Fitting it in where I can...

I have spent an evening of two doing some cutting and sewing and managed a few more Siblings Together Boy blocks.  I've made 4 this time, which I hope I can send off later this week. 

I've also made a couple of pencil cases for my granddaughters who visited yesterday.  A while ago I made some for the grandsons. Here are the girly ones

They seemed to go down well and some small items went in them, so the cases have come in useful already.

I quite like making small bits and bobs at the moment as it fits in well with limited time. I feel as though I've got something done.  

International Quilting Day

I'm The third Saturday of March each year is International Quilting Day and this Saturday was spent at Tarrant Valley Quilters in the village hall in the middle of the Dorset countryside.  A lively bunch of ladies who are really well organised and bought lots of fun to the day.

There were 3 mini workshops

I did all but make a chicken (I bought that on the sales table) and the pink bag - more about that later. I made 2 Faux Cathedral Window blocks, a felt flower brooch, later a lavender bag from a vintage hankie and a bookmark, phew!  I bought some hand sewing with me but it didn't get much of a look in.

There was a lovely lunch, a show and tell and some handy sewing tips too. All too soon the day was over, but it was a lovely day. We were even given a "party bag" to take home.

That's the pink bag.  Along with that was this poem here explaining the bits and pieces in the bag.

So that was a brilliant International Quilting Day over for another year.  Thanks to Tarrant Valley Quilters.

The Big 5-0-0!

This is the 500th post on my blog ("only 500?" I hear you say?).  I am slow and steady and it has taken me over 8 years to get there so I'm not a really prolific blogger, unlike Bonny Hunter's Quiltville blog which posts everyday, sometime more that once a day! But I do have a job, which while it does earn me money to sew, does have a habit of eating into valuable sewing time, which is why I'm not so prolific in making and blogging.  That's life.

Okay, I won't do a giveaway (shame!) but will do one in the not too distant future, and will use this post to reflect over the past 499 posts.  When I started in January 2007 it was about quilting and embroidery, I was taking part in fabric postcard swaps through one, then two Yahoo email groups.  I was using Flickr to upload photos from my camera to keep track of the challenges and swaps and blogging was a learning curve for me then.   Here's a link to my first post here.  Have a look at my postcard swaps I've recorded on Flickr here.  Over the years some family pics and events have crept in and I also enjoy sharing photos of where David and I have been away on short breaks or holiday, but the mainstay of the blog remains quilting.

When I started blog there was a "blogring" group of quilting blogs, but then I found Quilting Bloggers a few years ago and have found that useful to visit other quilt bloggers for them to visit me. I am now on Bloglovin' (what's a matter with me I still can't put the link on my blog!) and have lately started using Instagram (@suewilduk) for quick upload of photos (more often that not, I use my i-phone than the camera).  You can also see from my sidebar I also have a Facebook page too, and joined a UK quilt group on that.  I've also pinned some ideas on Pinterest too The world has become more "social" and find I am changing to go along with that. I've got curious, finding out about what all these sites are about and got sucked in.

I've made a several online friends as well a real friends with the aid of the blog and enjoy the community when I hope will continue to enjoy in the future.  

Since starting the blog  I no longer make postcards, though one or two postcard sized pieces will no doubt make an appearance. I make a lot of small things that I can easily make in my valuable sewing time and maybe I might catch up with some UFO quilts that continue to haunt me until I get some batting and backings on them! I enjoy the pleasure of sewing and continue to share that with you just as I enjoy seeing other peoples sewing too.

Anyway I hope you've enjoyed my little reflection and if this is all to much, here's a photo of a wall hanging quilt that brightens my sewing room and makes me smile as its so cheerful......

........Ahhhh, that's much better.

Pop by and say hello.

Cambridge

Following on from last week's post (the time is just flying, don't you think?) we visited Cambridge. It was easy from our hotel to travel to the nearest park and ride to get into the city centre.  Like it's counterpart Oxford the University of Cambridge is made of several colleges, tried to keep track of the places we were visited but gave up!!  We were able to go into the grounds of two colleges, St Johns and Clare.  The architecture of the buildings were fascinating and it was such a lovely spring day it was just nice to have a meander around the city to see the sites.

Me, in front of the Bridge of Sighs in the grounds of St Johns college

 See if you can spot a couple of swallows nests in this crevices of this archway

 The college building are so ornate I really liked this Norman archway

 A tactile map of the city with Braille

 The ceiling of the entrance to the Fitzwilliam Museum

 And part of the floor inside the museum, just loved the mosaics.

The Round Church, one of just 4 in the Country.  We were interested in the roof to this church as the slate used came from Collyweston in Northamptonshire.  David has done some family history research and found one of his ancestors lived in the area of Collyweston and this slate is peculiar to the area, but is no longer mined.
 

 And this was one photo I could not resist taking, a dinosaur skeleton sculpture outside the Sedgwick Museum, he could make a quick getaway on one of the many bikes parked outside just in front of where it was standing!

Just a few of the photos that we've taken on a lovely Spring Day!

Duxford Spring Quilt Show

Using up holiday as the holiday year at work finishes at the end of March, David and I booked a Travelodge room near Cambridge and a chance to visit Duxford, the Imperial War Museum's aircraft collection at which there happens to be the Spring Quilt Fair.  I'd also offered to look after the trade stall for Nancy, who runs Lina Patchworks selling papers for English Paper Patchwork, while she did a workshop.

Of course I had to buy some fabric there, here is my haul

In the pic above, the blue bag contains a kit with special foot and ruler for free machine quilting.  I hope I can have a go at that during one evening this week.

While David did manage to get to see most of the museums exhibits, I still didn't get the chance to go around at all.  I think another visit may be called for without the distraction of a quilt show.

While on the way to Cambridge we stopped at a supermaket and I bought this magazine

I already have some binding clips which I use quite a bit so this little lot while come in handy.

Just a few of the quilts that I took photos of. I'm sorry I can't credit the makers here. I will have to look at the program and edit this post later.

Books

I've never counted how many books I've got, but I do have quite a few as my bookshelf will show and that's not all.  There are others dotted around the house!   I tend to buy from the shows as there's usually either the Home Workshop or Kaleidoscope books.

As well as books I've bought from new I've also acquired a few books secondhand. One of these books is this one from 1978, which was published by the BBC, called Discovering Patchwork, from a television series about patchwork, so this is about 38 years old. It's in a good state, the pages aren't even yellowed.

So I thought I would take a look through as it's interesting to see the techniques used before rotary cutters, mats and acrylic rulers were used. Templates had to be drafted and the patches were mainly hand pieced, although machine piecing is also featured. English paper piecing, Amish and American block patchwork are the styles of patchwork in this.

There are projects such as an apron, cot quilt and several cushions and this rather fetching waistcoat.

Bags with EPP diamonds.

Very clear instructions about how to draw the templates for patchwork 

I'm pleased I've rediscovered this book and my brief review.