This past week has rushed by, so fast I don’t know whether I am coming or going.
I have been selling things on Ebay to try to make room. If you’d like to buy any embroidery yarns, patchwork and quilting items, knitting yarns, and games follow this link. (You may have to copy and paste.)
This past weekend we went back to Hatton Country World http://hattonworld.com/ for the Christmas Food Fayre. What can I say other than we’ll be okay for drink over the festivities!
We also called in to Wyndleys Garden Centre on the way home. They don’t have their own website (strange in this day and age) but here is a guide
It has certainly improved since our last visit some years ago, having a much better selection of gifts, Christmas items and of course plants, we will be going back to pick our yearly Christmas decorations. This is a family tradition, each member of the family gets to pick a new tree decoration every year, we now have a variety of different items on our trees! When we decorate for Christmas we have at least 6 trees in the house, this year I have managed to get agreement that we will be lighting the tree right outside our front door. Yeah! I bought the solar lights a couple of weeks ago. My neighbour already has her house decorated and lit up, she and I have had discussions on when we should put ours up, sadly my big son is a Grinch only wanting to talk about and be involved in celebrations from Christmas Eve until Boxing day (26th) Bah humbug! Our decorations will be going up on 30th Novemeber -son you have been warned!
This weeks quilt idea:- Overlap
This quilt can be made in two ways- flying geese or squares on-point.
The following information relates to the flying geese version.
The quilt layout:- Layout flying geese overlap which measures approx 72″ by 81″, of course by adding columns and/or rows the quilt can be made larger or remove them to make it smaller. Changing the size of the block will also achieve this. Fabric needs will change if any of the dimensions are altered.
Here is the information for the squares on-point version.
As can be seen the block is a simple 9 patch, it is the placement of the fabric colours and turning the block on-point that makes the pattern for this quilt.
This link gives an indication of the fabric colour placement to assist with the pattern creation:- Layout squares on-point overlap
And finally a square on-point version in various shades of one colour
This quilt measures 51″ by 63 1/2″ approx. The block measures 9″ as before but I have reduced the number of blocks from a layout of 6 across by 7 down to 4 across by 5 down.
This week little son has been off school for half term, so we have been out and about or watching films wrapped up in the warm, when the weather has been horrible.
On Tuesday we had a trip into Solihull to buy some Christmas presents – yes I know it’s a bit early but it is the only time we have to buy his fathers present without his dad being around.
On Wednesday we had a trip to Baddesley Clinton, which we have not visited before even though it is only down the road from where we live.
We also visited Hatton Country World before coming back to Baddesley Clinton. http://hattonworld.com/. Little son has grown out of wanting to visit the farm so just enjoyed the shops, especially the old fashioned sweet shop. He also got some more ideas for Christmas presents for his brother and sister! We will be going back in a couple of weeks for their Christmas craft fair.
So to this weeks quilt idea;- One Block, Secondary PatternsI know not a very good name but that describes what it is.
The Block
The Quilt
The above measures 54″ by 72″, obviously this can be made larger or smaller as required, with or without borders. The block size is 18″ so only 12 blocks are needed for this layout.
All I have to say this week is:- The weather is awful, wet, soggy, grey, miserable and depressing.
This weeks quilt idea:- Bring into focus This quilt again uses Art Gallery Fabrics from the Pure Elements range and two studio designer ranges Poetica and Floressence.
This quilt measures approximately 65.5″ by 82.5″
The quilt is made from two blocks a variation on each other.
Follow these link for Fabric Requirements:- Bring into focus Fabric Requirements in yards I have used Floressence FS-20021 Trellis Tulip for fabric 1; Poetica POE 801 Serenade Daylight for fabric 2, POE 808 Rhythmic Sky for fabric 3 and POE 803 Heartbeats Cool for fabric 5; and finally Pure Elements PE 433 Snow for fabric 4.
My Starry Nights package finally arrived from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. last week so I hope to be working on those this week along with finishing off other bits and pieces which will brighten my day, offering relief from this dreary weather, bring on the sunny, frosty clear days.
All is fairly quite in the house this week as little son is away in Germany on the return part of the student exchange. He has been to school with his partner and is staying in his house too. He has been taken bowling and to see the sights in Frankfurt but what else he has been up to is anyones guess, as I haven’t heard from in since Friday lunchtime, I hope he is having a great time and soaking up all things German.
I have finished the corset I was making for Halloween for my cousins daughter. It was posted last Monday so should have arrived in Utah by now, I am expecting photos of it being worn sometime soon. (hint hint) But to be going on with here is a photo taken on my design wall.
This photo does not do it justice. I really enjoyed making it apart from inserting the eyelets, there are 28 of them.
