Winter Mini Quilt DHL'd to the States.

There - it's going to the states. That's not too much of a give away as most of the Swap participants are across the pond!
I need to wait until I know the recipient has received the Quilt before I put a link to her blog on my side bar.
Hopefully tomorrow, or Saturday.
I am missing it already - I could make one for myself but I will need to buy some more blue for the sky. I did enjoy the hand sewing of the birds.

I have to draw up and applique a Barbers shop for another group I belong to. And of course I will have my Postage Stamp Quilt on the go when I have bought a Plain.
In the mean time I may dig out the Batik I started on the January Friday night Sew-In and see how I can develope it.

The weekend is approaching.
We will have a few bits of shopping to do as my eldest is going on a school trip and a few things are needed.
We might also fit in a trip to the Cinema. My DH wants to take the 11 year old to see Avatar, so I guess I need to see what I can take the 6 year old to see.
Unfortunately Liams idea of seeing a film is based on a bag of sweets or popcorn, and then he fidgets once they are all eaten. It drives me mad!

Progress

Here is my Winter Mini-Quilt , almost finished.

I need to stitch the birds feet, and I'm going to do a bit of "feathering" on their bodies.

I love the lettering, the font is Viner Hand ITC, though I did not enjoy doing the blanket stitch around them.

I also need to do a label for the back, and hope to attach a hanging sleeve.

I am taking it to a meeting on Wednesday evening for "Show and Tell" so will send to my swap partner via DHL on Thursday.

I have decided to join in with Heidis Postage stamp Quilt along. I have dug out all those fabrics that I like but haven't a project lined up for them, some of which I have had for ages. I have started cutting the strips. I've cut about 180 so far as per her instructions. I also have quite a few fabrics that are not 21" wide, and have cut some strips of those as well. May as well use them up. I need to decide if I am going to use white or cream, or another colour for inbetween the prints. We have 2 cats who spend lots of time snoozing on the beds with dirty feet, so I don't think I want to use white, even though that would be my first choice.

Wookey Hole and Scones.

What a funny name - Wookey!.
Before we went away I said that I had looked at the Wookey Hole website and I thought it was a bit commercial for us. Well I take it all back. We went on Thursday, it was £54 for a family of 4 to get in, which is quite a bit. But it was good. There was a guided tour of the caves, and then quite a lot of other stuff to look at.
I must tell you about the Circus.

There are weekly classes where young people can learn circus skills, and they perform a Circus show at weekends and during the holidays, and they were so good. Really good, supple young people. Megan was on the trapeze swing, and there were 3 girls who performed on the ribbons, amongst other acts. I felt a bit choked during the performanace - it was so good seeing young people performing at a high standard.
Joseph my 11 year old used to say that he wanted to work in a circus when he grew up, which I thought was quite funny as he would never ever have his face painted. Somewhat a pre-requisite for a clown don't you think. I think he is over it now.

This is the mirror maze.
The Glastonbury trip was good - quite a way to go and the B&B was a bit basic. We stayed 3 nights. I can honestly say that it's the only B&B we've ever stayed in where the bed wasn't made whilst we were out. Don't you think that that's lazy? Not recommended.

This is the Abbey ruins.

The day before we came back a friend in our village texted us to say that the snow had descended and even her 4 by 4 had got stuck. Thankfully the roads had cleared by the time we got back on Friday, but more snow is forecasted. My new rear wheel drive car is rubbish in the snow so I'm not looking forward to it. But I have made the most of it by doing some snow dyeing. As blogged by Joan on moosestashquilting.blogspot.com.
The dyed snow ( and fabric) is in the kitchen now - I need to go and check on it. Not enough melted yet.
The boys are back at school tomorrow - last week was half term so it's now back to normality - what ever that is.
My mum and step dad came round for tea toninght, just a bread and butter tea, with Cheese and Courgette scones, and pancakes for pudding. We missed out on pancakes on shrove Tuesday.

I've done a little more to my Mini Quilt - here I am stitching the feeder. I've quilted it all over. I'm not overly impressed with my stippling on the sky, but I am happy with stiching on the snow. I need to bind it and applique the words on. I can start that on Tuesday evening.
One boy in bed, the other is in the shower. I need to check on socks and clean shoes for the little one, then I need to log on to work to do a few things tonight. Hopefully that can coincide with an hour of trashy telly viewing ( Being Human) before bed. I need to go in early tomorrow. I get in early every Monday but tomorrow ideally I need to get in 7.30 ish as I have reports to produce for a meeting that has been bought forward from 2pm to 10.30 am. I am a little concerned that I won't be able to spring out of bed at 6 - 6.15 as my back has been troublesome for a few months and much worse last week. I will have to see a physiotherapist asap. In fact I ought to dig out my health care paperwork tonight.

Winter Mini Quilt

Yesterday we went to the Think Tank in Birmingham. It had lots of hands on experiments to do. Here is a picture of the boys concentrating. Quietly. Oh Bliss. Mini- Quilt - I spent two evenings handsewing the Great Tit whilst watching TV. Here he is.

I drew up a plan on paper so I could carefully cut up my remaining blue fabric.

and here is the Blue Tit pinned in it's place.

Some of the seams done, Great tit on it's branch.

Company. This is the sleek handsome boy cat - Itchy.

Pieced.

Now I need to sandwich it, quilt it and add a few details by hand - feet for instance.

But we are going away tomorrow so now I need to sort out the car and do a few other jobs. I am unlikely to be able to participate in Friday night Sew-in as we come back Friday night. But at the weekend I'll be able to carry on.

I have enjoyed piecing these birds - I'll do one to keep.