and easy bag saved onto the hard drive of one of the computers. I found it and here it isa little purple number!

All you need to do is put a comment at the end of this post and I'll draw someone's name from the hat and post it off to the lucky recipient later in the week.

As I said yesterday I've completed Spencer's Stars

Lily commented that I've not really taken this quilt to my heart as I've been working on it despite the fact that quite a few of you have liked it

However today, when we had a hiatus in the very heavy rain we've been having of late, I took the opportunity to hang it out on the washing line for its final photocall.

And now I can see it in all its glory you know I really think it's grown on me

I hope he gets to enjoy lots of lovely naps beneath it

You can see from the quantity of leftover fabric in this picture just how close I was on the 'hessian' colour for the binding

And now it's finished I can go back to playing with things of my colour choice - much more fun!

PS - a very happy belated Mother's Day to all those of you around the world who celebrated it this last weekend - of course here in the UK ours is long gone, back during Lent, and most of us would probably say that we're privileged to be mums, surrogate mums, aunties, grannies and daughters everyday - even when our offspring and/or parents are at their most trying :o)

Quite a quilty day

Is it just me?

Or does anyone else think it quite magical how much binding you can get from what seems to be a relatively small piece of fabric?

Yesterday morning I decided the great hunt was on....

Yes in Captain Oates fashion - 'I'm just going outside, I may be some time' - I decided that now I was on a roll with 'Spencer's Stars' I ought to brave the interior of the big triple wardrobe in the 'playroom' (you know the room I call my sewing room much to the disgust of the rest of the household') to try and locate the matching fabric to bind this baby quilt.

Well I came across it after some time, but was a bit dismayed to find a piece measuring about 12 - 14" x the width of the fabric.

My heart sank - surely that wouldn't be sufficient to bind a quilt 38" x 52"

However after further searching I realised that the cupboard was metaphorically bare - this was the only piece I'd have to play with.

Out with the trusty calculator - how big a square would I need to make bias double binding for the quilt.

I generally use the calculation of : distance round the edge of the quilt + 18" spare x 2.5" and then all square rooted to get the square size.

Darn it - not quite enough - so redoing the calculation with only 12" spare gave me the magic number (about quarter of an inch less that my available pieced square of fabric)

In the end with all the binding machined on it left me with a measly 7" of bias binding left - how close to the wire can you get.

Still I should be thankful - better that way than 7" too short!

I sat up last night until around 11.30pm handstitching the binding down so all I have to do now is stitch a little label on the back and it's ready to send up to him. I'll put a photo of it on here tomorrow in it's fully completed glory!

In between all this I did other bits of stitching - never one to concentrate on one thing at once.

I decided that as I was on a bit of a roll with my Four Seasons swap that I'd make my winter blocks ready for posting. As this is the last block of the swap I thought 'Friendship star' would be a nice one to do.

Like all my other blocks I picked out an accent fabric for the centre square and I had some lovely wintery countryside fabric in my stash just waiting for this opportunity

I think I shall keep the one with the church on as I had to piece one of the corner squares on it (top LH corner) as yet again I was right up to the wire on the fabric.

I also had a go at making a bag which turned out nicely but again you'll have to wait until tomorrow for a look at that one too

Ok gotta dash work calls - in today as we're taking DD1 to see the specialist tomorrow about her stomach problems - so I've swapped my day off this week.

Woo-hoo - the quilting is finished on Spencer's Stars

Ok so there's still the small matter of a binding... but the bulk of the work is completed.

This morning I woke feeling not that much different to yesterday. Thank you to those of you who sent me cyber hugs they were very much appreciated.

However I took a firm hold of myself, shook myself (metaphorically, you understand) and decided that I was going to achieve something today

And here we are - Spencer's Stars has been sitting on my sewing table whispering reproachfully at me for weeks... "You know you've still got me to finish... never mind playing with all those bright coloured hand dyes.... this baby will be starting school before you get off your behind to get me finished at this rate....." and so on and so forth

So I did it! I cleared enough junk on the top of the table to avoid quilting a stray bit of something inadvertently into the back of the quilt - yes I've done that before! - and cracked on with it.

Mind you a solid afternoon sitting machine quilting had to be broken up now and again or my back would've objected a bit too much. I was either popping across the room to the computer to look at the BBC website see how Gloucester were doing against Leicester in the Guinness Championship final (we lost - boo hoo!) or I was nipping into the conservatory and ironing a couple of items from the ironing pile to stand up and stretch my back out - multi-tasking or what?

Anyway the main thing is it's one major UFO out of the quilting pile and into the binding pile (and some of the ironing done too)

Now.... if only I could remember where I've put that putty coloured leftover fabric for the binding!

