Do Not Disturb ....

.....  quilter at work.

Sorry Pipette. You can scratch and yell to be let in as much as you like, but your Mum is busy, busy, busy.

Look at this lot!

Clockwise from bottom right is Strawberries & Cream waiting to be tied;

Liberated Roman Strings being hand quilted;

another Q4L quilt waiting to be tied; and 

All That Jazz (aka Brick Building) still being built.

Phew!

More soon.

A Celebration!

Today is (or nearly was) The Old One's Birthday.

He really is A Lot Older Than Me and, despite his idiosyncrasies, I love him to bits.

The Young One got up early and arrived in our bedroom with his normal breakfast of brioche, confiture and coffee.

His birthday present from us was The King's Speech as we thought he'd like something we can all enjoy (ulterior motive there!).

We had a relatively quiet day until a long standing friend arrived seeking refuge.  Out came the  rosé and white wines and the carefully planned birthday supper turned into mayhem!

However, in between the celebrations I found a quiet moment and started to hand quilt something which I've been wanting to do for ages.

I'm using a cotton batt which I've never quilted with before. Finding it interesting.

More soon (got to finish off that bottle of rosé).

1 Day to Go - "Words Words Words"

I've just typed those words  into Google and found this wonderful web site (click here).  Great inspiration!

I'm always looking for inspiration and could quite happily spend a day going through the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.  I love Lynne's "No Rules" quilts that she made for Tonya and Julie.

So today I've decided to show some words.

My Scrappy Mind 

made for the AAQI Liberated Challenge 2010

Screeeech

 Made for Tonya for her Slither Eek Boo quilt.

Woohoo.  I searched her blog for links to that quilt and have just discovered that my little word is going to be on The Quilt Show when they broadcast Tonya's interview next year (scroll down to the photo she took of her quilts being hung).. 

Joyeux Anniversaire Fanny

L I F E

 Another mini qult made for the AAQI Liberated Challenge 2010.

I've actually forgotten what I called this. 

Joyeux Anniversaire Magaly.

and last, but not least

The back of the quilt I made for Tonya's Liberated Amish Challenge.

I'll really looking forward to getting this finally quilted.  It's the next on the list.

Tomorrow see's the publication of Tonya's wonderful book and what will be my last post on the subject, bringing you up to date with

words.

Just as a matter of interest, what is the official publication date?  Does anyone know?

Patchwork Place are saying tomorrow, The Book Depositry says today and it is now out of stock, and Amazon.com says today, but because that's Amazon in the US, they haven't woken up yet and it's not available :-) !

Tonya!  Has it sold out already!

Fiddling about on Friday

No. Not really. Just bored!

I've managed to pick up some sort of eye infection in my left eye and can't sew for long stretches of time so feeling a bit grumpy and out of sorts.

However, before the nasty germ decided to stay at our house, The Old One and I had a "qulting day".  Yup.  I finally let him handle fabric and make a few decisions!

To be honest, I was struggling and needed some help so The Old One was allowed to choose fabrics from the solids bin and act as adviser.

The back of my Liberated Amish quilt - a husband and wife effort!

 with a very proud husband holding it up

(and getting arm ache)

It needs another border - about 4 or 5 inches - round the outside and then we are ready to baste and quilt.  Woo hoo!

Happy Easter everyone.  I know quilters love chocolate, but don't overdo it!

S is for ....

Spring.

BritiSh Summer Time (ha!).

(copyright BBC)

Spring forward (Daylight Saving Time).

Sun.

Swimming Pool
(waiting for the rain to stop so it can be uncovered)





and most importantly

Stripes or Strings

This is going to be the back of my Liberated Amish quilt.

The Old One actually participated in this. We had fun yesterday afternoon playing with the letters and juggling the words about. He enjoyed the process of sorting through the solids bin finding the right colour for the background and watching it all come together.

I was going to piece "Stripes" together in a block, but on looking at the layout as it stands, I rather like the look of it. I think I'll leave it as it is.

Now all I've got to do is put the whole lot together and probably add some more fabric to make a border.

Anyone up for a challenge?

A few of us on the Liberated Quilters group have decided to try to finish what we've started and not to start anything new until the 1st May.

