March - is it Spring yet?

Count on it Banners by Nancy Halvorsen

Today the sun was shining and the countryside looking as if it has begun to wake up from its winter sleep so the girls had a lovely drive down to Hampshire.


No sooner had they arrived, than the kettle was boiling away and tea made, banana and chocolate chip muffins made their appearance and we enjoyed a while in front of the woodstove - which after some reluctance on its part was blazing away giving a welcome warmth. It was still cool today despite the sunshine and having spent time in a warm car, the house seemed a little cool for the girls, I hadn't noticed as I had been fairly busy earlier in the morning - note to self, check the thermometer and light the stove earlier!

We got down to some sewing fairly quickly as we are all amazingly enough still very fired up to get on with our various projects. 


Amanda got cracking on with her hexagons which she has started to sew the various flowers together. She is due to exhibit this as an ongoing project in a couple of upcoming exhibitions - more of that nearer the time. They look lovely and will be just like a flower garden when it is finished.

Caroline was starting to quilt her Hidden Stars quilt which is a wedding present for some close friends. I realised that I hadn't got a picture of the whole quilt so you will have to wait for a reveal later!

The back looks great too with a pieced segment running across the width of the quilt.

Janet was busy cutting strips for a quilt sample for Needle and Thread and she and Amanda did a bit of working out as to how many blocks were needed. As we didn't have the book handy - we looked back at a couple of blog entries - this post - where Amanda had displayed her version of the quilt and hey presto we could work out the numbers. Who would have thought having a blog would be useful!

We did think that the black and white strips with contrasting red fabric looked very stylish being sewn on the featherweight.

In between filling the kettle and making tea,I was working on a couple of blocks for my Just Takes 2 red and white quilt. Both were paper pieced and I was very pleased with them although on one of them I had to unpick as much as I sewed and the basket block came up 3/4inch smaller than it should have.....thank goodness for borders. How that could have happened when I was paper piecing is anyone's guess.

We tidied up for lunch -lasagne and salad, but quickly got back to sewing. Conversation ranged over a wide range of topics as always including what workshops we had booked for Festival of Quilts this August.

Keeping on the red and white theme, my little woollen cushion is finished and now resides on a chair looking very much at home.

Of course no Tuesday is complete without cake, so the kettle went on again and we enjoyed some chocolate cake. This was a recipe that Chris had baked for us Pink Whisk chocolate cake a few weeks ago and it was too delicious not to be repeated!




All too soon it was time for the Surrey contingent to get on the road again.  Another lovely day filled with creativity, conversation and cake. The sunshine helped too!


Chris you were missed today, hopefully we will all be back together again soon. Did you get the cake? Amanda promised she wouldn't eat it on the way home!

As it was still such a beautiful day, I walked into the village - without a coat! - to pick up my farmer's wife book which I was having spiral bound at the print shop. Oh it is going to be so much easier to use now - no more losing my place as the book flips shut.

Thanks Amanda too for the lovely gift you brought from your stay in Cornwall -I look forward to decorating with it in a couple of weeks.


Looking forward to seeing everybody again soon.