Together again at last - well, some of us!!

We started as usual -banana, choc chip & peanut butter muffins & tea of course!

      

Janet had some show & tells.

Two table runners put together on her recent retreat.  The first, Kansas Trouble fabric, using a pattern from Yvette at Needle & Thread in Horsell.

The other is a sampler for the shop - Bow Tie pattern in Sandy Gervais, an old Moda range.

She has also been busy with a friendship braid quilt in  'All Spice Tapestry' by fig tree, using a jelly roll.

 I have also been busy making blinds & curtains.
I did manage to make this cushion for my two cats.  The panel is from a set bought by Chris on one of her  holidays & shared between us.

 Ipad cover for my husband who is a football referee & a Rangers & Liverpool fan.

 

Chris was trying to knit a shawl but Tuesday cat Archie had a better idea!!

These Christmas trees are made from plastic milk bottle tops, polyester wadding & fabric.
Very effective & probably the only decoration I will have time to make this year!!

Chris managed to retrieve her knitting from the cat.  Work in progress which has the correct number of stitches now!

A lovely relaxed day, time to catch up & finish off a few projects.
Hopefully we will all be together again soon.
Until then...

October!!!

October, well where did the summer go?

Just a short blog today.

It would only be Amanda today, Alison had other things on, Chris is recovering from her  operation and Caroline would be along later for lunch.

As usual we started with tea and with the tea we had butter shortcake biscuit that I had brought back from France.

Amanda was stitching the binding on a quilt for her neighbour's two year old son.

I was foundation piecing the blocks for a Christmas Table Runner Workshop that I will be teaching at Needle and Thread later this month.

www.needle-and-thread-online.co.uk

For lunch we had home made vegetable soup with Soda Bread made by my husband, using the recipe from Paul Hollywood's book. We had meringue, crème fraiche and strawberries for dessert.

Until next time.

Last day of holidays!!

 Cannot believe it is the last day of my holidays - six weeks is never enough & as yet, I have not managed much sewing.

Today it was just two of the regulars - Caroline & myself, plus Caroline's daughter Holly.  Alison & Janet are still away & Chris is recovering from a stay in hospital.  We wish her well.

As usual the obligatory tea & cake - lemon drizzle & some left over victoria sandwich.

 Holly had chosen this fun fabric from Ikea & today I was showing her how to make cushion covers.

 Caroline was cutting the extra fabric off her black & white quilt made from about thirty different black & white fabrics, some left overs & some new finds.





Holly was given a lesson on my sewing machine & was about to sew her first ever seam!!

 Wow - two cushions, beautifully finished with envelope fastenings at the back.  I think Holly was pleased & proud of her first attempt - maybe Caroline will have competition in the future!

 After jacket potatoes with coronation chicken & prawns, apple crumble & more tea!!  As yet I have to sew a stitch!!

 Caroline, with the almost finished quilt.  she will now be able to finish the binding by hand when she goes away next week.

Lucky her - sitting by the lakes sewing in the sunshine, or all cosy by the fire if the weather is inclement!!

I did actually manage to sew together a few seams as the others were packing up.  My neighbour had a baby last week & her two year old son wouldn't let the baby anywhere near her quilt, so this is for him!
Hopefully there will be a few more of us next week but I think it will be the end of September before we are all together again.
Until then.....

Conservatory Capers!

Not quite as lewd as the title sounds, but I was staying home to take a delivery of furniture for my lovely neighbours.. so what a great excuse to invite the Tuesday Girls over for a Tuesday get together.  This was to be a very short session as none of us had too much time to spare, so no lunch but a great excuse to break out the M&S pistachio, stem ginger or/  and the Cranberry and Orange cookies I have been dying to open for a while (but due to dieting for a wedding outfit - couldn't!) 

Wouldn't you know it, the delivery was done and dusted by 9.20am so the angst of not knowing when it would be (a 2 hour slot was given at 7.59 am) was over and I could relax.  Chris arrived having discovered she could come for a while and then Janet who was also supposed to be staying in for a delivery, found that her hubby was going to be in too.. so we were a trio as Alison was in Scotland and Amanda on holiday.  Tea and biscuits were duly dispensed.

 

We chatted affably in a now much cooler conservatory due to the addition of some super heat reflecting blinds which allow light in but not so much of the glare.  Chris was cutting a layer cake for a tiny Turning Twenty Quilt (I suffered severe fabric envy at this point.. the colours are right up my alley!) greatly admired by my husband, too.

 

 

Janet was stitching some diamonds together, but alas my memory fails me and I am sad to say I cannot remember what she is making... it is now becoming a definite recurring 'senior moment'! Sigh!  I was going to attempt some binding for my black and white quilt, now completely quilted by Yvette on her long arm machine.. a huge thanks for that.  It looks lovely and was so well done!

 

We held a short 'Show and Tell' as Janet had been up to Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts, but also to work for Needle and Thread. She found that all the samples made for it had helped to sell the lovely ranges of fabrics which Yvette currently has in store, which was great.  This time round mini samples had been produced rather than full size quilts.  I think this must have helped with space too. 

Janet showed us some of the items she had purchased and promised us the next time we were all together we would have a little surprise.  That will be a while yet as I'm involved in a wedding cake and running out of time, plus we are all to the four winds with commitments or holidays.. so the blog may be a little light over the next few weeks, folks! Anyway, it was a pleasant period of time spent with good friends.


