Quilted Saints in Truro

Last week I received my birthday gift from my dear friend Lyn:  she has sewn me this gorgeous Family House, and it is now hung in our kitchen so we can see it constantly - I LOVE it:

On Friday Lyn and I drove over to Truro Cathedral in Cornwall where there was an exhibition of quilts which represented the Saints of Cornish Churches.  What a wonderful setting for some beautiful pieces:  here are just a few of the 35 quilts on show:
St. Stephen made by Jo Colwill from Cowslip:

Saint Martyn made by Di Wells:

St. Cohan made by the Group Quilters Dreckly:

St. Budoc made by Falmouth Quilters:

and St. Piran made by Jane Hawkins:

All 35 quilts were amazing, this is just a random selection.  Much research went into each quilt and the size of the quilt was strict but the design was open to many ideas coming from the individual information for each Saint.  Truro Cathedral was a wonderful backdrop for these quilts:

The Exhibition runs until the 14th July, and I understand from one of the Stewards that it is possibly going "on tour" - so keep a look out as it is well worth viewing.
I have been busy making 8 cushion covers for my God-daughter Ginny - here is the end result, and she loves them which is all that matters!

We have had friends from Australia visiting for a weekend - the young girls decided that playing with my fabric was such Big Fun, bless them!:

It was lovely to catch up and a good excuse to go back to the River Cottage Canteen in Plymouth - this time for Sunday lunch:

This is one of my favourite recipes from the River Cottage cook book "Fruit":  Fridge Flapjack - highly recommended!:  you can taste the goodness:

I ordered 3 new cross-stitch patterns from Niky's Creations, and they arrived this morning:  I am so looking forward to sewing these:

 And I have just started this lovely quilt which is one of Jo Colwill's designs:

It is available as a Kit from Cowslip if any of you are interested - just love the colours.  I shall be sewing more of this later, and will probably get on really fast now the tennis from Wimbledon is over.  What a wonderful Mens Final yesterday - couldn't take my eyes off the TV.  I shall miss it.
Well I wonder if when I next update my Blog I will be a Grandmother??!!  Dot is keeping well and looking forward to finishing work in 2 weeks time.  Fran moved house last week:  here is her beautiful cat MiuMiu keeping guard of a shoe box! - packing up was obviously just too tiring:

So all in all another busy time and much more to come.  Thank you for visiting My Quilting Life - I hope you all have a great week.  

It's that time of year again ......

Suddenly we are at Wimbledon - again:  where did that year go to!  I LOVE Wimbledon fortnight and will spend as much time as possible watching and enjoying the tennis.  When I was at school - we are going back a very long time I might add, 50 years ago!! - we had an amazing Headmistress who insisted that we sat in her study every afternoon and watched the tennis.  Those were the days of Maria Bueno etc. - that love of tennis has stayed with me ever since and I always think of the wonderful "Miss Hancock" when Wimbledon starts.  I am not sure it would be allowed in this day and age!
Anyway a good chance to cross-stitch whilst watching Nadal and Murray:  I am making slow progress on the Prairies Schooler Alphabet, but I am really enjoying it.

It is fun and bright and makes a change from my usual traditional samplers.  A B and C done and nearly finished F, so not too bad.
I went up to Nottingham last week and spent some quality time with my dear old Mum - she is doing well and is looking good:

As I spent the week up with her I had the time and opportunity to go over to Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire and spend the the afternoon with a dear elderly family friend whom I had not seen for a while.  We had a wonderful afternoon reminiscing and catching up on family news.  She took me to Petwood Hotel for afternoon tea.  This was used back in 1943 by the 617 Dambusters Squadron as their Mess, and the bar is just as it was then, and full of wonderful photographs and memorabilia.

In the small town of Woodhall Spa they have these wonderful memorials too.

It was all very moving but wonderful to see.
After my time with mum I drove down to Cobham, and managed to see Dot:  she is "blooming" and not long now until Little miss will be part of our family:  here she is looking at the quilts I have made for her:

Last night when we chatted Dot told me she had "packed" her bag, so she's ready to go!  I am so excited!
Official due date is 7th August, but we all think she will arrive sooner than that!
I have not started a new patchwork project since coming home, too busy cleaning the house and catching up on washing - and the tennis of course!  We have friends visiting this weekend who are over here from Australia so big effort needed!
Rod has been busy painting windows whilst I was not around - obviously all a bit too much on occasions!:

However my lovely friend Lyn has just finished a quilt, so to end this blog I will show you her admiring her beautiful piece:

Have a great week everyone, and once again thanks for popping into My Quilting Life,

Much sewing, much sun, much fun.....

