Saturday 11 October 2014

Flying Geese in Batiks

At last I am posting after a 3 month break from blogland. 
Many thanks to those special bloggers who drop in here now and then and who missed me and my posts and I can say that I am doing OK despite a trip to hospital and a diagnosis of a heart problem I will have to live with and manage. I feel fine but it did lower my spirits and drive for a while.
I am off to Germany to visit my family next week so will be missing again for a while, but I intend be back blogging with a vengeance very soon.

I've still been stitching and have finished a few WIPs (works in progress) whilst MIA so there are quite a few pics on here. 
This is my latest machined WIP. 
Random coloured flying geese in batik fabrics and I'm really enjoying making it.

Another small hand stitched project turned these scraps from the Folded Dreams quilt I finished in July (see it here) into........
this Clam Shell cushion
Serendipity!
I cut the strips for the quilt top (below) one afternoon then machined it next day and it is huge. Bigger than a king sized one I think. I was quite surprised how it grew and it is such a super quick method which was shown to me by Pat, a member of my quilters group. 
Scrap strips of different lengths, in a similar colour depth were joined to contrasting squares to produce a long, continuous, length. When it was joined along the length the result was this quilt top and it was serendipity how the colours panned out. 
I loved making it and it really was a quick result. 
 Today the sun was shining so DH treated me to a quilty trip out. First we visited "Sticky Fingers", a small, but gorgeous, patchwork and quilting shop in Coppull, in the Warrington area, where the owner, Wendy was so friendly and patient in helping me to select the perfect backing and edging fabric for my hexagon quilt.
It's hand stitched and is single bed sized and will be edged in a toning turquoise.
Wendy also kindly recommended a local garden centre where we had a super lunch before driving home. There is a stunning range of fabrics in the shop and I know for sure I'll be paying many more visits there. It was a lovely, enjoyable, worthwhile visit.

We also stopped off at Black Sheep Wools (who amongst all their wool stash, now have a small quilt fabric department) where I was tempted and succumbed to some more Kaffe Fassett fabrics for my next hand stitched project to keep me happy on my travels. 
I have a personal "thing" that, each day, I must make something or I feel that the day is wasted, and these hand stitched projects help me to fulfil this so easily with results that are all so worthwhile.
Why waste time?