Happy Christmas

Every year we put up the crib figures that we had when I was a child.  The little plastic calf joined them when our children were young.

A happy and peaceful Christmas to every one, and many more to come!

A Picture for Sunday - Sunset in December

Gorgeous clouds earlier this month, giving no real hint of how chilly it was.

The sun is now setting at 4 o'clock, so early that sometimes I miss it.  I nearly missed this one, but took a brisk walk to make sure I reached this particular field in time.  It is interesting to see how far across the sky the sunset has shifted since October.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 259 - What Next?

Yellow and green aren't really the classic Christmas colours, but it is far too late to start anything Christmassy.  I have had a quick riffle through unfinished projects and have settled on this panel of strips, ready to be cut into squares.  The strips on the left and the right are both cut from the same piece of Japanese fabric which I bought ages ago at a quilt show.  It is high time I used it.  A bit of therapeutic piecing is in order when I get the chance, a welcome change after stitching the landscape, which was all about threads.

We are in for a quiet Christmas, with just our daughter due for ten days until the New Year.  We have had a friend over from Germany earlier this month, followed by our son on a weekend stay from Ireland.  The Christmas cards have started arriving, and I'm dreaming of home-made mince pies...

This is the last linky here before Christmas, as it is Andrée's turn next week, so I am looking forward to seeing some seasonal projects.  My project is tidying the sewing room.  I might be able to post a picture of it, but not yet while it still looks as though a bomb has hit it.  So even if it's not strictly a sewing project, but just a sort out, or knitting, or cooking, I would love to see what you are doing.

Apologies for being late with the linky.  All my good intentions yesterday evening fell flat, then I stayed up far too late to see the first election results come in, after I swore I wouldn't...

Here goes for week 259:-

Many thanks to Vicki for linking up with her batik star quilt last time.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

12 x 12 Exhibition at Midsomer Quilting - One Day...

Now running at Midsomer Quilting, the annual 12 x 12 show is an absolute delight.  This year's theme was "One day...", which could be interpreted however you liked.  Here, in no particular order, are just a few of the quilts.

First, by Chris Bussell, a gorgeous orange day lily, in exactly the right shade of orange, just like the ones we have in our front garden.

I loved the 3D flower, complete with stamens.

Another 3D quilt, by Debbie Halfhide, recalls the day she saw a weasel popping out from the greenery.  Lucky Debbie.  I have only ever seen a weasel scampering quickly out of sight.

Katherine Vaughan's quilt summed up the frustrations and joys of gardening.  The caption below it reads "One day the sun shone.  A day for gardening!"  The expression on her face (I really hope it is a self portrait) is priceless, the combination of panic and bewilderment when weeds seem to grow by the hour and you don't know where to start.

Alison Boswell took a similar theme and came up with something completely different.  "one day.... oh how it rained!"

All these tiny triangles are an ingenious representation of an absolute drencher.

This quilt is by De Pickford, and I have to confess that I didn't take a photo of the caption.  To the best of my recollection, this landscape looks forward to the day when there will be more trees on the hill.  In the meantime, the copse at the top of the hill is a beautiful focal point.

Maria Capper takes us on a flight of fancy with "One day... fly me to the moon!"  At first sight I wondered why the sand was grey and the sky so dark.  Seen from a distance, the colours of the deck chairs really stand out.

This whimsical quilt by Valerie tells us that "One day my dream is to live in the country."  The colours are very realistic - no idealised blue sky and fluffy clouds, but the uncompromising grey we are so used to, muted greens for the foliage, and dark muddy brown.  I really hope Valerie's dream comes true.

Gillian Ashby's quilt shows just one day, a typical day, starting with tea, featuring one job after another...  

… pausing for more tea (I recognise that teapot, and the mugs)...

… and winding down later with a spot of knitting.  This quilt is a social documentary.

Finally, George Korn would have us believe that one day he will finish this quilt.  How can you finish a finished quilt of an unfinished quilt?  In fact, how can you even start one with hexagons that tiny?

