Sunday 13 April 2014

Wonderful weekend





Flowers, sun and sewing. What's not to like? The garden was looking so pretty this morning that I took the time to take a few photos before a day of sewing. The Amelanchier is frothing with it's fleeting blossom but even when this has gone we can look forward to berries and stunning Autumn colour later in the year.

The rhododendron was flowering well and the air was full of buzzing from our honey bees in the pear tree.




This clematis is container grown. I just love it's simple, fragile shape.

It has been a sewing weekend too. I attended a "Jelly Rolls and Charm packs" class at Busy Bees in Newport yesterday. The guest teacher was Jackie Taylor of White Cottage Country Crafts
Jackie had brought a large selection of patterns and projects to cater for a variety of tastes.


I had chosen to make a quilt for my eldest grandson Sam. He is 9 now and so growing out of childish prints. I was looking for something to suit and thought that Hearty Good Wishes by Janet Clare for Moda fitted the bill perfectly.  Janet has designed seafaring prints with simple line drawing and a wonderful muted palette.


The pattern I chose to follow was Jelly Roll boxes; a simple but effective design. Once the introductions was over we were pouring over the patterns and organising fabrics. My pattern had the jelly roll strips paired in light/dark combinations and sewn along the length up to the fabric fold. The strips were then cut along the half strip into equilateral triangles. The strips were pulled apart, rematched to a different fabric and sewn again along the length. The half strip was cut into 4 triangles as before.

I think the photo below will illustrate the last paragraph better! These were the blocks I managed on Saturday

Jackie demonstrating.


 I spent all day today sewing from 10am until 5pm- madness! Still I managed to sew all the blocks so they are ready to make into the top during next week.


I plan to use the plain denim blue from the range as a border and the dark blue with sailing ships as a backing.

This week looks like being busy with the run up to Easter so I'll take a break from blogging until after the holiday.

I hope everyone takes the time to relax, enjoy being with family and friends, and eat lots of chocolate.


Catherine





4 comments:

  1. I'm sure your grandson will love his new quilt.

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  2. That fabric line is lovely, and just perfect for a growing boy quilt :)

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  3. Your grand kids are so lucky. You are so generous with them.
    I hope you have a happy Easter!

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  4. Your quilts are gorgeous Catherine - I have done a lot of sewing in my life but not so much quilting. Now the crochet bug has hit though, there seems little time for any other kinds of craft at the moment. Thanks for popping over to my blog and I'm glad you liked the link to PicMonkey and how to make colour chips - they are really good fun! Looking forward to seeing some more of your projects soon. Jane xx (CraftHippy)

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