The best day of the year

Last Thursday I went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham. I woke up more excited than I do on Christmas Day!!! It was a fantastic day and the exhibitors had some beautiful items. As usual my shopping bag was way too full. I think I have managed to stock up for another year (well maybe for part of another year =) )

Photos of the quilt show to come later ...

What a wonderful start to the weekend

I found out this morning that I have won Rosalie Quinlan's giveaway of her Scandinavian Rose pattern!



I LOVE Rosalie's patterns and have done 3 of her stitcheries in the last 6 months so this makes me a very happy girl.


Max and I are having a quilting weekend while hubby is away being active in the countryside =)

I think I will have a big grin for the rest of the day =)

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Still here and busy =)

Needless to say with a 4 month old puppy our house is chaos at the moment. We can barely turn our backs without Max getting into mischief, but he is so adorable that it is impossible to be cross for long. He is a diva when the camera comes out and I only normally manage to get a flash of his black and white fur. This is one of the few photos where he was lying still- I think a spider caught his attention and distracted him.

We have decided to update our computer system in our house, as we now spend all our time downstairs (Max is strictly a downstairs dog) so we are in the midst of changing round and setting up =(. I hate changing systems so it will be interesting to see how we get on.

The sewing machine has been surprisingly busy though, with three quilt tops and a couple of stitcheries finished. These are the photos from my phone-more to follow when I can connect up my camera to the computer properly.

I made this quilt for a friends baby and loved it so much I decided I needed one for myself. This is my one half sewn. It is now waiting for basting and quilting.

For last month's sew-in Sunday on Connected Threadz I dived into my stash and pulled out a pile of Christmas fabrics. These have been in there since I first started quilting and I have held out cutting into them, but I bit the bullet and cut away. I'm really pleased with this and can't wait until we can get it out at Christmas. (apologies for the rubbish photo)

I am also attempting to make quilts for my family's Christmas presents this year (it seemed like such a good idea in January) so those are now going to be my focus projects. I have decided that I don't work well flitting between all of my fabric stash, so I must finish a project before I start on the next. It is working and I am managing to clear my stash out successfully. Let's see if I can be as strong when i'm at the Festival of Quilts next month.

A wonderful start to the weekend =)

I went home at lunchtime to give our monster his lunch and a run-a-round in the garden and a wonderful package was waiting on my doorstep.
Last week I had ordered some patterns from Patchwork Orange in Australia and it arrived today-YAY!

I love these patterns as they are sooo girly, and I though my niece might like the fairy on a swing stitchery.

These will go into my suitcase for our holiday to Cornwall. Our poor car won't know what has happened with the weight of all of my sewing equipment as I am also going to a day's quilting course while away with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. I can't wait as it is my first ever course.

The weather is gorgeous here, so I will make sure to enjoy every second out in the garden.

Tomorrow we have puppy class number 2 (hopefully not as disasterous as class number 1) which will be much nicer in the sunshine.

Enjoy your weekends everyone =)

Making a house a home

As we have now lived in our little house for over a year it was really overdue for me to start making some pretties for my walls. It is nice having the quilts about, but I wanted something to brighten up our cream (and very plain) walls in our living room.
I fell in love with this kit from Euro Japan Links at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year and it has been in my pile of things to do for ages because I was really scared of the applique.

Hubby went out for a day and I set to work on this. Although it did take a long while, I loved every minute of working on it and am quite tempted to buy another to make for my parents.

In last month's issue of cross stitcher I saw this cross stitch and knew I had to make it. It hangs above our coat hooks and is the first thing you see when you come in our front door. I love it and was so happy with it.

In very old news, I completed this little stitchery which I had started 2 years ago. All it needed was a few french knots and framing. It sits in a little nook in our spare bedroom, which can only been seen from the bed.

We have family coming to stay this weekend and hopefully we will get to take Max out on his first walk. Fingers crossed the sun stays out and some of the mud in our swamp of a garden can dry out =)

Enjoy!!

Distractions

This blog has had to take a little bit of a rest for a very good reason...

We have had a new addition to our family. Max is a 10 week old Cockapoo who is soooo gorgeous and I can't get enough of him. He hates having his photo taken, but this is the best of many blurry, fuzzy photos, normally of him shooting past. Hopefully once he settles down a little, he will let me take a photo.

The sewing room was a hive of activity with many new finished pieces and I promise I will blog soon to show you.

I'd better get back to this naughty bundle of fluffy cuteness =)

Spring is in the air

Finally spring seems to be poking its head up.
I love this season and try to make sure I have spring flowers in vases as much as possible.
I feel a spring clean coming on!