Making postcards

Haven't made any postcards recently so good to go back to making a few of these little wonders. This swap is for Arts in the Mail Yahoo group with folds and tucks. I like making 3-d bow tie blocks and these are in progress with some small bits of folded fabric for prairie points which will go under the bow ties. As DH is working overtime this afternoon, sewing and singing along to Queen makes for a relaxing afternoon. I'll hand sew the prairie points during the evenings.

Visit to the Quilt Museum and March quilt

To anyone who is a quilter most will know that today is International Quilting Day (or to the Americans it's National Quilting Day). Last year Brenda and I ran our 4th IQD event in Sturminster Marshall - little did I know then I'd be on the move later in the year.Pauline (of Pauline's Patchwork) and her daughter Sarah are running this year's event, which Brenda and her daughter attended so I hope to hear something about today.

For my part I decided I would go to he Quilt Museum at St Anthony's Hall in York and see the exhibitions held there. I couldn't take pictures of the exhibits, to preserve them flash photography would not be allowed and the modern exhibits would probably be subject to copyright. There were some volunteers doing demonstrations and it was nice to chat to them. Here's some photo's of the outside, the building though old seems unassuming, but inside it's a very old building which has had many uses over the years including that of a school for orphans, which is depicted by a plaque on the wall outside the building. Going through the gateway there is a view to part of the city walls above the town. It is a lovely spring day (as DH pointed out, the weathers always been nice when the Quilting Days have been held).

This pic shows the outside of the Quilt Museum
This is the view across to the city wall

The plaque dedicated to the orphans to went to the school here in the 1700's.And just to show that I have been sewing this week here is my completed March Challenge Quilt. I used some Japanese style fabric and teamed it with some pink fabric which coordinated with the flowers in the printed fabric. I used the Cranesbill Geranium picture that BQL list moderator, Kandy Newton, supplied with the instructions for this quilt which was printed onto treated fabric. Not being able to resist a little bit of glitz, I put a few flower sequin/bead flowers on it. I'd also added some chain stitch around the fabric photo as some bits of the white edge showed a little.

A New Arrival

On Monday there was a new arrival to the Wild family as Isobel Rose was born on Monday morning at Chichester Hospital. Here's proud mum Mary and big sister Sophie welcoming her into the world.

And equally proud dad Alex, my son, cuddling her too. He wasted no time in forwarding these pics on the same evening and she's even on Alex's facebook page. Its great when technology is so quick as DH and I won't be able to see her until our visit down South at the end of the month. Can't wait!

Swap received and visit to Bristol

I can reveal the wallhanging that I made for the Four Seasons Monochrome Swap in its finished state and it's flown its way to the US and Vanessa was delighted to receive it and put it on her blog. It was posted to her just last Saturday and she received it yesterday - I was amazed how quickly it got to her.

I was inspired by Kumiko Sudo's book of Fabled Flowers and was able to use the various shades of greens to create this wallhanging of Lily of the Valley. I knew that Vanessa also liked blues so have fused a blue butterfly to decorate and also used blue green threads to embroider the stems and the shashiko pattern. There's a close up below of the flowers and butterfly and also a few sequins which I've used to represent dew on the leaves. I hand appliqued the quilt which I was able to do in the evenings.

And amazingly for me, I even remembered a label. How many of us finish a quilt project without a label on it - I'll hold my hand up straightaway!

This was also packed and posted last Saturday morning before a weekend visit to daughter Sarah in Bristol. Didn't take my camera so only 2 pics to show for a weekend away, both taken with my mobile. In the back streets near the Bristol Royal Infirmary (where she works) is the Bristol Eye Hospital. I had to take pics of two of the brick panel on the side of the building. This one of animals

and another of a mother and baby. Aren't they wonderful?

I didn't read the description on the panel and only just noticed that there was any writing when uploading. I looked for the Eye Hospital website and there is no mention of this work of art. I'll try and be more observant if I come across the panels again.

There is some more sewing going on and hope to post some more photo's soon.

Spring is on its way

The trouble with working full time is that the weekend goes so darned quick! After shopping, washing and other chores (which do need doing, no getting out of it!). We did have time to go into Wakefield this Saturday and see the food fair. Wakefield is in the area that includes Bradford and Leeds, is known as the Rhubarb Triangle, where traditionally rhubarb was force grown in large sheds heated by cheap coal that used to be mined. Nowadays there are only a few growers and this time of year is the forced rhubarb is in season so this was on sale together with other local food producers like bakers, cheesemakers, butchers and brewers.

Today we have discovered a couple of local large garden centres between Featherstone and Wakefield. It was lovely to see a lot of spring flowers - primroses, daffodils and lots of others and having a meander round. We do have a garden at this house, but it's all grass and being rented there's not a lot we can do about that, so it was good to have a wander to see what we could have in our virtual garden!

Thought that I would share a couple of pictures of some daffodils that I bought in the Simply Food M&S store at Leeds station. For just 99p I bought these daffodils in bud. By Saturday a couple had flowered (above) but by today most of them had flowered (below). Don't they look great.

Just to show that I have done some sewing (as I haven't blogged about any lately) here's a pic of what I've been up to below.

I've worked on a wallhanging about 17" square and this is the progress so far. I've used a pattern from Kumiko Sudo's book of Fabled Flowers to make this Lily of the Valley quilt for a Secret swap in the theme of monocolour quilts. I have progressed this since taking the photo yesterday as I've made more of the flowers and sewn them onto the quilt. This has been hand appliqued throughout so I've been able to do this in the evenings while watching the TV. I hope to have this finished during the course of this week to send out at on Saturday. The deadline is in mid March so I am on course to get this done and sent.

After this I'll be working on March's BQL calendar quilt. It will require a photo so I've sent off for some fabric sheets for inkjet printers, but I've got my fabric all ready to go with that.