What a glorious week of warm sunny summer weather - it makes such a difference.  Everyone is smiling.  And so much patchwork done too - I am feeling a great sense of achievement.
I have just collected 3 baby quilts that have been long arm quilted for me by Carole at "Butterfly":
Two of these are for my expected grand-daughter:  The front was made at a weekly Monday class out at Cowslip:

 and the backing has lots of dinasaurs - this is the theme for the nursery!  Such fun - so hopefully the above quilt will be used "double sided"!  The small quilt below is for the crib, pram/buggy/car seat - etc. etc.

And then this quilt is for a baby which is now a week overdue, ready and waiting to go!:

I have machined the bindings on the fronts, and now just have to hand sew around the backs.  As I am off up to Nottingham tomorrow to spend the week with my dear old Mum I have saved this to do whilst sitting with her.  I think she will love seeing what I have made for her great grand-daughter.
I have been busy making more quilts which I took for long arm quilting when I collected these 3:
This one is for a friend who will be 60 later this year:

I love this pattern, it is from Jo Colwill's book.  It comes together so beautifully and looks different with every different choice of fabric colours.  This one has lots of garden animals/creatures on it:  when it comes back quilted I will show you in more detail.

I also had made another three baby quilts (lots of babies due this year!) plus a fun quilt for an 8 year old girl.

I will post them all when they have been quilted.
As well as much patchwork I have being cross-stitching in the evenings:  this is my latest finish:

I LOVE the words (so so true), and have used beautiful variegated threads from Tamar Embroideries.  I am currently still working on Noah's Ark and the Prairie Schooler A-B-C - a very large project.  I will take pictures for my next Blog.

For those of you who have been following our Blue Tits, they have now all fledged.  We were so sad to see them go but happy that all 7 survived.  This is the last photo of them in the nest (with mum on the right feeding them):  they were gone the next morning:

It was quite remarkable watching their progress.  It was 7 weeks from the first twigs and fluff in the nest to when 7 fully fledged blue tits flew away, 3 weeks after hatching.  Their growth progress was so quick - the parents were kept very busy.  I cannot emphasize how much fun it has been watching nature like this.  Our own personal Springwatch!
Last Thursday evening was so sunny and warm, we drove down into Plymouth (something we do not do very often!) and we discovered the Royal William Dockyard.  What an amazing place, right by the sea of course with old Royal Navy buildings and many restaurants etc.  We ate at the River Cottage Canteen - probably the best meal we have ever had!
I wonder if you can read the menu? I hope so!  Click on the photo to enlarge -  Yummy ......

This huge ship - with a helicopter at the back -came into port as we sat there:

It was just a perfect evening - Mount Edgcumbe is the backdrop.  Highly recommended if you are ever in Plymouth.
My little vegetable garden is thriving, I am so thrilled.  Everything is growing so well:  the lettuces are nearly ready to eat, and the celery, sweetcorn, runner beans and red cabbage look bigger very day.  I guess it is perfect growing weather - after much rain warm sunshine.  And the 2 plum trees are laden with fruit - I can see jars of jam and chutney being made before too long - I cannot wait to taste my home grown produce!

Thank you for popping by and viewing my busy fun filled days at Ward Cottage, doing what I love the most - sewing patchwork, making heirlooms for family and special friends that I love, and enjoying our garden and the beautiful surroundings of Devon.

Busy at home and fun at the Malvern Quilt Show

I have been busy with cross stitch and patchwork these past days along with lots of gardening as the weather has been so beautiful:
Here is a Scarlet Letter pattern "Circling Alphabets" which I cross-stitched in a variegated thread as an eighteenth birthday present - I was really pleased with the effect of these threads:

I also finished a single quilt for a 9 year old, fun and girly - this now has to be quilted but again I was really happy with how this turned out:

Our Wisteria is fully out now and looks and smells amazing - it is just a pity the flowers don't last long:

On Friday morning I set off with my friend Lyn and off we drove to Malvern for the Spring Quilt Show.  We had an easy drive - 182 miles in under 3 hours - we were parked up drinking coffee in the warm sunshine before 9 oclock!  We had the best of days - lots of great stalls offering great temptation! - and much inspiration with the exhibited quilts.
Here are just a small selection of my favourites:  the talent on show was inspirational:

I could go on and on... and on....they were all so lovely!

On a totally different note, here are our baby Blue Tits:  they are difficult to photograph well, but we know we have 7 babies out of the 9 eggs:  they hatched last Wednesday so this is Day 6, they have quadrupled in size and wriggle about like little martians!

Mum and dad Blue Tit are in and out constantly feeding them, and Mum keeps turning them around in order to make sure they all get fed - it is just wonderful watching them.

Thank you for dropping by My Quilting Life - have a great week everyone and hopefully the sun  will shine over the Bank Holiday weekend.