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

Playing with Confetti

I didn't have to go into the office today - as I am Clerk to the School's Governing Body I not only have to work occasional evenings (like last night) to take minutes at the meetings of the full Governing Body, but I also get one morning per term (three times a year) out of the office to attend a Clerks' Briefing.

There we are brought up to speed on all sorts of legal and procedural matters to do with helping to run our own school's Governing Body and also to have the chance to network with other clerks from around our region.

Today's briefing finished nice and early so I had time on returning home via the supermarket to have a bit of a play with some confetti blocks similar to the quilts I posted yesterday.

I thought as a trial I'd pull out some of my hand dyes to play with. I wouldn't bother about colour schemes, just use the fabric texture as a common theme.

This is half of the blocks I'll need for the project in mind.

They measure 4.5" unfinished and I will do an arrangement of them '4 x 4' and then put one in each corner of the border which I might make in a sort of piano key fashion but not all parallel if you get my drift.

The completed item should measure about 24" square and is destined, I think, for the new notice board above my desk at work when we've completed the office remodel that we've just started.

In some ways I begrudge every minute I spend at work - I'd be far happier at home playing with fabric. Sadly the playing won't add to the household budget so I, like probably most of you, have to compromise and go out to earn some money so I can supplement my husband's income and afford to play fabric at other times. It's not that I don't enjoy my job - I work with some lovely people and sometimes even feel like I have a bit of an idea what I'm doing - I'd just rather be doing something else.

A wallhanging like this pinned above my desk will help to remind me why I'm there when I wish I wasn't.

Three different reds

I love Mondays - after the weekend with the family it's my 'me' day - the one day of the week I don't go into work.

Mind you I don't always get to do nothing - in fact not very often at all. But I do enjoy going to my quilt group and having a good old 'chew of the fat' with all the other ladies whilst doing a bit of handstitching.

Over the past few weeks, in between hand applique projects like my 'Ugly bug/tulip' table runner I've been doing some redwork.

I finished this today - I shall now put a red and sand coloured checked border around it and make it into a Christmas wall hanging.

Last night I also completed the second of the blocks I'm doing for Clare at Dordogne Quilter - I may do some more to go with these - we'll see what inspiration comes to me before I head to the post office.

Yesterday I went to a small quilt show on the other side of Taunton. Not a big collection of quilts but nevertheless some lovely ones and some delicious cakes in the refreshment room too.

Here's a 'confetti' quilt for my third 'red'. I was very taken with this pattern - squares of fabric sliced 'buggy barn' style and then swapped over and reassembled.

And here are two of its mates in other colourways.

I think the last one, the batik, is my favourite - a lovely mix of colours.

This would be a good simple pattern for a quick and colourful quilt for charity I think. Maybe I'll show you some more of their handiwork another day

Sew many quilts - sew little time :o)

Wonderful, wonderful wisteria

Here in the UK apparently we've had the hottest April for over 100 years.

I'm sure in years gone by the wisteria has not flowered this early. However it would appear that the conditions must have been absolutely perfect for it because everywhere you go it is in full and glorious bloom.

Nowhere more so than in the centre of Taunton up the walls of the four storey very swish and expensive Castle Hotel.

I won't apologise for posting five separate pictures of it. Suffice to say they don't even start to do it justice. It is absolutely awesome!
What a shame that, like its equally ostentatious mate magnolia, it is so short lived. A perfect reason to capture it on film

Have shoes will travel

Lots of pictures today. I've discovered you're not limited to the first five photos - you can add subsequent lots too - how long have I been doing this? Duh!!!

Over the past six months DD1 Sarah has had lots of problems with chronic abdo pain - several doctors visits and various tests culminated in a real nasty episode this week necessitating a visit to the Accident and Emergency department of our local hospital on Thursday. I won't bore you, or embarrass her, with any details. Suffice to say that we're all (that's us and the medics) coming to the conclusion that she's suffering from a very unpleasant spell of IBS. It goes without saying that we are hugely relieved that it's nothing life threatening or sinister but the pain she's suffered this week almost put paid to her partaking in something she's been looking forward to for months.

