Show and tell and not just quilts!

Firstly - I must apologise for not sending our thanks to you all for your warm wishes on the arrival of Beau and tomorrow he will be 9 weeks old! Your emails, messages and cards have been joyous and we were quite chuffed to get so many cards and gifts not just for Beau but us as well!

The Hill household is starting to enjoy the decision I have made for slowing down and yesterday seemed like the first day I have had off in nearly 10 months - no new designs to prepare or quilts to try and finish. SO instead I made these dear little wool felt bootees for Beau. I am constantly disappointed that the embroidery market is so heavily focused on items for girls - so it is time to change that! I only purchased the pattern yesterday when I visited the Village fair at Beating Around the Bush. The original pattern is available here at the delightful  Bustles and Bows and I think I might make a pair for every day of the week - they are such fun to make and quite satisfying!

Larry retires in just under 6 weeks and we are both incredibly excited. He works in the very demanding role of special investigations often involving child protection. His way of unwinding is to stitch - the needle goes back and forth methodically each evening and I am sure it is a form of meditation for him. He has just ordered a massive new tapestry for retirement - and to think he is self taught! But he has taken over ownership of my large daylight and my thread catcher, but thankfully he has his own embroidery scissors!!

My final AMAZING show and tell is this spectacular quilt! Kathi emailed me last week to get permission to show her quilt in an AQS show in August and I think I have talked her into entering it into Houston as well - that way I can meet you Kathi! This is Kathi's website where you can drool some more - she also told me she won the 'Best Longarm Quilting' award for a quilt called Emily at the 2011 Lancaster show. Kathi names her quilts after her grandchildren but sorry I deleted the name of this new one! The centre design and blocks are Morning Glory from my second book and the border is Mayflowers which Kathi enlarged. It is truly beautiful so watch out for it. Best of luck Kathi!

 Amazing detail of Kathi's quilting............

Tomorrow I leave for the South East where I am helping Faye with the Bedford Mystery Quilt project. To date over 3,000 metres of donated fabrics have been cut into kits and a spectacular return of over $50,000 has been received to date. I will update the Bedford blog with fun photos on my return.

Have a happy and safe week wherever you are x