Speedy Make

I had an idea in my head last week for a quick lap quilt for my Granda's birthday.  He is the fantastic age of 93 today.  I bought a lovely layer cake at FoQ last month which was just asking to be used to who was I to deny the cutting of fabric to be carried out.

I have no idea what the fabric is called or who designed it unfortunately but I do know that it from Robert Kaufman and it's lovely.  I changed by mind about the design mid way through last week so by Friday I needed to go and buy some sashing material and backing fabric.

Saturday naptime I managed to get the fabric cut out, Saturday evening I started to piece the blocks until my machine fell out with me and stopped working.  So I threw in the towel in trying to fix it and went to bed!  Got up Sunday morning with renewed energy determined to figure out what was wrong with my machine so I did this

and gave it a good old clean.  Hoovers out quite nicely actually, but no still no joy in getting it to do more than one stitch before it jammed up and refused to work.  *insert a very stressed person, lots of shouty, growly, thumping about and threatening to throw it out of the window*  But then for some reason I looked at the bobbin .............

I had been using the one on the left!  It should look like the one on the right.  No wonder it kept pushing he bobbin case out of the machine.  So once that was sorted it was like working with a different machine and it was full steam head.  So as daddy kept the dude occupied (ok they watched a dvd but it kept them out of my hair) I got all quilt top pieced.  Another short nap time and I got the layers basted.  We then went to visit my Granda at his nursing home.  He was in fine fettle if a little confused (apparently he was going to visit his auntie!).  We then got home and when daddy did bedtime I got on with the quilting, making and attaching the binding.  I finished about midnight last night!  But I'm really happy with it and what's more so is my Granda!

I did worry that it might be a bit too modern for a 93 yr old but he talked about it all afternoon apparently (after asking my dad if he needed to go to school today, bless him!).  We got it home because I forgot to attach a label with his name on it but I'll get that done tomorrow. 

Procastination

be thy middle name!!  Oh dear, I don't know if it's post holiday blues or just laziness (I'm leaning more towards the latter) but I've struggled to get back to my normal level of organisation since I came back from Embo.  I get little bursts of energy/enthusiasm but they don't last very long ...........

......... or I get interrupted. (I did start this post at 1.30pm today but a little person decided he'd had enough sleep so it's now 6pm and he's busy watching the Bedtime Hour on Cbeebies - I know dreadful parenting eh!)

Anyway, this week has been busy with getting back to work, catching up on everything that went on when I was off and getting back into our normal routine.  So all fun stuff has kind of taken a bit of back seat but I have been getting on with my hexagons.  This is 71 of them sewn together, I not sure what I'm going to do with it to be honest.  I did have a bit of an idea of making them into a cushion cover but I'm not sure about that now.  It's a funny shape of I need to cut out more and then see where I get too.

The husband is off working tonight so I'm planning to get some more hexies cut out and try to get some more of my mystery quilt done.

I've also been spending some time this week doing a little bit of family history research which has been really interesting.  It's something me and my dad have talked about doing for years but never really got round to doing anything about it.  But with my grandad's 93rd birthday coming up my dad wanted to find out if he will be the longest living of all his siblings, he was one of 7 and is the only one still living.  So that has meant a bit of digging about to find out birth dates and then that led to finding out marriage dates and similar information.  So in a short number of hours the other night I discovered that when my grandad's parents married  in 1906, his mum was 25, 3 years older than his dad and both her parents were deceased which my dad didn't know.  In fact there seems to be quite  few marriages in my family history where the bride was older than the groom which I think is quite unusual.

Wow! Wow! Wow!

If anyone is joining along with Lynne of Lily's Quilts Hexalong then this stunner will make your eyes water and make you go weak at the knees. 

This is a close up so you can get an idea of the size of the hexagons - possibly 1 inch width at widest

And this is the full size quilt .........

Unfortunately I don't have the name of person who made it, the details were not in the Festival of Quilts catalogue, but whoever they are they are a HUGE Green Day fan, this is their lead singer and it is an incredible likeness.

I feel like I spent the whole of Friday catching flies!!!  The standard of work was absolutely amazing.  At one point I overhead a conversation between two women about how they were starting to glaze over they had seen some many stunning quilts.  I had to agree, it did kind of become an assault on the senses, but in a very positive way.  So much to see/admire/drool over and most definitely not enough time.  One day is just not enough, we had hardly any time to view the stands but I did manage to squeeze in a little shopping :-)

More on that later and some more pictures of stunning quilts.  I've never driven 350 miles in 1 day before, never mind doing it again 2 days later, I'm feeling fairly exhausted today and I still have to organise the packing for going up north tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to a restful holiday, with a little hexagon sewing coming along to join the fun.

Not long now!