Just incredible.  Perfect for a pixie's bed.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 257 - Better Late Than Never

Of all my projects ever, I can safely say that this landscape has been the most frustrating, daunting, terrifying, and in the end, most satisfying, that I have ever undertaken.  This is where I was at on Monday, putting the finishing touches to the hedges and trees in the distance

The annual 12 x 12 Exhibition at Midsomer Quilting takes place every year during December.  This year I thought I would get off to an early start, so as to avoid a last minute rush.  So back in May I chose the photo to work from, and made plans.  Then I had to rethink my plans.  When I finally started sewing, it was to put the focal point into position, namely the view of the hill beyond: three horizontal lines didn't look much at the time, but in the end they formed the foundation of one of my favourite parts of the picture. 

The next lines to plot were outlines of the path and hedges on either side.  With hindsight, I can see I haven't plotted a particular line because I couldn't make it out on the original photo.  There is so much green blending from one shade to another, that I couldn't tell where the foreground ended and the middle distance started.  In fact, it was only last week that I finally worked out what I was seeing on the photo, which seems pretty daft, because this is a path I regularly walk along.

Then I was ready to stitch the houses, or rather two houses and two roofs, and start filling in the fields.  

The next stage was the start of the battle against rumpling.  Frankly, this is where I look at the work I have in front of me and wonder why I bother.  The bin is very tempting.  So then I put in a few horizontal lines of colour and kidded myself I was making serious progress.  A few weeks later I took the machine for a walk up the path.

The wooded hill in the distance gave me a little trouble.  I needed to use a dark green, but make sure it wasn't so dark that it formed a heavy block of colour, especially as there would be a tree in the foreground that needed to stand out against it.

The grass alongside and down the middle of the path gave me a bit of a headache because the glorious May green seen in Spring doesn't exist as a thread colour.

By October I hadn't got very far, and felt like a lump of rubbish.  This was when I was hoping to get to grips with this project, but a wretched virus had other plans.  Then I had technical problems.  Why is it that needles that have been fine for previous projects suddenly rebel?  So I bought the fattest needles that I could find, put them through their paces, and got to work.

By now it was late November and I seemed to be making reasonable progress.  I decided that perhaps this landscape wasn't going to end up in the bin after all and I might actually finish it.  So last week I rang Chris at Midsomer Quilting.

"Hello Chris.  When does the exhibition start?"
"The 29th."
"When do the quilts need to be in?"
"The 3rd."

So I'm nearly three weeks late, and I haven't even finished.  Embarrassing, especially as I had resolved to start way back in June to avoid a last minute rush.

Chris agreed to leave a gap on the wall, and I sent him a photo of what I had done so far.

Here it is.  I think he was underwhelmed.

I had about a week at the most to finish, and we had a visitor with us.  Fortunately our visitor is an old friend, extremely easy going, so hours of furious treadling wasn't a problem.

Last weekend the picture was fairly clear, but still had plenty of work to go.  A tree, the greater part of a hedge, masses of greenery, including great clouds of hedge parsley...

Yes, I finished it.  By lunchtime yesterday I was pressing out the rumples and trimming it to size, before jumping into the car to drive to Chilcompton to deliver it to Chris just in time to fill the gap on the wall before the exhibition opens this morning.  

For now I have no decent pictures of the finished work, just a hastily taken photo taken on my mobile phone to send to a couple of friends who were encouraging me from a distance through the last few frantic days.  Expect pictures in January.  In the meantime, the 12 x 12 Exhibition runs until 21st December, and from the sneak preview I had yesterday, I can tell you there are some really fabulous quilts on display.

Finally, I have to thank Chris, De and everyone at Midsomer Quilting for their kindness and patience.  It was a close shave.

Here goes for week 257:-

Many thanks to Gretchen for posting her City View quilt last time.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and the Kathleen McMusing blog for TGIFF
and Alycia Quilts - Quiltygirl for Finished or Not Friday 
and Denise's blog For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down
and Sherry's blog Powered by Quilting for Friday Foto Fun.