The last post showed pics from Hever last Friday. On the Sunday, we visited a traditional country fair held on an old estate near Faversham. Isabella had a wonderful time – horses, dogs, ferrets, a magic show, archery , falconry – and we enjoyed the beautiful gardens and a delightful day outside, not to mention some wonderful venison burgers and cakes and the cheeses and fudge which came home with us! 🙂
It’s been a very busy summer! I may eventually find the time to share some pictures but in the meantime, here are just a few from the past week:
My son asked for a new BRIGHT cushion to replace one which had somehow found its way onto a barbeque. I think this wonderful batik fitted the bill, especially when combined with an orange fleece backing.
Isabella and I took friends to visit the annual quilt show at Hever Castle. Unfortunately, I can’t show pictures of the quilts without written permission so here are some of Isabella instead! One shows her beside a photo of herself, taken at a Young Quilters workshop. The other is of her enjoying the water maze.
All very strange, but I seem unable to add any text to my last post so here goes:
I began this quilt back in March. I’d had a yen to make a pink and white quilt ever since I first saw the Hourglass instructions in Carolyn Forster’s Quilt as You Go book (her’s is in blackprints and white). Completely impractical, really, but never mind. The blocks are machine pieced then hand quilted. Perfect for keeping my hands occupied whilst waiting for Isabella at her various activities, or for all those films at home that I’m not really watching. I was surprised that I didn’t have enough pinks but that’s a good excuse to add to the stash so add I did. Three blocks in and Isabella announced she didn’t like pink any more…
I decided to enter the quilt in the annual quilt show at Aylesford Priory (raising funds for the Heart of Kent Hospice) to give me something to aim for. All wa going well until I began to put the rows together. Quilting the blocks was an easy affair but the sashing was a different affair – all that slipstitching of wadding and backing fabric then quilting too! The quilt went everywhere from children’s activities at Eltham Palace to the car on the way to the Festival of Quilts. Then I realised I didn’t actually have enough binding fabric so that put me off a little. The night before the quilt was due to be delivered, I was still slipstitching the binding and adding the hanging sleeve, finally finishing at 2.30am. Then it went into the washing machine to get rid of the markers and into the dryer at 3.30am. I staggered off to bed and almost forgot to take pics before delivery. The pic in the previous post was taken at the show itself and was actually my first proper look at it in its entirety.
It’s the first quilt I’ve made with just one block – may not be my last! And despite the amount of quilting involved, it’s only confirmed that I love the look of hand work. 🙂
Gorgeous fabric, isn’t it? Watch this space for progress…..
We went down to Minster-in-Thanet yesterday to visit the annual C+G embroidery show . We got there around 11.30am and found the hall buzzing, full of wonderful displays of the students’ work and lots of people admiring!
I had specifically wanted to go to see my online friend Irene’s work as I know how much work she has put in over the last 2(?) years but we missed meeting in person. However, here is a pic of her work:
We treated ourselves to coffee and delicious home-made cakes and oops, some rather pretty 30’s style fabric made it into the car for the trip back!
Sunday Morning dawned bright and sunny – yipee! We’ve almost forgotten what sunshine is here in this corner of Kent. DH offered to take little one out on her bike for a beach picnic so I leapt at the chance to have some sewing time in peace at home on my own.
A bit of this, a bit of that, and these two items got made:
I then got out my knitting and settled down to catch up on some tv. Only to field a phone call that made my blood chill – DD2 had had a message to say her sister was hurt….ran out in the car to find her and her dad. Hmm, yes, a trip to the local minor injuries unit was definitely in order. An hour later, we were on our way home with little one’s left arm in a half-cast and an appointment for next week’s fracture clinic. A perfect start to the summer holidays!
Two days later, she’s much happier, desperately hoping that there will be orange plaster available next week and happy that her new cast covers have arrived so we can still enjoy beach trips. 🙂
OK, I admit I’m lousy at keeping this blog updated but I do have to fight for time on the laptop with a teenager…Mum, I need to do my homework (while watching online tv…) So since I’ve literally just made this month’s blocks and she’s disappeared, I thought I’d take the chance to show this month’s blocks off.
I enjoyed making these takes on a dresden plate, which is a block I’ve rather fancied making for a while. I now have 14 blocks of this sampler completed so perhaps I need to start thinking how I’ll be putting it together although I think that’s what the November instructions will reveal.
My 8 yr old joined the Young Quilters last summer at a local exhibition. She recently began attending their workshops in Dartford and this is her latest effort, which we finished off at home. She is going to put it into a local show soon.
Her big sister also joined in September, at another show which was held at Hever Castle. They both received some fabric in April with their newsletters and a request to make handprints to contribute to a banner. Here are both girls’ efforts. Isabella decided to handstitch her’s with perle thread and Cali machined with a zigzag.
Around two years ago (I think!), Isabella saw this stuffie in a craft magazine and began making it. She actually got as far as stuffing it so at the weekend all we had to do was sew up the gap then press the face into place as it was bondawebbed.
