Hello Everyone!

I don’t know where I got the idea that summer was going to be more relaxing than winter and that with Lockdown there would be stacks of time to finish things. Things are busier than ever, not just with sewing but all the other stuff going on. My husband is on holiday and painting the indoor window frames. Hmm, need I say more?  My Runner duck has sprained a leg and is  unable to walk, though she manages to hop around quite well. My Pekin duck, Lily,  (pictured) has cut her foot so she is confined to an indoor pen  until it heals.  She is quacking non stop, calling to the others outside. Both of them are on anti-inflammatory drugs so I can’t sell their eggs. I hate throwing them away.

I had a similar ‘pen’ set up indoor when they were babies, so I could keep an eye on them but then they had only tiny, unfeathered scraps of wings to flap. Lily however, has managed to flap up a storm of sawdust all over the room. She is in here for just three days but it will take as long to clean it up when she is back outside.

On a happier note we have been getting lots of lovely fruit from the garden, strawberries, cherries and apricots  so far that seem especially fat and juicy this year

I mentioned, in an earlier post, that I have been doing two online textile art courses, sewing for various assignments in addition to my mini quilts for these blog posts. I did get behind for a while but I’ve had to catch up quickly as the first,  year-long, course (‘Exploring Texture and Pattern’ with Sue Stone) ends on July 15th. Only one last assignment to do for that one, now.

The second course, which is a ‘Stitch Club’ run by Textileartist.org has no deadline but we are given an assignment by different artist each week, (plus accompanying video and workbook)  for a period of three weeks. Then we have a rest week before it begins again with a new set of artists. I hope to tell you a little about the assignments and what I have learned, in future posts.

This post is mainly about the mini quilts that have reached the quilting stage during Lockdown but are not yet complete. They do look rather messy with temporary basting stitches in bright pink holding them together and ragged bits of batting sticking out the sides. However, once they are quilted and the binding is added, they should look a whole lot better. These are all intended as mini wall hangings and all but one feature the Scottish ‘bothy’ or small cottage.

The first is Thistle Jam:

I’d like to work more with cotton tartans but as they are so hard to find in the right weight, I am settling for fabrics and scenes with a Scottish theme.

The next one is ‘Geese Flying Over’ This is a traditional American quilting block, of the same name, that I have altered to allow more room for the flying birds. I love to watch them flying over our house and if they are low enough you can hear their sound of their wings.

The third,  ‘Among the Daffodils’ was begun early in the year but wasn’t even pieced  in time for Spring. I have enjoyed using fabric that matches the theme in some of my recent quilts, because it reminds me of this area at different times of the year, but I intend to move away from that now and create my own backgrounds. I can’t decide whether I should add some windows to this little house or just let the honey bees stand in for windows. Does that work?

The fourth one, ‘Snowdrops in March’ is another one I had intended to have done by Spring. Conifer branches do grow low to the ground so the stump isn’t visible but I wonder if these trees would look better with a small stump, as in the Daffodil quilt above. What do you think?

The last one, below,  is another traditional American block called ‘Windblown’. I have included fabric that suggests thunder clouds, tossed blossoms and scattered showers and intend to add swirls of quilting to mimic the wind.  I do like black and white quilts with small pops of colour. Once again, a  pattern in the fabric stands in for windows in the house. This is something  I have not done previously and I can’t decide whether I like it enough to leave it that way.

In addition to the above ‘quilting ready’ projects I am continuing to piece two other quilts, which I will show you once all their rows are sewn together. And, annoyingly, I have sewn the borders on wrong in “Little Kitties’ below, so they will need to be unpicked and redone. You are supposed to sew them on in a particular order and for some reason, I didn’t. Lesson learned.

 

 

Soon I hope to have a post on transferring an image onto your quilt and one on the American schoolhouse block, which I have always found so charming.

So, till next time….take care of yourselves as we move slowly out of lockdown.