the aftermath...

 Whats better than a beautifully stacked stash?

The aftermath of a quilting project!

 After Claire talked of messing up her sewing space whilst pulling fabrics,

I thought I'd share my workspace how it is right now.

It's not too bad...though there are a million threads on the carpet!

You can see I have a couple of basted babies ready to go.
The striped one is my piece and love big hexagon quilt.

Don't they look snug as a bug?

pieced and loved

 Okay so enough of the glummy bears.

I've quite clearly got a fully pieced quilt top on my hands!

Enough?

This is my piece and love quilt that was supposed to be for my dining room table.

As the creator I think I deserve the right to change my mind,

especially when patchwork is screaming to be quilted.

I'm going for more fmq as it's in tune with the whimsical feel of this project.
Also I've just seen Jeni's lovely vintage sheet prism quilt
found here at in color order

So shes all basted and ready to go, 

snug as bug!

the great pretender or just a big old Boo

There is a great buzz about the London quilt retreat this weekend

and I'm not going (pulls glum little face).

I knew I'd feel sad...but now I just feel like billy no mates.

So here I am pretending with my name tag I got in a swap from picmonkey.

I did really want to go..but

I already have four trips to London booked this summer and possibly one more,

so I made the decision to fore go this year.

I really hope they make it a yearly thing?

Any how to all who are going

 have a wonderful time,

cannot wait to hear all about it....truly!

 Anyone not going come and hang out

in my virtual retreat that is my blog xx

*this post was typed mainly with a protruding childlike bottom lip

lazy sunday afternoon....

..I've got no mind to worry,

close my eyes and drift away...

*lyrics small faces

how does your garden grow?

 I'm not ashamed to say that it's all looking rather beautiful in the garden.

All that terrible weather is soon forgotten..

This is a new allium in my garden,

it's called christophii.

It's shorter than the regular alliums and has a lovely silvery notion to it.

I've wanted to grow this for years,

so now I cannot wait until they are fully open.

 As promised the honesty has produced the seed discs that we so love.

 and once again the lupins are doing their thing, 

I'm sure it was just a few months ago that they were blooming

 With April and most of this month being so cold and wet

everything is racing to bloom.

 May is still very much the month for aquilegias.

I do love the variations you get when they cross pollinate,

I bought a packet of Nora Barlow seeds a few years ago,

I never actually grew a true NB but her genes are mixing like crazy in my garden.

 A good drought resistant plant should have grey foliage,

just like this nepeta or catmint.

 We've recently repotted our liquid amber tree into an old oak barrel

I'm scared that if I plant it in the garden it would tower everything else!

 This is my favourite spot right now,

especially in the morning or evening sun.

 I shall leave you today with my favourite bloom of the month,

an aquilegia so beautifully dark it's almost wicked!

A quick glimpse of where I've been all week....Devon sent!

more to follow....

doing this now...

 I've come to the conclusion that hand sewing everyday gives me 

 my bad shoulder.

 So today I'm sewing half square triangles on my machine.

(can I assume that the quilters out there know what I mean?)

The only time the iron comes out in this household is when I'm piecing,

there's nothing like pressing open freshly sewn seams, 

that's something I miss when I'm English paper piecing.

This is where the magic happens!

 I am loving making blocks for the shoo-fly quilt,

sewing a little then pressing a little...

Sorry about the shameless use of background goodies,

I'm feeling a bit of a bore right now?

ps.

The 'doing this now' has been ripped from the

 new UK Very Important People show.

Gotta love poor Natalie Cassidys send up,

 I'm loving this now!!

for flickrs sake!

With the ever expanding world of blogging and computing in general

it's getting harder to keep track of ones identity.

This is not one of those scaremongering posts,

just a few friendly reccomendations,

 nothing too deep I'm just not that savvy.

Do you ever search your blog/flickr name in google/yahoo?

Well I do, generally to see what pops up

no hedonism involved truly!

So the other day I did a search and found three websites that were showing photos

linked from my flickr account with my name and details...

