Why dont you?

If you are of my generation *resists urge to do the who impersonation* you may remember a rather irritating (to me anyway) programme called "why don't you" the tag line was why don't you .... Switch off your television sand go and do something less boring instead .... And if you do remember the programme you will now have the very irritating theme tune rumbling about in your head! Sorry!

I saw a conversation on Instagram this week and they people involved both said how much they missed blogging, now I think I know what they mean, they mean the days before Instagram when blogs and Flickr ruled the crafting world.

But part of me thought 'why don't you?' I mean why don't you just blog? And then I thought well why don't I? I don't blog s lot but its cathartic.

So what does all this rambling mean? Not sure, but I'm going to try and get things down on here more often.

First up a rather dodgy (well all my pictures are dodgy ...) shot of the block of the month we are doing at the muckhart quilt group. We are following along the gen X BOM from a few years ago, sisters ten by Anne Marie Chainey. I've got her new book, it's fab.

I decided to do mine in batiks, yep not tres moderne but what the hey. I was never on trend!I am a wee bit distressed at the mo, my recent haircut seems to have killed my curls!! Come back curls I miss yoo!

On a happier note, ma wee pal Rocco came to stay for a long weekend, as you can see he quickly led me astray .... Naughty Rocco :-)

 

Swapping

I swore off swapping last year. I had a good experience in the swaps I had done but there is a certain amount of pressure that comes with a swap that I didn't like. Just a me thing, so I decided not to do any more meantime.

Then along came two that I had to participate in. The blueberry park one using Karen Lewis fabrics and the dashwood one.

I have enjoyed both but again am reminded of the pressure, - deadlines, checking in, trying to like and comment on all the posts. I know for a lot of people this is part of the fun but for me it creates a bit of a worry. Have I commented on my partners posts enough? I won't know until I have received it and find out who my partner is. Have I created something my partner will like?

Anyway this is what I made for the blueberry park mini swap. Fabulous paper pieced pattern by Tracey jay quilts. Karen Lewis made a version of this originally from the book then and now quilts by Joyce Dean Giezler.

Shocking picture, the light in winter is horrible here.

I had no idea what to do about the back so made a memory block from the book, 500 quilt blocks by Lynne Goldsworthy and Kerry Green.

 The dashwood swap, well my partner said she loved Mori Girls, so I waited and waited until they came out and I could find a supplier.

My first idea of four of these blocks joined together didn't really work, the patterns are a bit too big and needed a bigger block.

So I went back to the memory block I used for the backing for the blueberry park mini swap! Here it is in da

dashwood mori girls. I like it and more importantly so does my partner *phew*!

The other block I made will go on the back.

In other news the neck and shoulder are feeling better, not fully well but good enough for a weekends sewing!

Allietare

My very first Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt!! I have thought about doing Bonnies mystery for many years but there was always something which got in the way.

When I saw it this year on Bonnie Hunters blog I knew had to do it. The clincher was seeing that the inspiration was Bonnies trip to Italy, in particular, Florence and Pisa.

We had just returned from a wedding anniversary trip to Florence and Pisa so that swung it for me.

I decided not to make s full size quilt, all my quilts go to Project Linus so I decided just to make half the clues up.I had a fair amount of the requisite blacks and reds in my stash, I added some Karen Lewis blueberry park to the mix. My main grey was blueberry park. I think my golds were a bit too yellow but I like them and am happy with the he way they play with the others. I mostly kept up with the clues, got a little bit behind at the end but I got there eventually. The Christmas break gave me plenty time to catch up for the final reveal. I love it, absolutely love it.

I adore this top, it does indeed gladden me to see the fun bright and bold colours, thank you Bonnie for such a fun end to 2015 and fun start to 2016.

 

 

Never mind the bollocks

I was going to apologise the the (sort of) bad language, but then I thought 'nah'
I have been choosing a word instead of doing new year resolutions for years! Way before it became popular. Last year I chose fear-less, because I wanted to be strong and also to fear ... Less.
Did it work? I'm not sure? I had a dreadful end to the year and was feeling a bit bleak and thought goodness what was 2015 like??
Then I remembered what I had actually DONE, blimey, I only went to America!! To Paducah!! And had the best time ever!!
I went to Florence and Pisa with my amazing husband who I love more than anything. I ate great food with fabulous friends, drank fine wines with fabulous friends! I went on a quilt retreat to Cullen and made the Tula Pink butterfly quilt, did the stitch gathering, went to FOQ on my own which was fun but not as good as with my good chum Irene, but still an adventure.
So what did I learn? I learned by looking back that I had been fearless and had feared less too, but I had let the everyday *STUFF* cloud my vision of that.
So this is going to be the year of "Never mind the bollocks" if you are not sure what that means it can translate as 'don't sweat the small stuff' but I like this version better.
So I start 2016 working on the Bonnie Hunter 2015 mystery quilt, which is called Allietare, to gladden or rejoice.
So that is precisely what I am going to do, and never mind the bollocks.

Amish with a twist

 This was such a  fun but intense quilt to make! My chum Irene and i bought this from totally patched in Bewdley as a block of the month.

They would send us fabric and instructions for each block, I normally hate solids and will admit working with this was a challenge but I totally love the outcome! 

It was massive, about 90 by 90 square, took a lot of wrestling through the sewing machine!

Vintage wind in the willows quilt

 My lovely chum Cass had a vintage sheet which had wind in the willows characters on it. Just perfect to make a Linus quilt.

Arcadia avenue

I think this was the quilt where FPP finally clicked for me, Arcadia Avenue by sassafras lane. Fab pattern, I didnt get many proper pictures of it finished so had to make do with this from the Stitch gathering that year. I used solids and yes i know i dont like solids but they worked really well on this quilt. Love the movement in it.