Autumn is approaching

We are feeling the start of autumn here at the moment which means that all I want to do is sit inside and hand sew with a cup of hot chocolate and a good film. I have finally got into the Sopranos (I know really behind the times) and I am madly sewing Christmas presents for my family. Two presents are done, one is waiting basting and quilting (I hate basting) and one is miles behind the rest.
We have turned our clocks back this week which means I have a few more weeks of light mornings with Max. It is nice to be able to run around in the park with him and let him wear himself out.

This morning the trees were really showing the start of turning (it all happens so quickly and before we know it we will be at Christmas)

In true Halloween style, I think a night on the sofa with 'The Nightmare before Christmas' and some quilt binding. Nothing scary as hubby is out for the evening =)

Enjoy Halloween!!!

Local talent

The Cambridge Quilters had a quilt exhibition last weekend which was fantastic. They are a group of very talented quilters and I hope one day to be as skilled as many of them.
A few highlights of the show were...

My little helper

I have the best little quilting apprentice in the world. I call him my inspector and he will quickly tell me if I am doing anything wrong...

He watches my machine quilting...

He shows me how to lay the quilt flat on the floor properly...

and he checks that i'm basting it correctly...

How did I ever get by without my little helper??

Back to normality with a bump

Hubby and I decided to have a last minute break to Turkey to enjoy the sunshine and have a good relax. It was wonderful and I could not recommend it enough to anyone. The people there are lovely and the hotel we stayed at was so luxurious. Neither of us tend to do beach holidays, but this time we loved every second of it and a week was no where near long enough.

Max was very glad to see us when we got home, but I think a week of playing with his buddy Megan tired him out. We didn't hear a peep from him in the back of the car on the way back from the hotel and he stayed like this for the morning (close enough to my suitcase to make sure we weren't going away again without him)

On the day we got home, I asked hubby if we could go to our local department store and have a look at sewing machines as mine was really not doing everything I wanted and I would like a new one for Christmas. I had been eyeing up the Singer 160 Anniversary machine which is only on sale in the UK in John Lewis but I took one look at it and realised it was wrong for me. It is a beautiful machine, but too big and not enough features that I would want to use. The lovely sales assistant spent a long time chatting through options and I decided that I still wanted a Janome. She did me a special deal and 20 minutes later it was strapped to the back of my bike heading home before hubby could change his mind...

It does make my old Janome look tiny, but already it is performing wonderfully. I love how it sews and as I have stuck with Janome nothing feels too different. I will have to play with it a lot before I feel very confident on it, but already I love it.

Now all it needs is a name...

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.