Monday 30 June 2008

Races and quilts


Last weekend was the Torbay Half marathon. I'd not expected it to be as hilly as it was, and what was worse, all the hills were concentrated in a 1 1/2 mile stretch that we had to cover 4 times. They seemed to get steeper each time I apporached them, and I ended up walking most of them. Great boost to see some people from the running club, I'd not realised just how great it was to see someone with the same vest as me! The eventual winners overtook me twice, first within the first mile loop, and then again as I was finishing my first lap and they were part way through their second.

A bad case of runners trots saw me rushing off to the loo twice, and it did cross my mind to hide then re-join the race later on to chop some of the distance off. I did the full length of it however! No matter how bad I felt at the end, I can take comfort from the fact that the M25-29 I overtook on the line must have felt worse ;-)

Got to running club on Thursday, and told them I'd got a personal worst, and was surprised to get a round of applause! DH later told me he'd been told they liked my spirit and attitude that I wasn't too depressed about being rubbish! Still another 60 points for the grand prix!

My plan for that is to enter as many races as I can that are far enough away not to attract too many other people, but close enough to get over 3 ladies.

Thursday 12 June 2008

Jane's Pilgrimage is finished!!



I can't believe after over 2 years, I've finally finished my Dear Jane quilt. This little gem has been sewn in hand and machine quilting, hand and machine applique, strip pieceing, and a fair bit of judicious colouring in where some bits didn't quite meet! If I reckon on each block taking an average of 30 minutes to make...some a LOT more, it's taken 112 1/2 hours, or close to 5 days of solid work. That's just for the piecing. Then a couple of hours for layering and basting it, plus all the machine quilting, then nearly 3 hours to hand sew the binding on, and a couple of evening's work to sew all the ends in!!




Even though it's not quite big enough to drape on my king size bed, it fits great as a topper, and sets the room off nicely.



This close up shows the quilting detail on the first block I completed. I'm still not 100% convinced I've done enough on it, but as I'm planning to show it in August, I didn't want to miss the deadline for getting them to Brenda. I might go back to it after the show and put some more work in on it.

Of course with all this UFO completing, I'm running out of things to work on, and despite all the books, magazines and patterns I've got, really can't find anything that screams "make me" at me. I've got 2 more projects on my UFO list so maybe I'll just have to get my head down and finish them. By the time I've done them, I'll have been to Birmingham, so will be brimming with new ideas.

Bristol quilt show



Can't believe how long it is since I lasted posted anything! I've not fallen off the planet, just been busy.

So I was planing to go to Bristol to see a quilt show last time. I went, saw and loved it!! Some amazing pieces there, including 2 by Sandie Lush, whose work I really adore:



can you imagine how long it took to applique all those berries??



The main reason I wanted to visit another quilt group's show was to see how well my own work would fit in with theirs. I was hoping that mine wouldn't stick out like the proverbial sore thumb! Anyway mine would have looked right at home there, so I don't need to stress out over that. Because I've only been to the national quilt shows before, even though I've had lots of compliments about my work, I'm still a bit unsure about showing it in public, where strangers can see it.

Once I'd browsed the show for ideas, I came out for a drink with my phone full of pics. I loved the black and red drunkard's path, whcih was displayed right at the end of the hall so you could see it straight down the aisle:



What a fabulous colour scheme. Just imagine that on your bed in winter!

Once I'd left the show, it was a nice stroll down back into town, via a bike shop to pick up some new cycling shorts. I'd not expected to pay £40, but they look and feel great. Just need to find the time to get the bike out now!

Lunch was at a Thai restaurant on the main street between the school and town, then s quick mooch round bristol and on to the train home.