The Finishes

I rushed to finish my New York Beauty (NYB) wallhanging and so never got a chance to take any decent photos of it in its completed state:

I took a few close-ups of the hand quilting in the borders...

Sometimes I followed the patterns in the blocks...

Sometimes, I just went with what I thought suited the quilt...

And sometimes I just had to do a few circles...

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I have also finished the doll quilt. I gave in and quilted it 'Stitch In The Ditch' (SITD), BUT I drew lines that went all the way to the edges and through the solid squares so that the quilting made up a grid.

I enjoyed the quilting and am now pondering the baby quilt, more stitch in the ditch in a grid OR free-motion hearts?? We'll have to see :o)

A Trophy Finish

Today was the Annual Village Show and so I had been furiously hand quilting to finish my New York Beauty quilt. I wanted to enter it in the show and only just managed the last few stitches on the binding last night. But my efforts proved worth it as my quilt won a 'First' place in the Needlework section and a 'Best Exhibit in the Handicraft Section'. It was great to have a judge who appreciates patchwork and quilting as a lot of work has gone into this quilt.

(This is not a great photo, but I didn't have time to get any shots in any decent light as it has rained all day and it was only finished last night - perhaps a decent photo to follow this week.)

My first ever doll also won a 'First'. (I like this judge LOL):

And one of my bags also won a 'First'. (I REALLY really like this judge! LOL)

The children also did well with their exhibits and enjoyed receiving some prize money.

My eldest son was very proud of my trophy for: 'The Most points in the Handicraft Section' which made Mummy very happy indeed.

Quilting, Shopping & Crawling on the Floor

Last night I had a wonderful evening with my dear friend Vicky. We talked about quilts and stuff and then she got me on my hands and knees laying out a quilt for her. What fun! I just wish I had taken photos! I delivered some quilt tops to Vicky for Project Linus that were kindly donated by Kate (Thank you Kate!) and I saw Vicky's WIP's and latest fabric accrual from a new-to-me patchwork shop that is actually very close to where I live. I will have to check it out soon...

After crawling around on the floor and browsing through patchwork magazines, I sewed a few more stitches on my NYB quilt...

Thank you for all the input with how to quilt it.... In the end, I went with following the circles in the darker thread and now I am filling in the borders and gaps with circles...

I do sort of wish I had machine quilted it, but then I would not have had anything to do while on holiday :-)

Today my husband needed to collect something in North Wales very near a fabric shop that I had heard about from my lovely bloggy friend Andrea. (Apologies Andrea that we couldn't pop in to meet you, but by the time we got there it was like a 20 minute trolley dash! I could have spent more like 2 hours there!! Next time!!!) Well, it's an amazing place and the fabric selection was great. I felt it would be rude not to purchase something (ahem!)...

Although the colours are not true in the photo, they are great in real life and they will be very useful for backings as most are about 2 or 3 metre pieces! I am pleased as punch as they say! And now I can get my Cathedral Stars quilt top quilted. (DH even chose the fabric for the back of that one - the teal with spots, although I may go with the brown swirls - ssh!)

Setting off on our road trip, we were behind some travellers with their beautiful caravans...

Appelby Horse Fair is over now for this year so they are all making their way home.

I just wish it would stop raining so they could have a more pleasant homeward journey!!

Questions about Quilting

I am in the process of basting my New York Beauty quilt top...

So now I am in a quandry about whether to quilt it with Baptist Fans all going in one direction,

or fans going in the direction of the blocks....

or to quilt it in circles...

... and what thread?

I hope I decide soon or it will remain a UFO for a lot longer *sigh*

Wordless Wednesday

Of Pirates and Beauties

Here's the last of my New York Beauty's:
A2 (again)


These are the rejects. All a bit too small due to 'scaling' and not 'cropping' the printouts...

(So just one more for a cushion...)

I have no more of the patterns for this quilt. The BOM that I signed up for is sadly no more and I only have about half the blocks done. Unfortunately the lady organising the BOM has had some difficulties keeping up and her Yahoo! group has been closed before she released the other half of the blocks month by month (- bah humbug!!!). Apparently one could have purchased them previously, but I believe even that option is now untenable.

I'll have a little think how I'll arrange what blocks I have done, but I think I'll only make one or two more and move on to something else.... (no change there then LOL)

On a brighter note. Look what I got in the post today: A pirate parcel of precious patchwork pieces!



Thank you Toni! a.k.a. The Quilting Pirate for these lovely 'spare' blocks from her course with Bonnie Hunter. She also sent some great fabric, a memo pad, a pirate duck (which is apparently now DS1's!!), a pirate card and a cool pattern.

DS1 says the house with the skeletons is the best!

Last year at Halloween he borrowed a skeleton outfit for the day.

