Made two blocks for the latest Block Lotto and I have forgotten my password! The gadget for resetting doesn’t seem to be working at the moment so I might have two more orphan blocks for my collection.
This is a nice block with good instructions. The colours look a little washed out, they are much brighter.
Well I have a couple of hours to post them yet, but today is the last day so the clock is ticking!
This is an excellent article about the madness that seems to descend on normal people at the mention of the word sale. It has got out of hand so please pledge NOT to buy on black Friday. Spend time, not money, with friends, family, nature, or your cat!
When did Black Friday even become a Thing?! Yuck. The UK Buy Nothing Day website describes it this way:
The anarchy that ensues on Black Friday has now become an absurd dystopian phenomenon. The big retailers use the event to spin out highly competitive one day offers, which often creates a rabid free for all. Black Friday is creating a brand of shoppers who will trample and fight each other to get their hands on next years landfill.
Why not escape the shopocalypse and buy nothing this Friday?
The Story of Stuff Project has a pledge you can sign here. This is the pledge:
“This year I pledge to join people around the world in celebrating “Buy Nothing Day” on November 27th. I will say no to more Stuff and yes to loved ones, yes to sharing, yes to life!”
If you’re really committed, you might even consider going…
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After all the terrible events that have been happening around the world in Paris, Beirut and Syria to name a few, I didn’t feel like posting anything about patchwork squares or crotchet as it seemed so trivial. So many lives lost and so many lives altered forever. But then I thought back to a few decades ago when the IRA had ceased bombing mainland Britain for a while so I booked and paid for a theatre trip for a large group of family and friends in London. Then the bombing started again. I thought nobody would want to go and phoned everyone. Not a single person refused to go.
The comments were along the lines of; ‘Hitler never stopped us by bombing ‘ (from someone who survived the Blitz), ‘When your times up, your times up wherever you are’, ‘Nobody is telling me what to do’ ‘Don’t let them win’ and so on. Nearly everyone had worked in London during other bombing campaigns so this was no different.
The moral really is ‘Keep calm and carry on’ (WWII poster). The objective of terrorism is to stop you living a normal life. The French Tricolour is flying at half-mast on our town hall to show solidarity with Paris and in honour of Nick Alexander a resident of Colchester who died in the Bataclan attack. Remember the dead and those affected by these terrible events.
But do not tar everyone with the same brush. Nobody attacked me as a catholic when the IRA killed innocent civilians and nobody should attack Muslims for this atrocity. That is what Daesh want, don’t play into their hands.
To carry on as normal then; swamp angel star completed
A few more alternative blocks and the top will be complete.
The applique fans are also nearly ready – just the inner circles to add once I have decided on the layout. For now I have been playing around with the composition, but might stick to the one in the ‘Quilting From Little Things’
The tumbler quilt top is nearly complete but still waiting for one more block for The Global Quilting Project. Four projects are nearing completion and my thoughts are already turning to the RSC16. What are you working on?
A lovely parcel in the post from the Netherlands with welcome letter in Dutch but surprised to be able to understand quite a bit of it, considering I don’t speak it!
Also included are two lovely fabrics from the Wordsmith range designed by Janet Clare for Moda, templates and a picture of the finished article – in my case block B12 or Star Flower
Janet Clare has made three blocks herself bottom row, third row on the left. This and many other completed blocks have already been posted on the Share Jane Facebook page which you can see here
At first I thought the B12 block was ‘normal’ applique, but it seems it is reverse applique as I found out when I checked out the instructions which are found on That Quilt by Anina.
Anina has posted instructions for all the blocks, with tutorials if you are struggling to make your own Dear Jane. I better get practicing as I have not reversed appliqued before! Just as well that I have had a lot of needle turn practice recently as I have nearly completed the mini fans for ‘Fanfare’ in quilting From Little Things.
Work will have to start this Sunday as it is work tomorrow – I know what I would rather be doing!
A few more photos from the trip to Lacock Abbey used in the filming of Harry Potter. We were there at Halloween and lots of children were following the Potter Trail and trying out games inspired by the book. The very last room on the tour is actually the entrance but the best is kept til last.
It is one of the strangest rooms I have ever been in and is decorated with terracotta figures of wizards, knights and skeletons. The meaning of them isn’t known but the children are all convinced that one of the sculptures is Dumbledore – for obvious reasons!
The sugar cube was put on the goats nose in 1919 by an American student and as the owner, Matilda Talbot, found it amusing it has been replaced ever since!
I managed to prepare a few fans for applique while I was away and finished them when I got back home. Not many left to do now
Now I am getting a good idea of what it will look like when finished. The sewing machine wasn’t neglected either as I made the penultimate block for the RSC15 sampler quilt AND finished putting all my tumblers into strips ready to put the rows together. I was chuffed to see how the colours are working out together as they were ironed ready for the next stage. They were a mixed bunch of fabrics; some I wasn’t keen on, others that were odd colours put in fat quarter bundles and others that didn’t seem to go with anything else – yet here they are, all together and I love it!
It certainly is a mixed bag colour-wise but some key fabrics, like the blue and orange flowers, and a rainbow stripe (not shown) seem to pull all the others together.
Time to post to Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy’s Quilts, why not take a look too and see what everyone else is working on
Today we remember those who perished in the Great War and the wars that came after. In my family they are;
John Tilley, Private 13th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers
Died in France circa September 1915 aged 24
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Martin Kelly, Sergeant, Durham Light Infantry
Killed in Action in France 20th April 1917 aged 29
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Michael Mallon, Sergeant 207th Machine Gun Corp
Killed in Action in Flanders Fields 26th September 1917 aged 30
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In Flanders Fields
John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
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Not all died, some made it home to their families
Thomas Nixon, Sgt Major Royal Engineers returned from the war aged 50
Joseph Kelly, Royal Navy, died of sleeping sickness in 1930
We are on to the last colour for the RSC15 sampler quilt and the colour is lime green. I am late posting as I fell asleep when I got in from work, but here it is
I used to look at the central fabric and wonder what possessed me to buy it but it fits here perfectly
This is what happens when you haven’t found a new place for your design wall so you use the bed instead. Every single block and the imprint of a cats paw on it but this was the chosen block for a nice snooze
Today is Remembrance Sunday when we remember the dead and all those who served in the Great War and those that came after – is a topic that deserves it’s own post for later.
Do you recognise this place?
Is this a better clue? Or the title of this post?
We went to Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire today which was used as a location for some of the Harry Potter films. A beautiful place, formerly an abbey until it was dissolved by Henry the VIII and turned into a family home. In Victorian times it was the home of Fox Talbot who invented the first photographic negatives so the more than one copy of a photo could be produced
This was after completing a couple more fans for the Fanfare pattern. We also visited Newark Park yesterday and visited Dursley village (a name familiar to Potter fans!) where I found a charity bookshop with patchwork and quilting books – usually rare to find. I behaved myself and only bought two!
I will be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching, pop over and see what everyone else is up to.
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