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Friday 26 April 2013

Birthday week.

It was indeed my birthday this week. It was one of those bigees and I have had a really lovely time. We were at the Bee the day after and all the 'girls' really made it special for me.

 Alison had made me a beautiful cake and although we are all watching our weight, of course we indulged,and then there were Ann's chocolate cup cakes which were yum..

My Doti all over Birthday cake.

 Ann also made this little wall hanging. She reckoned it was me going to quilting and now it is hanging in my sewing room.She is right about the saying she embroidered on it . 


 Alison finally finished her button club quilt by Lynette Anderson, and it looks lovely. As you know I am not a pink person, but I sure like how she has used it in this quilt. Several of us have made this quilt and they all look so different.

Alison's finished quilt

There was lots of laughter and even a little sewing done. Ann and Maggie were working on this months mystery quilt block (blog post ' In print') which was fun for me to see the different colours and threads they were using. The rest of us were plodding along and I did get another block quilted on my UFO though I guess it's a WIP ( work in progress) now.

This is also a WIP. There were quite a lot of scraps left from the Humming Bird quilt so I have been playing around, and have made 64 blocks. I am now adding appliqué hearts to the centres of some of the blocks and really liking it, possibly it will make a nice baby quilt.








Keep safe and keep stitching.....Doti...

Monday 22 April 2013

Gardening week end.

The weather has been great so I have been getting on with some well needed outside work in the garden. The veggie patch has been dug over, the green house cleaned and de spidered, seeds planted,
  the borders all weeded and I am now feeling more than a little smug.

My little shed/summer house where I sit and sew in the summer, needs a bit of a make over. A wash down and a lick of paint is called for, which I am hoping my husband might do. Or that will be the next job on my list for the garden. 

We have quite a few bird houses spotted in and around the garden



 the pottery ones made by me many moons ago and the wooden ones made by my hubby.


This terrace is used by the many sparrows that live in the garden. 


But where do Mr & Mrs BlueTit decide to build their nest? in the large pot on the shelf under the table...


I was sitting having a well earned cuppa when out popped Mr Blue Tit so fast that I thought I was mistaken. But no.. back he came with a beak full of nesting material, I do hope he uses some of that lovely shetland wool ends that I put in the bird feeder ( blog post What a palaver).

How are the baby fledglings going to get out I wonder, and why this old pot that I made many years ago when I was an art student, and not some of the very nice Bird houses. 

I feel really honoured, and have put thoughts about it in my memory jar ( blog post New Year), which by the way I am still using and will open next year. 

Just looked at the weather forecast and it is going to rain this afternoon, so hopefully I can get back to my quilting..

Hello .. to all my new readers in Romania and Russia, you can leave comments I can translate!!! 








Keep safe and keep stitching......Doti... 











Thursday 18 April 2013

Spring has sprung.

Spring has sprung , well at least I think it has. Little clumps of spring flowers are popping up in the garden.
Daffodils in the front garden.
They are a little blown about with all the winds we are having, but oh! so welcome. 

Yesterday us sewing "girls" were all at the Bee in Wickham Market, It is a hand sewing group and we meet about twice a month when we are not at Wednesday Club. Lots of laughter, chatting and cake eating, which is really bad as we are all trying to watch our weight.

Walking around the table this is what some of the girls were doing.

Ann's Drunkerds path cushion.
Ann was hand quilting a couple of cushions for a charity sale.


Alison's sewing on yo-yo's.
Alison is getting to the end now of her button club quilt by Lynette Anderson.


Sue trying to finish her tapestry.
Sue has been doing this tapestry for years, and she too is getting near to the end now.

Fiona's rather fetching Chicken.
Fiona was cutting out felt appliqué pieces for her hen and chickens, which she hand appliqués. I love the background fabrics.

Jean working on a Redwork birdie.
Jean is working on a series of  redwork birdie drawings from Winter Twitterings by Pearl Louise Krush. Its a lovely book  which can be bought through Amazon. Most of us have done work from it.

