He takes Sugar !!!

I think I finally lost the plot yesterday, around mid afternoon I offered DH a nice cuppa, nothing difficult there I hear you say but..... Kettle on, cup, saucer & mug ready- T bag into cup- add 2 low cal sweeteners to cup Doh! they are supposed to be mine - extract T bag and sweeteners, add sweeteners to mug, return T bag to cup - pick up sugar bowl and put 2 spoons of sugar into mug (with sweeteners!!) tip sugar back into bowl and fish out sweeteners with spoon, put tea bag back into cup and pour on water, repeat with tea bag in mug. OK! finally got there, fish out teabag, add milk, stir and take through to conservatory and hand to DH - who takes a sip and Ugggh! no sugar - go back to kitchen for sugar. See what I mean? 

Later I decided to go and tidy up the workroom, thinking to sort out my scraps bag. Recently I have been sorting through it looking for pieces to use in a Hexagon project and have had to admit there are scraps in there that really are too small to use, NO I mean REALLY too small! Anyway I decide to sort the bits into piles that are graded thus, Large scraps - 3+", small scraps - less than 3", Fabric strips, Poly-cotton scraps and bits that really are  too small or simply not usable. The result of this is that now my scrap bag is a normal size carrier bag instead of a huge one! I am very pleased with the results and it was worth having to clear up the mess on the floor. 

So! whats been happening around here lately .. I went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC taking 'H' with me, we had a really good day, though later she said she found it all a bit overwhelming. I only took a few Photos as my camera decided to play up, but here are a couple of the better ones, sadly I did not buy a catalogue so I am unable to credit any of the makers by name except for the Bell Quilt made by Pippa Moss from over at 'Welsh Quilts' (HERE) it was made as a commemoration of the Bells from Christchurch Cathedral NZ which was so badly damaged by the earthquake in February, it was lovely to see the quilt and to meet Pippa personally as I had made a Bell block to go in it following an appeal on her blog. See

 

Bell Quilt By Pippa Moss

Miniature Whole cloth Quilt - Applique

 H had a try at long arm quilting and took to it like a 'duck to water', she tried 2 types of machine and I was very impressed by her efforts on both

Long arm quilter in the making

 The work of the Tent-makers of Cairo was stunning, we stood and watched this chap and I have never seen anyone sew so fast and so neatly, I explain a little about this type of work in my talk entitled 'A Trip Around the World' but this is the first time I have been able to watch them in action. The picture below shows a small selection of the items they had on show

Egyptian Tent maker at work

Egyptian Quilts

and last but by no means the least my personal favorite has to be this one.

'Meercats' - winner of class

Last Saturday was the August meeting of Clock Tower Quilters, we always have a Cream Tea at this meeting and this year was no different. We used the opportunity to hand over the Quilt made for Baby G, our newest and smallest member.You may remember I have been blogging about a 'secret group project' which I have been involved in. Well this was it, it all started with a meeting at my house about 4 months ago to plan the quilt, deciding on 'wonkey' Log Cabin blocks in bright colours, we all then went away and made the respective blocks plus an extra block to form a cushion as this was going to be a Quillo. Things got a bit hectic when G decided to put in an appearance 3 weeks early and we had to quickly organise an extra meeting to put it together (using QAYG) Pheww!  It was finished in time for the meeting so now all we had to do was hope that Laura and Baby G made it to the meeting, which they did here is a picture of Laura with the quilt

I have a hankering to do some small hand sewn projects and started working on a Hexagon project. I saw some super down-loadable hexagon sheets in several sizes ready to print and use over at 'Snippets and Blabbery' blog - (HERE). I have been working on them in the evenings for 2 weeks or so, I have tacked about 20 'sets'. The idea behind all of this is if (and it's still if) we are allowed to sew during the flight to the USA next month that's what I will be doing, I know you are not allowed to take scissors on board but I have asked the tour organizers if we are allowed to have a needle but am still awaiting the reply.
Here's a taster of what I've done so far using the tacking method seen on 'Sunshine Creations' Blog, (HERE) I used the aforementioned down-loadable 1/4" templates and hand tacked the fabric on

Tacked Sets

Ready for the off!

My trip is now only 3 weeks away, we fly to Boston on the 14th Sept. I am soooo excited and have been sorting out my luggage this week, yesterday I borrowed a case from Mum and stuffed (literally) all my travel  belongings into it then put it onto the bathroom scales and Whooo Hoo! it only weighs 10Kgs, we are allowed to take 23Kgs so that means I will have plenty loads of room to bring back my purchases IF I happen to do any shopping while visiting the quilt shops included on the tour Itinerary. I am taking three patterns with me and hope to get the fabrics for those, there's a project for my new Granddaughter, a pattern for a wall hanging which I brought back from Canada in 2006 and never got around to making and a small wall-hanging to be ready for Christmas. There is a 3 day sewing retreat at Lake Morey in the middle of the tour and we can take along our own projects to work on or choose one from the list supplied by the Quilting shop that will be there. Nothing took my fancy so I think I will be working on either the Canadian wall-hanging or the baby project (or maybe both).
Well I guess that's enough from me for this time so I'll be signing off, will try to drop by again soon
Regards
Lorraine