Little Gems

Remember those little quilts I made for the Guild, they have some nice photos here
If you'd like to make one or more for the Quilters Guild of the British Isles you'll find all the information on the blog. They are aiming to have loads of the for the Festival of Quilts in August but they have to arrive sooner .
A bit of one of mine is the banner for this blog.

I love this

Remember when I started painting this water damaged bargain bed I got on Ebay?
Well, It's done and we're sleeping in it now. We feel like minor royalty. A couple of bits need touching up from assembling it, but I love it!

And now I know more about mattresses than anyone who doesn't work in the industry needs to know. Memory foam? been there, Latex, been there too, pocket springs, oh yes, synthetic fillings, wool fillings, combinations of all the above? Oh yes, I've tried and tested most. The mattress we've settled on cost an arm and a leg but worth every penny. Vi Spring is the crème de la crème and worth every single penny.

And this is the 'after' photo of the old dressing table. Very pretty now.

Before.....

Proper Photos

I invested in a proper photographic quilt frame from Procameras
It's the same as a normal frame photographers use for hanging their backgrounds but with a steel rail along the top rather than an aluminium one so it will take the extra weight of a quilt. The chap was extremely helpful, including the advice never to lend it out to other quilters........ 'nough said.
It has a slight wave across the bottom but it didn't come straight from the floor to the frame and had been left rolled and had somewhat 'collapsed on itself.

I'm pleased with the back except this Moda backing is showing some of the colours of the front through it. Perhaps a heavier batting or a synthetic one would have avoided this.

I want/need my bedroom back and some evil things

I found these evil things in one of the freezer drawers left over from Christmas. I should have just put them in the trash, but they just looked too good...
We've ordered a mattress for the bed but as it is made to order it will take a few weeks to arrive. Nonetheless Steph is coming tomorrow, we shall assemble the new bed and put the current one in store in the garage (does anyone except a few anally retentive males use their garage for cars?) We'll put the current mattress on the new bed even though it's a foot too small. I have two coats of primer on the black dressing table and just love this look. I have found a product, Zinsser, which you can paint on almost any surface without pre-priming, sealing or sanding. So if you find any furniture you think will look good with a coat of paint, then just slap this on first.

Early quilting in the most unexpected of places

Some years ago I bought an old dressing table to paint and haven't got round to it until now. It has little drawers line with this freemotion quilted fabric.
And lovely little handles for these drawers with pink birds on them


It will look good, I hope...
I truly wish I could send smells as well as visuals on these roses. Yet again the colour is not this pale pink but much deeper. (I tried with flash but then they turned out peach toned) I love the old fashioned English shape of half of them (there are two bunches here). I think Waitrose had got them in for Easter and they were reduced to less than a quarter of the price on Tuesday.

When someone gives up quilting

When someone gives up quilting there's quite a lot of stash to be rid of. Bit by bit my friend has been giving her books and fabrics to the local quilt group who make charity quilts and have small events to raise money for charities. I think yesterday I took away the last of her stash, two huge bags of fabrics, 3 large boxes of books and 3 large bats.
Idly I looked into one of the fabric bags, (luckily we don't share the same taste in fabric or my own stash would have grown) and I saw all the wonderful Japanese fabrics she had collected over the years. These are the very specialist ones which are woven on narrow looms. I have agreed with my friend to try and find a buyer for these and the money to go to charity. If you are interested, email me. Some bits are very small and some a few metres.

Blocked!

This morning I put it in the machine once again to wet it thoroughly.
Over at Pauline's house we laid a couple of sheets on the carpet and spread out the quilt. It's quite 'flexible' whilst wet. When it looked right, I measured the diagonals, they were just one inch off. So so little adjustment to get the diagonals even, all that's needed is a little lifting with a slight pull and then lowering again. I didn't pin it at the edges as it didn't need any strong stretching in any direction to make it square. I've left it in her closed room with a couple of fans on it to collect it on Monday when it should be dry.
If you click on it you should be able to see the quilting.

I love April

The apple blossom is out. It only opened today with the warm sunshine.
I just wish you could smell this heavenly viburnum.

The prehistoric looking ferns are raising their fronds. In a few weeks the soil will disappear under their canopies.

My sister gave me this small acer tree five years ago. It will reach a maximum size of about 15', at the moment it is about 7', over the season it turns a gentle green and then back to this sparkling cerise in autumn.

No quilting for you at the moment. Tomorrow is a Steph day and on Thursday I will be blocking the quilt.

In need of a lottery win

To buy one of these only I can wait until they do a version without the bells and whistles.

The nearest thing to a proper photo I will have for some time

Until I get this blocked is the closest I can get to a finished photo. I don't have ceilings high enough to hang it and my garage door is too low as well. I tumble dried it a little yesterday, I don't like to tumble too much as it takes some of the surface off the prints. I then laid it on top of another quilt to dry with a fan blowing on it. Very nearly dry when I needed the bed back to sleep on so it's now gently folded in the airing cupboard.

Phew!

Well the soaking worked, in fact it's worked so well it's removed most of the Pigma pen I used to mark the label... no problem, I can re-do this. Though in future I might stick to stitching my name.


And here's a better photo of my lovely Fliss with the dreamboat Zac Efron. A boy so pretty, I'd just love to be a teenager again.

Bu***r!!!!! Drama at Toad Hall.

So it came out of the washer and the newest Berol marks did NOT wash out!!!!!!
Put it through the washer three more times, still some residual marks!!!!!
It's on the latest marking I'd done so the ink in that last pen is dodgy. I've been using these pens for 15 years without problems (except once I had to wash a quilt twice but that had been lying around for a few years prior to finishing).
I left it in soak in the bath overnight and it seems OK at first inspection. I put it on a spin cycle and now it's on a rinse cycle as I write. I'm sure if I had used a biological cycle it would have come out first time but I don't want those enzymes eating the wool batting....
My lovely Fliss keeps stroking my arm to calm me down. She's been there, done that with a giant button she sculpted for her A level art piece. It was fine, she worked on it for weeks, it went through the first firing well and exploded on the higher temperature firing for the glaze. They still marked it well for her exam, however you can't put a quilt in a show with the quilting lines showing.....
Yikes!!

In the washing machine

Sorry I've not blogged for so long. I've been painting the bed for a few hours each morning, (still not finished), a bit of gardening and today I've finally put the finished quilt into the washing machine. It won't be blocked until my friend's floor is available for a day or two, but at least I shall be able to see it without the quilting marks showing.