Maggie owl block
What can one say about Maggie's owl, he just looks great. Another quilting group she belongs to are making a quilt for charity and this is her block.


 You might recognise my UFO. Yes I was working on it, shadow hand quilting around the appliqué on third block, just nine to go. Plod on I can hear you say.

Jenny was knitting bobble hats for Suffolk Age Concern. They are tiny to fit on top of smoothy bottles. I really will have to get started on some my self, last year our group sent in over 200.

Some weeks ago Alison was eating an apple for her lunch when she noticed that one of the pips in it was sprouting, It was brought home, potted up and would you believe it has begun to grow. What fun.







Keep safe and keep stitching .........Doti... 

Friday 12 April 2013

In Print.

The little wall hanging'Springtime in Bird Land' that I made has appeared in print this week in Fabrications Quilting for You magazine. I love having my quilts in magazines, they make them look so lovely. So a little happy dance was called for.



Even my little drawings look good in print.



I did get back to my UFO. It is now sandwiched with wadding/batting and backing, and I have started to hand quilt it.This will be my project to take to the Bee's, as we only hand sew at the Bee.

Favorite block.


Some time ago I started designing a mystery quilt and this is the first block.



Block 1
Backing fabric. Cut 10" x 13" (cut down to 9” x 12” when stitchery and appliqué are finished.)
Stitch panel.
Either use appliqué and stitchery or just stitchery.
Side flat crumb catcher.
Cut strip of fabric 1” x 9”, fold 1” strip in half, along the length right sides out. Press.
Place the open 9” strip on right side of block matching the raw edges.
Stitch along the fold line 1/2” from raw edge.
Fold the fabric over the stitching to show 1/2” border. Press.  Month 1 done......



Feel free to join us in this mystery quilt. I plan to put details up once a month, around about the 12th of the month. Please note in month 1 the appliqué is set to the right hand side of the block, something else will be added to the other side later. 



This is a sneaky look at block 6. It is not all stitchery, some months it will be pieced patchwork.
let me know if you are joining in.







Keep safe and keep stitching....Doti...







Monday 8 April 2013

Finished Hummingbird Quilt.

Scrumptious Quilt has had it's binding put on, for me that is the best part of making a quilt. It then went straight into the washing machine and is now blowing on the line in the garden. It's quite hard to photograph with the wind blowing. 


Binding done.

Quilt blowing on the line in the garden.

When I came down this morning it was hanging over my chair in my sewing room. The sun was shining and I just had to take a photo, it looked so scrummy.( there's that word again) but it really is. 




The builders have finished and we now have to decorate, hubby is doing the nasty bits ie- the ceilings and the woodwork. I have fun with the big roller on the walls.

I will have to get back, (when all the decorating is finished) to the UFO I was doing before I went off at a tangent again, but who could resist that lovely fabric. Ha! 






Keep safe and keep stitching....Doti...





Tuesday 2 April 2013

What a palaver.

Every thing has slowed down on the sewing and knitting front, the builders arrived on Bank Holiday Monday to start work on our bedroom ceilings. We have had to move down to the guest bedrooms, and clear the rooms of everything. Oh! what a palaver...

My Shetland Hoody is now finished and this is my friend Sue modelling it. She would dearly love me to knit her one in a smaller size, but I can not face doing it again. All those ends that had to be sewn in. Urgh.   I have put them in a bird feeder , so the birds can help themselves to some wooly nesting material. 


Wooly nesting material.

I have added the borders to my Jigsaw puzzle quilt  now renamed Humming bird quilt (much better do you not think), and have started to quilt it. As you know I do love to hand quilt my quilts, but this one I felt needed machine quilting around the panel blocks.

3 borders added.

Started the quilting.

Machine quilting around panel blocks

Note to my self, do more machine quilting. I felt really rusty, and as the quilt is now 6 foot square it also was a bit of a palaver, doing it on my domestic sewing machine. I need to do some more hand quilting on the panel blocks and make the binding. I am so loving making this quilt.








Keep safe and keep stitching....Doti...