A few souvenirs from London!

Greetings!

Finally taking time to post about our London trip this year! We enjoyed our Rick Steve's London 7 day trip last year, so we decided to return this year. Be sure to carry a RFID protected wallet for your cards. Last year we had one card scanned, and we hadn't even removed it from the wallet it was in. This year we both had protected wallets. 

It was a busy, fun trip. We planned it ourselves this time. We experienced a lot of new things, and discovered we are a bit more achy when walking! The things we enjoyed the most were the theatre shows we went to, and also shopping at a market, and at the local grocery stores. 

The sites were nice that we visited, but everything seems to be spread further apart - so lots of walking. We discovered that it is easier taking the bus, than going up and down subway stairs now. A few things to deal with, but we did well and enjoyed our trip. (We are both a bit older, and have a bit of arthritis!)

I plan to post more photos - there is a lot to see in London and in England, so it was easy to fill up our itinerary.

Here are some of the souvenirs we brought back, they are Paterson's Shortbread from Iceland store in Winchester (it was a bargain purchase, but very good, all gone now!), Penguin Pin from Victoria & Albert Museum gift shop, we also purchased some soap, notebooks from Liberty London store, Tana Lawn fabric bundles from Liberty London - I'll most likely use them for quilt/art projects, Koh-i-noor watercolor stack from Kew Gardens - we also purchased some flower seeds, Koh-i-noor Chalk pencil and erasers from Tate Britain gift shop - I discovered the Chalk pencil works well on fabric for marking and is easy to erase, a nice surprise! We also made it to Fortnum & Mason's Piccadilly store and purchased half off Easter candy, tea and biscuits. 

I tried to purchase a little something from the places we enjoyed the most. Many sites (museums) had free admission, so buying a little something helps support them.

Hope you are doing well and enjoying the Spring season,

Many Blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

Dresden Summer Stitch Along - Progress update! Week 3 sewing and embroidery

Hi!

A little update on my progress on the Dresden Summer Stitch Along - here are my embroidered blocks from Week 3:

Week 3 Susan Ache Embroidery Designs stitched

Here is the back side of the embroidery, I carry my stitches along by catching the thread in the previous stitches. This way it doesn't show through the fabric on the right side.

Backside of the embroideries (fun to see)!

I have been busy preparing wedges for the Dresden blocks too, here are some I've created so far, there are 240 wedges in the quilt:

Some of my prepared wedges - using Riley Blake Liberty London
fabric (a 10 inch layer cake) and Kaufman fabrics (a jelly roll).

And, I even managed to sew some of the wedges together to make 2 Dresden plates. I still need to add the centers. I was thrilled with the result! I think I may be adding some more Dresden Plate projects to my list of quilts to make!

Dresden plate blades sewn together.

I'm enjoying this process, just doing a little at a time. I cut and sew a few hours in the afternoon in my studio, not all day! I have been stitching some of the embroidery in the evening too.

I hope you are creating something wonderful this Summer! It is great for lifting your spirits, and you have beautiful projects as a result, too.

Blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

A visit to Liberty London and my entry in the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge

Hi,

Hope everyone is having a good May! We came back from a visit to London (about 2 weeks ago). I am hoping to put together some notes and make a little scrap book of my visit, we did catch a cold, so that has delayed that a bit!

I am finally feeling better and have managed to finish the edges of my little quilt that I have entered in the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge. 

Here is my little quilt, it is approximately 12.2 inches x 14 inches:

"Under the Sea" Mini Quilt

This little quilt evolved during this year's Online Project Quilting Challenge. You can read more about how I created this in my earlier blog entries. I added the ombre purple batik border - first I was going to hand stitch a border, then that didn't seem quite right, then I thought maybe a faced border, when I found this fabric in my stash, the binding seemed like the right solution! It makes me very happy to look at it!

During our London trip we arrived a day early before our tour (we took a Rick Steve's 7 Days of London Tour), and we stopped by Liberty London. All the Quilt Craft tours make a stop there, so I had hoped to go there. Somehow I imagined more rooms of fabric! It was nice, one big room of Tana Lawn Cotton prints and another smaller room with Quilting cottons and gifts to purchase. 

I chose some Tana Lawn remnants from a small basket, and a Liberty London embroidered patch from the Quilting section. The Tana Lawn fabric is very smooth and soft, a fine weave.

Liberty remnants in packages

Lovely Liberty Embroidered Patch

Liberty fabric prints

The building was fun to see! We did look through the housewares section and the stationary department a bit. It is a bit pricey for us, so we only made the fabric purchases. (It was excellent quality, and a little pricey too, but I'm happy I bought them, they will make their way into my projects.)

Liberty London store outside

Liberty London looking up at the inside roof

Inside Liberty London store

Inside Liberty London - taken with a fish eye camera

It is a very unique and old wooden building! (I looked up some information on their website, Liberty London was established in 1875, the current building was built in 1924 as Tudor Revival architecture.) It took us a while to find it, we were walking and our directions were a little confusing - but we finally found our destination! I am glad we got to visit there.

Hope you have enjoyed my little post.

Many blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk