Christmas!!

I wanted to share the handmade gifts I made for Christmas - but had to wait until after the big day of course, in case they were spotted on my blog.
This year I made blackwork cushions and gift tags.

These were made for friends and my great neices, Freya and Elsie.

Visit to the Hepworth Gallery Wakefield

My eldest son, Jonathan is home for the summer after completing his first year at University. We decided that it was time for a day out and the new Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield was our choice of destination. It opened in May and due to our travels we hadn't had chance to visit before today. It is dedicated to the work of the sculptor, Barbara Hepworth who was born in Wakefield.
Photos were allowed in a couple of the galleries so we made the most of the opportunity!

These are plaster casts of some of Hepworth's iconic sculptures.

This is Jonathan with Corinne, a friend from College who has been studying Fine Art in Brighton.

I can highly recommend the Hepworth Gallery for a visit, there's lots of sculpture (of course!) but also paintings on display. Ideally you should combine it with a visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is even nearer to where we live.

Teenage Angst featured in British Patchwork and Quilting magazine

Exciting news! After British Patchwork and Quilting Magazine featured this blog a few months ago, I wrote to them about Jonathan's university quilt and how he had designed the diamond block for it. They asked me to send photos, the block design and to write a feature and the result is a lovely article in this month's issue.

There are loads of photos of the quilt already on this blog so I won't bore you with more!

I was really pleased with the article - I think they did us proud! If you want to read it properly it is available in the shops until August 18th.

Hello - I'm back again!

Not really sure why I lost my blogging mojo - lots of excuses - all important - but I am still here and I am still quilting!
Since March I have been working hard on my final two City & Guilds pieces, desperately hoping to have them completed before the end of this month but it didn't happen.
My Tuesday patchwork classes have finished now for the summer and we had a fantastic end of year celebration and 'show and tell'.
I have also made a baby quilt for a dear friend's grandson, 15 yards of quilted bunting for another dear friend's daughter's wedding and two lots of birthday bunting for two lovely little girls.
I have been on holiday to Scotland last week and visited the Loch Lomond Quilt Show for the first time.
So as you can see I have been very busy but the good news is I have lots of photos of all these things and hope to share over the next couple of days.


The significance of the photos in this post is that these are two of the inspirational photos I have used for my City & Guilds pieces. I am making a red wholecloth quilt based on designs found on Welsh Celtic crosses and I am also making a 'Golden Wedding' wallhanging for my parents.

Their Golden Wedding anniversary is 15th July - so still a bit of time left!

The wholecloth is nearly finished - just four cornerstones left to quilt and millions of ends to bury!

I am in that strange pre-holiday limbo at the moment as we leave for a very special holiday on Tuesday (00.30 hours). We are flying to Chicago at 11.00 Tuesday to travel to California and back in a hire car, returning to the UK on July 1st. Our house will be turning into a teenagers hostel and so I am busy packing, washing, ironing, cleaning, shopping etc.

I hope that you will be able to join us on our special 'California Trip' (in the words of the song) through the blog. The first two weeks will be Route 66 in its entirety and then we return via Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska. It is Geoff's 50th birthday treat so lots of car stuff! Plenty of quilty stuff too!!

I am getting a sewing room!

This is because my sewing space downstairs is constantly being invaded by teenagers, husband, cats and.................small soldiers!

These are photos taken by my youngest son, Rob who is studying Interactive Media at college. They were taken for a project last term.
I am actually in the process of acquiring a sewing room - Rob's old bedroom but it is a slow process sorting through 16 years worth of toys and deciding which to keep.

It will be lovely to have my own sewing space soon.

Teenage Angst in situ

Today we visited Jonathan in Leeds and I thought I would share this photo. I really don't like having my photo taken but I think this one came out quite well.

A better photo of the quilt label and a close up of Jonathan's Diamond Block.

Teenage Angst completed

Most of my Christmas holidays were taken up with the completion of this quilt. It didn't quite make it for Christmas but the last stitch was put in on New Years Eve. I was very pleased with the final result and so was Jonathan.
Here is the finished quilt.

Each block is surrounded by a quarter inch of red which although time consuming really enhanced the colours of the quilt. The red represents the fire of a mother and son's relationship in the teenage years.

Many of the blocks have special meanings to Jonathan - particularly the cat block - we do still have four cats but they are a different four to the ones we had when the quilt was started!

The back is also pieced - as I said before I really love pieced backs! I have used sample blocks for the back and Ohio stars which we have been making in my patchwork classes.I didn't actually have one piece of fabric big enough for the back so piecing it was the natural solution.

And finally a label made on my new Janome.

Life has been hectic over the last few weeks with lots of celebrations for Geoff's 50th Birthday. I have also embarked on a large project to turn one of our bedrooms into a sewing room. This is a very big job as it currently houses loads of toys and other teenage stuff. Spent today packing Rob's extensive Jurassic Park dinosaur collection into boxes for storage in the loft.

My next big project is my City & Guilds wholecloth quilt which is based on Welsh Celtic designs. I will try to keep you up to date with my progress.

Snow, Cabin Fever and a giveaway.

