What's new in my sewing room?

It has been a little while since I finished my last project but, I don't want you to think that I haven't been busy!!  Apart from the adventure that I went on and wrote about last time, I have had a complete Spring clean in my sewing room.

This has involved hours of folding and re-folding fabrics so that they are now exactly as I want them and a big re-organisation of my many quilting/embroidery books.  I am now much happier with how they are arranged.

It is just as well, as I have added a number of new books to my collection recently and, I needed to make some room for them without the shelves collapsing!!

I have also started cutting out the fabrics for a project from one of my new books.  The book is called 'Nautical Quilts' and is by Lynette Anderson.  I really love this book and I am about to start piecing together a wall hanging called 'All Aboard Wall Quilt' which I think is really cute and will look lovely on my wall!!

I also have a new adventure to look forward to as I have signed up to go on my first quilt retreat.  It is being held by 'Busy Needle Quilting' the last weekend in September and I am really excited to be going!!

Quilt Retreat

Hope you are all working on some exciting projects! Until next time..... xx

Since the last post.....

Since my last post I have had all sorts of exciting things happening here.  Firstly, I have to tell you all about the adventure that I went on with some quilting friends just over a week ago (although it already seems a longer time than that!!)  Through my blog and then through a workshop I attended at the lovely Cotton 'n' Color shop in Riehen I made friends with two lovely ladies living here in Switzerland.  Since that time we have kept in touch and have hoped to meet up again.  This dream became more of a reality when I moved back to Switzerland last year and, since then we have been planning a day together.  That day finally arrived just over a week ago and what a wonderful day it was!!  For me it started with a long train journey.....

When I arrived in Liestal I was met by Martina and Katharina and we went back to Katharina's beautiful apartment where we had coffee and some delicious treats that Katharina had prepared for us.

We couldn't meet up without a visit to the Cotton 'n' Color shop which was our next stop.  Of course I couldn't come away without a few bits and pieces.  I bought some lovely fabric and these lovely books and a pattern.

We then had a tasty lunch out in Riehen, followed by a tram ride into Basel for some sightseeing.  We took a ferry boat across the Rhine to see the Minster, which was beautiful.  The day passed too quickly and it wasn't long before it was time for me to make the train journey home again.  However, I took with me some wonderful memories of a fabulous day spent with friends and two beautiful handmade gifts.

This gorgeous sewing pouch beautifully handstitched by Katharina and filled with lots of delightful goodies.

As well as this pretty kantha-stitched drawstring bag made by Martina with a magnetic needle holder and a lovely cup which was printed with words that sum up how I felt about the day 'perfect moment'.  Thank you both for such a wonderful time and I hope that we can meet up again soon!!

Time to reveal the front....

Now that the table topper quilt that I showed you from the back in my last post has safely arrived at the recipient's (my eldest daughter) home, I can reveal the front of it.

I had decided to appliqué a wreath of flowers into the centre square but, I thought it would be difficult to free motion quilt around them, so I quilted the background completely before adding the flowers. I then used the raw-edge appliqué method that I used to complete the 'Honey Bunny' quilt which I posted about here to finish off the edges of the leaves and flowers.  The flower templates that I used were also from a tutorial by Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now! (Kellie now has a shop called Cutting Cloth)  The tutorial is called 'Flower Garden' and is in my 'to do' folder as another project!!

Since I last posted, I have also been hard at work on another project which will be a gift.  It is a little landscape embroidery that I am making to celebrate a wedding.  I can't show you the whole thing yet because the wedding isn't until June, so it won't be received until then but, I thought that you might like a few glimpses of it.  Above and below are a couple of small sections showing the background quilting and some of the appliqué and hand details that I have added.

It has really been a lot of fun to work on.  I finished on Friday last and now I am excited to move onto my next project!!  

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend! 

Time for a catch up!!

I see that it has been a little while again since I posted and I think it is time for a catch up!!  I have been a bit negligent with my blog posts and I have even thought seriously about closing my blog in favour of using other media tools to keep in touch with the quilting world but, I have blog friends who don't use other media and I don't want to lose contact with them so you'll have to put up with the sporadic posts instead!!

Now, what have I been doing since my last post?  Well, April was a busy month as I was travelling in the UK for part of the time visiting family and having cuddles with my cute little granddaughter who has just turned five months old.  I took with me the Honey Bunny wall hanging to put in her nursery.  I think she liked it!!

We also visited my Father-in-law and sorted through some of the legal paperwork and sorting out that accompanied the sad passing of my Mother-in-law in December of last year.  As it was really my husband who was involved with the legalities of this and, I knew that I wouldn't be attending some of the meetings, I took with me my improv quilt to bind.  I had managed to get all the free motion quilting completed just in time to take it with me.

Above is the finished quilt and below is a glimpse of the quilting from the back.  I was really pleased with how this turned out and I shall definitely be making some more improv quilts in the future.  They are really great for using up scraps of fabric!!

When I got back I started work on a new project which I am not far from finishing.  I have pieced, layered and basted the quilt top (which is going to be a table topper) and finished all the free motion quilting.  As this is a gift, I am only going to show you the back so that you can see the quilting.  You'll have to wait until my next post to see the front!!  I am very pleased with it so far!!

Since then, I have had my youngest daughter here to stay and, we had some fun as I showed her some basic hand embroidery stitches.  She wanted to make something for a friend and the stitching reminded me that I needed to re-start work on the beautiful BOM blocks from Gail Pan's 2018 i-stitch-club: Send My Love.  I managed to finish stitching the last February appliqué to it's background and start embroidering the first March block.  Now all I have to do is make the time to keep going!!

Well, I think that's about it for now.  Hope you all enjoy a wonderful first day of May!! Until next time 😄