Quilting - But Not as We Know It

I like when ideas fall into my head without thought or endless pondering. How I planned to quilt the hexie cushion cover came to me yesterday. It might not suit all, but I do feel it will suit the recipient - and it will hold the layers together which it is all about after all.

I think I will let the stitching do the talking for me. Easiest way.

I embroidered flowers, or parts of flowers, all around the charcoal border. I just went free hand and stitched what I wanted, only staying within the rainbow colour scheme.

For the hexagon part of the cushion I did one flower, on the really dark purple hexagon. The rest I am 'tying' down with three simple stitches, at the corners where three hexagons meet. I have a lot more of these to do still.

Besides being happy with this 'quilting', I am feeling really virtuous because I cleaned my oven today. That does not happen often. Thankless task. I cook. A lot. It just gets dirty again really quickly. But this time I have an ace up my sleeve. I purchased one of those Teflon coated oven liners. Next time round I should just be able to pull that thing out, clean it and shove it back in. Job done! Yes, I am more than capable of ignoring the racks and telling myself if the bottom is clean then all of it is clean. Really, perfection is highly overrated.

Susan

Grabbing the Opportunity

This morning was filled with playing at United Nations Peace Keeper. I'd like to say it was fun but, you know, it was mostly laying down some hard truths, telling them to suck it up and get on with it. Maybe if the real UN did this the results would be different. Who knows? Not sure if it made much of a difference here. One child growing up and having a big change in circumstances (secondary school) and the other not seems to cause a certain amount of friction. They have never spent a summer like this before.

But it is what it is. I called in the cavalry this afternoon. Emily's best friend was home from holidays and she was the balm to frayed nerves that all of us needed.

It also allowed me a brief respite to cut and sew a border for my hexie cushion. I trawled through the stash and cut lots of 2" square scraps to follow the hexie rainbow around the edge. The original intention was for the rest of the cushion to be Kona charcoal but I failed to take into consideration that I only had a 15" strip in my possession. So I worked around it.

And I am happy enough with the outcome. Wonder if the eventual recipient is too?

I've worked out what to do for the back - think simple! - and need to get on with that. Then I will finally be able to tick a box of something finally completed. I need a finish. I entered the summer with some weird notion that I was going to get lots done. Ha! Serves me right for thinking that my days would be spent sitting at the machine, dining room doors wide open and listening to the bucolic sounds of my children at play.

Well, at least Sprinkles and Slush provide a neutral meeting ground for the two of them. The rodents have a purpose. Woohoo!

Susan x

Introducing...

... Sprinkles and Slush.

Emily thought it most important that you got to know the latest members of our family. So she organised a photo shoot that she would like to share with you. She was also instrumental in making the mosaic so that you got a good feel the girls' new friends.

Sprinkles (Helen's) and Slush (Emily's) gerbils are now firmly ensconced in our home. I have nothing to do with them, other than cage transport when it involves stairs. The girls are responsible. I don't even feed them, the girls do in the morning. As they have only been here for two days I of course remain confident that there will be no change in this routine! Other than the water bottle leaking continuously the first night and trying to turn these nocturnal creatures into aquatic ones instead, there have been no problems. I have warned though, at no times do I ever, ever want to hear, 'But I don't know where there went!!!'

Humour me here, as I am trying very hard to be a tolerant mother and to keep my low level rantings about rodents to a mutter out of the girls' hearing. Tolerance I can do. Happy, happy aren't they sweet little things I most certainly cannot do.

And on to things that do make me happy. Fabric!! Oh, I just felt my mood lift with the very act of typing the word. I practised restraint on Saturday at the Festival of Quilts due to fund availability. The urge to just slap my card down repeatedly and buy every last thing that I wanted was incredibly hard to resist, but resist I did. here is what I got -

From the Eternal Maker we have -

I was quite surprised that faced with an assortment of wonderful coloured fabrics from the Pez line it was the grey that I was drawn to. The elephants are destined for a charm swap but I won't say which one (she says, humming innocently) because we are not supposed to have bought our fabric yet. The measuring tape fabric is just irresistible. I shall hoard it to use judiciously in pouches and the like.

From Backstitch we have -

Stash building colour. I need more good reds and purples. I have tons of blues and greens. Um, no self control here.

From Doughty's we have -

More stash builders. Doughty's are good for this as four out of five of these FQs only cost £1.75 each. I needed more oranges and the purple. Oh and the darker blue as most of mine are aqua. We are going to ignore the fact that I bought that one on the far end. (But it is a pretty shade and it didn't cost much.)

