One Word (or maybe a few)

Shingles, it sound like a nice word doesn't it? A bit like spring and Christmas rolled into one.
I think I'm a lot better than others who have had it but it is something I could do without....

Too late now, the die is cast.

I had planned to show you this with it all laid out before stitching. And to get your comments......

But it's too late now, I've stitched the first one.
I still might change that very dark green to a lighter one. It's not as dark as it appears in the photos but dark enough.

Procrastination is a waste of time

but how do you avoid it when you are unsure which route to go down?

I have got a few things done since my last post but not much. I delivered this quilt yesterday to the local quilt group. They pieced it, I marked rough lines for the spines of the feathers, then quilted it. I'm not sure what the plan for it is, maybe for a little raffle or to donate for a cause.

Remember those two skinny quilts I was working on? This is the back of one and I've decided to enter it into a show in the USA, I'll have to wait and see if it gets in or not.

I went to Farnham Maltings Sale and added this haul to my stash. 21 metres of plain white, 21 metres of the cream marble, 3 metres each of the orange and pink marbles, 2 of the red bandana and 6½ of the reproduction print. The threads were a massive bargain from Quilt Direct, I'm sure there were other bargains to be had but I wasn't up to fighting my way through the hoards.

I spent a day adding cotton lace and pretty fabric to our towels, I just wanted a more feminine look to the plain white. Don't think DH is drowning under pink and lace, he has two sets of towels of his own, one taupe and one bright red.

As much as I liked the poppy in the middle of these shapes, I couldn't bring myself to use a bonding method of applique on one of my quilts.  So today I tried this simple flower but even with toning the inside edge of the dark red, I'm not happy. I considered some sort of weaving of the various reds and greens but haven't gone down that route.

So I went back to the original drawing. I think adding these lobes in the middle of the motif could be the answer. I need to sleep on it (or in other words procrastinate some more....).

 I love it when the first tulips are in the shops. These are particularly lovely, pale on the outside and bright on the inside.

Rosie is being oddly still for photographs these days, but strangely her eyes look quite demonic in this one.

Aiming for perfection

I have been thinking a lot in the last year about comments people make about their quilting.

'My points don't match but I don't care'. The fact they have to say it out loud, means they do care (this is different from people who deliberately miss their points). So why not do them properly in the first place? It doesn't take any longer, it just takes care. Care when you are cutting, care with your seam allowances, care with your stitching when you come to a point. It might mean you have to pin on that point, and stitch just off the seam side of it, but you will end up with something to be proud of.

  It still might not be 100% but as near to perfect as possible. This means you are pleased with your work and not ashamed of it.

  I hate hearing quilters pull out their work and then just continue to run down what they have spent hours or time and good money making.

  Take classes and make sure when you do, you learn from the best. One class with an award winning quilter is worth a whole course with another. There is a reason they win awards, they take CARE with what they do. There are exceptions to this, people who have great skills in composition of their work, people who have a wonderful sense of colour etc. Make sure when you take classes with these people you take away with you the thing they are excellent at and not the other aspects of their work. When you go to a show learn to look carefully at the quilts, look for the good and the bad bits of each quilt. Learn to get your quilter's 'eye'.

Make 2011 the year that everything you make is something which makes you proud.

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.