WIP - Sister's Choice

Despite the fact the wedding is long over, I am still dutifully ripping away at the mess I made of the FMQ on my gift to my sister for being a bridesmaid.

What took about an hour to achieve has taken about ten so far to unpick.

Anyone got any advice about whether I'm crazy for even attempting this? The new quilting is great, but now my quilt looks like a seive!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Peiced for WIP Wednesday

Buzz Buzz - 2

While I went off galavanting all over Europe, my Little Blog Quilt Bee chums were hard at work making me blocks for my quilt.

For my month as Queen, I chose the wonky log cabin block, following a great tutorial by Nicole at Mama Loves Quilts.

I asked for solids, as I loved Nicole's block so much, but also said bold, bright prints would suffice.

Well, the hive did me proud!  Look at these beauties:

First through the letter box was this winner from my pal at Handmade Somethings

Then I went on holiday and had a HUGE pile of lovely parcels to greet me.  You know what they say about brown paper packages (but more on that later).

First to be unwrapped was this lovely block from Joanna at My Quilts and Other Stories which looks like sweeties.

The Occasional Quilter went off-piste with this colour explosion

Nessa sent me this lovely mix of solids and prints, including some I recall from the Stitch Gathering.

Could I believe my eyes when I saw this from Patchwork Alley?  One of my favourite things.

Lovely presents!

And her block:

Espirit Patch whipped up this block for me:

This was was signed off  Love Natalie

From the Mindful Quilter, who sent me two!  What a champ.

From the machine of our organiser, I'm Studio Lou, blocks with chocs!  They didn't last long...

This gorgeous block is from Claire E Poppins:

And last, but not least, this lovely block from Not a Floral Girl:

Now, I just need to decide how to sew them together - to sash or not to sash!

Thanks again for all my bee chums for their hard work and lovely blocks.  I am really enjoying being part of my first bee!

Quilting Inspiration on Honeymoon - Part 2

Welcome back to my tour of Europe via "things I saw which made me think of quilting"!

Our third destination was Rome and we beat the queues early one morning at the Vatican Museum.  There was rich pickings in the quilt patterned floor stakes!

Not actually a pattern, but just one of the many examples of painting or sculpture where I was in awe of the handling of the fabric.

This isn't anything to do with quilting - I just thought I should prove I didn't spend my whole time looking at the floors and did take time to appreciate the beautiful art.  This is the School of Athens by Raphael and I have included it because, coincidentally, Athens was the next and final city we visited.

 Still in Rome however, my last quilt block in an unlikely place was in the ceiling of the Pantheon.  Anyone seeing Log Cabins?

And so on to Athens!  Now, I am the only person in the world who likes the movie Summer Holiday.  I've tried to get others on board (ha!) but it hasn't happened.  As my new Mr. knows I love the film so much and really enjoys the process of organising complicated trips, he suggested we travel from London to Athens for our honeymoon.  We decided driving all the way would take too long and be unnecessarily stressful, so instead we took trains and a plane.

This pavement in the market in Athens made me think of quilts...

and I was astounded by the carving of the fabric of the dresses of the Caryatids at the Acropolis Museum.  These are the real statues, now replaced on the hill by copies.

And so we're home!  Our wedding was a five day long celebration (Wedfest) of friends, family, love and happiness.  I have had such a ball over the last couple of months, although spectacularly failed at sewing anything - even the sewing which I was supposed to achieve for the wedding (bunting anyone?)!  I'm looking forward to getting back to the machine.

Quilting Inspiration on Honeymoon - Part One

My free time for the last couple of months has been about my hen do, wedding, and the honeymoon. The BIG DAY was over Easter weekend and we've just come back from two and a half amazing weeks touring European capitals as an old married couple.

Now, although I was clearly caught up in the new wife tasks of gazing at my husband and strolling hand in hand round glamorous locations, from time to time my mind (and my camera) would wander over to quilting.

So, I've compiled my top elements of quilting inspiration from the trip over two posts, which will hopefully culminate (do not add another project to the list, do not add another project to the list - oops...) in a honeymoon quilt.

Our first destination was Paris.  We were only there for a few days as the main reason I wanted to go was to visit Monet's Garden, which is about an hour and a half outside Paris.

I have wanted to visit his garden since I was a child and received this book from my Granny.  It did not disappoint.

The colours were just gorgeous! Using the Pallette Builder by Anne at Playcrafts, I've created this array of Monet's garden quilting colours.

Next, we took a sleeper train to Venice.

Normal people see the building adjacent to St. Mark's Basilica - I saw the "Trip Around the World Block"!

These guys don't really have anything to do with quilting, I just thought they were lovely.

The floors inside St. Marks were clearly designed by quilters too.  They are all made of marble and just exquisite.

Apologies for the last one being upside down - it is against a wall and you can't walk on that part.

Following in Audrey's footsteps, our next stop was a Roman Holiday.  Coming up in part two, I will show you how I spent four hours in the Vatican Museum looking at floors (yes, I know all the good stuff is on the ceiling...)