The darling buds of May and the darling buds of May!

I have finished my free-pieced words wall-hanging!

Here is it amongst flowers in my garden (not buds actually, but the best I could do.) The words aren't all that easy to see, but sometimes you have to work at things to get the benefit.

Words

I have been busy working on my wall-hanging for my challenge group. Last time's challenge was to use photos, and this time's is to use free-pieced letters. (Guess whose idea that was!) Here are my efforts.

The first word went well, but as I proceeded, I realised that I had chosen two fabrics which both read as mediums, and I should have had one of them as a dark or a light. Never mind.

The next problem was that I had forgotten how much fabric is needed for free pieced shapes, and I was in danger of running out of the floral fabric. I searched all my scrap boxes to no avail. Would I have enough to finish the letters?

Only one more word to go, and I think I will at least have enough for the words.

But I had intended to use the floral fabric around the letters, and there was no more fabric at all.

By careful piecing (and a rummage through the waste bin!) I managed to find enough scraps to at least make a background for the words. Can you see the desperation-piecing on the bottom left corner?

Hooray! With a bit of juggling and fudging, the words are complete! Now to decide on borders etc. Do you recognise the quote? It's written by my number-one hero, William Shakespeare, and is from Sonnet 18 - usually known as 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day'. Whose words would be better to make in fabric?!

I've also finished my next stitchery from Caroline's blog. Very apt!

Out of the mouths ....

We have lived in our house for nearly 25 years, and things are starting to need replacing. We need new soffits and gutters, a new drive, a new boiler and a new kitchen. I am supposed to be getting quotes for all these items, but haven't got very far yet. Yesterday, DH tackled me while I was emailing, and said that on my day off, I should be getting quotes rather than spending my time quilting. 'I'm not quilting now!' I replied indignantly. 'No, but you're thinking about it!' was his wise rejoinder. He knows me so well!

So what have I been thinking about recently? I'm still obsessed with the scrappy hearts, so I've been thinking about them.

And blue ones,

and red ones,

and pastel ones!

I need to go and think about hanging out washing, so I'll just wish the main man, Will, many happy returns of the day,

and a happy St George's Day to all!

Oh dear.

I knew I had the willpower of a gnat, but I have again failed miserably in my efforts to keep to a fabric diet. DD is making a quilt (more of which later) and needed some more red fabric. She needed to go to the Bramble Patch yesterday (note the two uses of the word 'needed'), and I foolishly went with her. I came home with 2.5 metres of fabric, only one metre of which I needed. (On the plus side, one fat quarter was free, but that hardly signifies!)

Here are my purchases. The pretty fabric with the birds on it is a 'gender-neutral' centre for a baby quilt for a colleague's new grandbaby - due in June. DD has a Master's in Sexual Dissidence, so wouldn't allow me to buy anything which smacked of sexism! The fabric with the multicoloured words on will go into my collection of fabrics with writing on - I nearly needed it!

The other fabric was a want, rather than a need. This fabric from In the Beginning fabrics is covered with 1930s drawings of domesticity, with 21st century quilting-appropriate captions. 'Happiness is relaxing after the shop hop.' 'I told him it was unwise to make me choose between him and my fabrics. I will miss hm though.' And the personally appropriate 'I sent my son to college so I could keep my fabric in his room .. expensive storage!' You can see my all-time favourite in the centre of the picture!

And the free fabric? Every year the Bramble Patch have a competition for the Margaret Every Cup, which starts with them giving out free fabric and ends with an exhibition of quilts and wall-hangings made using this fabric and in aid of cancer charities. This year there was a choice of fabric which was traditional or novelty. Of course, I was instantly drawn to the novelty! What will I do with it? I have no idea!

Meet Cynthia

The recent good weather has made me start a little spring cleaning, which ended in a trip to the charity shop. Usually I drop off my contributions and leave, but this time I was delayed by the sight of an old hand Singer sewing machine. It was in working order, and at only £20, I just had to have her.

Here she is, in all her glory, now named Cynthia. I looked her up on the Singer website, and apparently she is a 66K model, made at Kilbowie, Clydebank, Scotland on November 15th 1930, and somewhere, she has 999,999 brothers and sisters!

She's not flashy, but for an old lady, she's a little gem. I was lucky enough to download a free manual for a 99K (similar model) from the Singer site, whcih has given me a few clues on how she works. I'm off to get some machine oil and give her a little beauty treatment!

Double whammy!

Not only have I finished another quilt, but it was out of my UFO box too! The blocks I had made after a workshop with Jennie Rayment and had kept since 2008 are now happily together in a quilt!

The blocks are her folded star, which I have made in mainly striped black and white fabrics. This emphasises the folds and the star in each block. Because it's folded, I have sewn down most of the folds to stabilise the quilt for little fingers, but I think that has improved the final effect.

Here is a close up of my favourite block.

And here is another block, and a peek at the backing which (along with the borders) was donated by Elaine to project Linus. Thanks, Elaine! I think a boy will love this quilt, and I'm delighted to cross a UFO off my list!

A quilt and a UFO

The weather has been so awful here, that it's been no good thinking about going in the garden, so I've spent quite a lot of time happily quilting. This means that my scrappy hearts top is now a completed quilt!

I used pieces from Andrea's scrap bag for the binding too. I'm really happy with how it's turned out, and plan to make a scrappy red one, a scrappy pastel one, another multi-scrappy one... well, that's the plan!

I then felt motivated to rummage in my UFO box and find some twisted star blocks I made after being inspired by Jennie Rayment. She uses a lot of calico for manipulating, tucking and twisting, but I thought some striped fabric would look really good using her methods. Since I intend to send this to Linus, I have used invisible thread to secure the stars, just in case. It actually emphasises them beautifully. I'll bind it in red, and it'll look quite manly, I think.