Last weekend

Last Friday was spent at a workshop tutored by Susan Denton who was also the speaker at Saturday's Quilters' Guild day.  She is a well known quilt artist and it was a privilege to be in her class about colour theory.  It is really difficult to pick out colour values so this was a worthwhile exercise, starting with taking dark, medium and light colours and seeing how different the medium appears on dark and light backgrounds, then taking 2 similar medium colours and how they react with dark and light squares.  After going from a light colour and going through to another dark colour in nine changes (easier said than done) after lunch we were working on nine patch blocks sticking triangles and squares, grading shades of colour from one corner to another but mixing things a little so there are no harsh lines of colour.  Just a pic of what I mean, below

I worked on this yesterday with buttery to mustardy shades of yellow

Almost good enough to make a quilt out of.

Being Regional Treasurer meant that I had a busyish day on Saturday, though nowhere near as busy as Chantal and Jenny, the Area Reps who arranged the day and made sure that everyone had a good time.  I didn't take many photos but here's one of Susan's quilts (it was the only one I took) of the rocks around Cornwall, where she lives.

In the afternoon Sara Price, also from Cornwall, gave a very different talk on antique quilts, a collection of which she started building up when living in the US.  Her site is here.  My friend Penny and myself where quilt holder-uppers so had a close up of some lovely old quilts and some that were, well, the worse for wear, which must add to their history.  People were gathering around the old quilts after the talk, so please excuse my photos.

I had seen a signature block quilt, which was very similar to the Granny Square blocks which seem to be popular on some blogs, but could not get near that one.

And of course a purchase of fabric was inevitable.  From Mandy at Cherry Tree fabrics

As you can see from the fabric on the right I am working on my colour shades.

As autumn progresses I am surprised how good some of the plants look.  The fuschia at the end of the garden, a happy accident from last year, is doing really well.  A gorgeous splash of colour against the bricks and stonework.

Fresh Sewing Day

Signing in a bit late in the day, can hear the 10 o'clock news downstairs. Here's the link to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day  (sorry can't seem to copy the button)

 I have finished my Welcome to Hollywood Quilt and I've even done the label (though it's showing upside down - things are not working well this evening) I can assure you that it was put on the quilt the right way up!!

I've also made a start on some Christmas postcards.  Here's one in progress which I started last week.

Another start and finish in September was my owl and baby, now gracing the mantelpiece in the living room.

Don't they look sweet!

What's happened to September?

Tomorrow is the end of the month and I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks.  The sewing room has felt deserted since I started work a couple of weeks ago.  That in itself has been tiring as I'm doing a lot of training and will have another training course tomorrow morning.  I have done a bit of postcard making with the birthday swap cards done up to the end of the year and preparing some cards for a big Christmas swap in December (I've got 10 to make so far as the swap has not been closed).  I can show any of those yet.

My son, Alex turned 30 last week and today had a family gathering at my youngest son, Jamie's house. A mad house today with 7 adults, 4 children and 3 cats, but the children all play well and a good time was had by all.  Didn't take any photos apart from some mobile pics of the grandchildren.

Looking forward to the end of this coming week when on my day off on Friday I'm going to a workshop tutored by Susan Denton, an art quilter, about colour, then on Saturday a Quilters' Guild day at Hamworthy Club, where Susan is giving a talk followed by Sara Price on antique quilts. 

So, want to see some more Cornwall pics?  Just a brief synopsis of the last part of our holiday (doesn't look like any more hols until Christmas, but will be sneaking in the odd weekend away).

Toward the end of our hols we visited The Lost Gardens of Heligan, been meaning to see this and it did not disappoint.  We were given map and small compass to find our way around but gave up of the compass and followed the map. LOADS of photos taken, but don't want to bore you...

The Mud Maiden

The Grey Lady

Tree Fern in the Jungle

Showing charcoal burning

Charred wood sculpture

Insect Hotel (this had just been constructed)

A wildflower meadow with views over the to sea near Mevagissey

On our way home we headed towards the north Cornwall coast to Tintagel.  The views were really dramatic.  The weather was really sunny, but with the stiff breeze it was quite cold.

A view to the cove from the visitor centre at Tintagel Castle

The ruins

Looking from the headland up the coas

Looking towards Tintagel Castle and the village

Could not resist taking a photo of the path (quilting possibilities?)

 

 

 

 

The Old Post Office in Tintagel

There were several samplers, but this was the best photo I could get

From the garden of the Old Post Office

It was nice to look back at the photos from our holiday I hope you enjoyed them too.  Hopefully I'll try and join up for Fresh Sewing Day to show my progress with the Christmas postcards.

Last week of Holiday

I've started my new job today, a bit familiar (working for the Council) but a bit strange (different department and location) at the same time.  I'm sure that given time I will get to grips with it, but it will be a learning curve.  Meanwhile I have been invited to join the ex-colleagues from my previous job for an evening out later this week, which will be a nice end to my first working week.

Last week David and I were on holiday in Cornwall, in contrast to the previous week's lovely warm weather, it had turned cooler and towards the end of the week a bit wet too.  Hoping for a bit of time on the beach it was just a bit too cold for that so we've been exploring.

On the Monday we stayed around St Ives and took a train ride to St Erth and return to take in some of the coast past Carbis Bay which was an interesting ride.  While David went back to the B&B to relax I stayed in the town and saw this very unusual sight around the harbour near the lifeboat station

A Stanley steam car, which attracted a lot of attention.

As I walked out of town later I heard this and two more steam cars go whizzing past to then struggle up the steep hill going out of town

Just about caught them with the camera!

Tuesday we took a trip out to Mousehole then onto St Michael's Mount, timing the trip so that we walked out on the causeway

The tide just cleared the causeway as water was lapping the edges

Lovely bit of sea kelp in the clear waters

Just got onto the Mount

With the lovely blue sky and water it could almost be tropical!

 View across to Penzance

The castle

A view to the gardens below (which weren't open that day)

Sun shining through the stained glass onto the chapel floor.  I waited ages for a chap to move and I hoped the sun wouldn't go in (he did move eventually when he realised what I was trying to take a photo of and took a photo of the floor too!).

We walked back to the car park at Marazion, passing the rock where there's the landing for the boats (needless to say there are no boats when the tide had gone out this far!).  The tide was way out so it was easy to walk across the beach.

We thought it was too early to get back to the B&B so we had a short visit to a tin mine at Levant

Some marvelous views along the coastline and to see a beam engine at work.  

More photos of our holiday to come.

P.S.  I may not have responded to those who wished me well for the new job, but thank you, it's very much appreciated.

Holiday Week 6

The penultimate week of my 'holiday' before starting my new job.  I think I've got to the stage where the novelty of a long holiday is beginning to wear off - heaven help me when I get to retirement!  I have been doing a tidy of my fabric stash and weeding out some "fugly" fabrics to await a table top sale sometime or to go to the bring and buy table at the next area meeting. 

I've made a few postcards up to the end of the year for the birthday swap and yesterday after sorting through some quilting magazines I came across a "Love Quilting" spring issue magazine which had this

To add to my owl family, how could I resist! Mum and baby only took a few hours to make, here's another pic

They're sweet, aren't they.

I've recently received postcards from the Sequins and Sparkle swap

From (left) Pauline, (top right) Jacquie and (bottom right) Alice.  Lovely cards of shimmery-ness.

This last week of my holiday will be a week away and tomorrow David and I are off to Cornwall with 4 days in St Ives and another couple of days a bit further inland in Camborne.  No doubt there will be a lot of photos taken from being out and about all week.