Going up Doon hill

What a friendly face! It's all a bit Lord of the Rings ish 😊. I've blogged about going to Gartmore house hotel with the quilt guild, they also do really good deals for couples so me and Mr Budsmam headed up there last weekend. We wanted to go a walk before hand so we went up Doon hill 😊 Which is just outside Aberfoyle. There is a fairy shrine at the top, so pretty.

A lovely day, one to remember.

Liberty, sweet liberty

I had to go to London for a day workshop on referencing software (such is the rock n roll life of a librarian!!) i idly googled fabric shops to see if there were any near by.
Shaukhat.... OMG Shaukhat....  13 mins walk (i timed it...)  from the workshop venue.
Soooooo i went there at lunchtime, and because i had two hours before train going home i went back! I got some funny looks as i petted my haul coming home, worth it though!

FAL Q2 proposed finishes

Oh flippity flip! A week in Verona, a to day trip to London for work then major reconstructive surgery on quilt top mean that I am really pushing it for my Q2 proposed finished ...

Ok here we go, in no particular order!

I made extra blocks for the heart baby quilt so the lady who wanted it could choose what she wanted. The extra ones I made into a top for linus, needs quilted and bound.

I made a bit of progress on putting together the fussy cut blocks but still need quilted and bound.

I have had these Liberty hexies from duck egg threads for three years!! I want to make them into a mini quilt, it shall be so.

More Liberty!! This is a quilt along from honey and bunny, I have all the patterns and the fabric pull just need to DO it!

Aaarrrggghhh this has a deadline! I need to make a placemat - theme oranges and lemons, for the rural by the end of April, I'm fpp ing a pineapple thingy for it.

A roll over but I have made progress in this, this is what I had to do major reconstructive surgery on tonight ... Needs quilted and bound. A quilt for the granddaughter of a lovely lady in the rural.

Oh dear pretty little Italy has been well neglected, needs more attention, need to get a move on, roll over.

String quilt! I finally got on top of my strings and made enough for a siblings together top.

Greek crosses! I managed to get one quilt done for Q1 but I got so many blocks I have enough for another quilt top, make it so.

Ok this is getting stupid, this has been rolled over WAAAY too often, this is the quarter it gets done! These will be a sewtogether for Marshall. 

I have made 35 of the farmers wife 30s blocks, no excuse not to make the rest of them, make it sooooo!

I have a pattern for an improv mosaic, I want to make a Gaudi table runner in these batiks.

Last but certainly not least is my Dutch quilt, I hope to take this to the Cullen retreat, I have a load of Dutch prints and this fab pattern from Petra Prins, this can be done!

Oh bless this wee thing! A panel made at Muckhart needs some Suffolk puffs then made into cushion, no excuse get on with it!

Window displays Verona

I love a nice window display, my poor husband is now quite accustomed to the halting stopping and starting of our walks around new places as I stop to snap something which catches my eye. These are a selection from my recent trip to Verona, we had a day trip to Padua and also to Venice so some from there might have snuck in!

Greek cross, final finish for FAL Q1 !

My very patient and rather lovely husband Mark (known affectionately as Scoobs because he does a great Scooby Doo impersonation) is displaying my final finish for Q 1 of the 2017 FAL, this is my Greek Cross quilt from the FALQ1 list 

 I am in a lovely bee for siblings together and December was my month, I have this idea of doing a quilt to commemorate ever holiday I go on. I have wanted one to remember my trip to Athens a few years ago. I will never forget going up to the Acropolis on a beautiful sunny day and see it in all its splendour. 

What really struck me was the gorgeous blue sky and the creamy marble. It was a mental hop skip and jump to putting together a Greek cross block in creams and blues.

Here are mine:

The lovely ladies from my bee and some other IG chums who weren't sent me a ton of blocks to put together.

Which gave me more than enough for one, so I might have to add a second one to my Q2 list!!

Tilty twirly cannons

Pant pant I've had this done for ages but never got round to blogging about it, but I need it done as a finish a it was on my Q1 FAL list. I bought this American civil war fabric two years ago in Paducah, it's really not my colour palette at all but I grew to appreciate the ones on display at the show in Paducah so in I dived.b

I was amending slightly the original pattern as I didn't quite have enough fabric to make the whole quilt so I cut down the amount of blocks by about a third. I was all chuffed with myself as I wanted to use this pony express fabric as the whole alternate block so I needed to fussy cut it on the bias as so:

Fab eh? So then I started cutting the fabric for the centers of the star blocks which again were on point, I thought I was being ever so clever in getting the cannons and guns all fussy cut on point until I started putting the block together ..... I didn't need to cut the centers on point .... So hence the Tilty twirly cannons and guns ....

Hey ho, call it a design feature and claim it gives the piece extra movement! Any hoo I like it and it's a lovely reminder of a great trip.

Moroccan quilt

My perfect Christmas was spent in Morocco, what a fabulous holiday we had there. So I was determined to make a quilt to commemorate it.  Well it was added to the 2016 FAL list but had to be rolled over to the 2017 FAL list Q1 I adore Kaffe Fassett so really it was a no brainer to choose a quilt from his Morroccan book. I had a fat quarter bundle of beautiful metallic fabrics which reminded me of Morroccan tiles. So with the decks cleared off I set!

I also had a few fat quarters of Michael Miller arrow flight fabrics, perfect for framing the diamonds.

Oh the bias, all the bias .....

Much fudging, a few wee sweary words and we are all set! Just to quilt and bind .... Think I can get that done for the end of Q4????

Well I didn't get it done for the end of Q4 but I did get it done for the end of Q1 2017!!!!