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Kathie wondered what the whole quilt looked like from my last post. So here it is!

And if you have time, go and look at the old pattern book that is being shared at Q is for Quilter. What a treat!

The blocks in the last post are a ’type’ that has appealled to me consistently over the years. I collect pictures in files and notebooks, then every so often look through for any common themes. The square surrounded by HSTs is a common theme for me! I wonder how many blocks there are and how many names they have aquired over the years. Jan has been sewing some in this vein for a while. They are just great! Here is the similar format in ‘Wind Blown Square’ from my book Quilting-on-the- Go.

The combination of the browns with a bit of pink has long been a favourite. Kathie is doing some fun things with her brown fabrics on her blog at the moment. Brown is one of the largest stashes I have! This is one of the first fabrics that I brought.

It has been in the stash so long as it’s in that catagory of ‘too precious to use’….. I am still waiting for that special project! Good Grief!!! I have it in turquoise too, but have nearly used it all up!

I put this little hanging up in my sewing room last week. This too is something that I have had a while!

 I came across it in a file of information on Janet Bolton. I so love her work, and a few years ago I attended one of her workshops. Her scale of work is quite small and mine seemed to be a bit bigger. This is about A4 size, and compared to Janets pieces it is HUGE!!!! But I love it, it reminds me of spring!

I seem to have lots of projects at that half way stage at the moment, and then because I could not settle to focus on one in particular, I started these:

If you want to sew some too, check out the tutorial over here.  It’s called a Double Friendship block, and is posted in Febuary! I altered the measurements to suit me, but you can do whatever works for you!  Happy stitching!

Since I moved into my new sewing room I have not managed to have anything put up on the walls. So this week was very exciting as I had some of my prints moved from the mantle piece and on to the wall. There was not much, but I am so please with the way it looks. I have a ’shoo fly’ piece by Virginia at Galloping Pony and a Little house from Sweet Nellie.

My own work on the wall consists of a little bag that I keep bits in for hand piecing projects!

I know Kathy is sewing quilts for her wall, and has shown us some lovely pieces lately, she really is on a roll!

I have been stitching a new top to practice my machine quilting on after being inspired by the work of Ingrid Press. But check out  Lisa Call and Keiko Goke both of whose work I love, and they both do very simple machine quilting!

The top is a version of the Steeple Chase block sewn with the Makowers flowers fabrics! Very apt for encouraging thoughts of spring!

Last week I went over to East Grinstead to see the show of the work by the  group ‘Hanging Together’. A couple of the ladies in the this group I have known for a very long time, and it is always nice to see their beautiful work.

I came away from the gallery so inspired!

Amongst all the great work there were some lovely pieces by Ingrid Press. I had read snippets about her work that was on show at the NEC quilt show last August, and seeing it in person was not a let down. As well as her pieces for the wall, the artists all had to submit an ironing board! And even that was inspiring!

Here are some detail shots:

I am now off to practice my straight line quilting! You wouldn’t think it could be so exciting!!!

My Cheddars top that I have been working on was inspired by Lori and her Quilt-a-long. The top is together, the backing ang and wadding cut, so now I have the joy of deciding on the quilting.

 I maybe going down the machine quilting route, as there are a lot of seams close together, and I have a new Juki Sewing machine, and I am keen to see how it performs on the quilting front!

Here is a close up of the Cheddar fabric I choose from my stash. I didn’t have a plain one  so I used this print instead.

The bowns were from my stash, and there is a mix of bold prints along with the smaller ones. The light fabric is a ‘Little Quilts’ shirting print, which I had in two colourways, and I used both in the quilt.

 Take a look here and you can seee how others got along with theirs.

Thanks Lori for hosting the Quilt-a-long!

I have spent my last three days at the Ardingly Quilt Show, on my stand (booth?) talking to quilters and quilting and talking some more. It is such a friendly show, and as it is ‘local’ to me I see so many familiar faces! I just love it!

