What's That Flying Overhead? A Pig?

Can pigs fly? Would you believe me if I say it is almost 3 weeks since I last blogged? Would you believe me if I said I have finished my What's Out The Window Quilt? Finished to the point of only needing the binding sewn down, and the ends buried. Admittedly this can take as long as sewing the actually quilt.

As of yesterday I have finished all the quilting! And the weather has turned so rotten, I can't get any decent photos. When I last checked in, I had finished all the white swirling background quilting. It took me a lot longer than I thought, maybe won't do that again! I had all the black squares swirled, I enjoyed that.

This week I outlined the windows and quatrefoil in a colour closest to the fabric in the quatrefoils. I then did a sort of diamond shape, an upturned V shape in the full depth of  each quartrefoil. And another, about 1.5" shorter than the previous.

That left the centre square, the heart of the window that the sun shines in. The original quatrefoil I had seen in Hezlett House (a National Trust property in Bessbrook, N Ireland), had the sun shining in so strong, it looked as if it was on fire.

 I was originally going to do a spirograph sort of thing. At a later date, I decided I liked the uncluttered look of the square, so I kept it simple. The red centres have a simple heart shape stitched on. The orange tones have a row of embroidery stitches from my sewing machine, in an orange thread. Some have hearts, some have flowers or trees. My favourite is the honeycomb. Unfortunately the light was so bad, the excitement will have to mount until next time.

So, no link up finish today for Finish It Up Friday, but maybe next Friday? Who knows. Who knows. My American son and his wife are flying in for a quick visit, there may not be much sewing done!

And the last three weeks? Flying my kite again! We had a quick trip to Paris. Paris, France, not Paris, Texas. We went with friends to watch a rugby match and had a ball. Lots of sitting in Paris cafes, drinking expresso coffee and trying to look Parisian. What's not to like? Paris was wonderful, and as I look at all the shuttered shops in our high streets, it was interesting that in "our street" in Paris, there were 2 restaurants, 3 cafes, a fish shop, a butchers, a vegetable and fruit shop, a shop selling gloves!!, a chocolatier (not a sweet shop, a chocolatier), 2 chemist shops, and a high end shop selling expensive sweets and a high end stationary shop. All in one little side street, not a special street, but just an ordinary street in Paris, with apartments above the shops. Here's a few photos to tantalise you.

speak again soon,
Helen x