CATCHING UP

The header picture is of my beloved Bernina sewing machine. This is the ONLY sewing machine I have barring my Embellisher. Everything I make, mend or Quilt is done on this Bernina 1090s...I love this machine.  Thank you Bernina for making it and thank you hubby for buying it for me all those years ago.

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This is my Postcard from Tessa from the postcard swap on PP Forum

Theme - CHINA, isn't it fabulous, thank you Tessa...

OK there should be more Postcards here but I forgot to take pictures of them..derr...

Instead -

here is a picture of my Suzanne's bike...

 and guess who is on the petrol tank?

ROSSI of course....

I need to take pictures of tons of stuff, I have got way way behind again!!!!!

Tomorrow is another day..

'they' say...

Just WHO are 'they' ?????

Things I have to do, in no particular order - just to make you smile....

1]  Sort out TWO Birthday swaps for the PP Forum ---

2]  Make a Wonky block Journal page for  PP Forum---

3]  Do my 6 June Journal page for PP Forum ---

4]  Do my Personal Challenge for PP Forum which is New York Beauty block ---

5]  Cut strips for PP Forum strip swap ---

6]  Do Hexagons for swap for Quilt Set - 3 lots ---ARGHHHHHH

7]  Sort instructions for Sew a Row quilt for PP Forum ---

8]  Crack on with Marian's beast of a quilt ---

9]  Maybe do the hoovering and dusting, it seems to be piling up!!!!!

10]  Try to remember what it is I should be doing and have forgotten all about -

          there is bound to be something lurking I have forgotten all about!!!!

Looking at that list it seems I am into the PP Forum for a lot of things right now!!!!!

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JANICE's QUILT

Janice, who came to me a few weeks back to learn how to do FMQ, asked if I would quilt a special quilt for her. The reason she came to me in the first place was to try to do this herself, but after having a go - and doing very well I have to say - she went home thought about it, sent me an email and I had the very great pleasure of quilting this for her for her GD. There is a story behind this Quilt which is not mine to tell, suffice to say, a lot of lovely ladies in America and Canada made these gorgeous blocks, assembled the quilt, then sent it back to Janice to finish it off for her GD. Ladies you are amazing, it was lovely for me to see some names on the Quilt which I recognised as I used to be in the group Janice runs on Yahoo. Particularly Nancy Hamm who I had a good few swaps with. Hi Nancy :-)

Enjoy the pictures, the Quilt comes at the end in all it's glory.....

The quilting round the blocks is vermicelli with some hearts done amongst it...

Gorgeous braid used on this block,

but oh did it give me some grief whilst quilting - hahaha...

Hi Nancy.....

this is Janice's own block and I have signed my logo right next to it Janice,

can you find it????

Fabulous block this, so clever...

I also love this heart it looks like it is flying...

 this is done by paper piecing and runs along the bottom...

 this is the top banner, isn;t it gorgeous...

 showing a bit of the side where I quilted

bubbles - lots of them for the little girl...

 this is the back of the top banner...

 showing quilting amongst the letters at base...

 back view of the whole quilt...

and here is the Quilt in all it's glory...

Am amazing Quilt, I love it, and thank you Janice for trusting me with it.

I hope you like what I did for your GD

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MY GROUP ON SATURDAY 23 JUNE

Better late than never, I ran out of time last night to get the pictures up and today managed to get them all cropped and ready so here we go. This is the SHOWTIME from the ladies at my group on Saturday. Enjoy....

by Annette -

her 'Monday' quilt, she belongs to a Monday group

and they made blocks and had to assemble at will -

isn't this great? Proud of her...

by Bridget -

this is using lots of scraps and the flowers we made a while back...

 close up for you...

 by Bridget -

Crazy blocks which she had never done before...

 by Bridget -

not sure if you can see, this has lots of layers of voile...

 by Bridget -

as you can see she is a very prolific quilter,

this was an amazing piece, again using lots of voile and beads and

in Bridget's words, everything including the kitchen sink!

I loved this very much...

 by Irene -

we were making HST's by the score and Irene had a few left over

from her quilt so made this cushion...

 by Irene -

using the pretty small Fairy panels she made this quilt

for a Niece I think it was...

 by Polly -

This was the first block of Baltimore we are doing at the group,

she will be making all hers into cushions...

 by Polly -

scrummy muffins for tea,

I hope you will click on the picture and see the gorgeous muffin buttons

at the top and bottom of this small hanging...

 by Wendy -

all hand done, please click on the picture

to see the fabulous quilting...

 by Sue -

Sue suffers with just about everything that life can throw at her but she never ever complains, just quietly gets on with things, we did this hexagon flower a while back and a lot of the ladies didn't wish to keep theirs so I collected them up and Sue had them all for therapy work for her hands, she told me she now understands what I mean when I say although we cut out a 6" square, everyone's 6" square will be different!!!!!

think about it....

Well done Sue, she is going to turn this into a bag.

 Pat's Hexagon group within the group -

the ladies are given a name and colour each month and they have to make two florets for that person in the colour stated, we started this month and it took off really well as you can see, I got them all to place their Hexies together so we could get a photo of them, aren't they pretty...

a close up for you...

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We had a lovely day, there was a lot of sewing and chatting going on and a lot of tea drinking as ever. I hope next time to be able to show you more of the Baltimore blocks they are doing. Until then, thank you for looking.

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ANGRY WITH A CAPITAL A

Today, one of the **** dogs next door howled and whined alternately for almost three hours. I was almost losing my mind, the pair of us were yelling through the wall for it to shut up...or words to that effect... it would stop for a second or two then start up again.  I rang the Environmental people and got an answer machine. I wonder when they will ring me back. I am SOOOOOOOOO ready for them.

