I'm in Love!!

I said in a previous post, that I had bought this book. It is WONDERFUL! I love it. I have been having great fun with it, and Terrie Sandelin is so nice!! I emailed her to tell her I was going to talk about the book, and she emailed me some tips! I have never had service like that before. What a great person!

I decided to try Trip Around the World. The instructions were good, and I actually enjoyed sewing the tiny patches together. Usually I worry like mad about sewing all the tiny patches together, and getting the corners to meet, but look at below -

My borders were a bit wonky. (Notice the material behind the mini. It is a nice cotton from Ikea.) Back to the mini. I took one of the borders off again, as it was a bit tight, so it looks marginally better, but still a bit wonky.

I marked the mini using a large washer. I sandwiched the mini, and then machine-quilted the centre, 'Trip Around the World'. I then hand-quilted the semi-circles, but when I was finished, I decided I needed a smaller circle within the bigger one. I used a smaller washer. To make all the semi-circles the same size, I mark the washers with black pen and then line them up. (you can see the lines in the picture)

I will show you the finished quilt tomorrow.

Thankful Thoughts

This is the fourth day of British Summertime. Yesterday, Scotland had gales, blizzards and huge amounts of snow. Thousands of homes were without power, and roads were closed, with hundreds of motorists stranded. I am sitting here, nice and cosy, with a cup of tea. The rain, which has been on most of the day, has stopped, and tomorrow it is supposed to be nice. Thank goodness we live here!

Till next time,

tich

UFO and Another Giveaway

My Bernina sewing machine embroidery module is working its socks off at the moment. No pictures yet, but I will take some soon, to show you what I am making. I pulled out a couple of UFOs to finish off, recently. I have a lot of these Shoofly blocks lying about. I used to teach Patchwork for Beginners, when I lived on Mainland Scotland. This was one of the first blocks I used, to show how to sew shapes together. I sewed on a border and stipple quilted the block. I am more used to very close stipple/vermicelli quilting, but I made it much further apart this time, to see what it looked like. I like it. I am going to make it into a cushion, but will have to wait till Monday or Tuesday to finish it, as I want to put some cording round the edge. I might be lucky and get some in Kirkwall, when I go over on Monday.

One of my favourite blogs is Nebraska Views. Lynn is such a talented lady, and she passes on what she knows in a great blog. Recently she blogged about the sites Quilter Blogs and Quilting Bloggers. I went across to these sites and spent ages looking at loads of wonderful blogs. I joined both sites, and the hits on my site have increased significantly. They are great sites and I thoroughly recommend them. Thanks, Lynn.

Have a look at Bejeweledquilts. This is the last week for the Inch Worm fabric giveaway. It is fabulous! Fabric to make the jars for the quilt below, and there is still time to win the quilt as well. It would look so nice in my hall! I want it! (See below)

Must go and have a cup of tea.

tich