This pretty floral print has been with me a long time. I bought it in Liverpool in about 1980 and have only ever used it in backings on small items. For some reason it has never gone well with other fabrics that I have used and has never made it onto a quilt top. Yet again it is on the back of a quilt, which will soon be stuffed into an envelope to wing its way to Utah to Pattilou. The front of the quilt is a secret until Pattilou receives it... I am slightly at a loss as to why this print never quite goes with anything else. I would understand if it were sludgy colours, or just plain ugly, but it is a really sweet design. Just another of life's mysteries.
This is the quilt I received from Lee, my August partner in the Doll Quilters' Monthly swap. The theme was "Dressed to the Nines", and Lee certainly used some interesting nine patches to great effect - such tricky piecing, all those triangles! The sharp contrast of the purple and white looks like a tiled floor, just the sort of design I find fascinating. Lee also sent me a tiny little fabric container, just the right size to hold three reels of thread, and which is now sitting on my treadle. Thank you Lee!
This beautiful butterfly was in the back garden on the hedge while I was pegging out the washing earlier this week. Not only did it wait for me to finish hanging the washing and then go in for the camera, it also closed its wings so I could get a photo of the comma on the underneath.
I knew the comma was white, but I didn't realise until I looked at the picture afterwards that it had white legs to match. Welcome to the latest followers - Pattilou (who just happens to be my partner for this month's doll quilt swap) and 2ne from Norway. Thank you for joining!
This the latest experiment, done on a fat quarter sized piece of fabric. I wasn't sure what I was going to try this week. I had a notion that I was going to do a design based on an unusual beer can, but when I visited Mary Ellen's blog and saw her wonderful pictures of her trip to Germany, the whole plan changed. She has a photo of a beautiful garden full of autumn flowers, so I decided to have a go at rudbeckias.
First I did the flower in the centre, with the three flower heads coming from a central stalk.
Next I put in a shorter flower on either side, each with two flower heads.
When I do this pattern again I shall try and make the stems shorter and fit in more flowers. I didn't really plan what I was going to do at the top. I thought the pattern would work itself out and that I would be able to arrange the stems more easily, but I started confusing myself at the top. An advance sketch might have helped. Welcome to Susan, the latest follower - thank you for joining! Linking up again withLeah Day's blogfor Free Motion Friday ... and Sarah's blogConfessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
The envelope is a bit tatty, but all the pattern pieces are intact inside, all folded together.
The long nightdress is particularly slinky, but that isn't what fascinated me about this pattern.
It was the small print on the front ...
... and the instructions inside
... which describe everything you need to do in preparation
... for laying the pattern onto panels of parachute silk. Today's bit of fun is a link up with Beth's blog Love Laugh Quilt to join in with the Sewing Museum. If you want to see lots of fascinating sewing boxes, buttons, machines, ribbon, thread... all the sort of stuff I squirrel away into every spare corner... click on the link. Welcome to LynCC, the latest follower - thank you for joining!
One of the true great joys of late summer and autumn - blackberries! It is worth all the scratches from the brambles to get at the fruit. Last week I went out hacking back the nettles and checking the hedges around a couple of fields near home, getting well and truly scratched and stung so I could have enough for a nice big bowl of perfect blackberries. When we were in Poland in August the blackberries were just finishing, and their brambles are a different variety to ours - not so widespread and rampant, and not half so tough and prickly. Our brambles are complete thugs compared to theirs, and the fruit starts to ripen about a month after theirs have finished. The fruit here will keep on going for a few weeks. I could stock the freezer if it weren't already full.
And because the freezer was full, I had to make jam straight away. So here's the video if you want to give it a try. Linking up today with Liz's blog Brambleberry Cottage (how appropriate) for Time Travel Thursday so you can see lots of other projects, including recipes..
