Monday 14 September 2009

Dogs, dogs, dogs, Oh yeah, and quilts!

Did I have some interesting fun this weekend!  Went to Paws in the Park at the Hop Farm.  It was the first doggy outing my two dogs have ever had.  I've been doing some dog training and so decided this might be a good way of doing some socialising.  Abby and Casper just loved it.  All so exciting with so many four-legged friends to choose from and so many different scents.  They probably thought they died and gone to heaven.  I went on both days because the dogs were so good.

With all the dog training I have been catching up on, I have neglected my patchwork!!!  So many projects I have going on at the moment, I really need to focus on at least one of them.  When my friends and I went to Birmingham, we all bought a beautiful pattern from Mandy Shaw for a sampler quilt.  We decided to work on it when we got together every Wednesday.  Started with the 'Home Sweet Home' block, and so far I think three of us have decided to make changes on the layout.  It was thought that although we were all doing the same quilt, we still wanted to make it individual to each of us.  Even though we all bought some fabric specifically for using in this quilt, it was very difficult to stick to the limited choice.  I have had all my fabrics out in an attempt to find just the right ones to make my block the way I wanted it to look.  This is a wonderful creative process that really gets the mind stimulated.   Heaven knows I have so many cobwebs in mine I had a job getting it started in the first place!

I did promise to write about our trip to the NEC and I will as soon as I get some input and photos from the rest of the girls.  Trouble is we have so much we like to talk about when we get together, there just never seems to be enough hours.

Will try to lock myself away today and do some sewing!  Actually I really need to tidy up the pile of fabrics I got out in the first place just to get to my sewing.

Thursday 3 September 2009

Welcome to all. This is my first blog so I hope you will bear with me until I get to grips with things.

Noodle Soup is the name of a group of friends who are totally patchwork and quilting mad! We meet every week on a Wednesday in my little Bumbleberry Cottage at the bottom of the garden. It may sound a bit gnome-ish, but it is really lovely. Here we do a lot of creative stuff like making coffee and tea, having lunch, chatting, oh and stitching! We all met through another quilt group we belong to called Hearty Quilters. As HQ is only a monthly meeting, we decided to get together and meet weekly. As I had the most room, we started in my conservatory. Together we worked on the charity quilts that the HQ group raffle each year at our Maidstone quilt show. This is held on the last Friday and Saturday of July. Our next one is on the 30&31 July 2010. Our 2009 quilt show raised over £2000 for the Heart of Kent Hospice. Check out the link for more details.

Anyway back to Noodle Soup. Each week we bring whatever we feel like working on and spend the whole day sewing. Food is shared and I am the hostess. I just love everyone coming over and don't mind that I don't get alot of sewing done. There is just something special about a group of friends being together, away from the rest of their lives for that moment. Even though we also belong to a few other groups, this one is just a little more special because of the close bond we have to each other.

I think that is all I am going to say for the moment. I will be telling you all about our recent trip to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham. There are some lovely photos to post as well.

See ya later!
Sandra