Flying by

This week is simply flying by, I don't know when I was last so busy, not (unfortunately) with much serious sewing, tho that does come into it a bit. last Sunday I ventured once more into the world of baking and tried another sponge See post on 14th April) having mixed up the ingredients - all very carefully weighed, things looked promising (and Yes those are my feet!!!)

Looks good!

After baking and filling with cream and strawberry jam things looked even better

and to prove it, its 3 x the depth of the last one!! and trust me mmmmm...it tastes divine

Monday DD came for a few hours primarily to go out to lunch with a close friend so Grandma and Grandad got left 'holding the baby' (and two boisterous dogs!!) It was all good fun, little H played along and was a very good girl, but when Grandad was left in charge for a few moments he decided to get her started as a builder's apprentice here she is 'viewing' the Screwfix Catalogue (local building suppliers )

She is now definitely on the move so LOOK OUT Mum and Dad! (Ted and Monty are fair game too now, all that lovely fur to pull yourself up on!)

Tuesday came with an appointment for Mum:-) followed by a Funeral :-( Today is haircut day and getting ready for tomorrow when I'm off to the Bath & West showground to be on a stand for Region 5 of the Quilters Guild, and hopefully sewing a bit too. Friday will be shopping day again and Saturday I'm at an SVQ sewing day before dashing off around 4pm to take down the display at the Arts Festival. I was hoping Sunday may be quiet but with my ?? Birfday looming I may get visitors.
Bye for now
Lorraine
P.S. As I don't have any new quilty pictures to show here are a few older ones!!!

'Laura's Quilt' 

Group quilt - Log Cabin blocks - 2 each made by 6 CTQ members, Central Heart block, assembly and quilting by yours truly. Presented to Laura on purchasing her 1st house

Made this one for DD's Godson - 6 1/2" square foundation pieced animals adapted from the 'Two by Two' pattern in a magazine. I added  2 butterfly's, a brown bear, a tiger, and a parrot then re-arranged the layout. Machine quilted then  I used the animal print scraps to make the binding.

The poem from my collection that inspired the above quilt which forms the label

Antique Welsh Log Cabin. Fabrics are Wool mixtures on a heavy cotton base. 

This belongs to a friend, she thinks it was made by her Granny and she remembers sleeping under it as a child in the 1950's.

'Rodney and Friends' 

Made as a Secret Santa gift for Kerry who keeps chickens - again adapted from a magazine and inspired by the saying 'The rooster may crow, but the hen delivers the goods.' I used fabric weaving for the basket of eggs, bonded applique with blanket stitched edges. Machine pieced and Hand quilted.

Arts Festival!

Last night was our monthly meeting for SVQ, and what a great night! Liz Brooke Ward (See previous post) came along to show us her work which was fabulous, she grew up in Yorkshire and now lives in the Cotswold's and her work is inspired by Nature, Landscape and her Husbands job - he a Microbiologist (I think!!) which basically means he looks at and photographs Lichens through a microscope! Here are a couple of shots I took of her smaller pieces, unfortunately I couldn't get her larger pieces as she was surrounded by our members after her talk.

Based on the Lichens, this is about 2' square and is embroidered entirely of french knots

This smaller piece is a Journal quilt, one of 12 made over a year, for this one she asked her friends for buttons plus a quotation which meant something to each of them, the buttons are stitched to little pockets with each pocket resembling the button, inside these are the relevant quotes printed onto little cloth strips which each have a button hole in, the little strips are on tiny wooden sticks to resemble scrolls and can be taken out and buttoned to the pocket. (I thought this was very clever! sorry about the fuzzy picture)

Today 4 of us have been off to the Town Hall to set up the exhibition for the Arts trail (see previous post) we arrived bright & early (well late actually as someone had put temporary traffic lights on the road to Thornbury (the cheek!) We had quite few exhibits some scrounged from last nights show and tell (more on that later) and got to work putting the stands together, putting the table in place and hanging the exhibits, once we had finished it was time to take some pictures which you can see here... then once that was done we headed off for a much needed Cappuccino before heading home. I'll leave you with these pictures and tell you more about our Show 'n' Tell in my next post

Extreme left

Left side

The table with all the 'little' pieces on

Centre Back

Right Side

Extreme right

Oh almost forgot my Tuesday WIP, as I promised myself I sat in the conservatory in warm sunshine working on the Row Robin 

the view from the window

 LOOK I'm even hand quilting!

While I sat there enjoying myself this little beauty came to visit, I had put out some finely chopped cheese rind earlier and she just kept coming back for more so I grabbed the camera, pressed the shutter and hoped.

See you all soon!

L

DECISIONS! DECISIONS!

Today is a day for decisions, I was up early, the sun is shining and its feels like the time is ripe for this. I have finally decided on a date to Retire from teaching, now that's not too say I won't agree to help out at my groups etc but as far as organising courses/classes this is it!!! 

Which leads me to the 2nd decision made today. Some of you may remember last year I made a resolution to actually finish some of my UFO's  instead of starting new projects and I did actually finish 3 or 4 pieces. The (feeble) excuse for not doing more was that I was too busy with work related projects and doing mini workshops for various group etc and in part that was true. However yesterday, I went through the workroom and unless they are hiding in corners or behind the cupboards (and not including the Hexie projects I have 'inherited!) I have assembled ALL the UFO's in one place, this box contains the part made tops and smaller project, some of which are actually workshop samples.

