Today...

...I met some internet friends in person! The lovely Laura drove me to Lynne's house for a meeting of ladies known affectionately as the Kitchen Quilt Guild. I've watched their antics from afar for the past couple of years with much envy so to say I was excited today was an understatement. When we pulled up on the drive I was "bricking it" but put on my best I'm not scared face and went to meet the ladies. I needn't have worried they're a lovely bunch! Katy, Mandy, Justine, Trudi, Lynne and Laura all made me very welcome. There was some quilt flaunting....I tried to swipe this Chicopee Scrappy Tripalong from Katy but she wasn't having any of it!

Katy showing off her Chicopee quilt.

Excuse the terrible photo, I wanted to show you all the ladies but only managed to get this dodgy shot of Mandy and Trudi's hand. Lots of chatting and giggling...

Trudi's hand, Mandy and Lynne with Mandy's scrappy tripalong.

...and there was quite a lot of cake munching too.... sorry Justine, I caught you mid-munch with a brownie.

Justine and Laura packing up the leftovers. 

It was Katy's birthday at the weekend so we all handed over presents to keep her happy as she's so high maintenance ;-) Just so we're clear my tongue is firmly in my cheek here! There was much ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the pressies, you'll probably find some of them on the other ladies blogs. My offering was unsurprisingly a cushion which you saw the beginnings of here. I spent the weekend paper piecing 40 of these...

Shelburne Falls and Oakshotts.

 ...and turned them into this Candy Coated Diamonds cushion. The pattern is from Pillow Pop in case you're interested :)

 I backed the cushion with a baby cord that I'd got from Katy in a destash last year.

I have to admit to having a slight problem handing this one over as I love it! I tried all the tricks I know to make Katy hand it back; second hand tissue paper wrapping paper with bits of selotape(?) still attached and a hole in it for extra panache all presented in a dodgy baby pink gift bag a size too small for the present. It was all for nothing though, she still wanted the present, better luck next time ;) Anyway I'm shattered and rambling now but suffice to say it was a lovely day. Catch you soon x

Whoops

Well I didn't fall off the face of the planet but I do appear to have been rather lax in my blogging again. February went by in a blur and there was very little sewing going on. During that time our gorgeous Jess turned 16! I seriously can't believe how quickly life seems to be flying by. When I finally managed to venture into my sewing room the passage of time was demonstrated to me by the number of unopened white packages from the USA. The Fat Quarter Shop BOM that started in June last year has been dropping through my letterbox as regular as clockwork. How hard could it be to make one block a month? Well, in my initial excitement I got 2 blocks done on time...

June 2012 FQS BOM

July 2012 FQS BOM

and since then...not so much...Here are the packages from August up to February.

FQS BOM pile of shame

I've managed to make up 2 blocks from the pile of shame.

August FQS BOM

September 2012 FQS BOM

 I've still a way to go to catch up but I don't feel quite so bad about myself now that I've got 4 blocks made ;) Thankfully I haven't fallen behind in my HipBee commitments! This rather lovely flying geese block is for February's Queen bee, Di. Obviously I mean the fabric and the pattern are lovely and not my execution of it ;) Di trusted us with her precious stash of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. It's going to be one pretty quilt!

Today I sneaked back into the sewing room to start a secret project which I should be able to show you next week. I think it's safe to say it'll be fab...Oakshotts + Shelburne Falls + Pillow Pop = win!!

Catch you soon x