Tuesday 29 May 2012

1st Block

Received my first block today! I was so excited to get the mail. Thank you Jackie it is beautiful. You followed the instructions perfectly. Sorry it was so confusing for everyone!! Can't wait for the others to trickle in. I'm sure they will all be amazing.

Saturday 26 May 2012

My holiday begins

I am now on leave until the 6th June, yipeeee. Mark, Alfie and I are going to stay on Bryher, Isles of Scilly on Monday and we come back on Friday, we then get the weekend, with a double bank holiday in commemoration of the Queens Diamond Jubilee. I will take my second baby quilt to work on, but am not sure if I will have the luxury of sewing time, I will do my best to make some. I am still trying to master how to up load photographs, I am going to try and work that out tomorrow. We are enjoying some fantastic summer weather at the moment. I am convinced the Olymic torch has bought it, as we have had wonderful weather since it started it's journey in Cornwall last weekend. I hope to get Jenny's block made tomorrow, along with cutting some more strips for my knitted rug. Hope everybody else is have a good weekend? Best wishes Wendy

Friday 25 May 2012

It's the weekend!!!

Hi all

The one thing I love about working full time is the appreciation you get on a Friday at 5pm when you know you have two whole days to do what you like, go to bed when you like and get up when you like!  Last night I had some friends for dinner. I was going to make it a French night but, as a friend who is staying for a month on her move back from Ningbo, China to Canberra, Australia, arrived mid-week my plans for making a French Chocolate Tart after work on Wednesday (the pastry and case) and on Thursday (the filling) went out of the window due to a couple of glasses of wine and chatting non-stop catching up on her last year of being away, it didn't happen.  So, what to make that is quick and easy?? I settled on Affrogato's. So with that in mind I decided to make it an Italian night. Ann was a star and made/prepared a good deal of the meal during the day so by the time I got home there was little to do. All in all it was a very nice evening and makes me think I should entertain more often.

This morning it is beautiful outside, blue sky, sunshine but a nice crisp air, as we are in autumn/winter. I am going to sit on the balcony for a bit with my book and a coffee but then I am going to tackle Jenny's block as I want to mail it to her on Monday.  I have also finished three UFOs recently, so have three more quilts to put on my ladder. Now, I just have my Round the World Quilting Bee quilt to finish which I will work on this weekend then I can start my guest room quilt and the one for my room with the fabrics that Jackie and Joanne helped me pick out.

Jackie, I was telling Ann about your heart quilt, have you assembled the top yet? I am dying to see it all put together.

Have  a lovely weekend all of you.

Susan x

Tuesday 22 May 2012

The log cabin fabric has arrived and although the sun is shining in Painswick(at last!!) I am itching to start. BUT before  I wield the rotary cutter can you confirm that all strips are cut 2 inches wide and the centre square is left at 3.5 inches? ,finished size will be 12"?

Sorry to ask but I am a whimp!!!

Olympic torch passes through tomorrow.

Friday 18 May 2012

Jenny's Block

Today I also received Jenny's fabrics.  I just looked at the instruction and the fabrics (which I like very much, by the way) but I  have a question. The instruction say that the centre square should be 2.5 by 2.5 inches. On the other hand Jenny wrote that she's accurately cut the centre square which  measures 3.5 inches. Should we cut it back to 2.5 inches (or 3 inches including seam allowance). Please advice.

I hope everybody has a nice weekend to look forward to.
Cheers
Vreni

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Try try try and try again!!!

Hi All. New fabric arrived today and I am keen to get started but first...
I have to confess that the red heart square nearly had me beaten. I decided to do something different and finally tonight on my 4th attempt ...It Worked!!!!  I am so sorry to hold you up Jackie but I really was determined to keep on trying until I got there. I will post tomorrow or the next day if it needs longer to dry! Lovely meeting you. Nice to put a face to a name I hear often! We will all have to meet in the middle one day with our quilts!!

May's Block

Hi Jenny

Your parcel arrived today. The fabrics are gorgeous! I am looking forward to making your block this weekend.

Susan

Sunday 13 May 2012

Monday morning again....

Why do Monday mornings come round so quickly??? I just want one more day of stitching to finish a border.

Yesterday was Mother's Day in NZ so I decided no cleaning, no popping into work for a few hours and no cooking or baking, just a day of doing what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, this meant I had to fit all those other things into Saturday, but it was worth it.

Apart from a quick visit to a local bakery for baguettes, caneles, French chocolate tart and some pastries I spent the day stitching and watching Audrey Hepburn movies! It was wonderful! Jason intermittently made me coffees and cups of tea to go with my bakery treats to keep me going.  My goal was to get on the home run with a border on my circles quilt. I am nearly there, hopefully next weekend I will be able to finish it. I have three projects to finish before I can carry on with my quilting bee quilt. One is completely finished, another just needs the last two sides of binding finished, which I plan to do this week, then there is just the circles one left. So I have set myself the goal of end of May to finish the lot.

I had a lovely chat with Wendy last night on Skype and saw one of the lovely baby quilts she is making for her work colleagues. Lucky people having Wendy as a friend. I then had a chat with my Mum and she was planning on doing some gardening as it was a beautiful day in Cornwall then making some more crochet blocks for a blanket she is making for my niece. Mum has two Mother's Days each year, the English one with my brother and sister and then the NZ one with me and as Dad went out fishing all day she also got to do whatever she wanted for the day. Although I have to say Dad has been helping Mum out with some of her patterns and threading the machine when she gets stuck as he is really good with his hands and making things... if he really gets into it we may see another Kaffe Fassett??? Ha Ha Ha, my son would have plenty to say about that if he catches Pop helping Nana with her quilting!

On that note, I better get moving and off to work.

Have a good week all of you.
Susan x

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Back from New Zealand

I had a great time in New Zealand with Joanne and Susan but it went all too quickly.  I have attached some photos that I wanted to share with you. Jackie



A quilting bee at Susan's...




A fun quilt shop in Auckland...



Joanne makes some funky fabric slippers....



Leftover lamb roast for lunch, yum.....



Monday 7 May 2012

New Log Cabin Block

Finally got everything in the mail today! I decided to try to make this block so I could see if it was too confusing. I don't think the block itself is hard but my instructions might be the confusing part! I really didn't want each block to end with the same colors so I changed up the instructions and split up who I sent it to. Good luck!

Wednesday 2 May 2012

I finally have two blocks to show you. The "blue" in the second one really isn't blue -- more of a green.

In other news I am horribly slow getting my fabric off to all of you. I have decided on a scrappy log cabin block. It's really hard trying to figure out how much fabric to send each of you so I finally decided I would make the block. Due to my machine and flu bugs I am just getting to the project. I promise to get the fabric in the mail by the end of this week!! Thanks for your patience!