Patchwork heaven....

As the weather has been so cold and miserable down here in Devon, it was decided that a day out would cheer us up so my good friend Lyn and I headed off into Cornwall and as luck would have it the sky was a pale blue and the sun was actually shining - a rare occurrence lately!  I wanted to see Cowslip at Easter, always a delight at any time of year but with the daffodils out and some yellow winter jasmine it looked particularly welcoming.

And the shop was full as always of wonderful fabrics and much inspiration: here is Lyn admiring this beautiful quilt:

Every corner is stuffed with quilts - I want to make them all!:

There was a wonderful Exhibition on in the barn with work by Sue Spooner and Helen Keenan:

We then drove on to Kilkhampton as Carole of Butterfly Quilters had worked express magic and managed to long-arm quilt my 5 baby quilts plus a double bed quilt in record time:  she is such a star, and here she is beside her wonderful quilting frame with my pile of "done" goodies!:

Of course I have been cross-stitching away every evening too, and have just finished another Scarlet Letter sampler - I have made it very personal by adding all our family initials, and it is sewn on a larger count of fabric than SL suggest, but it is sweet and once framed will find a home somewhere here at Ward Cottage as it is not as large as some of my recent samplers:

My followers will recall that we were off to my God-daughter's wedding last Saturday:  oh it was so so cold and bleak, such a shame - but it was a wonderful occasion and a good time was had by all once we had warmed up at the reception:  Annie looked beautiful and it was a day to remember:  here she is with her younger sister Lucy:

and with new husband Barney cutting the cake:

So now I have bindings to sew onto those quilts - that should keep me quiet over the Easter weekend. We are off to a party to celebrate Lyn and Bob's 40th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday, but apart from that a quiet few days so I hope to get the opportunity to sew plenty of patchwork and cross-stitch.
Happy Easter to all my followers - and let's hope that British Summertime brings us some warmer weather SOON - I am so tired of the cold and rain and grey skies, seeing a bit of blue sky and sun today, even for just a sort while, made such a difference.

Getting ready for Easter....

I have been busy these past two weeks sewing Easter runners - I love these, they are a Danish design on a big count, so they grow quickly and are easy to sew - and I think the end result is effective and just right for this time of year.  And it is fun to sew something light-hearted and different.

I have hung some Eggs from the kitchen light, and put a fun bright cloth on the table.  So whatever the weather outside is doing we have the beginnings of Spring in our kitchen:

I have been on a "quilts for new babies" run:  so carrying on from the two I have showed you on recent posts  I have now made 4 more:

 Now all the new babies (that I know about) are catered for - so once they are quilted they will be off to their new nurseries!

I took my Scarlet Letter "Log Cabin" to be framed, and collected the wedding sampler which is for my God-daughter Annie who is marrying Barnaby this coming Saturday:  I hope the weather warms up for them:

 I am really pleased with this - I took little bits from several different patterns and it has ended up so pretty.  All I have to do now is make them a wedding quilt...!

I am continuing with Nicola's wonderful SL Challenge, and sewing a small alphabet sampler:  the pattern states it should be sewn "over 1" on 40 count linen:  well sadly my eyes, fingers and brain cannot deal with that, so I am afraid I am cheating:  I am sewing "over 2" on 35 count linen!  I am a great believer in that there is no point in struggling and not enjoying the project ... that is my argument and I am sticking to it!  It will still be lovely.

My youngest daughter Dot and her friend Holly are driving down from London tonight to spend 3 days with us, I am so excited!  So now I am off to banish the spiders from their bedrooms and make the house neat and tidy - and warm.

Thank you all for your lovely comments of encouragement.

Spot the mistake....

How can it happen - I finished this quilt a couple of weeks ago - had it laid out on the guestroom bed and kept popping in to admire.  Was delighted - then suddenly last Thursday  - shock horror -I saw TWO ERRORS!  Two glaring mistakes - of course I could not live with them, so Sunday afternoon was spent unpicking - never easy when the borders are all on neat and tidy - and then reversing my mistakes and putting it back together again - in the right order:
Here are the errors:

Two half square triangles reversed and two rows of squares not alternated.
And here it is fixed:

I just cannot believe that I did that, and never spotted it.  At least I could fix it before it went off to Butterfly Quilters for the long arm quilting!  To have only noticed after quilting would have been a huge disaster.

I also have made another baby quilt:  lots of fun fabrics again:

Yesterday was so beautiful down here in the West Country:  so off I drove towards the North Cornish coast and delivered my "fixed" quilt and two baby quilts to Carole at Butterfly for her to work her magic!  I shall show you again when they have been long-arm quilted.  The drive there was lovely, blue skies and sunshine - just had to make sure I missed the many pot-holes that seem to be everywhere on the roads - having wrecked a tyre in a pot hole at the end of last year I am now extremely aware of them - there are just so many!

I am also thrilled that I have finished my first Scarlet Letter sampler for Nicola's Challenge Year:  my Log Cabin is built and will be off to the framers within the next few days.

The border on this sampler is so lovely - I am really pleased with the end result.
Now I have the big decision as to which SL sampler I shall sew next.  I also have several other designs on my "to do" list.  I am also just finishing off an Easter Runner and will post that next time.

So once again the fingers are never idle, and there are never enough hours in the day.  But what would we do without our hobbies - they fill me with joy and a wonderful sense of achievement.
Here's to the next quilt and the next sampler!