Wednesday, 7 November 2018

WOW: That Birthday Buzz

WOW = WIPs On Wednesday
Hip hip hooray! These roses are counting the years of my life, that's why there's so many of them! It's a whole armful but I'm not complaining, it's good to be alive! I celebrated my birthday over the weekend and whilst I was still feeling a bit drab from my head cold, I had a really beautiful day at home with my family. Every year I always say that I don't want to celebrate my birthday because I think I'm too old for all this fuss. Actually I think birthdays are best for children, once you're an adult they feel a bit silly to me. But every year my family just ignores me and carries on celebrating it regardless. This year I put my foot down and demanded that if anyone was planning to buy flowers, they had to be potted plants because I'm over bouquets. I've had too many bouquets lately to celebrate my design finishes and I find that I'm always worried about them dying. Well, they ignored that demand of mine.. but given that roses were involved, I'll forgive them 😸
This is my most useful gift of the year: it's a pot of thyme. I love herbs and thyme is something I use so much of. I have grown it myself, but its always been stringy and knotty whilst this pot is lush and springy, it's the nicest thyme I've seen.
Those of you who follow my Instagram will have seen that we bought a cake this year. Really, this is something I want to stop doing. The problem is, I'm completely out of practice. I just don't do any baking and haven't done for about 20 years and although I'm always planning on getting back into baking lovely family occasion cakes... well, I simply haven't. I've been quilting instead. Obviously this has to end or we'll never enjoy real cake again.
I've been all around town over the past 5 years looking for honest to goodness quality cakes. And I can tell you that every single time it's been a let down. I don't know what happened to proper cake bakeries, but the cakes on offer these days just aren't authentic enough. This cake was horrible. It contained layers of custard that was the cheap and nasty flour and sugar kind rather than the egg kind and the taste was, well, awful. Then whole of the outside of the cake covered in a kind of sickly, sugary mock cream. Just awful. We only took a few bites of the slices and the rest went into the bin. It was such a waste of money and a disappointment too.

On a happier note, when I was clearing out my cup and saucer cabinet last month, I re-discovered this autumn rose design that I've been carting around me with for over 30 years. I've always loved it. It's so romantic and the brown and yellow tones seemed so fitting because I was born in autumn so it made sense to have some golden roses to use during the fall season each year. Well, for as long as I can remember, my DDs have never liked this tea set, I recall that they have previously used the words 'ugly' to describe it. 
Well, what a turn around this year was! Suddenly they both set upon it and declared they they had never seen this autumn rose set and what's more, they think it's beautiful and love it very much. Really, I don't know what to think! I'm just glad that my cupboard spring cleaning has proved useful - I have my cups and saucer sets on rotation and there'll be more gems like these making a reappearance after many years of neglect. 

Today I'm going fabric shopping with my DD because I'm in a pickle over what fabrics I want for my new BOM design. I thought I knew, but nothing feels right. You know how I am about fabric selection - it's going to be a long day!

What's Your WOW? 



Tuesday, 6 November 2018

Queen's Garden by Jean Brewer

Queen's Garden by Jean Brewer 
of the Gower Coast, South Wales UK

Oh bountiful blues, how beautifully this quilt settles in with the surrounding colours and prints. I do love a blue quilt and this one's extra special. I love that Jean has managed to balance the green against the blue by using a lighter, almost minty green alongside the  yellows, corals and pinks. It's fabulous. 

'Queen's Garden' 
Read more about this quilt by clicking here now

--------------------------- Open Quilt Gallery--------------------------- 
Thanks to Jean Brewer for sharing her finished quilt with us all to take inspiration from. If you'd like to see more finished quilts made from any of my patterns, visit my Open Gallery. It's a place for all quilters who make any of my quilts to show off their creations in a central online gallery. It's new and I hope you'll join us by adding your own quilt there. Submitting your quilt pics is easily done via an upload screen directly on my website. Click here now if you'd like to submit your own quilt.

Monday, 5 November 2018

Queen's Garden by Mary Kathleen Oliver

Queen's Garden by Mary Kathleen Oliver 
of Santa Maria, California USA 

What a beautiful quilt! The balance between red and yellow is perfectly enhanced by the neutral beiges which subtly introduce hints of green that shimmer throughout. Doesn't it shine? It's a WOW from me and I'm delighted to see how Mary Kathleen has adapted the pattern to suit her. And the quilting is gorgeous too.

