Fame at Last!

Sometime ago I made a small quilt for the CQ group on the theme of "what it means to me to be British". Each little quilt had to measure 20cm by 20cm and the idea was that 60 would be sewn together and the final quilt exhibited as part of the "Celebrating Diversity" exhibition by the European Quilt Association currently on show at the Quilt Museum in York.

My little quilt was chosen and the actual quilt was featured in an article in Popular Patchwork Magazine and unknown to me, until yesterday, my quilt square was shown on the cover!!!! What an honour and will I cope with the fame! So there we are, my DH and me, spade and fork at the ready, dressed for the occasion on our allotment.

This was the first time I had entered anything I've made in any sort of competition and so now I feel a bit more confident about entering other competitions. However, that will have to wait because we are almost at our moving date and are surrounded by boxes.

We have the removal van booked, and after a bit of a struggle, we have got somewhere to move to even though it's a rental property. We will be living in a lovely part of Cornwall, very close to the coast path and in a very lively village. Above all, I will be much closer to my dear sister and although I'll be leaving many good friends behind here, I'm hoping that I will soon make lots of new ones.

So probably no blogging for a while, but normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

Displacement activity

I should be packing but instead I am playing with my sewing machine.

Sometime ago I signed up for a class on Craftsy. They were offering a free online class called "Block of the Month" so I signed up, but haven't made all the blocks as they are not really to my taste. Still, I realised that my inability to sew two pieces of fabric together so they lie flat was beginning to irritate. So I signed up for Magical Jelly Roll Quilts with Kimberly Einmo. There is so much in this class that I don't think I will ever finish it, but it's really inspired me to do some more traditional work, although the quilts have a modern bias.

Here are my efforts so far. One rather creased Flying Geese Crossing quilt waiting for a good press before it's quilted

 And one Lonestar panel that was fun to do, but isn't actually square and the middle isn't in the middle! Still not bad for a first attempt!

What I want to know is, why is it when you are so careful to measure and cut accurately, sew the seam to exactly the right width, press carefully, the damn things are never square, the points don't meet and they don't turn out to be the right size? Bit like life really and perhaps my expectations are just too high and does it matter?

So now I've had a practice and got bits of thread and fabric all over the floor of my room, I ought to go downstairs and start putting things in boxes. Well perhaps tomorrow! If I try again, perhaps this time I'll get it spot on or not, but it's fun anyway!