Mini-Quilt finish.

I've finished my quilt for the flickr Doll quilt swap an flickr and It's now in the mail. Have a look here for some photos of what other members of the swap have been upto. There's some beautiful work.

I showed a picture of my quilt in my last post when it was in the nearly finished stage. I'm pleased with how it turned out. The pattern for the applique flower is from a book called "Making scrap Quilts to use it up" by Lynne Edwards. She is a local author (Suffolk, UK) who was recently awarded the MBE for her work as a quilter and author. My mother-in-law remembers her when she first started patchwork. She used to sit on a bench hand stitching hexegans whilst my husband (when he was a child!) and her children played in the village play area.
 The quilt in the book uses lots of the flowers, I'm afraid my patients only stretches to one though. I just used the pattern for the applique and designed the rest of the mini-quilt myself.

Bye for now, Maria

Sewing and some culture.

At last some sewing to show. I've nearly finished my quilt for the doll quilt swap over on flickr.
I've hand appliqued a flower with each petal made from a different fabric and I'm in the process of hand quilting around each petal. I've used a fairly thick embroidery thread rather than a standard hand quilting thread. In the centre of the flower I've embroidered some french nots but I think it needs a few more.
The rest of the quilt will be machine quilted. Hopefully this will be one of the last quilts I machine quilt on my trusty old Janome as I'm off to order a new Bernina tomorrow. I'm so excited!

Months ago I explained that we'd started decorating our living room. Well it's been quite a big job and I'm not sure whether we started it at the best time as my husband has been very busy over the summer and progress has been slow. We need new cushion covers to go with the new decor and I've made the first one. It's in a log cabin design and uses a different fabric for each log. I'm pleased that I managed to insert a zip in the back and piped the edges with piping I covered myself. I plan to use the same fabrics for the next three but they'll all use a different patchwork design.

And now from some culture!
In my last post I showed a photograph of a lighthouse I took from a beach in Cornwall near St.Ives. I explained that I couldn't remember the name of the beach, well Carolyn of Love Stitching Red lives in St.Ives and recognised it. She kindly informed me that the beach is called Godrevy and she told me that it's the lighthouse that the major twentieth century author Virginia Woolf writes about in her novel "To The Lighthouse" (first published 1927). I've now learned that Woolf spent time as a child at Talland House which overlooks St.Ives bay and Godrevy lighthouse. Although it is the inspiration for the book the lighthouse in the book is set in Scotland. The house has now been turned into luxury holiday apartments.
I bought a copy of the book today but I must admit that it's not the kind of book I normally read, I've read a review that states that many readers find the novel strange and difficult but I'll see how it goes.

When I first saw the book cover I was somewhat disappointed as although the image was beautiful it appeared to be modern. It was in fact taken in 1913 by Lieutenant Colonel Mervyn O'Gorman and is called "Christina walking on the beach", Christina was his daughter and two more of his photos of her can be seen here and here. The photos are autochromes which were the first practicable colour photographs and to me they have a beautiful dream like quality and bring the past to life more than black and white photos.
Sorry about my photos, the light was poor.
Bye for now, Maria

Cornwall.

Thought I would show a few pics of our recent trip to Cornwall. We stayed in Newquay, I was rather worried about staying there as lots of youngsters go there for surfing and lots of partying but we found it to be OK.

We stayed in this lovely house nestled into the cliffs overlooking Newquay bay.

Here it is from one of the beaches. You can see some fishing boats going into the little harbour.



This little chap and his (or her) friends live in the harbour and follow the fishing boats after food.




The weather was mixed but mostly dry. A certain little boy spent lots fun time body boarding. I'm afraid his Mummy was a wimp and didn't venture into the sea at all! It was too cold for me.



I can't remember what this beach was called but it had a beautiful view of a light house which sat on rocks out in the sea.



We visited St.Ives which we loved. Lots of lovely galleries and individual shops. We went on holiday with friends so while the husbands and children were on the beach myself and my friend had a great time shopping!



We had a very enjoyable day at the Eden project. It's amazing to think there's a rainforest in one of the domes complete with a waterfall.



They have enormous bees in this part of Cornwall!

I have been doing some sewing but haven't taken any photos yet, I'll be back soon to show what I've been upto.
Bye for now, Maria.