dresden plate

I've just finished this dresden plate from a QAL hosted by Lynne at Lily's Quilts. It's pretty big as you can see, and took a bit of finagling to get it flat, but I'm really pleased with the final result. I've got loads more of the Kaffe Fassett fabric to play with. 

Shabby Union Flag cushion

I've been wanting to make a Union flag cushion for ages and this seemed the right time to do so. I used a foundation paper piecing pattern from Just Hands On TV, designed by Anne Baxter. It's nice and faded looking.

Georgian Bath

A couple of weeks ago Number One Son and his girlfriend came to visit for a few days and we took them to visit Bath, focussing this time on the Georgian, Jane Austen end of the city. I took a few photographs, but it was such a dull, damp day they all came out rather dark. But since I've nothing else to write about at the moment (aah, how sad) I thought I'd show a few of them to you anyway.

This is The Crescent, built between 1767 and 1774 and still one of the most exclusive addresses in the City.

There are many streets of Georgian houses like this.

The Circus, a completely round street, with four exit roads, built between 1754 and 1768.

After a wet and dull walk around Bath we went to the costume museum, and here are just a few of the costumes they have - the reflection of the glass shows on them I'm afraid.

This is the earliest dress they have, from the early 1600s.

Can you imagine trying to manoeuvre around in this!

A private sedan chair.

A public sedan chair.

An original Bath chair, originally design for invalids to use around the narrow streets of Bath as they went to 'take the waters'. They were still used, being pushed by an attendant, right up into the twentieth century.

Using up fabric

I don't know about anyone else who is doing the Rainbow Challenge, but I've found that I've ended up each month with a few bits left over that I just haven't been able to summon up the enthusiasm to use. Well, I've used most of them now. I spent yesterday stitching bits together to make 'new' fabric, and today I turned it into a new bag with pockets to take to workshops. The pattern is from Monkey Buttons and is one of the very first things that I made when I started quilting. It's been so useful at home and then I have to empty it out every time I want to take it to a workshop; so I've made another one.

And just one more little thing, a mug rug made out of an orphan block. I've got several more of these, so I can see some more mug rugs being made. We've got our local village Festival of Art, Music and Flowers in a few week's time, so hopefully I'll have a pile of mug rugs for sale.

Christening quilt

A friend asked me if I would make a christening quilt for her great niece, and I found this pattern by Amanda Paul in the latest edition of Popular Patchwork which has worked really well.

Brit Quilt

Lynne at Lily's Quilts is starting a new group for British quilters, if you're interested go on over to her blog to find out about it and then why not join in the fun?

Please vote for my quilt

I've entered my In the Red quilt into the Quilters' Gallery scrappy quilts competition this week. Please go and look at all of the lovely quilts and perhaps even vote for mine!

Scrappy Saturday

This month's colour for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge is purple. Thankfully I don't have too much in the way of purple scraps to use up, to it's going to be easy enough I hope. Though it's surprising how far a few scraps can go.

Today I've made a pile of mug rugs.

Culture Vultures

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on blogs over the last little while and apologise for not replying. I've been having terrible problems with my email; can't receive, can't send. Plus we've been away for a week on holiday.

We took our camper van to a site near where we used to live, south of London, and took taxis to the station nearly every day and then got a train to London. We tramped about quite a lot, just doing some sightseeing, although we both know London pretty well. We visited three exhibitions and saw three plays. We went to the Watteau drawings exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art; exquisite chalk drawings. I felt that I'd have known any of the people he drew immediately, he was able to put such life and expression into them. We also visited the Afghanistan: Crossroads of the East exhibition at the British Museum, very interesting and some stunning artefacts on show. And finally we went to the Design Museum, where we saw the future coming towards us. They had a display of designs that had won awards in the Brit Design competition and some of them will doubtless become everyday designs in the near future.

We saw three plays; 'Clybourne Park', an American play about race relationships in the 1950s and the present time, a satirical comedy which was very entertaining. 'The Wizard of Oz' at the London Palladium was good fun. 'Flarepath' by Terence Rattigan was excellent, beautifully written and excellently acted.

We only ate in the van once, as we had lunch and supper out most days. We saw various friends and finished up with a lunch organised by our two sons in a restaurant for Mothering Sunday. I've come home exhausted but having had a very enjoyable week.

The slideshow shows a random selection of photographs that I took. One of the things I love about London is that you can stand almost anywhere and see architecture that dates from way back alongside the very modern. I stood outside Tower Green tube station and could see parts of the Roman wall that used to surround London; the Tower of London (started in 1080); a monument to people executed there in Tudor times; monuments to the dead sailors of two world wars; buildings built after the Great Fire of London in 1666; Victorian buildings; 20th century buildings; and The Shard, which is in the process of being built now. Brilliant.