Stitching and Birmingham quilt festival!

Well, I am not sure if anyone is still about that used to visit me but I have so missed blogging myself, although I love to jump on to blogger and catch up on some of my favourite blogs for inspiration.

I went last week to Birmingham fesival of quilts and it was such a delight to wander up and down the isles and view all the beautiful fabrics and quilts, not to mention the goodies I just had to have!

We have had a beautiful summer this year for the kids being off school and with us not getting away far this year, the good weather was such a blessing. In between all the running about I have been chugging away on my 'Home Sweet Home' quilt designed by 'Heart to Hand'and am pleased to report that the hand quilting is in progress!


This is the first time I have used valdani 12 to hand quilt with a bigger stitch. I am loving the added dimension it brings to the wool and woven fabrics-hopefully I will finish this quilt this time!


The next few pictures are of the purchases I made at the quilt festival (especially for Wendy 'The Quiet Room' as we had hoped to get on the same day and meet up, but unfortunately with family commitments, that was not to be) I think there are a few similarities Wendy, such as a few wool bundles and 'snowman gatherings' by Primitive Gatherings :)


'Sew Cherished' was a lovely little booth from America, selling wool crazy kits

I bought a few Japanese wovens for my 'Heart to Hand' patterns and also fell for linens this year-I love the lighter look they give-some were tea dyed.

Thanks, if you have taken the time to stop by. I just hope I can get this to publish now!

Latest BOM progress!

This is a 'sit down guilt free' kind of day!

Our littlest is recovering after a sickie bug and requires her mothers presence as she rests. That means I don't feel guilty about the mountain awaiting me in front of the washing machine or the overflowing ironing basket. There is no fear that they will disappear though, no they will wait until another day.

So as we relax, I thought I would share my progress on Jan Pateks 'Pine Tree Ridge' BOM.

Karen from 'Farmhouse woolens' very kindly got the patterns for me and I am using fabric from my stash.

I have just put them randomly on my display wall to show all together, though this is not the placement on the actual quilt.





The white of the snowmen will be distressed on completion I think. Any of the fabrics in my stash were a little too creamy in colour.






I am enjoying this needleturn applique very much in the evenings-very relaxing.

My other good intention this month was to do 15 mins each day hand quilting my homespun house quilt, but sadly, tht hasn't happened. Here it sits in the dining room with no progress since the first evening I loaded it:(



I hopefully will pop in soon with a little piecing I have been doing. Something I am not particularly experience in but I couldn't resist joining in an online quilt-a-long, especially since it is houses and red fabric!
Have you guessed what I am talking about?

Back soon,

Home and dry!

Yes, we have made it home and dry!
Truthfully, it was not the house construction that nearly pushed me over the edge, but the garden! I thought I was going to have to cancel the move in date with Anne as the garden was taking too long to plant! Especially those berries!
Not a great picture but it was taken under quite poor night light
Thank you Anne for keeping us at it.
I have enjoyed the challenge of working to a deadline. Now to get it quilted and up!
Thanks for joining me and watching progress:)

House progress and a few bits!

Well I think I am just going to make this months progress midst everything else that is going on here
I had hoped to be a little further, but we will remain positive for next month. I thought the hard part was over after piecing all the houses but to be truthful, the borders will be just as time consuming, if not more!

I am enjoying this quilt very much, but will admit, without the push of deadlines from our site manager Anne, this would definitely not be as far on!

The borders are difficult to see but it is a black and tan small checked fabric from Buggy Barn.

I know Christmas is well over, but my plan is to try and make something each month in preparation for next Christmas. These burlap trees were made in December but I am tagging them and the 'joy' burlap pillows for January's contribution, simply because I know nothing else will get made this month.

Thanks for your visit and go check out the progress of the other sites across the pond-some great works in progress! Whoops, just had a preview and see I really need to change my header pic from Christmas, but sorry, not tonight!lol!

New homespun construction site!

So a new construction site has been started across the pond! I showed a pic on my last post of the homespun houses I have started putting together and although very late in joining the SAL, Anne has kindly invited me to come on board.

The reason for the delay? I had to bide my time until I came across the book here in the UK.

