Daffodil Day

The daffodils are in flower, so it must be nearly Spring!  Hooray!  this has been such a cold, wet and miserable couple of months.  The ground is so soggy outside and we are all looking for indoor activities.  You can see the tree outside my window is still bare.  I get very happy when I see those tiny little green shoots appear.

Next weekend is Father's Day and DH birthday on the same day 1st September.  For years now we have celebrated the arrival of spring on John's birthday.  We are also having the family over for the day.  I have enticed my DBIL Richard to come with the offer of a lemon meringue pie.  I remember my high school cooking teacher telling us all that all men like apple pies, but I have always found the lemon does the trick pretty well.

Thanks to all the new and old friends who registered for the new BOM I posted last week.  I will try to have them done between the 15th and 20th of each month.  I will post it here, and on my website.

Also, my dear daughter Natalie, made a facebook page for Legend and Lace.  There is a link on the front page of this blog, so you can "like" me on Facebook and you will be kept up to date on things as well.  I am not actually really very clever with this FB thing, but hope to get better with it's use.

Basket Pattern

Thanks to all the lovely quilters who registered on the website, and have already requested the free pattern.  The little website had an overload fit, and we just have to be patient while it starts to work again.

Also, I have to actually manually send the links to you.  If I am sitting at the computer when your order comes through I will do it straight away, however, if it one of situations where we are in a different time zone, then it might be a couple of hours before you get the link, but you will get it.

These websites are design to take money off of you, so it is set up that way for me to accept and approve payment.  When there is no payment, I still have to let it know that it is ok to send the file.

Does that sound ok?  Yes, you will get it.  If there is a problem,. please email me 

Edit - all up and running properly now, and you will automatically get your email link once the transaction is completed.  Amazing things happen overnight!  Wendy :-)

Free Basket Block of the Month

Last month I finished the Rose Garden Block of the Month, and have been thinking for a while about doing a collection of pieced blocks to go with these blocks.  Finally, I made up my mind about it, and settled on a collection of pieced baskets.  Some of them might have a little applique in them, like a handle for example, but mostly they will be pieced.

This is the first block - called Tea Basket.  I have hand pieced this block, and even pieced the curved basket into place.  You could cut the background fabric as a whole piece and applique the basket over the top.  The choice is yours.

Perhaps you like the basket this way around?  The whole quilt could be set onpoint, and the basket blocks will be a mixture of blocks on both angles.

The pattern is now ready to Download.  It is  written with both template piecing, and machine piecing in mind.  So you will have instructions for both methods.

I will be releasing it on the Legend and Lace website, so you will need to go there to download the pattern.  The boring part is that you will have to register as a customer, as it will be emailed to you.  The good part is that it will be free of charge.

So for now, if you are interested in these lovely little 8" blocks, you can register on my mailing list, and you will be advised once the pattern is available.

A few more stitches

I did get a bit disappointed when my quilting stitches on my Mrs Vigors quilt did not show up.  I put it aside for a bit while I planned what to do next.  Thanks to my friends I got a few ideas on how to handle it.  I am not going to do fancy quilting designs over the printed fabrics, but keep these parts simple, and do the feathers etc to the areas you will be able to see.

After doing the star and heart shape over the centre, I did some echo quilting lines in the background.  You can at least see these lines!

In the circles around the centre, I stitched "in the ditch, then a 1/4" outline in the triangles.

For the next border, again I was stuck with what to do and decided to do in the ditch stitches again, then 1/4" zig zag stitches in the background.

I will come back and stitch in these squares.  My current thought is to stitch some circles in the middle.  That might show up.  Will see how it goes.

I quilted a little feathery kind of design in these corner pieces, and once again, you can hardly see it.  Proves my point.

These are my favourite marking tools.  I recon I have used every tool invented, and come back to these two.  The white Clover Pen comes out in the wash or it irons out. The first time you use this pen you will probably think there is something wrong with it.  It draws on clear, but as you wait a minute or two, the white line appears.  I love it for all kinds of marking on darker fabrics.  The blue wash out pen never lets me down.  We have all heard the horror stories about the lines coming back etc, but that has never happened to me, and I have been using it for over 15 years - or a variation of the pen.  The newer ones have a fine tip which I love.

I have used chalk pencils, that did not come out, and ceramic pencils that also left marks in my fabric, so I stick with what I know works for me.  When marking, I have them both in my hand, and flip from one to the other as I move along the fabrics.