A New Start

It has been such a long time since my last post, however, the stitching never stopped.

Circa 2016

All the blocks have been joined and the layers pinned together! Hope to have it quilted in the next couple of weeks.

 

Daisy Do

The rows were joined together while we were in Portugal and the layers put together before we returned home. Since then the quilting has been slow and enjoyable .The large white stitches are now nearly covering  the flowers and I am working on the borders. Hope to make a multi coloured binding. I will post more photos when it is finished.

Kaleidoscope Quilt

This quilt is a pattern from Stack N Whackier by Bethany S Reynolds it has been in my UFO box for some years and I have always loved the colour! So it was time to layer it up and now it will be machine quilted before Easter as I want to take it back to Portugal.

I will come back next week and tell you my to do list for 2017.

A big thank you to all that have stopped by while my blog had a break.

Happy New Year

Mary

 

Sunny Portugal and The New Bloggers Blog Hop

We have been on our travels from the UK to Portugal. The first part of the journey was to drive down to the south coast and catch a ferry from Portsmouth.  The ferry took 28 hrs and we arrived at Bilbao on the north coast of Spain. Then a 7 hr drive down to Central Portugal.

 

 

Hubby has started cutting the grass, there’s not a lot of green!!!

The house had been empty since April so the spiders had taken over and it took a couple of days to clean up . We have to work in the garden and some of the house could do with a lick of paint. Work takes place early in the morning as the temperature  gets into the mid 30’s by noon.

 

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The New Quilters Blog Hop

This post should  have posted on Monday so I apologise to the girls . Please go check out these great blogs and discover their stories.

Sharla

http://www.thistlethicketstudio.com/

Stephanie

https://quiltnparty.com/

Katrin

https://puppilalla.blogspot.de/

Jen

http://adreamandastitch.blogspot.com/

Many thanks to Stephanie, Yvonne and Cheryl for hosting , if you visit their blogs you still have a chance to win prizes and meet the other new bloggers.

http://latenightquilter.com/

http://quiltingjetgirl.com/

http://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.pt/

I packed Daisy Do quilt and a quilt top I made about 12 yrs ago . Hope to get some sewing in as we will be here all summer.

Happy stitching

Blog Hop and Daisy Do update

 

The New Quilt Bloggers Hop is back this week after a short break.

 

Please go check out these great blogs from my group

Shannon

http://www.shannonfraserdesigns.ca/

Tami

http://sewmuchforfreetime.blogspot.co.uk/

Suzi

http://websterquilt.blogspot.com/

Olusuyi

http://alicesamuelsquiltco.wordpress.com/

Kathy

https://kathyskwiltsandmore.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Then visit our hosts, where you will find more new bloggers and prizes to be won

Yvonne

http://quiltingjetgirl.com/

Stephanie

http://latenightquilter.com/

Cheryl

http://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

Daisy Do update

Had hoped to have all the rows finished by the end of June, just ran out of time!

So now have set the finish date for the end of July.  Just 3 more rows to add and then the border.

Things are a little slow, sewing wise, over the summer. Will post when there is progress or news to share.

Have a great summer or if you are in colder climes keep warm.

Happy stitching

Welcome

2016 New Bloggers Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to my blog.

This is the place I keep track of my sewing adventures and share them with you.

How did my blog get its name?

My husband’s  name is Bri/an and mine is M/ary so take the start of his and the end of mine and you get Briary!

Part of my blog belongs to him as he is always supportive and on hand when I ask is this OK or does that sound right.

The beginning

When I was about 5yrs  old there was a very kind lady, who lived next door. Her husband was in the Navy and spent long periods at sea, they had no children. I used to spend many happy hours at her home learning to knit and sew  and there were always plenty of chocolate biscuits.

In my teenage years I altered and made clothes.

Then, when the family arrived, moving on to making things for the home.

About 15 years ago we lived in the Middle East and I belonged to the Kuwait Quilters , meeting  and learning from so many talented quilters  from all over the world.

Quilts made in the last year

Cozy Afternoon BOM

This was the first time I’d embroidered on a quilt and joined in  with a BOM . The pattern was by Jacquelynne Steves you can find her here

Christmas tree skirt

Had always wanted to make one of these and last year it was made in plenty of time for Christmas.

 

William’s quilt

Not sure which is the front and which is the back? The dinosaurs started as the front, however, the animals seem to be the favourite!

 

William’s birthday party

After dancing on the quilt, giving the lion a kiss, it was time for a nap.  I think he  liked his quilt.

What am I plotting for future adventures

Well, I also love embroidery so I have been mulling over doing a candlewick  quilt or adding mountmallick embroidery, but then again I’ve never done cathedral Windows, could add hand embroidery to that!!! Designing my own quilt is always  on the list.

Tips

When taking a free motion quilting class and things were not going well. The teacher said if you make the same mistake 3 times it’s a pattern ! Go with it!

With blogging, don’t give up , you will have one of those ” light bulb ” moments and wonder why you didn’t think of that before.

Big Thanks

              

Many thanks to our hosts for their support and a great group of girls who have been inspirational. Give our hosts a visit and there are prizes to be won!

Stephan               http://latenightquilter.com/

Yvonne         http://quiltingjetgirl.com/

Cheryl           http://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Then please check out the other girls introducing their blogs today from Hive Sewciety

Karen https://tunaquilts.wordpress.com/

Pamela https://sewcrazi.com/

Nicole https://handwroughtquilts.wordpress.com/

Happy stitching

 

Cica 2016

Just love these tiny blocks !

A couple more blocks for the collection , still no idea what we are going to do with them , will it be this Friday when we find out?

You can check out this quilt along at athttp://temeculaquiltco.blogspot.co.uk/

Happy stitching

 

 

An English garden

My garden this morning with the sun shining so bright.

An English garden in June has to be one of the best places to be for it is full of colour and some of my favourite flowers are bursting with blooms.

Have to leave the sewing machine for a short while just to take in their beauty and perfume.

Happy stitching

 

William’s quilt

The back of the quilt is done !  I started quilting it with straight line quilting.  Didn’t like it and spent the afternoon picking out those stitches.

Just couldn’t resist this jungle panel, however, lining up back and front and finding a quilting pattern that looks good on both sides is giving me trouble.

Now I’m going to sit and have a cup of tea in the garden, while the sun is out, thinking about how it should be quilted.

 

 

Wish me luck!

Happy stitching

 

A little anagram

Working on William’s quilt and have decided to add a few more letters. Can you guess the word?

Will be back on Saturday to show you the quilt back.

Happy stitching

Busy Week

I am taking part in the above  course and have spent a busy week trying to learn and understand some of the tech side of blogging. Thanks to Yvonne, Cheryl, Stephanie and the rest of the girls for all their help. I’m looking forward to the next couple of months.

Managed to get a little sewing done on the Circa 2016 quilt which you can find here for all the information on the blocks.

 

Hope to get Williams quilt ready for quilting this week and fit in some work on Daisy Do.

Happy stitching

Daisy Do rows

The rows have now been completed lengthways and the next stage can start, feels good! I have set a date of July 1st to join the rows and add a border.

There are 77 flowers consisting of outer petal, inner petal and middle. I have tried to use a different fabric for each flower. For the centres I purchased a bag of 40 small scrap pieces  from e-bay and a layer cake was needed to complete the flowers.

Have a great weekend and happy stitching