Aunt Millie's Garden Blocks 9-14

I've been remiss in my showing off of this wonderful quilt. It really has taken me far too long to get it done, but then I've had great excuses!

Here are Blocks 9-14. I now only have blocks 15 & 16 and the borders to do. Mind you, it'll probably take me another year just to do the borders! Sheesh they're big. And I have to decide which of the duplicates to put on the quilt and which to make into cushions. But that's a problem for when I've finished all the blocks.

So here they are:

Block 09, finished December 2010


Block 10, finished January 2011


Block 11, finished July 2011


Block 12 , finished November 2011


Block 13, finished December 2011


Block 14, finished December 2011


You can see I got inspired after going to Houston - but I'll tell you about that in another post. :)

Aunt Millie's Garden - Block 8.

Done and Dusted. This means I'm half-way through the blocks, and have completed one block of each of the colours that will be represented on the quilt top!

Block 8: Purple - I like the way the green leaves make an additional pattern inside the flowers, but it does make it rather a bit too green!



And here's a refresher- Click to enbigen!

The warm colours:



And the cool colours:



Yay! They are looking good, even if I do say so myself!

Aunt Millies Garden: Blocks 4, 5, 6 and 7

Aunt Millie's Garden progresses!

Block 4 in Orange: Very Cheerful!


Block 5 in Red: It took me a long time to accept the centre petals of these ones but I think they work.


Block 6 in Indigo:


Block 7 in Yellow: - Not too happy with the centres of these, but will have to change it later - I don't have my fabric stash with me!


And here are Blocks 1 through 6:


I am now working on Block 8 which is the first purple one, then I just have to do 9-16 and the borders of course... oi vay!

Yoiks!

Time got away from me. It is now the end of August which means I've been in Aberystwyth, Wales for four months and haven't blogged about it once. I shall remedy that very shortly - I promise! Really!

It has been a very timeless four months actually and I can't process the fact that I've been here that long. The job is so endless - I do pretty much the exact same thing every day of the week - that it is really difficult to pin-point any markers that actually distinguish one week from another. Time is diffuse and relaxed and kinda endless. Nice really, but not very productive!

I have done stuff though.

I visited Nottingham and saw R & H on the weekend of the 29th of May. We went to Nottingham castle and saw jousting there, and I visited the caves under the city.

I went to see Shrewsbury and the Iron Bridge World Heritage Site with Pat and Alan on the 28th of June. We wandered around a few places, got lost and saw a Victorian era town.

And last weekend - the 21-22 August - I went to Birmingham and visited the Festival of Quilts, and had a major shopping spree.

I have also completed blocks 4 through 7 of Aunt Millies Garden, started knitting a winter shawl for myself, took up Mandala drawing again and will hopefully soon be singing with the local choir - the start again in September.

I will write further about all of these soon. I just wanted to make sure I wrote now, so I wouldn't forget again.

Sorry to have been so lax guys! I'll pick up the pace again asap.
Kat

Aunt Millie's Garden Blocks 2 and 3

I have finally made progress!

This is block two, completed over Christmas:


And this is block three, completed just this week:


Only 13 more to go!...
Oi Vey!

English lil ole ladi scrum!

Decided to go up to Exeter today. There was a craft expo on, and you all know I can't go past a good craft show! Am now exhausted and, surprisingly, not a pauper. It wasn't a quilting show so much as a paper-craft and knitting show, so I didn't spend a whole lot... only a few irresistible fabric pieces and a pack of needles... honest! Oh, but I did buy a craft lamp that is supposed to help with the SAD's. That is an actual worthwhile investment that I don't feel guilty about... well, maybe a little! :)

Aunt Millie's Garden - Block 1

I just finished the first block of a needle turn quilt called Aunt Millie's Garden. I am very proud of the way it turned out so I thought I'd start documenting my quilting achievements as they happen for your edification and my bragging rights I suppose.

So, here is Block 1 of my interpretation of Aunt Millie's Garden:

Wyndham Quilt-In

I joined Carol for a day out with the Quilting Ladies. We went to something they call a quilt-in which is where loads of women gather to chat and quilt and drink copious amounts of tea. Talk about overwhelming! It was in Werribee I think, which is quite a drive, and it was held in a modern church complete with pulpit. There was a speaker, a famous quilter who showed everyone her quilts (wow just quietly!), and it was themed - the mad hatters tea parts - so there were some incredible and very creative hats around. But all the women were there for one thing only - quilting. There was talk about quilting and help and tips exchanged and patterns bought and door prizes of quilting stuff given to everyone and some amazing quilts on display for 'show and tell'. It was marvelous and scary and fascinating and a total sensory overload. I was the youngest there by at least a decade but I can tell I was totally exhausted by the end of the day. Fun!

Melbourne Craft Fair

Holy Guacamole!!! This thing was HUGE! It topped the London craft fair by a good three wearhouses. Carol and I spent something like four hours there and we were wizzing by a lot of stores.

But the quilting... Oh. My. God.

I have seen quilt shows before but not since I started quilting myself and so have previously had no understanding of the amount of work involved. I was litterally speachless. I ... gosh. A photograph just doesn't do any of the quilts justice, but I'll put some up anyway when I find room. I certainly won't be in the league of these ladies in my lifetime I can guarentee. Which is what I love about quilting really - there is so much to learn, and so many new skills to acquire that you can go on acquiring and honeing new techniques for years and years.

So, yeah. A good, a VERY good day.

I am the Quilting Queen!

I've finished Aisha's quilt!!! I'll post pictures when I get them.

... and it only took 2 and a half years! :s

Life frizels

Not able to turn my head off. It has taken me four weeks to start to relax and I’m still finding I unconsciously clench my teeth a lot of the time. I just seem to buzz with nervous energy. Which is rediculous 'cause I'm not doing anything. Am thinking of taking up meditation just to get my head to stop.

Still no job and I'm starting to be a bit worried about that.

I’ve become a quilting guru though… I've almost finished 1 quilt, finished the top of a second, done 1/4 of another and about 1/8 of two project things. Do I have time on my hands or what?