just the binding to do

I love this quilt, a friend and I both decided that we wanted time for us to sew as opposed to sewing for class teaching. We get together every Wednesday evening at my house and we sew to our hearts content.

We find a pattern and look at each other and say shall we and invariably we do, this is one of these quilts it came I believe from a Fons and Porter magazine probably well over a year ago. I was goingt o hand quilt it but is way to big to handle and I really wanted it finished to take with me at our Quilters Guild of Ireland conference/retreat in March.

I left it with Yvonne McKee in Quilters Quest in Belfast, with the only instruction that I didn't want flowers. I am delighted and over the moon. just the binding to do.

I think Poppy is looking for any mistakes!

time flies

it really is time to post again and catch up on things I have been doing, this is a layer quilt pattern finished at the Quilter Guilod of Ireland conference in 2010. It still has to be quilted and as usual I am undecided on how to do it. It requires more thought!!

I really need to reorganise my sewing studio, it became a dumping ground when family were over early in the New Year, it is a case of taking everything out and putting it all back in again.

I bought a couple of 4 drawer storage plastic affairs to hold quilts that need wadded and backed as opposed to totally sewn together. I filled all 8 drawers! now i need a couple more sets to hold stuf f I am working on and then as I still seem to have 5 boxes of scraps I should really buy anoter 2 sets for those.

I am contemplating buying a die cutter, yes I am convinced it will solve everything!! we will see.

shamed

I rejoined the fabricholics yahoo group to take part in their NYE mystery and there was chat about all those dreaded UFO's. Up for a challenge I started to drag out what i could lay my hands on without looking for and guess what 27 projects now all on the dining room table. I still have a quilt on the quilting frame to be hand quilted only a couple of rows to go, and I have a quilt in bits on the design wall. Plus heaven knows how many leaders and enders.

I then decided maybe i should actually clear up the piles of mess now scattered all over the floor and came across many orphan blocks, all different sizes all different backgrounds and styles. Those i just popped into another box, maybe I will do something with those at some time.

This purge also found some Japanese quilt magazines I want to sell on eBay, some magazines that I had kept and have marked with quilts I want to make, patterns downloaded from the net and some bought. I found fabric I didn't know I had and it really is too nice to use!

Earlier in the year i catalogued all my books and numbered them, and organised strips into boxes.

So now my computer desk is covered with papers and patterns with barely enough room for a keyboard, and there is a heap of everything else that was lying in a corner now in the middle of the floor.

I suppose I'd better go and do something about it I dread finding more UFO's Happy New Year to all

another finish

This quilt is a basic churn dash ... but with a difference as you see its curved. This is for my grand daughter of 14 hence the mad colours and as you can see another inspection

Finally at last

This is the quilt that has been on my little Grace 11 for almost 2 years. The cat has used it as a hammock all that time !! The had shredded the wadding into holes and I neded up taking it off the frame and leaving it with Susan Taylor a local long armer. As you can see the cat is still inspecting it. this was a 9 patch swap originally using 30's fabrics with an online yahoo group quilting sisters

Short break and doings

I was doing some leaders and enders and turned them into 4 patches, put them up on the design wall and they looked pretty boring, being just all 4 patches. decided to try some HST (half square triangles) made a few up my way!. Really easy cut a strip of fabric in light and one in a contrast, decide the size of finished triangle you want remember to add on the 7/8th ( i cut 4" strips, I don't fiddle about with an !/8th of an inch i'd rather trim)) with a pencil mark of vertical lines every 4" then draw diagonal lines from corner to corner, making where you ended the start of the next diagonal marking so that it zig zags, then stitch 1/4 " either side of your marked line in a continuous line then turn and stitch the other side of the marked line 1/4 " in. With your rotatry cutter cut along all the pencil marks hey presto HSt's quick and easy. Time to play and make a load more 4patches and HST's

I managed to get my Orange Crush quilt back from the long armer ( Susan Taylor) photographs show the finished top and the back of the quilt it is now safely transported to New Zealand. Really pleased with this.

Also completed a disappearing nine patch for my niece to give to her best friend, this is one i was playing around with and didn't finish at the time..

I see Bonnie has another mystery on for Labour weekend , unfortunately I can't start this one with everyone else, I'll be over in England visiting family.

The dogs have been groomed and all ready for the kennels, found a few lumps under baileys 'arm pits' so he wll have to go to the vet when i get back. they don't look like spaniels at the minute. Oh I have blocked the washing machine I had put all the dogs soft toys in the machine to wash and hadn't realised some of them were coming apart, the washing machine was full of little bits of foam ( just shows these child safe toys have filling in them that shouldn't be there) yes the foam has blocked the machine now i need to get someone out to get rid of it all, can't you just there the guy!!

I am really getting tired looking at rain everyday. If the grass gets any longer I'll need to invest in a goat!

Another month

Why does life hurtle by like a rate of knots. All the plans seem to fall by the wayside, I am settling in to the new job well , could do without the long travel to work over an hour is ok in the summer but its gonna be deadly in the winter. Finished the Orange crush quilt .. finally.. I was late starting it with the new job and only settled down to do it this month . I choose a grey for the background , it looks better in real life the colour seems much brighter in this photo.

As soon as i get it back from the longarmer It is going off to Alan in New Zealand, the first quilt I have made him!

Managed a few real nice days this summer and got the work finished round the pond really pleased now with the way the garden has turned out, just the piece behind decking and the dogs to fill out next summer and it will done as far as done goes in a garden.

I need to sort out some of my UFO's most just need quilted, really must knuckle down and put one together this evening, maybe choose one that can be hand quilted i can always take it into work and do it at lunch time, providing it isn't too big.

Want to start the friendship star for Spain as well, but more about that later.

I bid and won 100 x 2" squares on eBay, its only afterwards and u work out that it is really only a FQ's worth, it was real bad value. i paid double what I normally pay for a FQ, only plus is that the squares are all different. Wont do that again. I haven't even done anything with them yet , which makes it even more stupid to buy!!