Archie The Wonder Dog

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...

I've finally managed to muster enough energy to stop staring at the pile of Stained QAL blocks on my sewing table and do something with them... I cut 48 squares of wadding and used 505 basting spray for the first time: A not very interesting pile of squares of wadding And then sorted out the blocks and stuck them to the wadding.  I learnt my lesson about the after-effects of spray basting (tight chest and very sore, itchy hands) and, instead of spraying them in my sewing room in front of a wide-open window, I decamped to the conservatory... I briefly considered donning g loves but decided that would be a step too far - I just washed my hands at regular intervals and then three times when I ' d finished! ...where I could stand in front of the open door.  I just brought through one set of squares at a time so I could get out of the room every few minutes and allow the fumes/smell to dissipate and keeping the door through to the house closed meant the smell did...