Christmas Quiltalong 2012 - Apr pt3

I cooked the bolognase without incident, had a tiny sip of sherry then carried on with the quarter square triangles.

They get easier as you do more of them, doncha' know?

And on that note of stating the astoundingly obvious, I've stopped for the evening - I'm off to the pub for a couple of beers.

Catch up with you all tomorrow - and thank you without measure to Lesley, the Cuddle Quilter for being a fabulous hostess (even if she did scoff all the cinnamon buns herself), and to QuiltSue for clear instructions for the brilliant Festive Mystery quilt.

Christmas Quiltalong 2012 - Apr pt2

Well what a festive bunch we are here! Lesley our hostess for the CQAL this month has made cinnamon rolls (and I don't know how many she has eaten, but she's only having a plate of fruit later on - jus' saying); Lynn has got festive snow; there's baking afoot at Sharon's; and loads of Christmas projects on the go! What a great day!

And Lesley is also kind enough to sort out a fabric giveaway - whoop whoop! All you got when I hosted was a recipe and me banging on about our family Christmases a zillion years ago but before everyone hotfoots over to Lesley's, I must show you how I'm getting on with part 3 of our Festive Mystery Quilt.

I am having to concentrate VERY HARD INDEED to get my quarter square triangles right - I'm a bit heavy handed with the iron and tend to pull the squares a little out of shape when pressing the seams, so trimming takes lots of care!

After I've checked how everyone is getting on, I must hurl a bolognase together to simmer for dinner, so I need to run up the road to buy onions - and yes, it is now raining.

The good news is that it is after 6pm here, so more than time to pour a glass of sherry to keep me company in the kitchen! Hurrah!

Christmas QAL - April pt1

Good morning, everybody! We're all over to Lesley The Cuddle Quilter's today - its Christmas Quiltalong day!

Lesley has hit the ground running with part 3 of the Festive Mystery quilt available to print out (she also has parts 1&2 detailed so you don't have to go running here and there if you are playing catch-up) AND she has cinnamon rolls on the go - I think that you'll have to be quick or there will be none left!

Last night I laid out all my 'dark' scrappy squares to weed out a few odd-bods and replace with fabrics which are a better fit, so I'm all ready to start making up the quarter-square triangles which feature on this month's installment.

Right - better get on!

Guess What's Coming Up!

It's a good job that some of the girls who are hosting the Christmas Quiltalong are on the case and have posted reminders - I can hardly believe that it is the second Saturday of the month coming up already!

Everyone is welcome - either bring your own Christmas projects to work on, or join in with QuiltSue's Mystery Quilt.  This will be the third installment (instructions unveiled on the day) - the first installment is right here on the tab at the top, and the second over at Joanna's where we were dancing to our teenage favourite bands in Massachusetts last month.

Our host for this month - Miss April - is Lesley, and I am very much looking forward to popping over to her place in Nova Scotia. She's really lovely and will make us all feel right at home, I'm sure!  It looks like it's going to be a Christmas pyjama party - such fun!  I'm guessing that the weather will be chillier than here in England, so I'll be in my brushed cotton jimjams, slippers and furry dressing gown.

Now I know that Lesley loves cookies, so there may well be some chocolate chips on the go - but I think that I'll bring along some Tiffin too - who's bringing the Sherry?

See you there!

Daisy Chains and Decisions

The weather being too vile for words today (yes, I know, I know, we need the rain - but really!), I knuckled down to finishing quilting the inner and outer borders on Mum's Quilt.


Well - all but a short section where I ran out of bobbin thread.


All the while I've been quilting, I've been thinking about what to put in the white triangles by the nine patch blocks - I've thought about a spray of leaves; big sister Helen suggested a tendril with a daisy growing from the sashing daisy chains.

Hmm hmm.

Then I changed my mind totally, and have done some echoing of the blocks to infill.






But I've stopped at two, in case I have a change of heart...

Slow Progress....

...which is better than no progress, of course.

I'd been looking forward to a good session on the machine this evening, and I completed the daisy chains on the inner border, and along half of one of the two sashing strips.

It wasn't the jolliest of sessions, though, and I stopped after an hour - the top thread broke a couple of times, which was a pain; the discussion show on the radio was particularly irritating; and Domino cat was mooching about intent on trouble, 'up to stuff' which needed me to keep an eye on. 

It's all about perceptions, though, isn't it?  I wouldn't feel so sour about the short session if I hadn't been looking forward to it so - if this had been an hour grabbed on the hoof between other jobs, I would have been delighted at my progress!

Onwards and upwards - (and whisper it quietly), but I should have a spare hour tomorrow evening to sew too...

Not Quite Quilting

I suspect that it is lack of organisation rather than just having too much on the go currently, but it does seem to be leaving me short of sewing time - bah!

I had wanted to finish the quilting on Mum's Quilt before this weekend as big sister Helen is visiting, and it is the first time that she has seen the quilt 'in the flesh' since we picked out the fabrics when she was last here in December.

I haven't completed the quilting though - but that did not stop us going back to the Cotton Patch to buy the fabric for the side pieces of this quilt, and it was a lovely day out all in all.

But just to show that I'm thinking about quilting even if I'm not actually doing it, here's a pic of some curtains that I bought in the charity shop the other day for £4.50. There's about 3m of cotton here - the linings are poly/cotton, but if I follow Donna's lead on the dressmaking front, I might try my hand and running up a blouse.

That's when I get a spare minute, obviously.