And from Pin It and Stitch I bought -

I would have loved to have bought so much more of Aneela's Cherry Christmas line but just having a FQ makes me rather happy. The other FQs are all stash builders, and in particular I am in love with the grey flowers. The ladies who run Pin It and Stitch - Natalie and Tracey - were brilliant, really friendly and lovely to talk to. They have the same taste in fabric as me so, quite frankly, I could have happily bought up their entire stock given half a chance. They also live on the Coventry side of Birmingham and are looking at organising some get togethers of like minded quilters. If you are anywhere within the area and would like to be on their contact list let them or me know. I rather like the idea of going on over and having a browse through their stock over cake, a cuppa and chat.

If that little haul is not enough, the fabulous Laura Jane gave me a bag of scraps and some Aurifil thread when I saw her. She gave me loads of Madrona Road scraps and, as I was already lusting after half the fabrics in the line, having these bits in person just makes me that more close to total addiction. They are amazing! Emily rather liked them herself. Thank you, Laura!!

Finally, I used my amazing tote bag from Nicky to haul my newly acquired stash items around for the day. I was so happy Nicky was with me because she got to hear every compliment I received for it that day and see what a covetable item it is. People drooled over it - literally.

Susan

Double Digits

My baby is ten. Not sure how that happened, but she is - and I am so proud of her.

I have had more fun going through the photos today, and getting all nostalgic. Sticking to ones taken on, or her birthdays, or involving birthday events was hard. So I will leave you with some of my favourite happy photos too.

Here's hoping Emily's next 10 years are as good as the first ten. Happy Birthday Emily!

Susan

Festival of Quilts 2012

It's late. I'm tired. But it doesn't matter. I had a brilliant day at the Festival of Quilts with Nicky. I arrived soon after opening, and there wasn't much left to the end of the day when I departed. Saw loads of friends. Incredible quilts. Lovely, lovely fabric. Can a day get much better than that?

Due to so much talking being accomplished during the day I am going to keep this post to a minimum of words for me. I shall show some photos and then collapse in a heap on this very warm summer's night.

Sorry, but some of the photos are less than perfect as I had to rely on my phone because I am such a numpty (a fact that has firmly been established over the past year). I put my camera on to charge last night but failed to turn the socket on at the wall so the first photo I went to take at the show my camera started flashing the low battery icon at me.

The people - (clockwise from top left) - Laura Jane, Nicky, Lucy, Nat, Trudi, Tula and Katy. Laura Jane introduced us to Tula because LJ knows all the cool people and Tula was cool, and lovely. Katy was loving her Sissix shirt. Seems they might be the in thing to wear at the retreat next summer. I also saw Deborah there and forgot to take a photo. I have been chatting to her online almost since the time I started blogging and last year she had my most favourite quilt in the show. I talked about it at the end of this post here.

The quilts - first up two of the quilts that Trudi had in the show and one that Hadley had on the Cotton Patch stand that she made using her Sissix. All three quilts were gorgeous!

Obviously there was a huge number of other quilts on show and I would be hard pressed to get photos of all the ones I loved so I have several mosaics showing some of my favourites or ones that just impressed me by the sheer skill involved in making them, whether they were in a style I prefer or not.

There were the miniatures. All of the quilts pictured below were teeny tiny. Some as small as about 6" square. Nicky and I reckon the one with the hexies used hexies that were no bigger than 1/4" each side. The detail in these quilts was astounding, and the patience it must have taken to make them beyond anything I possess.

The colour in some of the quilts bowled me over too. Fabulous! In particular I loved the one on the top left which was Hong Kong Reflections.

I also have a love of pictorial quilts and there were lots to catch my eye. I love the stone barn one!

One booth - I have no recollection of which one - had a divider curtain made out of wee little log cabin block cushions. It was like nothing I have ever seen before.

And I am always a sucker for seaside scenes so this quilt really appealed to me.

I am sure there is way more to show and tell, but that's all you are getting from me tonight. Nicky, Lucy and all the others are bound to have brilliant posts featuring better photos, and important details. My brain has crashed and burned and I think this is the best I can do.

Oh, I forgot to mention I bought some fabric. But it is almost 10:30pm and the you will have to wait until tomorrow so I can take some half decent photos. I am sure the suspense will have you up all night.

Susan

PS: And for those of you who want a good laugh. We got two new residents in this house today - of the rodent kind. I must introduce you to Slush and Sprinkles the gerbils real soon. When I can bring myself to get close enough to them to take a photo or two. Teach me to leave the decision to himself and then depart the house for the day!