Now where was I?

Oh that’s right – I’d finished the top of the quilt! I proudly took it into work on Monday last week knowing that I had one or two people who, despite having a laugh at my expense the previous week, were actually quite interested in what I’d done. There was just the one detractor who simply doesn’t like things like this! She nobly looked in the opposite direction whilst I showed off my handiwork and no offence was taken!

Friday was my day off and I met up with Janet to visit Wickham Market for coffee, a natter and a quick trip to spend my voucher form Quilters Haven! I needed to get the batting and backing fabric for the quilt and couldn’t resist the opportunity to buy a couple of fat quarter bundles while I was there – baby blues and baby pinks.

After the excitement I was exhausted and made my way home for a sneaky snooze! Son2 was off out for the evening so I’d taken the opportunity to buy some fish for dinner as it would only be me & John – until Son1 sent a text asking if we fancied company for dinner! Er OK, not enough fish for four and he wouldn’t eat it anyway so I offered a takeaway, the reply surprised me ‘We’re shopping so we’ll bring dinner with us’! Result – that’s the sort of visitors I like! And it was a healthy-ish meal of chicken in sauce, baked potatoes, beans and baby corn!

Saturday loomed fine and dry and football beckoned for the afternoon, rumour had it that the game was a sellout so we nipped to town early to make sure we could park, just had to while away the extra couple of hours shopping and eating! Turned out not to be a sellout after all but I got myself some lovely tops for work for the winter! Oh – and we won! Ipswich Town are now second in the league – let’s hope we can sustain it!

You can tell the seasons are changing because X Factor is back on our screens (sort of American Idol but different) we’re coming to the end of the auditions which give us all, more often than not, a real good laugh on a Saturday night. Twitter was alive with comments begging the ‘singers’ to stop and wondering who ever had told them they could sing!

Which brings me to Sunday, my new found day of creativity! After being a good wife & mother and having finished the ironing I set about plucking up the courage (yes I know that sounds feeble) to make the three pieces of the quilt become one. I asked John to help with the cutting of the batting and the backing – I was too much of a wimp to to do it myself! I called upon my trusty ‘Quilting for Dummies’ book and opted for an ‘envelope’ method to finish it off – again I was too cowardly to try a bias edging!

So here it is, after a couple of hours hunched over the machine and a few curses on the way as the batting decided to stretch over the top of the quilt and I managed to stitch over the masking tape I’d used to pick out the diagonal stitching lines (yes – I know I could use tailors chalk and I will next time!), the finished article. Am I pleased with it? Hell, yes! Will I do more? You bet!

Looking slightly crumpled in the late afternoon sunshine

 

The backing is greener than it looks on here

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