More Busy Days ....

I am behind with posting once again - life has just got in the way recently.  However, I have been productive so I think it will be easier to work backwards and catch up:

Over Easter we had my beautiful Goddaughter Ginny and her 3 boys aged under 10 to stay, along with her parents:  full on family fun.  Little Freddie will be 7 next month so I had made him a fun "boys quilt" for his bunk bed:  it was a Big Success:  it had pirates, dinasaurs, outer space, musical instruments etc. etc:

Easter egg hunts, dens in the forest, fun in the garden:  all good.

The previous weekend I was in London and managed to catch up with all three of my children.  Dot is looking radiant:  here she is with Maarten having just unwrapped the most beautiful shawl that my dearest friend Lise has knitted for their baby:  a true heirloom:  it is absolutely gorgeous.

We went pram/buggy/car seat shopping - all so exciting!
I then went over to Borough Market:

I love this place, full of the freshest food:  fruit vegetables and flowers and cheeses etc. etc.  - with a wonderful view of The Shard:

Some years ago when The Shard was under construction I sat on a bench in Borough Market having a coffee, and a man came and sat beside me and told me all about The Shard, and how his business was a company which would clean all those windows - whenever I look at that amazing building I think of that conversation - and how overwhelming a task it must be!
I then caught up with Fran and Angelo, and met their beautiful cat MiuMiu:

and then Robbie came over:

It is very rare for me to see everyone, so I was Happy Happy!

Towards the end of March my 94 year old Mother was taken ill and rushed into hospital with Gastroenteritus.  I rushed up to Nottingham on a Saturday afternoon and arrived at the Queens Medical Centre after 5 hours of anxious driving.  She was so so poorly.  But they fixed her up on a drip and sent her home 3 days later - she arrived home at 7.45 pm, far too late for someone so frail and weak.  Not good.  But slowly slowly she has got a bit stronger and after my weekend in London I then drove to Nottingham again to spend a few days with her.  She has good days and bad days - but we have more care coming in to help now - she is absolutely adamant that she wants to stay in her own home so that is where she is bless her.  It is not easy getting old.

I am still busy sewing the "Noah's Ark" sampler and I have also just started the Prairie Schooler "Alphabet" - this is a BIG project but I know I will love it.  I will post updated pictures of these next time.  I have started a patchwork quilt for my granddaughter too - so little time for housework!!!

I had a super fun time at Cowslip recently:  Mary Berry was visiting again - we had a dinner and talk on Wednesday evening, and then a wonderful food demonstration and delicious lunch eating what she had cooked!  As always it was wonderful to catch up with her, she is such an amazing lady - I just LOVE her!

Here I am with Mary and my friend Nicola (Scarlet Letter Years) who drove up from Poldhu Cove.

Spring is here (most of the time) - and our great excitement is the fact that Blue Tits are nesting in our Camera Bird Box.  It is such fun to watch the nest being built!:  the TV is permanently on the nest!:

She should be laying her eggs anytime now.... so  I keep on watching!  I will try and take more pictures as things progress!  They are a bit dark but I hope you get the idea.
I trust everyone is keeping well and busy and had a lovely Easter break - thank you for reading all about My Quilting Life.

Scarlet Letter Years in London

As some of you will already know, the Scarlet Letter Year was the inspiration of Nicola Parkman in order to celebrate her 50th birthday, her love of cross stitch and to encourage us to sew as many SL samplers in a year as we all could find time to do:  the year has come and gone with so many beautiful samplers completed.  Then came the idea of a trip to the V&A Museum in London with an organised viewing of the originals of some of the SL pieces that had been sewn by the on-line group.  Tuesday 11th March was the day:
Here we all are getting to know one another over coffee in the V&A:
From right to left:  Jo, Elaine, Nicola, me, Elizabeth, Vittoria, Nicola's sister - then on the far left is Jennifer.

Then last year a wonderful idea came from Krista who is based in the USA, and with the help of Elaine and Jo those of us who were sewing away were asked to sew a motif from one of SL samplers about 4 ins square. Then all the submitted squares would be sewn together to make a Memory Quilt for Nicola!  Elaine was the amazing lady who volunteered to put the quilt together - she did a wonderful job, it was quite exquisite, a future heirloom which I know Nicola will treasure always. This was a Big Secret, she had no idea until Tuesday!

Here is Nicola unwrapping and discovering this amazing gift:

Identifying the different samplers from which the squares came from!
Then another surprise:  Marsha who runs Scarlet Letter also wanted to contribute to this occasion, so she sewed one of her reproduction samplers as a gift for Nicola:  WOW!:  This sampler is Betsy Davis:

There was also a photo memory book showing how the quilt was put together with details of who had sewed each square and from which sampler it came from:

After much chat and a look around the V&A shop and lunch we went over to the Clothmakers Centre at Baron's Court which is where the textiles from the V&A are now kept.  Although we were allowed to take photographs of the samplers these are only for our personal use so sadly I am unable to show these on the Blog:  we were given an amazing magnifying glass with a light with which we could see every minute detail of these antiques:  the stitching was exquisite.  We were also shown the oldest sampler in their collection which is dated 1595.
Here I am head down with magnifying glass studying a sampler:

Here are Jo and Nicola outside the Clothmakers Centre - a GradeII listed bulding:

It was a truly memorable and eventful day.  It was so good to meet with others who have been involved with |Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year - and of course the main reason for doing all of this was to thank Nicola for everything she has put into the project which has been such an amazing success, and I am sure it will carry on for many years to come.  We all have so many more Scarlet Letter samplers that we wish to sew.
Now I am back in Devon - my Country Life sampler awaits me - I hope you have enjoyed sharing our day.

