Home and away at Levens Quiltshow

On Friday I came home from various playgroups to clouds of dust all over the house. DH says it's not dust it's fumes from his Stihl saw.
I beg to differ...

It's dust LOL!

Saturday I had a wonderful bit of 'me' time. This is more an exception, than the rule, but a quilty friend and I managed a few hours at the Levens Quiltshow held at the Heaves Hotel. This is fairly local for me so I have no excuse but to go :-)

The quilts are displayed in the function room




and throughout several of the bedrooms


It's not a big show but there were 2 traders, a sales table, demonstators, a Quilter's Guild representaion and of course refreshments in the hotel.


Here my friend Vicky is demonstrating Robins.


It was a great day out. We did hit the sales table, BUT my purchases were so nominal that they're not worth showing :-)
(That's my story and I'm sticking to it LOL)

The pincushion has landed!

I signed up for a great swap hosted by Linda which involved making a secret pincushion for a mysterious person.
My partner has such a great name: Ginger Patches!
And Tammy a.k.a. Ginger Patches likes cats so it was obvious what kind of pincushion I should custom make for her...



On the back I sewed some 'Ginger Patches' too...



If you want to see it on her blog you better be quick because I believe her kitty really likes it too LOL

Are you receiving me!

Firstly, apologies if in the last few days (3 in fact!) you have expected an email from me or if you have left me a comment. I have diligently emailed replies and merrily sent them off into the World Wide Wastebasket!!! Turns out my yahoo! email was just not sending. I have been so frustrated. Finally after an email to yahoo!, clearing cookies, cache and my inbox it seems to be semi-operational again. I have signed up to google mail too just in case this carries on...

So, in the last few days, the only person who has received something from me has been Birgit...

I made her this fabric postcard to wish her luck for her Quiltfest in Schoenaich, Germany on the 26th of July. The theme for the day is fruit or vegetables. Birgit is a big tease and is concerned that we may not have any fresh vegetables here LOL


The big clearout has unearthed some good stuff :-) So I have upgraded my sewing bag for handquilting to this...


In its previous life it contained skin creams.
So it has been saved from the skip, but will my yahoo email be so lucky??!!!!

Please Sir, can I sew sometime soon?

Nothing doing I'm afraid... There was a clearout yesterday that got my eye all twitchy LOL. Joking aside, I was afraid to leave the house for fear that all our household goods would be thrown out :-( But actually it does look better for it and we just need to keep going.

So, no sewing to show except a great parcel I received from Sharon last week....



We had a little swap of African fabrics for rose fabrics. I have been collecting rose fabrics for my Hexagon quilt and enjoy swapping to collect them. I love these fabrics especially the yellow roses and don't know whether I can bear to chop the roses out of the great star background! I have a feeling this piece may become a bag! - thanks Sharon.


While carting another load up to the 'new' sewing space and wondering where the 'goodness-gracious-me' I'm going to put it, I spotted the family outside of my window...





More washing for me then...LOL

I have my orders!

Oh boy! I sure do!


I have not been blogging much and this situation won't be improving for a bit as 'I have been told!':
Quote:
This is the most cluttered house I've ever lived in and that's saying something as I'm not the tidiest person
Unquote!

So there you have it. I will be de-cluttering and why this sudden urge? Well, (happy dance here), I have been offered a treadle sewing machine and I have ALWAYS wanted one. I was visiting a friend and she had one in her hall. I was enchanted. She said they want to get rid of it when they get a 'proper' hall table and I can have it. I was so happy. Until I came home. Well, we have struck a compromise, I clear out and he means 'big-time' then I can have it (happy dance again!!)

So besides doing a few repairs for friends and family, I am no-sew, just tidy! (I guess this resolve will last til I've pressed publish on this post LOL)

I didn't have my camera with me and I guess even if I had I probably wouldn't have taken a photo and risked being taken for a nut so here's a photo of my commanding officer at our holiday house. And insert a horrible little hoarding wife behind him pushing him into the lagoon LOL

Juggling lots of balls (and bags)

No, I didn't run away with the gypsies LOL, but I have been doing a little bit of this and that and therefore not much of anything! In fact Mary asked the other day how many projects we have on the go at one time... Well this week (and last) I have...

Made my June BQL Bag Challenge...



What a learning experience - I broke in my darning foot and did a bit of machine quilting. What fun! I am so pleased to be doing the challenge as I am learning so much! I used the Dick & Jane fabric from Michael Miller that I bought a while back from Toni. I thought it was quite suitable for a 'teacher's' bag. i.e. I plan to give DS1's teacher's a gift at the end of the year so I thought I'd do them with this month's pattern. He has 2 teachers, so I also started a second bag...