This weeks quilt idea. Urban Mod Lattice
So called because I have again used Art Gallery Fabrics this time from the range called Urban Mod
This quilt measures approximately 72″ square, the blocks are set on point, in a 4 by 4 grid. There are 3 different blocks, one being a plain square.
This week has been a week of harvesting the last few tomatoes and making chutney.
Big son has finally planted the daffodils we bought together last week, not many only about 200 in our small front garden. I won’t show any photos now as there is nothing to see but wait until next spring. He has also revamped this garden, moved plants and changed the lawn from an odd shaped rectangle to a circle, which to me seems to be getting smaller by the day – He assures me it isn’t.
Today’s roast dinner is in the oven along with a loaf of bread for sandwiches for everyone to take to work tomorrow.
This weeks quilt idea has been designed using Art Gallery Fabrics from their Elements range.
I have used PE – 440 Macchiatto, PE – 422 Chocolate, PE – 421 Honey and PE – 436 Creme de la Creme from their Pure Elements
GG – 8520 Dark Glitter from Living Elements and
LE – 209 Ebony from Lace Elements
I hope you like. All the usual info will follow the photos.
There is a definite chill to the air now here in the UK. Although the sun has been out all day today we have had a steady breeze, it has ensured the temperature has been held down. I did manage to take a few photos of the very last of the flowers before the rain starts again.
The dahlias are still in flower but come the first frost they will be gone.
My last three roses for this year.
My last strawberry!
The head of this sunflower is so heavy it has made the whole thing droop.
We do still have this one to come.
Still in full flower, as are
and so are the sedums
You know when you wake up sometimes there is a remembered thought whether it be from a dream or something else, well last night was very restless and when I woke all I kept seeing/remembering was this little devil…..
Obviously it wanted me to do something, but other than plant it out I could only think to try to recreate it in a quilt somehow. Here are my drawings……
The basic sketch, which then moved on to ……
which then became this ……
which got put into this quilt diagram…
Then I moved on to looking in the EQ7 block section for their rendition of a pansy, I found 2, one pieced and one a motif.
from these I came up with these……..
and this …….
I drew the bee, my little son chose the colours.
The bee…
This last one is this weeks quilt idea – The Pansy that kept me awake.
It measures 27″ square approximately and is ideal for a table topper. It needs fabric in the following amounts
Background – blue a 24.5″ square
yellow 3/8ths of a yard
pale mauve 1/8th yard
dark mauve 1/2 yard
black 1/8th yard
very pale beige 1/8th yard
The inner border cut from yellow need 2 pieces for the top and bottom 25.5 ” by 1″ and for the left and right 24.5″ by 1″. The outer border, in dark mauve for top and bottom 27.5″ by 1.5″ and the left and right 25.5″ by 1.5″
A piece of batting and a backing fabric, both 29″ square. Binding approx 130″ by 2.5″ wide.
Talking of table toppers, little son is off to Germany soon to stay with a family who’s son stayed with us in May. So, I thought I would send a present for his mother over with my son.
The pattern (yes I know I don’t usually follow commercial patterns but…) is from Patrick Lose’s website as part of his Party with Patrick scheme.
The close up….
This turned out to be a very, very quick project and I have not only finished this one but made (and finished) another ready for the Myton Hospice Christmas Fair.
This week I have also gone through my knitting yarns, gathering all the leftovers from projects and have found enough of one to make a cardigan, again as a gift so I don’t have to spend anymore money buying yarn at the moment. I did find some that will be sold very soon as I don’t need/like/want it anymore, that will happen soon when I can get DD to upload it to Ebay for me.
This weeks quilt idea Hidden Depths.This design is based on the fret work on the windows of many of the hotels in Singapore, as many of the buildings there seem to have a space around them between the exterior and the interior, presumably this is done to help with the heat. Very Art Deco ish.
This quilt measures approximately 60″ by 60″, of course, it could be made large with the addition of more blocks or adding borders. The fabric requirements would be need to be added to. This block would also make a great cushion cover by increasing the size of the block, adding borders and/or flanges. The black bars give the appearance of receding whilst the orange come forward, but it could just be my eyesight – I am writing this without my glasses on!
This could be done in any number of ways, for example using the patterned fabric as the background with fuseable bias tape for the bars, or by cutting and fusing, then stitching the patterned fabric to the white background fabric. There are of course other ways of doing applique work. I have had in mind fusing the patterned fabric to the background then stitching around each piece, this again throws up a number of ways to carry out the task, using a fuseable web to the entire back of each piece or add just a strip of web to the the centre, then making sure the edges are thoroughly stitched in place to prevent fraying; or just stitching around each shape slightly in from the edge to encourage fraying. Then of course there is the choice of which stitch to use – oh the possibilities.
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