Quilting Retreat

I have just had such a fun few days - last Friday I went to Eastbourne with my two friends Lyn and  Lise for a wonderful weekend of quilting.  The sun shone, our workroom over looked the sea and I have started making a great quilt called American Beauty in reds black and creams:

I am really pleased with how this is looking - very dramatic.

Busy friends working away, and our view over the sea:

And here are some of the quilts brought along for a Show and Tell: plus some of Di Taylor's beautiful quilts from her classes held in Godalming:

Time to say goodbye, and a huge thank you to Di for all the planning and organisation that went in to making this such a successful fun weekend:

Altogether we had a Big Fun Weekend with some glorious weather:  here are Lise and Lyn at Beachy Head before we went home:

It was just so good to get away and catch up with quilting friends, and meet new quilters,  So many different ideas on colour schemes and different designs - all inspiration.  Here's to the next time!

A London Trip

Rod and I set off from Devon bright and early Wednesday morning in a Transit Van loaded with "stuff" that Dot and Maarten, and Robbie and Nisha wanted from home for their respective new flats.  And we have had such a fun time.
For a start in Dot's flat I had forgotten about two quilts which I made for her quite a few years ago:

and in Robbie's flat is was also lovely to see the quilt I had made for Nisha some years back too:

We hadn't seen Robbie and Nisha since they became engaged and it was lovely to see them in their flat looking so happy:

As Thursday morning was bright and sunny Dot suggested we walked to Greenwich which took only about 10 minutes from Dot and Maarten's new home. We passed a statue of Peter the Great:

and then on to the Cutty Sark:

We had such an interesting time and learned so much:  the restoration after the fire back in 2007 is quite amazing.

We then went to National Maritime Museum for the Turner Paintings Exhibition:  he painted so many masterpieces, and it was truly wonderful to see all these works of art.

Dot and Maarten have worked so hard getting their new home looking good, and on Thursday evening we met Maarten's parents and had a really fun evening:

We left London just before 8 am this morning and arrived back home in Devon at 1pm, so a really good easy drive.  Returned the Van, picked up Ben from the kennels, lit the fire - home sweet home.  It has been such an interesting trip and so good to catch up with them all.  Sadly we didn't get to see Fran - but we will be up in London again before too long and will ensure a get together with her and Angelo next time.

Next weekend I will be on a quilting retreat in Eastbourne, and then into London again on the 11th to meet up with Nicola (Scarlet Letter Years) and some other fellow SL stitchers in order to visit the V&A and view the antique samplers they have hidden away. So another Blog soon ....!
Have a great weekend everyone and thank you visiting My Quilting Life!

February Update

With the dreadful weather we have been experiencing in  the UK I have not spent much time in my Studio - instead I have sat by the fire cross-stitching, especially whilst the Winter Olympic Games have been on TV. I have loved watching the skill and bravery of these sports - what a marvellous 2 weeks.  I feel quite lost this morning now that they are over.  I have also made 94 jars of Marmalade so the larder shelves are looking good!
And during this time I have sewn this gorgeous Afghan Blanket:

and this is Extra Special as it is for my first Grandchild!  My youngest daughter Dot and her partner Maarten are expecting a baby in August.

I am so very excited - after the very stressful past 3 years which we have had it is wonderful to have something so positive to look forward to.. They have just moved into their new flat this past week and luckily it has 2 bedrooms!
And to add to this news, my son Robbie and lovely girlfriend Nisha got engaged last weekend:

I am so happy for them:  and they too have moved in together this past week.  So I feel that we have started 2014 on a very positive note.

I am going up to London this week and taking various bits of furniture etc. that Dot wants for her flat, and other bits like pictures for Robbie and Nisha too.  So it will be fun to see them and their new homes. Hopefully I will be able to catch up with Fran too - she is in Milan for Fashion Week at the moment, but home for a couple of days before going to Paris for their Fashion Week. Hopefully we can get together, and I really want to meet her gorgeous cat MiuMiu!

I have also sewn the bindings on these two quilts which I finished towards the end of last year, but have only just had them long-arm quilted:  I am thrilled with them both, lovely backings too.

My list of quilts to make this year has already grown:  I now have 5 x baby quilts, 4 x toddler/under 10 years old quilts, 2 x 60th birthday quilts and 2 quilts for other young friends on my list:  and we are only 2 months into the year. All good.  Busy busy.

I have just come back from spending some time with my dear Mother, she was 94 last week and is really quite remarkable.

It was nice to be able to cook her some good wholesome food and be there as company for her, and to make her a cup of tea every time she woke up from a snooze - there were lots of cups of tea bless her, but at 94 who is counting!

I am off on a Quilting Retreat with my friends Lise and Lyn on the 7th/8th/9th March - this is down in Eastbourne so should be fun and will get me back into my patchwork.  And then I am in London on the 11th March with Nicola (some of you will know her through her wonderful Blog Scarlet Letter Years) as we are viewing antique samplers at the V&A.  All very exciting.  There should be much to tell you in my next Blog.

And I can now get more done on my Noah's Ark sampler.  And as the weather improves I shall be back in my Studio cutting up fabric and then can make a start on my "Quilts to make" list. No peace for the wicked!
I hope everyone has managed to survive this difficult winter without too many problems - dreadful floods in the UK and huge amounts of snow in the USA   -  it is an ongoing challenge for so many.  The snowdrops are out here at home and some daffodils so let us hope spring is on the way.

Thank you for popping by and catching up on "My Quilting Life".