Life gets hectic, don't it?

April already!  Can you believe it?  I seem to have been very busy but I don't seem to have been particularly creative in the last few weeks, although I do have a few things to share with you.

First of all and most important, my baby brother and his partner made me an auntie towards the end of March.  As with all babies J is the most gorgeous little boy and I can't wait for a cuddle!

He looks so much like his Daddy and I am delighted for his parents as I know my brother has always wanted to be a Daddy and now he has this beautiful little boy.  I made J a quilt with these Riley Blake stackers and a cloud fabric to my own design but I was in such a rush to post it that I forgot to take a photo.  Hopefully my brother will send me one soon so I can show you.  Doh!

I promised myself this year that I would explore mark making but I havn't been very good at it so far.  I did however get my Gelli Plate out and have a little dabble and I'm quite pleased with the results so far.

The one above is the print from cleaning off the stencils.  Cool!
 

These are all made with Artist Cellar stencils and at the moment are not much more than backgrounds to be worked on but I do love the marks I've achieved.  The last one is done on tissue paper.  Not only can I play about more with these prints they will make great photo textures!

I am supposed to be joining in with the Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilts challenge this year and with the deadline looming I have only just made a start.  Goddness knows whether I am going to make it!  Yesterday I got out my oilbars, long neglected, and made a start on preparing some surfaces to stitch on my theme of Making Marks.

I used children's texture plates and a bottle holder from an old fridge to get the marks and decided to stick to one colour for these first four.  They are 8" x 12" in a landscape format and after the weekend I will be furiously practising my free-machining in the hope of completing them all before the deadline, otherwise I will be shuffling off in an embarrassed way and withdrawing from the challenge.

I have loads more to tell you about, including a coach trip to Cardiff last weekend and a fabulous day out with my lovely friends Linda and Maggi on Wednesday to see the Living Threads exhibition at Long Eaton which is definitely worth a visit if you are withing reach of Long Eaton, Nottingham.  Sadly I don't have any photos of the exhibition as none were allowed.

Sorry to be so brief but I should be getting ready to go to the Quilters' Guild AGM today so I must dash.  I may be a bit delayed in answering any comments as the next three days are going to be a bit hectic but I do value all your comments and support.  It's really lovely to know such friendly and warm people.  I hope I'll see some of you in Nottingham later today or over the weekend.  Kick me in the shins if you see me, I'm a bit bad at noticing people sometimes ;-)  

PS  If you are within reach of Grantham, Stitchcraft are having a 4 day Spring fabric next Wednesday 10 April and I've heard they have some fab fabrics.