The first leg of our holiday was to go down to Dorset for the day and stayed at my parents' overnight.  My Mum and I went to the Quarterjack Quilters exhibition at Upton House in Poole.  Took a while to catch up with people that I hadn't seen for some time, that I only had a short time to take photos.  So here are a few of what I did managed to take while I was there.

This is what I could not resist, small challenge quilts about 12" square I think, of black, white and one other colour and what a variety of quilts were produced.

There were also a lovely selection of giraffes, and I've just noticed that one has a hat on!  This was taught by Jan, who's speciality is making toys.

 This scrappy quilt contains teddy bear fabrics - didn't know there were so many! I can't say who made this as I can't remember.

And I really like the colours in this quilt.  This was displayed quite high under the picture rail in the house.

So just a taster of what we saw there.  It was a lovely sunny day too (nice to see the sun for a change) that we couldn't resist an ice cream after seeing the quilts.

An update

We've just come back from holiday, having spent 10 days away there's lots to catch up on, not least the unpacking and washing.  Thankfully, its a sunny morning so the washing machine is kept busy and no doubt there will be loads of ironing this evening.

I've been to visit the Quarterjack Quilters exhibition, then on to a wedding in Surrey, back down to Dorset to stay with my parents and catch up with friends and ex-colleagues.  I then went to the Festival of Quilts on Thursday and Friday whilst David ventured to places around Coventry and Birmingham.  On the way home we visited the Blists Hill Victorian Town near Telford.  So there will be a lot to post on the blog over the next week and hope that I can spend a bit of time each evening.

I was lucky to catch up with friends at the Festival of Quilts and Lis has a photo of us over on her blog here. I'd also met up with Janet from Barnsley and Chris, Lesley and Marion from Durham, and more. More from me soon.

Pennants and Bags

I've been busy sewing last weekend and also earthing out my embellishing machine to make a bag.  The pennants have been towards to "Pennants for Patchworkers" organised by the Miniature Group of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles and will be sold in a tombola at the Festival of Quilts later this month.  Here my little effort - 3 little quilted pennants.

The first is just wavy quilting with variegated thread on hand dyed blue fabric, which was quite quick and easy to do as I've done this on postcards before. (Please excuse grotty ironing board cover)

The next one I made was inspired by a magazine article in Popular Patchwork by Sheena Norquay who made some seasonal tablemats and I've pictured that next to the magazine.

Then on Sunday I made one with sort of Clematis flowers - raw edged applique flowers (the flower fabrics used are hand dyed pinks and mauves) and beads sewn in the middle of the flowers.

I took part in the Embellisher Yahoo Group swap with a small bag - 6" square - rather fancied doing that and sent this swap to Jenny in Wales and received a bag today from Anne in Hertfordshire. Hence the dusting off of the Embellisher machine. I should have taken photos in progress when making my bag, but didn't so may have another go as I quite like this technique.

I layered a felt base with wool roving, topped that with painted Bondwebbed and after applying that I chopped some bits of gold foil to iron on top of that.  On top of this I layered some fine chiffon.  I did some hand embroidery when I finished with the needlefelting.  Having made a cord strap and joined the lining to the bag I added a daisy button.

From Anne I received a lovely red leather backed bag, with some roving and yarn with sequins and beads on the front.  Inside were some findings which will come in useful for further bag making, no doubt.

This week we're on holiday for a couple of weeks first of all going to a family wedding in Surrey and hope for a nice weekend. After visiting Dorset and catching up with people we'll be heading up for Birmingham and the Festival of Quilts at the NEC.  I'll be visiting on Thursday and Friday this year - the first time I've visited over 2 days as last year it was difficult to fit everything that I wanted to there.

Naval Warfare

Last Saturday David and I went to Scarborough.  I've visited once and posted that here but it was David's first visit there.  After seeing the town and had lunch, we then went to North Bay, Scarborough to Peasholm Park where we saw the naval battle, which has been a regular summer feature for many years there.  There are men inside the larger ships, also some smaller boats powered with electricity. There are  lots of explosions and a lot of fun while British ships outdo the enemy craft.  Here are some of the photos from the battle.

We then walked along North Bay until we reached the Sea Life Centre.  This was also the terminus for the miniature railway that goes back to opposite the park, passing the newly refurbished Open Air Theatre where there were 80's groups practising for that evening's performance. As with most days recently, it was a cloudy day with the weather not making it's mind up what it wanted to do, but at least it was dry, so a lovely day out.

The colourful beach huts along the promenade.

 

The miniature train.

More postcardy stuff...

For my 200th post (took a while to get there) I'm showing more postcards that I've made and received in the past week.

This week I've completed the set of postcards for the general BQL list challenge and they were sent out on Wednesday.  After having abandoned my crazy quilt cards after completing 2 I then opted to make 4 flip and sew cards and add some embellishments like using fancy machine stitches, ribbon and sequins and here's a pic below.

And here was the state of my room after finishing - what a mess.  I have tidied up (a bit) since then.

I'd also received more from this swap and also the BQL Postcard Group "Something Green" swap and below are the complete sets (some you will have seen from my previous post.