I was just going to go round next door to kick their door in to get at it, when hubby mentioned someone had come home in the van. Now normally I do not move very fast due to dodgy legs but I was out that door like a veritable whippet. It was the son [yuk] he got out the van and I quite calmly said, one of your dogs has been howling and whining for almost 3 hours, he jumped down my throat saying...

'if I am not there how can I do anything about it, if I am there they behave'

IN HIS DREAMS

The conversation I have to say disintegrated from that point, I didn't shout, I didn't lose my temper, but I was seething, he came out with a load of crap, you just never know what lies are pouring from their mouths with that family. I never believe them anymore whatever they say. All I wanted was for him to say.....Sorry.

I told him I had rung the Environmental people and he said---

'so what - they say there is no problem with our dogs.  You are the problem.'

Hmmm sorry NOT obviously in his vocabulary, he turned the whole thing around and was blaming me for it all in then end. He also remarked on some 'fly tipping' that had been done at the back of their fence at the back of their back garden - I use that word garden very loosely folks!!!!

I did see the disgusting settee that had been dumped there and meant to ring the Council but have been busy myself and forgot. Apparently he rang the Council and reported about the rubbish at the back, well excuse me while I just sit and bust myself laughing....has he seen his front 'garden' let alone the back one. Steptoe's yard is just not in it folks. It has to be seen to be believed. Crap as far as the eye can see.

So having got nowhere with this moron, I went in and I was shaking from head to foot and unable to breath properly, hubby was concerned he thought I would have a heart attack and said they would be pleased if I did. Do you know something, I am stating here and now IF I die from a heart attack it will be their fault through the stress they have caused me over the years. If they die...ooooo you best not ask, because I know what I am going to be doing.

It took me a long while to get my breathing under control. Hubby made me the much needed cot, I stomped about getting all the bits together for my groups meeting tomorrow. Then I went and did some quilting along to Robbie at Knebworth.

Window open wide, Robbie almost full volume and sewing machine going at top speed.

I do hope he heard it, but then again I don't think he did cos he was yelling at all the dogs to shut the ***** up.

My neighbour over the back has told me they have counted 15 dogs in there.

I rang the Environmental people and got an answer machine. I wonder when they will ring me back. I am SOOOOOOOOO ready for them.

Am I still angry. You betcha.

ROW BY ROW QUILT

I cannot believe I have finally finished this Quilt. I am so pleased with it. I loved doing the rows and swapping with the girls when I was in the Yahoo group with them.

Ange, Maggi, Marian, Jytte, Fiona, Kerstin and myself made a row for each person, Ange was the one who sorted it all for us. It was great receiving the row made especially for us each month.  I would recommend anyone having a go at this if you can get enough peeps interested, it is a fun quilt to make.

THE WHOLE QUILT

I didn't want a long thin quilt so I laid the blocks out into a square

and just added the strips to make it work out...

 The back of the quilt...

 These are the centre three rows, I think they are

Maggi's row then Ange then Marian...I hope!!!!

Ange had done some leaves in variegated thread on her row

and I used that for the rest of the quilt, I even found the same thread,

each row has it's own style of quilting...

 close up of Maggi's row

 close up of Kerstin's row

 Jytte's row is on the right in this picture...

 Fiona's row close up...

 Marian's row close up...

 My own row close up...

 showing quilting done in plain strips and corner squares...

 ditto above...

Thank you girls, I love this quilt and it will be used a lot I am sure.

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SWAP A TOP FOR FABRIC

I need lots of cream fabrics - 100% cotton - and I wondered if I put two quilt tops up would anyone be interested in swapping fabric for them.

They are only the quilt TOPS, not quilted, no backings or wadding...

close up of 3D geese block...

close up of Appliqued Holly and berries block...

 and this is the quilt top -  49" square

 for that one I would like 8 fat quarters of cream 100% cotton fabrics,

if you are interested email me please...

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Bow Tie Quilt TOP only -  40" square

 close up of the 3D bow ties...

I designed and made this quilt for Makower some years back...

 for this quilt top I would like 6 fat quarters of cream 100% cotton,

again if you are interested please let me know...

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UFO ZAPPED

On the PP Forum, Tessa talked us through this Quilt - The Underground Railway Quilt. I have not read the books or anything about this Quilt, I just made it then quilted it as I saw fit. It may not be right, but I like it now it is done.....I think!
I had some concerns about who would have actually made the Quilt.

The lady of the house?    Surely not, she would want to keep her slaves.

The slaves themselves?   Hmm where would they get the patterns and fabrics from??

I know I shall get lots of comments about this, but I could not get my head round it at all, I have no wish to read the book, sorry.

I 'loaned' the title of one of the books for the top of my quilt. It is my idea in the bottom sash of the quilt. Hope you like what I have done.
Thank you to Marian from the PP site for idea for the label, first block...

the sashing is dark brown fabric with tiny red dots -

I used this fabric for obvious reasons,

I thought the red dots would or could be the blood

shed by the slaves in their escape to Freedom...

no barbed wire between these as they are now FREE...

 The sashing has been quilted with a design from Leah Day,

I felt it was just right for this quilt,

the sashing corner stones have fabric that is barbed wire, I felt it fit...

The completed Quilt -

 The back...

 close up of centre section of the back...

top sashing title in progress...

Completed...

Lower sashing title in progress -

done in gold thread now...

Completed...

So there we are, another UFO zapped, one with a strong story if you believe it. I am not 100% I do, but there we are, that is only my opinion. It makes a decent quilt.

I have to say I am not 100% comfortable with it now it is done.

I hope it doesn't offend anyone.

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