Bloggy Visit

This past weekend,

I had the joy of a bloggy friend to visit!

Such fun!

Kate and her son came to stay

and we had a great time.

The first day I subjected her to a Christmas market I was doing,

but she certainly made the day fly by!

It was the first time I've ever done a market

and had a decent coffee!!! - Thanks Kate.

 

The second day we managed a bit of sewing!

We decided we wanted to make a block

which could be made into a small Christmas wallhanging

and would remind us of the visit.

(The block pattern is Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses.)

 As Kate said...

Can you guess who's is who's? :)

If you know me,

you'll know it's the top one...

although we should probably have swapped

and made a block for each other. Next time!

 

Of course mine is not quilted (yet)

and shan't be for a while.

Harrogate 2012

What kind of quilter

goes to a quilt show without their camera

(or their money!!!) ????

Me! What a ... (fill in the blank LOL),

but yes, I was lucky enough to visit

The Great North Quilt Show

in Harrogate this weekend and only

when I got to the door did I realise I'd

left the essentials behind!

Never fear, I was with a friend

and a bag full of small change

and hidden notes!

 

Luckily, my phone takes ok pictures,

so these have all been snapped

on my little phone...

 

These photos are just a sample

of some things that took my eye:

 

I have been meaning to make

an alphabet quilt for years...

Maybe for the grandkids *sigh!*

Thought this one was nice and cheerful:

*****

These hexagons were too tiny!!!:

*****

Loved these houses:

*****

The idea of appliqueing a quirky border

over a traditional quilt intriqued me

(non-traditional colours though!!):

*****

The big picture I took of this quilt

didn't come out, but I loved the use of scraps:

*****

This 'Dear Jane' quilt was amazing!:

Longarm-quilted by Longarm Chris!

So bright and cheery!

 

And here are Longarm Chris's quilts!:

The quilting is spectacular!!

mmm, lovely!

Well-earned ribbons too!

 

And this is Chris's 'Urban Nine-Patch':

Also full of well-deserved ribbons!

 

Baby-Kalico was very well-behaved

considering the heat (! yes, it was warm!),

and the fact that Mummy kept stopping to look at

quilts and stalls!

*****

I thought this quilt was fun:

 

And this was a novel way

of putting your hexagons together

(again the bigger picture was terribly blurry!)

*****

Loved this quilt,

although these are not my colours at all!:

But nice and scrappy and very cute!

*****

And some patriotism was on display too:

*****

I just hapened to be there

when this quilt display came tumbling down!

A few people laughed at me taking a photo -

a bit mean of me, I know, but life's a blog LOL

*****

And I was delighted that finally

Mrs Welshquilter and I got to meet!

I was spoilt with this lovely embroidery!:

It's hanging over the fireplace!

Thank you so much Andrea!

 

*****

And I'll leave you with a shot of

my recent bake:

Victoria Sponge filled with red currant jam

that was made by a friend in the village

...yummm, there goes my diet!

Something Quilty - But not mine....

The lovely Kate has kindly sent me some quilts for Project Linus as well as this gorgeous 'Corn & Beans' top for Project Bedroom :-)

When I saw these Corn & Bean blocks and read that Kate wasn't sure what to do with them I unashamedly begged to make them into a dresser runner for our bedroom.

So the unpicking and quilting is on my 'To do list'.

The other 5 tops from Kate will go to my dear friend Vicky,

who co-ordinates quilts for our local Project Linus:

I wrote a post earlier about my aversion to yellow, BUT I love this top, it really sparkles!

These next 2 are lovely and bright and the pattern is so simple that my mind started going into scrap quilt overdrive LOL

Such a fun easy block...

LOVE the red setting triangles, but then I love anything red!

Thank you so much Kate! You are a very generous quilter!

(You can find a lot of Kate's block ideas and patterns on her blog!)

And an obligatory kitty photo of ol' four legs catching some shut eye :-)

It must be a hard life being a cat!

Just For Ria...

...you had an eye for colour and a style that I so admired and knew I could never achieve so when you were selling some quilts, we bought 2 knowing that we had acquired some really special things....

Every quilt was a journey for you and an adventure to the onlooker....


You were so good to my boys, giving each a quilt lie on...

and to learn to crawl on...


You gave me some orphans blocks and scraps which I have put together, but not completed...


I am too sad to do it now.
I shall miss you...

I hope your journey to the next place is kinder to you than the j0urney you have just had. Rest in peace dear Friend.

This, that and t'other

I have had limited computer access as I still have not had my computer fixed, nor have I bought a new one so I am behind on keeping up with little people joining their brother at school ...

(only in the nursery that is!)

And the weather turning colder..


I didn't even manage to blog that last weekend I was kindly given a place to do a Shibori dyeing workshop which I thoroughly enjoyed...

Ode to Vicki W: my attempt at hearts! :-)

Love this one: looks like a dental x-ray...



Then Thursday we had a flying visit from my wonderful brother.


What a treat!

Thanks Bro!!

And thanks for bringing zips and buttons from Mom!


I am always on the scrounge for zips and buttons ;-)

This week I also managed: 'A gift for a poorly person':


Our dear friend and neighbour is in hospital and we are thinking of him... (Come home soon!!)

In the meantime, I made him a bag to fill with hospital essentials like water, the newspaper, sweets...


And my dear friend Vicky gave me a super kitchen present. Gorgeous red spotty mugs in a gorgeous polka dot bag.


Thanks Vicky! I'm saving the mugs until we've had our first cup of tea out of them together. (The chillis are from a friend and I made 'chilli confusion' i.e. it was meant to be chilli jam, the ingredients are, according to her husband, chutney-ish, but it's more like a sauce. However, it is YUMMY!(even if I say so myself!)

None of my own work

I am not sure why I found Toni's UFO so fascinating!! But once I opened up her Orange Crush and worked out what bits were needed where, how much was left to do and what was missing etc etc. I just had to do it. It was like a puzzle that just had to be solved, an itch that needed to be scratched... I sewed and sewed until I could go no further. I emailed Toni about a few missing bits and in our emails I could tell Toni still really liked her Orange Crush... so I did what I could and yesterday I mailed it 'home'. Toni will have the last few missing bits to do and then hopefully it will no longer be one of her UFO's!!


At times while sewing on Toni's quilt, I remembered the companionship of sharing a craft, of working together, of being able to call a friend and say "come help me here please". When I lived in Germany, my good friend Birgit was a great sewing buddy. She would gladly be teaching me new things, cutting pieces while I sewed, working out patterns... I miss that.


My closest (in distance) sewing buddy needed some fish fabric. As neither of us could find any I painted her a trout instead.


I look forward to seeing what Vicky makes with it :-)

So, not much of my own to show... DH bought me roses for Valentines...


And I'm packing so I've not been up to too much else. Just a few more sleeps until we see the sun for more than a few hours a week!! I plan to soak up as many rays as possible! This is our last long holiday before we are governed by the school holidays so there may not be much sewing on this blog while I walk on the beach etc.

(ps I have made arrangements to deliver some Beertje Zonn for Sonnja to some special little children while I'm in South Africa and I hope that all goes well with that visit)