Confession time

Hello. Yes I'm going to make a terrible confession. I'm prone to clutter. I know you're all very shocked - I can almost hear the gasps, but it's true. I'm sure there are lots of us out there trying not to acquire clutter - but it still appears anyway. And having a hobby like quilting doesn't help as you acquire fabric and tools that seem to take up soooo much space.

Anyway, I know it's a problem (and if I forget DH is sure to remind me ;-)). I've a number of books (cluttering up my bookshelf) about how to de-clutter but the one thing they all say is - just do 15 minutes on a small area and you'll see the difference. And I know when I do - you really can tell the difference. I think my clutter shows up much more as DH is so very tidy and organised (I joke with him he's verging on OCD). I have found a blog that has some useful information on it - Unclutterer. and there's a good article with some simple guide lines. I know that when I do clear stuff up I do feel and work much better for it. Well I'd better go now and attack an area. Is there anyone else out there who can confess to the same challenge?

You are a winner!

No this isn't a scam. I entered a competition in Patchwork and Quilting magazine and I've won a pair of tickets for the Autumn Quilt Festival at Malvern. It's a new show - so I've no idea what it'll be like. Are any of you thinking of going? I'd love to know. I haven't decided which day I'm going yet - so you could influence my decision - or perhaps the weather will.
Drawing class tomorrow - lets see what occurs on the paper this week.
I've also started to hand quilt my Buzz saw quilt. As I'm using a pale thread on pale fabrics I can only really quilt in very good light as otherwise I can't see where I've got to.
Saturday is a days quilting in the village hall - not too sure how many of us will go, but it's bound to be a good day.

Drawing class

I'm really enjoying the drawing classes. I know I'm not the best but it's very satisfying to see that what you've drawn does resemble the items in front of you.

The first drawing above was one of the 5 minute sketches we had to do. The idea is that you're less frightened of the white paper. We did about 3 of these using different media and the idea with the one above was that you didn't draw a line.
This one is what the majority of the lesson was spent on. Again no lines, concentrating on light and shade and using charcoal. I was really pleased with it.

And here's some quilting (at last).
It's the Buzz Saw I started at our sewing camp (retreat). I'm so pleased with it. DH very kindly helped me put the sandwich together. I've not decided exactly how I'm going to hand quilt it - but I've got a few ideas.

The weather here has been great over the last few days - so sunny.

Hope you all OK and have a great weekend.

PIF...

... has arrived from Karol Ann of Sew much fabric, so little time, sew true.It so lovely to receive items in the post - and even nicer when you know they've been hand made. A lovely needle case, a card and a beaded key ring.

Thank you so much Karol Ann.

For those of you who haven't joined in yet I still have 2 spaces for people who'd like to receive packages from me in the next year. So far I've only got one response from Sally at Feather on a wire, so if there are 2 more of you out there please do drop me a line. The only thing you have to agree to is that you'll mention this on your blog and that you'll PIF 3 things. Come on.... (please)

Have any of you seen the Toplots part of E-bay? The idea is that you can bid for unique items - such as a day quilting with Janice Gunner. Have a look - there are some great lots.

I aslo picked up a copy of Selvedge - it's sooooo nice.

And I finished my Buzz Saw quilt top. I promise I'll share it with you very soon when I've got it sandwiched. It's not perfect - but I do like what it looks like.

Now I know it's already October, and I have started making little gifts for pressies - but honestly I went to out local large garden centre and it's packed with Christmas decorations and everytuing else Christmas. I'm not a grumpy old women (well not all the time) but I think it's just a bit too early. What do you think?

Hope you're all OK - have a great evening.

Drawing class

I'm quite surprised that the drawing class I signed up for has actually gone ahead. There are only 7 of us in the class and usually they have a minimum number before it can run and that's usually more than 7. But don't think I'm complaining - I'm not. Being a small class means our tutor, Mike, can get around to see us all.
I won't be showing my first attempt - well not yet - I might share it later to show any progress I've made. The first class was drawing a still life of various shaped bottles. The idea was not to draw all of the items perfectly, but to get their arrangement right i.e. the proportions, relationship between items and distance between each item spot on. I did have to make a bit of an adjustment - but I got there in the end. It was very interesting to see how drawing styles are as individual as writing styles. And the best part was we all seemed to be really happy with what we drew in our first class.
I'd love to hear if any of you are attending drawing or art classes.

Quilter's Guild day

Well here are a few photos of the Quilters Guild day at Kenilworth.

