Catching up

Many things have happened since I last posted.  Last weekend I taught my "Little Welsh Treasure" class at the Jen Jones Quilt Centre in Lampeter and it was a great success.  Everyone seemed to get the message that marking Welsh quilting patterns can be done simply and need not be the complicated process everyone thinks it is!  I hate plugging my work but I do demonstrate this on a video in my Little Welsh Quilts ebook - see link on the side of this blog.

It is always a pleasure teaching at Jen's and meeting up with her team.  They are such good hosts and the welcome is warm and the Quilt Centre, Shop and Deli Cafe are wonderful.

Now I must show you a picture of a sampler that I have just discovered -

Those of you who follow me on Pinterest (see button on right of this blog) will have gathered that I have become rather addicted to pinning and particularly love pinning samplers.  It's like forming a collection and being able to study them without paying.  It's such a marvellous resource and I have learnt so much by having access to so many.  In fact I have become become so inspired that I have considered doing a separate sampler blog but maybe that is biting off more than I can chew.  My Cottage Orne blog is languishing because that project is on hold at the moment, but I will start up again as soon as I feel the creative juices flow in that direction.

I would love to say that the above sampler is Welsh but it isn't;  it's listed as "Midwest wool on linen needlework sampler, ca. 1830" but it is zany enough to be Welsh and I am totally inspired by it.  At this moment I feel like postponing all projects and designing a Welsh version!  I hope you like it as much as I do?   It's rather patchworky isn't it? 

Finished! The Royal Wedding Quilt

At last I have finished the Royal Wedding Quilt!  Well almost - I still have to take out a tiny amount of tacking thread, but because the sun was shining I rushed and took these pictures in my garden -

Sorry the last picture is a bit light but hopefully it shows up the Prince of Wales Feather pattern which I designed for the four corners.  I adapted it from the printed commemorative medallion at the centre of the quilt. 

For those of you who have just tuned in, this quilt should have been made for the Charles and Di Royal Wedding but it never happened!  I put a spurt on for William and Kate but didn't make it, but managed to finish before their first Wedding Anniversary - only 31 years after the great event!

It's Easter!

I've been such a dilatory blogger lately but I've been deep in a project which had a 2nd April deadline.  It  was collected without me taking a picture, but tomorrow I will visit it and hopefully rectify that and then I will tell you the whole story.

Until then may I delight you with some pictures -

This is an Eddie Ross table setting which I saw on Pinterest and saved for Easter.  Isn't it wonderful and you can see a video about it on his link?  It reminds me of a display I saw at Saks on Fifth Avenue last March.  Maybe he did that, or then maybe it was the style of the moment?

Continuing on the blue theme and just as lovely but so much simpler -

A new Emma Bridgewater eggcup with one of their chicks!  Did you know they have a garden at the factory at Stoke on Trent and they keep chickens?  Matthew (the boss) is a chicken expert along with all his other talents. That is why there are so many chicken designs on the pottery.

Then still on the bird theme -

This is a sculpture by Helen Ellis which I would love to have in my garden.  It would fit in so well as I have gravel just that colour.  I saw it on my new favourite blog Bumble at Home.  Do go and have a read!

Have a lovely weekend.  It's sunny but very cold here at the moment.  I do hope it warms up a bit as next Thursday I'm off to West Wales to teach at Jen's and am busy wrestling with diagrams and Electric Quilt.