I took some of these blocks to quilt:

They are called ‘Fannys Favourite’ and it is one of the quilts for the next Quilting-on-the-Go book I will write. Great portable quilting, and I got lots done. People are so interested in watching Hand Quilting!

There is always a lovely selection of quilts and some that appealed to me were made as group quilts by the Beckenham Quilters. This is a block from an Kantha inspired piece:

I have always really enjoyed sewing that type of block, so it was a treat to see a whole quilt made from them.

This was another favourite, in wool work:

And a close up of the Dorset Buttons:

They are a great embellishment for this type of work. I think they would look  great on the quilts Sue Spargo makes! I have used them on String Quilts too  and they just fit right in!

I am now off to unpack from the show (Ugh!), and then finish sewing my Cheddars quilt!

Well, certain projects stalled this week:

My ‘Cheddars ‘ are still on the design board. (Sorry Lori, I know others have finished and quilted theirs!), but other things got put on top of them!

It seemed a quicker option to see what this block looked like made up:

than complete the ‘Cheddars’ , and all because I read on someone else’s post that the little quilt (24″x 24″) has 500 pieces in it when finished! Gulp! Mind you, they had finished, and quilted theirs, so they had a moment to count them!

I did finish this top though:

It is a version of the ‘Japanese Stars and Lanterns’ pattern that I have coming out at the end of the month. This one is made from Makowers Flowers, and has really been a breath of sunshine on yet more grey and drab days here.

I have also been enjoying Kathies post about the Amish quilt book. What caught my eye on the website for the publishers was their selection of cards, and this in particular:

Now isn’t that a quilt waiting to be sewn?

There is lots going on here in the sewing room ( well, isn’t there in everyones, I hear you say?) So here is what I have done this week:

The Ninepatch Pinwheels have gone together to give a nice fresh spring like quilt. Although the weather here is set for  a bit more snow I have seen spring like tips of daffodils peeking through the grass.

If you are in need of a bit of quilting inspiration and the company of other quilters coming out of hiberation, then come along to the quilt show a Ardingly  29th to 31st January to see some quilts and shop. Come and Say ‘Hi!’ to me as I will be there too!

Or if you want something to look forward to later in the year I am teaching in France in September. Doesn’t the thought of some warm sun, being catered for all week and some sewing just appeal right now!

I made this little block this week and although I love it, the colours are what I am seeing in the sky right now. It would be nice if the sun came through, just to remind us what it looked like!

If you want to see some colour, go over to Sarah London. I just want to crochet everything I see on her site! Because it’s not like I have anything to sew around here!!

Well, we are sort of getting used to the snow. Apart from the obvious inconveniences that people are facing, I still quite like the snow! I know some people are experiencing difficulties with getting along with daily lives, but I have to confess that we are lucky in where we live as I can walk to most places, and I can work from home. So apart from the feeding (constantly) and entertaining of my son, and trying to encourage a bit of home study (as the school suggested!), I have sewn. A Lot.And ordered fabric. And ordered a book.

The book was the new one by Keiko Goke, and as Amy suggested I got it from Yes Asia, which worked very quickly. So I am being inspired by Keiko’s beautiful work each night as I read it in bed! (And I ordered some of her fabric from Glorious Colour which is on its way, but I see she has a second line out now, so I need to keep my eyes open for that too!)

I finished putting this quilt together:

I miss calculated the number of hexagons that I needed for the size of quilt I wanted to make, (by about 100! Wah!!) So I figured turning one into a pincushion wouldn’t hurt:

And I quite liked the look of the quilt, ‘Road to California’ (page 61) in the book ‘Treasures in the Trunk’, so I made one of the blocks to see how it looked:

I am pretty happy with it, so I feel a quilt coming on……eventually, so don’t hold your breath! Sadly unlike Victoria over at Bumblebeans, I don’t seem to find that blogging about it makes me more likely to sew it!

Although I am now hand quilting the giant Hexagon Flower garden quilt that was in a post or two back! So I have a nice cosy quilt to sit under as I quilt it in the chilly evenings! Bring on the hot chocolate!