Archie The Wonder Dog

Please read the title in a sing-song voice 'cos that's how it sounds in my head! Last night I (finally) put the final stitch in the binding of my Stained QAL quilt.  I got up this morning to take some (really bad) photos before putting it in the washer.  I then went back to bed to read doze until the washer played its tune and I got up to put it in the drier. My apologies for the bad 'before washing' photos (and, now I've uploaded the 'after washing' photos, I can see that they're no better!) - I waited until it was as light as it was going to get (it's been one of those 'lights on from 9am onwards' days) but they're not brilliant mild understatement and the colours look so washed out compared to real life.  Even faffing on Picmonkey didn't help but I wanted to get my 'ta da!' post in before the year was out so I haven't got time to wait for the sun to shine!  I really need to find a better place in my house/gard...

On December 13th, exactly sixteen months after I pieced the first hexagon , I pieced the final hexy for my quilt! Here are the final few: Hexy 189 Hexy 190 Hexy 191 - the striped fabric is a dream to work with! Hexy 192 - a final fairy! Hexy 193 Hexy 194 - I have ironed it, honest! A spare hexy.  One of the hexies that I stitched earlier in the project is appealing against a decision of hexicide ... Hexy 195 - the final one! I don't yet have a photo of all 195 together as I haven't laid them out.  I've prepared all the trapezia (trapeziums?!) and the triangles that will square up the edge but won't have enough room to lay them all out until I take down the Christmas tree.  (And, because the tree is in front of the window, I wouldn't have the light to take decent photos even if I did have floor space!)  So I'm afraid you'll have to wait for a couple few weeks... I've received some lovely Christmas presents fr...

Yes, you read that right!  A finish!  (Other than several thread catchers and a few pin cushions I think this is the only thing I've finished this year!)  Last year I made my mam three little trees to go on her dining table and we decided they would look better if they were on a plainer runner than what she was using.  So, in typical style, I planned the runner and collected the fabrics and then...did nothing.  For eleven and a half months.   I finally pulled my finger out, though, and started (and finished) it this week.  It's very simple because it's there to show off the trees not shout for attention.  It looks nice with or without trees and I think is subtle enough to be used throughout the year but glittery enough for Christmas. Simple strips (2" finished) of a variety of cream and gold fabrics. I made it in a 'flip and stitch' style and then added extra quilting lines in a metallic gold thread. Sorry about the photo, it was one o...

November has been a month of hexies and Stained QAL blocks... All but one of my November hexies - there wasn't room for the other one! Progress on the Stained QAL blocks I've now got four hexies left to piece (and another four that are pieced but haven't been shared) and then I'll have 195 hexies, seventeen of which are 'whole' (i.e. unpieced) and the remaining 178 are pieced. All my Stained QAL blocks are now in rows and all the vertical joins on the back have been stitched down and Nicky has promised that if I ever plan to use Klona on something that's going to need hand stitching then she's going to shoot me!  Stitching a folded Klona edge to a quilted Klona piece is not something I intend to ever do again once this quilt is finished - it took probably three times as long as it would have done with other quilting cotton and I needed a thimble at all times as I couldn't push the needle through with my finger -  it went thr...

Many of you will know a lovely quilter called Salley who always leaves the most wonderful comments on my blog (and others).  Salley doesn't yet have a blog (I'm working on it!) so she doesn't have any followers she can ask for a small favour and I thought I'd ask on her behalf! Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works is running a pets on quilts competition on Facebook and it would be lovely if those of you who have a Facebook account would go and vote for Salley's cat, Polo.  Salley told me that she employs Polo to do her basting but I think it's more that Polo deigns to help.  After all, we all know you can't make cats do anything they don't want to! Here's a photo of Polo helping.  Or maybe she's supervising... Please vote for me! The links for the competition are here and here .  I'm not sure which link is the best to use (but I think it's the first - please be patient as I imagine the photos may take a while to load) as I do...

I'd love to be able to tell you that I've been hard at work since I last blogged but I haven't!  I have made some progress though... Firstly, though, I want to apologise for all the photos - it's not going to get light today (it's tanking down) so they're not the brightest photos in the world! I've quilted sixteen of the Stained QAL blocks.  I went with the wavy lines in the end and I'm really pleased with the texture of the blocks.  The heavy quilting (perhaps combined with a double layer of wadding) has pulled the blocks in so they're going to be 11.5" finished rather than the planned 12" but that's not a problem, it ends up measuring what it ends up measuring. Four blocks from the front:   and the back: I'm trying to do a couple of blocks a day.  Sometimes I manage more, more often I manage none but I've only got eight left to quilt so I hope to be trimming them next week. The main thing I've b...