This is the most complete project yet to be finished, this one was started in 2005! AND has actually appeared in not one but two exhibitions as a WIP so this I think has to be the first one I tackle.

A Row Robin with SVQ, I only joined in as there were not enough members interested to make it viable, however with a few late entries we made it to 7 girls willing to give it a go! The 'brief' was decided on by the participants thus; 2 rows 6" high, 2 x 8" high and 2 x 10" high, and had to include blocks/rows made using strips, triangles, paper piecing and applique with 2 rows free choice, Once the quilt tops were complete the originator would add borders if desired to complete the quilt top before quilting it. 

We chose our own colours, and supplied up to 1mtr of fabrics, (including sashing) everyone had to keep within the colour range chosen by the originator. We made our own first 10" row (which is the 3rd one from the top here, 'Farmer's Daughter' block from Joen Wolfren's book 'Any Block Any Size', and put it in a Shoe box, numbered labels were stuck on the boxes with only the organiser knowing which box belonged to who. 

We then swapped boxes at the monthly meetings by taking home a box we had not had before. After making a row we had to add it to the top or bottom of the piece in the box. Through out the whole process I kept a diary of thoughts etc, and I am so glad I did as now I can look back and see what was going on in my head as I tackled each row. Unfortunately there were only 6 rows but 7 of us so there was one quilt we each did not get to work on, this was a different top for each member, and due to some conflict one member dropped out meaning there was one quilt we did not see completed. Some of the completed quilts went on show at the next Exhibition.

Laura's Quilt. I made the top row

Maureen's quilt. This was the one I did not work on!

Anne's quilt I did the applique row at the bottom

So now it's lunchtime and I'm off to eat, then hopefully, I will get to sit in the conservatory and work on my quilt.

Happy Stitchin!

Lorraine.

what a week!

Well what a week!

Not much happened since my last post but I seem to have been busy and even achieved a few things. 

If you remember last Saturday saw me off to witness my Brother's confirmation, he was soo nervous but all went well, it was a lovely service (Easter Mass) and I really enjoyed it, I met his partner (properly) for the first time. He remembered his responses and received some cards and lovely gifts from his friends at the church, people are so kind.

 Over the long Easter week end, the weather was not too bad though we had much needed rain all day on Easter Monday. I wondered if  DD may pop over for a quick visit with her PIL so I decided to make a Victoria sponge, I have been making these almost weekly since we got married (37 years!) and usually they turn out fine but this one was to say the least 'miserable', as soon as I spooned the mixture into the tins I knew (I just knew!!!) something was wrong, then it hit me... I weighed the eggs as usual and then simply added fat sugar and flour in the wrong amounts :-O although it turned out edible it was very small - see what you think and Yes! go on have a good laugh - it's about 1"  thick and that's at the thickest point!!!!

I had a (another) tidy up in the work room and rearranged my desk, I was getting a 'crick' in the neck with the monitor in the corner so I switched things around a little, I put a printer at each end (Yes I have 2!! though I use one as a PSC) with the screen in the centre, hopefully this will be easier, I also took the opportunity to re-arrange the picture and tidy up the noticeboard which had been propped up against the wall, and now thanks to DH it's hanging up!

Before

 

 

After

Monday was Newsletter day for WPQ, I have been doing the newsletter for the group since November and its a job I enjoy, its good fun finding little pictures to go with the text. 

On Wednesday my WIP was some knitting and this continued on Thursday and during the Friday Night Sew In! I'm making another knitted chicken which I am going to sell, but this time I am going to make some knitted wings. I've finished one piece and I'm 1/2 way with the other so watch this space. 

I don't usually sell my work but I've been asked if I would sell 2 of the chickens I made for the SVQ workshop so I thought why not? Trouble is I haven't a clue what to charge, how do you work out what to charge- Suggestions anyone???

This week has seen 2 birthdays in our family first on 11th was Monty's 5th birthday, he had his own cake complete with candles and you can see a really cute picture of him over at my DD's blog (here) see post 11th April. The following day it was DD's turn, she was over for the day and it was nice to spoil her as we don't always see her on 'the day' we had already given her the 'big present', she had requested a wheelbarrow for their allotment so she went ahead and got a nice folding one and we paid :-)) (also on her blog 28th March post)) we also got her some gardening tools, plus when she arrived I handed over some Chocolate bars for her to enjoy later.

Wednesday sees the April Meeting of SVQ, this month we will be hearing about the work of Liz Brooke Ward (here) whose work is inspired by the texture of landscape and nature, then on Thursday some of the comittee (including yours truly) and members of SVQ will be once again setting up their display for the local Arts Festival (here)  something we have been involved in for several years and it's good publicity for the group. It's in the Town Hall a lovely old building right in the centre of the High Street that used to be local the Police station when I was a child. 

well that's about it for this time, I'll get some pictures from the exhibition for you for my next post so until then its goodbye from me!

Lorraine