My painting

I finished off one of the view from the cottage but I have this one to do some fine work on

I've decided that I will leave my painting stuff set out at home, its really useful to do some leave to dry and get on with a bit of sewing. Now to decide what space I can clear that won't mean tripping over it all the time.

Some holiday snaps

Here are my favourite pictures, the island is stunning, very different to anywhere i have been before.

On the mainland again

Had a lovely time, I'm having a flop and catching up with whats been going on with all my lovely bloggy friends

Here is my tablecloth for Mrs Moens challenge

Its a double re use as it has already been pressed into service as a small curtain and is now surplus to requirments so is going to find a new life as .....

Hi from Islay

The flower centres on the quilt have worked out really well, the whole quilt is embellished, small flowers in the triangles around the blocks, large flowers in the squares and the log cabin blocks have some hand quilting to highlight the structure. It is really cosy to snuggle under, unfortunately it will have to be washed at some point so won't smell of the lovely open fire smoke that has been filling the room whilst I have been hand quilting it.

I've done a few paintings, the last one is drying on the easel before packing up tonight. Its when watercolour is much more portable than oils or acrylic. No wet paint for days on end.

This trip is the first time I have longed for a “proper” camera, the landscapes are amazing and my little camera cannot capture the lighting and effects properly. Oh well, I've done the best I can.

More soon when we are back on big unlimited broadband.

What an odd few days

Not been sewing much but that will change as we are all packed up and ready for a few days away ... with my hand quilting to get done

Saw this lovely site and giveaway and wanted to share

Selvage blog and giveaway

Go and have a look, its an amazing achievement, I might have to sneak round a material shop with my rotary cutter to have enough to be able to get enough to attempt something like that

I'll be posting pics from where we are holidaying.

alison x

I won!

The lovely Mrs Moen did a free pattern giveaway and I won. I haven't done any applique since the kids were little and that was just some simple shapes on t shirts. I'll hopefully get on to dig out some scraps to transform after my upcoming holidays.

Thank you Nina LIse!

7 truths about myself

1. My middle name is Jane, it was the first name I was given but i was renamed and it became my middle name when i was adopted
2. I love the taste of beer or wine
3. I am very tidy, I like to know where things are but it doesn't have to be clean
4. I love the texture of things, smooth, knobbly
5. I love tidy piles of things and jars/tins of stuff together
6. I love warm weather
7. I was the fat kid at school, the one that got picked last for sports teams. I like to think I'm over it, but sometimes I realise I'm not.

Little flower

The boredom of lying n bed has got to me so I grabbed some spare squares of material and got creating

Need to get a button to finish off but they are all the way downstairs

Been laid up

... so no sewing, no anything done. I opened the curtains and pulled the cd tower on top of myself. Needless to say I have had a huge headache and then a huge neck ache. Today I'm just on to a dull ache everywhere.

Log cabins - first lot of machine quilting

I've done the basics just deciding what else to do

I think some hand quilting is order as I need some sewing to take away with me in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking of mirroring the flowers on the backing fabric in pink. The flower is a little small for the bare squares so I'll have to scael it up to make a template.

The edging is a straight copy from Mrs Moen's fat border that she did on her beautiful heart quilt. The back of this quilt is an antique cream table cloth so I want it to show on the front. I marked its exact centre with marking stitches so the top should match the back (crosses fingers but it looks ok up till now)

I'll post back pics tomorrow.