We're in training ...

... Scrappy and I have decided to take a leaf out of the Olympic contestants' books, so we're now officially in training. It's going to require a lot of hard work, and great personal sacrifices while we aspire to become Ladies Who Lunch! We started today by going out for posh coffee instead of making our own. In a couple of weeks, we are off for some luxury spa treatments, plus lunch out. See, I told you it's going to be tough, but hey, we can cope.

After a slow start, we did also do some quilting. Scrappy finished piecing this quilt

and cut the backing and the wadding, and I finished off the binding on my YMQG Challenge quilt. Since this quilt is due to be displayed at our meeting in December, I can't help feeling a teeny bit smug about having finished, and I thought you might like a sneak-peek at it, so here it is.

Sneak peeks ....

.... I imagine that you (if you are still out there?) have decided that I must have given up quilting all together. Well, to be honest, I haven't at all, but what I have been doing is making secret stuff, mainly for gifts for some good friends. So, just to prove it, here is a photo of 3 gifts:

Well, come on, you didn't seriously think I'd show you the whole thing(s) before they've been given, did you?

Starting in October,the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Group is running a BOM, with various members designing a block. I volunteered to do Block 1, so I have now made it and written the instructions, so it's all ready to go, look:

In addition to all this, I've made a small wonky quilt which is just waiting for me to sew the binding down, so here's a bit of that:

And finally (yes, I know, don't start a sentence with a preposition, or a conjunction, but gimmee  a break, it's hot and humid here today, so brains don't work too well) I don't think I've ever shown you this mini quilt I finished a few weeks ago:

A comedy of errors ...

.... that's what Saturday was for me. It was the sort of day when, if it could go wrong, it would go wrong.

I was looking forward to going to a meeting of Yorkshire Modern Quilt Group. I had packed my stuff up the day before, and even made my lunch so all I would have to do in the morning was get up, shower and go by 9.30. Well, that was the theory. Unfortunately, the practice was a bit different. It started when I went to put some washing in the machine, and discovered that Mr Fixit had set off to the supermarket, but left his glasses and shopping list behind. I was fairly certain he would not remember everything on the list, so I grabbed it and ran (OK, I walked fairly quickly) towards the shop, thinking that I would meet him coming back for it. I got all the way there without seeing him and then walked all round the shop looking for him, with no luck. I therefore went home again, thinking I must have missed him. He finally turned up, and guess what? He'd remembered everything on the list. So I loaded up the car and was just about to get in when our gardener appeared and wanted a chat before he started work. So, I was late leaving.

I got to the meeting and unpacked my "stuff". We were having a demonstration of how to make a small, portable design board, and I don't know where my brain was when I was getting ready as I needed two binding strips, but only took one, so I had to use two different pieces, which isn't really me. Anyway, I made it and it's going to be very useful. After that I was going to do some machine appliqué but guess what? I had forgotten my foot pedal. I do have a button on my machine to start and stop, but that didn't give me enough control on pointy bits so I had to rethink that one. Luckily I had taken a mug rug with me that just needed the binding, so I did that.

On the positive side, I now have a mini design board, another finished mug rug, and I was lucky enough to win 5 FQs in the raffle. In the picture, you can see the FQ's and the mug rug sitting on top of my design board. So, all's well that end well as they say.

More playing ...

... does this woman ever do any housework/cooking/etc?  How come she gets to play so often?  That's what you're all wondering isn't it? Well the answer is that when you've got the builders in it's not worth doing things like dusting or vacuuming and it's best to plan meals for the slow cooker that do two days.

So, now we've sorted that out, let me show you what I've been doing. Yesterday was our monthly meeting of the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Group that both Scrappy and I belong to, and I decided to carry on with my ideas for the slice and insert block that I've been playing with lately.  This is what I came up with

By the way, they're not really all puckered, they're creased from where I had them all scrumpled up in my bag when I came home last night and I couldn't be bothered to iron them before taking the photos, sorry.  I'm not sure I like either of these versions, but I had to try them didn't I?

Oh, and Just in case you think I've given up on my free motion quilting, here's a little pile of sandwiches I've just made

That's better ....

.... I put my latest quilt on the frame and asked Big Bertha to do her best with it, using a lilac/purple variegated thread.  I knew after about an inch that the thread was too dark, but kept going for about half a row before I listened to myself and stopped, undid the purple and started again with white. Before undoing it, Mr Fixit happened to wander past and asked why I'd stopped.  I told him I was unsure about the thread and asked if he thought it was too dark too. He did.  (I was a bit surprised, as usually he makes some fairly non-committal comment when his opinion is asked for -  I think he feels that discretion is the better part of valour!) so out came the seam ripper, out came the purple thread, and off we went with white. Much better.

Yesterday Scrappy and I had a fun day at the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Guild day.  Scrappy finished a quilt.  This was her first attempt at FM quilting and the quilt looks great.  It only took her two weeks from starting the quilt in a workshop run by QuiltHaze from Cotton Cocktails to finish.  

While Scrappy was busy finishing her binding and burying the ends on her quilt, I made some more blocks for our joint quilt.  We've now almost finished making the blocks, and here they are on my design wall. This picture was taken under electric light, and the colours are much more vivid in real life. I think they are just GORGEOUS, even though there are rather more than four fabrics in there!