'Queen's Garden' 
Read more about this quilt by clicking here now

--------------------------- Open Quilt Gallery--------------------------- 
Thanks to Mary Kathleen Oliver for sharing her finished quilt with us all to take inspiration from. If you'd like to see more finished quilts made from any of my patterns, visit my Open Gallery. It's a place for all quilters who make any of my quilts to show off their creations in a central online gallery. It's new and I hope you'll join us by adding your own quilt there. Submitting your quilt pics is easily done via an upload screen directly on my website. Click here now if you'd like to submit your own quilt.

Sunday, 4 November 2018

Juliette by Glenda Jean Hepburn

Juliette by Glenda Jean Hepburn

Yes, she's done it again. No, I can't believe it either. And if you do find out where Glenda finds all the extra hours to make so many gorgeous quilts, please let me know. I have asked her, but she won't spill the beans. And if you think she's the only one, you'd be wrong. Jenny Henry also creates a unbelievable number of quilts each year. And you know what else? They're both Moderators of my Online Quilt Group ..and it staggers me how they get it all done? I suppose we'll just have to accept that we've got the most talented and productive Quilt Group in the world in our little community. I'm quite speechless.

As for Juliette, look at the bold, bright colours Glenda has selected to use on this dark background - it's just superb.

'Juliette' 
Read more about this quilt by clicking here now

--------------------------- Open Quilt Gallery--------------------------- 
Thanks to Glenda Jean Hepburn for sharing her finished quilt with us all to take inspiration from. If you'd like to see more finished quilts made from any of my patterns, visit my Open Gallery. It's a place for all quilters who make any of my quilts to show off their creations in a central online gallery. It's new and I hope you'll join us by adding your own quilt there. Submitting your quilt pics is easily done via an upload screen directly on my website. Click here now if you'd like to submit your own quilt.

Saturday, 3 November 2018

Queen's Garden by Roseanne Bullock

Queen's Garden by Roseanne Bullock of Adelaide, Australia

Talk about a quilt that pops! Oooh this vibrant red fabric on a dark background is stunning! 
What a statement, I love every last inch of it. 


'Queen's Garden' 
Read more about this quilt by clicking here now

--------------------------- Open Quilt Gallery--------------------------- 
Thanks to Roseanne Bullock for sharing her finished quilt with us all to take inspiration from. If you'd like to see more finished quilts made from any of my patterns, visit my Open Gallery. It's a place for all quilters who make any of my quilts to show off their creations in a central online gallery. It's new and I hope you'll join us by adding your own quilt there. Submitting your quilt pics is easily done via an upload screen directly on my website. Click here now if you'd like to submit your own quilt.

Friday, 2 November 2018

Queen's Garden by Maxine

This is Queen's Garden by Maxine of Seattle, USA

This newest addition to the Open Gallery has made my morning - what a stunner. I love Maxine's use of purples to tie this selection of fabrics together on the light background. Beautiful!

'Queen's Garden' 
Read more about this quilt by clicking here now

--------------------------- Open Quilt Gallery--------------------------- 
Thanks to Maxine for sharing her finished quilt with us all to take inspiration from. If you'd like to see more finished quilts made from any of my patterns, visit my Open Gallery. It's a place for all quilters who make any of my quilts to show off their creations in a central online gallery. It's new and I hope you'll join us by adding your own quilt there. Submitting your quilt pics is easily done via an upload screen directly on my website. Click here now if you'd like to submit your own quilt.

Thursday, 1 November 2018

'Juliette' by Lennea Wolfe

Juliette by Lennea Wolfe 
of Olympia, Washington State, USA

What a knockout! That's the first thing that came into my mind when I set eyes on this stunner! I am completely in love with the striking colour scheme - how simple and effective!

Here's what she told us about her quilt:
Raw edge applique with free motion quilting done on my Tiara. As soon as I saw Juliette, I knew I had to use these fabrics leftover from a project several years ago. I much prefer how they look here as Esther’s Juliette is the perfect companion for them.

Yes Lennea, this is the perfect was to use up much loved scraps as Juliette has been designed to let fabrics shine and show themselves off. 

'Juliette' 
Read more about this quilt by clicking here now


--------------------------- Open Quilt Gallery--------------------------- 
Thanks to Lennea Wolfe for sharing her finished quilt with us all to take inspiration from. If you'd like to see more finished quilts made from any of my patterns, visit my Open Gallery. It's a place for all quilters who make any of my quilts to show off their creations in a central online gallery. It's new and I hope you'll join us by adding your own quilt there. Submitting your quilt pics is easily done via an upload screen directly on my website. Click here now if you'd like to submit your own quilt.
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