Hearts Desire Progress,

Hello everyone,

Hope you all had a fabulous week. After our trip to Portugal we returned home to find that one of our cats was missing.  The couple who were looking after them said they had not seen her for a week.  I went out calling her name for the last two days, suddenly there she was at the door, big sigh of relief, no sign of her being hurt, but very thin and gosh she was starving.  Don't know where she has been on her adventure but l think from this photo you will see she is very glad to be home.

Mexcla relaxing....her name means mixture in Spanish.  Her two brothers are completely different one is black with just a spot under his chin the other is a tiger

Pretty comfy l would say

Hearts Desire

Have made great headway on my 2nd block.  Completly finished my 1st block including the triangle border which l paper pieced by machine.  Pictures of how this is done.

My pattern is first cut from wash Away Applique, l find this an excellent medium to work with, it does exactly that, it washes away.
The leaves are marked so you know which way up.  I turn under the first part ALL the way round by glueing.

 I make it very smooth  this was just before l smoothed it all around

 Now l do the other side of the leaf, but only the outside edge.
I then stitch by hand all the way down the middle of the leaf.  Its now ready to applique down.

Here is mt first block complete with overhanging leaves

My 2nd block went together quickly as most of the pieces were prepped.  I think the secret to these blocks is prepping and l will be doing this from now on.

So here are my two blocks, loving how this is coming together...thank you Esther Aliu for a beautiful quilt.

Just discovered there are 84 leaves still to make for the next 6 blocks.

Hope you all have a great week, ennjoy your sewing, and don't forget to leave a comment.

I am linking to Esther Aliu's WOW

More from Nec Birmingham

Hi everyone,

I just got back from a short holiday in Portugal.  Again we travelled by car and went to Lisbon.  It was a beautiful city and we enjoyed it very much.  Then we travelled South to the area known as the Algarve.  We visited the beautiful town of Vilamoura.  My partner remarked how much it looked like Palm Springs in the USA.
This was the first hotel we stayed in, built on 1753 and of course updated, but it was so beautiful.  All of these tiles are hand painted.

This first pictures are replicas of the very famous Chimneys they have in Portugal, l thought these were so cute, now l wish l had bought one

NEC Birmingham

Hearts Desire

My Hearts Desire is coming along.  I sewed while John drove

Now its time to link to Esther Aliu's  WOW before its really too late.
Hope you have enjoyed these pictures, please leave a comment

NEC BIRMINGHAM QUILTS ON SHOW

Hi everyone,  hope you have all had an excellent week.  I have been working on Hearts Desire by Esther Aliu

I have been working on HD ..Hearts Desire by Esther Aliu, had a disaster with the leaves, so took them all off and started again.  Definately correct  now, the are rather different as they are two different fabrics on one leaf, a learning curve for me, even though l have been sewing for years.

This is what the finished quilt will look like.

I thought l would treat you to a few of the quilts and other items that caught my eye when l was in  the UK.

Here are some pictures, there were some 1,400 quilts, so some this week and more next week

Think you will agree, there was a very diverse range, from objects, clothes, to quilts.

There were some beautiful minitures and will look for them for you.

Till then, l link to Esther's WOW

NEC Birmingham Photos, Project,

Hi everyone.....long wait, sorry.

We got back from NEC Birmingham, very happy, such a long journey, but we made it safely despite our Navigation System on the car being fried with incredible temperatures as we drove through Madrid.   It reached 44C , and poor old Flossy (name for the SatNav) just gave up the ghost.  We eventually got her working on and off, the main thing was finding the hotels we had booked in France which was particularly difficult.   Flossy forgot to tell us 3 times we had reached our destination, it was so frustrating.  We have purchased a new one.

Capricho won a Highly Commended at the Show. So my Quilting friend Patti and l were over the moon.  This award equates to HM in the USA.

Picture for you.

There were some fabulous quilts there over 1,400 on show.

Farm Business
Yesterday and today, and probably tomorrow we will be finishing off picking our crop of mangoes.  This year is our biggest crop, over 240 boxes and our farm is not so large.

  We had a few fallers so decided to make Mango Wine, supposedly a dry white, very pleasant brew.  We have 42 Litres bubbling away.

This was the start of it, we have to wait for some time for the results, 6 months to 1 year.  Hope all the hard work was worth it.
I got fed up making pickles, so this was the next best thing.

Hearts Desire by Esther Aliu.

I prepped a lot of pieces for this and one other block, to take with me on the car journey from Spain to England.

I did manage to sew all the leaves down and stems, but the flowers and vase remain to be done.

2nd block progress

The material on the right is my the contrast for scallops and triangles still to come.


Ribbon Tutorial

I will return to this, so l ask your patience in the meantime.  Time has just not permitted.  Thank you

N