Gartmore January 2019

Well its our three year anniversary. Three years since we rocked up at the door of this old mansion house. The first year was BALTIC, freezing but there was just something about Gartmore which made us come back, again and again and again.
Thankfully the heating is now fixed and a lot of work has been done. But somethings never change :-)

ADELE!!!!!! c'mon sing along you know you want too :-)
There was our usual mini challenge, this year it was fussy cutting. I did a mini porthole quilt with the three windows from playschool on it. I wanted to put the arched window in the middle because it was my favourite. I didnt win but lovely Ruth won and she's my chum so thats allright :-) well  they are
all my chums, so i dont mind not winning.

Ruths winning entry

There was also a group of indigo dyers visiting too, so there was some nice fibrous talk over breakfast and lunch.

As per usual i went for my wee joggette first thing, just to get the blood pumping and build up an appetite for the full scottish.

Aye well i got a bit drookit as they say!

I was working on a multitude of things. Lovely Ruth and I decided not to do the same paper piecing thing, Ruth had a lot to finish off and she made great headway with getting stuff done.

Love this pouch she made.

I took along a few things to work on. Last year I made good progress and finished off some long term projects - Farmers wife!!!! so what better to do than start some new ones! yea for new projects.

First up my Tea for two on acid :-) ive been itching to start this one ever since I got the idea for the fabric for it. The pattern is a BOM from todays quilter by the lovely Jo Avery. I wanted something vibrant and the lime green with the Japanese metalics is certainly not shy!

 

 

 

I also wanted to start another pattern by Jo, her New York Beauty, this will be a very special quilt. I bought the Tilda fabric with a voucher which was a leaving present from my last job. This quilt will be a special memory of that.



 

 

 

 Ahhhhhhh my Neptune and the maiden quilt! the fabric is actually called Neptune and the Mermaid but for some reason I always call it Maiden instead of mermaid.

 I got a luffly noo chum. He was in a display case in the foyer just begging to come home to be with his cousin Gertie the sheep who came home with me last time. Liberty scarf  expertly tied by the lovely Ruth.

 Lucy made and quilted a WHOLE quilt! how lovely is this.

 Ahhhhhhhhh yes the quiz night …… each round interspersed with a guess the gin round ….. who says quilting is for meek and mild old laydeez :-)
There were other rounds but who can remember them after all that blooming (gorgeous) gin!

 

 This is looking into the Cayzer room which is where we sew,  whenever I drive up I look to see who is in the room. The lights are on, folks pootling about inside, happy and  having fun.

 One of the nice things the Gartmore staff do is to give us the same rooms each year. I pass this vase on the way to my bedroom. Isnt it beautiful.

 I always love these tiles in the main lobby.

 Margaret looking contemplative on the balcony.

 Who made this?? was it Janice?

 Janice definitely made this one! well we all had a little hand in it. Last June retreat she brought along some light sensitive fabric. We all made a block by putting objects, flowers stitching things on a squre. Janice put them all together.

 

 Have you been following the #amakershands on IG? very powerful stories there. I suggested we do one for our Gartmore retreat. I do love this rather a lot.

 First sign of spring on a lunchtime walk.

 Lucy and Margaret waiting for us outside to get our picture taken :-)

 

We have another 3 dates booked! so yes Garrtmore we will be back again :-)

 



 

 

Port hole Liberty mini

WOO HOO!!! we haz a finish! this was number 9 on my list for Q1 2019 FAL A liberty porthole mini.
The challenge for this years Garrtmore quilt was "fussy cut", i pondered and pondered and pondered. I knew i wanted to make it in liberty so I looked out liberty that i wanted to fussy cut. I hit on the idea of framing them in portholes.
I wanted to make an homage to play school. I always loved the windows they looked through My favourite was the arched window, but it was never used that much. It was always a red letter day when they used the arched window :-)
So here it is, my liberty homage to Play School.

Liberty Dodos, all the hearts :-)

January Furtle

YAAAAAAAAAAAS

Lots of talk on IG about blogging and how IG is great but too fast keeping up etc. so totally stoked when Mini Archie suggested reviving @Lilysquilts fresh sewing day.

So Mini Archies furtle around the blogosphere was born!

yee ha say I, Ive never stopped blogging, blogging has been a necessary part of keeping sane, keeping a record of happy times, a reminder to come back to when in need of a swift kick up the mental bahoukie :-)

So January what you brought me crafty wise then?????

First thing was the finish along, my Q1 list. I love the finish along, not only does it keep me on track with my projects and gives me a focus but you can also win prizes!!! ive won a few, a 6 month subscription to Make Moderne magazine, plus several patterrns, my latest win was two patterns from Blossom heart quilts, one of which i will make straight away for the Alice Caroline liberty SOS. Best thing is its a random draw so you are not competing as such, lovely.

Ive highlighted two of my proposed finishes above. Dear Lord i have way too much liberty, its shameful, honestly it is!!! it needs to get used so two Alice Caroline SOS quilts this year i think.

plus i need to use up my Lucy Engels fabric, its way too stunning to stay in a box.

I learned (or relearned!!) knitting!

Last year i bought the world most expensive ball of wool (dont ask i was on a high after getting new job!) so i thought i had better re learn to knit!!!! i used to knit a lot when younger but fell out of it, so now after a lovely afternoon knitting in the ginger twist workshop with the lovely Sheena (@auburnstitches) 

I now know how to use circular needles! go me! my shoulder is not too great at the moment so progress is slow but thats ok.

Gartmore, no January is complete without a retreat to Gartmore. We have been doing this three years now. Just a lovely group of chums, some of us only see each other at this retreat. I wont go into it too much as i have written a fuller blog post about it, but here we are a group of quilty friends.

Have you been following the #amakershands tag on IG? very powerful.

I got cracking on with several projects at Gartmore, starting my tea for two (on acid) BOM by Jo Avery for Todays Quilter, I saed it up because i wanted to see the whole thing before deciding on the colour scheme ..... bit too dull???? 😂😂😂

Ach as my good chum Irene says it wouldnt be me if it werent wild :-)

I am determined to finish this one too, I call it Neptune and the maiden, but i supposed it should be 

I also did my first popcorn pouch! so sooper easy to make, I see many more in my future.

I also made two Emmaline retreat bags, such a great pattern and such a useful bag, it came in very handy at Gartmore.

I need to figure out how to make this monthly post different so its not just a rehash of all the other monthly posts, but thats good, it give focus and direction, happy furtling.

Righty how, thats enough of a furtle for this morning! have a lovely weekend all!

Please have a wee furtle yourself :-)