July update - Clamshell Calamity!

Remember how far I had got last month above with my clamshells? I was so excited at having the 3.5" Inklingo download to continue as it would save so much preparation time, alas, I just couldn't match up my Inklingo clams with the traditionally prepped ones.

So, in order not to waste all this precious fabric alot of unpicking had to be done

and a template was made to mark up the Inklingo points on the unpicked clamshells

which then matched up perfectly with the Inklingo ones!

So after alot of frantic stitching, I've just about achieved as much as I did in June.

I'm so pleased I switched to the Inklingo clams as they do go together more acurately than the other method I was using. Now when I look back at the 1st photo in this post I can see alot of irregularities, so, as they say...... it was meant to be.
Happy clamming :) G

PS. Thank you for all the sweet comments on the last post about Lucy, she really is an amazing cat & has settled into her new home so well in just a couple of weeks, we are so lucky to have her.

Lucy's settling in.....

Having spent her first 2.5 years in a cattery, Lucy is adjusting to home life very well. All the usual household noises were very strange & alarming to her at first. She soon became quite mesmerised by the television & even watched a bit of the world cup final.

It didn't take her long to find a comfy spot on my Klosjes quilt top either!

She also enjoys spending time on the windowsill watching the birds when she's not busy playing with her toy mice or catching flies.

.....and soon discovered the comfort of a nice soft sofa for a little snooze!
All in all, I think she's settling in really well, don't you?

Diamonds & tumbling blocks

Workshop Day 1
For Friday's workshop we were working with Big Diamonds from Kaffe Fassett's book Kaleidoscope of Quilts & I chose to work with the selection of blues pictured above. The day was very full on & intense as the idea is to get a huge variety of fabric cut & placed on the design wall quickly in order to have the time to focus on placement of colour values & the overall quilt design.

Brandon loved getting right in there with suggested alternative placements & was always on hand for advice when needed.
At 3pm it was critique time & Kaffe went round and gave his perspective of each individual piece of work & offered more advice on placement, emphasising the importance of using large prints for this quilt as small ones tend to become lost in the overall design and end up looking like plain colour fabrics with no definition or movement.

It was a fabulously inspiring day, so much so, that once home I had to continue cutting diamonds to complete my quilt & started machine stitching them into strips the next day (yes I actually used the machine!).

Workshop Day 2

Sunday's workshop was dedicated to creating big tumbling blocks inspired by Liza Prior Lucy's quilt in Kaffe's Quilt Romance book. The emphasis here was to focus on light, medium & dark colour values & their correct placement to create the 3 dimensional effect of the blocks.

Alot of cutting & placing was done

Loved this above combination by one of the ladies

I chose to work with graphic prints in warm ochres, browns & golds from Kaffe's & Brandon's range of fabrics as I'm planning to make this for my son. It was quite funny to start with as Brandon was pinching my diamonds & placing them as quickly as I was cutting, so the first few blocks at the top left of the picture will remain as placed by him!
After the all important critique, Kaffe once again offered to sign copies of his books & pose for pictures before departing for the day.
I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 days with these guys & am so glad I chose to do both workshops.......even though exhausting! They are very intense but an awful lot is achieved, so well worth it & I would highly recommend them without hesitation.

Guess who's coming to Jersey?

Can you believe it? Kaffe Fasset is actually coming to our little Island to run some workshops next weekend. Am I attending some you ask? You bet I am!

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On a totally different note, we have a new addition to our family.........meet Lucy. She's a 3 year old British Shorthair Silver Spottie and is a real sweetie.

She only came home yesterday & it's going to take a while for her to settle in & feel confident in her new home as she's been used to living in a cattery with her breeder.......... this is where she decided she felt safe today, on the DVD shelf behind the television!

The house has been so empty since our dear 14 year old labrador, Max left us 18 months ago, so I felt it was time to welcome a new pet into the home. We still miss him loads.