Rose-Stars: Over Halfway!

As I'm only planning

on making this quilt...

...single bed size...

...I think it's fair to say...

...that I am well over halfway!

(Rose-) Stars in My Eyes

I'm still sewing away at these
rose-star hexagon blocks...

And I'm trying to square up the sides

so I needed more halves...

I confess, with some blocks,

I just wing any colours together!

But they're still fun to do!

Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston

Wanting to do something with the children

before they go back to school next week (YAYY!!!)

I thought a trip to the Harris Museum & Art Gallery

would be a great day out...

And it was!

Lots of local history:

A beautiful building,

with lots of inspiration...

and loads for the kids to do:

A sweet ground floor cafe...

And an interesting display on Horrockses:

a very well known brand in the UK:

I would have loved to have spent more time

reading, but was distracted...

by the interactive bits for the boys to do...

Still lots to see...

and very interesting if you love textiles,...

colours,...

and the history of fabrics.

Upstairs was a special 'kids thing'

based on a painting by Thomas Webster

called 'A Tea Party'.

The boys made paper cakes...

Someone slept through it!

But because it is quite a way away

I decided to wake her up

(she can sleep in the car!!)

And let her join in the tots tea party!

She loved it!

 

So a great day out in Preston!

And 'Mummy-kalico' even slipped in

a quick visit to a fabric warehouse

on the way home!!!

Job done!

African Blocks Revisited! (And a little Giveaway!)

Another African Block for Kate!

The pattern is:

Two Colors Star.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly

because it was easier to use

my Easy Angle Ruler,

but it's a fun pattern.

 

 Making another block 

made me wonder

just how many African blocks

I had in total?...

LOTS!!

*****

 These are my favourites

(although, one I'm going to swap out

for another block that I want to try...)

Can you guess which one?

If you guess correctly,

I will send you an envelope with

some African fabric scraps.

Interested?

Just leave a comment

with the block number you think

eg. Top row, block 2...

And a way to contact you!

Be nice now,

because some blocks I made

and some blocks Kate made.. :)

 

Some of the other African blocks

I'm going to use for the back.

- I do love a pieced backing!

 

Wouldn't it be lovely to knock

this UFO off my list too!!

 

*****

Here's the quilty cat

catching some zzz's in my studio...

 She's still missing after my SIL

came to visit today with her dogs ;o)

But she'll be home soon

when she gets hungry!

 

*****

And here's my little hat/bag-maker...

it's just a really sweet, simple old machine

with no quarter inch or zipper foot,

but it does the trick for making hats etc.

 

*****

And here's a photo for Granny...

Somebody was VERY tired

and nearly fell asleep in her pasta!

Giveaway closed.
Nik was right it's
the second row from the bottom,
the last one :)
African Fabrics on their way shortly!

Giving my Longarmer Nightmares!

I am very lucky to have found

a lovely lady who offers

a longarm quilting service

very close to where my MIL lives.

This is handy for 2 reasons:

1) I can drop the kids off at 'Grandma'

while I pick up and drop off

quilts at Chris... and

2) 'Grandma' sometimes collects quilts

from Chris if I'm not passing for a bit.

 

Before I tell you the terrible thing

that I have done to Chris,

let me tell you about her new blog:

www.longarmchris.co.uk

which is as lovely as she is

(am I sounding a bit too smoochy here?

- I don't mean to. Chris really is great,

but my latest offering for her to quilt,

is well, it's um... well let's just say that

when I blogged about it in 2007,

I titled the post:

A Blast from the past a.k.a. the Mother of all UFO's)

 

Yes, I wanted to finish

the darn thing and I went seeking help,

advice, anything...

 

Well Chris, Bless her!!!

Helped me unbaste and unquilt

the monster and it's now waiting in line

for it's chance on her Gammil.

 

My oldest UFO may someday

be a useful quilty object!

Chris probably slept restlessly last night,

but I slept like a log!!!

 

Hat Therapy

My dear friend

starts Chemotherapy

on Tuesday...

She asked me to make her a hat

for when she loses her hair... :(

This is a very sad time,

BUT she's strong and she'll pull through

surrounded by all of us who love her!

And boy, do I love her!!!

My youngest son modelled

the hat I made for her:

Everyone needs a bit of leopard print

to cheer themselves up!

Hello Africa

Kate and I have traded African blocks

for a while now, although we have had

a few stops and starts...

When Kate came for her recent visit with her family

she brought me a new block:

And while we had a few spare minutes

together in the studio, I made us each an

African block too:

 

This pattern is called Ribbon Star.

*****

Kate had sent me these African blocks previously:

(which I had forgotten to blog)

I really do need to dig

all our African blocks out

and decide how to put them together!

*****

The studio needs a srious tidy up,
but it was great to share the space with a friend

*****

Kate also brought some quilt tops for Linus!

These will be passed on to be quilted and donated.

Thanks Kate!

So Behind...

My blog is stuck in traffic!

My mind is full of thoughts...

mainly concerned thoughts for a sick friend,

thoughts for a friend with a troubled marriage,

happy thoughts about my children...

So I am behind on many things.

*****

The summer comes and goes here

so we try and make the most of

any sun we can get...

Last week the children had a great day out

at a water park

and the handy thing about crutches

is that Mummy gets a seat

to sit and watch the children play! :)

*****

We had a lovely bloggy/quilty visitor

and her family to stay

which was a lot of fun.

The men got on like a house on fire,

the teenage visitors were fabulous with baby

and the boys played well together.

Here Kate and I are sewing

(Kate is doing Cross-stitch and I am EPP-ing)
at one of our picnics where the sun eluded us...

Both of us, were wrapped up under quilts,

while the men and boys climbed the Fells.

I managed to finish another rose-star...

And I have African blocks to show

(in another post!)

from Kate's visit.

*****

5 houseguests means a lot of shoes :)

(I have a shoe ban upstairs on the cream carpets

so the bottom of the stairs was a good place

to pile them up LOL)

Not that many considering there

were 9 shoe wearers in the house ;o)

*****

Now that things are back to normal here

we can spend time being silly again...

Wordless Wednesday

I don't want to be wordless,

I've got lots to say...

...but I have a lot on my plate...

some good, some not so good....

I'll blog soon.

Wordless Wednesday - Drawing of Abby