Rainy days and quilting

It is most unfortunate that the last two days have been ... drizzle and rain. Oh dear. Today is not looking any better. There's nothing for it but to relocate to the studio/sewing room and ... sew and quilt and maybe pull everything out of the cupboards and re-sort the stash. Maxine sent me a quilt top comprised of hand-dyed fabrics that I've almost finished quilting. Inspired by Lesley Boston's work in her fantasy medieval quilt, I've stylised one of Lesley's drawings of a tree and used that as the basis for the machine quilting of Maxine's top. 

Machine quilting and practise makes perfect

It was "back to the office" today after 16 days and nights of quilting, and patchwork interrupted occasionally by family get-togethers, parties and Christmas. It was just fantastic to get so much done in good blocks of time, rather than "snatched hours" before heading off to work, or on the weekends. I am trying to be far more disciplined this year (I think I said that in 1976, 1992, and 2004) ... I got quite a few questions about quilting Liz's 21st - I did it all freehand by machine - and yes it took ages but I really have to thank Maxine O'Toole and Kim Bradley for 99% of the inspiration - and I just practised and practised .... and practised. Ten minutes a day using sandwiches - and that's straight from Kim and Maxine ... as the advertisement says, "it won't happen overnight, but it will happen". I am hooked and hope to improve on all the subsequent efforts.