A busy week

 I have had a busy week finishing the baby clothes knitting I wanted to put in a parcel to post yesterday.

I made another cardigan and matching hat in mint green using a ball of yarn given to me by a friend. I didn’t add a flower as I thought this colour might be ok for a boy.

Then I made another pink hat with a flower to match the second pink cardigan I had knitted.

I was able to send these knitted items to Evie, the trainee midwife.

 I also added one babygrow and 10 vests I had bought from Charity Shops, some of them had never been worn!

I also added  2 cardigans and a hoodie I had knitted for my friend Amy when she was pregnant. After her baby outgrew them she returned them to me and asked me to pass them on. I put them away in a drawer, forgot about them and found them by accident a few days ago. Honestly they are in super condition and it was a no brainer to add them to the parcel.

I also finished a quilt block for Church. One lady asked for people to make blocks to create a quilt to reflect the Covid Pandemic. In order to depict the 2m Social Distancing spacing required, our local council stuck paper flower markers at 2m distances along pavements outside shops so that people spaced themselves correctly when queuing to enter the shop. I thought they were very pretty , all lovely colours: pinks, purples, yellows etc which brightened the grey pavements and certainly lifted my mood.

This is my representation:

So, no RSC sewing this week and I didn’t once pick up my Twinkler quilt to do any hand quilting. Perhaps next week?

Working on the RSC Flimsy

 Continuing with the RSC Twinkler quilt. I have machine quilted vertically and horizontally around the blocks and have now started to hand stitch around the stars using a fawn coloured Perle thread.

I have been doing lots of baby knitting to donate to needy Expectant Mums in London.

Three sets of cardigans and little hats:

And a basket weave blanket which finishes at 24” square.

Linking up with Angela’s Soscrappy RSC blog

An RSC flimsy in the making

 Now my Sewing Room is tidy and I know where things are I decided to see how many Twinkler Blocks I had - a lot but I thought I needed a few more of some colours to add a little more variety.

Made two Ticky Tacky houses along the way - sorry the photo has turned out sideways!

 

I put the blocks out on the Design Floor and managed to sew the rows together before it was time to cook the dinner.

This will be an Incubator cover for the hospital.

I still have 38 Twinkler blocks left so enough for another cover.

I also knitted another pink cardigan this week.

And I’m halfway through knitting a baby blanket in lavender - the colour on the wrapper says “Wisteria” which is a very apt name.

Linking with Angela’s Soscrappy RSC blog.

Festival of Quilts 2021

 On Friday I went to visit the Festival of Quilts, held at the NEC, Birmingham UK.

Of course the Covid19 pandemic prevented a Show being held last year and I thought long and hard about whether I should attend this year’s event. However, I bought my ticket online and also the Show Guide. Both were posted out to me so I was able to read about the Show and plan my route around the Competition quilts, Galleries and Traders before I went. 

Everyone had to show a Covid vaccination certificate along with their ticket, social distancing was observed and masks were worn at all times. The Festival used an extra Hall this year, so there were 4 instead of the usual 3, one Hall entirely devoted to the Competition quilts so the aisles were wide. I knew less tickets were being released this year - 16,000 over the 4 days instead of 26,000 - but it was very quiet so I don’t think all the tickets were sold.  Fewer traders too. The big Sewing machine companies were there and the smaller traders but none of the big ones which come every year were there. I normally go two or three days but I’m glad I just bought the one ticket as I got around everything really quickly. Less to see and also no crowds to work around. Very few wheelchairs which always slow things up as people wriggle past them in the aisles. Only a minimum of food outlets compared to normal which was fine because I only stopped for coffee and cake mid morning and a hot chocolate just before I came home. I always take a packed lunch and this year there were lots of seats where you could eat picnics. Normally it’s difficult to find one! I remember one year when my sister came with me and we ended up sitting on the floor to eat our sandwiches!

Anyway, there were lots of lovely quilts, the majority were the more “Arty” ones, very few Traditional quilts. 

A few photos of quilts that caught my eye:

And this amazing 3D creation depicting Cornwall, both sides were different.

As you can see from that last photo there were very few people around.

Didn’t buy too much.

These were 5 scraps I bought for £1 including a couple of neutrals which I’m always short of.

Then 5 pieces from the Project Linus Stall, fabrics which had been donated. The blue one is a favourite - I bought a couple of metres of that a few years ago and it’s been very useful in Baby and child donation quilts.

And  2 x 2m remnants and a metre of solid mauve fabric for my stash. 

A good day and I’m glad I decided to attend. Hope by next year things will be a bit more back to normal.