I could get used to this!

After saying, in my last post, that I don't often get to say "I've finished!", I'm now saying it again!  You can tell it's the end of the FAL quarter, can't you?!


When I put this quilt on my list back in March, I'd done about a third of the quilting.  I managed to finish the rest of the quilting by the end of April, mainly by doing a line or two a day; it's amazing how quickly you can get something done if you do it little and often.

 It stayed like this for another five weeks, though, until I finally trimmed it and stitched the binding to the front.


It then took me almost three weeks to stitch the binding to the back, mainly because most of my hand sewing time has been taken up with the secret sewing (I've finally finished it so if you come back on Friday you'll get to see a finished item, rather than one with tacking all round the edge, which is what I feared may happen!).  I managed to do little bits here and there and yesterday afternoon I finished the stitching and then waited for the sun to go behind a cloud/sink down behind the houses opposite so I could get a half decent photo.

Please excuse the crease right down the middle - it's been folded up for weeks!

This fabric is the piece that was destined for my hexy quilt but had a hole in it.  I managed to avoid it for this quilt as it's smaller!

Lounging on a garden chair

This is my first quilty finish of 2014 and so this is the first time I've been able to embroider '2014' on a binding.  I decided it was worth a photo!


Quilt stats:

Finished size - 55" x 68"
Pattern - arrangement of 3" (finished) Drunkard's Path units
Piecing - by hand, using Inklingo for the DP units and freezer paper templates for the block borders, sashing and cornerstones
Piecing thread - Coats Cotton 3021 (light grey/aluminium)
Quilting - 3" on-point grid, à la Lynne
Quilting thread - Aurifil 50wt in 2610 (grey) on the top and 5006 (aqua) on the back
Started - September 2011
Finished - June 2014


I'm linking up with Katy:





It's also Fresh Sewing Day today and I missed the last one (I was just too tired to even contemplate writing a blog post) so I thought I might just do a quick catch up of what else I've been doing.  (Well, that was the intention but I didn't quite manage the 'quick' aspect of the catch up!) 


I made triangle strips for Karen, who was our Bee A Brit Stingy May Queen Bee

and I made wonky log cabin blocks for Collette, who was our June Queen Bee

and I'm planning to use my solids/TOT scraps to make small versions of these log cabin blocks, but not yet!  I've started collecting little scraps in a tin, ready for when I can start; I find that usually soothes the urge to start something as once I've set fabric aside for a project, I know I'll make it at some point, even if it's five years from now!



I did far too much gardening (a little bit of an understatement and one of the reasons I missed the last FSD link up!) and today my garden looks like this:

I'm really pleased with how it's looking.  Obviously, I have lots more planting to do and there are areas that haven't really got much planting in them (like the section in the photo above and the raised bed at the bottom left of the garden) but I'll fill these up once I've done some research about what I want in there and how I want it to look.  In the meantime, I've just got the plants in the middle and foreground of this photo (plus the agapanthus you can see on the black tub on the left-hand side of the two photos above) left to plant:

The last of the planting, for now.  'Famous last words' springs to mind!

I may even get some time to sit in the garden and not think about all the things I have left to do!



Archie did some yoga yesterday morning:

And sink into pose one...

...before rotating into pose two and breathing out through your mouth

and, in the afternoon, Alfie came to stay for a few hours yesterday and decided to inspect Archie's 'dodgy' wall:

Humph, I don't know why he's making such a fuss: there's nothing wrong with this wall!

But Archie disagreed:

I'm telling you: it needs propping up.  And while we're at it, you needn't think you're getting this bed back off me.

so Alfie found his own dodgy wall to prop up:

Now there's definitely something wrong with this wall, I'd best stay here for a while.  And I can keep an eye on the fridge from here, too.  That's good.

They declared a truce in the afternoon, though, and shared the same patch of sun on the front room carpet and there they stayed until it was time for their teatime walk!

And relax!!  We deserve it after all our hard work with the walls!

Salley, I hope that's enough photos of Archie to keep you going until Friday!


Thanks for popping in: please make your way to the exits and don't forget to leave a comment on your way out *grins*