Sunflowers!

 Well this is one happy pup! We had been thinking we were going to be sunflowerless this year .... our nawty garden bunny rabbit ate them all.

We did plant some more seeds but to be honest we didnt hold out much hope!

but look! one has flowered and another is about too! and this is after the huge amount of quite insane rain we have been having recently!

Our Head Gardener could not be more happy 😊

October Seasons

So we are now at October! Hello October! you are most welcome but could you stop flipping raining!

So how's my tree doing?

Here it was in January

February 

March

April

May

June

July

August

September 

October 

No blue sky and verges definitely leaner and less colour, tree looks less bushy but that might be because tree behind it has fallen down?

Personal training, chips and graveyards

 I just found this in my drafts!!!! I think this was from June? I have been going to a personal trainer since early 2023, I am loving it, she specialises in Rheumatoid Arthritis and is just lovely to boot! She is in Edinburgh, in Leith, I now have my routine, I get the tram down to Leith but sometimes I am a bit early if I have been in Edinburgh before hand for anything. I had a fair bit of time so pootled round a Leith graveyard, it was so lovely. The headstone below was so poignant "Lieth here two sisters dear, In Life united, when dead not parted"

I seem to have got into a habit of getting a bag of chips on my way back home 😂 I think of it as carb loading 😉

Quiet play BOM

We have another finish!!!!

This is the finished Quiet Play BOM for 2023 - Under the garden, now I will start with saying I do love this quilt rather a lot! but lets say it hasnt been without its challenges .....

To start with I was hoping to do this in liberty fabrics, so I bought 7 meters of plain blue lawn, now I couldnt really justify liberty plain lawn so I bought lawn from a reputable company ....

I pre washed it as it was quite dark blue, and it bled, pre washed again, still bleeding A LOT !!!

These are the colour catchers after several washes

so I contacted the company, its a long sad story but the most they were willing to do was refund me 10%, I was not having that, me being stubborn thought that was admitting that it might be partly my fault (it wasnt, I pre washed the fabrics according to the instructions on their web site) So I ended up with nothing, I could have taken it a bit further but by that time it was causing me anxiety so I just thought leave it here!

Next decision was what to use instead? I decided to go scrappy, I have been collecting Hungarian blue fabrics and thought I would have enough of the (just!) to do the background.

So off I set! now the mariners compasses in the pattern were pretty easy peasy for a seasoned FPPer like me 😂

I got the chance to use up some of the blues I had bought for the Lion quilt for Leo but never used.

There were 2 sets of sashing blocks, these scallops which were great for using up scraps

Also the anchor blocks below, I tried to use a similar fabric for all the anchors. You can see below the first non compass block the angler fish, he should have had teeth but I wanted him to look more friendly!

I am trying to streamline the sewing room more! Raskog trolleys for the win! They hold my project baskets nicely and can easily be wheeled around

Also I was a bit worried about the amount of FPP I have been doing and the effect on my main machine, its been getting a battering over the last year! So I set up my featherweight permanently in the sewing room and now use it exclusively for FPP, best thing I have done, love it and its so sweet to look at too 😊

As the BOM went on the non compass blocks got more and more difficult, one of them, the crabs I think had 56 pieces in one block .....

 

The mermaid below really kicked my butt too ..... but overall I loved it

These turtles were "challenging" 😂

Seahorsies were ok actually, no issues with these

I did have to buy more fabric for the sashings but thats ok, this quilt used up a lot of my stash which is a good good thing!

It will all head off to Siblings together!

Quilt for handsome Henry

Update! Here is Henry and Boogle with their Quilts.

Are you sitting comfortably? 😊 I hope you got that reference! Over 13 years ago I made the black and white quilt below, at the time I remember it feeling quite challenging, I had a love hate relationship with Drunkards Path in those days! I look at the fabric now and remember this line, cica 1934 by Cosmo Cricket, I dont think they are doing fabric any more which is a shame because I loved their fabrics.

I posted about this on twitter at the time (it wasnt a toxic cesspit like it is now ....) and a twitter chum said she really liked it. So of course it went to her, over the years her much loved doggy - Boogle claimed it. When Boogle sadly went over the 🌈bridge she asked me if he could be buried in it 💔💕of course said I! I would be honoured.

Flashforward and now chum has new doggy - Handsome Henry, she asked if he could have a quilt - of course! of course Henry must have a quilt!

Henry is a different doggy so I tried to stay with the circles, drunkards path theme but use more modern colours

I busted out my Jenny Haynes - Pappersaxsten templates and got going. 

I was unsure about the layout then remembered the lovely Sonia layout as used by Lucy Engles

So using that layout I got cracking! Below is my Scoobs doing his usual sterling work

The backing was rather special, the lovely Helen sent me the cowboy saloon fabric (on the bottom of the back) many months ago, I have been saving it for something special, I think Henry is rather special, dont you?