Wimbledon Hats

Mother and I have been fortunate enough

to get tickets to Wimbledon this year.

Neither of us have ever been...

So we are both super excited!

I'm hoping the weather will be kind to us...

As I've made us both reversible sunhats!

Both hats can be worn with either the green

or the purple facing out

And both hats have brooches that

can be used any way you wear your hat

or on your raincoat lol

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...

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 ;)

A Start, A Finish and a Few 'Bits' Inbetween

The problem with blogging infrequently

is that when you do come to write about

your projects, you have too much to say...

So lots of (words and) photos in this post.

Recently a school friend passed away.

I've not seen her since school,

but thanks to connecting again through

social media I had a chance to catch up wth her

over the last few months... so I felt particularily sad

that she has passed leaving such a large hole

in all the lives she touched with her music

and her fighting spirit...

Her passing coincided with a week (or 2!)

of nothing seeming to go right.

Troubles with the longarm,

the opressivemess of my general clutter,

teething babies, sleepless nights,

the list goes on of many many small things

that I just couldn't control

or direct in a positive direction.

So what do you do when the world

weighs heavy on your shoulders?

Why, start a new quilt of course!!!

Mindless cutting and sewing IS the cure for all that ails you!

So a new Bonnie Hunter quilt it is:

Kate you'll know which one it is!!!

(especially as you are largely responsible

for reminding me of what a great quilt it is!!)

*****

And a finish:

Although I longarmed this top,

I didn't piece it.

It's a Kate special and I just love the colours and design.

Thanks Kate! Hope you like what I've done ;)

The panto was from Plum

(Thanks Plum!)

I think it's called Peacock Meander,

but to be 100% sure I'd have to go to the studio to check...

*****

Then here are the WIP'S

(works in Progress for the unquilty):

First borders are on my Purple and Green Oceans...

Outer borders to follow...

Nearly a 'cat-astrophe' here!!

The ground was so muddy

from all the recent rain we've had

and Abby decided it would be a nice place to

keep her paws dry

so the photo shoot ended rather promptly after this shot

of her walking the quilt top into the mud:

*****

I love Tonya's wonky letters

and I have her 'Word Play' book,

BUT I've never tried any until now.

Only thing is I didn't have the book next to me

when I tried these...

They're probably not wonky enough just yet.

*****

This little table runner is on the longarm...

Just to practise on...

There is only a tiny bit left to do,

but of course the bobbin ran out

just before the end.

(this was after I'd had a few tussles with the machine anyway

so a break was needed!

I'm sure now that I've had a little Longarm holiday

and 'sorted' most of the issues that

work will commence with vigour.)

*****

And finally, here's my house block with the sheep added.

I just freehand drew them and like how they turned out...

Hopefully no more additions before I quilt it!

Because I had thought of adding our cat...

*****

And a parting shot of all the seagulls on the fields.

they are grub-hunting after the fields have been sprayed.

*****

Phew! that was hard work,

I really will try not to leave it so long between posts,

but life does seem to get in the way lol.

Wordless Wednesday - Cat & House

When in Yorkshire...

We're almost halfway through May

and I've only just managed a blog post!

Teething babies and general life

including an attempt at the garden

in the most grim conditions

has been getting in the way...

Even though I don't blog about it,

I don't think a day goes by without a bit of sewing,

even if it's just thinking about it ;o)

I was about to quilt my house block,

but I just felt it was missing something...

something that made it mine...
A look out the window after taking the above photo

assured me that I was sewing in the right direction!:

*****

More to come...

because I have quilted another quilt,

dealt with longarm dilemmas

and started sewing for the school summer fair...