Blues and bears - a big thank you to Nancy

I've had a really, really flat and dismal day today - no idea why.......

Made some progress at work, both with pushing the usual paper across the desk and also with the office reorganisation

The kids and Nigel were all fine

I just felt really hacked off with the world - so low I just couldn't lift my chin up off the floor - couldn't even be bothered to pick up a needle and thread - not at all like me

Until I showed Nigel and Sarah this lovely photo of a bear in Nancy's backgarden

A few seconds later as Sarah had settled back into the seat on the computer next to me Nigel crept up behind her and did a BIG BEAR GROWL!!!

She shot ten foot up into the air in fright and boy did I laugh!!!

Thank you Nancy, inadvertently with Nigel you've brightened up a very sombre day :o)

Little bits of this and that

Lots of bits and bobs done today on the sewing front.

Machine piecing

My autumn block for the Four Seasons swap

These are the four Spring blocks

And the four Summer blocks

And finally three of the four Autumn blocks - now I need to figure out what to do for my final Winter block.

It's fun working on something with such an eclectic mix of colours and styles - deciding what to do for the sashings and borders will be a challenge in itself

Then this evening I decided to do some 'crazy' patchwork style embroidery in random colours on the seams of my 365day challenge quilt - I'm bang up to date again having caught up with the backlog on this from my visitors over the weekend

I'm enjoying doing this - more writing and drawing than stitching but it's a challenge deciding what to write and draw about each day

Not much stitching going on around here today

Early start this morning - I was in work for 8.15 instead of 9.30 as my lovely lovely husband came with me to erect my new set of shelves that we'd bought from Ikea.

Yesterday the IT techie guys were in moving network points so my colleague could physically relocate to the other end of the office to make better use of the full space available. Her relocation left me with a big space near my desk to put up the shelves and DH went into work late so he could do that for me.

At present we're managing temporarily on our original small desks but in about two weeks we should take delivery of our two new corner desks so we can get properly settled.

It's taken since last September but now at last we're starting to get organised and maybe I might even get to not begrudge going to work quite so much!

Just so you don't think I'v forgotten that this is ostensibly a quilting blog here's a bit of eye candy for you........

Some more of the quilts from our suitcase exhibition on Monday

A Surprisingly Quilt Filled Weekend

Well considering we've had a house full of visitors all weekend I've managed to get a surprising amount of quilty time in - not so much stitching but plenty of admiring.

Sunday morning I had to run Sarah to work for a couple of hours - she doesn't usually do Sundays - it interferes too much with the rugby - but now the season is over she is free to help out anyone who might need a shift covering - hence taking her to the pool for 9am

One daughter safely delivered meant I could head off for Corfe, a village south of Taunton where the local quilting group were holding their very first exhibition. Sadly I was in such a hurry to get out of the house that I forgot to take the camera with me. So the only photo from here is a picture of the goodies I returned with - spots are always so useful! The colours aren't exactly true - the piece which looks dark brown in the bottom right hand corner is actually the most delicious shade of aubergine - yummy!

Then yesterday our monthly speaker group decided that, instead of having our usual evening meeting with a speaker, we would hire a 'suitcase collection' from the Quilter's Guild. This comprised of 41 square quilts each measuring about 2ft square made by a selection of quilters around the UK on the theme 'Traditional Quilts' all packed into an average suitcase - amazing what you can fit into a piece of luggage.

To my surprise I found this quilt among them which was made by Mary, one of the ladies I'm doing the four seasons swap with - what fun!

As you can see from these three red and cream quilts, traditional was most definitely the name of the game and they were no less lovely for being so. I've taken photos of all the quilts there so may well drip them out into my blog over the next few days. However I couldn't decide which was my absolute favourite.

It was a toss up between this bold and bright New York Beauty

Or this gentler appliqued tree quilt - the quilting and applique on this one was absolutely exquisite

I'd have happily taken both of them home but sadly, at the end of the day, they had to go back into that suitcase.

Visitors do get in the way of stitching, don't they?

Monday is a bank (or public) holiday shuffled along from the 1st - May Day. Unlike the French who always take the holiday on the actual 1st regardless of which day it is, we have the first Monday in the month of May making a long weekend.

Despite an iffy forecast for the weather it was lovely today so as Nigel's parents are down staying with us for the weekend we took them up to Fyne Court which is on the edge of the Quantocks about 2 - 3 miles up behind our house. If you recall this is also the place I managed to get the beautiful snowdrop photos earlier in the year.

The bonus as you can see is they've converted one of the buildings to a tea room - scones with jam and cream - scrummy!

