3 Sleeps...

....left and then we're out of this there hot house and somewhere a little more comfortable.

As Julys in Marrakech go, this month has been 'exceptionnelle' with temperatures hovering comfortably around the mid thirties most of the time but the Sahara Chergui wind is on its way and over the next few days, temps will will hit the mid forties (around 115°F).

So to say the least, very little sewing has been done round here. However, Zaki and I are off to my mum's and she has been sewing and has just finished her first quilt!

No, no...not this...this isn't a quilt, silly!

My mum loves to paint but it has been a while since she has done so as a couple of years ago she rediscovered sewing.  Growing up, I remember her making clothes - they were run up in an afternoon and you never inspected the inside, she screen painted silk and made lampshades, did needlepoint, knitted and embroidered.

She is good at whatever she turns her hand to and is incredibly creative. Recently, she has been doing these fusions of cross stitch needlepoint and appliqued fabric The amazing Dodo up there (I love that bit of Amy Butler Lark fabric in the centre) and these are her waterlilies inspired by The Majorelle Gardens here in Marrakech.

But a few *ahem* months ago (think the gestational period of a dolphin), she decided to make a quilt and this week, after much badgering motivation from across the seas, she finally finished it!

She used a pattern from Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Quilt Making and I think she has done an amazing job. Look at the lovely wrinkly texture the quilting gives it...

...she hand stitched the vertical lines and FMQd in the focus fabric - go her!

Why then is she saying this will be her last quilt? Despite having reserved a couple of very clever stitchy blog names, she hasn't ever blogged - pleading time and technology constraints yada yada yada which I think is just downright selfish ;) So if you like what you see, leave a suitably motivational comment (she'll be reading alright) and perhaps she might make another! And anyway, she can share her other stitchy creations  :)

I shall try and share with you before I leave what little stitching I have done...unless that Chergui gets me first!

FAL 3rd Quarter

Well I'm not sure why I'm putting me or you through this again after the second quarter was such a washout with none of the four quilts on the list anywhere near finished, we have hot weather gauranteed for the next couple of months and I'll be in England for August but hey, there's always September!

So here's my list for what I would like to finish over the next 3 months.

My beautiful Stitch Tease quilt! I think I might add a scrappy border to it but this is definitely high on the list and will be done!

My Godson's quilt, which has made some progress and I'm nearly done quilting it..I 'm not happy with it but if I procrastinate any more he'll be too long to lie under it. I would like to finish this so that I can take it back with me next month and finally hand it over...but with temperatures in the late 30's early 40s I'm not taking bets.

What else? Oooh, my giant Cameo star quilt...I have the backing so just need some batting and binding.

...and just to make the list extra fun, let's add in my orange aqua and grey hexie quilt...yes, a hand sewn project!

I think that's more than enough especially given I have bee blocks and other sewing commitments which are long overdue!

Wish me luck...with 7 hours to go, I'm linking up with Leanne at She Can Quilt.

Past, Present and Future

...and I'm back!

Wow, that was a blogging break...after 5 weeks of reading no blogs, writing no posts and no sewing and my unread posts toppling 1000, I think it's time to take stock.

My TEFL course is done - I lived and breathed it for a month, seven days a week. It was worth the 6 am starts, the 1am finishes and the working day of input sessions and teaching practice, the fleeting glimpses of family, the bad diet and occasional bad humor. I made new friends, learned a ridiculous amount, had fun, cried tears but I passed and can now teach English as a foreign language!

Anyway, I am so glad I had a break...the weirdest thing happened when half way through the course I could hardly recognize my quilts - I looked at them and I couldn't believe that I had made them. It was good to do something different...to meet new people, share new experiences and has made me love this adopted country again and appreciate the things I make. All good.

I know I have missed so much but have no hope of catching up so will press the Mark as Read button and move on. A couple of highlights which I have caught up on is the wonderful work done by Jude and her Bee Blessed ladies to finish the Siblings Together quilt top I made back in May. I asked for help to finish it here and Jude immediately put her hand up. I so want to meet Jude but I guess I shall have to wait a little longer. In the meantime, this is the completed quilt - thank you so so much. I love it! Jude will be taking it with her to the FQR this week before handing it over..

Siblings Together quilt top (photo courtesy of Jude)

Another highlight was Cindy and her partner receiving a secret quilt which a group of us made for them. Cindy and Brian had had a tough springto say the least and well it seemed a good idea to make them a quilt. A bunch of far flung friends across the globe made some blocks and sent them to Susan who beautifully coordinated the whole thing, including collating the blocks, piecing them, basting, quilting and embroidering the quilt before packing it off to Ireland. The quilt is appropriately called Circle of Friends after the book by the late Maeve Binchy.

Circle of Friends quilt courtesy of Susan

I'm sure there are loads of things I have missed but I can't wait to see what everyone gets up to in London next weekend at the Fat Quarterly Retreat.  I shall be watching from afar and sad that I won't be meeting everyone and joining in the fun...particularly my Stitch Tease buddies.  Next year?  Perhaps third year lucky?

Now I have to work on my FAL3 list before the linky closes tomorrow evening...seeing how atrociously I did in the last quarter I may just be cutting and pasting FAL2!

Number 8

Many of my quilts have a gestation period of a walrus (15 months)...very occasionally they have less than that of an opossum (12 - 13 days). Ta-dah, the uneven coins quilt is done - the 24 hour quilt!

