Casseopeia AKA Cassie

Well, you all know about UFOs...right?

I started this star sampler at least ten years ago as a technique builder, it was only the second top I ever started.   I pieced it block by block over a twelve month period, some blocks were easier than others but when it came to the borders I was never just happy with them.  First off the corners never matched properly so I had to take a piece out then the colours didn't match up right so the top was enclosed in a polythene bag for a couple of years while I thought about it.
I wasn't really quilting during this period just entertaining myself at times, I think those borders were taken off three times in all.  I always liked the colours and fabrics... the outer border fabric is the tie fabric as it's in every block....it's Monet's garden, it's difficult to see but there are tiny white cottages too.
I am really a self taught quilter, that's obvious if you could see the seams on the back of this top...good job it is all now enclosed out of sight, I would definitely make a better job of the piecing now but at the end of the day this will be a quilt that will get used and loved.

I finally got the top to a stage where I was happy to quilt it but recently I have been so busy that finding time to quilt my own quilts has been a little difficult... but hey ho!

So I entered the quilt in Festival of Quilts...that was the push I needed to get it quilted, it isn't perfect, which quilt is but I still love it?
It's around 96 x 80 inches, I used Hobbs Polydown over Simply Cotton wadding/batting...the poly wadding so that the white background fabric stayed white ...I seem to have a passion for quilts with white backgrounds?
White Metro thread and colours to match the fabrics in the stars with white  MagnaGlide bobbins on all of the back which is a white on white fabric, unusual for me I didn't get a photo of the back.....that will have to wait now....
All freemotion handguided with lots of ruler work....on my APQS  Millennium....

So here are one or two photos....lol....

 I wondered why I had added this pink fabric, it's only in two blocks, but in then end this turned into my favourite block....go figure....

I am really happy that now this top is a quilt!

Can you tell?

Surface embellishment....Flower of Scotland

I know I haven't shown the full quilt just yet but I've had a few requests for information about my fabric painting technique on my latest quilt.......rather than writing it all down I thought a little video would explain better....I took this a couple of weeks ago before my recent problems with Lightening and telephone lines....

The Music in the background is David Jaggs, you can find his website here....that man can sure make a guitar sing....with his kind permission....

http://www.davidjaggs.com/easy-listening1.html

Wholecloth Quilt Painting part 1

Wholecloth Quilt Painting part 2

Here are a few photos from Lauder Common Riding Thursday Evening Ride

Connections and Networking....

Continuing on my theme of exasperatingly slow and dropping broadband connection....it seems it was better than nothing.

Last Tuesday night we had really wild Thunder and Lightening storms. I've never been scared by thunder and lightening but that may now have changed.....

As I walked down through the house to turn off the satellite TV system, I was caught by a lightening bolt coming in through the skylight above the front door, there was a bright exploding flash right in front of my face and the sense of a light bulb exploding although it hadn't and I was thrown to the floor.....a little confused and stunned but not burnt or knocked out....I was lucky!

Of course the telephone line and modem/broadband connection took the strike along with a few other telephone lines in the area. It's been quiet around here as we have no mobile/cell signal in this valley. Again luckily I was already waiting for delivery of the new router which did eventually come on Thursday but couldn't be fitted until the telephone line was repaired. Initially my broadband connection came in through the farm office first.  By the time I realised that the modem in my farm office PC had also taken a hit the 'Lady' in Mumbai was getting a little short tempered with my fumbling around with various wires so much so that she actually put the phone down on me.....I am not usually ham fisted. When I pushed the switch on the surge protector under my office desk it exploded and blew a fuse in the main circuit board, that was nearly the last straw....but I did get my laptop and tablet connected to Wi-Fi.

So, with my batteries charged (pun intended), it's back to normal again, still with a slow and dropping broadband connection.....

Before the weather broke we managed to get another elevation of the outside of the house painted. Well, my DS did, two days to erect the scaffolding and paint this wall, that's a high gable end, but what an improvement, didn't he do well?

My DH painted the back elevation and I did the gloss on the windows and tidied up their surrounds..... then the rains came and stopped the progress but that's OK....

Fieron had a ride out in the open on Layla, her new to her this year pony, well, they are are all new to them this year really......Beauty was only broken to ride last year and Tessa is being gently brought back into work by Kyle.

