Look! I tied it! I loved doing it so much that I am going to tie the rest of them. There is a errrrr doh though! Found a new way of doing the binding and just went full steam ahead, without thinking. The binding is on back to front, but the general concensus of opinion here is that it looks good that way. Oh how I love that backing fabric.
Seasons Greetings to family, friends and all my new pals in Blogland.
May 2007 be the year that us quilters get our UFO's finished!
With love,
Clare, Rex and Alexandra
xxx
One Christmas tradition in this house is the making of chocolate walnuts. Alex and I are going to start making them this weekend. I am putting the quilt away and will be sitting at the kitchen table all day today cracking walnuts, literally, hoping they come out in halves and not itzy bits which are useless for dipping in chocolate.
| You Are a Bow |
 |
Both taken from our balcony and it looks as if it is going to be the same this morning. Time to bring the Lemon Tree in and wrap the plants up I think.
I'm stuck!
I really really don't know what to do with this now.
It looks so lovely that I dare not quilt it.
Anyone any ideas on how I should machine quilt this, having never machine quilted in my life!
And what about the backing material?
Javerlhac were selling it off at 5 Euro a meter. I got 1.5 meters and might be going back to see if they have still got it. I love it!
1. Must be scraps only - nothing from the stash unless it is a "scrap". I suppose FQ's count, but the material mustn't be bought especially for this quilt.
2. No design - go where the scraps want to go.
3. No specific colours.
4. Any size (table runner - small table cloth - cot quilt - wall hanging).
5. Must include Tonya's letters, either upper or lowercase (instructions for the lower case letters can be found on her blog).
6. Must be quilted by hand. I am going to quilt this using Tonya's Fantabulous Fans and shall probably stitch the letters in the ditch.
7. No time limit.
What you do with the quilt is entirely up to you. I am keeping this one. Thought it is about time I made something for myself!
So what do you think? Oui ou non?
This is for Tamzin and Tom!
Huge huge congratulations on your engagement - I'm going to have to find a space for Tom on Ma's quilt now!
Step Father's name at the top. Mum's at the bottom. Us girls' names are on the roofs of the houses. Names down the left hand side are various horses and dogs that the family has owned (there are loads more - ran out of space!), Rex and Matt's (Floyd) names are on the blue sashing, Elmsted is the family home and the rest are terms of endearment.
Just to make your stomachs turn even more before you tuck into your Thanksgiving Turkeys (have a great time all), we are in the middle of the Foire au Gras season when the supermarkets and markets are stocked to capacity with duck, goose and pork.
Magrets (duck breast) are my all time favourite - huge slabs of meat and when the flat is melted down and they are flash fried, they are gorgeous! Then there are the carcasses which still have meat on them, can be boiled down for stock and cost about 2 Euros. Then there is the duck itself. Sold with its head still on (and sometimes the feet are still attached). Cut the head off, and boil the neck up for stock with the bones.
And then there are the aigulettes (don't ask), the geziers (warm Perigordian Salade with geziers, foie gras, chopped walnuts and lettuce - yum!), the hearts, etc, etc. As for the fois gras - need I say more. Duck fat? Brilliant for roasting potatoes in with garlic and rosemary, although don't use too much as the potatoes will go soggy.
However, when it comes to the pork that's when I draw the line! I will not buy a whole piglet (for some reason these are popular at Christmas time) and nor will I buy "la tete". However I do fill the freezer up with chops, loin of pork, potrine of pork and pork for cooking on the rotisserie. At roughly 4 Euros a kilo it is a bargain.
The French "recycle" as much of the animal/duck as they can. Pates, rillettes (gorgeous), confit (mouth watering), boudin noir (black pudding) the list is endless.
Sorry I can't add any more photos, but I will try to take some at Brantome market on Friday if we go down (and if it is sunny).
To get back to the normal topic, I finished Family Quilt last night. I am just about to bind it.
Went to fabric shop this morning and got batting and backing for the Leukaemia quilt so must stop chatting to you and get some sewing done.
Thanks for all the comments about the new template. It was a tough decision to make - there are so many gorgeous ones on the Pannasmontata site.
Time to get skates on - due out for a Viveurs' lunch in Perigueux, friends staying tonight so have to tidy their room, make the kitchen look presentable and then we are possibly going back with them tomorrow to stay overnight, coming back Sunday.
In the meantime, this is a picture of the first quilt I ever made. It has been taken out of its summer storage and is back on Alex's bed where it belongs (though this picture is our bedroom. If you turn round and face the other way you would be looking at my sewing/computer corner).
See you on Monday.
Not very good I'm afraid as it was late last night when I took them. One more house block to finish and them I am on to the border, then bind it, put the "tube" on the back et voila!
You can still see the soap lines on this and my name isn't that clear. Think I may have to outline it in pale green.
D.H still hasn't done the rail for BJWH (sniff). Bit of a problem at the moment with the electrics. The whole lot tripped out twice last night when I turned my reading light on. Guess who was wandering round in her P.J's with a torch at midnight!
Sitting in the car yesterday waiting for D.H and D.D, notebook and pen in hand, this came into my head.
To be continued ....................
On the home run on Family Quilt, and Guess What! I've started cutting Sunburst - wooo hooo.
Have lost this post once already so won't push my luck.
A demain.
And these are grus, or cranes, flying over our house last week on their way from Holland to Spain. Our little part of France is slap bang in the middle of their route south to north and north to south. Their arrival in March/April marks the beginning of Spring and in October/November, winter (brrrr - shiver!).
