Finishing off Works in Progress

A busy weekend finishing off some of the many works in progress (WIP). At last I finished the country garden cushion from Rosalie Quinlan's Gift book. This was my first attempt at needle turn applique and I enjoyed it very much. My technique improved as it went along and the temptation at the end was to pull out the first pieces and do them again but I didn't. All quilted and made up into a cushion I now need a very big cushion pad to fill it. I might even do the second one of the pair.
The Fat Quarter bag is now finished too and I took advantage of a lovely Autumn day to take it out into the garden and hang it on the apple tree to photograph it. It looks like we will have a bumper crop of apples again this year.
It is a very unusual apple tree and it has a good crop of patchwork bags too. This is the first of many Broome market Bags from Leanne Beasley's road trip book, waiting for Jenny to get the crazy patchwork panel finished to decorate it. We are now collecting ribbons, bows, lace , buttons, beads and lots of trimmings for the crazy patchwork.
Friday afternoon at The Fat Quarters also saw Margaret finishing off. She has completed this beautiful quilt with 9 hand quilted panels with designs by Sandie Lush. Now she is working on a larger design in boys colours for her DH. We are looking forward to a day class with Sandie Lush at the Fat Quarters in January "North Country Quilting".

And finally the only thing with any colour in my Autumn garden is this hardy fuchsia which is covered with flowers. Every year I cut it back to ground level and it continues to flourish. I'll have to make another bag to hang in it.

Happy Quilting

Getting down to some sewing

Holidays over and back to normal routine. Time to get down to some serious sewing. Friday at The Fat Quarters saw clearing up after the floods of the previous weekend. Kim had been flooded in the basement of the shop. Although devastation prevailed behind the scenes, the shop was back together and the class went ahead as usual. I was getting left behind with the latest Melly & Me project, The Fat Quarters bag. It is quite complicated so I was keen to learn from the others mistakes (thanks Janet!!) and it involves quite a lot of top stitching too which needs to be kept neat. So this weekend it has been heads down at the sewing machine. With breaks for hand sewing , the quilting on the Gift cushion is nearly finished too.

Jenny has decided to make bags for friends for Christmas and to decorate them with Crazy Patchwork panels. Work has started using the pattern for the Broome market bag from Leanne Beasley's book Romancing the Road Trip.
This meant a trip into Fenwicks department store in Newcastle for lots of trims, beads, buttons and ribbons in the haberdashery department. Unfortunately I wandered into Next in Northumberland street where they forced me into buying a new pair of shoes. Not very exciting, black flatties for work but a girl has to be smart and comfortable.

Jenny's other sewing project this week has been to customise her costume for a murder mystery party where she played the part of Pia Fedora, a spanish caberet star.
Happy Quilting

Glasgow - family reunion and quilt shops

Great long weekend break in Glasgow for a family get together in advance of Varisha and Alec's wedding next year. We started out with a city sight seeing bus tour and used the tickets to travel the city for the next 2 days. It was really interesting, some magnificent buildings and interesting history. Loads of fabulous shops and friendly people. he weather was good and we escaped the floods which hit the North East this weekend.
The Charles Rennie Mackintosh influence in design is all around the city and here are the girls stopping off to pose in front of the Glasgow School of Art on their way to the sewing shop. Mandors fabric shop "Heaven for Material Girls " was good. Loads of furnishing fabric, dress fabric and quilting fabric to choose from and a good selection of trimmings, ribbons and threads. Chris was seduced by the Liberty fabric and was last seen diving into the bargain bin head first.
We recovered in time for an evening get together with the family, relaxing with champagne and good food.
Chris is into Crazy patchwork which I have not tried yet, but with the new book she bought me, I will have to have a go. Here are some of the patches she has made for a swap with her stitch and bitch club in KL.
A great way to use up all those bits you've collected and a good excuse to buy more. This was my favourite square.

Happy Quilting

Scottish Holiday and prizes.

This year our holiday has been split into 2 halves due to my DH not being able to have 2 weeks together off work . St Abbs is so scenic I can't resist photos of the blue sky, sea and sunshine.
But the weekend started as usual with our Friday afternoon group at The Fat Quarters where I met up with Piecemaker. I won the giveaway on her birthday blog and at last I was able to collect my prize. I got this lovely Twelve Red Robins stitchery from Cinderberry Stitches , some fabric and a variegated thread to do it with. Thanks for the lovely gift.
We started our second project from The fat Quarters club, The Fat Quarters bag, a Melly and me design. The bag is made from four fat quarters and is a bit smarter than the usual patchwork bag, more like a handbag than a tote. The next stage is to see if I can remember how to do use my channel quilting tool on my machine to quilt the bag. My sewing room aka the conservatory or rabbit run had got a bit out of hand, the table was so messy there was nowhere to sew so I had a good tidy up. Instead of a boring picture of the mess here is a cute photo of my little helper.
Yesterday I popped in to see Louise in Woolfish embroidery thread and this funky yarn. Called Thalia, it is ribbon like yarn made from a mix of man made fibres, mohair and wool with some and bought some more of that variegated metallic threads too. Check out Woolfishers new website where you can now buy on line. With all this wonderful scenery just outside her door, I am amazed she gets down to any work.
Here are Jenny and her Grandad picking beans for tea in his garden.
And finally, I've been on Concorde!!I hate flying but since this Concorde was safely on the ground at the Scottish Museum of Flight, I risked a quick trip on board. It was a very interesting trip too, unfortunately the cafe did not recreate the Lobster thermadore and champagne menus of the luxurious supersonic flights. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

Well off to Glasgow on Thursday for part 3 of our holiday to meet the exiled members of the family from overseas.