.......and it goes on.......

Still in lockdown, and since my husband's surgery last week, we are now self-isolating, which means even trips to buy food are out. Thankfully our children are looking after us.

Lots of time to sew!

Since my last post I have made a good progress on Barn Dance; 

lots of triangles and circles later - a border around the central panel (not yet trimmed).

What comes next - four large applique panels which form the next border.  

Preparation for the first one,

 and the finished panel.

I am enjoying this new quilt project, but then - I always love new starts 😉

Like in the "Manor House", I am using fabrics which are probably not "me", but the change is good - and of course I had to "go shopping", on line of course. 

The nice people at Midsomer Quilting price most of their fabrics in units of 10 cm, so if, like me, you need only small pieces for applique, that is what you can order. 

Most websites insist not only on fat qtrs, but a half of meter, which is good for a stash, but in my case totally unnecessary. 

With one eye on coming spring we have a new addition to our garden - 

we bought (mail order of course) a new plum tree to grow in a large pot. 

We planted one before, since we moved to this house, but it did not like it here.

We garden on Mendip rock (there is little depth to the soil), which is OK for most of plants in our garden, but the plum did not like it. Being inspired by  Monty Don's programs, that anything can be grown in a pot, why not? 

The quince tree we planted in the pot last year is very happy and we hope to see some fruit this year.

It is nice to plan for summer, specially on a day like today - wet and windy again, but no longer so cold.

I hope you are keeping well,

enjoy your weekend!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

Barn Dance at FNwF

Firstly, thank you very much to Cheryll for hosting another FNwF - 

and here we are in February.

Is it really nearly a year since this whole Covid madness started? Still in another lockdown here in UK, without any ending in sight. We are thankful for our crafting keeping us going through it.

So, what is this Barn Dance?

 No, we did not dance at Cheryll's, although the thought is quite appealing 😁, 

we all could do with a little jig!

The "Barn Dance" is a name of my new large quilt project for this year. The "Manor House" quilt is yet to be quilted, but I really need something new to get my teeth into.

I found this pattern in one of the old issues of Quiltmania magazine; designed by Robyn Fallon, it has all the elements of applique I like - needleturn applique, flowers, birds, and even pears.

I stared working on this last weekend,

and it didn't take me long to finish the centre motif.

And this where I got to on Friday night, having fun with small brown berries. That's when I realized how difficult it is to make perfect small circles which are only 1/2 inch in diametr! 

Still, I am not worried, nothing is really that perfect in the nature.

  Today I added a border, which frames the centre panel quite nicely. 

We are spending lots of time indoors of course, the weather hasn't been nice enough for long walks; January was very, very wet and there was even some of this:

At the moment it is very cold, coming the the east, it could mean more snow 😒

Last week I finished the Lockdown quilt, with very quick hand quilting. I washed it to remove all the makings.

To be honest, I just wanted to get it out of the way, before I started on the Barn Dance quilt.

But the highlight of my last week was of course my first Covid jab!

It made me slightly ill just for a short time, so I allowed myself a day in bed!!!

Enjoy your week and take care!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021