I am further behind than most and for that reason I will show 3 this month.

I think I have 1 more house to put together but I have a lot of windows still to do.
Initially I thought this would be a good project to practice my needleturn applique-just windows and doors, but between my lack of skill and the fact that homespun isn't straight to start with, I have wripped out more than I have stitched I think, but we shall persevere!

Go check out Anne's blog to see what others are doing and have a great weekend.

Hello! Feather wool tree link and tutorial

It sure has been a while...........!

No point in starting to give you loads of reasons as to why I have been away for so long, suffice to say, life has been busy.
Why now you ask? Well, a number of very thoughtful people have dropped the odd email to see that things were all OK and of recent I have received a number of emails asking about the wool tree I made last year, so I want to pass on that info as best I can to let people get ready for Christmas:)

I have to give credit to my original inspiration and that is the directions I followed for my first little tree and where I am directing you to follow the instructions regarding the whole method of cutting and gluing etc, so go to here.
Good directions!
So, for my large feather tree, I am sorry but I just adapted the above directions and after measuring for you, roughly they are as follows. I'm sure you creative people could do much better, but roughly here you have it!
I used a 30 inch dowel rod (an old stick would be cool too).
For the bottom 2 rows I cut my wires 9 inches with 7 wires on each row.
Next 2 rows from bottom-7 inch length by 7 wires/row.
Next 2 rows up, 6 inch length by 5 wires/row.
Then 2 rows 5 inch length with 5 wires/row.
Top row, I cut the wires 4.5 inches with 3 on the row.
Finally on the top, I drilled a small hole on the top of the dowel.
Cut a further 4.5 inch wire and insert in the top with glue gun after applying the snipped wool of course.
I used glue gun and brown flower tape.
I hope this helps you get a few made for Christmas:)

While on, I thought I would reassure you that my stitching therapy/addiction?? still continues (when time permits).
Here are a few things I have been working on recently.
This is a Country Stitches pattern, however, I used 32 count linen and it came out a lovely neat sized pillow to display

A Buttermilk Basin, wool runner

Lastly, this is on my design board. I have been watching Anne (Cottons and Woolens blog)and all her friends making this quilt but I knew how difficult it was to find the book, especially in the UK, but after patiently sitting it out, I found one in England, so I am far behind the rest, hence why I haven't joined the quilt-a-long. So this is for you Anne and thanks for all your inspiration:)

Slow progress!

I'm not sure how this post is going to go with all these changes to blogger, but here is an attempt anyway, to see if I can master it! We have been blessed with the most beautiful weather today, which just called for lines of washing to be hung out! yes, sadly I had multiple washes to do, to my shame, but I honestly believe the family members of this house land down their entire wardrobes when I call for dirty laundry! Again, another busy month has just flown by and again as a result my poor stitching only gets fits and starts here and there, so I will share with you what I am working on, as there doesn@t seem to be many finishes around here anymore. So blogger puts photo's on in the order we download them now???? Well, I will know for again-maybe you should start at my last pic for that was how they were intended! I am still slowly plodding with 'Home Sweet Home' in fact I am behind as I have only one stitched of this grouping and the next set have arrived. I so wanted to keep up with this one. I suppose if I stopped starting other projects, that might be the answer......

Like this one.....just had to have a little cross stitch on hand and loved this from 'With thy needle and Thread'

What it will hopefully look like....

I haven't ever done much piecing and some time back I bought a layer cake by French General, so thought I would give it a go-a bit less prim than I am used with but I so loved the fabric and so enjoyed making something bright and 'summery'!

Don't be looking too close but I am trying to hand quilt it after googling techniques-I think the secret to even sized stitches might me a special thimble which I don't have......that's my excuse!

I have loved seeing/drooling over all the new patterns/fsbrics from quilt market; so much to be tempted by, but sure not enough hours in my day to accomplish many, but it doesn't stop me wishing. Thanks again for stopping by-I hope this publishes ok as the preview thing is scaring me-looks like it has already published and I haven't finished. We shall see how it presents, O no, where is spell check gone???? Happy stitching, Shazy