Yesterday morning at about 10 AM, I thought I really should get on with making a quilt for my new nephew. He was born a couple of weeks ago. However, there hadn't been a rush as my husband's brother and his wife live right on the other side of the country.  Still, my husband would be going to see them later in the month and I wanted to send something with him.

The colours I chose for the quilt top were inspired by the backing I was going to use - this lovely blue Valori Wells' flannel owl fabric, which was part of my SMS winnings from sweet Rebecca. It gets really cold in Morocco during the winter nights and this has the perfect snuggle factor.

So I pulled some  yellowy green and blue FQs and added in the Chicopee plaid to balance out the black/grey of the Silent Cinema print.  Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that this is not a palette I use often (despite blue and green being my favourite colours). As to the pattern I was going to use, a coins quilt has been on 'the list' for ever and so I set to. By lunchtime I had a quilt top..a small one, but a quilt top nonetheless.

I had some leftover Orient Dream batting from my Field Study triangles quilt, which also adds to the softness and drape of this baby quilt. I quilted it 'lite' by doing some horizontal straight lines either side of the seams.

For the binding I used some blue Caravan fabric from Jenean Morrison's new line Beechwood Park (which I have and miserably failed to show you in my recent happy mail post). I wanted to bring out the blues in the quilt and I think it is perfect.

I am still a little hesitant about the Chicopee plaid but I think I tilt towards it working - it looks modern and adds a touch of manliness. This is probably the smallest quilt I have made - it measures 34" x 34" so will be perfect for kicking about on over the next few months and will make a nice blanket for the next couple of years.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Getting My Last Fix

There were a gagillion things I should have been doing today but instead I made a quilt...well almost, I still have to bind it.  I'm no superwoman - this is a baby quilt for my new nephew and it's fairly teensy. I shall reveal all tomorrow...hopefully :)

Extreme Handsewing & Happy Mail

...okay, not so extreme...but I seem to be doing a lot of finickety hand sewing at the moment.  This is essential hand sewing though as it is an EPP block that Marguerite has been waiting for...for too long!

Marguerite designed this 9" block herself and it is made up of lots of tiny pieces. She wanted the inner and outer tips to be a contrast to the centre pieces.  Now I have got used to the basting of those itsy bitsy triangles, the block is coming together quite nicely and I shall get this off to Marguerite next week I hope. This is my second attempt, having mislaid my first partially completed first attempt!

I have received quite a bit of happy mail over the last week or so and so I have a couple of thank yous.

A very cute little pincushion from Helen that I won some time ago, and my mum  forwarded to me in a recent parcel. Thank you Helen!

My low volume layer cake from the recent swap organized by Rebecca - she kept a super close eye on the fabrics and as a result, this is an incredible collection of beautiful fabrics. She sent a 'just because' FQ of one of my favourite Loulouthi fabrics, and my winnings from her recent SMS giveaway - 2 yards of owl flannel which will be perfect for my young nephew and niece (I have a new nephew!) Thank you Rebecca!

and a couple of quilt backings from Julie at The Intrepid Thread. The blue is from Amy Butler's Cameo line and the green is Pagoda's Lullaby for Free Spirit.

There was also mail in the form of a couple of textbooks I need for a course I am starting next Monday - not that happy but necessary. I won't be around much over the next few weeks as I have been told by the course director to forget my life for 4 weeks - yikes! I am doing an intensive course (in a real classroom here in Marrakech) so that I can teach English as a foreign language.  Yes that means grammar and syntax and lexis and other things...so I shall definitely be missing my machine!

Let's Get Acquainted Link Up..

...is here this week! I was so happy to be asked by Beth to host this week's link up. Let's Get Aquainted is one of my favourite link ups and a great way to be inspired and find some new blogs...just in case your reader isn't full enough ;-)

Did you know that this summer Beth is hosting another blog hop for new bloggers to take part in. If you want to take part, you can read all about it here.

If this is your first time visiting then welcome. I'm a Brit living with my family in Morocco - a vibrant, colourful, kind of crazy place to live, which definitely inspires me to create with warm saturated colours.

It gets ridiculously hot here in the summer months and that's the time when the machine gets a holiday and I do a little hand stitching.

Block 15 Camelot 

This week I continued to work on my Camelot blocks, which are handpieced and circular. I made my first block here, which came together pretty easily. This one was way more challenging! Above is a flattering photo of the block - trying to insert that star with the inset or Y seams was a bit of a nightmare to say the least - it's puckered and doesn't lie flat. So I may EPP a replicate hexagon for the centre and applique it on top as I'm pretty happy with the rest of it.

I have been wanting to make a pouch to keep all my hand stitching kit in for a while now so when I saw this pattern by Aneela Hoey I knew I wanted to make it. I bought the pattern, a PDF, but then saw that I needed extra firm interfacing for it.  This is a big pouch (10" x 12" closed) and needs the strong interfacing to keep it rigid.  Fast forward to this week when I received my gorgeous winnings from Heather's SMS giveaway (thank you Heather - I love my winnings!) as well as the interfacing.

Here's the pouch I made with some of Heather's fabrics and I love it!

It's huge and easily big enough to fit my Camelot pattern, EPP templates, an 8 1/2" embroidery hoop and other bits and pieces and still closes really easily.

So now I'm all set for a bit of summery hand stitching on the go.

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