Amelie's Cushion

 Nearly there!  I feel there really should be a drum roll - quilting complete!!!!! 
Now I have to make the cushion (that's the worse bit)

Rainbow Challenge - purple

Such a lot has been going on this month, so I've struggled to find time to do my purple blocks (I know they don't really need to be done in June, but its been good fun keeping up with the challenge) consequently I rushed to do them, realised they weren't good enough, unpicked them and redid them.  And the moral to this tale - don't rush!!

Amelie's cushion

It's slowly coming together. 

I've sewn all of the leaves, flowers and tree in place.

And started quilting the background.... I always wonder why I do such heavily quilted backgrounds, but I know it will be worth it in the end!  Its all those fiddly bits in between the branches and leaves.  I do love the tails on the birds, it makes them look really exotic.  Lots still to do though!! 

ALQS7

Ooh goodie, just signed up to another little quilt swap (number 7) run by Kate at http://www.katesquilting.blogspot.com/ The last one I participated in I made a scrumptious little elephant - made one for myself as I went along because I knew I wouldn't want to part with him. 

Amelie's cushion

Work in progress!

This is the crucial bit, getting every leaf and flower in the right place.

 But once you do, it begins to look great.  And it really is worth the effort.  I'm pleased with it so far - just have to attach it all now!!!

Amelie's Cushion

I feel as if I've spent a lot of time watching television this weekend.  After watching the pageant on the River Thames on Sunday, it was the Diamond Jubilee concert Monday evening and today has been the Queens Church service, carriage ride and then the fly past of the red arrows and world war 1 and 2 planes.

I have however made a start on Amelie's Christening present!  I'm going to make her a cushion from the 'Don't Look Now' range.

 A trip to Creative Quilting is always fun and I got the cream background fabric, the green for the leaves and the patterned fabric for the tree.  The flowers and birds will come from my stash.

 The outline of the tree in place.

and starting to assemble the flowers and birds!

Diamond Jubilee weekend!

I absolutely love living on the edge of the New Forest but if I lived in London still I would definitely be participating in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations!  With that in mind we went to Mottisfont (a National Trust property near Romsey) to see an exhibition of Patrick Lichfield's polaroid pictures.  He started taking pictures in the sixties and kept a record of what he had taken over the years in polaroids (about 6cm square), framing a years worth of photos and hanging them on the wall of his studio in West London.  Every photo for him, told a story of the person and the fun he had had photographing them!  There are about 50 - 60 pictures in every frame, starting in 1970 through to 2005 (he died suddenly in November 2005).  He was best known as the royal photographer, but he took hundreds of pictures of people who weren't at the time famous but later became well known - actresses and actors, politicians etc.  Interestingly he took The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana's wedding photographs but there were none of them in the exhibition, but some good pictures of The Queen and Prince Phillip and Princess Ann.

I couldn't take photographs inside the exhibition so I've included some pictures taken in the grounds of Mottisfont!

Mottisfont has a beautiful walled garden that is full of English roses, unfortunately we were here a bit too early, so lots of roses in bud but not in bloom.  We'll come back in about 2 weeks to see them again!

 I'm not entirely sure the relevance of the mosaic angel, but I really like her.  The light and dark shade on her face is wonderful!