On Being Anonymous & Other Works in Progress

My mother sent me a really strange text message the other day...

something about my blog and that she loved me

even though I was anonymous.

So I phoned her up and asked her what she was on about.

She said her friend subscribes to a UK patchwork

magazine and had seen my blog as June's Blog of the month.

At first I was flattered, but then

she went on to say that I was anonymous

and had lots of pictures, but not many words

(makes me sound a bit simple lol).

Now I don't have a copy of the article in my hands

as our local village newsagent was sold out

(A fact the Editors of British Patchwork & Quilting

might be pleased to hear about

and which they can safely take as a hint

that I would appreciate a copy!!)

I am anonymous insofar as
I don't publish my address, bank details etc on the web

because there are, sadly, a lot of crazy... people out there

and this I know to be true and why I have comment moderation on...

But if you are a quilter

or someone wanting to ask something about sewing etc,

you only have to comment and I am more than happy to reply.

So in an attempt to prove that I am willing to be less anonymous,

I will show you the other photos

my darling husband took of me

and some of my quilts the other day....

Here I am with my Heart quilt:

Here I am with my Berry Crush quilt:

Here I am with my ancient Log Cabin quilt:

Here I am with my Cathedral Stars quilt:

Here I am with the back of my Cathedral Stars quilt:

Here I am with the back of my Rose Hexagon quilt:

But enough about me!!

 Here are my latest Works in Progress:

A new quilt on the Longarm.

The top was not made by me,
but by my friend Andrea....

 (I did add the blue borders though)

A Scrappy Trippy a la Bonnie Hunter

being laid out as it will be a picnic blanket

(made as a wedding gift) soon (I hope!)

 A simple table runner
 in Dutch fabrics from my friend Nicolette...

 Quilted with a panto called 'Wildflower'.

Although the binding has been cut,

this was quilted while I had a few techinical issues with the machine

involving a lot of reverse sewing!!

So I am not sure whether to make a table runner

or a nice quilted bag...

And my Criss-Cross Applesauce blocks:

If you have Bonnie's book for this pattern,

you'll know what comes next...

'Make 186 blocks.'

I think not! :)

Hope you've enjoyed seeing the 'real' me.

Although I think I could get used to this anonymous stuff

and may start wearing my sunglasses
all the time around the village lol

:o)

Oldies, but Goodies?

I know I start a lot of them,

but I also do finish a lot of quilts...

I really do!

I have been quilting since school,

which is sadly a long time ago now!!!

In the 1980's my Mother taught me

to English-Paper-Piece

and I was hooked!

Twenty-*cough*-some years later

and I still love Patchwork.

Now that I am a longarm-owner

I love Quilting too!

For those who read this ol' blog,

but don't know me (or my quilts),

I thought I'd do a little 'show and tell'

of the ones in operation in our house.

These don't include the children's quilts.

each child has at least 2 quilts that get

dragged around, used for dens

and generally snuggled up to.

These also don't include

the picnic blankets,

the wedding gift quilts, the baby gift quilts,

the charity quilts and the finished,

but not used or gifted quilts!

*****

A typical Yorkshire 'sunny' day

for my photo-shoot over the garden fence....

*****

Here are my rose hexagons...
When I was younger

my Mother had made a gorgeous scrappy hexagon quilt

and I used to spend hours(!)

lying on it looking for the rose prints.

I wanted to make mine with only rose prints

(although I do have some leaf prints

and some hand embroidered roses

that I embroidered on some plain cream fabrics,

but that;s just being picky LOL.)

And I added the Foundation-pieced rose

designed by Ula Lenz:

*****

In 2011 I travelled all the way

to Germany to see my friend Birgit

and meet Bonnie Hunter,
one of my favourite quilters

and the inspiration behind many many of my quilts!

She gave a workshop on Cathedral Stars

and this is my version:

*****

Many moons ago (the 1990's!) when I lived in Germany

and was learning to move on from English-Paper-Piecing

 and machine sew my patchwork quilts,

I did a Magda Goldbach course

learning to rotary cut and sew Log Cabins:

A lot of the fabrics in this quilt

are a bit suspect

and my tastes definitely changed after making this,

but I did enjoy learning a faster way to make a quilt!!

I did another Magda Goldbach course

while I lived in Germany: Lone Star

(um, well, that one is a UFO!

