I love the quilting process

I find it easier (and faster) to freemotion quilt straight lines. It really doesn't matter if you stray off the line an eighth of an inch or so as once the marks are washed out, they look fine.

Then a little feathering is even faster.

Going round each little bit of applique takes time and patience.

 

For my hand work right now, I am appliqueing stems, loads of them...

Twenty seven years ago today, after 47 hours of labour and multiple miscarriages and different fertility treatments and IVF, Felicity Hope Bramald made me a mother. Happy Birthday Fliss!

This montage is her life up to 18 years old.

Not the Splendid Sampler

I have gone so far off route, I am not even vaguely pretending to be doing it now....

I might even abandon the one which was from the Splendid Sampler, just so I can call it all my own.

I had planned to get a longarmer to baste my Di Ford Mystery Quilt for me, but she didn't have any water soluble thread and said it would take 10-12 days for it to arrive so I pin basted it myself.

I centred the backing fabric on the table. I then placed the cotton batt folded in half on the same centre line, then opened it out. Here you can see how I did it with the wool batt which is going on top of the cotton one. My kitchen table is 6 foot by 3 foot but this system would work equally well on a smaller table. However I would love a table with straight uncomplicated edges to grip onto.

This is my selection of clips and other devices. The small black one just is too small. The larger black one nearly does the job but has a habbit of springing itself off the table and scaring me silly. The cream coloured one is designed to hold an outdoor table cloth in place. It sort of works but it's grip isn't very strong. The big pink one is a clip made to hold a drink on the edge of a desk. It is just not strong enough. The big bulldog clip is the best of a bad lot. It grips the table but only on the edge of the molding.

The frame under the table limits what will work.

But it is done and it took me and my fibromyalgia hours and hours. My shoulders and neck were in agony.

I love the fabric I have chosen for the back of the quilt.

Got some things done....

My Quiltmania Mystery quilt designed by Di Ford is ready for me to mark the quilting. I inserted 3 extra borders to get it up to a useable size for me. (I don't have wall space for a 63" square quilt and my toes would stick out the bottom if I used it on the sofa).

And I used most to the width of the stripe for the last red border. I love how this has turned out. I shall quilt it with a double layer of batting. Cotton on the bottom and a layer of wool on top.

I perhaps should change the name of my Splendid Sampler, to Not the Splendid Sampler as I have only done one block as given.
This weeks one was pieced and I saw a star in it as the most dominant element so I just did that with a circle in the centre to soften it somewhat.

There was one with a naive vase of flowers, I shall alter it to something else, I might just formalise the vase a little. And the latest one is all embroidery of a cute kid under a quilt/blanket, I am going to replace this one with a tree....... At least this sampler is giving me a push to do a block or two a week. The one with the rings and the one with the rose were both supposed to be hearts.....

It was Mother's Day here last week and Fliss came up for the weekend. She got me this lovely book instead of flowers. Happy Mummy x

We went shopping in Hereford and saw snow on the hills in the distance. It looked so fabulous in the sun.
And I got myself some super comfortable but bling shoes! I love them so. The silver just pokes out below my trousers. In fact I adore them so much I have ordered a 2nd pair in black.

Needless to say Fliss ended up with a few goodies too. Her birthday is coming up so it was a good opportunity to find stuff.

I like tea in large bone china mugs. My older ones were starting to get permanently stained. I don't know if this is a fail of the dishwasher or the glaze so I treated myself to a set of these. They have a touch of Alice in Wonderland about them as they look like cups but are sooooo big.

A few things done.

I love Di Ford's method of mitreing corners. I would never have attempted to add these three strips sewn together in one go before. Now I just add then on in one go, fold the mitres and applique the mitre. This way enables you to match up those narrow lines and seams as you stitch. Fabulous!

However after fussy cutting the next border fabric I had this sliver of cream in the seam line. I spent a goodly time unpicking (why do I use such fine thread and such tiny stitches?)

I am just eyeballing a half way point to trim in the seam allowance so the seam will fall on the tan part of the stripe and it won't matter if it is a thread or two out.

Our first daffodils came into flower yesterday. When the sun came out you could feel it on your skin. Joy.

And we've had a visiting cat. George was hissing and growling through the glass, Rosie gave a few hisses too but stayed on her chair. Given each of them is twice the size of this little one, it was a good thing the glass was between them.
The weather changed today, we have had big soggy lumps of snow falling (and melting immediately) followed by more sunshine....  I wish it would make up it's mind.