Bed runner: quilting progress

I've started on the quilting, and have now completed 1/4-1/3 of the circles. Seems to be going well so far, although the chalk pencil pattern has mostly worn off, so I'm doing a lot of referring back to the photos in the previous post. All good though, at least I don't have to worry about leaving marks I can't get rid of!

Bed runner: quilting design

A little while ago I decided that my previous plan for quilting the runner wasn't a good one.

This was partly because I had the feeling that the pattern would annoy me with its imperfections, but mostly because saw this which I thought was awesome.

So today I used a soluble fabric pencil, along with my plate collection, to create my new pattern.

Now it just needs sewing...

Completed book ends!

The bookends are completed and have been delivered to Connie and Steef.

Before they were taken off to Holland by Arjan's parents, we took extensive photos of the result.

Front garden: before and after.

I'm slightly hesitant to post these photos, as I'm aware that in some ways the after looks much worse than the before - partly because the after was taken a few weeks later and the flowers were mostly gone, partly because of the angle... but mostly because of the brutal pruning that has taken place.

Anyway, here goes!

We've trimmed back everything at trellis level, and pulled the rose back against the fence. Above the trellis everything is cut back as far as our property goes.