Japanese fabric swap

I've joined the Japanese Fabric swap on Fluffy Sheep Quilting.  This swap is open to quilters in Ireland and the UK.  Check out the button on the side of my blog for more info.  I've ordered my fabric

and can't wait for it to arrive so I can start cutting it into the charm squares that we are going to swap.

I was in Galway for the weekend visiting my 16 year old daughter who is in the Gaeltacht for three weeks.  We had a lovely weekend and took her out for the day on Sunday which was a glorious day in the west of Ireland.  All to soon we had to come back on Monday and back to work today.  Ah well.   Trying to get my block finished for the International Quilt Festival, as our group has it's last meeting this week and I've to gather up all the squares to send them off during the summer.  That's it for now from a very wet Dublin.

What will I get finished first?

It's Friday, YEAHHHHH.  Another weekend, maybe I'll get to finish some of the following if I am very very lucky.

This is the front view.

This is the back view.

These are pictures of the Hoopsisters blocks that I am making on my embroidery machine.  A few more to go.  When I was making one of the blocks I didn't realise that the back fabric wasn't on and so part of the embroidery didn't come through to the back.  I then had to do this for the other blocks.  Someday I'll get it all to go right.

These are my fabrics and thread for the Mystery Quilt that has just started on the Hoopsisters site.

I'm also doing some applique blocks for a quilt I'm making up as I go along.  There will be four of these tulip blocks in the centre and then I will make and applique some stems and flowers around the outside of these blocks and decide then what I will put after that.  This hopefully will my work in progress for the summer.

My quilt group are also making blocks for the Cead Mile Failte quilt for the International Quilt Festival to be held in Ireland in June 2012.  The block has to be 10 inches with a white hand on a green background or a green hand on a white background.  This is the start of my block.

Then there is my crazy patch quilt.  One of the ladies in my group sells some fabrics, wadding etc to us as she has a longarm quilt machine.  She had some foundation by the yard fabric for crazy patch and pineapple blocks.  I bought the crazy patch one which was for 20 8 inch squares.  I used up a load of brown fat quarters that I had.  I am quilting each one and then sewing them together using a method that Sharon Pederson showed in her book Rose of Sharon.

Here is one of the blocks.

These are my pile of blocks.

and here is one of the finished quilted blocks.

I have to wait until I have them all sewn together to see what I will do about the borders.  Decisions, decisions.

Finally, here is a photo of our rescue cat Tilly.  She is two years old and just loves duvets.  I had washed my daughters duvet and when it was dry had taken it in off the line and put it down on one of the chairs until I got a chance to put it back on her bed that evening but Tilly decided it was hers (she has an old one in the boat shed that she sleeps on) and was not going to give it up easily.

Thats all for now.

Linda

Please Sir can I have some more (TIME THAT IS)?

I had great plans to get a load of sewing, cutting out etc done over the long weekend (it was a bank holiday here on Monday so had no work).  However, spent most of the time getting clothes ready, shopping, packing etc for oldest daughter who headed off to the Gaeltacht (west coast of Ireland where they speak Irish as a first language) for three weeks yesterday.  Needless to say, didn't get a lot of what I wanted to do done.  Ah well, cest la vie.  Might be able to steal an hour this evening to get something done so I can have some photos to post.

Would these make nice quilt patterns?

Thought I'd share some photos from holiday last year.  These were taken in St Petersburg in St Catherine's Palace.  Will have to get the thinking hat on to see what I can come up with from the patterns.

This one was taken of a courtyard in Stockholm

June already

1st of June already, where does the time go to?  The first of each month is usually a time when I check some of the BOM sites that I am on to see if they have the new pattern up for that month.

June was an extra exciting month as Hoopsisters (http://www.hoopsisters.com/) are starting a new Mystery quilt.  I signed up, paid my money and downloaded the first part.  I have all my fabrics ready but need to get thread for them so can't start until I get that.
Oldest daughter has also finished school for the summer now.  She is heading off to the Gaeltacht (west of Ireland where they speak Irish as their first language) for three weeks.  This is her third time to go so she's well used to the routine now.  The only thing I have to do is send packages each week to her and her friends with some magazines and some goodies for them.
http://www.colaistenanoilean.ie/

I joined a new group on Yahoo yesterday called POSTCARD COTTAGE where you can take part in fabric/fiber postcard swaps.  It turns out one of the ladies in the group is in charge of the postcard exhibition for the Irish Patchwork Society and she got my postcard that I sent.  As they say, it's a small world.