Snowy days...

Well the trees are up and decorated and the snow is falling outside....Very Christmassy!!!

But not all the shopping has been done...eek!  We have the bizarre scene of sun and snow together at the moment, giving a very ethereal, but wonderful scene and the 4x4 is at the ready....
Another quilt posted off this morning too and some cards still to write..don't know where the time has gone this year, somehow swallowed up in the melee of business and tinsel!!




Daughter waiting to go out......

Just hope the roads are clear by the end of the week for our visitors....

Christmas is coming....

Continuing to quilt...having some fun with custom work and trying to get things done before the holidays.  Fiona's quilt has been sent off..what fun this one was..

It is difficult to see all the stitching, but each boat block had different weather!!  Sort of ran out of ideas by the time I had completed all of them!! Another quilt done since then and I am currently trying to finish one made from vintage fabrics!  I shall probably have to work right up to Christmas eve, but we have family coming to stay, so sometime must be spent on getting ready for that!  Always last minute, I'm afraid!!
Today the weather is horrible, although I managed to walk the woolly monsters before the rain started.  It is soooo dark right now, so we are staying cosy in the house and studio.  Must go now, lunch awaits and Zach is making a terrible noise out of the back windows!!  I'll go and see what the matter is....

Phew!!!!!

Well, back again and trying to catch up with life in general!  We have been very lucky here, catching little snow when other parts of the country are suffering!  It is cold but very grey and wintery, so perfect for quilting and sitting by a warm fire....

We went for a really long walk with the woolly monsters last Sunday, taking in lunch and then returning home to our log burner as we felt cold to the bone!  Luckily we had a load of logs drying out which made for a roaring fire...Lovely!

Most of the time however, I have been in my studio...feeling a slight panic at the sight of all the quilts which need doing before Christmas.  I completed all the quilts for my quilt group friends before we met last weekend, so working hard... I loved L's quilt

An enjoyable day was had by all on Saturday!  Lots of yummy food to share, and probably more chat and cake than sewing!

I had taken along my mug rugs to share out...

 Which one shall I have...???

     L decided upon this one...!! 

I really enjoy our monthly meetings, it seems strange to think that the next one will be in the new year!! Where does the time go?

Anyway, due to meet one of my quilting friends for a cup of tea and mincepie in the local National Trust property this afternoon...woolly monsters are asleep after a long walk in the woods this morning, so they will not worry too much!  It will be a nice break from the quilting machine for a couple of hours and a catch up on news...until next time...

Mug rugs and more.....!

A lovely quilt has been sent back to London, so should be with its owner this morning!  I just love the colours..

And the backing fabric is perfect...blue and white spotty!  Cheryll, your quilt is wonderful!  I now have a Christmas baby mat on the machine for one of my quilt group friends, so must finish that this morning.
Yesterday, whilst waiting  for a customer to arrive I did some making of my own.  I made four 'mug rugs'....they are very very addictive!  You don't need a pattern really, just some scraps and some imagination.  I used some vintage and some modern fabrics and an old linen table cloth provided the pieces of embroidery.  Then layer and quilt simply on your domestic machine...hey presto!  Some pressies for someone at christmas, if I can bear to part with them!!

These are made of linen from Japan...
These are mainly vintage fabrics...

 Now its off to the studio....nice and warm up there!  It was sunny and bright this morning but it's now clouded over and looks like we may get a bit of the snow they keep going on about on the weather forecast...time to quilt!!!  Till next time......

My candlemat has arrived!!

Going to check the post yesterday evening brought a lovely surprise...a big parcel containing my candle mat from my swap partner in the USA.  How exciting!!  Couldn't wait to open it...

And a magazine to read too!  Wonderful!  The colours are just what I wanted and they go perfectly in my living room

I am really thrilled...and the woolly monsters seem to like it too!!

My candle mat swap partner comes from Wallingford, Conneticut.  I go to a quilt group in a small town called Wallingford, Oxfordshire....which is not far away from here, so really strange how, in such a wide world, this could happen!!   This is the first online swap I have done and I have to say it has been very enjoyable.  Thank you so much Tracey for my lovely mat..I love it.
Anyway, back to work now...doing a colourful Kaffe Fassett quilt for a customer in London.  It is cheery and bright and makes you smile as you work!  I will post piccies soon.

