More tripping

We were in London last weekend to celebrate our eldest son's engagement, so there wasn't much in the way of sewing going on. Instead we mingled with the tourists at Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge, London

and enjoyed the view of London, Old and New, on our way across the bridge to brunch on the Sunday morning.

So, there has been some frantic sewing going on since the weekend in an attempt to get the Scrappy Chevron quilt top finished in time for our son's visit home next weekend.

Ta da! A finished quilt top. Fortunately after my previous post I found my rhythm with these blocks and there was much less unintentional seam ripping action with the last two rows than there was with the first three :)

Now all I need to do is back, baste, quilt and bind it before Sunday! There won't be much housework done around here in the next few days that is for sure :)

So that's my progress looking forward to seeing yours.


Linking up to WOW

Taking the water

A couple of weeks ago we spent a weekend in Derbyshire. I had never visited this part of the UK, so it has been on my list of places to see for a long time. Despite a rather dismal weather forecast for the weekend, our stay in Buxton did not disappoint.

Since Roman Times, visitors have been coming to take the waters at Buxton and modern-day visitors can still do the same.

This is St Ann's well, where the famous Buxton water still runs freely, indeed a local filled several bottles from the well just after I had taken this photo. Naturally, bottled Buxton water is also available at a price, although, surprisingly (to us anyway) the bottled water in the hotel was from further north in Harrogate!

The Crescent where the wealthy Georgians and Edwardians "took the waters" is currently under renovation but the Opera House and Pavilion are in great shape.

The Pavilion was hosting an Antiques Fair whilst we were there, so we popped in for a browse and popped back out again fairly quickly, having seen the prices! Silver tankards at £18,000 were just not on our shopping list that day :)

Despite the weather forecast the Pavilion Gardens were wreathed in sunshine for our visit and looked at their best.

Even this fellow, who is described as "big and rather ugly" in the guide book, was looking good!

But not as good as these little cuties :)

Mother Duck had her work cut out with this brood!


I had hoped to visit Hardwick Hall on this trip, as I had read that Bess of Hardwick, who had the Hall built in the 1500's was a fantastic needlewoman and there were samples of her work in the Hall, but alas the House was closed on the only day we could get there. Still, that means we will have to take another trip to Derbyshire, so I am not complaining :)

Linking up to

Live A Colorful Life

Seam ripping and Chevrons

You would think wouldn't you that when making blocks that require a seam ripper for every strip i.e. the Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks from Quiltville, I would try not to have to use the seam ripper on any other part of the block? You would think that, but you would be wrong!

Quiltville's method for putting together Trip Around the World blocks involves sewing strips together in a loop then cutting them to the square size and ripping out a seam in each strip to make graduated strips.

So, for each 6 strip block you have to rip out 6 seams, which means in a 25 square quilt I am ripping out 150 times, more than sufficient for anyone.

Apparently not! The two aqua/black blocks in the bottom rows should be at the other end of the row. Unfortunately, this wasn't the only occasion I did this :(



And you would not believe (well, maybe given the above you would!) the amount of times this is the way these urns were facing when I looked at the finished block.

Perhaps my subconscious enjoys seam ripping more than I realised, or maybe it is because I would really like to have this finished before my son comes home for the weekend in a week's time.

Despite all the seam ripping going on I am more than halfway with this quilt top, which is kind of a minor miracle at this stage.

Two more rows to go, and goodness knows how much seam ripping and I will have a quilt top! I am not following the Trip Around the World pattern exactly as I have gone for a 5 x 5 arrangement I thought it would look a bit odd, so have gone for chevrons instead.

If you haven't already check out the free patterns at Quiltville you should there are loads, all aimed at using up your scraps :)

So here is how my list is looking

• In Color Order HST BOM - quilting started!
• Sunday Morning Quilt Bee blocks received 
• Sunday Morning Quilt2 Bee 10 sets of blocks received
• Sunday Morning Quilt2 Bee blocks sent (on schedule)
• Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (3 months behind schedule)
• Scrappy Trip Around the World Bee -  COMPLETED AND SENT
• And And Sew On BOM - four blocks completed (one behind schedule)
• Crafty Cooks Apron and Recipe Swap  - COMPLETED AND SENT
• Son's quilt - 3 rows sewn, 2 rows to be added
• Paris Cushion - fabric received
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted  
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks 
• 18 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (only 2 more to go!) 

So that's my progress looking forward to seeing yours.

Linking up to WOW