Trips Out

Welcome 🙂

Hubby and I had a trip out to Malvern a while ago and while hubby wandered around sightseeing I spent Saturday happily wandering around the Malvern quilt show. I’d never been to this show before but had been told that it was a particularly nice one.

It certainly had enough going on to keep me busy all day.

I was lucky enough to get a space on a workshop with Sylvia Critcher which was the highlight of the day for me.

She taught us the very basics of trapunto and boutis and we whizzed (really! I’m not joking when I say whizzed – steam was coming off our fingers 😉 ) through making a little project which used both techniques. As with all these mini classes there was no way anyone could have finished it but when I have a bit of time between making flowers for the flower festival I pick it up and do a bit.

This is it at the moment.

But the next couple of days are ALL about the flower festival as it kicks off this Saturday. Wish us luck please!

Until next time,

Chris x

Flower Power

Welcome 🙂

Every year my Church holds a Flower festival at the end of June, the ladies who arrange the flowers are very talented and always make the Church look beautiful. This year the group of ladies who make banners for the Church (i.e. me and my super team) have been invited to join in and make an arrangement too. We were very pleased to be asked and especially so when the reaction to us making a display of fabric flowers was met with enthusiasm.

So a talented member of our group is keeping us in order (I understand that’s called ‘co-ordinating’ !) and we’re all getting busy making flowers – very exciting.

The theme this year is ‘Reaching Out’ and is highlighting what the various groups in Church do for the community we serve.

Our humble group has chosen this Bible verse to explain what we’re about and that we try to sow seeds of faith using visual art, as well as making the Church building look welcoming for everyone.

‘Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms’                                              1 Peter 4 v10

Everyone’s been working away making flowers and here are a few that I’m working on.

We’ve still got a long way to go but it feels exciting 🙂

Until next time,

Chris x

The Cross and The Crown

Welcome 🙂

I hope you’ve been well while I’ve been away from the computer.

You may recall my little Blog Hop a week or so ago where I managed to over stretch myself and ended up not quite finishing my Blog Hop quilt.

I’ve been busy doing 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there quilting away and without realising it I’ve finished all the hand quilting – so with apologies to those of you who saw it first time round, here is my little lap quilt all completed.

The red quilting stitches really finishes it off and adds that little bit extra.

All that’s left to do is to decide what to write on my quilt label (a block I cut too small during construction!) and then sew it onto the back.

Any ideas?

(UPDATE – This quilt seems to have captured people’s imaginations over on Pinterest so for those who want to know, this quilt is based on a freebie pattern. The link to the pattern is on this blog post here. Happy making!

Oh and if after having a look around my blog you like what you see why not come and join me at my new blog The Mulberry Mouse just here 🙂 )

Last night I went to my monthly quilt group and learnt how to do Somerset patchwork. I thoroughly enjoyed the sewing and chatting that went on. The lady who taught us went to a lot of trouble in preparing the tutorial, even making up a board for us to refer to as we stitched so a big thank you to her.

I came away with a partially completed project – as ever!

However today I managed to finish it off and here it is,

It just needs to be made into something now – watch this space 😉

What have you been up to lately?

Until next time,

Chris x

Oh Jane

Welcome 🙂

How lovely to have so many visitors to my little Blog hop entry, and how lovely to have so many comments – it’s really encouraging to know that others enjoy my little ramblings!

So the winner of my little Tilda giveaway is:

Well done Gloria, please email me your address details and I’ll get the parcel in the post for you.

My Dear Jane seems to have been on the back burner  recently while I worked on my Cross and the Crown quilt but as that is now nearly finished (I’ve been doing bits of quilting in my lunch hour at work so it’s progressing nicely) I really need to get on with Jane again.

Here are a few blocks which I did a while ago but didn’t post about.

A& Dad’s Plaids – pieced, appliqué and reverse appliqué, nice and straightforward.

A9 Cabin Fever – foundation pieced, not quite so straightforward!

B7 World Series – appliqué.

B10 Jud’s Trophy – foundation pieced.

Hope you all have a great week end – here in the UK we have a Bank holiday on Monday and I’m planning a bit of decorating.

Until next time,

Chris x

Tilda Candy Bloom Blog Hop Day

Welcome 🙂

The sun is shining and I’m happy  to reveal that after a bit of a last minute panic I’ve sort of finished my make with the lovely Tilda Candy Bloom fabric ready for my Blog Hop day. ‘Sort of’ because the quilting isn’t finished but what can I say, work got in the way of creating!

Natalie from Stitch Craft Create generously sent me oodles of this fabric and I initially struggled with just what to make but the colours of this line are red white and blue and our Queen is celebrating her 90th birthday this year so I decided to go patriotic.

A Union flag cushion was my first thought and then I heard about a book published about the Queen’s Christian faith.

and this quilt block seemed very appropriate

The Cross and the Crown

I wouldn’t consider myself to be a royalist but I do admire all the Queen has done for the country and how tirelessly she works, I mean how many 90 year olds do you know who work to the extent she does! So in honour of the Queen I give you the Cross and the Crown lap quilt.

If you’d like to make one for yourself then the pattern is a freebie from MacCall’s Quilting and can be found here. I added a wider border and four churn dash cornerstone blocks to make it a bit bigger. Those churn dashes pick up the central design of the other blocks well don’t they?

I’m not really a ‘red’ person but these reds are a lovely soft red, I think the one in the above photo is my favourite but it’s hard to choose because they’re all so nice!

My plan for it now is to do some hand quilting using red thread to highlight those crowns – watch this space 🙂

As Natalie was so generous with the fabric I’d like to offer some of the leftovers as a give away prize. All you have to do is comment on this post telling me where you come from and what you’d make with it – easy!

I shall draw a name out of the hat on 26th May so you’ve got a bit of time to enter.

And for another chance to win some of the Tilda fabric go here to join in with Stitch Craft Create’s own give away.

There is one day left of this Blog Hop and tomorrow it’s the turn of Ali from Very Berry Handmade.

Until next time,

Chris x