Friday 27 August 2010

Did you know.....

..how difficult it is to become 'Liberated'?  Some months ago I treated myself to Gwen Marston's book 'Liberated Quiltmaking ll',


and out of all the woderful projects in the book, I fell in love with this


It's based on Kathy's Block and even without the lovely story behind the 'birth' of the block, this quilt speaks to me.  I love the colours,the funky tulips,  the layout - well,  I love just all of it !  Before trying a full size quilt, I thought it would be wise to try a mini, and am I glad I did so.  It was really difficult for me to forget everything that I've learn over the last few years and even though my piecing may not always be perfect, I do try to match things up.  Obviously I have been well indoctrinated about accuracy, as I had to force myself to
'liberate' my points but in the end it turned out quite well..



Ending up 17.5 x 20.5 inches, a nice size mini ready for the new wall.   I  managed to catch another of my 'plays' taking the original uncropped photo, which shows my little Union Jack cushion that I made from this tutorial on Lily's Quilts.


               
Really fun to make, the only problem is that I now have orders for 3 more from DGDs!!



But, not matter how hard I found liberated quilting to start with, I must be a quick learner as I managed to loose points on this 16 inch Selvage mini without even trying :-) 


Saturday 21 August 2010

Return to Blogland

 Well, yet another month has passed by in a flash - where does the time go to?  The last weeks have been filled with  all sorts of comings and goings and  lots time spent in the pool during the extremely hot weather we had at the end of July and the beginning of August.  Lots of pool time also means lots of BBQs and sitting around in the garden - but what it also means is just a little time spent sewing and none left for blogging :-)

Unfortunately, it hasn't all been good all the time as I managed to slip and twist my right knee very badly at the beginning of August and wasn't able to walk on it for over a week!  As if that wasn't bad enough, x-rays showed that my kneecap isn't where is should be, which explains the constant discomfort I've had in the knee for some time now. I have to start a round of appointments next week to see what can be done about it  and being a big coward about surgery, I am just hoping that it doesn't come to that ! Ah bliss -  the pleasures of growing old! I've decided that,  having tried this 'getting older' business , I don't like it and want to stop - anyone know how??

On the quilty side of life , I have now managed to build up a stock of 5 tops ready for quilting, but to be honest it's just been to hot to try wrestling a quilt through the Bernina, so anything  finished has been small scale.I had hoped to post a couple of photos, but the camera has gone off with DH to a steam rally, so they'll have to wait for another day.

Have you seen Christina's  new Quilt A Long with a difference?  Worth checking out if  like me  you are really fed up with stippling , and if  you really want to see some eye candy and pick up a tip or two at the same time, have a look at Wendy's  blog, she does amazing quilting  with her DSM .                         

A second newcomer in the side bar , I was thrilled  to have been featured on Karen's Selvage Blog some weeks ago, but have only recently got around  to downloading the button.

As I don't  really like blogging without any photos , here's a couple taken on our one of our recent jaunts. Interesting as they show several different headdresses from around the Province, and don't the youngsters look so cute !



Hopefully life will settle down into a more normal routine for the next couple of months, and then I can get down to some serious sewing & blogging !!