I took the process pledge

When I can grab a few minutes at the computer and escape from stripping wallpaper, cleaning etc at the new house (pic shows youngest daughter hard at work!) I have been working my way down the list of quilts at Amys Quilt Festival (if you have not yet found your way there, there is a link on the right) and at Marit's Blog I came across the Process Pledge.  The idea is that those of us who blog about our quilts (and other crafts) should make a pledge to share more about our thoughts and the process of designing and making our quilts.  I decided to join in as I always love to read about other stitchers creation processes and it will hopefully prove motivating for me as well perhaps being interesting/useful for any other crafters out there.

I am just about to start a new quilt which is to be for my son and his partner.  I have found a pattern called 'In the Pink' which is being offered as a block of the month by Esther Aliu and which features both piecing and applique.  I have been given a free reign to create this quilt as regards pattern but they would like it to feature 'peacock' colours so I will have to change the colours in the pattern.  I would also like to try and use fabrics from my stash rather than buying new ones (that will be a first if it happens!).  At the moment I am trying to decide on the colours and the applique method but I probably won't actually start sewing until after we move.  I'm itching to get started though ............perhaps I will find time to at least select the fabrics.................

New Home

At long last we have completed the purchae of our dream home and hopefully my last move ever!  It has taken nearly three years to find a actually purchase and the dream we have been chasing is actually starting.  This is the view from the front door over our fields (all 80 odd acres of them) and beyond and still beautiful even in the rain.  Plans include a livery business, a proper studio with room for me to teach as well as some hens and a proper veggie plot but Rome wasn't built in a day and first we have to get the house habitable ready to move in before the end of June.  I think stitching (and blogging) may get a bit neglected for a while!

Amys Quilt Festival

Discovered this event via Mogs Blog and thought it sounded interesting.  Amy is hosting an online quilt festival and if you visit Amys Blog you can not only see (at the present count) 252 quilts but you can also share a picture of one your quilts and its story. 

Here's mine.

I'm not cheating - it is only one quilt but I made it double sided.  I made it for my daughter and started it around 4 years ago when she was 13.  She chose the animals she wanted from A Quilters Ark by Margaret Rolfe and I set to work piecing them using freezer paper templates.  When the animals were finished I then took a while to work out how to place them and also in finding a fabric that would blend with them all.  By now she is 17 and, although she says she still likes it, I am worried that it is too childish.  In addition we had been collecting fabric for this quilt at all the quilt shows we have visited together and I hadn't used half of it - it must be the most expensive quilt in history!  I decided to use some of the stash to create the backing, keeping the animal theme but in a more (I hope) sophisticated way.  I was pleased with the second quilt but it did give me a headache when I came to quilt.  In the end I free machine quilted leaves on the top using a varigated thread but put invisible thread on the bobbin so the quilting did not detract from the pattern on the back.  I know patchwork and quilting is traditionally about using what you have and improvising but I would have made life easier if I had followed a pattern or at least created my own plan when I started.  It was fun though and she still uses the animals on top - at least for now.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is mine:-

"the most dazzling treasure recovered, the Tiffany diamond necklace of its day, the ne plus ultra for the dazzingly rich girl about town, was the fabulous gold scarab, the only one ever found in Asia Minor or the Aegean bearing the cartouche of Nefertiti, the famously beautiful wife of the eighteenth-dynasty, heretically monotheistic  Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten."

page 44 -  The Way of Herodotus - Travels with the Man who Invented History by Justin Marozzi
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Find more teasers  here
 
This is a change from my usual reading choice and was inspired by reading a review my son had written about it - here and the fact that I visited some of the countries the author visits last year.  I read the review (being a supportive parent!!) thought it sounded interesting and am now enjoying it.  I think it will appeal to anyone who has an interest in history and its interpretation through the ages.

Dandelion Days

I've not posted for a while because I have had a really busy couple of weeks.  The week before last we were in London visiting music colleges with my youngest daughter who is hoping to apply soon but I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Quilt Exhibition at the V & A.  It was well worth a visit, especially if you like to see antique quilts.  The quilts on display date from 1700 to 2010 and range from large bed quilts and bed hangings to small sewing accessories; domestic and commercially made quilts and some specially commissioned quilts from current quilt artists.  More details of the exhibition here http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/Quilts/index.html  Linked to the exhibition is the Quilt of Quilts website where the general public are invitied to post pictures of their quilts and all the images together form a virtual quilt.  409 have been up-loaded so far so there is the potential for many happy hours browsing! http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/quilts/gallery/patterns
Whilst on the subject of exhibitions, I have been asked to mention an exhibition by Foggy Furze Quilters.  This will take place at Foggy Furze Library, Stockton Road, Hartlepool on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th June.  Entry is free and there is to be a raffle (first prize a quilt) in aid of the RNLI.  If any readers are in the area on those days I am sure it will be well worth a visit.
Finally, to the dandelions.  I had a friend staying with me last week and spent lots of time out and about visiting local attractions and, thanks to the mainly good weather, country walks.  Is it my imagination or are there more dandelions than usual this year?  Some roads were lined with them - very sunny and cheerful - and I wondered if our cold winter and late spring has perhaps provided good conditons for them.  The down side is that they also seem to have taken over our lawn! 

Inspiration strikes in Sunderland!

My husband was working in Sunderland this morning and as I have been wanting to see the exhibition of local textile group Fusion, which is at Sunderland Minster until 14th May, I cadged a lift and spend a most enjoyable morning there.  I visited the Minster first and as I was early I had the church and the exhibition to myself and was really able to spend time appreciating both the beauty and peace of the building and the work displayed.  Here are 3 of my personal favourites.  From left to right -Bede by Melitta Butterall, which is an exquisitely worked goldwork piece, Save our Soles by  Donna Cheshire, and St Mark by Victoria McLeod whose robes are worked very effectively in chain stitch.  After a visit to the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, I finished with a stroll in Mowbray Gardens where inspiration struck!  I'm not a fan of the regimental planting that is so often seen in parks but the colours combinations here were amazing and I think could translate into some stunning quilts.  Here are the pics.

Star Cross Patchwork

I started this at a workshop with Celia Eddy in March and have just finished it this afternoon - part of my blitz on UFO's!  I didn't like it much before I quilted it - I think I should have reversed the fabrics which would have made the stars more prominent - but it has improved with the quilting and I am going to make it into a cushion.  It was constructed from two templates which needed to be very accurately cut.  I haven't been quite accurate enough and some of my stars are a bit wobbly.  I think I prefer rotary cutting and strip piecing.