 
The other weekend I went to Doncaster Racecourse for the Summer Crafting exhibition.  What was meant by crafting was of the scrapbooking, card making variety, but thought it may give me some ideas.  I did buy some Micron pigma pens a set of 8 in a variety of colours for just £5.00 - seeing as they usually sell in quilt shops for around £2.50 it was a bargain.  But I had to try them out first - this was on a spare piece of pelmet vilene...

Just a quickie

Do you like the look of my new template?  I found that the background I had used wasn't available so was left with a plain background.  So I've had a play with Blogger's templates and came up with this sort of butterflies one in purple.  Was also able to juggle around with the fonts as well - quite liked that.

I'm hoping this weekend is a quiet one and can get on with some sewing.  I've got 6 postcards to get out and I also signed up for an embellisher (needlefelting) swap to make a small bag so will dust that machine off and get going on that too.

I've now got one week left in this job - it didn't work out permanently but 5 months out of it.  The company now has someone who can do the systems work that I haven't got experience in so hope it all works out for them.  But the upside is I get a long holiday for August as I'll have a couple of weeks to myself before David and I have our holiday - to a family wedding and then Festival of Quilts.

Any pics? Well here's a couple that David took last week while away in Cornwall at St Just.  He couldn't describe them - they weren't quilts, weren't bunting.  I'd say they were banners - colourful applique ones. They were hanging on the buildings during St Just's festival last weekend.

Have a good weekend.

Plethora of Postcards!

I've had quite a bit of postcardy post in the past week.  As well as the Something Green cards (mentioned in my last post) in the BQL Postcard group, the general BQL group also has a postcard challenge this month. Min are still in the making, but I've got 4 this week.  In the photo below (from left to right, top to bottom) are from: Inge, Irene, Miriam and Carol.  All so varied and all lovely cards that we've been pleased to receive.

I've had the first of the Something Green cards today, a beautiful green alligator, really brilliantly done.

I really must get on with the rest of my postcards for this month.  I'll get there in the end.

Playtime!

I haven't posted for a while so have a bit to catch up on.  Visiting our sons last weekend down south, then yesterday went on a rail excursion to Carlisle so our weekends have been busy.  I will catch up with those on another post (or two, maybe), but meanwhile here is some sewing that I've been doing lately.

Going into the post shortly for some of the members of the BQL postcard group are some "Something Green" themed postcards.  Like last month and the Something Yellow ones I stuck to a single item for the green theme and chose pears.  I drew a pear and sectioned it so it had some shadow a bit like a still life.  The main piece being greeny-brown like the russet colour of the pear. In stark contrast to the pear I placed it on a black/white and white/black background. If you look at the photo you'll see what I mean.  Quite pleased how they went and might have another go at shading using fabric.

Yesterday's trip to Carlisle was rainy so not much to do after lunch than to dive into shops and one of those was Waterstone's where I purchased a book called Fabulous Bags to Stitch and Make by Jenny Rolfe. After looking through the book for ages I decided to buy and today had a go at one of the articles in her book of creating your own fabric. So here's my attempt below first of all layering sheer fabrics onto wadding and bonding them.

Then came the stitching - looking good so far.

Then here's the back - quite like that too.

And finally another lot of postcards in the making.  I'm doing a scrap set of postcards and have put my scraps onto wadding with Bondaweb, just like I'd done earlier. It hardly made a dent in my big scrap bag.  I'll decorate that with fancy stitches and variegated thread and may add some other decoration but see how that progresses.


I enjoyed my bit of playtime this afternoon, pity it had to stop to prepare for the week ahead.  Hey ho.

Visit to York

On Saturday David and I went to York, first of all visiting the small village of Elvington, not far from the Yorkshire Air Museum to Priory Patchworkers exhibition in the church.  Unfortunately we couldn't take photos, but I did take part in a tombola and won this lovely stained glass style wallhanging.  The funds from the tombola were going to a cancer charity supported by the lady who made this and several other wallhangings. I'd also bought some fat quarters but haven't taken piccies, very remiss of me.

After this we then went onto York itself, where we had lunch and then I went off to the Quilt Museum.  I've been there before on a few occasions and now that I've bought an annual pass I'll be able to go several more times.  Again I couldn't take photos inside the museum, but the gardens outside have now been finished and its a very pleasant area to be in.  There's been a deli/coffee shop opposite St Anthony's Hall for some time, but now there is an art gallery called The New School House Gallery, so somewhere else to visit when in the area.

The Museum itself held 2 exhibitions - Inspired by the Past and Breakthrough by the Contemporary Quilt Group.

Here are the gardens looking towards the Quilt Museum.

This is the outside of the School House, just right of the Quilt Museum.

This is looking to the end of the gardens with seats to enjoy the lovely weather.  See the arches at the end? That's part of the city walls and people do walk along the top of the wall - you can just spot someone between the trees.

After leaving the museum I went into the city to meet David, who visited the National Railway Museum and we met up opposite the Minster.  On the way I went into a home and garden shop and spotted these lovely meerkats...

One lounging in the deckchair and the little one making a sandcastle, how could I resist - they had to be bought!