Not a WIP (Work in Progress),

no, siree, it's an 'Unfinished Object'

and probably will remain that way... forever?)

*****
Another German inspiration here...

I had moved to London (late 1990'S)

and Birgit sent me a card

which included the sewn centre block of this quilt.

Previous to this, if I recall correctly,

Birgit had sent me another card with a picture

of a quilt similar to this one.

I was inspired.

This is OUR wedding quilt ;)

because I sewed this together while 'dating' my husband....

The hearts are appliqued on cream

and then Birgit taught me how to sew

Half Square Triangles really quickly.

Thanks again Birgit for all your quilty help over the years

*****

On the right of this picture below
is a Bonnie Hunter mystery:

'Orange Crush' it's called,

although, I did mine in red so I called it 'Berry Crush'

as I am not a fan of orange!

*****

On the left of this photo below

is another Bonnie Hunter Mystery called 'Double Delight'.

This quilt spends a lot of time on our bed as it's my

favourite... a certain special furry person

spends a lot of time on this quilt on our bed too!

(She was probably wondering

what her quilt was doing on the fence!!)

*****

A quick photo of my studio:

And the house from the back:

(Our house is not skew, I was lying on the grass LOL)

And in the grass is still a trace of our sheep visitors...

and a LOT of buttercups!

So that's a bit about my quilts,

I guess my life too...

Scrap therapy

I was clearing my sewing space and decided to just finish some 'stuff' up before I start anything new (What?! You've heard that before??!!) Well anyway, my plan was going well as I had a few handbags cut out and almost ready so they were quick to think about :-)
But then suddenly a bag of scraps caught my eye...



I decided I couldn't throw them out. I'd make blocks, blocks are better that strips... and blocks became more blocks...


I made 52 or so of these very scrappy log cabins. They work out a 6" finished size. Not sure what I'll do with them yet...


But once I started I couldn't stop. Definite scrap therapy and fun to do :-)



On the homefront, I awoke this morning to a small child chatting away about something. When I opened my eyes he was colouring....



his legs, his hands, my bed sheet, my elbow...

Trying to get a little privacy here

When we added on the extension we lost a wall at the front door which made up a sort of internal porch and now not only can anyone who passes see right in (not that that happens too often luckily), but the sun likes to get a look in really early in the morning. It's not to be a permanent problem (hopefully) so in the meantime I have hung a little quilt. A friend of Birgit's called Beate Ade made this top and I bought it off her at Birgit's Annual Quiltfest a few years back. I came home, backed it and hand quilted it. It's a really interesting quilt as it's made up of allsorts! Some of the hearts are made up of cut up bits of knitting, velvet, dishcloths, leather/suede... you name it, you'll probably find it in this cute quilt.


Here's another shot of it hanging over our garden gate. I like this spot to photograph my quilts and while I was at it photographed my old log cabin too.



Here's a family portrait.

We went for a lovely evening walk (just down the driveway LOL, I am not a big walker!).

Could this be the answer?

I have often said how bad I am at Quilt maths and hoped that Quilt pro would be the answer for me. So I asked Hubby for it for Christmas. I got it in April for my birthday after being asked at least 15 times if I was really sure I wanted it... I really wanted it. I never seem to have much time to sit and try my hand at it, but tonight was the night and I am really impressed with it so far.

I want to make a Log Cabin in browns and creams and was going to cut strips tonight, but NO! for a change I was going to work out the pattern first (a real first!). One of my first quilts was a Log Cabin which I made while I lived in Germany. I had attended a one-day workshop/course held by Magda Goldbach and made my quilt in blues and pinks (a bit old-fashioned now, but I thought it was great at the time). I can't remember how many blocks we made in the day, but we had to finish the quilt at home. I remember sitting at my machine and working out how many blocks I needed so I went "6 x 4 = 20, ok so I need 'x' more". Later I laid them out. I was 4 short (obviously!) this was the first a series of ridiculous mathematical quilting errors.

So I put all the measurements in for a King size quilt x the size of the block (22 inches) which worked out at 5 x 5. I went wow, that's not much, I can make 2! But then I remembered that 5 x 5 is 25 not 10... what is wrong with me!!!
Anyway here's a picture of that 'old' first Log cabin and the fabrics for the new one just laid out, not stitched.