Halfterm project completed (well, the top anyway...)

I started this last week (it was half term), and spent 4 hours today sewing on the borders. It's from the Eleanor Burns book Quick trip Quilts and is made up from 24 fat quarters. It went together very quickly and painlessly, as all her patterns do, but once again I seem to have misread the dimensions. As you can see, it takes two people to hold it up (thanks Ann and Anne!!).

But there is no way that I can cram this through my domestic machine - well, I could, but it won't be a pleasant experience. So once the finances are a bit more secure (there was an emergency dentist trip last week which proved to be VERY expensive), it's going off to a long arm quilter. I had planned to give it to one of my siblings, but Mr Z&Z seems to think it's staying here. We'll see, once it's complete.

This is the wall hanging being done by Carole, as part of her City and Guilds course. I wish I was as artistic as she is - the flowers have been done with some sort of fabric paint (I don't know which because I wasn't listening properly...),

 

and today she was adding stitched detail:

She wasn't too keen on these pictures being taken, as she hasn't quite finished, but I love the detail that she's managed to create.

Her City and Guilds exhibition is taking place in Marple library from 3rd July to 10th July, in case you're in the area.

And Anne was making some elephants:

These were in Patchwork and Quilting magazine a few months ago, and it's a Lynne Edwards pattern.

It seemed quite contrary to be inside sewing on such a lovely day - but as ever, it's so nice to have a day off to just get on with a hobby......

Update

Once again I ended up spending far too much time at work, when I could have been at home, playing with fabric and ignoring the housework.

At the start of May my sister and her family came to visist, and as the weather was so glorious, we travelled to Castleton:

This is Winnats Pass.

Of course, when you go out with two lively children into the hills, it's compulsory to try to climb up as high as you can.  I'm not as fit as I was, or even as I should be, so only went a short way, but had a lovely view of the pass itself:

That teeny tiny dot is a car making its way along.  There were also a number of (very) keen cyclists out and about, huffing and puffing their way along.

As far as sewing goes, there's not been a great deal going on.  I went on a course to learn about freemotion quilting, and this is my attempt:

To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what to do with it once completed - there's a couple of glaring errors in it, and I'm not too keen on the colour  - it seemed a shame to use some of my favourite fabrics to practice on - so I bound it and have given it to the 5 year old daughter of a colleague to use with her dolls.

I attended a workshop run by Ineke Berlyn, making a bag out of a pair of jeans:

I didn't have enough material to make the bag the correct size, so had to scale it down a bit, but it's still ENORMOUS.  It was designed to be big enough to put a sewing machine in to take to classes (though I'm not too sure that I trust my sewing skills to carry that much weight!!).

I managed to get to Malvern quilt show, and saw this:

I bought the kit to make this two years ago at the NEC - but have never got round to doing it.  Seeing it 'in the flesh' has given me a kick to get on with it now.  I still love the colours, but I'm not sure about the appliqué - this one has been needle turned, and more of a Bond-a-Web kind of person. 

It had been long arm quilted in the USA, and I know that there's no way that I will be able to manage anything similar:

Kenilworth Castle and the Elizabethan Garden

Phew!  The weekend was jampacked - to say the least!

Enroute to the Cotswolds we visited Kenilworth Castle (it's about 10 minutes from junction 6 of the M42).  We had underestimated the effect of it being (a) halfterm and (b) the sunny weather - and so when we arrived at 11.30, it was to find that the carpark, and the overflow carpark, were completely full.  Luckily we managed to find somewhere to park in Kenilworth itself, about 10 minutes walk away.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting - but it wasn't something on this scale! This is the stable block (now housing an exhibition and the café).

Originally built in the 1120s, it was extensively remodelled by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in about 1570, in preparation for visits by Queen Elizabeth 1st (although Mr Z&Z, being Scottish, refers to the current Queen as being Elizabeth the 1st - it gets very confusing...), and then 'slighted' in 1650, during the Civil war (Parliament had ordered the destruction of all former Royalist strongholds).  Luckily for us, this slighting was minimal - the north side of the keep was destroyed, and various sections of the outer curtain wall.  Over the next few centuries, it was alowed to decay, but public interest in it increased after the publication of 'Kenilworth' by Sir Walter Scott in 1821.

