Black on Black....

 Anne delivered this lovey star quilt to me on the stand at Festival of Quilts in Birmingham back in August, it had already been booked into my queue. Black is notoriously difficult to see when quilting so sometimes you tend to be quilting blind. Thankfully once off the machine the quilt looked fabulous. Anne was very pleased to receive it back again and followed up with a lovely phone call.

The wadding is Simply Cotton (100% supplied by me off the roll) with Metro black thread that has just a little shine to show more and a lovely cotton backing of black dragonflies on cream (supplied by me off the roll).

Who needs another birthday?

A couple of weeks ago I had one of those horrendous big birthdays that no one in their right minds should celebrate. As is becoming the tradition my BFF Maria and I had a day out together. We chose a trip to Abbotsford House, nr Galashiels, home of Sir Walter Scott, the writer. We have both passed by on many occasions but never been inside the gates. Unfortunately no photography is allowed inside the house. It was a beautiful autumn day, we took the guided digital earphone tour of the ground floor, had a stroll by the river, even seeing a Kingfisher flying by, then wandered around the walled gardens. I couldn't resit plucking a few apples from the orchard, they were ready and many were lying in the grass as slug food, it was a shame not to take them, brought back childhood memories.....

No, not my photography unfortunately, gorgeous photo.

After our stroll we enjoyed lunch and a really long chat in the visitor centre before a little window shopping and more legal apple picking in the Abby walled gardens in Melrose.

I'll be back with super quilt very soon....

I'm still here....

Life has a way of 'knocking you for six' sometimes, the loss of family members even if you only meet up with them once or twice a year has a real effect, lots of should have's and could have's, hug your loved ones and keep them close, life can change in the blink of an eye! Rest in Peace Nigel!

After my DH had a breakdown in his truck last week, I did a quick online search for a new motor, on Friday we made a quick trip up to Sterling, he had his heart set on the first one we tried, we are awaiting it's delivery, it's been an expensive couple of months motor wise, two new to us motors in two months, we never see any sense in buying brand new, let someone else run them in for a year or so first....

I found some photos on my phone that I don't think I have shown here on the blog. This first one was made by an Aunt for her Nephew who bought all of the fabrics himself, not your usual quilting fabrics but upholstery fabrics, it's a heavy quilt and a very large one. I would say super king sized. I could see this in one of those fancy loft apartments, it works. Quilted by me with Crystal Maze a digitised design.

This next quilt was also a large one with a fancy scalloped border, I quilted a digitised pattern on the main body of the quilt and freemotion hand guided feather designs in the outer borders, my customer was super pleased to have it back, I was super pleased that she intended to bind all of those scallops herself.

I really like this small quilt made by a Lady who is 90 years old, Betty used a Jelly Roll, it has a very ethnic feel, quilted with crystal maze design in Khaki Sand thread.

Anne made this very subtly coloured quilt adding a striking red border, quilted with Chocolate leaves, a digitised design. The backing has an off set stripe which is a very good way to piece a backing if you don't have a big enough piece of fabric and it doesn't need to be centre which is a big help for your longarmer.

Today I loaded this fantastic applique quilt, it's another huge quilt 114" x 88", there is already a couple of years work in this quilt. I'm still in the planning/procrastinating stage of the quilting designs. It will be freemotion and ruler work so if you don't hear from me for a couple of weeks send in the search party....I start the quilting tomorrow...