Noah's Ark Block - birds and tortoises.

I am busy working on my City & Guilds samples for college this coming weekend so not much 'proper' quilting going on. Although I have recently finished this block from Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark series.
If you look in the sidebar you will be able to link to the other blocks I have made. I am now stitching the Ark.

Looking forward to visiting the Knit and Stitch show at Harrogate on Friday so it is going to be an enjoyable but busy weekend.

Don't call the quilt police!

I thought I would share this City & Guilds piece with you this morning - but beware some readers may find it upsetting!

The part I am referring to is the background quilting - if you look closely you will see it is all loopy. What's more - this is how it is supposed to be! Apparently it is a legitimate stitch in the world of machine embroidery - feather stitch!

Usually I have no problem getting this effect but I really struggled to get it to do this on this piece. I have to say I don't like it and it jumps out at me everytime I look at it. Anyway I have done the piece as I was instructed.


It has made up into a mini quilt 10 x 10 inches. When I showed DH he really liked and and asked if I could enter it into one of the quilt shows! Oh no I said, I would be ashamed to show it!
Do you think the judges would get it?

Halloween Quilt Top Completed.

Remember this quilt? It comes near the top of my UFO list and it is actually the second quilt I ever started. One of these days I will show my first quilt!
As Halloween approached I decided to get it out again and work on it. When we went to Scarborough at half term I found some orange and black which I thought would be perfect for the borders. The reason that it was not finished was because I could not decide on the borders so now I had no excuse.

First I added the stripe border. It is very bright and the jury is out on whether it is the right orange or not but I think it really lifts the quilt - which was in danger of looking a bit dull.

Then I added another narrow black border and finally the wider pumpkin border which I had always known I wanted to end with.

So here is the completed quilt top. I have a very loud Halloween pumpkin print for the backing and I will bind it in black.

Patchwork Bag Workshop

Last month I attended a patchwork bag workshop run by Sheila, a member of my embroidery/quilting group. It was a lovely day and Sheila worked very hard to ensure that we all made a lovely bag.
I chose Kaffe Fassett fabric for my main fabric - this is one of my favourite designs from his range.

The back and front are different and all parts including the sides were quilted before assembling the bag.

Close ups of the quilting.

The bag was lined with another bright print and it also has an internal zipped pocket.
It was quite a fiddly bag to make but it was a great learning experience and I am pleased with the finished item.

Jonathan's Photo

This is the photo that my son currently has in an exhibition. More details in post below.

Proud Mother!

My eldest son has a photo in his first photographic exhibition.
This is the photo which he took from a motorway bridge over the M1. This photo won a competition at his college and his prize was a two day visit to London to view the site of the 2012 Olympic Games.

The theme of the competition was 'Building Bridges' and it was to highlight the links between Barnsley in South Yorkshire and Newham in London.

Here we are at the opening evening of the exhibition at Barnsley Civic.

These are photos of the other students who went to London who also have photos in the exhibition.

And here they are photographed with their tutors and the Leader of Barnsley Council.

Jonathan is hoping to study Graphic Design at University in London next year.

We are all very proud of him and hope this is the first of many exhibitions of his work.

Happy Halloween!

As we were driving from York to Whitby we passed this pumpkin farm and just had to stop. It looked more like the USA than North Yorkshire.

The farmer said it had been a bumper crop due to the wet weather in July and August and the dry sunny weather in September. If you look carefully at the top of the photo above our vintage camper van is in the background.

The pumpkins at the top of the photo above, in the wheelbarrow are 'blue' pumpkins which are supposed to be great roasted - I bought one of these and one traditional orange one. The ones on the wall have been spray painted black and gold!!

Today I have been making pumpkin pies and baked pumpkin cheesecakes for the Halloween party we always attend. I discovered that the best way to cook pumpkins is to cut them in half, remove the pith and seeds and then roast them in the oven cut side down. It only takes about 40 mins and then the skin just peels off. I can't believe how much flesh I have got from one medium size pumpkin - enough to make 5 large cheesecakes/pies and 2 pounds of pumpkin flesh put in the freezer.