Spring days are here.

I always find it fascinating when I see the walks that other people take, so thought I would blog another one of our walks. We live next to the park so only have to go through the kissing gate to start.

Are there kissing gates everywhere? A kissing gate is a gate that only allows only one person at a time through. The gate swings in a sort of semi-circular enclosure. Traditionally, the first person goes through and then the second has to pay a forfeit of a kiss to be allowed through. I am happy to say that the tradition still continues with many of the people using this one!

Once through the gate we pass the garden with all the bulbs in bloom. Can you see the first of this year's baby rabbits basking in the sunshine? The adults drive us demented with their burrowing and eating all the new growth but the baby ones are very appealing.

Along the lower path in the park and then over the river. This is a view from the footbridge looking downstream.

UFO is now an FO!!! :o)

Well it has taken thirty years but it is now complete. It has been quilted, washed,blocked and bound.
It is done!!! I can't believe that I have actually finished it, after all this time.

The colours had got quite dull over the years but now that it is freshly laundered and the trial markings have all been washed out it looks like the tmaterials were just bought this month.

It is the first time I have made a sort of traditional type of quilt and certainly the biggest quilt I have made, so I am feeling very pleased to have done it. Moving it around the sewing machine, to do the quilting, wasn't a problem as the machine is set onto a 6' x 3' table.


I did have a problem crawling around to block it out on a spare bedroom floor.
At one point I got really bad cramp in one foot and couldn't get up or down and the quilt took up the floor space so couldn't lie down and moan either!!!

Can't understand why quilting isn't counted as an Olympic sport considering the contortions we go through

U.F.O unearthed!

Way back around 1980 we lived in Shropshire . My neighbour, at the time, was keen on patchwork and introduced me to Laura Ashley fabric offcuts. At that time they were generous sized, odd shaped pieces that were left over from items made in the factory in Wales ie. not the neat co-ordinated squares that became available later.

I armed myself with a copy of "The Perfect Patchwork Primer" and all my used envelopes to cut up into hexagons and proceeded to "make a quilt".Of course it had to be made of hexagons because that was what quilts were like weren't they? (Can you tell I hadn't seen many?)

As you can see I didn't get very far and it got bundled away for more than 25 years. A few years ago I got drawn into quilting again, but this time by machine, and this bundle stayed firmly wrapped up at the back of a drawer. A few months ago I looked at it again and wondered what to do with it. It seemed a shame to leave it unfinished but I couldn't see me ever hand-finishing a full sized quilt so I asked advice on BQL (British Quilt List). I was assured that I could finish it as a traditional quilt by appliqueing this medallion to the centre of a larger piece of fabric and perhaps adding some flowers at the corners and then machine quilting it.

This then is my challenge for next year. Hopefully it will be done before the fabric is 30 years old?

Watch this space as they say!