Until next time dear readers...! 






 

Change of Plans

Well, today was going to be an 'up in the air' day as we weren't sure that it would happen as the Tuesday Girls were 'all over the place'.  As we thought there weren't going to be 'enough of us, Janet and I arranged to meet for lunch, but it transpired that Amanda could make it for the morning and then Chris said she was able to make it.  Plans were remade and I had a hasty trip to the shop for lunch items! Sadly Alison was unable to come up today but we were thinking of her.

I arrived at Janet's first though had 4 texts to answer before I'd even got out of the car!  Amanda suddenly flew past my window with her friend's daughter, Laura as the rain 'decided' to fall from the heavens at that point.  We all ran inside and settled at the table. Chris was not far behind and we began to chat over a cuppa! Weight Watchers Bakewell slice and some raspberry, pistachio and white chocolate cookies duly made their appearance on the table.

Amanda and Laura were cutting out jam jar covers (they had been busy making jam over the previous day) from ranges of fabrics from Amanda's stash. It is amazing how a circle looks large enough to cover an item until it is measured up.  They tried drawing around a plate and hopefully that will be the correct size.  Fingers x. 

 

Chris was sewing on the binding to a London Quilt, her second and making it look very smart and so easy.. fabulous tiny stitches.

Janet showed us a pattern she had got from the USA, 'Abigail's Pins' by Heartspun Quilts which looked really lovely and was making Log Cabin blocks using fabrics from Moda's Kansas Troubles and Homespun Wildflower Serenade II.  Very effective and will be another stunning quilt. 

 

Janet used her wall-paper roller to 'iron' out the seams.  This is so effective that all she needed to do was iron the tops to complete the task. Amazing how a simple and cheap tool can do such a great job.

Me... well I was sewing on the buttons to the triangular flaps on a Square Bag, the pattern for which I had waited with baited breath, (they looked so good in the photos), from a thread on BQL!  When it was put up, I downloaded it and away I went.... I hadn't wanted to use a large piece of fabric in case my workmanship didn't produce the result I wanted so reduced the dimensions a little to fit fat quarters.  (This is my proto-type as I want to make one as a gift for my neighbour's new wife.) I even had enough to make the handles, a small needle case and a scissor case.

Amanda and Laura left before lunch - and it was with the sudden realisation that the potatoes were not in the oven, that I then began the prep.  Janet bless her had offered to provide the venue today, as my usual venue was unavailable to due to a large contingent of my lovely neighbour's family staying over.  We ate tuna or cheese baked 'tatties' with salad followed up by some truly yummy chocolate and coconut cheesecakes from the Co-Op's meal deal range.  Highly recommend them... although Chris felt unable to partake as she had recently had some time away in Cornwall and said she had over-indulged in all the wonderful locally made produce!  She has more will -power than I do!

After another cup of tea, Chris then packed up and I followed about fifteen minutes later.  It was good to be together again as I had spent many a Tuesday working, recently. It being the holiday season however we will perhaps only be two, maybe three over the next few weeks.   As always, watch this space!

Post Wimbledon

Can't write today's entry without mentioning Andy Murray winning Wimbledon on Sunday!

Today was a scorcher, too hot to eat outside and so we settled in the sitting room, windows flung wide and the fan to move the air around! Didn't stop the tea and chat from flowing.

No big projects on the go today so no sewing machines required. Janet and I both had quilts to bind ...

Janet's midnight stars

Alison was preparing an applique block














Amanda was chilling after a busy weekend.  Caroline was at work - although she was able to join us for lunch :}

The Girls asked me to share the recipe we had for lunch ...
1 chicken breast per person (I sliced each into slightly smaller portions)
The marinade per chicken breast
      2 tbsp natural yogurt
      1/4 tsp each of chilli powder; salt; crushed cumin & coriander seeds
      1/2 tsp crushed cardamom pod
      1/2 tsp each of tumeric; root ginger
      1 clove crushed garlic
(I also added some leftover tomato paste, onion ... and bits of leftovers from jars in the fridge!)

After lunch we looked at the layout of my  scrappytrip  around the world blocks. Ladies - I still think the bottom left hand corner needs tweaking a little looking at the photo?

Things are looking a little quiet on the Tuesday front for the next couple of months as we enjoy the Summer. 

Two for Tea on Tuesday

It would only be Chris and I today as Alison, Amanda and Caroline had other things to do

As  usual, we started with tea and biscuits, today's was Sainsburys Taste the Difference, Belgium Chocolate Chunks and Hazelnut Cookies.

Then it was down to sewing.

Chris had brought the Friendship Braid quilt, that she had started at my workshop at Needle and Thread on Saturday. Chris had made excellent progress, finishing the braids and adding the sashing strips and the first border since Saturday.  Today Chris planned to add the final border.

After lunch, of salmon, salad and new potatoes, with meringues, creme fraiche, raspberries and blueberries for dessert, Chris finished  putting the borders on.

I was stitching the binding on a Midnight Sky quilt, a pattern by Thimbleberries, that I had done with Anne Walker at a workshop given by Thameside Quilters, some years ago,  Alison and Chris might remember which year as we did the workshop together. It was longarm quilted by Yvette at Needle and Thread.

Until next week.