Sunday 29 July 2012

Yesterday Was a Busy Day

No words - just photos - as a lot of you asked for close ups of the batik cabins, which, thanks to Julie,  is now called "It's a Jungle Out There".


The backing






Music is Magic


The backing of Music is Magic



More soon.

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Catching Up

At long last a bit of breathing space after all the rushing about taking The Young One to various exams at various times.  Now all we've got to do is sit back and wait for the results!

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I headed off into deepest France for a 48 retreat with Pippa. She lives north of Limoges, in a very rural part of France. More rural than here I can tell you!

We had a great time. We talked quilts, read about quilts and she got out her Grace Quilting Frame and quilted my batik log cabin quilt. We had a few hiccups with the thread, but in the end made quite a good team. Photos to follow as soon as I done the binding and buried hundreds of threads.

However, this is the thread we used on the top


It's Aurifil variegated 50wt thread and is a lot greener than in the picture. It was a perfect match.

When we finished that we got out our sewing machines and Pippa gave me a lesson in FMQ'ing on her Janome.

First thing she told me was that it isn't necessary to drop the feed dogs. The subject has since come up on Facebook and I didn't realise there are so many people who FMQ with the feed dogs up.

Her next tip, which she picked up at the Fat Quarter Retreat in London at the beginning of June, was that instead of using quilting gloves, use this instead.


It's that rubbery stuff that is used for table mats and things and really cheap. Just cut off chunks and you can get a really good grip on the fabric. You learn something new every day!

Just as I was leaving to go to Pippa's, the postman arrived with my winnings from Katy at I'm a Ginger Monkey. A gorgeous bundle of 12 FQ's from The Village Haberdashery.




7 Thomas Knauer Flock FQ's and 5 Kona Solid FQ's. Yum!

And whilst we're on the subject of fabric, I have been doing some personal stash building too.

I've fallen in love with the Summersville range of fabrics.  Pippa said she was ordering a Charm Pack from her and I just couldn't resist!








Just so luscious!

So I've got a million and one things to keep me occupied over the coming months and I can see the batik log cabins taking an age as there are zillions of threads to hide. I might just have to cheat!

And to round  this post of, a photo taken of a Day Lily last week.


More soon.