Here are the inevitable snow pictures! Everything I have tried to do this week has been cancelled due to the white stuff and now I feel that I have a dose of what can only be described as 'cabin fever!'
These photos were taken by Geoff on Wednesday and things are not much different now. Our street is treacherous due to compacted snow and ice and we live on quite a steep hill.

Fancy a camping trip? Ironically we have just acquired one of those 'camper covers' but who knows when we will be able to use it!

What about a nice sit on the patio?

This weekend I was supposed to be at college for my City & Guilds course. This also has been cancelled - although I don't think I would have attempted the drive to Skipton anyway.

The down side with this is that I don't get to spend time with my classmates, Rachel, Anne-Marie and Hazel. This is a real shame as we have become good friends over the 3/4 years I have known them.

However you can get to know Hazel a little bit better by heading over to her blog where she is having a great giveaway with 3 prizes all relating to the Quilt Show.

Teenage Angst - Final Layout

Well winter is well and truly here in Yorkshire and yesterday I had to cancel my patchwork classes due to snow. Today is even worse with probably a foot of snow falling overnight. So today I will continue with my sewing on teenage angst.

The photo shows the final layout of the blocks and I decided to change a couple of them.

I put a black circle in the centre of this one as I felt it needed some black.

I changed the rail fence block as I thought it was too heavy. I like it much better now.

I will try to take some photos of my progress as I have now joined all the blocks together and hope to add the borders today. I have also made a couple of blocks for the back.

Had a good trip to the knitting and stitching show in Harrogate on Sunday but had a nightmare journey home as the snow started falling heavily in the afternoon. It took us 5 hours to get home instead of the usual 1!

The 12 blocks of Teenage Angst.

If you regularly read my blog I apologise for the lack of content in the last month. No real reason - just didn't feel like sharing I suppose. That doesn't mean I haven't been quilting of course!
Progress is being made on Teenage Angst and I am hoping to have it ready to give as a Christmas gift. The photo shows the initial layout of the 12 blocks before sashings added. Since this photo was taken I have altered two of the blocks and started the sashings. Today I am going to work on a couple of blocks for the back.

I actually love pieced backs - I suppose you could say it is my latest fad - along with mug rugs! (more of that later). My feeling is that if you have to join backing fabric because your quilt is too wide you may as well put in a few blocks to add interest. Also it is a great way of using sample blocks or those that didn't make it onto the front.

Snow has arrived in Yorkshire overnight which is a little too early if you ask me! It is very cold but sunny - winter shouldn't have started till Dec 1st but looks like it had other plans. Tomorrow I am going to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate so looking forward to lots of retail therapy!

Diamond Blocks

Recently I have been working on Jonathan's university quilt which is titled 'Teenage Angst'! It was started in 2003 when I began a couple of the inevitable Lynne Edwards Sampler Quilts. Strictly speaking this is my second quilt after I started quilting in 2002. One of these days I will have to show my first quilt also made for Jonathan titled 'The Road to Baghdad'!
The colour palette is very restricted - black and grey which matched his mood for most of his teenage years.
It will be 12 blocks and the corners will be foundation pieced diamonds - designed by Jonathan himself.
Here is a view of the paper side of one of the 4 blocks.
Foundation piecing is the only way to get those points to meet at the bottom!

The fabric side after trimming.

Background expanded.

Borders added.

Soon I will show all 12 blocks although a couple of them need small adjustments.

Anthony and Natalie's Wedding

Since I last blogged I have been very busy - my patchwork and quilting classes have started again and I have enrolled at college for my last year of City & Guilds.

On September 18th we attended my nephew's wedding - actually it was a blessing as they got married in Thailand in August.
Here are the happy couple with their parents outside the church.

Here is a photo of 3 generations, my father in law, husband and my two boys. Jonathan has now started his degree at Leeds and is enjoying it although findind it difficult to get a job to supplement his student loan.

Rob has started his media course at the local college.

The end of one era and the beginning of another.

This week Jonathan, my eldest son completed his BTEC National Diploma in Art & Design.
These photos were taken at his end of year show and give you an idea of his style of work .
His area of interest is Graphic Design and in September he is moving to Leeds Metropolitan University to study for a BA in Graphic Design. Geoff and I are very proud of what he has acheived so far and are sure that he has the drive and motivation to continue to be successful in his studies.

If only this slogan reflected some of the teenage / parent disagreements we have had over the last few years!
But it is something that I think I should heed in some areas of my life.

Robert, my youngest son has just completed his GCSE exams and will be studying Media at the local college in September.
So its the end of an era and in the words of Alice Cooper 'School's Out Forever!'

A Visit to the Farne Islands

We have spent the last few days in Northumberland with my parents and yesterday we visited the Farne Islands which are a paradise for bird watchers.
Although the weather was cloudy it was very warm - here is a photo of me with my parents, waiting for the boat to collect us.

One of the main attractions of the islands are the puffins which live in burrows, often those abandoned by rabbits.

Here are a selection of seabirds on the rocks - the noise and the smell are quite intense!

By far the best bit was seeing the Arctic Tern chicks which are seriously cute! However their parents protect them fiercely and we were all dive bombed and often pecked during our visit.
But the attacks were worth it to see these little creatures.

Here are two chicks with Mum, one of them is hiding in Mum's feathers.

And here is a classic puffin photo to finish.