Before another month disappears...

I will try a quick post.
First of all, many thanks for all the lovely comments I had about the Princess and the Pea quilts - the gift was well received by an over excited three year old and had stiff competition from a b i k e!! However, she was tickled pink by the hidden pea and two weeks later has bonded nicely with the little Princess. Job done.

March has gone by in a blur - my classes all coming to an end for the current session, enduring a seemingly never ending virus and having a couple of indulgent days out.
The first was a trip to the SECC in Glasgow for the Quilt & Stitching Show - although we enjoyed our day well enough I did feel the quilt part was over hyped in advance and with the demise last year of the Loch Lomond Quilt Show, some of us felt the gap was to be filled in a bigger way. The quilts on show were indeed worth the trip and those traders who were there deserved every sale they got. Much of our griping really had to do with the organisation - usually this show takes place in 2 large halls with most of the papercrafts in one - this year everything was in one hall and it all felt terribly cramped.
Hopefully organisers will pay heed to the multitude of complaints that I believe they received.

Last Saturday was a much more enjoyable experience as friend Janet and I motored through to Edinburgh for a Screen Printing class with the lovely Karen from Karen Lewis Textiles. The class was held in Jo's shop, MyBearpaw and we had such a super day. I have wanted to try screen printing for so long, not sure why I haven't really - Karen was a brilliant and encouraging teacher and we both came away determined to do more..........

As I mentioned already, classes are coming to a close this week and on Sunday my annual Open Day will take place - if any of you local peeps are at a loose end, do come along, we will be in Alloway Village Hall, from 11 - 3 and as well as a Craft Stall, we have a Bring & Buy stall with sewing related items, and teas/coffees with home baking. All proceeds from the teas & B&B will be going this year to Ayrshire Carers.

My ladies have all been working so hard to finish up this year's project, a QAYG Modern Sampler - I have been busy photographing quilts but will keep you in suspense just a wee bit longer.
Meanwhile I can show you mine - as well as making a single sized sample in advance of the course, I decided to make another along with the classes, this time a double. Mixing things up a bit, I used a b&w spotty background fabric to show off my bright selection of prints, many are Kate Spain designs and the quilt will be destined for an 18th birthday, next January. For once, I am well ahead of the game.

Quilting on those spots with black thread was not the easiest thing I have ever done.

Looking forward to April................................

Presenting........

as promised, all 20 little quilts for the Princess & The Pea project that I decided upon nearly 2 years ago. The fairy tale was always a favourite (of mine) and I thought it would be a fun project for grand daughter Ava - she's going to be 3 next week so my pace was quite slow. The fairytale princess slept on 20 mattresses so I have just translated that into 20 wee quilts, not all have been made by me. Let me show you, in no particular order.

The left of each twosome shows the front of the quilt and on the right, the back. The first one here was a lovely prize from a Sew Mama Sew Giveaway - it was made by AnnMarie, who blogs at Run and Sew Quilts..............it took me quite a while to decide to use it as a Princess quilt. When I started the project I thought I would be making all of the quilts to a specific size and then I realised that they didn't need to be. Different sizes just adds to the comfy, eclectic feel of the project.
The 2nd quilt is an old class sample from about 2005 - it has a Pineapple block in the middle, 4 Courthouse Steps blocks and 4 regular Log Cabins. An unremarkable back to this one.

The next one, on the left was made with scraps from my Mod Pop quilt I made in 2013. And below that is one of the quilts made by my Bee a Brit Stingy friends, last year. I requested a couple of little blocks that I would use for this project and this one uses Bright Hopes blocks, teeny ones. I also requested some charms that I could piece for the back.

Next one, on the left was made by my friend Janet - she loves to piece with tiny scraps and gave this one to me Christmas before last. I hope you can see the heavy quilting and lovely effect from being washed and tumbled. Below that one is a Feather block - I think this was the first block I made in the Stingy Brits and I made an extra when I saw the size it turned out. (about 18" long)

Next up is my other Stingy Brit mini from last year, I love this one, full of Wee Grannies.

Below that is my mini Mile a Minute quilt with little 3" blocks made from the scrappiest of scraps.

The first one below started life as a bit of improv piecing by friend Janet - she passed it onto me for the princess and I trimmed it, layered it up and had a play at FMQ. The one below that, I made from some charms that I won from Reene at Nellie's Niceties many months ago. They are all 30s style so I kept them altogether and pieced them in a sort of brick fashion. The backing was a similarly themed fat 1/4, included in the win.

A mini Trip Around the World comes next and was pieced with more scraps from my Mod Pop quilt.

This is followed by a sample piece of Crazy Patchwork that I made for the first Stitch Gathering, in 2013.

Next is another Crazy sample, machine pieced, but hand quilted. 

And then a little EPP. The blue hexies were a wee kit that we received in our Stitch Gathering goodie bag and I used all of them to me the A. (for Ava)

A trio of Cora Dantini panels next. These were simply "bagged" and then hand quilted over many sewing bee evenings. Such beautiful artwork.

For those of you still with me, nearly there..........first up below, is my Heather Ross Princess & the Pea fabric quilt. I had a fat quarter, kept it simple and used it on the back too.

The one below that, I made from scraps using my Accuquilt tumbler die - I really enjoy using this die, its design makes it so easy to piece. I backed it with some leftover 1001 Peeps fabric which featured heavily in Ava's baby quilt.

and finally, the one I shall have on top of the pile, made using a 10" panel bought at the Festival of Quilts in 2013, from a French trader. Using colours from the panel I simply log cabin-ed around, & bagged it with a cheery backing. I am reliably informed by Christelle (one of my students who happens to be French) that the phrase on the panel translates into "I have had enough!!"

I hoped to post this a few days ago but my lovely, sunny photo shoot of the quilts on the bed was taken with no card in the camera. (Katy has her work cut out with me in her camera challenge)

Since then we have had hail, snow, rain and possibly a plague of locusts so today, I succumbed to an indoor shoot. March has truly come in like a lion.

Linking to Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.