I spent the afternoon at the hairdresser's, having my blonde colour restored (I know you thought I was a natural blonde!). I also had my hair cut, so I can see again - my fringe had got so long I was squinting through it, as it absolutely refuses to stay to the side unless set in place with large amounts of mousse, wax and hairspray. The best bit of the whole process for me is having my hair washed. I frequently say that should I win squillions on the lottery, I shall employ someone to wash my hair and massage my head every morning (the other thing I would do would be to employ someone to make up my bed with crisp cotton sheets every day).
Next Tuesday, Sandra H, Sheila and Caroline from Abbey Quilters, and Caroline's friend Theresa, whom I haven't met, are coming to the studio to start work on making workshop bags, so I thought I ought to get a move on and get some samples made! I showed you the other day the first strip of bias that I made - so here is what it is for. This is the block on my original bag - as you can see, I did it slightly differently for the two sides of the bag
I chose a fossil fern fabric from my stash for the background. If you click on the link, you will see that fossil fern is designed by Patricia Campbell. I did a class with her some years ago at the Houston Quilt Show. She asked who had travelled furthest to take the class with her. The other ladies were calling out the names of their states ...... but of course I won by many, many miles (there were mutterings about cheating, coming from a foreign country!). I still have the set of patterns that she gave me as my prize. I then chose two contrasting fabrics for the bias strips
I didn't need to use the lightbox, as the pattern showed clearly through the fabric
I marked a dotted line, which is the centre line for placing the bias
the next block I prepped was the hearts block. I traced the hearts on to fusible web, and ironed the web on to the back of the fabrics. I have plenty of fabric, so I fussy cut the hearts
I decided to change the flower block, and got out this book, cut squares from two fabrics, and chose matching threads
I also needed two buttons - there may be slightly more than two in my button drawer!
the two flowers made
and stems and leaves added
I cut out the squares for the 9-patch blocks
then cut these squares and marked a diagonal line on them ...... but you will have to wait to see what I will do with them