Autumn is approaching

A beautiful autumnal day for the drive down to Hampshire for Janet and Amanda today. It is definitely cooler now at the beginning of the day although warming up as the day goes on. A small gathering today as Caroline is still on holiday and Chris is at home as the Tuesday puppy needs a bit of looking after.

What are you doing for Britain?

With the tea brewing we tucked into some oat and chocolate chip muffins. We tried to be good with some mini ones and there was a lot of discussion as to how many mini muffins equaled a large one ....I fear we are only kidding ourselves!



Sewing started with Janet trying out her new ruler Marti Michell log cabin ruler, she was using a now discontinued Moda Honeybun -1 and 1/2 inch strips- from a range called Wildflower Serenade II. She announced that it was a very easy ruler to use and that it made the process much quicker and more accurate. Always good to hear how a tool or new ruler has worked out. This will be a project to be sewn on her Featherweight. We look forward to seeing it finished and knowing Janet's prolific output I don't think it will be too long!

After a great deal of discussion about the relative merits of patterns and block sizes, Amanda and I got busy starting to cut up some shirts for a memory quilt. We decided that taking the backs out first would allow us to get a good idea of how any squares could be cut from each shirt and would also allow a bit of flexibility as to what other part of the shirt would be used. More of that project in a later post.

After a lunch of a chicken, chorizo and butter bean casserole served with salad and baked potatoes, we finished off with brownies and raspberries from the garden.

After all that, we all would have been quite happy to have a nap, but instead it was back to business. I had been preparing a block for a new quilt, from the book Country Inn by Blackbird Designs. The quilt is called Evening Bloom, I had seen one that had been completed and just loved it ....I mean what's not to love, there is applique and big blocks and flowers!

Block one - The Tulip block

I was using some new applique tools that I had bought at this year's Festival of Quilts called Apliquick, they are really meant for using with much smaller pieces but it was good to try them out - sorry I forgot to take a picture of them being used - next time! they really make the process very painfree, it will be interesting to see what effect the fusible interlining has on the look of the finished piece, especially after it is washed.

Amanda brought along her log cabin wallhanging, she was hoping to get some ideas on what design to use for quilting, the blues and browns looked so lovely. She has now decided so we are looking forward to seeing it completed.

She then got busy on more hexagons, it is amazing how they quickly mount up just doing a few at a time. it is always fun to see the containers that people use to keep their hexie projects in and how they change as the hexies grow and grow.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and another Tuesday is marked off on the calendar.