What have I been doing?

It's been a long time and though I do drop in and look at blogs now and again, I seem to have no urge to write!  Blame it on Facebook and Instagram, as they seem to have completely taken over my online life.

As you all know, though patchwork and quilting will always be my first love, I have become rather obsessed with collecting Emma Bridgewater spongeware and belong to several groups on Facebook that discuss, swop and sell her products.  I also go on trips to the factory in Stoke, which remind me of the buzz I used to get going on quilting and embroidery trips, which now are very much a thing of the past for me! 

So what have I been doing?   Where to start?  Well I have joined Instagram and really love it.  I have always enjoyed taking the pictures for this blog but now I seem to be doing it all the time and getting much more immediate feedback?  One of the downsides of blogging is that you get so few comments and as we bloggers thrive on feedback after a while one gets the feeling that no one is listening.  I know this isn't the case and that many people have difficulty either expressing themselves or actually getting through the technical difficulties, but lack of comments is definitely a downer for me.  With FB and IG this is not a problem, there is plenty of inter action!

I have been working on some projects, mostly using Liberty fabric.  Liberty has always been a great favourite of mine and now through Instagram (IG) I have discovered that there are groups all over the world absolutely obsessed with it and also that it is manufactured in different colours for Japan and Australia!  I had no idea of this?  Many years ago I was going to do a quilting book with Liberty, but after working at it quite intensively, the publishers pulled out because they didn't think the fabric would be available worldwide.  How wrong they were?

I am in the middle of quite a few things! In fact I'm feeling rather frustrated because I have so many ideas but not enough time to actually sew them, especially as everything is being done by hand.  Many are using my current favourite technique of broiderie perse, but on a smaller scale!

Here I have been cutting out some of the flowers from Liberty Tana Lawn and putting them together to form a bouquet -

A couple of finished projects - these are two small quilts.

Here's the bouquet in the first picture set within a little quilt -

and another in progress -

Here is another cut out and ready to go -

Some little houses and gardens which will be made into a quilt -

As well as the above, I have been quilting my Cottage Orne quilt, so though not posting here, I am not rusting away!

Here is the link to my Instagram pictures as I can't seem to find an official link button for this blog!