The sun has got his hat on hip hip hip hooray, the sun has got his hat on and Julie Arkell is coming on Sat-ur-day!!

Woohoo today is a much cheerier day than the dreary rainy days we have had this week!

On friday mornings, just after we drop off a school a group of mums go for our Friday morning power walk, (nothing to intense, about 40 minutes to an hour depending where we go of brisk walking).  Its a nice chance for a chat and a catch up, with some feel-good exercise thrown in, and this morning the sun was shining and I saw my first swallow of the year skimming the fields!

On the way home I felt justified in stopping for a chocolate croissant to have with a big cup of tea when I got home and was doubly pleased to see The Fishman back at my local farm shop.  He comes all the way from Grimbsby with fish fresh from the market that morning on the back of his van, and his fish is the freshest and The Best. For a while he stopped coming as he didn't get enough support, so I'm telling everyone he's back so hopefully he'll stay this time!  I picked up some seabass which I'm going to do with some smashed new potatoes and lemony green beans for tea. Yum.

I also took a bit of deviation to my local The Works where I picked up this book which I am looking forward to flicking through on the sofa tonight. Isn't the cover pretty! Nice price too x

Back home now, big cup of tea and chocolate croissant going down nicely, and thinking about all my chores I want to get done and out of the way I can enjoy my day tomorrow guilt free. A workshop with one of my favourite artists! Yipee!  Yes the wonderful Julie Arkell will be at Hope and Elvis again and I can't wait!  I did a workshop with her last year, pics of our day are here.

I've been ooohing and aaahing over all the photographs lucky bloggers who have visted have posted of her recent exhibition "I've dusted the Farmyard in Liverpool" and am so looking forward to seeing what she will be bringing with her!  (Hop over to Lemonade Kitty for some lovely pics of the exhibition and she was lucky enough to come away as an owner of a beautiful piece!).

Last summer some of Julie's pieces were on display at a gallery near to me

and (after huge deliberation!) I treated myself to The Day I Nearly Lost Poor Lamby.

which takes pride of place in my sitting room x  Have a lovely weekend folks!

Quilts & Basting

I've just spent a wet morning picking up my poorly car from the garage for it who had allegedly fixed it, for it to break again:-( We limped back to the garage in the rain and then I had to wait to be picked up).

Back home now anyhow.  Yesterday I finished piecing the quilt top for my daughters quilt, using some  Tanya Whelan offcuts I had left over from another project and some plain white cotton I found at a car boot sale.  It's a single bed size, although I I've made it a little wider to drape over the sides a bit.

As this is really a quilt to use up fabric and things I already have, I'm not buying special backing fabric, so the back of the quilt is going to be a simple white sheet, although I might some fun with the binding.

I'm going to give it a good press this afternoon and then make my quilt sandwich before deciding on how to quilt it.  Hopefully when the weather improves I will be able to show you a finished quilt!

Speaking of quilting, this weekend it was my birthday and we went to York for the day.  Whilst the rest of the family headed off to the train mueum, my mother in law and I headed off to the York Quilt Museum and Gallery.  The museum is managed by the Quilters Guild and was staffed by really knowledgeable ladies and volunteers who were able to tell us all about the exhibits. The exhibitions there change regularly and the one we went to see was Decline & Revival, quilting through the 20th century.  Unfortunately we you can't take any photographs of the quilts (although there are a few on their website), but it was fascinating to see some really beautiful quilts from different times through the century and hear about their history and how they were made.

I have to mention one thing that particularly caught my eye however whilst watching a volunteer demonstrating hand quilting.  She was quilting as you go, and it looked as though her piece had been hand basted with lots of little stitches in black thread.  However looking closer, they weren't thread, she told me they were microstitch tags little plastic tacks that you could use as a time saving way to baste your quilts.  They are a bit like the plastic tags in clothes shops that keep the label in and you apply then with a gun.

Has anyone else got experience of using these? It looks a fantastic gadget to me! Apparently they have been around for a while. I use quilters spray for my mini quilts (but it seems to get everywhere) and safety pins for larger ones, but this looks like a much simpler quicker alternative.  I'd love to know if you've used these before!

This afternoon though I'll be on my hand and knees on the living room floor with my safety pins!

Keep cozy x

Keukenhof

I've just had an email today Keukenhof in the Netherlands saying that they are open now and in full bloom. If you've never been to Keukenhof and have the chance to go, I would definitely urge you to do so at this time of year it is stunning.

Keukenhof is the largest bulb flower garden in the world, dedicated to spring bulbs, tulips, narcissi, hyacinths the list goes on!  They say more than 7 million flowers!

I've been looking back at photographs of a trip we took there when we went to Amsterdam for my birthday in 2010, and thought I'd share a few of the photos with you.


Just drink in the colours of these stunning flowers....

Spectacular view across the bulb fields

Just one small corner of the glass houses - so many varieties!

 

Its definitely on my list of somewhere I would love to revisit.   Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Sally xox

Specs Appeal!

Wow what an amazing day! I've just stepped outside to take some photos and its like a summers day!

With two upcoming craft fairs (one this weekend and one the following weekend), I realized I'd better get busy with some new things for my stand.

Today I've been using this gorgeous linen that I bought last week from one of my favourite quilt shops to combined with pretty liberty prints to make these lined specs cases!  

 They are appliqued and then handstitched and I had such fun drawing all the different style specs.

  The Rose Edna Everage stylee ones are my favourite.

 Which are yours?!

 I also made some cute little heart key rings to match.  

Thats a start anyway! Lots more to do before Saturday...  

Off to take my diet coke outside now for and catch some sun for the last half hour before school pick up, clubs and mum tax service starts.

Enjoy your day x0x

A workshop with Janet Clare

Saturday was a day I'd been looking forward to for a while, a workshop at Hope and Elvis with Janet Clare, whose work I had loved when I first saw it at the Festival of Quilts last year.  Janet creates gorgeous unique quilts and stitcheries using applique and free machine drawing.  

Examples of her work (some from her Freya and Fred book) were laid out for us to admire...

Janet gave us all jointed applique templates of Fred!

Getting ready to start!

 First of all Janet demonstrated writing with a sewing machine.  She told us all to be confident when free machining and it would happen!  We all started by drawing our names with the machine. 

The Lovely Janet Clare

Once we had mastered our names, she then showed us how to draw faces, apparently this can be one of the trickiest things to do, so once we had mastered this we would be full of confidence to tackle almost anything! She said you never knew who would appear until you started stitching, which was so true, some interesting characters appeared from under our needles! Houses followed, and then on to choosing fabrics, and appliquing! 

 Louise had been truly generous with her fabrics and stash of beautiful of old quilts, and had put out beautiful pieces for us to use.  I selected two really gorgeous textural worn handquilted pieces to work with.  

First I appliqued Sunbonnet Freya (from Janet's Freya and Fred book), which I bonda-webbed on and then free embroidered onto the applique and finished with some handquilting.

Next I had fun using scraps of vintage fabrics to make a crazy patchwork, trimmed to make a cup of tea.

The day was also a lovely opportunity to share creative time and catch up with my very good friend, (super talented!) who free machined these wonderful pieces all about her family, home, allotment and garden. 

(She's also a guide leader, and found just the right fabric for her camping applique!)

At the end of the day it was really enjoyable to have a show and tell and see what everyone else had been busy making.  

Everyone produced such beautiful individual pieces and it was incredible to think that some of us had never free machined before.  Such an enjoyable day and Kirsty is absolutely right free machine embroidery is definitely the crack cocaine of craft, I can't wait to have another go at home today! xox