Spring is here!

Applique and birds

Back to Esther's lovely BOM, I might have bitten off more than I can chew! I started preparing that circle with the vines going over and under, in short pieces but that started to get a little difficult.

 Plan B. I'm preparing each circle whole, and then will cut as and where necessary, or that's the plan anyway.

The birds came back but I could not get a photo as they wouldn't stay still. This afternoon they obliged to hang out in the crab apple tree for long enough for me to get a shot or two through the kitchen window. So many of you were right. They are wax wings and apparently they are here in numbers this year because the winter in Scandinavia has been so bad. They will leave soon, but it's been good to have such exotic creatures for a short while.

Wings of Love

I said I'd show it to you once it was backing from it's 'outing' to the AQS Lancaster show, no ribbons but those who saw it there liked it so all is good. I haven't received any judges feedback, not that I hold a lot of store by these but it's interesting to see what they have to say...

Any idea what these birds are

Not as big as woodpeckers and there were three of them, I could not see the colour as they were against the sky so just these picures and they are better than I could see with my eyes. I liked their crests.
EDIT
Found them here.

And More

I have been planning decor for the cottage for years and now I have started to buy stuff. I was undecided between the lovely Kate Forman linen above which is very expensive and the Lecien Durham collection below  from Japan

which is expensive in terms of quilt fabric but much cheaper than linen curtain fabric. I have ummed and ahhed for weeks. I had a plan that if I went for the Lecien I would interline the curtains to give them some oomph. Then I thought why not just make a pair of quilts to hang. They would be just as warm and have the advantage of being washable. Good idea but I still wasn't sure. Then the earthquake hit Japan, and my mind was made up. In a very small way (apart from the obvious of making a quilt, see previous post, or making a donation here if you are in the UK or here if elsewhere) buying Japanese fabric will help getting the country on it's feet.. So the two quilts shall be make out of the white floral bottom left with a wide border of the blue/grey floral and of course I couldn't stop there and bought a little of the others you see on the right... Heaven help my plastic. I bought the fabric from Kim at The Fat Quarters who was very helpful with my order which kept changing.
And THEN having hit the plastic so heavily, someone on Ebay had 4.2 meters of the lovely Kate Forman fabric, so I shall make a quilt for the bed with that and  as it's linen is will be more cat resistant than the fine cotton.

Exciting things in the post

Remember this feather I coloured years ago with Inktense? Great properties, you draw onto the fabric, gently wet it, the colour intensifies, then let it dry, then it is stable. (some of the colour are better than others)

Now they are doing Inktense in blocks (blocks might be a little exageration but much more pigment than in the pencils). I think this will make much easier for larger areas and to avoid the pencil lines.

George chose a different sink today.

Quilters, we can do this. Please note: Send date has been edited!

A PLEA FROM JAPAN FOR QUILTS

Naomi Ichikawa, editor of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin Magazine is asking for comfort quilts to be sent to Japan. She says:

It is still bad situation now in Japan.
We are still nervous about shaking and radiation,but no way to escape.

I start to announce to the quilters to send us comfort quilts for the
people who are suffered.I would like to do it to the world quilters.
We will deliver the comfort quilts to the people who are very difficult
situation.Could you please help to announce it to the quilters in your country?

We accept any size of quilts(baby to adult).new or unused.
The deadline would be the end of May or later.

★Send the quilts to:


（after the end of May）
Naomi Ichikawa
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
2-21-2,Yushima,Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo,Japan zip:113-0034

I will appreciate if you help me.

Naomi

It's been quite some time since I've blogged

I had one day since I last blog when I felt good, very good. It was only one day but it is lovely to know I'm still there below the pain.

I haven't got much done. I gave a talk to the lovely ladies at Region 6 of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles. Unfortunately, a price had to be paid even with resting totally the day before, it took it out of me and I will not be able to do it again. 

If you click on the picture of Esther's block you can see her mystery quilt I'm following. I thought I could manage with just these four fabrics which have 3 different ones in each but if you look at her blog you'll see blocks 2 and 3 are very complex and will need more than just these. Luckily I have loads of the 30's fabrics to use in the other one (I'm doing it twice, once in the 30's fabrics and once in the others) but I'll need to add for the other quilt. I've tried uploading this photo twice but it is still coming up sideways on.

So I've had to get out my reproduction stash

and these

and these

and these

Decisions, decisions. These pieces are all 2 metres (a little over 2 yards) or less. I haven't even looked at the fabrics I have in the yardage on the racking.

I slept for weeks and woke for short periods

But now I'm nearly but to normal or what passes for normal these days.

I kep thinking about doing an applique quilt, someting quite traditional but my own design. I did a lot of displacement pottering around the house, busy doing nothing.  Ideas wouldn't quite come.

Then Esther Aliu launched a BOM. After much umming and ahing I eventually bit the bullet and decided to trust her to come up with something I'd like. I still feel guilty for not doing something original to me but at least I'm doing something.

And insanely, I'm not just making one quilt, but two!

I'd seen people preparing applique shapes with starch and freezer paper and indeed have even tried it once before but this time I'm sold. I did make my freezer paper double thickness to give me extra stiffness to iron against and that helped a lot.

Whilst browsing the web I found someone using Magic Tape for positioning applique shapes for machine applique. Now this is wonderful, it doesn't move the piece one iota whilst positioning. Love it.