BritQuilt wonderfulness & the lady parts pincushion

Whoa! How lucky am I?  I’ll show you, shall I?

This morning I received my quilt in the BritQuilt Swap.  I had waited till the absolute last minute to leave for work in case the post came. When I opened my front door the box was outside!  Either a silent postman, or my neighbour took it in yesterday, dunno.

All I did know was that I absolutely didn’t have time to give it the attention it deserved.
So, I just ripped the top of the box off, to have a peek, to see me through the day, you know … and I nearly peed myself I tell you. 

You see, Lynne @ LilysQuilts had sent me the best possible “angel quilt” anyone could ever send.  An angel quilt is for when for whatever reason one of the swap partners has to drop out or postpone.  My partner Yvonne has been very poorly.  Sending love Yvonne!


I didn’t even have time to take the contents out of the box -  I just stroked it all for a nanosecond, grabbed the card and flew down the hill to work.

This is what I savoured on my return this evening:





fab mug rug, some scrrrrrrrrumptious  rubystar rising (I don’t have any left, so this was wonderful!  Also my first Sherbet Pips (totally scrummy too!) and some of the lovely post goat Japanese fabric. 

Nestling in there is an infamous piece, now known as the Lady Parts Pincushion you can read a tea snortingly funny thread here from the DQS10 that explains it all and that should give you a clue as to why I’m quite so squeaky!





Introducing Regina Phalange … This was Lynne’s quilt from the Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr, but long story short, her partner sent it back to her. I know. Let’s not judge.  Let’s bloomin frickin celebrate, cos I’ve got it!  Ha-Ha!


So, Lynne, when you said that these had come to their proper home, you didn’t know quite how right you were!  I had to stick a few pins in first,just because I wanted to know if it would feel as wrong as we thought it would.  It did.




But now, you can see the lady parts pincushion happily nestling in her readymade pink pubic heaven, and that is where she will stay.

Whodathunk a quilt swap could give a girl so much fun?

Thank you Lynne.  From the bottom of my flange. Thank you.

Brit Quilt Swap - Quilting Harlot's Web

Brit Quilt Swap - Quilting Harlot's Web, a photo by Sarah @ pingsandneedles on Flickr.

I'm thinking of using a beautiful YL variegated quilting thread for the centre - it's in pink, green, yellow, orange ... just to pull the whole thing together ... but I may end up staying with the neutrals ... who knows ...

General consensus over at the BritQuiltSwap flickr group is to stick with the neutrals, but you know me ... always contrary (read indecisive LOL) ...

Lovely old Dewhurst cotton - the shade is called silver tinsel

Things I'm loving about  my new machine RoboSew:

• Needle down as default end point - this is so so useful for turning corners ... I love love love it ...
  

• Also loving the stop/start button ... I did half the quilting using this, but then I moved back to the foot pedal for more control ... I know I will deffo use it again on other projects, a lot (I'm thinking chain piecing!) 

It's nice to see it all coming together now.  It's very  much how I imagined it would look, so I'm quite pleased.  I'll be happier when I know if my partner likes it ... :-) 

Yin & Yang

Here in the Pings Household (which in reality is just me and my multiple personalities) we are experiencing severe sewing machine trauma. 

Poor Damiel.





He’s like an eccentric old spitfire … he’s got all the parts you need to fly, and all the enthusiasm and intention of a teenager, but none of the modern technology to make the flight smooth and zippy like a jet fighter …

Johnny Depp would play him in the movie.  I do really love him.  He’s shiny.

Anyway.  My obsessive use of the walking foot in my quest for perfect HSTs and paper piecing is starting to take its toll on his 63 year old frame.




Piecing this, (left) only my second (of 16!) spiderweb blocks for the Brit Quilt Swap …





… has seen 2 broken needles, a locked bobbin. motor flipping the wheel lock off, and general spinning out with associated clunking.

To this 1950s boy racer of a machine, a walking foot is the equivalent of sticking a memory stick into a typewriter.

He’s wearing out and needs a break. 



So, I think I’m going to bring back Mrs Singer again … (She’d be played by Patricia Routledge)

She’s been on ‘sabbatical’. (snitty tension issues) 

I sympathise with her, really I do. 




 But she’s Yin to his Yang, Man.  It’s her turn.


 In other news …

I have got a wonderful double bubble giveaway starting next week …

Let’s see now, Melody Miller, Interview, Fabric …

… Spoilers!

Desert Island Quilt

Over on the Brit Quilt Swap Lynne posted a great meme:


Desert island Book, DVD, CD & Quilt


I put my answers in on the discussion, but I thought I’d just expand them a bit here:

For a start, just let me say this is an entirely impossible task! I have so many multiple preferences/personalities!

So I will have to go with today.
Today I am feeling brave and positive and excited, so ...


Book: Between Silk and Cyanide - Leo Marks

This is Leo Marks' (he was the son of the owner of 84 Charing Cross Road ) memoir of life in the SOE, during WW2 - all those amazing cryptographers & spies who helped the Resistance. So many of them women. So absolutely inspiring ... ok, and a bit nerdy cos there's lots of secret code stuff on silk handkerchiefs ... bliss.

 He also wrote possibly the most beautiful poem ever used in codebreaking



DVD: Wings of Desire



The tale of an angel craving mortality in order to have the sensory and emotional depth that he cannot have as an angel.

It's set in Berlin, in B&W, in German with subtitles and very gently slow, and yet it's the most breathtakingly easy film to watch.

It also has Peter Falk. Of all people. Playing himself. Truly heavenly.

(absolutely not the fluffy awful American remake with Meg Ryan as a brain surgeon? ok?)




Album: David Bowie, Hunkydory



This can take me back to the impossibly hopeful weightlessness of youth in the twang of a guitar string. Consistently great songs, chirpy, positive and let's face it, there's a Bowie song for every playlist.









Quilt: the Wandsworth Prisoners Quilt





This was shown at the V&A Quilt exhibition last year.

Wandsworth Prison was built in the 19th C and is now massively overcrowded.

I couldn't imagine being locked up in such a small space. (whatever the crime) and I totally understood how sewing kept them calm. Awesome.

Watching the video documentary was the only time I've ever cried in a museum.

(Apart from getting lost in the dinosaur hall at the Natural History Museum when I was about four. Tres traumatique, I can tell you)

What would you choose? 

If you’re in the Brit Quilt Swap, get on over there and tell us, or if not, just take the meme and run with it!

If you’re a Brit Quilter and you’d like to take part in the swap, signups end on Friday …