A Finish At Last

I know you don't believe it, I can hardly believe it myself, but it's true, I have actually finished a quilt. It's Confetti, the quilt made from the leftovers of the autograph panel I made for Chris and Sarah's wedding quilt.

And here it is! Made from the bonus half square triangles from the stitch and flip corners, plus some extra ones I made to bring in some more colours, and some plain squares. I kept the quilting simple, a quarter inch each side of the seam lines as it looks in the quilt from the free pattern from Kitchen Table Quilting. It was fairly quick and easy to do and I like the look, it keeps it nice and snuggly too, which is not always the case with heavily quilted quilts. I used two of their favourite colours for the binding, mainly the turquoise with just a splash of pink.

My favourite way to make a quilt back. I just cut a standard width of fabric lengthways, about a third from one edge, and insert a panel. I make the panel from the scraps left over from the adding a strip  of background to the top and bottom.

I had some more leftover scraps, and a few more HSTs too, I have three cushion tops made to match the back and I will make a some extra HSTs for two to match the front. Unfortunately I don't think I will have enough of the silver grey so I will need to order more, but I really don't want to do such a small order, so I will make those in a few weeks.

I have another quilt almost finished too, a Linus quilt for the blog hop next month, Creating a Quilted Legacy, but of course I can't show you that haha! If you missed it you can read more about it on this post, and we will let you know about details and prizes next week.

How are you all holding up in these turbulent times? It's pretty awful isn't it? Here in the UK we are in lockdown, as is half the world it seems. My husband and I are staying home, we go out to walk the dogs for about half an hour every day and the very occasional shopping trip. I try not to go to the supermarket, although I do need to go now. There is a small bakery a few minutes walk from us, just over the little bridge in the next village. It has a cafe normally which is closed of course, so they are now selling fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs, flour and sugar, and a variety of other stuff. I even bought loo roll there last week, well, it was a pack of toilet sheets that go in a dispenser, but it's the same sort of stuff and much better than to risk running out!  All that on top of the fresh bread, cakes, pastries and other bakery lines they usually sell. It's where I go for all my fresh stuff, about once or twice a week, and I will continue going there when this is all over too. After all, they are supporting the local community so it's only right we support them.

Did I tell you I was having a new kitchen installed? I did, and luckily it was finished just before we went into lockdown. I say finished, it needs decorating, I have bare plaster in places and the new radiator isn't connected yet as it needs the wall painting behind first. We were supposed to have it painted in April, but it's a casualty of the virus and will have to wait. I haven't a pic of the finished kitchen to date but I do have a couple of work in progress pics I can show you.

Oh yes, it was that bad. Two weeks it took, I had the little fold up table from my sewing room with a kettle or a toaster on (it was only big enough for one or the other at a time), and a microwave on the polished top of my little side table. I had a washing up bowl in the bath to wash the dishes, nightmare I can tell you. fortunately it was just me, hubby too the dogs up to the holiday home to live in relative luxury. Just as well, I couldn't have coped with them living here with the house in uproar.

So, what did I do while the kitchen fitters were here? Played in my sewing room of course! Apart from quilting Confetti, I did a little work on the wedding quilt.

I'm a lot further on now but this is stage one. I'm so pleased with it I just wish it was for me! I will tell you all about it later, it's not my design but I did get permission form the designer, Nydiak who is on Instagram, she also has a website. Check it out, she is so very talented, and she has had first place at QuiltCon for improv too. I think her work is stunning.


Ok, I wrote this about three weeks ago and I'm posting it now. Why the delay? I have been on information overload with the dreadful news echoed in almost every country in our world, I haven't been able to think about much else.  I am on awe of all those who work to keep us all safe, the doctors and nurses, healthcare assistants, cleaners and porters as well as all the others who work in healthcare. Then there are the other key workers, police, government officials, shop assistants, refuse collectors, bus drivers, delivery workers and all the others who work to keep everything in life going. Every one is a hero, all I have to do is stay home and not spread the virus.

I'd like to leave you with one thought, everything in life is transient. My grandmothers wore skirts down to their ankles, as a child in the 1960's I was in one of the first generations to wear a mini skirt. Yet in the grand scheme of things very little time had passed. It wasn't so long ago that people were dying of polio, now it has been eradicated from the world. This too will pass, I just need to keep reminding myself, and keep the television and radio turned off during the day.

There is so much in the world to be grateful for, I have a wonderful family, husband, children, grandchildren, parents and siblings, and I will have a new grandchild in the autumn. I am thankful for my blogging friends, for Janice from Color Creating and Quilting and Karen from KaHolly, you both supported me through one of the worst times of my life and support me still, and we haven't even met in person. I have much to thank you for. For my friends in this country too, Jan and Wendy, who saw me at my worst and didn't turn away.

Hold your family and friends close and love your neighbours, the world is a better place when we all help and support each other.

Until next time,
with love from,
Kate x