Red & Green

If you asked me what my favourite colours to

quilt with I'd probably say red, purple, blue, brown...,

yet once again I am sewing in red and green!

I don't know how it happens...

I know I love Bonnie Hunter's Criss-Cross Applesauce quilt

from her book: 'Scraps & Shirttails II'

And I know my raddishes are doing nicely ;)

And there's lots of green in Yorkshire...

And lots of sheep!

So maybe I need to use some creams and neutrals 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!

Wordless Wednesday - "Boy Carrot"

;-D

Grow Your Own: Courgettes/Zucchinis

My job again this year has been the patio plants and I have not been doing a very good job, however against all odds a few courgettes are making their way to the dinner table...

The standard variety, left too long that it's almost a marrow...

The yellow variety that look almost anaemic :-(

And in other garden news:

Look what I found in the vegetable patch!! Yeuuughhh!

We have been regularly eating broccoli...

Our littlest man pulls and pulls and eventually a cauliflower comes out!

And my flowers are coming along nicely...

Love all the purple ones!

Grow Your Own: Cauliflowers

First Cauliflower....

He's only 4, but he loves getting involved which we love...

Very proud:

And it was delicious! Vegetables just do taste better home-grown!

And we now own a second-hand greenhouse too, thanks to wonderful friends who sold it to us on their way to a big adventure in another country!

Perhaps we will have some luck with tomatoes now - we are only trying 2 plants after last year's failed crop from 20!

Happy Growing and Sowing!!

Grow Your Own: Potatoes

It can be really difficult getting Mr 'I hate sunny days' outside, but today DH asked him to come and help dig up some early potatoes and he was really keen...

Getting your hands full of dirt in the search for spuds is clearly very satisfying...

He also ate so many potatoes at dinner because we kept reminding him that these were the ones he'd dug up!

DH ate the smallest one once I'd steamed them...

And they don't need any salt or butter, they are just so tasty.

Harvesting potatoes: A game the whole family can play :-D

Baby Showers

It stopped raining long enough today for me to take a quick snap of the baby quilt

that I made for my friend and his wife's little baby...

The baby quilt has a lilac backing with white flowers...

Hubby is hard at work in the garden and he has extended the veg patch rather dramatically...

Two more raised beds...

And the area beyond the Christmas tree has been planted up with potatoes and beans.

Just as well I am considering becoming a vegetarian LOL

Abby came to see, had a roll, a wash...

...and was then off across the garden like a lightning bolt!

Stitches (and Vegetables) in Ditches...

I guess from now on, no blog post will exist without my (lazy) quilty cat! :-D

Yesterday I discovered that my friend and his wife had had their baby on Sunday so the baby quilt top that has been sitting around waiting to be basted, quilted and bound needed doing a.s.a.p. With a spurt of energy, I ironed the backing, which I had with some foresight pre-washed last week, and pin basted the quilt. I only S.I.T.D.-ed, but hey, I prefer making tops to finishing them :-)

Then I sewed the binding on. I used this lovely purpley-pink batik I have had in my stash for a while. It's definitely time to use those fabrics I love or someone else will be when I am gone!!

I hope to get it done tonight and then I can move on to another deadline quilt. This one is the novelty or pink string one with a self-imposed deadline by me... I think I need deadlines LOL

On the weekend I finally cut into the charm pack that I won in the raffle when I visited Germany and the Black Forest Quilters. I had donated 2 prizes so was allowed as an exception and a non-member (although I would LOVE to be a member and fly over EVERY month for meetings!!) to buy a ticket.

I saw the pattern in 'Triangle Free Quilts' by Judy Hopkins (Great book!) and have sewed all the charms into these blocks so far.

Obviously (if you know me) I did not do it the same size and obviously (me again!) I am going to change it and add sashings in white similar to Kate's first Baby quilt in this post.

DH has been very industrious in the veg patch this year. I have been designated chief seed sower LOL.

This basically means that my job is to get seeds to seedlings, he then plants the seedlings or mini plants and then takes all the glory. Considering it's back breaking work digging bean trenches, I'll give him his well-deserved praise, although we're going 50/50 with the vegetables (especially the peas) LOL

Thoughts for Thursday

I am a bad blogger.

I still have no computer of my own after mine decided to die on me and I can't decide between getting my car fixed or a new computer, so at the moment I have done neither!!

I am also a bad quilter (it seems).
This past weekend was the Great North Quilt Show in Harrogate and I normally try to go most years if I can, but this year I just couldn't decide what to do. I was practically crippled by my chaos! My sewing room/space has been such a mess for so long that I decided no new fabric and no more inspiration until it gets sorted. So off to Ikea I went instead. I bought some groovy tressels for my sewing room and DH cut up a door and voila! I have a new smaller table. (We are working on the principle that if you have less horizontal space you have less mess LOL)
It is still in the process of being tidied, but it feels better already (probably just to me and not to anyone else's eye!!)

So in the interests of being a good quilter again, I picked up my Carolina Lily and have decided to crack on with the borders...


The photo below shows that I am indeed English-Paper-Piecing the entire quilt including borders:
Attaching borders has meant that I have had to cellotape large amounts of paper together...


Next I will need to cut the fabric and baste it on the papers. Then stitch the borders to the main body of quilt. Then applque the leaves and vines etc.... I may be a while :-)

The garden continues to feed us despite the most amazingly diverse weather which has included stormy nights and gusty days (where both portable greenhouses were sent flying. My poor cucumber plants needed repotting after their pots got smashed in a gale, but they are still bearing fruit regardless of the elements!)
DH has declared he is bored of the marrows/squashes so forgot to check them for a few days. I was delighted when I went to have a look myself:
A bumper crop of six!


I'm not sure they are the most interesting vegetables to eat, but they are prolific! LOL