However she rallied round enough to head off this morning with the rest of her rugby playing team mates on tour for the weekend to Cornwall. She's a determined girl who seldom lets anything stand in her way and I'm glad she's been fit enough and pig-headed enough to be able to go.

The coaching team and one of the mums have worked extremely hard to get sufficient sponsorship to give each of the girls a tour polo shirt, a pair of tracksuit bottoms, a tour waterproof training jacket and a tour kit bag - WOW! (Sarah's the one under the coach wing mirror)

The yellow for the shirts was a big surprise to everyone - someone had heavily hinted at pink at one stage but they're male shirts which apparently you can't get in pink - whatever! - I think they looked pretty smart actually - you certainly wouldn't miss them coming that's for sure (and again she's the one in the centre with her tongue out)

Before they were allowed to set off they were given the task of arranging themselves into order as per the letter embroidered on the left arm of their shirts. If they stand in the correct order the line of 28 of them spells out 'Taunton Fillies Newquay Tour 07!' This was a huge challenge as you can imagine at 8.30 in the morning when they were all massively excited. Failure to replicate this manouevre at speed throughout the weekend may have dire consequences :o) - revenge for the coaches (even in jest) is a dish best eaten cold!

They all managed to get on the road just before 10am and so the rest of the family had the day to go off and do something else with.

When Nigel asked me what I'd like for my birthday I told him I've been wanting to treat myself to a pair of crocs shoes. They are starting to become quite popular over here but are not widely stocked and there is usually very limited colour choice. The purple ones I fancied have been particularly elusive in my size.

However I happened to discover that a new footwear shop was opening (on my birthday no less - obviously an omen!) which exclusively stocks all manner of Crocs in Glastonbury, about 30 minutes from us and a couple of miles down the road from Nigel's work. Obviously meant to be!

The town is a magnet for all things mystical, new age and whacky and is probably a very good place to put this shop. They should do well.

So we headed there first and made the crucial purchase. Please excuse the chubby ankles - I'm blaming the camera angle ;oP - 'Yeah right' I hear you all chorus!

Once we'd finished our shopping and had some lunch we headed off, best foot forward, to climb Glastonbury Tor.

The tor is a hill outside the town which can be seen for miles around and has a ruined church tower on the top. It is probably the most easily recognisable symbol of Somerset and deemed by some to be a very holy and spiritual place - the mythical Isle of Avalon from the times of Arthurian legends.

Well mythical it may be but it's also a jolly long steep walk up to the top! I did it in my new purple Crocs with not a jot of discomfort - they might not be very pretty but they are like walking on air.

Apart from the 300+ steps you have to climb actually up the tor itself, the hill is situated a good steady yomp of about a mile and a quarter from the car park in the town centre - we certainly had our exercise today and the weather was pretty hot and sunny making it fairly strenuous.

As is usually the case I always tend to bring up the rear so am generally caught on camera further down the hill than the rest of the party. Not pretty! We have many such pictures of me in rear guard position part way up a variety of climbs in our family albums.

But the views from the top were well worth the effort - wonderful, if a little hazy, and you could see a good proportion of not only Somerset but into Dorset and Wiltshire, the neighbouring counties, too.

Whilst we were browsing the shops before our mammoth ascent I came across a lovely striped lady's sleeveless shirt in a charity shop and some Indian cotton plaid fabric with an elephant grey background in another shop - treasure! Wish the shirt had been man-sized and long sleeved as it is a lovely stripe. Actually they go quite well together too - mmmm I wonder?

On another tack I don't know if any of you are familiar with Leanne's blog from Australia. I've decided in a fit of sheer lunacy that I'd quite like to have a go at her 365 day challenge. My birthday seemed as good a time as any to start.

So here are the first two days worth .........

I have lots of ideas for this and won't use it as just a report of what I do each day - heavens that would be so boring - whoever would give that a second glance after about the third week (or should that read third day?). But I think it will make an interesting 'document', albeit in fabric, for my descendents and will be fun to do.

Of course, in my usual inimitable fashion I've gone in feet first with no preparation - have I pre cut all my days/pieces? - er...... No! Does all my fabric match? - er...... No! but hey who cares? I've made a start and can catch up with the cutting as I go along.

