New friends or more tack??:

Meet Gert and Bert who have landed on the sewing room windowsill next to Windy and Chook. For those of you who really know me! will know that I do NOT do ornaments, clutter or tack. However, there are times when little things catch my eye and I think yes I could live with that. Now Bert and Gert caught my eye whilst I was out a few weeks ago with a friend and they made me laugh. For this reason my friend bought me the pair as a little gift. I knew they would be at home on the sewing room windowsill and every-time I look at them they bring a smile to my lips. Maybe the moral of this story is sometimes(but only sometimes)a bit of tack does you good.

Christmas Stocking Success:

What a great success the felt Christmas Stockings were. As you can see from the photos everybody was busily working away and they all finished with in the two hours. phew!!!! It was a really quick project to teach. Now maybe I can get back to my stripy log cabin or Jacobs ladder quilt??????

Christmas decoration nightmare:

Last Thursday I told the delightful ladies from the Swan Group that this week we would make a Christmas decoration. I thought maybe we could make an eight pointed star using lovely Christmas fabric. After several hours of me struggling to make one that idea was abandoned. My next bright idea was a cathedral window Christmas decoration. Scrap idea number two far to complex. I knew it had to be something relatively simple and quick to make as we only have two hours in which to make it. Several hours of my precious sewing day had passed and still no further on with an idea for Thursday. Franticly looking through books and magazines then I remembered Janet's delightful little felt stocking she made me last Christmas. Eureka!!!! I hope you don't mind me stealing your idea Janet, it is the ideal project. I have added a star and a bauble shape for a bit of variety.

First Achievement:

The photo above is the very first finished cot quilt from the delightful ladies of the swan sewing group. Pat has worked very hard on her quilt and I think she has done a fabulous job. I feel quite humble that these lovely ladies asked me to teach them patchwork and quilting because I am not a teacher. Seeing Pats quilt yesterday and the smile on her face and that of the others was so rewarding. I came home bit the bullet and rand the WEA (Workers education association0 and put my name down for the next petals course Teaching qualification. Theses course often run subject numbers of people attending the course so fingers crossed there will be sufficient numbers for the September course to run.

Check this out:

Hurray!!! At last I have managed to get some sewing done. I have been consumed with other events in my life over the past few weeks and have had little time for anything else. However, I managed to get two full days of sewing this week. Firstly I finished my courthouse steps for my Log cabin stripy appliqué quilt, alas I am stuck on the flower block (hmmmm need Janet's help me thinks?). Being stuck on one quilt I needed something new to sew? Several years ago I started collecting checked and stripes shirts from family friends and some charity shops, to make a quilt I fell in love with in Fabrications magazine (issue 38 2005). I looked at the shirts I had recently acquired and decided that was my next project. I pulled out the magazine and got stuck in. I have made 50 6" blocks out of 168. The block is called Jacobs ladder. Jacobs ladder is from the book of genius and the story is as follows: Jacob left Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to the place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it [or "beside him"] and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it." And he was afraid, and said, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
Afterwards, Jacob names the place, "Bethel" (literally, "House of God").

Cirensecster;

I recently enjoyed a fabulous weekend away in the Cotswold's, staying in beautiful town of Cirencester. The picture is of Cirencester church, it is the biggest church in the country. Cirencester is steeped in Roman history and a visit to the Corinium Museum certainly inspired my imagination for a quilt or two with a Roman theme. Of course no trip away is complete if one does not manage to find at least one fabric shop. On this occasion I found two, the Fabric Mill and Lexi Loves where I purchased two fat quarters.

A Parliament of Owls:

Just look what the lovely ladies at the Swan centre sewing group made yesterday. I had originally thought I would not be able to attend yesterdays meeting due to another commitment but I had gotten my dates mixed up. I realised that the ladies where not expecting me and therefore they would not have brought their cot quilts. I decided to cut out several Owl patterns from card, grabbed a bunch of scrap fabric from my basket and my button jar then set off. It was a really nice project to teach and I think the results speak for themselves.