The farmers wife returns....

I have attempted to make the Farmers Wife sampler quilt before, I think I made about 16 blocks but fell out of love with them and they went in the scrap bag.  I didn't think I would attempt to make it again until a couple of weeks ago when my friend Leanne (see Lizzie the quilter blog) posted her finished version. I immediately fell in love with the colours and the beautiful fabric she had used and I decided to get the book back out and start again.  My lovely friend Janet and I started making blocks for this quilt about the same time but unlike me she has now finished hers. She said she has not done all the blocks in the book and it is a small quilt but I bet it is fabulous. I began my new blocks four days ago and so far I have made 11 blocks. The bulk of it will come from my fabric stash but I am always in short supply of white on white so I know I will have to purchase more of this along the way.

What do you see?

A few post back I told you I had started to make a quilt for the theme category at Harrogate this year. The original image I showed on that post just didn't seem to work. so it was back to the drawing board.  Several days later and here is my almost finished quilt (there is a tiny bit of quilting still to do on the left hand side). It has been a very frustrating quilt to make, lots of trial and error and full of raging emotions during its assembly. On Monday night I began the quilting and quilted a lot before I realised I did not like how I had quilted it. I felt very close to tears so I folded the quilt up went and had a cuppa found a TV programme I'd enjoy unfolded the quilt and unpicked all the quilting whilst watching the telly. Once unpicked I sat and thought about the quilting and began again. I am very blessed because the next day I was able to take the quilt to my dear friend Janet for advise and all was good. She even came to the rescue when I told her I was having difficulty finding a thread to use to quilt the very bottom part of the quilt, she went into her sewing room and came out with the perfect variegated YLI thread in similar colours to that in the batik fabric. She truly is a star. All that's left for me to do is send off the application and I can move on to the next sewing project.

Look what I won.......

This morning I jumped the bus into Liverpool to see the Art Foundation end of year exhibition show at Liverpool Community College.  I really enjoyed looking at all the students work. An added bonus was I met up with Linda (textile tutor) Jason (painting tutor) and Damian (3D tutor) such a pleasure catching up with them they are fab people to say the least.  I arrived home to find a parcel in the post for me from Immediate Media. I didn't have a clue what it was and to my surprise when I opened it and it said I had won a competition. I remember entering one in a card making magazine months ago but as you do forgot all about it. This is what I won, four clear stamps and a little stack of ink pads. I am amazed and delighted.  I just had to ring my amazingly wonderful friend Janet to tell her about my win because it had made my day and she understands the bigness of such little things. Thanks Janet x

Where's my name?

A few weeks ago when we had that glorious sunny weather we took Cole to the park but first port of call was to the pound shop to buy a ball. Whilst there my sister bought me a paint your own pig money box. Needless to say the paint brush in the box was a really bad stiff nylon kids brush and I decided to take it home to paint. However I forgot all about it until I was rummaging around in my sewing room. Out came the acrylic paints and I set too. Whilst we where on holiday Colin bought me a cupcake money box that had my name on it but he was not able to find one with Michaela's name on. This has been the case since she was born so I decided to add her name to the piggy box and surprise her. I know she will love it and even more so because it was painted by me. This was such a fun little project to do and all for £1.

Inspiration.

More sketches from my tea time moments.

As you can see here I added flowers to the teapot and went on to teaspoons.

Its strange how inspiration can just it you right out of the blue. I decided to fill in my application for Harrogate in September (entering the cot quilt category), as I was doing this I read the theme category "Its an Illusion". Now I have only ever entered the theme category once many years ago when I was very new to quilting and did not have a clue.  I wondered as to what on earth one could make for such a theme and my curiosity got the better of me. Before I knew it I found an image that I made me think, I could turn that into a quilt/wall hanging. It is in its very early stages and I am not even sure if it will work or if I will even enter it. However, I still have a couple of weeks to decide so for now I will just see how it goes.

Mug or cup?

 For me it has to be a tea cup whenever possible. I am quite fussy when it comes to mugs or cups. I can not abide thick heavy docker mugs, I like dainty delicate china or porcelain mugs or cups to drink tea from. I adore tea cups with matching saucers, I feel they are the pinnacle of the great British cuppa. For some unknown reason I awoke this morning thinking about tea cups. After the general house work I rummaged through my inspiration folder which contains hundreds of images I have collected from magazines, books flyers etc. I then grabbed a new sketch book and began to scribble. However, this was not enough so I began to browse the Internet for further inspiration as well as taking photographs of my own tea service. I love my tea service but sadly I left the saucers in the other flat when we moved out. (Warning check all kitchen cupboards one last time when moving house before handing over the keys.) I am no photographer (DH will probably shudder when he sees my attempts) but that's ok because I want to print the images out to trace around there shape. This will allow me to put my own spin on the cups when I come to add colour.  Contrary to belief I don't always draw my images, sometimes you want instant results so tracing is a great way to provide an accurate outline. For those of  you who say "I can't draw"  that's fine because you don't have to, just trace your image instead. Again not sure where this work will lead, I'm feeling a little lost at the moment but at least I am enjoying being creative.

The photographers exhibition....

"Beauty and the beast" oh ye and the photographer.

These Colin took on our day to Keswick. I waited for over an hour in the car as Colin took the pier image waiting for the sun to go down.

One of my favourites. He took this whilst we were walking along Heswall marina.

Today Colin took me to Southport College to see their end of year show. Please forgive my little digital camera as I tried to take pictures of the images he has exhibited.  I love seeing other peoples work and whilst there we also took a sneek peak of the other shows in the art and media departments. Next week I will be attending Liverpool Community College the Art foundation course end of year show and Uclan Textile degree show.

Something new in the making.....

but what it is going to be I am not sure? I have been playing today with images of art deco from a copyright free book I bought quite some time ago. This is what I made today. I wonder what tomorrow will bring??????

Not a lot of sewing going on...

Due to the glorious weather we have been having I have done very little sewing. However I managed to make and post my June FMQ fabric post card swap. There was a theme this month, "wedding". I did not have a clue what I was going to do until Friday and a little pale blue ribbon fell out of a draw in my sewing room. Many years ago I made personalised garters for people who where getting hitched. When I saw the blue ribbon I new straight away my postcard would have a little garter. I already had the ideal fabric with wedding text on it and for the free motion quilting I tried to do little hearts but they where very hit and miss. Off my card went in the post and I realised I did not take a photo of it. This morning I made a similar card but I tried to add to gold wedding bands. like the FMQ there hit and miss to.

Busy with the Fambo.....

Michaela, Ian and Cole in Haven Wales.

Me and Cole in the giant deck chair on a very cold and blustery day in Hav Y Mon.

Quality time in the caravan.

The four of us at Zorba's celebrating Paige's 18th birthday.

The birthday girl and her moustache cup cakes.

Darling daughter posing with a moustache cup cake.

I have been busy enjoying lots of time with the people who mean everything in the world to me "My Family". First off we had a great week in wales with my daughter her partner and our little man. Lots and lots of laughter and a little bit of sun through the wind and rain weather. This was followed by a weekend of celebrations for my niece Paige who was 18.  So all sewing has been on hold whilst I baked lots of cakes and simply indulged in being with my family.