Deerey me!: Quite quilty

New quilt square: self-portrait appliqué

You may need to sit down for this...I have finished another quilt square! At this rate I could have a whole quilt by Christmas (2014, that is). I had a go at quilting a self-portrait. I really did try to make her/me fatter and more wrinkly with a more bulbous nose, but my inner goddess (or perhaps inner seamstress) just fought her way out and the quilted me ended up with cheekbones...verging on glamorous!

She's a combination of applique and fabric paint. I really enjoyed making this square; it makes me want to appliqué ~~Russell Crowe~~ more people. I can envisage a family, each individually appliquéd and framed, and the frames hung in a group together. Or maybe as part of a family tree...or a whole quilt just of people!

Past quilts

While in a quilting mood, here are a couple of quilts I made in the past (to show that I do sometimes sew, honestly!)...sorry about the less than great photos.

Autumn leaves and their shadows

tea and cake

really soft backing (leaf quilt)

quilted book bag

quilted Alan Rickman bag (for a friend who's a fan)

Quilting wish list

My head is always buzzing with ideas for quirky quilts. One day I will make them all!

patchwork of English country fields and hedgerow
favourite buildings
weather map quilt
spaceships of fact and fiction (with a big Millennium Falcon in the middle)
a map (geographical)
Lord of the Rings quilt
a different flower in every square
a different tree in every square
snowflakes
Wizard of Oz
gargoyles
and now, of course, a gallery of faces

Cats, cake and butterflies

I confess, I did abscond again this Thursday. My sister rang to see if I fancied a visit to Yo Sushi with her and my utterly fabulous and wonderful nephew (I am not biased as a doting auntie, he really is!). It is my sister's birthday soon, but they will be in Florida, so it seemed only right to spend a day celebrating. The sushi was followed by Marshfield farm ice cream and iced coffee at the San Francisco Fudge Factory (it's in Bath, not San Francisco!) and the foodiness has just carried on. Today, my mate Gav is coming over so I have gammon hocks soaking in cold water and have made a Swedish sunshine cake...mmmm

Swedish sunshine cake (Annika's recipe)

When I visited friends in Lund, as well as teaching me to make yo-yos (Suffolk puffs), lovely Annika made this cake for me and it is delicious! It's all almonds and sunshine. It should have whole almonds on it, but I had some flaked almonds to use up.

Talking of sunshine, it was so lovely on Saturday we spent the afternoon lazing in the garden with the cats:

Max miaowing at the sparrows on the bird-feeder

Max

Rio

It was all so exciting that Max needed bit of a snooze...

Those that have visited us know Mark is a bit cautious with our two cats. We keep them in at night and, so they won't get lost and we could find them if they got shut in somewhere, the cats have tiny transmitters on their collars and Mark can be seen wandering up and down the street with the receiver unit, listening for the beeps from the cats' collars. Well the system had been getting a bit rough and this week his new toy arrived...I thought the old one was embarrassing, but this one is ridiculous!!

come in number 10, your time is up!

Earth to Mars, Earth to Mars...are you receiving?

While in the garden on Saturday, I tried to catch photos of butterflies on the lavender to end this entry on a more artistic note, but with very little success...