Bubbles quilt

Its done!! I finally finished the 'Planets quilt'

On our many visits to Kaleidoscope especially during restrictions and lockdown I became quite addicted to the Speckled fabric by Rashida Coleman Hale. I mean how flipping gorgeous is it??

I knew fairly early on that I wanted to make the Bubbles quilt by AYLIN NILYA I have had the pattern for years but never really found the inspiration to make it, I just needed the right fabric! and the speckled fabric is perfect! I decided that I wanted to make a lot of different sizes of bubbles each in a different colour, I wanted it to look like planets in a galaxy of the blue speckled

I started this at the first Gartmore retreat of 2023 and made three of the bubbles or planets as I now think of them!

I made another 2 in the last weekend of february, I am not going to lie they are tedious to make .... its not the patterns fault it is just so repetitive which goes with the territory of this kind of quilt I am afraid, so lets see how I progress with it!

Well the update below is from August/September I think, the tediousness of paper piecing log cabin and the waste of paper and ink finally got to me so I figured out how to machine piece the log cabins, saved so much time, instead of doing one block per day I could do 3 or 4 and chain piece. I think it also saved a lot of fabric as well.

Organisation is key!!!

I find joy in organising, it gives me such pleasure, people sometimes dont understand this and I often get comments about slowing down and enjoying the process but making the process as efficient as possible is what gives me joy, so you do you and I will do me 😊

Now I was motoring on with the quilt!

Organisation is my happy place

I decided not to size up the smaller bubbles, mainly because I was unsure about how off center I wanted them to be, I felt it would depend on what blocks were above and below them and that wouldnt be decided till the end. The amount of fabric I had for each colour decided what size of block I made, I would only get a small planet from a FQ

Then I hit a snag .... I ran out of the background blue, sadly my local shop had closed for a few months (opened up again now - Hurrah!) but I couldnt find any which wasnt online, unfortunately there is NOTHING on the selvedge which tells you which shade of blue this is and as you can see below I bought a few shades which werent right ...

Thankfully a lovely fabric shop - The fabric fox came to my rescue, apparently its the colours of the speckles which tell you which shade of blue to order, so I promptly bought up every bit she had of it 😂

Now we could motor on again!

Now this quilt is a keeper and there is only one person I trust with my long arming - Cath the Cumbrian long armer!

And oh boy did she ever come through, to be honest I sort of felt the quilt was a bit flat and 'meh' once i hgad finished it but Cath brought it to life again. I love it!!!!!!!!

I am now a convert to labelling my quilts, so used one of my gifted labels for this one!

It says December 2023 on it and my inner Sheldon says well actually it was January 2024 until I got it back and bound ettc but hey I will shush my innder Sheldon and say 'Its only a month' 😂

And the icing on the cake??? Rashid Coleman Hale like my post about the quilt 😊 I still have a whole load of Speckled left so lets see what that becomes!

Gartmore first one for 2023

 

So this is the bag for clothes!

And these are the bags for sewing 🤣

Dinky ikea trolley at the ready! 

Yip it's the first Gartmore of 2023. There was a time when I wondered if I would ever get to Gartmore again but the retirement Gartmore plus the one rolled over from 2020 last year reassured that it was still an option. 

This visit was with a new group the Killearn switchers, organised by Kim.

But Gartmore doesn't change, whoever I go with the house is a constant, its like visiting an old friend. 

We were in the same toom that we have been in for a few years now.

I went and visited the Cayzer room just for old times sake 😊

So many happy memories here!

For this retreat I wanted to do the bubbles quilt, I bought a lot of speckled fabric and wanted to make the bubbles quilt in it, I'm hoping it looks like planets!

I think it will!

Snowdrops were out in force and the urns were looking fantastic 

Awww my little Dinky trolley all packed to go home, but I've loved being back at Gartmore , I've been here with so many different groups but the house and the vibe stays the same.  Don't know when I'll be back or who with but Gartmore will always be a very special place.

I wanted to steal this mirror! It's fab!

My favourite urn 😊

Budsmam liberation weekend

I can post this now!!! now that the news about my retirement is out in the open i can post about my fantastic retirement weekend with the loveliest bunch of chums!

I started planning this last August, at that point i thought i was going to leave in may of this year, for a variety of reasons that got delayed and i will now leave in August. i was handing in my notice in May so we all sttill went ahead. I put together a group of lovely chums, chums who have helped me through the years.

What to Take? What to pack? Well I picked a rather special pattern from the Jenni Smith sewing with liberty book. I want to make the Discovery quilt in liberty. 

Oh my goodness I almost wept wheni saw this lovely entrance again. We were in what I like to call the ballroom, lovely airy spacious room.

I popped into the Cayzer room for a look.

I hadthe same bedroom as  before!

All setup waiting for chums to Arrive!

On the Friday night we had a show and tell! Here is lovely Sue with her lockdown makes. 

Cath with her makes!

View from bedroom window.

I was blown away by this, lovely lovelyJo bought us all these metal water bottles 🥰 made by her daughter Emily, @sovendebjorn how utterly amazing are these! 

Jo and Kim happily hand sewing.

Kim's utterly amazing Jack's chain.

Sheena working on her entry for FOQ.

Jo's tula pineapple quilt and my center medallion.

Happy busy sewing.

Cath got me a new panda chum! Po

Oh my word, they got me a cake! And how perfect is this!

I will have a  very happy retirement because I am blessed with such wonderful chums.