Look what my postman delivered to me the other day.  I've been reading them (almost) obsessively since they arrived - I know, they're only the guides, it's a shame really how excited I'm getting about going.  The competition guide is really interesting as it gives you a little blurb bit about all the quilts which are being exhibited - really interesting.

I had myself a very productive night last night and I've more or less caught up with the Mystery Quilt-along - hurrah!!!  How fantastic are these plaits?  I loved doing them and I'm really pleased by how effective they are.  Trying to think of ways to make an entire quilt out of plaits.  My first thought was that they could be used in a similar way to a chinese coin style, like this one I made, but now I'm thinking of different blocks and things.  My mind is running away with it's self on the possibilities!

 All I need to do now it sew together these 4 blocks and I'll be up to date!  I should even be able to get that done before the end of (dare I say it!) nap time if I get my skates on.

I've got a busy week ahead of me, what with a mountain of work to be done at work before I finish up on Wednesday, getting organised for heading to Birmingham on Thursday (not really looking forward to the drive but hey, it'll be worth it), back home on Saturday, then packing to be done for heading away again next Monday.  But I still want to work on getting some hexagons cut out to take with me so I have some sewing to keep my hands occupied and stop them shovelling food into my mouth.  It's a subconscious action, I swear I don't even realise I'm doing it half the time.  Well that's my excuse anyway!

Making a List

 (picture has nothing to do with what I'm talking about, it's just a pretty picture of a white peacock)

So ....... I'm going to Festival of Quilts next month (yay!).  I've been once before (2006 I think, or it might have been 2007, my memory is rubbish!).  Anyway it was in the days before I really did any significant amount of sewing or quilting, it was really as a fact finding mission when my sister ran a quilt shop.  So I did a small amount of shopping, a couple of fat quarters, some Kaffe Fassett material and nothing else.

But now that I'm actually making things, looking at lots of inspiration on different things to create in the future, I'm starting to think about what I want to buy when I get down to Birmingham next month, I'm making that list and I'll be checking it more than twice.

Now what should I put on that list?  I don't have a great deal of stash or accessories.  I'm kinda like a blank sheet.  What would be on your "must have" list?

I'm a bit of a magazine addict.  In the last week I've come across two really good ones - mollie makes which is full of wonderful handmade goodies - how to make them and where to get them.  The other is called Craftseller, it's tag line is 'Make and sell your handmade crafts', I only bought it today so I've not had the opportunity to read it through properly but when faffing about online earlier to find out more about it I came across this article on the Folksy blog about handmade goods and people's attitude towards handmade.  It's really interesting.  I find it so sad that some people seem to see handmade as 'cheap' instead of recognising the time, effort and work that has gone into unique items being produced.  I've made things for people in the past, more papercraft items, but the general response was disappointing and people seemed to think that I'd taken the cheap option and not spent enough money on their gift.  So I've not really made anything for a lot of non-crafting people until last christmas when me and a couple of friends decided we'd only give each other something we'd made ourselves.  I always try to buy gifts that take a person's personality, likes and dislikes into consideration but it felt good to put all of that thought and effort into something I've actually made.  Well that's my tuppence on the subject.

Crafty wee space

I'm in the process of getting the spare room back just for me, after Pedro has downsized all his work stuff and decided he's suffered enough cabin fever.  It's had a variety of uses over the last few years, a home office, a craft room, back to an office, a baby's room, back to an office and now back to a wee crafty space just for little old me!  It really is the smallest room in the house but it's big enough for what I need to use it for.  This was it on Tuesday once the painting was finished

And this was it earlier today, we've got the furniture in but I need to now get it organised and I sort out more shelving.  I particularly love my new rug from Ikea (and so does my son, he keeps walking on it saying 'all fluffy!')

Pedro is working tomorrow night so I'm intending to have it sorted out by then so I can actually start catching up on my sewing.  I've been in limbo while the room was being cleared out, painted and all my stuff put back in.


My other exciting news is that I'm going to the Festival of Quilts.  I'll be there on the Friday with my sister and my nephew.  It was supposed to be the start of our holiday but after a bit of hiccup, we've had to change our plans so I'm now driving down on the Thursday, will be at the FoQ on the Friday and then driving home on Saturday morning.  So it'll be a looooong drive down and a looooong drive home again but I'm still looking forward to it.

Keeping up!

Well trying to anyway!!  I've been busy trying to finish off things and start new things.  The dude's quilt top is finished.  I think - I like the way it looks but part of thinks it needs a border.  Yes/No?  Maybe I'll make a border just to see how it looks.  I'm planning to back it with a brushed cotton to make it lovely and snuggy.

My hearts quilt is now finished and sitting on our couch being leaned against every day.  I'm really, really happy with it and in this lovely warm June that we're having (!) it's been used already.