Then I laid out DS1's dog quilt which I part cut about 2 year's ago!!!



It made handy leaders and enders for the bags as it needed dark thread. Lots to do still including more cutting...

When I sew with light thread, I use my Butterfly bonus blocks from the Butterfly Pineapple Blossom that I made for my DB & DSIL...



These are sewn together in '4's' and I've haven't really decided on the final layout yet.


When I don't feel like sitting at my machine I handquilt and am currently working on (my) BQL Ostrich challenge...
The front...



The back...



All the kit needed is carried around in this attractive bag LOL



When I'm out and about I sew on my rose hexagon quilt and all that kit is kept in this even more attractive bag (LOL!!!)



I have also made my pincushion for the Pincushion swap hosted by Linda (but I can't show it) and I have made a fabric postcard with a bit of machine quilting (again, I can't show it until it lands where it's supposed to...). And I have also been making cushions for a craft fair...

Phew!! Oh, and I also have 2 of these!!!



They keep me very busy and very happy!

The Amazing Travelling Quilt

Well not really, but at this time of year many travellers pass through our area on the A65 heading to and from the Appleby Horse Fair ...


This friendly traveller allowed me to take a few photos of my Berry crush flimsy on his wooden horse-drawn gypsy caravan known as a varda.



I have been waiting for just such an opportunity....



While being stuck behind them on the road, I kept thinking how great they'd look with quilts....



I'm sure many who are in a rush to be somewhere don't find this mode of transport attractive!



The tourists stopped to watch me take my photos LOL...




And back on the farm, DS1 just loves when our neighbour brings the tractor up to help us with the garden.

Secrets and Braais

In South Africa we don't barbeque - we 'braai'...



So come on over!

But don't forget to wash your hands!



As Ruth would say " there has been sewing". But it's a secret, so this is all I can show for now...


It was delivered today to Chris who is going to Longarm quilt it as soon as she can.


And I've laid my "Berry Crush" (a.k.a Bonnie's Orange Crush mystery quilt) out on the floor, but I've not had a chance to stitch it together yet...



I had better do that soon before certain small people walk all over it!

Old news, old quilt...

Well I'm yesterday's news LOL because today on Carol Doak's group there is a great new quilt pattern free to members to celebrate the second birthday of the Carol Doak’s Yahoo group.

So to celebrate all that is old, here's an 'old' quilt of mine...



Inspired by a little red heart block (and a postcard) that my great friend Birgit sent me in the mail many moons ago when I was living in London....



And so all sorts of hearts started being made, many were appliqued and many were paper-pieced. Birgit taught me to paper-piece and she even taught me to make QST's too. Thank you dear friend!

Here's the back...



The centre fabric was bought on the parade in Cape Town. When I was a girl, my Mom and I used to go to the Parade to buy fabric, not sure I'd risk going there now and I'm not even sure they still sell fabric there, but I remember it well.

On another note, I have finished step 5 of the Orange Crush Mystery quilt.



But I'm not sure they play nicely with step 4 so I'm waiting to see what happens next before I remake step4...



Wonder where I got my colour inspiration from for this mystery quilt...

I'm a cover girl!

I didn't win the fabric as I was the 4th to post my photo, but I'm the new cover girl on Carol Doak’s Yahoo! group!!



It was such a wonderful surprise this morning after being up all night with DS1 who was in agony with earache. (Thank goodness for doctors who are available for advice at 4.30 am!) - In the photo DS2 is looking to see what all the fuss is about.

I am delighted with such an honour! Carol said she loved the colors and that it was a great block. Well the great block is her design and the colours are those wonderful Amafu fabrics again so the only thing this workwoman can blame for not winning is that she is on daily digest and got the challenge message when the digest came out LOL.


DH was great when I was sewing with those FQ's dangling just within reach. I had said "just imagine I'm in London like I'm supposed to be" and he did although he did say "you don't need anymore fabric". No-one 'needs' more fabric, they just really want it LOL.

What I won't do for fabric!

Carol Doak's Block of the Month's come with some fantastic motivation! June's block had the offer of 60 FQ's for the first picture posted. Well after my dreadful day I was definitely incentivised!

I sewed like a woman possessed, my hands were shaking, my heart pounding. Just at the end my bobbin ran out! Oh no, new bobbin in, press flat, take photo...



A great block to make, one of my favourites so far, but is it a winner?