Early Summer

Well we are basking in glorious sunshine up here on the West Coast of Scotland and apparently set fair for a couple of days yet, we must make the best of it as it might be our summer.

Although my regular classes finished at the end of March I had a couple of one day workshops in early April. Last Thursday's was a new one, Mile a Minute quilts - a few months ago someone came along to our Guild coffee morning and showed us her Mile a Minute quilt.............I immediately knew it would be a fun one day project. It's not a new or difficult technique, just scrap busting fun, it's a bit like Crazy patchwork & Log Cabin rolled into one. In preparation I had knocked up a few blocks in a short time and with the workshop date only a couple of days away I converted the blocks into a wee quilt. I had a green theme going on with my scraps (well there's a change!) and decided to sash in brown.......this is a llittle quilt destined for the outdoors so nothing special. Luckily, I was at the quilting stage just as blog pal Nicky was telling us about her FMQ circles. Even though I teach FMQ (for the truly terrified) I rarely actually jump in and fmq an actual quilt. Nicky was showing us the results of some online tuition from Angela Walters and the idea was to mark out circles and quilt within the circles. I found this so liberating even though the circles were controlling me.

Most of the work done by my bluepatch ladies this last year, will be on show soon at our Open Day on Sunday 27th April. As always it will be held in Alloway Village Hall which sits right opposite Robert Burn's cottage. If any of you are within reasonable travelling distance you would of course be so welcome to join us - there will be teas, home baking, a sales table for charity - this year Alzheimers Scotland - and we will also have a craft sales table.

In preparation for the Open Day I have been keeping busy, mostly of a sorting and cataloguing nature but a little sewing too - in September I will be having a Tumbler Cushion workshop. I have had a tumbler die for my Accuquilt Go so this becomes a helpful feature of the workshop - then I came upon Fiona's cushion in a recent I Love P & Q magazine and loved its clean lines. I took them just a bit further and created a fully quilted cushion, back & front.

I woud have preferred a more subtle thread choice but had to use what I had which in this case was a variegated one. The tumblers were chopped from a charm pack.

I managed my Bee Blessed blocks the other day, a bit of slicing and dicing - quick and fun.

Just peeking in at the bottom of the picture is a glimpse of my finished Chinese Whispers wallhanging that I mentioned in my last post. I am unable to share it in it's full "glory" until after the Loch Lomond Quilt Show. not sure if you can stand the suspense!!

Some of us in the Bee a Brit Stingy Bee have had a wee Easter swap, a mini basket with some goodies. I made this little basket which is meant as a thread catcher and was intriguing to construct - I got the tute here.

So my little basket + some extras, went to Janet and then I received this generous bundle from the aforementioned Nicky. Wow!!

And lastly, still on an Easter theme, I made one of my Tiny Totes for my Tiny Tot! I adapted my own wee pattern, for speed.

Wherever you may be and whatever you are up to, have a great weekend.