Back from a lovely little trip

Did you know the weather could be this sunny in Wales?
Actually, each time I travel to North Wales, the weather is rather nice. ;-)
But this time, it was truly amazing!
Anyway, last Saturday, I met up again with my lovely friend Margaret, a.k.a. Digital Gran, in Llandudno. We first visited Stitch It, a charming little shop full of indispensable goodies, then Oriel Mostyn Gallery where we had a nice Welsh tea. (Thank you Mags!)
More pictures about this nice afternoon, as well as everything about Welsh cakes, here!

Fifth anniversary

Today is my blog anniversary! I started blogging exactly 5 years ago by timidly posting the above little quilt.

To celebrate this properly, I'm going to have a giveaway on my blog in a few days.
Stay tuned! :-))

A nice weekend

We've been so busy working in the house that I almost forgot to post these pictures of the last weekend. It was really nice, sunny, almost warm. Little GD came over and gave us a hand in the garden.
She did some weeding...
She looked everywhere for ladybugs,
and she did some nice chalk drawings full of energy...
In other news, here are a few blocks I made for the quilt I am going to send to Japan...
Next is a picture of the backside of my Twelve by Twelve Nénuphars piece. I took it when the quilt was almost finished, as you can see.
Have a nice weekend!

Nénuphars in Sapporo

I had never really cared much about the colour chartreuse before this challenge. But when Gerrie picked it as our new colour scheme, I suddenly discovered that chartreuse was everywhere, even in my collections of pictures. I also found out that this colour was going well with many others and, eventually, that I rather liked it.
I chose a few photos that inspired me, some taken during my trip in Japan last year, and I finally decided to concentrate on water lilies photographed in Sapporo.
And here is my chartreuse quilt...
First, I hand-dyed many shades of chartreuse. (I've got a lot of chartreuse fabric in my stash now!). I added dark green and purple as I found these colours made a nice contrast with the light shades of chartreuse. The water lilies, flowers and leaves, are stitched through all layers. The quilt is completely quilted by machine except for the three little hand-stitched flowers on the upper left side.
Here are some details...
"Nénuphars" is the French word for water lilies. When I see water lilies, I often think of Claude Monet's Nympheas. I fell in love with them, and with Impressionism, 35 years ago in Paris, but I still have to visit Monet's garden in Giverny.

And now you should go and visit our Twelve by Twelve blog to see all the lovely chartreuse quilts the other Twelves have made.

From EQ7 to Fabric

I am back in the studio!   It has been a while but it's good to get back to the machine. 

The allotment is coming along nicely.  The hut is up.  The water butts are installed with pipes from the hut which has collected lots of water (the two huge butts are full).   The paths are laid, just a little more gravel to build up some areas and that's finished.    Norman has planted his fruit bushes and asparagus.   The cauliflowers, cabbage and pac choi are growing nicely.   I planted garlic, onions and the herbs are in.   I also planted 9 varieties of potatoes and now I am waiting to plant some carrots and other more tender veg that have to wait a while in case we get frost which we did this morning.   Norman has erected his bean frames both "A" and wigwams and we have a selection of different beans planted. 

I will post pictures later when I get them organised.

I designed the above quilt in EQ7 and I have some blocks already made.   I will post pictures later of the work in progress.

I am going back to teaching in September and so am busy getting ideas together.  I need a few new ideas as I don't have the 6 week break like I used to.  I used to teach 10 weeks and have a six week break before teaching another 10 weeks.  Now it is three lots of 7 weeks with one week in between which means I need to get everything done before class starts so I am going to be busy busy busy.   Fortunately I have loads of ideas which I can work on.    It's funny because before I had decided to go back, after a one year break, I couldn't come up with any ideas but once I had posted back the form saying I would start teaching again the ideas came flooding into my brain - thamk goodness.   

I am also hoping to get back to the Latte quilt which hasn't moved on since I had the inner ear infection which left me dizzy and unable to concentrate for long.    Hopefully I will have pictures to post soon.

Watch this space.

Chartreuse hunting

The weather is really too nice today. I stopped working at 3pm and went chartreuse hunting in the garden!
This little guy is growing where it shouldn't. I'll have to save it from DH...
This one too,... although it is not chartreuse.
On the quilting front, I'm almost done with the binding of my Twelve by Twelve quilt. I still have to add some hand stitching and then take the pictures. Here's a little peek at the back...
some scraps...
And just one more chartreuse pic before I go back in the garden...

I'm quilting

I started quilting "Chartreuse One" this morning...
Not sure there will be a "Chartreuse Two" after all...
Today, I also quickly put together a rosebud postcard as a surprise gift for a friend.
I don't think she reads my blog.
In any case, as it's a surprise, she can't guess it's for her. ;-)