Finally, today my set of yellow cards was completed to go with the other four I received (see my last post).  A lovely lemony postcard from Michelle.

Shopping and Yellow Postcards

As promised from my last post here is a photo of my purchase of fabric from our visit to Derbyshire Dales and visiting Quiltessential.  Still haven't started on this yet as I've just finished a batch of postcards on the theme of "Something Yellow".

So below are the yellow themed cards, the flowers being buttercups, inspired by the rather weed infested lawn in our back garden.

Then there are the cards that I've received so far, brilliant aren't they.

 Although it doesn't show too well in the photo the top right one is of a Brownie polo shirt with a prairie point collar.  The yellow submarine at the bottom was just brilliant.

Now the shopping bit.  Last week I bought some cleanser,  toner and spritzer that come from Liz Earle, which has just the most heavenly fragrances I know.  Arrived in the post on Saturday it was lovely to unwrap from its box, which was carefully packed from the Isle of Wight. Lovely stuff.

 

While out last Saturday in Doncaster as well as going to the markets for fruit and veg there were some European sellers and a Dutch plant seller had these lovely Sempervivums and Sedums in this lovely, what I could describe as "bun tin" container. I've got to plant them up into a couple of proper pots, but I could not resist the lovely reds and greens and all for a fiver, bargain.

Another purchase which I had to get was a new camera to replace the one that I'd broken recently.  We were following another similar to the broken one on e-bay until late on Saturday but was beaten in the bidding in literally the last few seconds.  As it cost only another £30 more to buy a new one as opposed to a used one in good condition I decided to go for new instead and here it is - in red this time instead of purple.

 This pic was taken with my phone and there is a slight reflection as there is a clear cover to protect the front.  I've yet to delve through the manual which came on CD which has been uploaded, but had a bit of a play around with it and some of the above pics have been taken already with this.

Last of all on Father's Day David received a card from our son Jamie which included a thank you letter from grandson Leo (I suspect with some help from his Mum).  Leo is coming up to 3 years old and getting very artistic as the card below proves. I love the smiley face in the middle.

Day in Derbyshire Dales

David and I went out for the day and it seems that we're always out and about.  On Saturday we went towards Matlock, Derbyshire.  We been through a few times and have never stopped to take the Heights of Abraham cable car that is just outside the town.  Before that though we travelled on to Cromford Mill where there is a quilt shop (quelle surprise!) called Quiltessential, where we saw a quite striking wall hanging.  Couldn't resist so we bought the pattern and some of the fabrics to make it and I'll put a photo of the purchases in my next post. It's a lovely shop and there is a craft shop next door too, so a couple of things to explore here.

We then went to Matlock Bath and the cable car ridge over the Derwent Valley.  Spectacular views on the way up with a viewpoint at the top of the valley below with the town of Matlock in the distance.  We stayed and took a tour of the caves (lead was mined here) and had lunch before taking the cable car down hill.

Just to show I was there!

 Above is the view towards Matlock from the top of the valley.  Below that is the station building at Matlock Bath, near the bottom end of the cable car terminus.  This building doesn't look to be used any more.  It's very unusual as it looks like a Swiss chalet and the brickwork was quite interesting, such a shame the building is neglected.
 
After this we went to Crich, just a few miles away to the Tramway Village, which houses the National Tram Museum.  It was some years ago when we last visited and there have been a lot of changes with new buildings and creating a more village like scene.  Being a lovely sunny day it was ideal for an open top ride on a tram and later for sitting outside to enjoy a nice cup of tea.  Below is a photo of a Leeds tram, below that is an old Blackpool single deck tram.

I could not resist taking photos of the tram shelters with their decorative art deco stained glass, managed to take the bottom photo when a tram had just left, that's why there's no passengers waiting.

So here it is...

As promised in my last post (was that back in May - wow, how the time goes!) some sewing.  In case it was thought I was going out and about and not sweating it out at the sewing machine.

When I returned to Yorkshire a few weeks back I stopped at The Bramble Patch to have a look around and could not resist the Union Jack cushion kit.  I've found the instructions really clear and in no time at all there it was made.  All that had to be bought was the rectangular cushion and found that Dunelm Mill had just the size, which they called a Boudoir cushion.  Really pleased it turned out well.

Yesterday I took part in a bag making workshop with held by one of the Barnsley Embroiderers, Sheila.  I panicked a bit when I hadn't got all the bits cut out ready and hadn't found a 10 inch zip, but I was early enough to go into Barnsley town centre to get the zip and bias tape that I wanted before the workshop.  I really enjoyed making this bag and even tackling the zips  - they're not the easiest of things to sew in.  I got as far as putting the straps onto each side but not joining the sides together.  With this afternoon's weather being very wet, I kept on sewing until I got it finished. Below is the front of the bag and further down is the back.  I decided to use fancy stitches on my machine to quilt and decorate the bag.

And finally, if you've been reading my blog you will know that my son, Alex, was taking part in the BUPA 10k run in London on Bank Holiday Monday.  He was raising funds with his work colleagues for the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Well he did it in less that an hour.  His legs were aching and he had blisters, (because it's the furthest he's run) but he did it.  He did really well.