frayed at the edge

The end is in sight!

This morning Jo-An had her two blocks from last week - as autumn colours are my favourite, I really liked her colour choices!

 

Susan was still working on her Trip Around the World

 

Betty has chosen vibrant animal prints, with visiting grandchildren in mind

 

the students got their last two blocks today, and  will spend the last two classes learning how to put the quilt together and then how to quilt and bind it.  They got a sneak peek today of the Father Christmas wallhanging.  Yesterday I finished the blanket stitching and got the wallhanging ready for machine quilting.  First I taped the backing fabric to the table

 

then added the wadding and the quilt top

 

it didn't take long to pin the layers together

 

I popped the walking foot on, and started by quilting in-the-ditch round the border

 

then I quilted Father Christmas

 

you can see the quilting on the wrong side

 

the next job is to sew in all the ends of my quilting thread

 

oh dear - I have run out of photos!  After class this morning I had my first "probationery review" ...... really just a chat with the head of department.  I will have another one in about six months time, after which (all being well) I will be a fully fledged member of staff.  I then spent the rest of the afternoon being pampered at the hairdressers, having my hair coloured and cut.  So I shall have to try harder tomorrow to take more photos!!

A change in the weather

It's just as well I took these photos of the garden yesterday when the sun was shining, as today has been cloudy and windy.  Everytime I go to and from the studio, I brush against the lavender, releasing a cloud of scent

 

the planter that Malcolm made last year is looking good

 

the shady corner is thriving - I wonder if there are exotic creatures hiding in the luxuriant foliage

 

Malcolm's beans are doing well

 

as are my courgettes

 

the grape vine and olive tree are thriving in their new planter

 

at the back of the garden, the air is full of the scent of honeysuckle

I had to get a new memory card for my camera - the old one simply came apart!  When I put it in the camera this morning, I saw this little sparrow in the garden.  A quick photo to check the card was working ok .........

 

but the cheeky chap flew off as I took a second photo

 

fortunately he didn't fly far, and I was able to take another photo of him

 

 

Christmas in July!

It only seems five minutes since it was January, and now it is July!!  It has been another lovely day, so what better time to work on my Christmas wallhanging.  I did some prep on Sunday, starting with a little colouring in, and writing some notes about fabrics

 

when I was at the College last week, I was able to make several photocopies of the A3 drawing, making it much easier to mark out where the pieces will overlap

 

I forgot to take a photo of the next stage, with all the pieces traced on to the fusible web, but here they are all cut out

 

I ironed them on to the fabrics, and measured how much fabric was needed, as I will be making up kits

 

the white fabric was a bit thin, so I bonded a plain white fabric to the back of it

 

now, fast forward to this morning.  Did you notice that there were no black felt pieces?  That was because I didn't have any!  I bought some yesterday, and first job today was to iron the fusible web on

 

I cut out all the pieces ....... where a piece fits under another, I mark the edge with a dashed line and cut a little extra

 

the next job was to decide the size of the background fabric

 

the pieces laid in place with some embellishments

 

I put my heat-resistant cover on the table - it had rather a lot of thread on it, so I cleaned it up with the sticky roller

 

then I pressed the pieces in place, using a piece of baking parchment to protect the iron from getting sticky, and the fabric from getting scorched

 

Father Christmas wanted his photo taken out in the sun

 

I spent the afternoon working blanket stitch round the edges and watching the tennis.  Despite ever-louder screeching and shrieking (which I think she does to put her opponent off her game) Maria Sharapova was beaten - my ears were thankful when it was over!!

 

to finish - with all the staying up late with Malcom when he watches the World Cup, I have stitched quite a few hexie pyramids for Mrs Billings, and prepped another pile of plain hexies