Joy of Life

Last week I met for the first time a very dear and special friend who arrived in the UK from Sweden to visit the Festival of Quilts. She came bearing the most beautiful gift. I had seen glimpses of this quilt as it was being made but with no idea it was for me.

It is called Joy of Life and is a pattern by Rosalie Quinlan. It is simply beautiful and I love it. The quilting on it is amazing and I shall treasure it for always.

Made for me by this beautiful lady known as Stina. We met through blogging, have very much in common and met for the first time last week. We are soul sisters.

Stina brought with her these equally beautiful ladies.

Karin, Marica, Stina.

Stina and Lilian. They were sitting on the naughty seats on the back row of the bus.

We stayed near the iconic Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham and Friday night we ate out at Jamie Oliver's Italian. We had a great night and I have never laughed so much. These Swedish ladies were the best company. You can read and see more at Stina's and Marica's blogs.

This church is right by the Bullring and looked beautiful lit up.

I came away from Birmingham feeling  tired  but good tired. Shopping is exhausting you know but it could have been from carrying multiple bags of purchases. I am in weight training for next year. I came back with an impressive haul of goodies but the most impressive treasures are the memories that are firmly printed in my brain of this fabulous time with the most wonderful ladies who I can now call friends. 

These are the of the Joys of Life.

Happy Stitching.

Shirley.x

Tripping

Progress is being made on the Brigitte Giblin Facebook challenge. Brigitte has put in a lot of hard work to see that this project works and into the bargain organised a truly international fabric swap.

We were asked to contact a person on Brigitte's master list of participants  and we were to send and receive a fat quarter of fabric to add to a round in a later stage of the challenge. I had the greatest luck to receive my fabric all the way from Australia from Simone Honey who happens to be a friend of another fellow blogger and friend Lizzie at broderie blog. The world gets so much smaller with this blogging lark. Simone sent me a beautiful piece of fabric with a flower motif which I managed to fussy cut and fit it in with the help of another fabric to fill the gaps. Since taking this photo I have finished Row 20. It is now getting quite a size at around 42 inches square. I am all prepared up to row 24.

Wendy joined me in the early stages of making and is not far behind me. The common denominator for this quilt was a red spotty fabric to be used at various intervals and given that is where we all start they look so different and are producing the most amazing results.

Seeing what fun Wendy and I were having our Wednesday stitchers decided to join in too.

Kate decided she wanted hers to be in her favourite colours of blues, greens and teal. I think it is going to be amazing. The more rows you add the better the effect gets.

Rosemary always chooses very pretty fabric and is often lucky to go home with everything she came with as I ogle her choices sitting beside her.

This is Margaret's start. Looking very soft and misty, like a colourwash effect. Pat was away so have no progress report.

At the weekend we headed off to my favourite part of Cornwall and stayed at the lovely Carbis Bay Hotel. This was the view from the window and our little balcony. Looking towards Hayle.

On the Saturday we walked the coastal path to St.Ives. It was a little misty when we arrived and it even rained for 15 minutes but then the sun came out and was even hotter.

This was St.Ives as we walked back a few hours later. A very enjoyable trip out.

Keep stitching everyone. 

Love Shirley. X