Did a bit more on Family Quilt last night. The Fantabulous Fans are a bit off course, but I like the look of it. If I can get this block finished today you may get piccies tomorrow. In the meantime, D.H has said he will try to get the rail up on the bedroom wall today for Blue Jeans Wall Hanging so I suppose the quilt had better go through the washing machine.
A+
And then if you turn to the left you will see my desk, which, being me, is full of junk. Believe it or not I know where everything is so no one is allowed to touch it.
Next purchase is an office "swivel chair".
In the meantime, these are pictures of "my baby" - Citronnier Quatre Saisons. Bought it about 7 years ago as a "welcome to France" pressie to myself and it has grown and grown, survived 2 or 3 pretty horrific winters (with temps downto -12 at night), has lost its leaves at least twice, but it struggles on. I do bring it in just before the first frost (next month - brrrr). wrap it up in winter fleece and bubble wrap and keep an eye on it during the winter months. It hibernates in the "laundry room"!
Before I sign off for the day, can I ask you to send a quilter's hug to my fellow Crafter and Francophile, Vivi, who is going through a pretty rough time at the moment.
| You Belong in Spring |
 |
Here we go - Family Quilt "en cours".
I misjudged the seam under the first E's in "George" and "Jenny" and the Y came out back to front, but hey, wonky is the word!
I was going to continue the green border all the way round, but like the effect of the squares on the R/H side.
Boy was I getting fed up with it! I started the binding on Saturday afternoon and had to unpick the whole lot yesterday morning. It still isn't right, but it's better than it was!
Now it is to be washed (she says crossing fingers that the colours won't run), initialled and handed over to its recipient.
And today I hope to get the top of Houses finished, batted and backed (heavy sigh).
This is Magic and Podge on Alex's lap. Magic is getting cross because Podge is trying to push her off.
Tuesday morning was fine - spoke to Megs, caught up on the mails, started reading through my Bloglines and reading and responding to various Q's4L mails. The computer went ping! Rebooted, it went ping again, and again and then no electricity.
Noticed it was getting a bit windy outside, but didn't pay much attention.
Then Rex came upstairs and said would I give him a hand - the Olive tree had fallen over and there was a bit of a gale outside.
Gale wasn't the word! We got the Olive tree inside and waited for the wind to drop. Walnuts flying in all directions, various trees bent double and all a bit scary.
When the wind finally dropped we went out to inspect the damage.
Big green table is no more - it took off, went slap into the fig tree and the normally very solid legs splayed outwards. One sun bed decided it was going to go for a swim and is, thankfully, undamaged. The table took one big terracotta pot and oleander with it. Olive tree has lost its one olive, but thankfully pot is undamaged. One tile fell off the north side of the roof and there are bits of black bache from goodness only knows where. The pool was full to the brim with leaves of various descriptions, most notably walnut and buddelia.
The whole area was without power for Tuesday afternoon/evening and all day yesterday and the phone was off all day yesterday. 7.00 p.mish last night power and the phone were restored, this morning no phone. Phone came back on at lunchtime today.
At least this time we had running water (unlike 1999/2000 when we were without water for a week!), but unlike 1999/2000 we had a nearly full chest freezer to worry about. Thankfully the power was restored within 48 hours and the contents of both freezers are ok.
But guess who forgot to take any pictures! What is the point of having a digital camera if you keep on forgetting you've got it!
Once again, I am catching up on mails, blogs and stuff so please excuse me if you are waiting for an answer re the quilts, or whatever.
Oh and if you are reading this on my blog(s), blocks have now been received from Serena, Juliann, Veronica, Mel, Fiona and Marcie.
Clare xx
| You Are Apple Red |
 |
These materials have always been around. Liberty and Heals have always stocked them but at a price, so it is lovely to see them coming back just a tad cheaper.
And in the same vein. these are some of the fabrics which can be seen at Charleston House in West Sussex, UK.
It's a tool box and my goodness is it useful. Alexandra has great fun reoganising it for me on a fairly regular basis so I can never find anything. But its brilliant cos I can just pick needlecases, cotton, scissors, rulers, etc from the kitchen table and dump it all in the bottom until the next day.
I'm on the look out for a smaller version for all the embroidery threads and balls of perle cotton that are building up.
Hedgehog has sent me some more and we are now well on the way to creating the first quilt. My friend Sue up the road at Nontron has offered to help me piece them together.
Now don't laugh, but a lovely gentleman living in the Lot et Garonne departement, who goes by the name of Ian Gillis, has been inspired by this blog and might, just might, make a block for me, using his mother's treadle sewing machine which has been lovingly cared for over the years. Courage Xian!
Not a good picture I'm afraid! The bottom of it has been chopped! The "purple" bit is supposed to be a white sheet, not part of the quilt. Border and binding still to be done.
A question. As it is going to be a wall hanging, does it need batting? I don't think it does, in which case I can start "decorating" it.
Thanks for all your advice. I did a bit of stem stitching on it yesterday afternoon/evening and decided that it definitely does need batting.
"Hi Clare, I think this is fantastic, a great blog site, and very good of you to think of something to help. Also seems like a whole load of others need thanking too, indeed a multi-national massive quilt build!! It must take a fair amount of time to make, and hopefully all this effort can be best used for some great causes. I'll bet some kiddies would be delighted with bright colourful quilts from afar!"
This is what I have been working on for the last few days and, boy, has it taken time!
Lovely design by Alexandra, but sewing fabrics together, cutting to the right size (too short Mum, too big Mum!) has been a nightmare. Finally managed to finish off today while she was at school!
Sophie - Mum is not allowed to look!
Now that that is out of the way I can concentrate on "my" stuff !