We went to 2 parties and still months later that's all he can talk about. Skeleton parties, skeleton outfits, skeletons, skeletons... (he is only 3!). I guess the search for a skeleton costume is on LOL.

The pattern of Toni's blocks is Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses, my all time favourite pattern and how I initially found Quiltville.com. I just have to make some myself sometime soon!!

Busy, busy, busy

On Friday I made another New York Beauty.
here is E4:


I started another A2, only this time I printed it out the right size! But on Saturday I thought I'd better make my step 2 of Bonnie's Orange Crush mystery quilt. I finished these split 4 patches on Sunday
they still need trimming etc. I had to do them the old fashioned way as I still haven't had a chance (or robbed a bank LOL) to buy the Easy Angle and now the Companion Angle rulers needed for this project.
The Quilting Pirate bought her ruler for $2.50 and then another for 97 cents!!!. I can't seem to find one in the UK for cheaper than around $18 including postage.

I also made DS1 a new schoolbag with a zip pouch in the front to carry his 'to and fro' book.
I used some shark fabric that Kate had sent me a while back.

The 'to and fro' book is a really sweet book that the teacher writes in to let us know what he gets up to at Nursery.

The back is also shark fabric that I bought from my friend Angela who has an Ebay shop.

DS1 loves sharks (hope he doesn't mind the rick-rack LOL)

And here's a lovely parcel from Nicolette.

We did a private fabric swap. Nicolette sent me rose fabric and I sent her some African fabrics. We were both pleased with this swap. I got sweets too mmm! And inspiration for another project.
Thanks Nicolette, these fabrics will go beautifully in my rose hexagon quilt...




On the side I have also been handquilting DS1's baby quilt. A lot overdue, but here it is.
Only two blocks and the borders still to go....

3 Steps forward. 1 Step back!

I've made some more progress on my New York Beauties.
Here is E3

And A3

BUT here is A2!!

When I printed it out I must have hit 'scale' instead of 'crop' on the printer! So it's too small. I'm sort of relieved as I wasn't crazy about the colour scheme...

But it is still so annoying as I've done this before! I now have 3 orphans from this project - I feel a cushion coming on LOL

New York (& German) Beauties

I have fallen behind on all my BOM's while being away. Because the New York Beauty goes together as a wallhanging I thought I'd better get cracking on catching up. Also there are 2 a month. I didn't do October before I left so that means I have something like 14 to do just to get back on target...

Here is C1

This is C5

This is E3 in progress..

But this is DH in progress!!!!

I feel the loss of my sewing 'space' is imminent so I better get my sewing skates on!

I have lots of handquilting waiting for me so I won't be idle while I have no access to my machine. In fact as Ruth handquilts her African quilt I get more and more driven to finish DS2's baby quilt. OK, I know he'll be 2 this year, but things got in the way..

Here he is!

I went to take the picture of the hole in the wall which is next to my sewing space and turned around and the little guy had found a place to play. He doesn't mind the mess (much).


My friend Birgit sent me an amazing birthday present today. Boy was I spoilt again!!!
A beautiful 'treasure' box covered in Batik fabrics:

plus a huge bundle of batik fabrics and more chocolate than I can eat in a night LOL.

Thank you so much Birgit! The fabrics also came with a pattern.

Also in the box was my Walburga. Each year Birgit hosts a Quiltfest in her shop in Germany. This year it's on the 26th of July (so if you're in the area do pop in). Each year Birgit also gives out a free pattern. Last year it was a paper-pieced flower by Ula Lenz for a charity quilt and the year before it was the Walburga pattern (also by Ula Lenz). (see her online shop under 'Kostet Nix!' for the patterns and conditions)

Anyway here's my Walburga:

Bit of a self portrait really especially with those hips LOL.

In the nick of time

I am doing two Block of the Months (BOM's). I've never done any before, but I'm really enjoying the fact that you only have to make one or sometimes two blocks in the month. Surely, I can find time to do that? LOL
Here is my September effort for the Quilterscornerclub New York Beauty BOM's (the top two).



The bottom two blocks are my June blocks that I have re-done as I had a 'happy accident' with the first two! At the time I couldn't get our printer to work and so I asked a friend of mine's DH to print them for me. He 'scaled' them instead of 'cropping' them and so they are a bit small. Never mind, I didn't really like the color scheme that much anyway (you can see the first 2 here)

Tractor-boy will draw a 100th post winner on Friday and ALL comments from that post will go in the draw so thank you all for the wishes.

August BOM

I have been doing the Quilterscornerclub
NYB (New York Beauty) BOM (Block of the Month).
These are August's...


... I will have to re-do the first two from June as our printer wasn't working at the time and my friend's husband kindly printed them out for me and 'scaled' instead of 'cropped' them. I think that was a happy accident as I prefer my present colour scheme to those first 2 NYB blocks.