The first photo shows the hall where the neo-natal quilts were displayed and where the traders had their stalls. Really for the size of the event there were a really good number of traders - such as Monkey Buttons, The Quilters Den, White Cottage, Corner House Crafts, African Textiles, Asding - a quite a few more - sorry I can't remember them all.
Here we are outside of the traders hall having a bit of time sewing.

And here is everyone gathered around the front of the area where the talks were given by Rosalind Johansson and Barbara Weeks.

Rosalind spoke about her time in East Africa and had a number of examples of traditional textiles and dress - some members even got into dressing up mode... sorry no photos of that.

Barbara described the techniques she used for dying and had a good range of examples of her work. Many of you may have seen at the FoQ her piece based on the Gherkin. She bought his along and as it was hung with natural light behind it the transparent panel she'd inserted was shown off the great effect.

And finally here's the infamous cake - it was actually quite good.

You'll be pleased to hear we did of course have a raffle - and yes I won 2 fat quarters of fabric.

For all of you based in the UK - please do have a look at the Quilters Guild website and see what's on in your region - it's a great opportunity to see and hear what's going on.

Hello...

... sorry I didn't realise I hadn't posted for so long.

Not been up to too much lately. We had our class at Bramble Patch and our tutor, Bren Boardman told us about an exhibition she has on in Rugby - have a look at her site for more info. I'm hoping to be able to go along next week.

Tomorrow I'm off to a Quilters Guild Region 11 day at Kenilworth - I'm even baking a cake for it - bit of a rare event. I'm not too sure what to expect as I haven't been to one before - but as it'll be full of quilters I'm sure it'll be great. I'm going with a couple of the girls from our group so it's bound to be a great day. We're also going to hand over the neo-natal quilts we made for their challenge - it'll be great to see what other people did.

I also got the latest issue of Selvedge yesterday - it's such a lovely magazine. Please do go and have a look at one if you haven't seen a copy before.

Did any of you notice Patti's blog being reviewed in the latest British Patchwork and Quilting magazine? She didn't know it had been included so I've posted her a copy of it - I hope she'll receive it early next week.

Sorry they're aren't any photos - but I'll take one of my cake (if it looks OK) and some of tomorrow's event.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Autumn signals its arrival

We all have misconceptions about the people of certain countries. The Brits are very polite and queue ( we are and do - but not always). The French are good lovers (I have no idea so can't comment). Well, another views of we Brits is that we're obsessed with the weather - this I'm afraid to say is very true. And with that in mind I thought I'd share some photos I took that I think show that autumn is on its way - although I have to say the weather at the mo is better than it's been for most of the summer.

Fallen conkers

Acorns

Leaves changing colour

Fallen leaves

Quilting Open Day

We had a great day yesterday at our Open Quilting Day and hopefully we've got a few new members - we'll have to wait and see.
I'm sorry to say I forgot to take any pictures - although I did have my camera in my bag. The day was very relaxed and we just sat and chatted to all the visitors about what we did and about the samples we'd taken and what we were working on. I'd taken my free machine embroidery samples, the new Sunburst quilt and my raggy cushion. Barry was working on his applique and the rest were at various stages of cutting, binding and making up blocks and adding them to their sticky sheet. I think between us we had all stages of quilting covered.
Everyone was asked to bring along cake - and it was all very, very nice. Unfortunately it didn't all go so DH had to have some when he got home - he thought it was all very good too.
A great day - but boy was I shattered when I got home.

Dennis...

...well unfortunately Dennis died last month. Although we were very upset at the time we realise he had a very happy long life (18 years) and he spent his last day in the garden sunning himself.

Everyone who came to the house met him - whether they wanted to or not; he was very friendly. So here are a last few photos of him looking like the fat happy orange cat that he was...

September already

Well it's September already and tonight is our first meeting of the Market Bosworth Quilters. We've got to discuss the open day on Saturday and sort out what we'll be doing.

I didn't mean to leave so long until I posted - but as you can see from the photos I have been busy practising free machine embroidery. Really I wanted to be able to wake up one morning and just be really, really good at it. As that hasn't happened I thought I should get on with some practise. I've been using my Ineke Berlyn little book that I bought at the FoQ. I've also found that if I doodle on a piece of paper I can then replicate this with the machine - by doodling I get to see where the pattern is going and how I fill the space I need to. And by practising this on paper I don't up wasting material.

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments about my quilt I finished. I went to Kisko on Sunday with Angela and I bought some material so I can finish off another top I started at Quorn.

After buying material we went to the Picasso exhibition. Now I know many of you may have seem great collections of his work across the world and may be a little surprised that Leicester has a collection on a par with new York - but it's true. It's been donated by Sir Richard Attenborough in memory of his daughter and grand daughter who died in the Boxing Day tsunami 2004.