Its Spring AGAIN !!!!

Hiya AllWhen it's spring again I'll bring again, Tra la la la la la la!!!!!
That's how I'm feeling this week all fired up and ready to go! The BIG HUGE tidy up worked and I'm sewing again, here are the pictures to prove it...

What a difference!

It's been a busy month so far, this is what I have been up to; I attended the W.W.D Prayer service with my Mum, went to a sewing afternoon and a sewing day both with SVQ, Attended a Family History meeting, (I'm researching our 'trees'), attended 2 committee meetings, went to Clock Tower, Severn Valley & Westbury Park Quilters Meetings, taught the last Q.A.Y.G. session, and took my Mum to an appointment. Pheww!!! Oh! and the whole family came over for the day last Sunday.

I really enjoyed the Regional day on 5th organized by Region 5 of the Quilters Guild. Judi Mendelssohn is a brilliant speaker and had us all in stitches with her talk on why she is not a championship quilter, then after lunch she took a workshop making 3D flowers, no mean feat with around 80+ ladies in the room (don't think I've ever seen that many at our Region day before!) I chose to make a tulip and it's now in pride of place on the dresser downstairs. If I can get the florist's tape I need to cover the canes I plan to make some more.

The region 5 quilts made for the Aldwark Gallery,York were also on display and were superb. The one I worked on was made by 5 members of  Westbury Park Quilters, one of the groups I belong to.

Left side

Right Side

This is ours with my piece at the bottom.

Don't they look great? The theme was stitching through time and I volunteered to make a Crazy Victorian sample which you can see at the bottom. I didn't take much notice during the making of it, but apparently I managed to use 27 different fabrics before embellishing it with hand embroidery and bits & pieces found in my stash. I  used several traditional methods such as Celtic Knot, Shadow Patchwork and Boutis as the centre of each square, (there were 3) I kept a photo log of the process I used and will post these on my next blog.

If I had known in the beginning that it was to go on display in the Gallery I'm not sure I would have agreed so quickly but all in all I enjoyed the challenge and this could be my 15 minutes of fame!:-) LOL



At Severn Valley this month we had a great speaker namely Anne Rippin, she is a senior lecturer in the Department of Management at the University of Bristol (www.annjrippin.wordpress.com) She talks about how she uses her quilting skills to illustrate lectures regarding business corporations and the methods used for marketing, a fascinating subject, check out her blog to see some of her work and also a page about her visit to us (fame at last!!)

The start of this blog was a celebration of spring and our garden is in full bloom, with tulips, Primroses and Polyanthus. Earlier this week DH had to take out a tree which has been growing on the rockery/waterfall above the pond for probably 20 years, it was well and truly past it's sell by date, quite rotten and had to go. I thought the Rockery/ pond would look bare without it but I am warming to it as we can now see a very pretty shrub that was hidden behind it. Its going to be an ongoing project as the waterfall is leaking water somewhere and the water levels will drop, but, by the summer it should look fine, there are other plants such as a huge fern to come up which will cover some of it. Here are some spring flowers to cheer you up.

 Then today I was moochin' about (as you do) in the garden and I found this sweet little Fritillaria (hope that's spelt right?) don't have a clue where it came from as we had not planted it there, the birds can't have dropped a seed as they grow from bulbs (I think!) but anyway we'll continue to enjoy it while it lasts.

Anyway! after the tidy up I am sewing again,:-)))) did I mention a workshop at Severn Valley quilters last year No? well it was the launch of our Group Charity project, making lap quilts for an Elderly Person's Home. We used a 'round robin' method making Crazy Log Cabin blocks which was great fun, then the ladies went on making blocks at home. I decided we needed a few more and set too, in just under a week I made about 80 61/2" blocks. Now they just need putting together which the members will help to do at the next Saturday sewing day.

String pieced centre squares

Piles of blocks (20 in each pile)

 Well that's about the longest blog ever, so as it's tea time I'll go and have my tea. Don't know what I'm having yet but something will 'occur' when I get to the kitchen. Before I go I must thank the people who have left comments on my blog. I knew about my followers but I have only just found the comments and was sooo happy to know you are out there reading what I write. Isn't it great to be part of 'Bloggland'? :-))))))
Byeeee for now!
Lorraine