The Quilt that kept on growing!

We have reached the end of another week so it is time to celebrate with another TGIFF party!

My finish for this week has been a very long time in the making.

The quilt started when I sent out these FQ's of fabric to my Bee Mates in the Fat Stash Brit Bee in March 2014 and asked them to make this block.

They really rose to the challenge and by June 2014 I had this set of blocks to put together.

Then for reasons now lost in the mists of time the blocks gathered dust in my stash. I took them out a couple of times over the intervening years and played around with the layout, but it was only when I managed to track down more of the solid fabric at a quilt show in Edinburgh that any progress was made.

At my recent Quilt Retreat the blocks, which now totalled 24 in number were once again taken out and arranged and even sewn together! I came home with 5 rows of 4 blocks stitched together and the remaining blocks ready to be joined.

Then I lifted a quilt top from a pile in my sewing room and discovered another 4 blocks stitched together in the layout above, which was no longer the layout I was using :( So, they were unpicked and an extra 4 blocks made to complete the rows.

This monster is what I have ended up with! The final quilt is destined for my youngest son, who is over 6' tall, so will have no trouble keeping warm under that :)

I am delighted to have finally completed this quilt top as it was beginning to look like it would never be finished.

Now it is your turn to share your Friday finishes. As ever a bit of encouragement is always welcome so check out your fellow linkers and share some of the celebrations around. Include the TGIFF blog button in your post if you link up so that your followers can check them out too.

An InLinkz Link-up

And if your Friday finish involves a New to You technique or you have tried something New to You this month link that up too to this month's New to Me Link party here

New Horizons

Welcome to another New to Me Link Party, where we celebrate the effort involved in trying something for the first time.

This month my New to Me's are all travel related, as we spent the early part of the month exploring the New to Me region of Northern Spain.

We learned about the cuisine of the region at a Cookery Class in San Sebastian creating amongst other things the stock for a seafood paella!

Then savoured the results of our labours with this elegant roasted vegetable and lobster starter!

Naturally we didn't pass up the opportunity to sample the regional wines :)

We visited the stunning Comb of the Wind sculptures on the coast at San Sebastian.

Then were entranced by the equally stunning Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao!.

Then blown away by the magnificence of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, the final point of the Way of St James pilgrimage route and reputed burial place of St James.

As you can see it was an amazing trip!

So those are my New to Me's this month now it is your turn to link up and share the trials and tribulations of trying out something or somewhere for the first time. We keep it real here so whether it works out or not we want to read about it :)

As ever the Link Party will remain open until the end of the month so if you have been procrastinating over trying that new technique, consider this a nudge to jump off that fence and give it a go!

An InLinkz Link-up

A Mackintosh Inspired TGIFF

Last weekend I attended the first of our Embroiderers Guild workshops for the coming year, which was on the theme of a homage to the Glasgow Architect and Designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It is now150 years since Mackintosh's birth, so there are lots of celebratory events being held in my part of the world.

Our tutor, Marjorie, brought along some examples of her work to kick start our creative process.

We were given lots of examples of Mackintosh designs to pick from for our own piece.I chose a flowing leaf design and then set to attempting to draw a pattern for my embroidery.

Next up we picked a piece of hand-dyed silk for the applique pieces.

We used our design and a lightbox to create the applique pattern pieces on Bondaweb.

Once the applique pieces were applied we were ready to couch the cords. We had two thicknesses of cord to work with, so I chose to use the thinner cord to outline the leaves.

Then used the thicker cord for the leaf stems.

Once the embroidery was complete I felt that it was a bit flat so decided to add some beading to the piece.

I didn't want to detract from the clean, uncluttered lines of the piece so only stitched some beads between the stems.

And here is the finished piece ready to be stretched and framed!

So, that is my finish for TGIFF now it is your turn to link up and share your Friday finishes. As ever a bit of encouragement is always welcome so check out your fellow linkers and share some of the celebrations around. Include the TGIFF blog button in your post if you link up so that your followers can check them out too.

An InLinkz Link-up