Friday was Langholm Common Riding Kyle and Graham took Tessa and Beauty.  Tessa has been a brood mare for the past five years but took everything in her stride and was a perfect ride for Kyle. Graham seemed to have Beauty under control, she is getting used to the excitement of the crowds cheering and shouting. Tessa and Beauty make a very nice matched pair but are not at all related.

One of my friends said she didn't really know what a Scottish thistle looked like? Well, here is a giant thistle grown, tended, nurtured and picked out especially for the day.....

The Clematis are blooming.....my next post will definitely be quilt related....

Arghhhh....technology????

Sometimes you just can't live with it but nowadays we certainly can't live without it???

I know I have not been blogging as much as usual, just because my broadband connection keeps dropping off....mid sentence and takes forever to come back again. It's one of the joys of living in the countryside....not a big enough population to make it worthwhile to replace our copper telephone wires? After complaining and changing settings for the past four or five weeks I am now waiting for a new router to be delivered and am assured it will be here any day now....even saving and uploading this blog post is a nightmare, it's taken four or five sessions!

I have been busy though doing a little painting and decorating.  We have had so much rain in this area of The Borders in the past two years that my house is starting to turn green....with algae. Apparently the moisture and all of the clean air we have around here are ideal conditions for algae growth, everything is covered in this green gunk. We are having a proper heatwave, it's been between 24C - 30C all week...perfect for a bit of painting in the evening....

So after a bit of remedial work ....well, it's a start, the rest of the house is three stories high so there is no way I'll be climbing ladders or scaffolding that high, my balance ain't that good nowadays. Who ever in the past decided that it was a good idea to paint this house white obviously didn't think it through properly, this is the fourth time in twenty years we have had to do it, it isn't a pleasant thought. Last time we paid a professional to do this it cost an absolute fortune so we intend to do it ourselves again, a little at a time and we will get there if the weather holds out but it may not all be this year.
Anyhow, the sheep have to be clipped first so the job is already on hold.......

Oh.... you're not interested in that kind of painting and decorating???

Well, I have also been painting and decorating a quilt.... been working on this one since January off and on, here is a little teaser..

I also just finished adding this label to another quilt that I started piecing over ten years ago....

Do you remember this quilt?

It's 'The Colarado Quilt', Lynette has written a wonderful blog post showcasing both of her Dragonfly Party quilts quilted by myself and Judi Madsen AKA 'The Green Fairy'.....pop on over to Lynette's blog to read it....

http://whatahootquilts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/double-finish-report-dragonfly-party-1.html

Sunday Morning

Kyle and Tessa

Fieron and Layla

Graham and Beauty

It was a lovely Sunday morning but man, those clegs were vicious today.....poor horses!

For those of you who often ask how Bess is recuperating.....she is getting along fine although it's a slow process. She still needs her dressings changed every three or four days and it will be a while till we know if she will be sound but she walks, trots and rests on her damaged leg and has hardly a limp so that's a good sign. We will probably give her the rest of the year off and try her again in the spring.

Tessa and Bess

Tessa has been a Brood Mare and lived up on the hill for 4 or 5 years but is proving to be a perfect ride for Kyle while his young horse Beauty learns a few manners with his Dad....

What do you do with your off cuts of cotton batting....if you have a stable or livery yard near by why not offer them some precut and rolled padding for horse dressings.....

Who would have thought of that.....
What other uses do you have for your off cuts of batting???

Chasing my tail....

It's been a busy month and I know I have neglected to show some of my customer quilts this month, I know some of my friends like to see their quilts here on my blog.....

Can you believe Anne pieced this lovely batik top from scraps left over from previous quilts, it turned out really well. Anne chose a panto with an open design 'Begonia angel wings', it shows well on the lovely backing fabric, these batiks had a lovely soft feel with a high thread count not unlike Liberty fabrics. I have it on good authority that this quilt is already bound.....

A new customer Lisa posted me this lovely quilt runner in 'dogwood' fabrics. We thought wildflower panto would be appropriate, the wadding supplied by Lisa gives a lovely puffy definition to the quilting.

Lisa took the option of having a full binding treatment supplied and applied by me so that the quilt was ready to use straight out of the package, it looks lovely Lisa.