Thursday 4 April 2013

This week



As promised, a picture of the quilt I made the middle boy.  It is called "Small Plates" and it's from Elizabeth Hartman's beautiful book, "The Practical Guide to Patchwork".  I've looked at so many quilt patterns and I always come back to squares, there's something so balanced about them.


The fabric includes plenty of Lotta Jansdotter's Echo, which is lovely.  Also a few owls and other birds as the boys quite like them.  As I mentioned before, the top was done by hand, but the quilting was machined.  I'm hard at work on a similar one for the oldest.  Not sure if it will be done in time for his birthday in October; there are quite a few hours needed for hand sewing!

The picture was taken at the allotments as there's a lovely tall stone wall there which is just right for draping quilts over.  This is the view facing the other way.


Our allotment is in the far left-hand corner.  You can just see our green shed behind a brown one.  It's a nice long distance from the road, but it does mean that if there's something heavy to carry back up I reach the top pink and panting.  There's a lovely stream running along the boundary just beyond our allotment, and in fact back in the summer we found our very own toad living on our plot.  Very handy for slug control.

It was just a flying visit to the allotment as it was still ridiculously cold.  I don't remember ever spending so much time at parks feeling so frozen as I have in the past month.  I think the trick is to join in the football or the chasing or the tree climbing.  The boys love it so much I don't have the heart to drag them home, but honestly, this morning my hands were so cold I could have cried.




I found out earlier today that I didn't get a much-needed job that I interviewed for, and it's left me a little gloomy.  One thing that usually cheers me up is reading my favourite blogs, so I'm going to spend the next hour doing just that.  And one day, if I'm lucky, this might be a blog that cheers someone else up, and really, that would make me so happy.



7 comments:

  1. Well, your beautiful quilt really cheered me up! It was quite sunny here yesterday and so I'd hoped to spend time in the garden today, but it's turned bleak and freezing here again - so I was a bit fed up. Really lovely quilt - I bet your boy loves it. Abby x

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    1. Thank you Abby, he does love it. Hope we can all get into the garden soon, there is much to be done!

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  2. looks amazing , well done
    love all the colors together

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  3. Really enjoying your blog. I've just taken over an allotment so looking forward to your blog posts on allotments...I haven't a clue what I'm doing!!

    Sonia

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    1. Thanks for your comment Sonia, I am enjoying reading your blog. I only took over the allotment in July, so it is all new to me too. Did manage a bit of a courgette glut last year, but mostly it was too late for planting. I have windowsills full of seeds now though. Just waiting for spring...

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  4. Èven though this is an old post let me say that your blog cheers me up every time. your quilts are fabulous and put me to shame, I have so many unfinished projects and a garden in need of TLC. However the dog is walked and the sun is shining and a Happy St Patrick's Day to one and all!

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  5. I hope it doesn't seem too odd to be commenting on such an old post, but had to chip in and say that this blog really does cheer me up on down days and I love reading back through old posts and seeing where it all began. Yours and Lucy's (Attic24) blogs really did inspire me to start my own - it's lovely having a little snippet of the internet just for your own ramblings!

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