Aprils Furtle

Wow, well that went past in a flash didnt it! what a weird new world we are in now. And it is not going to change any day soon!
So April what were you up to? Well there were a lot of pouches! I made this pop open pouch by Aneela Hoey in my favourit batik from a lovely chum Sheena

The interior is fabric from a lovely chum Carol, I’m finding that I want to use fabrics that are special to me just now , fabrics which have a connection with special people or memories

Next up I made this clearly carry all pouch, pattern by minki Kim. The amazing fabric was bought at an indie birth craft crawl last year, again more happy memories.

I am so chuffed with the progress I am making on this cross stitch. It was a give away from a chum who didn’t want to do it any more. I adore Michael Miller designs, this is bigger than I normally make but the lockdown has given me more time to work on it.

Well the lovely host of this furtle, mini Archie was kind enough to pass on a Bali pop, so I am busy making two jelly roll quilts from it, great fun!

All members of the Glasgow modern quilt guild are making letters for a banner, I did a W

Oh Scoobs ..!!!honestly what am I going to do with him 😂😂 epic #husbandsholdingquilts action there. I finished my small world quilt, really loved making this, such a special quilt.

Hmmmmmm it seems a certain puppy has been raiding my credit card again! Oh budthepuppy, what am I going to do with you! But we were getting low on Liberty, down to our last eleventy billion meters of it 😂😂

Do you follow @auburnstitches ? She does a #coffeandquilts on a Sunday. It’s a great way to look at older quilts and pick out your favourite mug, but boy oh boy did I upset some folks when I put a cup of coffee on the silk quilt 😂😂😂 

And that’s a wrap folks, same time next month?

Books and quilts and gin



This was no 6 on my Q1 FAL list. I adored this pattern when i saw it at the FOQ lat year, Ruby Seppings, lovely lady, lovely patterns. Of course hers said Tea not gin, but hey it was customisable !!

 

 

 

 

I started making this at the January Gartmore retreat 2020, I got some of the letters wrong, i had a C not a G for the gin so had to remake that!

 

 

This is now hanging in my sewing room, i love that quilts are memories in fabric and this one is a memory of a fab FOQ and a fab Gartmore retreat. Good times.

Diamond Primrose, big and small

These were items no 5 and 7 on mu Q1 list for the 2020 finish along. I have sort of lost the plot with that since it move to IG and also with the lockdown … I pattern tested for Kam Marting @needleplusthread for this Diamond Primrose quilt. I liked making it so much i bought the templates to go with it. Great for using up larger scraps This will go to Sheenas Linkliving, quilts makes homes appeal.

 

tresna shawl

    I finished this just after Christmas, I got stonking through it while looking after my mam over Christmas. I bought the worlds most expensive ball of wool on the second Indie Burgh craft crawl almost 3 years ago! this pattern the Tresna shawl was written for that wool. I then realised that as i hadn't knitted for over 30 years it might not be a good idea to start with that wool! So i bought a skein of this glorious red from rainbow heirloom to  try making the shawl in.

 

The pattern was good fun when i eventually got back into the swing of knitting again, but i am so glad i didn't use the very expensive wool  there was quite a bit of ripping out in the early days!

 

  This red is a brute to photograph! but i love this shawl, happy memories buying the wool as well!

Farewell Dame Jess

So sad, so so sad. Farewell Dame Jess, you were one of the best. Apparently you went for a nap and didn’t wake up. I’m glad you went like that you deserved a good passing.

Dame Jess was one of Buds original pals on twitter back in the day ... back in the day when folks used twitter for chatting about their dogs. Bud had his own twitter account (still has, don’t judge me ...!) This picture is from Christmas 2012 when i had dreadful flu, Dame Jess came on twitter and said “would you like one of my markies?” Bless her, would do anything for a tennis ball!! Jess you gave so much love and fun and I know Jane will be bereft without you. I am and i never met you, but i will miss the pictures of Jess floofy bum which Jane would DM to cheer me up. You always cheered me up Dame Jess, run free and stop in past Buds tent and tell him i still miss him and love him.

OMCOC - the Doric version!



As ever, totes awesome #husbandsholdingquilts action from my scoobs! If you told me that i would be finishing this quilt while in total lock down from a global pandemic i would have laughed and thought you a little bit bonkers. But we are where we are. So! where did this start?

I love Lucy Engels, she is a doric quine, Inverurie - ken? I have been collecting her fabric since she first started screen printing, the orange fabric at the front here is from her very first collection under the name of "skinny malinky quilts"

What about these bees eh?

anyhoo, I loved her pattern "One more cup of coffee" - OMCO beautiful and it used pappersaxten templates which i adore and have the full set!

I have been loathed to cut into my stash of Lucys fabric but it was begging me to be used. Hence the concept of the 'Doric' OMCO quilt was born. Doric because that is the dialect used in the North East of Scotland we both come from.

It took me a good while to strap on my big girl pants and actually cut into the fabric. But it got easier!

I tended to work on it in the early morning, picking away at it little by little

this was the finished top! 

To complete the Doric ness I got the honorary Doric quine (female) @cumbrianlongarmer to quilt it. turns out Cath had studied at Aberdeen University at the same time i worked there. Who knew we would hook up later in life through our love of quilts and quilting? we never knew each other in Aberdeen but must have crossed paths!

Anyway i decided on custom quilting for this, this one is a keeper, I wanted Doric words quilted in the shape of a crossword. Furryboots is a play on how Doric fowk (folk=people) say "where about" so furryboots ye fae? = Where about are you from?

fit like = how are you?

doric quine = North east female - Quine can mean young girl or older female, i tend to use it for all females.

sottir = mess as in 'fit a sottir ye made there!' = 'what a mess you made there!'

Ken= know, its often used at the end of a sentence - "I telt him, ken?" = "I told him, you know?

Sine, well thats how i spelled syne = since

Affa rare, well  you can probably guess that one, it means very nice but its more than that, it means really really nice! affa means really or very.

							D
F	U	R	R	Y	B	O	O	T	S
I							R
T			S	O	T	T	I	R
L							C
I							Q
K	E	N					U
E						S	I	N	E
							N
A	F	F	A	R	A	R	E
	A

I think this is in my top 3 favorite quilts ever, even more special because of its connection to my roots. Skip back up and look at the finished quilt can you see the two pieces of hot green binding in between the hot pink binding? Thanks to lovely Kim for that suggestion. Perfect way to finish it. I had been going to enter it fir the FOQ, maybe 2021 😉