Finally Something to Show!

I didn't intend to ignore my blog for so long, I stopped updating as I was receiving a lot of spam in the comments, I may have to change the moderation settings again but we will see how it goes. I want  to start keeping a record of more than just my quilts and knitting, more of a diary of life here at the cottage; I am especially keen to record for myself how the garden is doing each week, so I can compare year on year.

It's been a funny few weeks, we are currently in week 8 of lockdown due to the Covid 19 virus; my husband and son have settled into working from home quite well. My life has changed very little as I walk the dog and clean and cook and garden as usual.  I miss my weekly quilt group but we have managed to chat on Zoom.

I finally started sewing a couple of weeks ago having found it difficult to settle to anything.  Thank goodness for having lots of WIPs that don't require any planning or decision making!

I put the last stitches on 'Coming Home' at the weekend. This was the 2019 BOM quilt from Sarah Fielke. I knew I wanted to make mine smaller than the original so I omitted the final border; it is a large lap size 72" square.  My son helped me to baste it and I stitched in the ditch and round the appliqué with my machine. I have washed it and it has that crinkled look I love.

My inspiration was a vintage beach huts picture and I really enjoyed fussy cutting animals for the doors and windows. It makes me smile every time I look at it!

Coming Home

This last week I have been working on catching up with my Coming Home BOM project. I have assembled the centre section and started work on the second house border. Here is a reminder of the full design bySarah Fielke

The centre portion finishes about 52"

We are currently in the process of adding the next row of houses which will add another 10" to each side.

I am really enjoying making these blocks, I have had lots of fun fussy cutting creatures to live in the cottages :)

we have the rest of the houses to finish next month and then it's on to the final border, I am not sure if I will make the final border or not.  When this border is finished the quilt will measure around 72" square, the final size is about 88" if I add the pieced end border.

 I mentioned to a friend that I thought that would make a great size for a play/story quilt for the little ones of visiting friends and family, and she was horrified that I would let children crawl all over it!
 I explained that the colours in this one didn't really go with any of my bedrooms and I really didn't want another large colourful bed quilt that would just sit unused; I thought that children would love to play on it and find the animals. It did make me think however,  I make quilts because I love the whole process of making, I like them to be well used and well loved,  it can be easily washed if dirty. I don't enter shows and don't treat any of my quilts as precious  What do you think? What do you do with your quilts?

Finally Some Quilting!

Over the last few days, I have been quietly catching up on the 2019 BOM Coming Home by Sarah Fielke.  I put this in time out for a few weeks as I knew I wanted to make some changes but I couldn't make up my mind what exactly!

as soon as I saw the small centre houses on the original sketch  I knew I wanted to go with a Vintage seaside theme.

I made the fabric choices quite quickly and pieced the centre

Having found a wonderful seaside print fabric, I changed the stars in the next round for more circles so that I could do some fussy cutting.

However I got stuck when it came to the corner blocks, I definitely didn't want to make the large tulip design as although I really love the whimsy of it, it didn't fit with my seaside look.  The blocks went into time out for a few weeks while I mulled it over.  I decided to wait for the release of part four, make some of the next border houses and then decide.  This worked well and once I had found some whale and dolphin fabric, the choice of more circles was easy :)

I really enjoyed picking the fabric combinations for the next row of houses or in my case beach huts, lots of opportunity to fussy cut fun fabrics

I am now caught up apart from the appliqué (most of this is just glue basted) I have everything in place and am really looking forward to sitting stitching in the garden over the next couple of weeks.

Coming Home

I have signed up again this year for the Sarah Fielke BOM 'Coming Home'  I really enjoyed the last 3 BOMs largely because they are pattern only, leaving you free choose your own fabrics. This year I am stitching along with three of ladies from my quilt group, it will be fun to work on this together 😄

I think I will base my quilt on the Welsh Village of Portmerion, I love the Ice Cream colours the buildings are painted, very different to what you normally see in a Welsh Village! You can read more about it here: https://portmeirion.wales

with a touch of the seaside :)

This is Sarah's sketch for the quilt

and two of the fabrics I have for some of the backgrounds

 and for some the houses...

This is the end of part one

I finished part two at quilt group this morning, where my friends very helpfully pointed out the the reason my triangles wouldn't fit was because I had cut my square 1/4" too big! Thank goodness for friends as I couldn't figure out what was wrong!

Lots of opportunity for some fussy cutting :)

I skipped the appliquéd stars as I wanted to fussy cut some boats

The top and bottom borders will be attached next month once we stitch the corner squares

Looking at the photo I've just realised the bottom border is upside down, luckily it's not stitched down yet!