Garden update & finally my Malvern purchases

Here's the poppy before it blooms...
And here it is in full bloom

And another with half the pod still on it. I hope you can tell these were taken on a sunny day - very unlike today, it's wet, windy and cool.

Here is my first batch of Malvern purchases - yes it's purple

And here's the yellow.

They will both be ending up in a quilt - together. I promise I'll show you what it looks like.

Here are 3 more I needed to complete the requirements for another quilt. We've received our requirement lists for our sewing camp week - so that's what I'm getting ready for.

Hope you're all had a relaxing Bank Holiday weekend. I certainly need one after last weekend with a class at the Bramble Patch and then a day out at Malvern - I was shattered by the time Wednesday came around.

Yep - more from Malvern

I'll leave a few more for the weekend - and I've also got to show you my purchases.

More Malvern

Here are a few out of the special section in Malvern - Architectural Inspiration.

And here is a great quilt from the under 16's category.

I'll post some more furing the week.

Malvern

Thought you might like a taster of the photos I took yesterday at Malvern. I had a great day out with Angela and we met a couple of the other members of our group for lunch.

We also had a great day at Bramble Patch - and Brenda has another idea for next year's exhibition.

Anyway more photos tomorrow.

May has arrived

I think we're all in shock - as the weather in the UK (for most of us) has been great over the last week and promises to be great for the next week. The photo above is one I took on a walk in our local park. I thought the framing made the view look very inviting.

And here are the results of my potassium permanganate dyeing - as you can see I over cooked this one a bit so it started to dissolve. But I rather like the result.

And here's a selection of the range of fabrics I dyed - silk dupion & noile, scrim, calico and cotton.

And my turquoise results from my Procion dyeing. I used the same fabrics as with the potassium permanganate.

I think they go rather well together.

And finally - here's a photo of our quilt that we're going to raffle at the Market Bosworth Festival, 21 & 22 June. The proceeds will be going to LOROS. I do hope some of you might be able to come along. There are loads of things going on - a really great day out.

Well - I'm off to watch Casino Royale now - you can never get enough Daniel Craig can you. LOL

Oh - I've gone and done it now...

Yep - I've signed up for the Race for Life - an event run by Cancer Research.

I'll be taking part in the event at Warwick, Wednesday 16th July at 19:00. If you do live in the UK - give it a go. You don't have to run this women only event - you can walk. And it's such a worthwhile charity.

And if you'd like to sponsor me - please follow this link:

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/sarahadcock3

Slightly philosophical

Slightly philosophical - a bit of an unusual title for me - but hopefully all will become clear (don't worry there are some photos later on LOL).
We discussed at our last class how we'd like to develop things for next year. Bren says she isn't looking to run an advanced class as such and wondered what out thoughts were. I do really enjoy the classes and in particular the group we have is great - very generous with comments and ideas and great fun to spend time with. However the commitment, both cost and time, is significant and it does limit other classes I can attend. Don't think I'm having a moan about the classes - I'm not - I've learnt loads and I've really enjoyed meeting the group, I've made some great friends.
One idea I had would be to run a quarterly meeting at a local village hall (near to the Bramble Patch so we can go for a bit of retail therapy) where we could meet for the day and socialise, perhaps later on have a talk by a local artist, set group challenges, put work together as a group to show at exhibitions, discuss new techniques and critique each others work. I spoke with a member of our village quilting group (who attends Linda's class at Bramble Patch) and she was very interested.
What do you think?
How do you interact with others to get support and ideas?

This leads me onto the slightly philosophical bit now... One of the blogs I look at regularly is Lisa Call's. She produces some great work - but also makes me think about where I'm going and why I'm doing it. One of her posts really made me stop and think about working towards goals - not just textile ones - but in general. It's to the point - ...'if I sit around it's unlikely my goals will be met'. Yes - it's stating the obvious - but just thing about what you do in a day, over a week - how is that getting you towards your goals? Please do have a look and let me know what you think. Oh philosophy over now.

Well yesterday we had yet another day of sewing in the village hall - I think we're averaging one a month - it's great. Unfortunately a couple of our members couldn't attend - one was rescuing her kitchen after having a new one fitted and the other was either just back, or on her way back from New York (tough I know). We had a great day - and below are photos of what I got up to.

A foundation pieced star - from Quilter Corner Club.

I added the brighter bits to this top and used a decorative stitch to make sure they stayed there - I think my Bondaweb was a little tired.

And I put my very pink quilt back together.

So today I've got all of those boring household jobs to do - you know ironing, washing, tidying up and cleaning. But I'm hoping to crack on with them so I can sit and sew and watch a film this afternoon.
Hope you all had a good weekend too.