the last finish of 2021

I had a very late night last night, but it is done, 

largest applique quilt I have made so far :

                                            "Barn Dance "

It was designed by Robyn Falloon,

published in 100th issue of Quiltmania magazine in 2014.

Measuring 1,80 x 1.80 m, just the right size for my bed; 

needless to say that I am very pleased with it.

I had enough of one of the fabrics used in the quilt for the binding.

I usually sew the binding to the front of the quilt and turn and stitch to the back, but this time I did the opposite, turning it to the front and securing it with chunky stitch using pearl cotton No8.

I can concentrate on Christmas now 😅😅, 

lets hope it will be "normal" one this year,

keeping fingers crossed.

pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

FNwF

Cold and windy Sunday here, indoors is the best place.

Friday evening I joined  Cheryll and the others for another Friday Night with Friends, 

a virtual get together, which I had missed for some time. This was for the last time this year.

You can use the link Cheryll's blog to see what the others were up to.

I finished another flower block for Quilter's Patch quilt (no 14),

after that I snuggled under "Barn Dance" in front of TV and continued hand quilting, 

using a simple echo hand quilting method. 

This quilt is so lovely and warm, I spent the rest of the evening doing just that.

I am working on the final borders now and I really hope I finish it this year!

I will pop over to Cheryll's to see what everyone was up to....

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

Midsummer

and it is cold, wet and windy....

The first half of June was beautiful, like summer arrived at last.

The garden was loving it, at last some sun and warmth.

The peonies were really good this year, but sadly gone over now.

 

I moved outside, did lot of reading and some sewing, 

although it was too hot most of the time to sew.

I finished all the leaves for quilt border; it was boring in the end, but I am glad I stuck with it, 

they make the border more interesting.

I already had some fabric for the backing, batik with small leave design.

So, a quick dash to MQ to buy some wadding -

and this is the bit I find most difficult, putting it all together.

This is the largest quilt I have made so far (1.80m x 1.80m), so it took some doing.

Being so large, it lends itself to hand quilting with thicker thread and larger stitches. 

As it is much colder now, I have started hand quilting already - 

it is quite nice to have it on my lap in the evening; I am using pearl cotton No16, probably in several shades.

During the warm spell my "Play Cloth" came out and I started to work on another block.

For my new followers - my Play Cloth is a small quilt I work on only in the summer, when I can stitch outside; don't ask why - it just happened and now I look forward to "stitching in the garden" weather to bring it out.

This project was inspired by work of Tiggy Rawling,

and specially one of her quilts.

The various hand dyed fabric patches came from her, and I gave myself a task of filling each one with something different.

I have also been including small embroideries from Tambani project and embroideries from Afganistan, which used to sold at craft shows.

 

Starting new block - no idea yet where this one is going,

and some of the previous ones.

I leave you with few more pictures of our small garden.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

April in May

or at least that's how it feels; we are having all the rain we missed out on last month.

At last the night frosts have stopped, and everything in the garden is getting greener 

and buds are ready to burst open.

Our golden birch tree we planted last year is in leaf and looking so pretty.

I love the beautiful leaves and delicate flower of epimidiums:

A trip to the garden centre -

I planted out boxes for some summer colour by the kitchen door.

                                                  Steady progress on Barn Dance quilt too:

I have made enough 6" border blocks for two sides of the quilt.

So, 20 more leaf blocks to make, 

but just for some change I am now making 4 corner blocks.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Wet one here 😒

Here in UK we are looking forward to more relaxed rules from Monday,

when we will be able to meet indoors and we should be able to give our grandchildren a HUG!

But, BUT - the new Covid Indian variant is rapidly spreading in the country (faster than any previous ones), which could seriously undermine government's Roadmap for easing most of restrictions in June.

I am angry with our authorities for not stopping travelling to and from India sooner;

we also know that many people returning from India, in order to avoid quarantine on their return to UK, travelled back via and  breaking their journey in Turkey, which at that time wasn't on UK's Red list.

We know this because these people boasted about it on the social media, how they beat the system.

Why is is that there is always a section of a society, which thinks that the rules do not apply to them?

I am angry, because we all worked very hard for the past year to keep ourselves and everyone around us safe. There are thousands of families around the world which haven't seen each other for over a year, doing the right thing.

I apologize for going on about this, but it does get to me, when making post Brexit trade deals become more important than the health of the country, because that is what we are talking about here.

I have always tried hard to keep politics out of my blog, because that is not what my blog is for; but sometimes I feel I have to say something.

I am afraid for those under 50 who have not yet been vaccinated. Also it is not clear at this point if vaccinations we had will be able to stop the Indian variant.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

more of Barn Dance

I have been really enjoying this quilt. 

This it the last large applique panel finished

The corners to join the 4 main applique panels are Ohio Star blocks with small applique in each, 

which I think is really nice idea.

And the whole thing together, I am so pleased with the result!

Next came a simple pink border (no picture yet), but the final border will be made up of 

6in blocks with a leaf applique. I will need 40 of these, so lots of work yet!

With lots more places opening up from today, things are looking up, lets hope this will last.

We both had our second Covid jab over the weekend, so that's job done.

All we need now is some warmer weather, we have the sunshine, but it is COLD.

I wish you all a good week crafting!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

Barn Dance progress

I spent this morning "garden shopping", to brighten up the horrid day outside. We had some good days, but today is not one of them; yesterday we had our lunch outside in the sunshine. 

Not today - so little online shopping - some new garden plants will be arriving soon - girl has to get some excitement!

 After spending some quality time outside yesterday afternoon (moving few pots around), 

I was full of spring and wonderfully tired in the evening. I was happy, because most of the time I struggle to remember what day it is - they seem to be all the same, just running into each other. 

But I am sure I am not alone feeling like this, winter is bad enough without having to isolate. 

If all goes to plan, we will be allowed to meet up with our families outside at the end of this month!

These days most of my afternoons are spent sewing in front of TV. 

I have been getting on with the Barn Dance - I made two more large applique panels.

One more, and I can start working on the borders.

I binged on all 4 series of "The Last Kingdom" on Netflix, and despite the fact that I am not really into historical novels, I am now reading the first book, because as we know there is always so much more in the book. 

It is well written and I find it very easy to read, however, there is no chance I will read all 13 (yes, thirteen!) books in the series.

Well, that's me, this as exciting as it gets these days 😞

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

.......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