All Geese Safely Gathered In!

At last all the geese are in place - and it really has not taken me very long to do. I have loved putting this together especially working out the design from a photograph and choosing the fabrics. I am very pleased with the fabrics I chose and with the overall effect. I shall have a couple of weeks on other projects and then start on the quilting!

Thank you for taking the time to look - happy stitching!

Lin

PS - notice how brown our grass is!

Accroquilt: Mon premier bloc Dear Jane...

Please have a look at this DJ block - it is her first! I feel like throwing mine away.
Accroquilt: Mon premier bloc Dear Jane...: Il y en a tellement à confectionner mais j'en ai choisi un avec plusieurs petits morceaux pour débuter.  Cela va me mettre dans le bain de c...

Tree Frog and the 'canicule'

The tree frog is on the grille outside my window again today. We have not seen much of him/her this summer, probably as it was not warm enough early on.

We had three, on and off, outside the window last year - here is one taking a bath in the bowl of water I put out for them. I expect that the cold winter is the reason for the lower numbers.

Not quality pictures I am afraid as they were taken through the window.

We have had 10 days of temperatures over 30, with 38 over the weekend. Nice at first not to feel guilty about sewing instead of weeding but having to keep the doors closed to keep out the heat is not fun. And it is so dusty.

I have completed another DJ block, have several cut out and ready to sew in the evenings and have started putting a few together with their sashing. I need to work the sashing as I go along so that the colours blend in with my blocks.

Geese are still landing and hopefully the top will be finished by the end of the week.

Have a good week and thank you for reading this

No Time to Sew!

We have had friends staying with us for the last 10 days which has been lovely. We have had some great days out and local walks but with temperatures in the mid 30's for the last few days I am now feeling very tired!
Most of our days out were in pursuit of butterfly's as our friend is a keen lepidopterist. I was busy with my camera and have a few good pictures but they will fly off just as I get the camera focused!

This is a female Silver Washed Fritillary

An Adonis Blue variant found in our garden.

Marbled White

Speckled Wood

We had a great day out at the coast on Tuesday - a two hour journey from here to the Gironde estuary. There were plenty of birds and butterfly's around and the weather was perfect for a picnic. 

A first for me was to see teasel's in flower - I was amazed to find that they are blue!

I hope to get back to some sewing next week. The fabric has arrived for my flying geese and so I would like to get the border completed.

Have a good week and happy sewing.

Lin

Geese on hold

Having made a small error in my calculations I am short about 20 flying geese so have had to order some more fabric - a shame as I was getting on so well with it.
So out came my Dear Jane and I have done two more blocks.

I was looking forward to doing some hand piecing but these two both seemed obvious machine pieces.

Another project that I want to get on with while waiting for geese fabric is sorting out my scraps. I recently ordered this book and a friend brought it over from UK for me this week.

I read about it in a friends magazine and thought it had some sensible ideas. Basically Joan Ford tells you to cut all your scrap fabrics into 3 sizes of square - 5". 3 1/2" and 2". Separate them into dark, medium and light and then she gives you 20 projects to make using them up. Easy!

The three sizes of square work well together because a 4 patch block made from 2" squares can be alternated with the 3 1/2" squares. And a 9 patch block using 2" squares can be alternated with the 5" blocks, and so on.

I will let you know how I get on.

Lin

Oh Dear Jane!

Reading various blogs I find that quite a few people are working on 'Dear Jane' Quilts.
Back in 2002 I bought the book and a stack of fabric and embarked on the journey. But soon after, I started on a City & Guilds course and Jane was parked in a box up in a top cupboard, and there she has languished for the last 10 years. (I have to say she is not my oldest UFO!)
Inspired by all the lovely work I have seen I decided to get Jane out again and instead of rushing at it like last time I would try to complete one or two blocks a month and take it steady.
Of course I did not choose an easy route - my plan was a colour wash quilt going from dark blue in the top left corner to yellow in the bottom right corner via purply reds and orange.
So here are the 11 blocks I completed in 2002.

I must say my eyesight was better in those days!

So off I go to start on my next block.

Lin

The Geese have landed! - well some of them anyway

This is a design by Sharyn Craig called 'A-Maze-ing Geese' which I have had great fun putting together. I had to get a move on as we were expecting supper guests and I needed the dining table. Usually at this time of year we are eating outside so it would not have been a problem, but the weather is so un-July-like!

Now for the border!