A little advice please!

Another busy week just passed and it looks like we are in the midst of another. Last week the children were off school for half term-we had a great week, full of activity and finished off on a high note with our oldest daughters 15th birthday! Wow, I can't believe how quickly time goes-a good time was had by all and we are so proud of our maturing daughter!

Today was piano exam day, so quite a bit of stress with that-I'll not bore you with the rest of the activities this week but I start my new job next week!!!!! So some changes required around here, especially on the organisational front (even though I will only be gone 2 days in the week)

Anyway, I felt the need to do some stitching over the weekend (I'm getting a sneaking feeling my sewing time might be curtailed a little, for the first few weeks at least.

I put together this quilt top and now I need some help from you quilters out there.
Up until now I confess to really only having quilted in the ditch or around applique shapes by hand, but I would love to know how you would quilt this top if it was yours:)
The second pic shows a little closer the fabric and the width of the bands-again I'm looking advice, how to quilt it.





Ok, I'm a glutton for punishment....I think I'm trying to put myself off wool applique, but I have started the Autumn quilt blocks I showed in a previous post!



Three down and nine to go:) I'm very proud to say, all the fabrics-Japanese wovens, brushed cottons and wools are all from my stash and I'm pretty sure I will have enough to complete it.....not sure if that is a good admission or not??



Just a few pics to show the textures





It has taken me hours to do this post, I'm not sure what blogger is doing here today!

I wanted to upload a photo of a lovely gift I received in the post but am unable to get it sorted for some reason, so I am going to go ahead with this post now and hopefully blogger will play ball when I get back.

Thanks again for all your interest and please please tell me how you would quilt this top if it was yours:)

Shazy x

Block 2 prepped!

Well, it is nearly night time here and I have achieved what I set out to do. Two blocks prepped and ready for the relaxing part of adding the detail with the hand stitching:)

Again my camera is not doing the colours justice but you get the idea,





I want to thank Sue and Cathi for hosting this quiltalong-I'm going to be even more thankful come Christmas, when hopefully I will have some Christmas quilts to display,

Click on my sidebar to see what others are doing,

Have a great weekend,

Shazy x

Quilt along!

Ok, I'm a bit later than I intended but here I am for a little while! I thought I had the cherubs outside for some vitamin D, when they were back in soaked after puddle jumping and of course it ended in falling in! That meant a mucky utility room and the washing machine spinning again....but so glad they are able to have fun:)

I am trying this year to follow along with Sue and Cathi in getting prepared for the Christmas hols! Click on my sidebar for the quiltalong and see what everyone else is up to.

For me I am going to try and organise myself with a 'Heart to Hand' pattern. I got the backgrounds (Japanese textures and brushed cottons) from Karen (Farmhouse Woolens) as she was running this as a BOM.

Here is a pic of the finished quilt,



So far I have prepped block 1, not sure how much I will get done, but this is a start:)
The photo was taken under the skylight, but the heart really is red NOT pink:)



Speak later....... my company has returned,

Shazy x

Pillow post!

Monday again! Actually it is a lovely bright Monday here and it suits my spirit today!! A new day has dawned and I'm delighted to say we are back to playing 'happy families'.......The whole of last week was spent dealing with a stomach bug which Leah seemed to bring home from nursery:( Thankfully today the sun is shining and hope has returned:))

My post title explains this post-obviously the only stitching that could be done all of last week was something simple and an 'easy pick me up, put me down' project, so there was needle punch and applique.

I don't do Valentines much but I did spy a little doodle from 'Bird in Hand Primitives' blog and after punching, I thought it would look nice on a pocket pillow. Here is my attempt and I want to thank Robin for being so generous with her artistic talent and sharing freely her doodles.



I attached some rusty wire and hung it below a wall light. That is a rusty pin with some small buttons, in case you are wondering what is attached to the homespun tie.



This next pic is of my happy little helper as we sat this morning and stuffed a few other simple little wool applique pillows-so glad she is feeling well again and able to be up and about,








For now they are grouped together in a wire basket although the snowman will soon have to depart for another year and hopefully that will be a sign that spring has sprung?

Well, mums duties are beckoning-I have 10mins to be at the school to take my big son to get his haircut. Here's to a productive week, whatever you are doing,

Blessings, Shazy x