I understand that they are just another way of displaying your photos to the world,

I'm just not sure I like the idea of my photos being shared by a random website 

I have not signed up for.

If they are harmless then fair enough,

I just have a suspicious nature.

Two that I remember were flickriver and flickrflu.

An easy way to stop them showing your photos

is to tick the last two boxes in the privacy section on your flick account.

It may well turn out to be the future for sharing photos 

I'd just like to be in control of my stuff

(as much as I can with a blog!)

Whilst we are on the subject of control

have you ever wondered whats been pinned from your blog?

try typing

 www.pinterest.com/source/yourblogname.blogspot.com

(insert your blogname!)

I'm not naive of how the Internet works these days

I just like to have a little knowledge.

ps.

Checking your blog stats can often throw up an interesting source

and sometimes they are happy ones :O)

addicted to piece and love

 you can't sleep, you can't eat

 there's no doubt, you're in deep

 you're throat is tight, you can't breathe

 another piece is all you need

whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff,  oh yeah

it's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough

you know you're gonna have to face it

you're addicted to love.

 Thankyou Robert Palmer for your words,

I think they sum up the past couple of weeks.

Today however I'm not actually sewing

as I have a migraine and I'm posting from my bed.

Yet I'm still wanting to share my addiction.

Am I the only one who writes blog posts in their head....with a migraine?

Anyways I think Mr Palmer hit the nail on the head with his lyrics.

So if you dont mind I shall replace the wet flannel over my face and stop 

editing this post in my head..

ps.

so sorry if you end up singing addicted to love all day

I can think of worse songs!

history in the making...

 Thought it was time I shared a recent purchase I made online,

damn that auction site and it's wicked ways of sucking me in!

 They were described as Victorian silk and a little grubby.

They weren't cheap, but still something made me press the bid button and now they're mine.

I love the authenticity of the colours and the history...
I love that there is only one cream piece,
her wedding dress maybe?

 All 48 of them!

 I'm not sure how old they are, but the way they are sewn together 

suggests that they could be at least 100 years.

The thread is thick and not like anything I've seen,

and the papers seem to be of a handmade texture.

I love the thought of these pieces languishing in a forgotten drawer 

all the while moments in my life have come and gone.

And yet here they are in my hands,

so many unanswered questions race through my head.

 My plan is to find some white/off white silk taffeta

and finally make a piece of history.

What stories they could tell?
ps. I like their grubbiness
and the fact
that there will be holes where the tacking thread has lived all these years.....

flowering snowball reveal!

 dappled adjective having spots of a different shade, tone or colour

 from the background.

 Nine months ago I conceived an idea for a quilt and today I gave birth!

The pattern is a simplified version of a flowering snowball pattern,

that I had admired on Marys blog.

I had just finished the summer of love quilt

so I was after an escape from all that colour!

The latter part of 2011 was a very grey year for me

 grey walls, grey skies and grey fabric.

I was inspired not by an object but of several blogs and a way of living,

one that I would love to live, but I just love colour too much to be that pure.

sea cottage  and  dreamy whites

will give you the ethereal idea.

This quilt really should be called the learning curve,

as it's a first for me to sew curves, applique a quilt to the backing

 and also a first attempt at free motion quilting.

So you will have to forgive my overly whimsical, highly poetic choice of 

dappled days as a name, 

I can only say that I was channelling my inner Geoffrey Munn

(the romantically imaginative jewellery expert on the antiques roadshow)

 

Now for the juicy bits!

the pattern: flowering snowball

the fabric: sweetwater

sewing method: english paper pieced

backing: recycled bedding

quilting: free motion

size: approx 50" x 65"

wadding: heirloom premium cotton

time taken: 9 months

mistakes made: knowing that the backing was really too small but using it anyway,

which came back to bite me when sewing on the binding!

lesson learnt!

snuggle factor: very

ps.

If you would like to look back on the dappled days progress

check out here and here