Inspired by my friends

I have two groups that are concerned with textile related activities to which I belong.  The Embroiderers' Guild and my patchwork group.  The women who are members of these groups constantly inspire me with the work they produce and the wonderful friendship and support that they give to me. 

I have belonged to my patchwork group, Maberly Quilters, which is limited to 20 members, for over 20 years now.  I missed the Mother's Day breakfast because of the weather but still felt included because of all the photos that arrived on my phone as the morning progressed. (They let me know what a good time I was missing.)

And these friendships have continued, even when members have moved away.  It is here that I met my good friend Angela and her quilting is so impressive that I don't have words to describe it.  She bought this panel at a local shop and turned it into this.

and pieced and quilted this quilt for a relative.

The group meets twice a month and most people have some thing for show and tell.  Some great jokes, or updates on family life.  One member Pat has been making rope bowls that I have shown before and some of us, (I would love to make this) have been inspired to try it.  Sue made a great set of place mats.

Then there had been discussion about using 2" square of fabric.  Now some quilts are starting to appear.  This was from Barbara and I know there are others in the pipeline.  (Not from me!)

So I feel very grateful to my love of textiles and all the wonderful people who it has brought in my life.

I am drowning in crochet!

The thing with this "Spring-along" is that they are making a cushion and I want a blanket.  There are only 19 flowers in the cushion and over 150 in the blanket.

The next problem is the yarn I am using.  There is NO WAY I can justify buying yarn with the size of my stash.  That yarn has to be used.  The problem here is that what I have is thicker.  This means that the finished flowers are bigger and therefore do not look the same as the ones in the image above.  But, I have come up with a solution to this problem.  Just change the pattern, slightly!!

It will still be slightly different than the original, not that you can notice,  but I will be using up that wool and be feeling very righteous about the whole experience.  That still leaves the problem of how many flowers I have to crochet,  I will be drowning in flowers for a while yet.

Where I live

These are some more shots of Mowong beach, this time with Nugget.  He is my son's dog and is completely loveable, but no brains, except when there is food around.

He is most unhappy because he would like to be swimming with my grand daughters but on this beach he has to be on the leash.

Still, we took him to the dog off the leash beach later in the day.  This day was for the girls to enjoy the swimming without that annoying dog.

WIPW

I have a beginners class this week end coming so have prepared all my kits and bib and bobs in preparation.

The crocheting continues and I still have another 40 flowers to crochet row 3 to.  Each flower ends up as a hexigon but I have to finish row 3 first.

And I have a little bit of applique under way.

  I couldn't buy the Moda towelling anywhere nearby so have had  to send off for a kit.  I am going to make a couple of modifications to the pattern.  The main ones being omitting the lining and interfacing.  I want this runner for the patio table so those things are not necessary.  I was sent a complimentary pattern with my purchase so I might need to stitch this as well.

And the last Kogin bag for the experiment on how to make up the bags. 

No set design here, it is just making up it's own way how it wants to go.

A little Mole

I have no charcoal knitting wool in my stash.  Looking at Julie's blog I think I might need to buy some soon.

These look the cutest little fellows (girls and boys) and I just can't wait for the pattern to be released. 

Well maybe I can wait.  I have to get that crocheted blanket finished before I start something else.  I will have to crochet quicker.