Too many UFO's

I have far too many UFO's! Looking for some patterns that I put together for a class a few years ago I came across a myriad of quilts and pieces of work that are all but finished but not quite! How sad is that!

There is the drunkards path collection made into a lap quilt in beautiful Japanese printed fabric just needing a border of flying geese and 9-patch blocks. A wall hanging of leaves on a wall background which just needs finishing off! Similar to the above is a piece of leaves done in mauves and purples called 'Leaves in the Moonlight'. It will look lovely when done! Then there is the garden quilt with printed photos of flowers and applique leaves running across it. Can you tell I'm into leaves? lol And if I ever get the 'Cats in the Garden' quilt finished it would be a fun quilt for my grand-daughter. At this rate she'll be an old lady before she sees it! Also a faux chenille cushion top just needing a backing; a crazy cutz bed quilt needing to be quilted and several pieces of free machine embroidery to be finished - mostly landscapes. I feel quite tired now just thinking about them all!

Garden quilt and 'Leaves in the Moonlight' piece.

I really MUST make an effort and finish things quickly! Am I the only person who has a drawerful of unfinished stuff? And I hate to admit it but the piece below which was the beginning of a three section underwater scene is now nearly seven years old!

Spring Quilt Festival Exeter

Well we are back from Exeter where we had a very tiring but fun three days at the show. We did better than we expected to and met some lovely people. I'd have been happier to have sold a bit more fabric and more of the picture cushions but on the whole it was a good show and we have booked to do next year!

There were some gorgeous quilts on display - not that I got a lot of time to go and look at them! I did manage to wander around the other stalls and bought some lovely pieces of Japanese fabric. I love the gold on these flowery pieces. Something we don't do - yet!

Our next show will be Sandown for the National Quilt Championships. We would have had a go at Malvern but the show was all fully booked!

A view of the stand above and some of the fabric below. We ran out of some things which was good and gives me a good idea as to what to go for next time! 

It was lovely weather all weekend but now we are home it is misty and damp! Typical! So we have two and a bit months before the next show and during that time to fit in our wedding! Busy all round I think!

Ready for the off!

Well we are as ready as we will ever be! We have mountains of hand-dyed fabric, quilted cushion covers, hand-dyed thread packs and cut out shape packs all ready to be loaded into the back of the car. I've sorted out samples of quilts to take to make the stand look interesting and all the bits and pieces that one needs such as string and drawing pins. Hopefully I won't have forgotten anything. So tomorrow Exeter here we come. I've been to the Spring Quilt Festival at Westpoint before and it has always been a good show but I've been a customer not an exhibitor before so this will be quite different. Although I'm nervous I'm really looking forward to it and I will have Graeme for company and help and support! If this one goes well we will try more venues later in the year! We might even make one in Scotland! A long way to travel though!

This has been the view on the draining board for the last few months! Pots of fabric dyeing!

And often the table has been out of use because of the dyeing! 



Below are some of the many threads that have been dyed. These take forever compared to the fabric!

But for now everything is cleared away and we will have a different hat on! Fingers crossed!

Fishing

It was a misty start to the first day of the fishing season! I was up at the crack of dawn and Graeme and I set off for the lake complete with fishing tackle and food! Food is very important when one is fly fishing! It wasn't warm and the lake (Stithians reservoir) is as full as I've ever seen it. Graeme caught a small trout almost immediately but I spent more time entangling my fly with the bushes behind me than actually getting it far enough out to catch a fish! Actually I did manage one or several very good casts, even though I say it myself! However not good enough to catch anything. I obviously wasn't using a fly that the fish could feel worthy of eating! After a few hours I left Graeme there as I had to work in the afternoon. However after all the time he has put in dyeing fabric he deserves a break! And hopefully he will catch a few more fish to put in the freezer!

I have found fish to be a great source of inspiration for design work and have used fishy themes frequently. Here are a few examples.



Well I would have added more but Blogger would n't let me! Wah!!!

Third time of trying lucky! I had to publish and then have another go! And then I was only allowed to put up one more! I obviously don't understand the system!  

Dyeing outside!

It was such a lovely sunny day yesterday that we did some dyeing outside on the lawn so that we could lay the fabric out flat and paint it! This is a good way to get back ache as the acrylic sheets are raised off the ground on milk crates which are only about 18" high! I was OK as I put my sheet on top of the coal bin which was waist height and then put sheets on top of sheets. In spite of a few drops of rain and a not very warm breeze the pieces came out looking good with bright strong colours.



The pictures above are old ones but the fabrics are very similar to the ones we did yesterday. I have been experimenting with doing land and seascape pieces with a defined sky, sea and land area so that the fabric can be used as a background for a project.

This picture on the left is a piece I've shown before but it illustrates what I mean by landscape/seascape background fabrics. Having the major components of the picture in place - ie the sky, sea and sand - it was simple to place the sun and fence post and free machine in the details such as the wire, the bush and the sunlight on the water.

Tonight I have just 3 cushions to finish off having done the other 12! I'm really pleased with them and would like to keep a couple as I like the picture so much. I shall try and get some pictures up soon. The problem with writing this at work is that I have no art work with me! However if I wait until I get home then ten to one I won't write anything! And one of the good things about keeping a blog going is that it is such a good record as to where one has come from and when certain things got done!

Fabric, fabric and even more fabric

With only just over two weeks to go before the Spring Quilt Show in Exeter I am drowning in fabric. We have been dyeing fabric every day now for the past month! I'm just hoping that I'll be able to get it all into the car! Graeme has become a very accomplished dyer in a short space of time which is just as well as I don't think I could have done all this on my own! I don't have any pictures at the moment but some of the pieces are to dye for! Compared to the dyeing of fabric, dyeing threads is a real pain. There is so much rinsing to be done and one is dealing with fiddly amounts as well. However the finished products are worth all the time and effort involved.

I am setting my website up so that we can take credit cards and hopefully I have today found a web designer who will be able to help me do this. To date we have used Pay Pal which is very good but isn't suitable for a hand held terminal which we will need at the show. So fingers crossed the website will become better and better!

And as if all that isn't enough tonight I am going to make 15 picture cushions! I feel tired already! lol