One person has decided to quilt only to try and finish her UFO's

I've decided to try to get Blueberry Fool fiinshed, finish the quilting on the Halloween quilt and make a start on Family Trees (that is the only link I can find to it.  Don't know where the final photo of it is).

Anyone fancy joining us? It's not a proper challenge, just a bit of fun.

If you do join in try to link back to this post so we know how many of you there are.

I'm off to try and get some more sewing done.

Liberated Quilters Retreat

To celebrate International Quilting Day, the Liberated Quilters Yahoo! group held a virtual online retreat.

Funnily enough, we all trouble kick starting ourselves and most of us, including me, spent a lot of time ripping and sewing and ripping again.  Have you ever sewn an S together upside down, ripped it and then done it again!

I sewed constantly for 6 hours, interspersed with large mugs of tea and The Young One keeping me company while she mucked about on the computer.

I didn't get as much achieved as I wanted to, but I did get 50% of the back done for my Liberated Amish 2010 Get Together quilt.

Apart from the "is", the letters are about 8 inches high.  The biggest ones I've ever done.  Once I got into my stride it felt good cutting really large strips, rather than itty bitty ones.

Two more words to do - "or" and "stripes", but they'll have to wait as the sun is shining and I've got chores to do.

I've surprised myself

and I can't stop looking at it.

Crap photo - sorry.  The light wasn't very good.

Thank you so much Tonya for your last minute advice.  You helped me make my mind up and The Young One says why didn't you say something earlier!!!!

Reset to Zero

I go off line for a week and come back to over 280 blog posts. Arrggghhh!

Reset to zero and carry on sewing.

But wait!  Is that sun?  Woohoo!

Busy Encore

and loving it.

Just needed to know when to stop.

Remember Emma 191B and how I found her?

Well she's working very very hard and she's purring like a good'un.  This is one good sewing machine.

Busy busy busy

and the sun has come out!  Woohoo!

Chaos Reigns Supreme

There is so much going on here at Worthy Towers that I'm having great difficulty in deciding what to do next.

I've finally finished the LiFE mini quilt for AAQI.

I've jettisoned the Love quilt I made and have given it to The Young One.  I cut myself badly while quilting it and got blood everywhere, then the binding was too short and I had to make a bridge between the beginning and the end, and I'm not happy about the quilting.  No photo as I'm not very proud of it.

Another block done for the Liberated Amish Get Together

and as you can see from the first photo, I'm still adding colours.

I'm hoping to get some more blocks done this afternoon.  It's so darn cold here that there is really nothing else to do.

Oh for some sun!

The First Block is the Hardest

It's so long since I "stitched and flipped" that I forgot how to do it.

But I did remember eventually and here is the first block.

The original colour plan has gone out the window.

Providing I end up with the blue in the centre and the purple at the ends, I don't really care what goes in between!

Merging Ideas

I've been thinking about how to liberated my choice - No. 60 Roman Stripes - as I think it is liberated enough.  Trust me to pick a liberated quilt to liberate!

Unable to sleep last night and getting excited by the colour combination I am hoping to use, at 2.00 am I could be found going through Liberated String Quilts and - bingo!  I'm going to use Gwen's Amish Rectangular String Quilt (page 67) as part of my inspiration and V's Waverunner as the inner border.

I've already cut 18 7 inch foundation squares from baking parchment (hope the machine can stand up to that) and am now cutting strips.

If I can't sleep tonight I shall be taking the sewing equipment downstairs to the kitchen so I don't keep The Old One awake.

Watch this space!

Decision Made

That's more like it!

(dreadful photo - sorry)

and I've found a way of quilting in a straight line.  You know what I'm like - can't cut or sew straight, even with a ruler.

Masking tape to the rescue!

Procrastinating

I'm very good at that.

Do I? Don't I?

Shall I? Shan't I?

Which is why sometimes I need a good kick up the proverbial to get me going.

I think I need one now.

Fabric for the Liberated Amish Get Together.

Option 1

 

The bright bright yellow is more of a sickly green which actually goes quite well.  However I may take it out and replace with a sort of beige colour.

Oh help!  Decisions.  Decisions.  Decisions.

Option 2

(the more I think about it, it is probably not an option)

Definitely not an option - yuk!

Note to self - give the batiks a rest!

I think perhaps Option I needs some fiddling about with.  Shall I bung in some red just for the heck of it?

Definitely procrastinating.