Parisville is finished

The binding is now on the Parisville quilt and James has well and truly claimed it as his. He really is mummy's little helper at the moment. I took it outside to photograph and he was so excited. He ran back in to grab his camera whilst I managed to quickly snap a few pics of it on the line. He appeared with his camera and started wittering away in his "official" voice (it goes about an octave lower when he's speaking about something important - like he's the authority on it *cute*). I managed to grab some pics of him doing his job............

Deep breath "I can do this"

Look at that concentration!

Patting the quilt to check it's okay and in the right position *love*

Getting a close up

And here is the finished article. The hand quilting was painstacking but it's left it beautifully soft & snuggly and I think it was worth it now. I am even growing to love the subtlty of the white thread used for the hand stitching - there was a point where I wished that I had used a contrasting thread but clean, crisp white is definitely the right choice. I used Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow herringbone print in navy for the binding:

The front

The back

Back to some TV watching - this cold is still wiping me out!

Atishoooooooooo!

It was our 11th Wedding Anniversary on Friday (where has that time gone??!) and we were due to have a day in Chester (where we were married) and a night to ourselves whilst my parents had the kids.

However, Thursday I started with a terrible cold and was fit for nothing. But, Ross has his new 3D TV and was content watching films & bits & pieces on there so all was good. We did have a quick nip to John Lewis where I was thrilled to see they had Joel Dewberry. So, I treated myself to a few yards of his herringbone pattern in a few different colours. After a snooze in the car (I really wasn't too well) and a rest when we got home, I managed to cut some 2 1/2" strips from the navy herringbone to make the binding for my Parisville quilt. This morning I felt well enough to get the machine out to stitch the strips together, iron & stitch onto the quilt. Now to find some time to hand stitch the binding on and it will be finished! James has already laid claim to it - we'll see if he remembers when it's finished!!

I'm still here!

Life has somewhat taken over, though. We had a fabulous week away at Butlins at the end of April - the weather was very kind to us and the kids had a whale of a time

Work is busy and sees me working into most evenings so there is little time left for sewing. I have had a fabulous scrappy day at Lou's with great friends for company but can't share anything from that just yet as it's for a forthcoming kit

In the spare time I have found, I have been hand quilting my Parisville quilt, which gives me such pleasure. I chose white Guttermann quilting thread, doubled over. With hindsight (such a wonderful thing!) I wish I had used a contrasting thread to show up more. But it looks good anyway (well I think so!) and I do love the softness of a handquilted quilt

Auditioning......................

Am still happily making blocks with my Tulla Pink "Parisville" jelly roll but am getting towards the end now & starting to think about the layout of the quilt...........

This is the "positive/negative" layout

This is the "strips" layout

I think I'm leaning towards the postive/negative layout or I may even try completely random - what do you think?

I have some time to ponder - we are taking a family break on Monday to a  holiday camp with Lianne & her family - I can't wait - the kids are going to L - O - V - E (!!!!!) it. And I have to say, if the weather stays as it is, it could well be the best decision we made