It's now in the hands of English Heritage.

About the only bit that's left intact is this - Leicester's gatehouse, which was converted into a private house after 1650.

I loved the panelling in this room!

Lots and lots of stairs, and spaces to explore!

The sheer scale of the site was impressive.

However, I had also wanted to see the Elizabethan garden. 

Again, planted up for the visit of QE1, and then allowed to disappear, it's based on archaelogical investigation and a 16th century description by Robert Langahm, a minor official in Leicester's household, who was allowed to sneak in for a few hours while QE1 was out hunting.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed - I think that I may well have imagined that there would be a splendid array of foliage, forgetting that it was only replanted in 1975 (so not that long in gardening terms, I suppose), and I was also comforted by a sign saying that all the planting was done with a view to peaking in July, the month of QE1's 1575 visit, rather than planting for all round colour and interest.  All the plants would have been available in Elizabethan England.

Would I visit again?  Yes - although with a picnic (weather permitting).

Newark

At long last there seems to be some signs of life on the apple tree.  Ironically, this is on the tree that for the last two years has borne no fruit at all - perhaps this marks a change?

And then on to Newark yesterday, on a beautifully sunny spring day. 

There was a small market taking place, and with the blue sky, Newark seemed to have almost a continental air about it...

The castle was looking tempting:

but no time to visit today.  We'll be back there in about 6 weeks.

And today we leave for the Cotswolds, and grannie's birthday party.  95 this year, and so she's planned and organised an enormous gathering - there will be people there that I have never seen - distant cousins and remote relatives.  It will however be interesting to put faces to names, having been heard about them all my life.  We hope to visit Kenilworth Castle on the way - traffic and driving time permitting - and as long as this sunny weather holds.

Have a good weekend!

Cowardly lion ...

.. is probably what I am, not having posted for a long time. 

The reason?

I've been procrastinating about quilting the present for my grannie's birthday.

It's taken me about a week to gather up the courage to do it, and I'm still not pleased with it.  The free-motion quilting is somewhat erratic, and sewing through the top of my finger didn't help either.  Mind you, I was very impressed by Mr Z&Z, who rushed to my side when the accident happened - to make sure that the fabric was okay - he has been VERY well trained!! 

I think the fear comes from knowing that grannie, like my mother and my aunt, is a very talented needlewoman, and will be able to spot loopy stitches and uneven sewing at 100 paces.

So all I now have to do is to finish sewing the binding down and make a label - ready to hand over at the weekend. I've used a very lightweight wadding, to make it as portable as possible for her, but I've also added a hanging loop in case she wants to display it.  To be honest, I wasn't convinced about buying the more expensive wadding, but it really does drape beautifully and is so cosy and warm.  The one that I made for my mother some time ago and in which I used polyster wadding is a lot more rigid by contrast. All the other things that I've made have either left the family or are up in the loft, so I haven't been able to carry out a very scientific comparison!!

And as part of my procrastination, I also paper pieced this.  It's waiting for a border, or two, and then I'll quilt it up (and practice some more free-motion quilting on it).  It's the Princess and the Pea - the scene where the princess is able to feel the presence of a pea beneath a whole heap of mattresses, thereby proving how sensitive she is and therefore of royal blood.

Apologies if you have no interest at all in our new kitchen - but my mother and sister will - so here are the photos to show progress so far.  It's all now been replastered, and Mr Z&Z has painted the ceiling and the top 6 inches of the wall bright white.  The idea behind doing the top 6 inches or so is because once the cupboards are in place, it will be nearly impossible to paint behind them, right at the top of the wall.  I'm tempted to have the whole room white, as it's so dark in there - but as the units are ivory, I think they may end up looking dingy.

But then the units were delivered......

I had though that they were arriving in flatpacked - apparently not!

