Moving right along ...

thanks to a new quilters' group I've joined. Sadly - but mercifully - it only meets once a month - I couldn't possibly squeeze in more appointments. But it's finally a group that meets to work. All the others I've visited meet to chat. And I don't like that.

It's a diverse group of women, predominantly local with a few US Americans thrown in. All seem to be working mums, most a good ten to twenty years older than myself and much more experienced too. Some are stitchers, one owns the quilt shop where we meet - insta-supply!

And this is how I'm getting on with things.



Following Jan's advice, I popped down the road to my local DIY store and bought insulating boards. Sadly they don't come in the size I require so I bought two and taped them together. Hubby's now promised to make a frame of sorts for them.

They came as a godsent, I shuffled the blocks around and around and then around some more. Then I turned the board on its side and on its head and shuffled the blocks around some more. For the most part, the design wall resides in my laundry room so that I can stare at it while folding laundry ...


And this is my largest oeuvre to date: Carola with chocolate sauce on her face ...

No surprise really ...

... that I'm not feeling too balanced. I have not quilted in a long time! The lay-out for my Turning Twenty is final and I should really take a photo of in on my design wall.

I have been messing about with backing fabrics and decided that the ones I bought in early August are lovely but not quite right. So I went and bought more. Which is waiting to be ironed. In the meantime, it seems that the place that irons all my linens (a very traditional and normal service to have in Germany) has lost my first batch. About $110 worth of fabrics. I am so upset!!! And I cannot even say "find it or I will not come back" because they are the only decent business of that kind in my area.

Quilter's Paradise, Bank Manager's Woe!

After that desastrous trip to that local fabric store, I decided to venture a little further to a proper Quilting and Patchwork shop, very worth my while. I spent just under $150 ... too bad for the other folks! Plus at my new favorite shop, they do classes and evening quilting circles.

My new fabric's already washed and off to be ironed. Yippieh!

Aaaargh, Shopper's Woe!

So, I planned my entire morning around a trip to the local fabric wholesaler. I had been there once before and didn't find selection all that inspiring. Their service is disinterested at the best of times. So, why in Heaven's name did I go back? I really don't know.

But I went, equipped with scraps to match the colours. And they had nothing, zilch, nada, rien for me. I'm so frustrated now. And I have vowed to not return.

Hmpf! Do I really have to start another project as a stop-gap until I have time to go another store?

Much happier with the layout!

It's not perfect, it will never be perfect and therefore it will be an excellent exercise in letting go.

Tomorrow, I will buy fabric.

Warning

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn´t go and doesn´t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we´ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I´m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people´s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go.
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too surprised
When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph

(Found this at Krawuggl, who's got more patience than I do, posting in both German and English).

Look at that!

I love everything about this quilt, especially the quick and stunning backing solution!