The Festival of Quilts. Part One

I had a wonderful day, and for those who asked, my thumb only bothered me once, I had forgotten all about it and hitched it into my jeans to give them a yank and oh! That hurt, but only a little. As you know my Hunney was with me at the festival, he was relieved to see that he wasn't the only Hunney to be dragged along! He even received one or two compliments, from women whose Hunneys were not in attendance.

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As there was so much to see and take in I was wandering between the quilts and the retail area. I'm a useless reporter and forgot all about getting numbers and names of quilts! That would have been so helpful just now. Sorry.

I didn't take pictures of everything, just what really caught my eye.

I loved these long thin pieces, some were obviously part of a larger project and others were made to be individual. I found them all very inspiring.
It was very busy and got busier as the day went on. At one point Hunney and I got separated! Thank goodness we both took our cell phones.
More of those long thin beauties.



My photos should be clickable for a closer look.

This postage stamp quilt was amazing, each tiny stamp had been appliquéd on and then each stamp also had beads sewn around its edges. OMG! It was stunning.


I have lots more photos.........

Can't sleep again!

I've been awake since just after 3am. Sigh. A mixture of sleeping so late yesterday, excitement for today and a little pain are all causes for my early rising today. The first two are self explanatory, but the pain? I burned my hand yesterday. I was rushing to get back to my sewing and grabbed a hot casserole without the oven mitt! I didn't do much sewing after that. There were some tears and some swear words. I managed to get the dinner back into the oven before spending the next hour with my hand under the cold tap. Hunney finished dinner when he got home and I spent the entire evening holding a cotton handkerchief stuffed with ice cubes. It seems to have done the trick, except for one stripe the entire length of my left thumb all the heat and fire has pretty much gone now. It could have been a whole lot worse. What was I hurrying to get back to? A whole bunch of these.

I have a dozen blue butterflies in progress. They are made entirely from my scraps box. I want to sash them with yellow, but I have virtually no yellow scraps, and very little yellow in my stash either, so that's something to look out for in Birmingham today.

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** I thought I should edit to say, this is not a butterfly I have sewn, it's a clip are image I have on my computer, my butterflies are very scrappy and incomplete, I'll post pictures of them when I finish them.

LOL You all thought I had sewn that? I wish!**

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Hunney and I have a bag ready to go with us today. Yes, he's coming with me, he knows there is no way I would go alone. Perhaps if I knew I was going to meet someone friendly there, but not to spend the whole day with no promise of a friendly face. I'm really not very confident in strange places and he knew he just had to come with me.

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I think my thumb might let me play with the sewing machine for a while, so I'm off to finish my butterflies.

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Gratitude's

1) A scraps box.

2) My sweet Hunney.

3) The cold tap and ice cubes.

I slept!

I slept and slept and slept and slept! I didn't wake up until 08.58! OMG! It's a while since that happened. I feel good but I'm just hoping this doesn't mean I won't sleep tonight before my flight to Birmingham.

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Only One More Sleep! YIPPEE!

Can you tell I'm excited.

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I had a little flurry of productivity last night, when I got in from work and for a short while after dinner. I finished the two pears. I left off the stalk and leaf, preferring instead to add a hanging loop.

I have seen other tutorials out there and plan to keep playing about, if I make any drastic changes or in the unlikely event that I come up with something new and startling I'll let you know.
In case you hadn't guessed they are hanging on my Red Butterfly quilt at the moment, it just seemed like a good place with plenty of natural light for the photo shoot. LOL

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Also last night I completed the bag I mentioned in my last post.
It has lots and lots of pockets inside and is intended as a baby bag, I'll pop a few items inside before I hand it over. I'm not planning on making them though, just buying a tub of baby talc, some baby bath soak, stuff like that. It's purposely non gender, Mum has said she wants to find out the old fashioned way. ;-) So I'll make something else after baby arrives. Who is it for? One of Hunneys colleagues is tickled to bits cause he's gonna be a Daddy.

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Getting up close and personal with my Red Butterflies as I hung the pears this morning reminded me that I wanted to make another version of that one. I think I'll play in my scraps box today.

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Gratitude's

1) One More Sleep.

2) Some finishes.

3) The NZ spotlight in Aus P&Q mag.

I'm going round again!

I popped my flimsy onto the bed yesterday and decided to add one more border.

I like to have a bit more hanging down the sides and bottom of the bed. We only get away with that blue one because we have a blanket underneath! What is it? Cindy's Butterfly's.
That should keep me out of mischief for an hour or so.

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I'm off for my day at the office today, a long phone call with my course facilitator and plenty of paperwork. I've not yet done anything with the stitcheries I had underway, maybe I'll find time over the weekend, I've also started another bag, it was inspired by the one just posted at Moda Bake Shop. My copies of Australian P&Q and Homespun turned up yesterday while I was at work, ( I didn't seem to have to wait so long this time,) so they are vying for my attentions too, I'll take one of them on the bus with me this morning, maybe the one I fell asleep holding in bed last night.

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Gratitude's

1) DS took me out for dinner.

2) Inspiration everywhere.

3) 2 more sleeps!!

Secret Santa.

I'm delighted to be a member of Chookyblues Secret Santa swap this year. I'm itching to know who my partner is so I can start planning what I might do. Mind you not knowing hasn't stopped me, I've been collecting all manner of ideas, maybe one of those will suit, or maybe I'll get to do more surfing around the web looking for more ideas.

What ever I decide to do, I love pictures and love to see when others show teaser pictures of things they have made for secret swaps, so I'm sure I'll manage to show lots of little teasers.

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Speaking of teasing, I kept mentioning the two special blocks I made for the Welsh Jelly Quilt. (It looks like that is the official name for this one). I did put a couple of images up, but here I finally get around to a decent close up.
A Welsh Dragon to represent Andrea, it must be a very tame, kind sweet dragon though. Just in case you missed it somehow, Andrea gifted a home made jelly roll to me, it was made up of slices from her stash. You can actually see some of these fabrics in action in her current WIP.

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There is also the national symbol for my home, The Isle of Man. The Triskelion or Three Legs symbol has been with us since Viking times.
Because of where they appear on the quilt my Hunney says it looks like a Manx man and a Welsh woman should sleep under it! He also asked me to do something similar with some Kiwiana fabrics and has promised that when we are in NZ later this year, ( in 67 days time to be precise!) We'll be going shopping to get some very Kiwi fabrics. For my part I love the silver fern, but I'm sure Hunney will want me to include lots of fabrics with lil' Kiwis running around on it. He loves them.

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There seems to be a hung jury on whether or not I should add another border to this quilt, I like Shiree's idea of draping it over the bed or where ever to see how it looks. In fact I already did that, in order to prove to Hunney that it really did need the border it already has. So I'll give that a try and see what happens. In order to do that that though, I'd have to shift my butt and make the bed, oh well, I guess the day has to start sometime.

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My trip to Warrington for my monthly training has been cancelled due to swine flu. I see it two ways, I'm relieved that I don't have such a long day, ( I have to be at the airport for 6am and don't get home until 9pm.) but I will miss the class/lesson, I enjoy them and find them very useful. Time on the phone with my tutor just won't be the same as sitting in a class with 11 other people all exchanging ideas and experience.

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Gratitude's

1) 67 days to NZ

2) 3 more sleeps to Birmingham.

3) No long day tomorrow.