This is quite a daunting pile of boxes and bits and bobs.  It's so tempting to open some and have a look, but I feel that I need to restrain myself!

Has spring sprung?

Friday was the first day this year so far that has felt like spring. The sun was shining, and as I was pottering about the garden, getting despondent about just how much work needs to be done, it was heartening to see some shoots starting to come through. The sky was blue (although yesterday was a return to rain - but blue again today - hurrah!!) and there is an almost tangible sense of a new start.

Jenny is having a giveaway on her blog, about what the first signs of spring mean to you. It's hard to quantify - yesterday there was 'something in the air' and for the first time in a long while I wanted to get on with things / get weeding / get rid of the winter clutter / fling open the windows and let in the sun.

A day's sewing yesterday, then, and two quilt tops completed. To be fair, both had already been started, but they needed spring in the air to make me get the last few bits put into place - otherwise I knew that they would just sit about for an inordinate amount of time and that I would fall out of love with them.

I got the blocks done Sunday, whilst visiting my sister (who oversaw all block placements decisions),

to this, yesterday.

It's for Grannie's 95th birthday next month, and I've tried to incorporate as many photos of family as I can, but I've been thwarted by the inactivity of too many people. Suffice to say, my sister and I, and two (female) cousins have rustled up everything between us, and unfortunately a number of key players are missing - I just couldn't hang on any more waiting for digital pictures to get to me.

And this is the second top completed:

It's for a friend's daughter, and the colours are really lovely for this time of year. It's made from the Jelly Roll that I bought cheaply a few months ago, and to a pattern in Nicky Lintoft's book. It is truely much bigger that I thought it would be (I MUST learn to look at dimensions properly) - and the pattern calls for 3" borders as well. I fear that this quilt will actually be too big and heavy for a 4 year old - but then again, it should last her a LONG time.... I will probably leave this to one side for a short while, and speak to my friend to see what she thinks.

I also bought these fabrics:

to start making this quilt:

The range is Midnight, by Fabric Freedon, and the pattern, by Sally Ablett can be downloaded from their website.

This isn't my progress - I'm still cutting out - but I thought that it was nice to see a black and white quilt that is actually in grey instead - it's much softer on the eye.

Jo made this for her sister-in-law:

Today I had to go to a branch of a well known chain, to buy 1/4 metre of a fabric to bind a quilt, as I'm trying to finish off a number of UFOs, and after completing the transaction, I was asked whether I'd be interested in some remnants of fabric. Of course I said 'yes', dreading what they would produce, and how much it would be. To my amazement, an enormous plastic bag was pulled out, and after a bit of umming and ahhing - they suggested £10.

When I got home, I sorted it all out on the garden table, and this is what was in it:

Some of this is felt, and some is nylon - but the vast bulk of it is cotton - with the manufacturer's name on the selvedge - it's all Makower and Moda..... The smallest piece is about 1/4m, and the biggest is about 1/2m.

Included in the bag were several panels as well:

....maybe not my taste, but will make up into something useful - a bag? a cushion?,

two of these stocking panels, so I could either make 2 stockings, or 4, if I use a plain fabric for the back of each one,

and finally, an Advent Calendar panel!!

I recovered from the shock of this bargain by doing some pruning. Unfortunately, I was a little too enthusiatic in cutting back the honeysuckle - and now this archway has collapsed.....

Another one gone

I love magazines. I KNOW that books are better value, and that they are more improving for me - and if I'm honest, our house is bursting at the seams with books of all descriptions - but still, after a long day at work, sometimes a magazine is what you want to read. You know that the article will be about a page long, and that you will be able to cope with it, despite what fiffle-faffle has gone on during the day.

I am particularly susceptible to needlework etc magazines, especially those which have a real variety of projects, pitched at different levels. I keep them by my bed and flick through them while I'm pretending that yes, I really can stay awake a little longer.

Classic Stitches was one of my favourites. I say 'was', because I had an email today to say that it will be no more after the next issue.

What next, I wonder??