After that we took the 'outlaws' for a drive through the Quantocks and stopped for a short while near a local reservoir

This is DH in pensive mood

And the cow parsley is also just coming into bloom - hence the foreground feature in this photo - just trying to take something other than the usual views

Not much stitching with the visitors here

Just a little bluework - so easy to pick up as you sit and chat or watch the tv together - I thought I'd have a go at the snowmen I saw a few of you working on over the winter - one down, eleven to go

And I've been cracking on with my 365 Challenge Blocks - although I may well have a little bit of catching up to do on these when our house guests depart on Tuesday

Finally here are two of the autumn blocks I've received for the 4 Seasons Swap - must get my thinking cap on and work out what to do for mine now.

My Dream Quilt

I was browsing through the blogs I generally wander through most days and came across something on Clare's blog - Stashbuster Topic of the Week.


I'm not a member of the Stashbuster blog ring but I do often have a wander through as some of them are also Mavericks.


Clare's post made me sit back and think ................


What would I class as my dream quilt?


I admire a huge amount of different quilters and their gorgeous work, both professionals and amateurs alike. Lots of the quilts I see on different people's blogs catch my eye and I often save the images in my 'Quilt Ideas' file to use as future inspiration.


However there is one lady whose work simply blows me away.


Her colours are right up my street. Her piecing is superb and her machine quilting is awesome. The quilting is all the more impressive as she works on the most gigantic quilts using just a sweet little Bernie 1090 like mine.


Who is this lady? Why it's Carol Bryer Fallert of course


And here is my absolute favourite although I would be hard pressed not to take several of her pieces of work home with me given the opportunity and the bank balance.


New Dawn 2000 Yours for a cool $34,000.00


I love this one so much I saved the image of it onto my screen wallpaper at one time just to drool over each time I switched on the machine.


So come on girls tell the rest of us which quilt you really covet.

Waste not, want not

When I was piecing the wonky 'piano key' borders for my confetti quilt this afternoon I deliberately made them oversized so I was sure I could easily cut 4.5" borders from them.

This then left me with four striped strips about 1.5" - 2" wide.

I straightened them off as wide as the fabric would allow and thought 'I'll put those in my scrap drawer for future playtimes.

Then once I'd finished the confetti top I rediscovered them, still on the dining room table, and so set to and made this.The 'black' for the sashing is slightly different from the one used in the confetti quilt - it's black overdye on a terracotta where as the other one was black overdye on the lilac. I saved the rest of the black/lilac for the confetti binding as I didn't have enough for both.

The whole thing measures about 13.5" x 20.5" - maybe this will be the wallhanging to go in my newly arranged office as the confetti one, at 24" square, may be a bit big and not leave me sufficient room for boring things like sheets of paper. I'm even entertaining the MAD idea of putting multi coloured prairie points all round this!!! Talk about a cross between a stained glass window a la Frank Lloyd Wright and Joseph's Coat of Many Colours.

Plus it adds two more things to the 'To Be Sandwiched' pile - I can't keep putting them all off for ever :o)

Confetti top completed........

I've had a really pleasant afternoon today.

I finished work at my normal time of 1.30 and headed straight home - No visits to the supermarket necessary today, thank goodness.

So I got straight on with the borders on my confetti wallhanging - didn't even stop for a bite of lunch - no wonder my tummy was rumbling by the end of the afternoon.

The two youngest do tag rugby training after school on a Wednesday and from this week Sarah has been roped in to help train them.

This meant that I had the luxury of total 'me' time completely alone in the house from about 1.35 until 4.20 when I went to collect the three of them.

It's amazing on the one hand what you can achieve in that amount of time and then on the other hand it also never ceases to amaze me how long what I perceive to be a 10 minute job can take.

Here it is - the completed top finished literally just before I walked out of the door to go collect them.

These colours are totally true to life as I took the photo on the back lawn - you can tell from that how dry the weather's been here of late. Ignore the black starry fabric around the edges that's only the backing fabric although once quilted I may well bind the piece with the black mottled fabric to give it some definition.

I'm delighted with how it's going so far.

I could get seriously carried away with this...

Well in and around getting tea ready for everyone tonight I rustled up the other ten blocks and then put the centre panel together.

Although there's a really strange mix of colours I really like this.

I think I will do piano key borders but not exact sizes or perpendicular - a bit Tonya-esque - I also think I will have to put a good sprinkling of the brighter shades along those sides.

One of the teachers at the school I work at is getting married in August - we've been invited to the evening reception. She is one of my favourites and I'd really quite like to make her a quilt. If I can surreptitiously find out what colour her bedroom is I might put something like this together but with larger blocks - think I'll have to don my Sherlock Holmes hat for the fact-finding mission