Archie The Wonder Dog

I'm having a great week and it's only Monday!   (I think it's going to be another long post!) This morning I met my friend's baby for the first time (this is the baby that I made the crocheted blanket and squares quilt for and which they use a lot which is always lovely to hear!) - she's such an adorable baby and quite happy to be held by (and dribble over!) a complete stranger.  I'm seeing them again on Wednesday, I hope she's as happy to be out and about as she was today! Then I visited the Post Office to post my Pillow Fight cushion.  I put the final stitch in the label at about half past two yesterday afternoon and went straight upstairs to put the pad in and take some photos.  Before I share the 'ta da!' photo I'm going to tease you with some in-progress photos!  (Hope you don't mind seeing some of them for the second time on here!) My colour inspiration (as well, of course, as my partner's likes and dislikes!) The fabri...

  First though, the wonderful Lynne has another fabulous giveaway over at her blog - this time you could be the lucky person who wins two (yes, two!) bounty boxes of Kona solids.  For those of you unfamiliar with these boxes each one holds 100 different Kona fat quarters.  Now I don't know about you but I could definitely make room in my sewing room for these!  Actually, if I win I may sleep with them for the first few nights.    Shamelessly pinched from Lynne's blog! If you haven't already entered get yourself over there now.  Well, you can stay for the rest of the post but you must promise to go straight to Lynne's after you've left a lovely comment!  And before I forget you have four days left to take advantage of the 11% off orders over £11 over at Simply Solids - I got my order(s!) yesterday... The only thing better than interesting post is interesting pink post!! The fat one on top contains the medium grey for my DP...

It's been a while since I last posted (about ten days I think) and I hope you've all been well?  I've been really tired (and busy quilting my cushion) so I decided to wait until I felt a little better and I'd done something I could show you!  I think I've been tired from all the Archie walking I've done in the last few weeks.  Normally my dad walks Archie on an evening for me but because he wasn't allowed out for long I've been walking him twice a day and it's been too much for me.  The good news is that now Archie can tolerate a 'normal' walk on the lead my dad can walk him when he walks Alfie when he gets in from work which we all enjoy - Archie is always thrilled to see my dad (as am I but I don't jump up and down and sing!).  Also, Archie is now allowed off the lead for an increasing distance every day.  He's really enjoying being off the lead and has broken into a gentle run on a couple of occasions when he thought there was a ...

I wasn't going to enter the Bloggers' Quilt Festival but after seeing all the wonderful quilts out there I decided that I would enter at the last minute!  I was going to enter 'Going in Circles' but that's already been in a show this year (The Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate - see this post if you're interested in seeing more)so I've decided to share a different quilt with you that I've not shown on my blog. I started my sashiko sampler quilt in 2007 when I'd been quilting for about six months.  I'd seen a sashiko cushion at a local quilt show (the first I'd ever been to!) and had instantly fallen in love with the intricate stitching designs and I knew I wanted to create a sampler quilt using some of the patterns.  I bought The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe and set about choosing which of the many designs I was going to use.  I used a hera marker to create the stitching grid and stitched the ...