Back to the sewing machine.

Yes, I have started work again with my sewing machine. There is a large pile of fabric pieces on my workbench ready to be cut up. A vague plan has been drawn on squared paper, notes written on a small piece of notepaper and my rotary cutter lying on it's side ready to be put to use again. A pile of pinned fabric lies ready for sewing by the sewing machine. A new needle has been inserted, the bobbins are filled and I am ready to go as soon as I find where the cotton reel has disappeared to................

This afternoon I had an interesting trip into Lidl. They had some cotton yarn for a silly price. I just had to put it in my trolley.

The tiny flower belongs to a miniature rose which opened its petals last week. It is a really bright splash of colour on my kitchen windowsill. A second bud looks almost ready to open.............

Recently I have managed to collect these little zip tags. They are wonderful for those fiddly little pieces of metal used for opening and closing the zips I use for the inside pockets of the bags where I have added a lining. I'm sure I have a ladybird one somewhere, but I haven't spotted it recently. (Ooops, sorry for the pun.)

May I give my heartfelt thanks to those lovely people who have added their names as followers of this Blog. I really enjoy visiting your Blogs and encourage anyone reading this message to go and do the same.

Jenny is an inspirational embroiderer, Robin a maker of delightful quilts, Donna is an expert in knitting socks (now, now, don't be modest!), and Mrs J has a really interesting Blog and is a fellow member of Ravelry. Scatty has just joined too. Thank you all.

Day Trip

We had a lovely day out together yesterday, Ian and I. We went to the National Model Engineering Show in Harrogate. We go there most years, and it is well worth the trip. Harrogate is a couple of hours drive from here.

I took my trusty notebook along with me, since I knew I would be finding inspiration somewhere. My handwriting is truly appalling when I can't find anywhere flat to write against.

After enjoying the Show for a few hours, we went off into Harrogate itself to have a very late lunch. We found ourselves in a wonderful place called the Cattleman's Association. The waitress had a wonderful sense of humour and we spent a very happy hour there. I ate my first Burrito - delicious! It is one of those strangely decorated places. There were pictures of Wild Bill Hickok, various cowboys, a display board of different barbed wire samples and gun cartridge cases. Very strange. The food was good.

Later, we went off to one of my favourite Charity Shops. This is the Oxfam shop close to the famous Betty's Tea Shop. The upstairs of the Charity shop is one big second hand book shop laid out like a library, so everything is easy to find. I found these two books.

I'm looking forward to spending some time with my overlocker (serger) this summer. I really do need to find out exactly what I can do with it.

Oh yes, I wanted to share these flowers with you. They were sent to me as a thank you. A stunning display of really exotic blooms. They look as good this morning as when they arrived just a week ago. The scent of the lilies is just so rich. Gorgeous.

I added a copy of the top photo to my letter of thanks. Ian had a special thank you too. He is off to spend a really nice day at the Manchester United Football ground. A special lunch and he gets to watch a match too! A wonderful surprise for both of us!

Oooops!

I made the mistake of accompanying my younger daughter on a trip to Abakhan yesterday. I have been so good lately , not buying much fabric to add to my enormous stash. And then I go to help Rosemary get some fabric for her dress....................... I must remember not to take my purse next time.

Well, I suppose I have not been as naughty as all that, since much of the fabric will go towards making quilts for Italy. I intend to make more than one, but am not too sure whether I shall be able to achieve this. I shall do my best. There are very few pieces of bright child-like prints amidst my stash.

I couldn't resist the sock yarn. Its really soft.

My knitting has been coming along quite well. It feels slow, but then I've been busy with other projects too.

All the pieces of my summer top have been completed, now all that remains is to sew it all together and get the neckband done. I shall search amidst my collection of buttons for the placket fastening for the back. (Colours are more accurate in the photo on the right.)

I have now completed the left front for the cardigan.

The right front has been started. Hopefully I shall get the ribbing finished soon - not my favourite part. Which sounds almost silly since a lot of the rest of the cardigan will be ribbing. It will look good when it is finished.

Have you seen this?

Roberta has posted about organising quilts for the children affected by the recent dreadful earthquake in Italy.

For further details, please follow this link and send an email to Roberta.

http://www.simplyninepatch.blogspot.com/

(Just scroll down to the English version of the post.)

Thanks go to this wonderful Blog for posting about it recently:

http://selvageblog.blogspot.com/

The post is dated the 26th April.

New projects.

Well, I am well and truly on a sewing binge at the moment. I took myself off to Jaycotts yesterday. A wonderful place for anything to do with sewing machines. I normally visit their internet site. However, this time, I went to the shop itself to find sewing machine needles to restock my collection, patterns, sewing thread and some pattern tracing cloth.

I have never used pattern tracing cloth before, generally using baking parchment to trace off my patterns. (I prefer not to cut up my paper patterns.) Thought I would find it easier to use rather tha the paper which tends to rip easily. What do you use when sewing using a paper pattern? My cats adore the sound of paper patterns with rather predictable results...........

I went on to the nearby Hobbycraft shop. These two fabrics just shouted out to come home with me.

This, though it is really a quilters fabric, is destined for a blouse.

Now, the last fabric (the coffee design), will become a jacket. More of a man's jacket than the patterns I bought yesterday. The design will be based upon my favourite jacket which is beginning to show signs of wear. I have ideas for the remnants - I did buy rather more than I really needed - to become the lining, or the outer fabric of a bag. What the finished bag will look like, has not yet been fully thought out.

One project I have already started, is the lining of two bags. One of them belongs to a friend of mine. It has been a shamefully long time since I was given the bag to line. I last did some linings for two similar bags here. Like the last linings, there are three pockets of various sizes.

Monograms

This post is my entry for the Bloggers Quilt Festival I mentioned in my last post. Do go and see all the entries, they are truly awe-inspiring. The link is to the right of this post.

And now, I had better introduce:

"Monograms"

This particular little quilt was finished on New Years Day, 2005. I call it "Monograms" because the design is made up of MJH (my initials) and those of my husband (IH). He is a very special person whom I love dearly and I had wanted to make something that could symnbolise our partnership. (We recently celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. A quiet meal for two in our favourite restaurant.)

The quilt, which measures just 16 and a half inches by 14 inches, hangs in our bedroom.

The fabric I used for the centre initial "I" and the surrounding MJHs came from the fabric used to line a box holding two lovely champagne flutes (glasses). The glasses reside in the glass cabinet in the kitchen now. The box holds fabric scraps.

The quilting around the outside is a repeated design of stylised daisies, the MJH motif and also the IH design.

Finished!

I finally got the Traveller's Chuck completed.

The back is one fleece which I picked up cheaply some time ago. I had intended making it into part of a coat. I also have a deep yellow fleece bought at the same time. In the end, I really didn't fancy a yellow and orange coat even though it would have been really warm. The yellow will back another quilt.

The front is bright and cheerful. My dear husband's reaction? "That's bright!!" He isn't too keen. Never mind, he will enjoy using it for picnics.

Outside, it has been the most wonderful Spring day. Chilly this morning, but bright and sunny all day. Definitely a day for sitting outside. This is the delightful Rhododendron which lives in a corner of the back garden. The cats love hiding underneath it.

Have you seen this wonderful event yet? Use the link in my sidebar to join in the fun. When I visited today, there were over 300 quilts entered! Amazing. I still haven't decided which of my quilts could be anywhere good enough to be seen amidst these wonderful entries. I'll ask my daughter Rosie to choose for me. She has a good artists eye.