Still Breathing...just busy :o)

This was the sky as I waited in the school playground for my DD2 to emerge from school.  All I had with me was the camera on my phone, which surprisingly did a half decent job.  I just thought the colours were magical.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much, but I'm still here, basting away the Project Linus Quilts.  I have 2 more to baste and then I shall be embarking on some mammoth quilting.  I'm looking forward to that part!
Hope you have a good weekend...and hopefully by Monday I'll have something quilty to share.

Until next time...

A day trip during the Christmas break...

On the last Sunday of the holidays before the children returned to school, we had a day trip out to visit Oxford.  I had never been there before and thought it would make for an interesting day out.  Using one of the Park and Rides, we parked on the outskirts and took the bus into the town centre.  If you are visiting Oxford this is a really easy way to navigate into the city.

As well as a good shopping area, we had a walk towards Christ Church and the surrounding grounds.



I snapped this picture of my daughter having a chat with a local duck...there is nothing special about this picture, but there is something I like about it.



There are lots of photo opportunities and plenty of architecture..if that's your thing.  I wouldn't mind going back when it's a bit warmer, but it was nice to do a bit of sightseeing after all the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

Until next time...

A great definition of fabric...

For Christmas we gave my youngest the Oxford Illustrated Children's Thesaurus to encourage her with her writing.  I happened to have a flip through, when my eye caught the word fabric... Do you see what it says?  Fabric, cloth, material.. (what's this!?)  STUFF!  Yep, you heard it here first...fabric is also known as stuff!  So you know when you partner or family says to you, "You've got so much stuff!" Well, they are actually being grammatically correct! LOL

Until next time...

And I'm off...

...To a pretty good start!  As you know I have 8 tops ready for quilting for Project Linus and I managed to finish 2 of them in the last 10 days...including the binding!  Granted they are only little, but I'm feeling much better about things.  You all left me some very encouraging comments!  Thank you so much!

Finished at ~20" square this little quilt was quick to complete.  It used up the leftover crumb blocks that I made towards the end of 2010.  The rest of the blocks were used in 3 quilts...but you will have to wait a little longer to see them :o)



This quilt was made using a leftover cushion panel.  It had been washed at some point and has had gone a little skew-whiff, hence the weird dark border in the centre.  I framed it with some pieced triangles and some blue triangles.  It finishes at ~36" square and is all machine quilted ... even the binding is done by machine.  Pat Sloan has an excellent tutorial.  ...including videos, which is the best method I've found yet.  It was quick and easy...great if time is of the essence.

As well as two finishes, I've been working on my quilt-as-you go sampler blocks.  All hand appliquéd and quilted, this block is my favourite so far...



Here's the whole block in the hoop as I was working on it.



I have to say I'm rather pleased how 2011 started off in the sewing dept...and rather unusual for me as traditionally I normally have a bit of a slump in January!  Hopefully this is a sign of a productive year :o)

Until next time...