A busy weekend

Well what a busy weekend!  Saturday was a lovely day...having had a whole week of quilts, quilts and more quilts, I decided to have a day off.  We took the woolly monsters for a walk in the countryside in the morning which they loved and then stopped off at The Sun Inn in Whitchurch for a pub lunch.  Yummy!  In the afternoon we watched some rugby on the tv and raked leaves in the garden...a never ending job!  In the evening we went out to dinner with my quilting friend Sue and her husband.  More food and a good chat!

On Sunday, well it was back to M's quilt which had to be completed urgently!

Ready to be sent off today...I hope she likes it!  Freehand quilting is soooo much more fun than edge to edge work.
Also posting a parcel to France...a lady ordered one of my Tilda Take that quilt kits from my website.  Not many left now, they have been very popular!

All this is just too much for the brown woolly one....

Which way is up!!!
The cat doesn't mind either way..

Cold and damp outside, warm and cosy in the studio!

Just finished a lovely zigzag quilt on the quilting machine! M always chooses such wonderful fabrics, lively and cheerful and I do enjoy quilting them.  Dashed off to the post office this evening and managed to catch the last post, so it should be with her by tomorrow.  I love the way the backing fabric is so much a part of the over all look...sometimes people pay little attention to it, but not in this case...wonderful!!

A lovely yellow and green spotty fabric with a strip of pieced squares...
I have tried to get on with my chicken quilt I am making...working on a little chick block and just finished blanket stitching the schoolhouse block..

There is also an ever increasing pile of vintage cottons to sort out...they have all been washed and dried and ironed (ironing...not something I am good at normally!!!)

I have also heard from my Candlemat recipient who is delighted with the candlemat I made..I now have a new friend in sunny California! Her blog is Pams activities in quilting...take a visit.   I have not received one yet, so fingers crossed this will happen very soon!  I wonder who is making it for me!

Beautiful season...

The colours of the trees around here are just gorgeous.  Today someone has a fire and there is the smell of wood fires in the air, the sunshine is making hazy beams between the leaves and it is just lovely!!  The medlar tree has some amazing fruit and the birds love the orange berries of the pyracantha....

When I was at school many years ago, I used to love a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins about this time of year..

Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?


Wonderful isn't it........
More quilting done this morning, a lovely London tube quilt by Tiina from Tikki patchwork in Kew, London..I will post some pictures later..I freehand quilted a watery sort of pattern across the quilt as requested!  Now pinning on another quilt this afternoon before a walk with the woolly monsters!!

Time to catch up...

Where has the time gone?  I have been very neglectful of my blog lately....so many quilts to do, dogs to walk, floors to clean, washing to hang out....no superwoman me!!!  I hope I'm not the only one who wonders how to cope with the day ahead!! Where do I start...
Well, I am delighted to have so many quilts to do and that my customers trust their beautiful creations to me. 
Look at this huge one...a lovely autumnal maple leaf design

Hopefully it will be arriving at its destination in South Wales this morning! 
I have been doing a bit of my own sewing this last couple of weeks too...using some new and vintage fabrics I have been collecting.  These two pieces will be cushions I think..

There are four stars with a piece of embroidery in the centre cut from an old tablecloth....the first picture is made up of strips of fabrics to create the heart.

I have found quite a few vintage fabrics lately from various places...I just love the feedsacks from the 1930s and 1950s and the tiny ditsy prints you can find on older fabrics..

Aren't they lovely!  Sorry, I am a complete banana when it comes to fabrics!!!  Obsessive behaviour!!!  They would really suit mini quilt projects..talking of which, I sent my candlemat off earlier in the week for the swap.  I wonder if the lady has received it yet...exciting!  Anyway enough rambling, these fabrics will be for sale on my blogshop which we are setting up soon, so keep looking! 
Back to another quilt on my machine now...got to keep the wolf from the door!!! (or maybe that should be got to feed the wolves inside the door!!)  Until later.....