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)

Don't!

Don't ask your husband to take a photo of you

holding a quilt up in the wind.

He thought this was a good photo!

Now you know why I hang my quilts over the fence :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...

House Cleaning

I had a birthday...

.....one of many LOL.

 Besides eating lots of cake,

I was gifted this brilliant book:

I have already started thinking about the first one to make.

 ******

I have finished the applique on my house block

 And added borders...

Now to quilt it!

*****

A new quilt is on the machine,

so I'm just deciding on a pantograph to try...

*****

And 'Spring'

 (dare I say that word after our long winter!!)

always makes me feel like washing quilts.

The reds and greens

of the foundation pieced rose

in my rose hexagon quilt ran :(

I only noticed it after I put it on our bed,

but I washed it today

and most of the colour has come out -

Phew!!!!

*****

The greenhouse has been cleaned out

in anticipation of some seedling sowing...

 And the girls,

 And their lambs

are 'weeding' and tending the vegetable patch.

 We're all hoping for a good summer

and a bountiful harvest.

I'm also hoping for lots of sewing time!

First 2013 Finish: Rose Hexagon Quilt

I finished this quilt quite a few days ago,

but the weather wasn't playing ball

to get a good photo.

As I was impatient to finally get it into use

 I decided I'd just take a snow photo!

 So at last, my rose hexagon quilt

with an Ula Lenz Foundation-pieced Rose...

... and a scalloped border is finished!!

I will definitely scallop some edges again -

a lot of work and a jiggle to get it cut out,

but so so worth it I think!

 The backing was pieced from leftover rose fabrics

and a larger piece of fabric cut into strips...

 The strips actually run horizontally,

but as it's such a large quilt it was difficult

to get it to hang nicely over the fence...

There was quite a lot of powdery snow on the quilt

after the photos so I gave it a quick wash and tumble dry

and it came out all soft and snuggly and warm!

So it's on our bed and I love it!!

*****

The sheep ran off when I came to take my photos!

Funny how fluffy white sheep turn brown when there's snow ;)

Scallops!

I had pretty much talked myself out of scalloping the edges

of my rose hexagon quilt. I thought I'd lose some of the gorgeous quilting

that Chris had done... and I was thinking just to round the corners off,

but then last night I took a few plates from the kitchen and a pencil

and just decided to go for it....

It was trickier than I thought and I'm not sure 

it's been done 'correctly', but hopefully it will look ok

when the binding is on....

It was nice to find this embroidered block right next to the first side I cut -

it sort of spurred me on to finish this quilt

with as much effort as I have already put into it:

There was one hairy moment when I, in an attempt, to be brave,

told myself to 'just go for it!'.

Luckily I didn't at that point as the edges were folded over

and I would have had a big gap between scallops!!!

Of course I cut too much binding

and I was reminded how much I detest making bias binding!!

Both the cutting of it and the joining of it is the worst part!

I started to feel a bit ill as I was ironing the binding.

So I sat down and just pushed through because the studio

fire was on, the children were in bed and I didn't think 

I'd get a chance again to get this done.

I 'quickly' sewed the binding on
a king size scallop-edged quilt :)

Then I came into the house and was rather ill.

Yes, a tummy bug had hit our house!

Myself and the two boys were up ALL night

with sickness :(

But this will pass, the binding is on

and I can almost knock a quilt off my UFO list!