 Just a little bit of retail therapy - Amanda Davie has tempted me yet again - and I absolutely adore this "Escutcheon" bracelet. There's nothing like a piece of jewellery to make a girl feel really special! And the highlight of this bracelet is the beautiful antiqued copper coloured escutcheon, and there is plenty of room on this bracelet to add my favorite charms. I'm getting quite a collection of Amanda Davie jewellery now - now, I wonder if she designs jewellery boxes too??!!
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 This wall hanging was started a few weeks ago, when I took part in a class called "Embellished Landscape" with Helen Howes. Anyway, as you can see, I have been busy making the 3-D applique leaves, which are much easier to sew on after the binding. I used a variety of fabrics for these leaves, and attached them with free motion quilting - I'm really pleased with how they have turned out.....  .....and finally a special little flourish to the appliquéd moon using gold foil and steam-a-seam lite. This was a technique taught to us by Helen, and I think it really does makes this wall-hanging look rather special, even though it turn out QUITE as I had originally planned - I think the steam-a-seam lite is a bit old, and had lost some of it's "stickiness".....  .....I am so pleased with this - and now it's finally completed, it looks great hanging on the wall. (Oh and ignore the scratches on the paint - that's the hairy hound - he gets so excited when anyone knocks on the front door)! Some of my quilting friends, Lesley and Mary also did this class - have you finished yours yet girls?? Mary and Lesley used some lovely fabrics for theirs - and seeing them made me feel inspired to make another one, maybe in bright coloured batiks - what do you think? Oh and Linda - have you finished your wall hanging yet? We all had a great day with Helen, and I hope I get a chance to do a class with her next term.
 What a glorious day - the sun is shining, and as Mr F is working night shifts, I need to be quiet - so I've had a very relaxing Sunday morning sitting sewing in the conservatory, and having breakfast and listening to the radio. I plan to spend the rest of the day with my feet up, enjoying the peace and quiet. How do you spend your Sunday mornings?  At last I've managed to find time to get the pieces of this "Embellished Landscape" wall hanging sewn together and quilted. All the pieces have been joined together, and the next stage was to complete the quilting - I decided to use a mixture of straight row quilting, using a walking foot, and free motion quilting using a darning foot. This was originally started a few weeks ago, when I took a class with Helen Howes. I wouldn't have been brave enough to tackle the spiral shape of the free-motion quilting on the moon appliqué before, but after my week away with Philippa, I'm brave enough to tackle anything!! I just need to add some gold foil to the moon, but decided to get the quilting finished before I do that as it's going to be a bit tricksy.....  .....lots of curved rows of quilting with a walking foot. This gives a lovely texture to the wall hanging, and I used some scraps of my favourite cream fabrics for these "fields" and I have used Mettler quilting threads, in various shades of cream and white to blend and contrast with the background fabrics..... .....  .....the faux chenille was great fun to make, and once it was washed and dried it has really fluffed up - and I'm really pleased with the confetti block. As you can see, I used a gold metallic thread for a few rows of quilting.....  .....the pleated strip was attached, then it was quilted in the opposite direction to the pleats, again giving some texture to the wall hanging, and I used a curved cross hatch quilting design on the final piece - a block made up with a variety of fabrics that were cut into 2½" squares. The 3-D appliquéd leaves will be sewn onto this block once the binding is finished as a final flourish. I really like all the textures on this project - it makes you want to touch it and stroke it...  ..... all the pieces are finally pieced together and quilted and the binding is on - I always hand sew the binding to the reverse - I like finishing it off by hand. This time I machine-stitched a label directly onto the back of the wall hanging, rather than sew it into a corner - oh and I've embellished the confetti block with a few cream beads too. Only a few finishing touches left - adding the gold foil to the moon applique and the 3-D leaves and then it will be finally completed. More pictures as soon as the leaves are made!
 Well in true British style the weather this weekend has been it's usual predictable self especially as it's a Bank Holiday weekend - brrrr - cold and damp. It's really nice having a few days to recover from my quilting holiday before I head off back to work, so I'd better put my free time to good use and get that sewing machine out. I've got a couple of projects to finish that I started on the course with Philippa Naylor, and I might even be very patriotic and sew a bag or two with that lovely Union Jack fabric I bought a few weeks ago! Whatever you're doing this Bank Holiday weekend, hope you're having fun :)
 The first two days of the class with Philippa Naylor was mainly spent on curved piecing. We were shown lots of examples of her work, and this wall hanging was one of them - it combines curved pieced blocks and curved saw tooth borders and piping and binding - all techniques that would be demonstrated in great detail over the next few days. We learnt how to draft blocks and how to make our own templates.....  .....sewing the curved pieces together with pins, pins and more pins!! Philippa gave us lots of top tips, like using Schmetz Microtex size 60 needles - (I normally use these needles for sewing batiks as they are really fine and sharp) - and using a really fine thread for piecing too, such as Superior Threads Bottom Line thread.....  .....the borders were finally added, and Philippa had provided design boards so we could stand back to check how our work was progressing. Once the blocks were completed, it was time for free motion quilting - something that I had always tried to avoid, but thankfully we had the expert at hand!! More piccies of that later!
Last Sunday morning I travelled up to Yorkshire along with my friend Helen, and a new friend Jan (hi Jan!!) to stay at Highfield Farm, in Southburn, near Beverley. We were staying in a B and B, as we were in Yorkshire to do a 4-day quilting course with Philippa Naylor. I just had to blog about our wonderul accommodation, as it really was superb!! We were all made extremely welcome, from the moment we arrived (offered a pot of tea as soon as we arrived, which was just what we needed), right up until the moment we left. All the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. Each morning we had the most delicious breakfasts, (sorry - no piccies of those) and we had opted for an evening meal to be provided too - again, no piccies - I'm sooooo sorry! - but you can take my word for it the food was excellent!.....
.....I stayed in the "Hutton" room, which was lovely and peaceful and beautifully decorated, with an en-suite shower room - and the towels were exactly my favourite colour too - how spooky is that! Hopefully we'll have another holiday there again next year, but also I might have to persuade Mr F that we NEED to go on hols to Yorkshire to explore more of this lovely area around Beverley as we didn't get a chance to do much sight-seeing on this trip.
 Oh what a FABULOUS time I had last week on a quilting holiday with Philippa Naylor. My friend Helen had organised it, and when she first asked me if I was interested (last year at the NEC - do you remember Helen?) I really couldn't have imagined what an exciting time we'd have - we were quite a mixed bunch, some of the members of the group already knew each other, and we were joined by two very lively French ladies. Philippa is so talented, and such a generous person - we all learnt so much from this trip, not just quilting and piecing skills! Here is a piccie of our group when we spent an evening at Philippa's home, this was taken in her studio, and we're in front of one of her fabulous creations. I made some wonderful new friends, and would like to say a big thank you to everyone for a super time - Irene, Pat, Clive, Helen, Caroline, Tanya, Edith, Jan and Kate - and not forgetting Philippa too. Thank you so much Philippa for all your kindness and generosity and advice - you really were incredibly patient with us, and especially thanks to Helen for arranging this wonderful trip. Hope to go again next year!!!
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 About me...Hi - welcome to my quilting blog! My passions are my family, my dog, my friends and sewing, not necessarily in that order! 
 
 
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