Weekend Stitches

Not quite a finished block this week for the Happy Flower Quilt-A-long.... I really like this one, I think it's because I've used lots of red, which is my favourite colour.  As you can see the circles were made with the interfacing method and they will look much better, more circular, once appliqued.  The leaves will be needle turned and I'll share the finished block next week...pinky promise!

The main reasons I didn't get the block finished were because......

1/  I was distracted by hand quilting this pretty Half Square Triangle quilt......more about this very soon........

2/  The glorious weather..... we went out yesterday searching for new garden furniture, ours after 13 years sterling service has finally had to go.  We didn't get any furniture, but I couldn't resist these pretty Primula's......I'm not sure they're terribly football friendly, but we'll see how they go!

 3/  I started a new quilt as a surprise for Jamie, hopefully for his 13th Birthday in May.  I felt so guilty the other evening when, whilst watching me hand quilting the above HST quilt, he asked "when was I going to make him a new quilt?". I felt so bad, I have been promising him a new one for months/years to replace the one I made for him when he was a toddler.  He really is a gentle soul (apart from when he is playing rugby that is!) who doesn't ask for much at all and seeing that he his now inches taller than me, the toddler quilt really is cutting it anymore.  Rather happily and by good fortune, some new Liberty Gatherings fabrics had just arrived that mum and I had chosen months ago, so the timing could not have been better. I grabbed a Layer Cake (perks of owning a quilt shop), some modern low volume backgrounds to keep it young and fresh, plus the Janet Clare plane print....a nod to Andy's 30 years in the RAF and as soon as I finished work on Saturday, I set too making yet more HST.  The benefit of always sewing means that he didn't even question what I was up to, although I'm not holding out much hope of a surprise, as Poppy did pay attention (I'm sure it's a girl thing) and twigged exactly what I was up to, so chances of him not finding out are very slim!  This quilt is definitely inspired by THIS ONE that very talented and extremely modest Carolyn made...you must take a peek at her whole Instagram feed it's beautiful...when I grow up, I want to live in her pretty cottage, surrounded by her beautiful quilts!!!!

I manged to get all 320 HST sewn together on Saturday..the wonders of chain sewing..... if only trimming them was just as quick....... I'll keep you posted on my progress!

I hope that you have a lovely week full of happy stitches....until next time!