Practising my quilting

Last weekend I pieced together a big simple medallion in plain colours (yellow and purple and green, which I am not terribly sure about now, but it seemed like a good idea at the time). I am quilting every border in something different to practice free motion machine quilting; not marking or drawing anything but trying out a few designs completely freehand. Unsurprisingly, some are much more successful than others. I re-did the baptist fans on a smaller scale. There's about a quarter inch between the stitching lines.



Luckily I had a long meeting on Tuesday afternoon where I could doodle to my heart's content. I justify this by saying I listen better when I doodle .... if I have to sit and stare at the speaker my mind completely wanders off. But if my hands are doing something then I can listen properly and even make sensible comments (when I can think of anything sensible to say. Not always guaranteed). And for some reason my work colleagues take a dim view of me bringing my knitting into meetings, but if you have a pen and paper - who knows - you might even be taking notes. Hah.






These ferns came out quite nicely when I stitched them up, as did the ubiquitous peapods. Modern quilting motif of the month I think. I used a striped sheeting on the back, so the back of the quilt bears a strange resemblance to my doodles...

Today was a very quiet Saturday - my husband did baseball after my  heroic efforts on the fund raising bbq last weekend. Actually not so heroic but my god it was cold. I stayed home this morning and coppiced the daisies which had gotten enormous. I took out the secateurs but ended up pruning them with a hacksaw! If you need a saw to prune your daisies then they are far too big. 

So in the end my only outing today was for more thread. Number one son came too, and bought some modelling clay, to make an Egyptian vase. They are doing a unit on ancient egypt and we have had obelisks and the odd hieroglyphic. I'm keeping some white fabric on hand because there is certain to be a wrapped-up mummy sooner or later...