Linky Tuesday – Page 2 – NEW EVERY MORNING

Surprising, shocking pink!

September 18, 2018 by Allison Reid

Last week I spent a lot of my sewing time not sewing but on my laptop writing up the ‘Cabin in the Woods‘ block pattern. At the weekend I made an executive decision (after all I am my own CEO!) to take a break from screens and do some sewing! I also spent a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon watching our youngest son playing in a light-hearted charity tennis tournament.

All this is by way of an explanation for my failure to publish a Saturday Quilting Bring & Share blog post! It will be back!

Do I have enough scraps?

September 4, 2018September 4, 2018 by Allison Reid

Do I have a enough scraps? 😀 Well! As it happens, yes I do! Earlier this year I made a scrap quilt (see photo at bottom of this post) combining Amanda Jean Nyberg’s excellent Scrap Vortex method with a leader-ender technique. Low and behold it turns out that making one scrap quilt doesn’t get anywhere near resolving the issue of overflowing scrap boxes… So, I embarked on another scrap quilt, this time using a pink colour scheme rather than blue.

Cool colours in the UK heat!

July 25, 2018June 27, 2018 by admin

What can I say? I ‘ve still not finished the BIG quilt and as we are experiencing a bit of a heatwave here in the UK I am spending quite a lot of the early morning and evening hours wielding hoses and watering cans around the garden and allotment. These are my ~~excuses~~ reasons for not compiling an edition of Saturday Quilting Bring and Share for last weekend. I also have over 90 blog post email notifications stacked up in my inbox :-O I’m loath to discard them as I know just how long it will have taken to compile each of those blog post! My intention is to enjoy reading my way through the back-log and share what grabs my attention on my Pins of the Week Pinterest board and/or in the next edition of Saturday Morning Bring and Share 🙂
Away from the sewing room I have been getting on with some hand sewing. We (hubby and me) sat down one evening and watched a favourite film. I’ve seen ‘The Dish’* (see orange text below for more information about the film) several times so I could keep track of the story whilst stitching down the binding to a quilt. As a result I have a finish to share.
This is my version of the Beginners Quilt, made alongside the class and used as my demonstration model. The fabrics are a mix from my stash and Viv’s stock at Purple Stitches. The colours look fresh and cool – even in a photo taken outside in the bright sunshine. I altered Viv’s basic design (well! it was my fifth time making this quilt!), adding a bunch of half-size squares in the centre of the quilt top. It was an ideal practice piece for my feather quilting.

There’s a free motion feather wreath in the centre with an orange peel design across the rest of the small patchwork squares. I switched to my walking foot to stitch a cross-hatch design through the larger squares before reverting to the free motion set up for feathers in the borders and feather swirls in the corner patches. I’m pleased with my efforts and I like the final addition of the scrappy binding. IT’S A FINISH!!!
*The Dish is based on the true story of how NASA relied on a huge satellite dish situated in the middle of a sheep farm in Australia to relay the footage of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. The blurb on the back of the DVD reads ‘The Dish is a warm-hearted and hilarious comedy based on a true story of what the world didn’t see’. I don’t know about ‘hilarious’, it is funny and warm-hearted whilst conveying the wonder of that Apollo 11 space mission and the heroism of the people involved. Well worth a watch 🙂
Linking with Connie at Free Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let’s Bee Social. Connie is recovering from a bout of illness and shares a link to a beautiful Autumnal quilt while Lorna is sharing some photos of quilts made using her animal patterns.
Allison
Post Script: I’ve completed the quilting on the BIG Carrie Nation Variation Quilt and machine stitched the binding to the front. Wahoo!

Now for several hours of peaceful hand stitching…. I wonder which film(s) I should stick in the DVD player?

Chocolatier BOM and a Seaside Break

July 25, 2018May 8, 2018 by admin

Eastbourne from the Pier by Allison Reid — An evening view of Eastbourne taken from the Pier

I’m back in the sewing room after a sensationally sunny break by the sea 🙂 We drove to Eastbourne on Friday to attend the 10th Bible By The Beach conference. It was our first time staying in the seaside town. Look at these photos of the tiled path leading up to our B&B hotel. No patchwork quilter could fail to feel anything but welcomed by such a sight!

I tell no lie the sun shone for four days and we did not see a cloud during our whole stay! You can imagine the seafront was busy with many holiday makers and day trippers making the most of this rare event – warm sunshine over an entire Bank Holiday weekend! Our B&B was less than a minutes walk from the seafront. Each morning we woke early and took a walk along the promenade – between 7 and 8am – we saw people running, roller blading and or/walking their dogs and a magnificent clean-up team emptying bins and preparing the seafront for the days visitors. The sun sparkled on the sea and gave a comfortable warmth – such good memories of those pre-breakfast walks 🙂

Bible By The Beach was attended by around 800 people. Meetings were held in a local theatre. The speakers were all excellent, giving such encouraging and challenging messages from the Bible. There were children’s groups running alongside the meetings for adults. The children’s groups venues included the Eastbourne Tennis Centre (that’s where the pre-Wimbledon ladies tennis tournament takes place each year – the grass looked in excellent condition!). Music for worship was provided by the very talented EMU Music.
Now we are back home and thankfully the sun continues to shine so I’ve been giving our washing machine a workout after it’s weekend rest…
But back to the sewing room…
The Chocolatier BOM organised by Viv at Purple Stitches is drawing to a close. After 11 months all the 6″ blocks are complete and it’s time to cut the background materials and put the whole quilt together. This is Viv’s rainbow colourway Chocolatier quilt:

I’ve been holding monthly workshops to give some tips and advice as partakers tackle new techniques. As a result I have a full set of blocks (well! I do need to make four more of the border strip blocks…) but I’ve decided not to make the full size quilt. So today I’ve been playing with possible layouts: switching between arranging virtual blocks on EQ7 and rearranging the actual blocks up on my design wall.

My EQ7 design is pretty rough but it’s helping me try out different ideas. If I stick with this on-point layout I will need to make one more block to fill the gap in the lower right hand corner. I have some left-over fabrics so I should be able to do that. I’m thinking I will break up the blocks with some narrow sashing as shown in the EQ7 design. I’m enjoying designing the layout using the computer alongside the physical design wall. I’m switching between the two – sometimes making a change on the computer and then implementing it on the design wall, other times moving the blocks on the design wall before recording the alteration on the computer image. Much quicker than using paper, pencil and eraser!
Linking with Connie for Linky Tuesday at Free Motion by the River.
Allison