fabric, fabric everywhere......

I added another strip to my liberty quilt to make it more usable....I love it, the picture doesn't do justice to  the colours of this fabric....all scraps that I've been saving up.

I've had a bit of a spend up ! I absolutely love getting parcels of fabric in the post......its a kid at Christmas feeling! 
All the fabric has come from the u.s....a couple of sites that were doing a reduced shipping offer as the us postal service recently increased the international charge to around $25. 
It still works out good value but I do try and support UK business too and there are some really good sites out there. 

Wonderful Kaffe ....I love this line and will be buying more when I dare.

and these, especially the modern mecca , far right and the orange

Am a wee bit disappointed with these Michael miller fabrics....they're not really my colours....I think I was on the wine when I ordered them....that's a dangerous game!

these are more my thing....I ordered these to make a quilt for eldest for  her new flat in London. 

Not quite sure what to do with them though. Maybe I should be a little more ambitious in my choice of pattern this time.

Did I ever show you these? really cute little panels to be made into a quilt.....I got them at the nec last year.....what shall I do with these?.....Don't say it says Herb I'm not ready yet!....me neither, back in the cupboard.

Avoiding all coverage of Wednesday's events in London.....

I knew if we didn't distract ourselves Herb would be inexplicably drawn to the coverage and that was more than my poor ears could stand . So prompted by this post by Celia about something in Cambridge we had yet to see, we jumped in the car.

We parked and partook of refreshment at the Grantchester tea room...see these pics from another visit...it really is a special place to go and relax when the sun is shining however we were on a mission.

The Grantchester to Cambridge walk is one of our favourites, all along the river..it really felt like spring at last. Then to the Museum of Classical Archaeology and wow....you open the doors to a very unassuming building to discover statues....hundreds of them.

A beautiful light room with casts of some fantastic Greek and Roman statues and friezes .....amazing. We whiled away an hour, reading about the statues. We had the place to ourselves. We will return , go if you are in Cambridge.

Then along the backs, this is Kings, to our favourite cafe for lunch....in a church that still has a chapel in use (sometimes the choir are practicing while you eat) the food is brilliant, really reasonable and it has a great atmosphere.

Finally a quick visit to the Fitz museum for the Quentin Blake exhibition......a tiny bit disappointing as it was small but we loved seeing the original sketches and water colours.... then a little more refreshment in the Fitz excellent cafe then back along the river again. You know who wasn't even mentioned! 

Have decided to make this liberty quilt larger to use as a summer throw...(am of a certain age where duvets are causing me a heat prob) and the sun is really shining..... that's today sorted....happy weekend!

Finished and gone-the court house steps quilt

The quilt is finally finished and given to my sister for her special birthday.

A label was sewn at the very last minute

It was a difficult one to quilt because of the colour of the threads and fabric....I didn't want pale pink thread crossing over the middle of the red section and my machine cannot cope with anything clever or fancy (cant cope with much actually).....so I machined lines, then did my first bit of hand quilting in circles on the colours. I wish I'd had time to do it all by hand....although the stitches aren't great I like the effect and I guess that my stitches will get better with practice......need to find a better thimble though.

I used Aurifil thread for the first time and I'm completely won over. Really good in the machine and  using for the hand stitching. No knots or breaking.

and a cake! well a double pavlova as requested by Sis.

what shall I start on now......Kaffe inspired me thinks.