My Wonderful Prize! And some WIPs

Hi there!


Last time I promised you photographs of the wonderful quilt I'd won - sorry to have taken so long!

**********

But first, let me introduce you, to the Pilgrim Quilters (who meet in  Banstead, Surrey), every two years they hold an exhibition with trade tables, raffle, tombola, craft sales tables, and demonstrations ..... oh, and there is always plenty of coffee, tea and cakes available! It's all in aid of charity, and this year it was in aid of St Raphael's Hospice.

On PQ's website, under Gallery, you can view photographs of the quilts that were on display.

Well the first thing we did when we arrived at the show was to buy some raffle tickets! There were lots of prizes - I didn't really look to see what was there (you don't actually expect to win, do you? well I don't anyway!) but I remember there were 3 quilts and some smaller items. The first prize was a "Pineapple" quilt, then the quilt I won, and I seem to remember there was a smaller quilt ... probably a lap quilt. For anyone new to quilting, do Google "Pineapple quilts" there are lots of pictures of them, and also a tutorial by Amanda of Crazy Mum Quilts!

We wandered admiringly amongst the quilts on show.

Each year they have a few tables of goodies for sale that members have made, and this year was no different. If you've never been to one of these shows, there is always the opportunity to buy jars of cottons, old patterns, quilting magazines and bags of scraps material cheaply ....  all items their members no longer want or need!

**********

There are generally a number members demonstrating different quilting techniques. At the time I visited the exhibition two of the ladies were stitching two different types of hexagon quilts, and a third was showing how to make a "new to me" block known "Puff Pastry"!

I took the opportunity of having a go!

We started with a plain 3" square of backing fabric, and a pattern square of 5" (Wrong Sides together). Using a chalk marker we indicated the centre of both squares, on the outside of each piece, and with some clever folds we proceeded to fold and stitch our squares, with an ingenious twist at the end! One block took about 10 minutes to make, at the most.

There was an old magazine on the table showing a picture of a cushion cover made using these blocks .... very pretty!

"Puff Pastry" Block

**********

And now, with a big "Thank you" to the ladies, here is the Wonderful Prize I won from Pilgrim Quilters

My Wonderful Prize!

The quilt is of such a generous size it is more than adequate to cover our King Sized bed!

**********

Work In Progress 

For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to finish at least one Splendid Sampler Block! 

I thought this would be an easy enough block - EPP flowers - and I have been stitching my flowers at every opportunity, and especially when DH and I have been travelling by train, then, when I get too annoyed with the fiddliness  ...  I have my cross stitch with me ...  to fall back on! 

But, even after another journey yesterday, I am still stitching flowers!!!!

*********

Before we dashed out on our journey yesterday morning I was planning another zippy purse, with some hand quilting .... using the following scraps .... a bargain bag from yet another exhibition! I cut the pieces I wanted to use, sprayed them with starch and then ran out of time .... ironing the starched pieces would have to wait ..... we were off down the road to catch a train ....  heading for lunch at our favourite Vegetarian Organic Italian restaurant.

And oh well, I was back to stitching my EPP flowers again!

**********

I am finishing with a picture I took when DH and I went for a stretch of the legs last weekend. It was just light enough to capture a picture of the last rays of the day, and I don't know about you, but I never tire of seeing silhouettes of trees, and floaty clouds, against a pretty sky!

Thank you for popping by.

I hope you are doing something great this weekend!
Have fun!!




Hugs,
Barbara xxx

Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday with Kelly of my Quilt Infatuation.