Favourite Fabric

Whilst browsing some of the many quilting/patchwork blogs out there in blogland, I have noticed that how we quilters quickly fall in with one particular fabric whether it be a plain solid (the must go to charcoal or white or cream etc) or print (the green polkadot on pink or multicolour stripe), or even a complete collection.

For me, it must be Makower’s Elizabethan collection, of which I just have these…

Makower Elizabethan

My 2nd favourite collection is Makower’s Bloomsbury collection, because it is so close in style to the Elizabethan collection:

Makower's Bloomsbury

I have not even used the Bloomsbury fabrics at all. I made a quilt with the Elizabethan fabrics in the same pattern as my Autumn Waterfall, sadly I never took a picture of it.

I had initially brought the Elizabethan fabrics as they reminded me of a portrait of Elizabeth I at the time of the attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada (particularly the canopy of her sedan). The Bloomsbury fabrics I brought when I tried to find more of the Elizabethan ones, not realising how some of the fabrics from both collections went together well.

So what’s your favourite fabric or fabrics?

Bright Sun Shiny Day

After the last few days of mixed weather… sunshine/grey clouds… At last a bright sun shiny day!!!
Watching Mr Paul Simon at Glastonbury on the tv with the sun shining…. I’m a happy bird. I don’t like really hot days (when the thermometer reads 30+ Celsius), but today is perfect.  Great for doing some more work on my Maple Leaf quilt and browsing the interwebs for yet more fabric.

My poor bank account is screaming at me not to buy any more fabric… I still have the Festival of Quilts to go to in August (a great place to buy yet more fabrics and other quilting supplies), and to get photos done so I can renew my passport and save my pennies for a holiday to Albania next year. ‘What?! Albania?!’ I hear you ask… Yes! Albania!  Although the communist regime collapsed in 1992, it is a country that is still opening up to the West after 50+ years of political isolation, and is full of history/archaeology. It is the history/archaeology of the country that I am interested in and the reason for my planned holiday there.

I have lived overseas twice in my life… First was in Nigeria when I was a baby due to my Dad having a job out there at the university in the northern town of Sokoto, and we (dad, mum & me) came back in 1981 to the UK.   The second was in 1983 just before Christmas when I was 5 and my little brother is not quite a month old, when Dad took us (Mum too) to Trinidad as he again a job at there with the University of the West Indies. We came back to the UK at the end of June 1988 (when the school year had ended). Since then I have been to Normandy, Austria (passed through Belgium & Germany), Italy (Bay of Naples; less than a week after 9/11 attacks in NY), Tunisia (2005), Libya (2006), Crete (2007) and Mexico (2008), which has meant that my recently expired passport has some fun foreign immigration stamps.

As well as doing more on the Maple Leaf, I amvery tempted to start y Summer Waterfall, a blue/green/red summery version of my Autumn Waterfall.  But if I start on Summer Waterfall, then my Maple Leaf will never get finished.

Innocent Crush

Following on from yesterday’s post… I went and checked out British Patchwork & Quilting’s new blog. If you scroll down and read through the blog list on the right hand side you will notice my little blog mentioned. I’m not letting this go to my head! Ok, may be I am a little, but what the heck!

On Friday I collected a parcel from the local Royal Mail delivery office. I had been expecting a parcel from USA via Etsy, but I hadn’t received it, so you can imagine the thoughts when I got a card shoved throught the letter box saying that £15 had to paid in customs charges…. Got to the RM delivery office and paid the money, and got the parcel. When I got back home and opened it, it was a fat quarter bundle of the complete Innocent Crush line by Anna Marie Horner.

Small selection of blue/aqua Innocent Crush

Since getting the IC fat quarter bundle, I have had ideas buzzing round my brain like bees round a flower and been searching for inspiration on Flickr on how to use the IC fabrics. So I have been auditioning solids, using the Kona Solids colour card I got the other week, making a list of the colours I will need to get.

Who’s this I wonder?

Who’s this I wonder?, a photo by lizzie allen on Flickr.

Just brought the July issue of the British Patchwork & Quilting magazine, and whilst reading the Wondering the Web section, I saw this blog…. Trudi is a fellow member of the Fickr group, Brit Quilt, and she is also participating in the Brit Quilt Swap.

Trudi is the 2nd member of the Brit Quilt group to be featured in my favourite patchwork/quilting magazine (the first was Lynne @LilysQuilts)… I will be emailing them to say thank you!!!

Also on the Brit Quilt Swap front, I have added the all important label (which is just a simple square piece from my scrap stash in a coordinating colour and wrote the details in permanent fabric marker, and backstitched it to the back of the quilt). It has a name at last, lol….. All The Nines! … given that it is a 9-patch block made of smaller 9-patch blocks. Mini quilt and a selection of scraps with a note to my secret partner have been packed and envelope addressed and sealed. Now, I have to wait to post it off.