Stitchery Stuff to Show

As promised yesterday I'm showing some stitching that I'm currently doing and some postcards that I've received recently.Above are some handbag blocks in progress for the BQL Calendar Challenge for this month. I've used a favourite fabric for the background, which is called Confetti and I have had this for a few years and is a nice contrast to the bright fabrics used for the bags. Each block is 4.5" square to make a quilt of 12.5". I'm at the point of tidying the blocks up before joining.

Another project that I'm doing is making a couple of cushions from a kit that I bought from The Bramble Patch recently(I've tried to put a link to Bramble Patch, but it's not co-operating). The kit (called Hanamoyo Cushion) had fabric to make one cushion but I found that I had enough of the blue fabric to make another cushion top but not enough of the cream to make the outside strips and cushion back so ordered more. That came on Friday so one evening next week I'll crack on and get the second cushion done.

And this pic above shows a couple of postcards I received on the theme of Folded Wonders (see the ones that I made in the post of 4th April). The top one of a folded flower tree came from Toni and the bottom one made from batiks with red inserts and beads came from Sarah. I'm waiting on a third card to come from Canada, which I guess will come soon.

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.

Ouch!

After the weekend in Richmond, I got in the car awkwardly and have got a bad back, ouch! My lower back is very sore and am getting a pain in the hip and down my right leg to the knee. Have had it checked out and am now taking ibuprofen and told to keep moving. Awkward to sit for very long, bit of a pain. I was looking forward to a weekend away in Devon this weekend, but have had to call it off as I can't drive for very long.

Meanwhile the story in the news yesterday was this...

Lots of snow. There were snow showers during the day yesterday and this was the view from the back bedroom window. 30cm of snow was expected yesterday night but it didn't materialise here.

Somewhere under there is my car! Today was a lot better; the sun came out and it's starting to thaw. The temperatures will drop tonight so will be very icy. Don't like the sound of that.

So yesterday I spent in hibernation. Stayed in and done some creative stuff. Above is my attempt at mixed media. This is my version of an item in Stitch magazine by Angie Hughes, but I had to improvise as I didn't have some of the items listed. The pink part is some scrim Bondawebbed onto a PVA'd calico base with strips of daisies on it. The blue bit is scrunched up tissue Bondawebbed onto the same base, with some slubby yarn zig-zagged on top. After painting some embossing powder was sprinkled on while the paint was slightly damp and I used a heat gun on that.

Also made was the BQL Calendar quilt challenge for February, with flip and sew strips. I used a variety of blue strips from my scrap bag, plus what remained of some blue bamboo print fabric that I had. I noticed that a couple of the fabrics used had frogs on, so they had to be included. So I named this little quilt "Frogs for February".

This is the back of the quilt on which I've used some of my hand-dyed fabric. I hadn't found a use for this and wouldn't use on the front of the quilt but is made ideal backing. Being virtuous and using up what fabric I've got, did it make any difference to my stash? None whatsoever!