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Edinburgh and Jane

It has been a fantastic weekend! Yesterday we went to Edinburgh. I haven't been back since I finished my degree and it was so good to be back - I called this city home for four years, it's where I met my husband and it is full of wonderful memories. But we weren't there for a trip down memory lane - six of us headed to the Edinburgh Quilt Show. It's not the biggest show, but there was plenty of choice and there was no danger that I wouldn't spend any money! Here's my haul:

I picked up mostly fat quarters to add to my stash: I love the feeling of wanting to start a project and being able to pull some fabric immediately. I'm also becoming more confident in putting together fabric from different ranges to create a truly unique look, and I get the variety by buying fat quarters. There's some Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill, Denise Schmidt's Chicopee and FMF, and Natalie Lymer's Folk Tale and some Essex Linen - it was great to finally see these fabrics in person. I also got some more Color Me Retro, lots of batiks for another project I want to start in the next few weeks, some good value Bella Solid Charm packs (I have a plan for these too) and a Dinosaur panel to make for a little boy I know. As well as some more fat quarters which I just liked! That purple one in the middle - that's possibly my favourite purchase of the day - it's a Hoffmann Fabric called Spring Fever, and I used the green version in my Stained Quilt - I was looking for more of the green, which I loved, and found this instead. Worst fabric purchase of the day goes to Suzie for this orange "bargain" (this photo doesn't really convey how horrific it is) - she's determined to make something with it that we all think is wonderful - good luck, Suzie:

After the show we had dinner at our favourite pub - The World's End on the Royal Mile. If you're ever in Edinburgh, this is a must! We examined our purchases and worked out who had spent the most - it wasn't me! Thank you to Suzie, Sue, Linda, Lexi and Louise for a great day. Needless to say, no sewing was done yesterday!

But today it was! I normally plan what I will spend the day doing when I have a day to spend in front of my sewing machine, and today I was going to make a couple of Dear Jane blocks, because it's been a while, and then move onto other things. But I got rather hooked on those pretty little blocks and I've spent all day playing with them!

I prepared eight and made four: F3: Snowball. I foundation pieced this block and the fabric is Art Gallery Bazaar Style.

D5: Cathedral Window: my favourite block of the day using my favourite fabric from yesterday. I foundation pieced this one, too.

D3: Jason's Jacks: Another Art Gallery fabric - Lilly Belle. This was applique. I tried the method using freezer paper, where you place the dull side onto the back of the fabric and then fold over the seam allowance and iron it to the shiny side. It worked ok, but my curves aren't very smooth. Next time I will try the opposite....

And B1: Batchelor Buttons: the background here is yet another Art Gallery fabric (I seem to be developing quite the addiction), this time from Poetica. Again I'm not wild with the applique. I made myself a circular template then gathered the fabric round it, nice smooth edges, pressed it, then removed the template, by which stage the curve wasn't smooth any more. But from a distance, and in the final quilt, it looks fine. But my applique definitely needs some work.

Whilst I was in Budapest I had a brainwave about my DJ quilt, which I had forgotten about until today. I want to hand quilt it (I know, I'm mad), and the easiest way for me to do that will be to work on small sections, so I'm going to use the quilt as you go technique and join it all together following Leah Day's tutorial. This will work well because I was planning on very narrow sashing between the blocks anyway. So I've split the quilt into 9 patches which I will make up and quilt. Of course, I only remembers this after I had prepared my eight, somewhat random, blocks. Will try harder next time :) That reminds me - I still need to finish off the yellow block I was working on in Budapest....

One other piece of news for the day - do you fancy another Bee? I found this one today - the Get Your Hex On bee, for everyone who loves English Paper Piecing - there are still slots left in Hive 3 if you'd like to join the fun - you find more information and the sign up form here.

Get Your Hex On

Comments

Great purchases and I love the dear jane blocks. hugs
scraphappy said…
What great Dear Jane blocks! If you are planning on trying the freezer paper on top method, there is a nice tutorial at the fabric therapy blog. I have switched to this method and had really good luck after a little bit of practice. I also have a set of perfect circles that are really handy.
Lin said…
What a gorgeous collection of fabrics and your DJ blocks are so pretty.
myBearpaw said…
Oh I recognise some of those FQs! I think you must have visited my stand!! :)

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