Pillow fight update

Hello!

The wonderful Lynne has published the fifth post in her Christmas Gifts for Quilters series.  Click on the button for information about FQ bundles that are available from Backstitch and enter the giveaway for a chance to win a Hurricane bundle - good luck!

I hope you all had a good Halloween?   I've seen lots of lovely photos of children in costumes on other blogs but as I don't have a child and I'm not an owner that dresses up my dog (he wouldn't let me even if I wanted to!) this will have to suffice..

Yes, I did spend an inordinate amount of time trying to work out how to do this quickly using some fancy editing before resorting to Paint!

Archie was very good at guarding the treats that evening and it was a good job as I just had enough for the 50 or so trick or treaters that came to the door (note to self for next year - buy two Cadbury's treat bags for the younger children and three bags of toffees for the teenagers - it's cheaper that way and the teenagers don't complain as long as they get something!)


I got some lovely post on Tuesday morning - my prize arrived from Tina (I won her giveaway to celebrate 100 followers) and I was so excited I did a little jig in the porch!  Want to see what she sent?!

Isn't it all fabulous?!

Tina sent me three fat quarters of Fandango and a wonderfully small and perfect Christmas brooch.  Just in case you can't tell how small the brooch is, here it is next to Tina's (very pretty!) standard size business card.

See? Tiny!!  Thank you so much, Tina, I feel very blessed to have received such a wonderful prize!



I've been busy hand piecing for the past few days, helped by having a computer free day on Sunday (which was wonderful - I missed you all but it was really good for me) and have turned my Pillow Fight blocks from this...

 to this

 to this

I do hope my partner likes it - I must remember to put it in the Flickr group!  I've ordered some wadding (Hobbs bleached 80/20) that I'm hoping will be white enough to use and then I'm going to hand quilt in the white areas...thread to be decided!  For those of you worrying that it looks a little out of proportion the border is larger than it needs to be to make it easier to put in the quilting hoop, it's going to end up being about 1½" all round.  In a fit of optimism (and on the basis that if I was putting in an order I may as well make it worth the postie's journey!) I ordered enough wadding to also use in my hexy quilt - that's right, the quilt for which I've only made a quarter of the blocks needed!  I'm hoping that once this cushion (and probably a little extra) is complete I can get back to the hexies as I can hear them calling my name...

This afternoon, inspired by Tina's immaculate foundation piecing I decided to have a go at a teeny tiny block of my own.  I love foundation piecing but haven't done any in a while, not since I completed my one and only F.P. project which is now nailed to the wall above my bed (I wanted it flat to the wall as you can see the edge as you come in the door so I carefully wiggled thin tacks through the ditch created by the binding!). The colours are much more vibrant in real life but the flash and artificial light have sucked the life out of them!  The idea was that they should look like stars twinkling in the sky and although there are things I'd do differently if I did it today (rather than after only a year or so of quilting) I still love it...

Patterns from Carol Doak's Simply Sensational 9-Patch Stars

Now, I can't show you a full photo of my block as it's supposed to be a surprise for a friend but I'm so pleased with how it's turned out that I have to share it with you and hope that it doesn't spoil the surprise...I'll make it a small photo in the hope of making it less surprise spoiling...

...and make it black and white to retain some of the mystery!  The finished size is 1¾"square and each log in the log cabin is ¼" wide.  Is it wrong to be so happy with your own sewing that you do a combination of a Mutley laugh and a sitting down happy jig when you see how it looks?!!  I really wish I could show you it in all its full colour glory but as I'm already probably pushing the 'don't spoil the surprise' aspect of this present I'll leave it at that.  You can be sure that I'll be working on these as much as I can so I can share the finished project with you!  Yes, I know pride comes before a fall...I'll be extra careful when making the rest, just in case the fates conspire against me!

 After seeing how successful he is at looking sad and pathetic in order to get a biscuit a few people have commented on what a fine actor Archie is (who's now walking for 20 minutes twice a day!) so yesterday I tried to get him to share some of his best portfolio shots

Looking thoughtfully into the distance...

Is this side better?

And his mean and moody 'don't mess with me' face

What do you think?  Does he have a future as a knitting pattern model?!

Of course she's joking, I won't get out of bed for anything less than a premier cat dogwalk show...

I hope you're having a good week , thanks for popping in!

P.S.  I'm currently baking some of Susan's chocolate flapjacks - if they turn out nice I'll take a photo but if, as I suspect, they turn out to be more crumble topping than flapjack then I'm sure you won't mind if I never mention them again, will you?!  (I'm using a silicone 'tin' as I didn't have the right size metal one and I think it's affecting how they're cooking...)