I'm back

Took advantage of having a different half term to most of the rest of the country and spent last week at Center Parcs. Was very lovely to be well out of WiFi range for a few days and we enjoyed some almost tropical southern spring weather, the chance to get back on my bike for the first time in a long time and taking both girls swimming everyday.

I'm not much of a photographer I'm afraid so this is all I've got to show for the week, my big girl enjoying a very low adrenaline pony ride.

Alas, no sewing achieved at all. I had hoped to have my Playground quilt ready to bind but unsurprisingly that is still a quilt top so I took my long running handwork project, the April block from last year's Pile O Fabric Skill builder BOM instead. I (almost) sewed three torturous rows together in the car ... and then abandoned, again, in favour of reading books in the evenings instead. So, sewing pictures also lacking, this is the total of my achievement for the week. I am absolutely determined to get this block finished, indeed to get the whole BOM finished, but my word I am finding it slow going.

Anyway, back late last night, not even unpacked, I was back to it this morning, off to Leeds for the first very exciting meeting of the newly formed Leeds Modern Quilt Guild. So exciting, I got to meet the lovely and very organised Lisa Sew who made me a super pair of knickers last month, plus lots of other lovely local-ish sewing ladies. Today was just a planning and organising meeting but we'll be doing some sewing next time, a whole day of social but uninterrupted by small children sewing, can't wait!

My EPP pouch which I took to LMQG but left in my handbag, talking too much to sew, sorry!

Justine was there with a small selection from her Simply Solids empire. No fabric for me but I took the opportunity to grab a couple of pieces of exciting hab dash that I've had my eye on for some time, the lack of postage cost was just the push I needed. She has a gorgeous new website btw, go have a look.

A lovely new pair of snips to replace the blunt embroidery scissors I am always scrabbling for to trim thread and some Flatter pressing spray.

I do love a pressing agent, I started using spray starch on the insistence of Alyssa and that BOM last year and was a total convert. I don't prewash so I find it essential for getting that off bolt crease out of the centre of my fabric. Also if you ever use precut FQs or F8s it makes smoothing those out a breeze. I do quite enjoy pressing and this makes it go so much easier and quicker. It also gives body to your fabric, and if you use enough layers can actually make it quite stiff, perfect for stabilising the fabric when cutting lots of triangles or other shapes with pesky bias edges. I've been working with voile lately and haven't had any problems at all thanks to the starch.

 My preferred brand of starch is this earth friendly starch which I buy from Lakeland. I have tried the Dylon stuff from the laundry aisle at the supermarket but it doesn't work as well as this. Then I was converted to Best Press, also purchased from Simply Solids. This leaves less residue than the starch and doesn't stiffen the fabric as much but still makes pressing much easier, I even use it to iron my daughter's school polo shirts - the only thing I ever press besides fabric! I prefer the unscented version.

But Flatter is the new thing and comes in some seriously delicious scents. I went for Yuzu which is a citrussy orange, yum. I'll let you know how I find it.

But this week I will be mostly sewing this gorgeous stack of voile blocks into a quilt top.