Friend's Mother's Quilt

When a friend said to me that she had a quilt top that her mother had made 30 years ago but had not completed it, I just felt compelled to help finish it.  It needed to be sandwiched and quilted.  Sadly around Christmas time my friend's mother died and now I want to finish this lovely quilt quickly and give it back to her.  I just feel that it will be of great comfort to her.


Here it is layered up before pinning

...and I'm hand quilting it and thought a daisy pattern in the centre would look nice. 

I'm using space dyed silk thread by Stef Francis in soft pink mixture

.........til the next time

Sissinghurst Castle

Today we paid a visit to beautiful Sissinghurst Castle near Cranbrook.  The Spring Walk was colourful but it was a little bit early for many of the flowers.  Give it another two weeks and it will be a riot of colour.  The daffodils were spectacular.

The lovely Oast house near the entrance

You can climb the stairs to the top of this tower and see wonderful views of the countryside

The Paddock with an abundance of daffodils

The lake

A view across the fields

Primroses everywhere

A carpet of blue spring flowers

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon which we enjoyed and rounded it off with tea and shortbread in the restaurant by the oast houses.   And of course, I had to visit the shop!


.......til the next time

Reverse Applique

Remember my lizard I had prepared for reverse appliqué?  Well it did have some tricky bits!  And it nearly got thrown into the bin....


Here it is completed

...so glad it didn't go in the bin!!


...til the next time

Howzat!!

Last Thursday my husband used up the last of his birthday surprises.  He had a special birthday last year and I had surprises for him for almost every month!  The first one I took him to was to a show in London, Dreamboats and Petticoats. During the year he went to the Loire, the Albert Hall to see Eric Clapton, Jools Holland, a special treat in Switzerland to see Status Quo; and lots of other little treats.


Here we are at Lords Cricket Ground during a 2 hour tour last Thursday.  It was brilliant!

....til the next time

German/British Stash Swap

Back in the middle of last year the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles and the German Patchwork Guild came up with a stash challenge involving both guilds.  The idea was to choose about a metres worth of fabric from your stash and send it to your Guild.  The same thing happened in Germany.  The fabrics were then swapped between both Guilds.  I received my fabrics from my German partner and I had to make something measuring about 16" x 34" using at least 20% of her fabrics and 20% of fabric from my stash.  Participants would be notified later if their creation had been selected to be exhibited in the German Exhibition in May 2012 and the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August 2012.


When I got back recently from Switzerland there was a letter from the Quilters' Guild saying that they were delighted to inform me that my creation had been selected.  I was so surprised and over the moon that my piece had been chosen.  Unfortunately I'm not able to show you the finished piece until after the exhibition. 


......til the next time

Fabric Postcard

The Popular Patchwork fabric postcard theme for March is 'Bud Vase', and this is what I made for Helen.

..............til the next time

Name Game Swap My Quilt from USA

When I got home today from Friendship Quilters the postie delivered me a parcel.  When I opened it I found a gorgeous mini quilt from Christine.  If you're looking Christine, 'Thank you so much, I absolutely love it'.


And here it is................

Don't you just love all those flying geese.  The colours are just me!!


...........and here's my name Christine embroidered

I love the fabrics.


...............til the next time

Shadow Applique

My next Super Sample for the Stitched Textiles course was shadow appliqué.  Inspiration for this piece comes from a photo I had taken of a panel on a staircase somewhere in France.  The background is white cotton and the appliqué shape was bondawebbed onto coloured cotton, cut out and pressed onto the white background.  I outlined the appliqué with some pink/gold metallic fabric paint.  I overlaid the whole piece with white voile and stitched around the edges in gold thread.

Shadow Appliqué

The piece I'm working on now is Reverse Appliqué.  Here is the Work In Progress

WIP Reverse Applique

I can already see some tricky bits on this piece!!


....til the next time

Simple Free Machining

I've completed another super sample for my Stitched Textiles course.  This one is simple free machining.  I really enjoyed doing this one.  I was in full flow when half way around the outside the phone rang.  (Sigh) .....  took a while to get back into the rhythm.

Super Sample - Simple Free Machining

.........til the next time

Name Game Swap

I've finished my piece for the Name Game Swap organised by Samelia's Mum.  Here's a peek at a corner....

I hope my swap partner likes it.  I've posted it today.


....til the next time 

Incredible Ice Forms

Well, I've just got back from Switzerland.  It was so cold when we arrived at my daughter's place and there was still snow everywhere.  We were doing Grandparent duties taking our granddaughter to Geneva for 3 days to rehearsals for Peter Pan.  The rehearsals were in the evening so dear husband and I had to find something to do for 4 hours!  We got to know Geneva shops and places to eat quite well!  On one of our walks along the lake I took these incredible photos of the ice formations along the lake side.

I've never seen ice like this!!  During our stay we took the train to Thun.  What a lovely place that was.  There was a castle and charming church and spectacular scenery

Castle in Thun

Church in Thun

.....We carried on by mountain train which was awesome, winding our way down the mountain to Brig.  The station here had some interesting tiling..............

This was just one of them

We did go to see the production of Peter Pan.  It was brilliant!  The youngest was 9 years old and the oldest 18 years old and they were all so professional!


............til the next time