Leanne has decided to use all various parchment coloured fabrics so it looks like old vellum. I'll be a bit more eclectic than that and intend to use lots of different pastel fabrics and a variety of colours of pigma pens too. I shall add little illustrations along the way with maybe some embroidery and/or applique as the fancy takes me. Watch this space..............

Happy Birthday To Me!!!!

It's my birthday today - I'm 47 years old and don't feel a day over 97!!!

This picture is the best I can do for baby/childhood photos - these three images were put onto a t-shirt for my 40th. In the centre I was probably about 11 months old - sitting in the coal house with a peg and a pop bottle, the right hand one about 8 years old and the left hand one around 13 or 14 years old - would you allow your daughter out with a hairstyle like that?

My lovely children had, after enormous unveiled hints, visited one of the fabric shops in town and each picked a fabric from the half-price rail to buy half a metre of. Sarah chose the brown after a description from me, Lou went for the red art deco design and Nick plumped for the green one with the wolves on - all fairly predictable in a lovely way. The pins were a useful extra - they know I use them all the time.

But then came the surprise - totally unexpected - a foot spa. I have problems with arthritis in my fingers - probably from too much stitching, not that it will stop me but......... also it seems to be affecting my feet too - this one not from stitching I hasten to add, although the extra weight I lug around obviously doesn't help. So the surprise will be very much appreciated and is a really thoughtful present. I will sit in my conservatory hand stitching away with my feet in some lovely warm scented bubbles. Sarah said as I unwrapped it - "we couldn't afford to send you to a spa so we brought the spa to you" - bless!

My sister had also had her thoughtful head on. She had been surfing around on ebay and purchased a beautiful antique silver thimble for me, still in it's original box.

It is tiny and will only fit on my little finger which leads me to think it was either owned by a very petite lady or possibly a child. On the top it is dented in slightly at one side and has obviously had some usage.

If you look carefully on the box you can see it came from a jewellers in the North East of England which is even more exciting - it may well have belonged to a Durham Quilter making north country quilts with their distinctive patterns. This makes it extra special then.

Oh how I wish it could talk :o)

The (not so) Ugly Bug Ball

Well my buzzy bee has been joined by some more entomologist's delights - a little blue butterfly and a ladybird. The butterfly might well be joined by a couple more - we'll see. This is such fun and all for a humble table runner to cover those dark and brooding granite table mats. Maybe I keep adding little bits of applique so I can put off the dreaded sandwiching moment :o)

I think it was either Jane or Fiona who asked if I'd used a pigma pen to add the stripes to the bee - yes indeed, you've sussed me - it also made a reasonable job on the ladybird's spots and the butterfly's body. However I did embroider the bee's pathway

I was browsing round the various blogs and spotted that Joyce has been making some Leukaemia blocks to send off to Clare. I realised I've not made any for a while and my recent charity shop haul had included some red checks so, as I'm particularly partial to appliqueing hearts, I thought I'd rustle up a block or two for that very worthy cause

This is the first (ignore the ratty edges I've not trimmed it to size yet as I can't actually see my cutting and stitching table under everything my family has deposited on it - and that's my excuse for stalling on Spencer's Stars)

Another block is part done - that's tonight's job along with those extra butterflies

A buzzy bee

Only managed a tiny bit of stitching yesterday - a grey dotted running stitch line showing the path my bee has taken from the last flower he visited.

I'm not sure but this table runner might just gain a ladybird (that's ladybug to you ladies over the pond) and maybe even a butterfly or two before it goes down the sandwiching route

We'll see.................

And more tulips

A couple of people asked about those 'black' tulips - are they really black?

Well the answer to that is 'almost but not quite' - I believe they are a strain called 'Queen of the Night' and they really are the darkest, darkest purple, a bit like the black ones in Fruit Gums or Midget Gems sweets - usually blackcurrant flavoured.

For those of you who haven't already spotted them there are some seriously impressive tulip pictures on Norma's Silver Thimble blog. They remind me of the shots you see of the Dutch bulbfields but the mountain scenery in the background raises these images to the superlative.

As for tulips here - I've finished the hand applique on my table runner - and added a busy little bee as a finishing touch.I intend to do one of those looping dotted lines you see in cartoons leading to him but can't decide whether to hand quilt it in black or embroider it before I quilt the item (or I could be really lazy and draw it in pigma pen).

Finally on the tulip subject here is a pot of the prettiest coloured blooms you could wish for that I saw when we went round those gardens in Herefordshire - a lovely restful change of pace after those bold yellows and reds you more usually associate with this type of bloom.

Have a great day all :o)

National Pride..... on a local level

Tomorrow is St. George's Day - the patron saint of England.

Ireland has St Patrick's day on March 17th, where shamrocks and all things green abound. Wales has St David's day on March 1st with leeks and daffodils on show and Scotland celebrates St Andrew on 30th November with probably not quite so much enthusiasm and vigour but no doubt lots of thistles.

However in England on 23rd April sporting the red rose of England and the St George's flag is often seen in the media and politically correct circles as one step removed from xenophobic posturing - a sign of an almost neo-nazi threat.

While I think it is good to embrace the multi-cultural make up of our land I do feel there's nothing wrong with being proud of the country you come from especially when the other countries within the United Kingdom do so on their special days.

Traditionally the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements have always celebrated St. George's day, usually with a parade followed by a church service.

Taunton today was no exception with DS and DD2 parading with their respective scout and cub groups. Here you can see Louise carrying their pack flag.

The parade worked its way through the town centre ending up in the town's beautiful Vivary Park for an act of collective worship combined with a celebration of scouting's centenary this year.

The almost black and white tulips were stunning and we did have a quiet smile that some joker had put copious quantities of bubble bath in the fountain - much to the delight of the littler children who were scooping handsful of froth out to throw at their parents.

The last photo shows you a view across the park with the old converted Jellalabad barracks in the background - harking back to days gone by when the town housed an army regiment

We were very lucky as the weather for the parade and service was very kind - nothing like as nice if it's pouring down - as it often has been on other years.

Stitching wise I've managed to get a few more tulips appliqued onto my table runner, stitched a little more of my redwork christmas tree and done a bit more machine quilting on Spencer's Stars - nothing too exciting to warrant a photo yet - lots more to go!

Lovely fabrics and some good news

I had a very nice parcel in the post this week - you might remember I'd considered trying to buy some more of the blue fabric for my soft and faded quilt to enable me to put narrow blue borders between all the blocks.

I finally managed to track the shop I bought it from and rang them. As it had been last summer they thought they probably wouldn't have any left but suggested I send a sample and they would check.

Luck was on my side - they still had some fabric left and so I bought another two metres - Result!!!

At the moment I'm rather partial to checks and plaids and here is a selection of fat quarters I picked up when I went fabric shopping for Sarah's DofE fabric. I have no particular project in mind they will go into my stash to pop into projects along the way to take the edge off that certain sickly sweetness I sometimes feel you end up with if you use all florals.

Some wonderful news this morning in the form of a thank you letter from Nigel's cousin and wife up in Lancaster.

You might recall their second son was born very prematurely weighing only 1lb 12 ozs back in the winter

The letter gave us the fabulous news that he is now in Lancaster hospital, having moved from Manchester ITU and has reached the whopping milestone of 2kgs or in proper money 4lbs 7ozs. Mum is currently staying with him to establish feeding so the grandparents have been drafted back in to help look after his dad and elder brother.

The nicest thing about the letter was the expression of appreciation not only for the little garments I knitted for him but also our words of support which they said hit exactly the right note at the time. The link we'd given them to a book written by friends of ours who'd been through a similar experience was particularly helpful and I'm so glad I took my courage in my hands and put pen to paper.

When people are going through such a difficult time it's all too easy to just shrug and think 'Oh well I don't know what to say' and subsequently do nothing. However I'm sure that if you try to send a sensitive message with the best intent the thought is usually appreciated. You may recall my 'darling' MIL treated us like total idiots at the time not trusting us not to put our foot firmly in it. Obviously we didn't and it's lovely to have that confirmed.

Now Matthew John is making good progress, once I have Spencer's Stars completed (and I keep chugging away on that) I shall make him a quilt of his very own in time for him coming home out of hospital.

Isn't modern medical science absolutely marvellous?