I'm getting behind on mystery quilt but a big part of that (other than, you know, life getting in the way of other fun stuff) is that I've been seriously procrastinating on the block which is to be paper pieced.  But thanks to Sheila who sent me some really helpful and very clear instructions on how to do a block I'm over the mental block I had.  So following the instructions I made this funky little tree (I added the border to finish it off)

I've made a little bit more progress with my mystery quilt since this but not much!

I've also being doing a little bit more of my brit quilt swap mini-quilt.  It's coming together nicely.  I haven't decided how to finish it off but I'll have a little bit of play and see what I can come up with.

I haven't been my usual organised self the last few weeks so I haven't had as much time as I've wanted to do much else but after the end of this week I should have more time as I step down from being as involved in our Toddler's Group (1 year of being the treasurer is enough for me).  But for now, seeing as it's Father's Day, I need to spend some time with this little man and his daddy.  Steak for dinner me thinks!

My Boy

.......is 2!  We've had a busy week.  I've been on holiday and spent the first half of the week preparing for the Toddlers AGM last Wednesday.  Being the group treasurer does involve a fair bit of work making sure that everything is up to date and logged properly so I wanted to make sure that I had everything correct.  Which meant that I checked, double checked and triple checked the accounts before the meeting.

Then Thursday was the Dude's birthday, this is him in one part of his birthday present.  We didn't get a chance to build it up until the morning of his birthday which was interesting to say the least.  It's looks fairly simple doesn't it?  We didn't think it would take very long - it's only a few pieces of plastic after all!  Over 2 hours later we had a different view of it!  But he loves it so that's all that mattered.  The other part of his present, which is bigger, went together so much easier and quicker - sod's law eh! (that's my nephew checking out the doorbell)

I attempted to go one better than last year's cake and I'm pleased with the result.  I'm going to spend some time this year improving my icing technique before the next birthday but it tasted really good and my butter icing was just amazing :)  (that'll be why my jeans are tight!)

And to finish off my week off work we spent the weekend at Grannie's Heilan' Hame holiday park.  It's at Embo, which I'd never heard of before, but it's about 3 miles from Dornoch (the place where Madonna and Guy Ritchie got married) and it's lovely.  Check out this beach ....... (and blue sky)

I'll be back tomorrow with more about the weekend.  Just now I'm off to have a decent cuppa (I'm contemplating taking my own mug on holiday the next time to try and get a proper cup of tea) and watch a programme about space archaeology!??!

Thinking & Playing

I've been doing some more thinking about my design for my mini quilt for my BQS partner.  I'm leaning more towards doing the flying geese design but I think I'll probably make up the shoofly/pinwheel combo too.  More just to see if I can do it LOL.

 Anyway, I've been redrawing the flying geese (how hard is it to find graph paper btw, I had to download it!), and playing about with how it will look and trying to decide on fabrics.  I'm more or less settled on these.  They are Kaffe Fassett, bundle of about 25 fabrics which I bought at the Festival of Quilts 4 years ago I think and never really figured out how best to use them.

But I also acquired some fabric for the shoofly block (i.e. paid my sister a visit and somehow left her house with these in my possession!!)

 I've got a week off (I mentioned that yesterday) and although we've got a few things planned, including a small person's birthday (where have the last 2 years gone?), I intend to get some serious sewing time built into my week.  We're also going away for the weekend next Friday so I'm going to take something with me.  Possibly try my hand at hexagons.

It's been longer than I thought

but I'm back!  It's been a strange week, what with having another long weekend, then we had a childcare issue which caused more stress than it needed to.  At the same time as that my laptop decided it didn't fancy working AT ALL but all is well with it now, I did think briefly that I'd lost my photos of Euan from when he was born but it didn't happen thank goodness.  My photos have now been backed up (and will be on a regular basis from now on!).

It's also been hetic at work and I've had to work different hours this week too, so it's been a confusing week all round.  So I've had little spare time, just a ton of housework to catch up on.

It's a mystery, oh it's a mystery

(in a strange type squeaky/husky Hazel O'Connor type voice)

The first post for the quilt a long has been posted and it's all about the fabric requirements.  So it looks like I will need to buy some fabric over the weekend .......... oh the hardship that will bring, I will have to drag myself in front of my laptop to pour over sites.  Damn I was going to wash my hair too, that'll just have to wait!!

The last 2 days have been full to the point that I am drained of any energy.  I had plans to start sewing blocks together as I finally got all my fabric cut the other day, but I've just sat on the sofa and been a blob.  I can barely concentrate on catching up with my sky+'d programmes!

I (heart) nap-time

because it gives me a window of opportunity to get various things done without a little person 'helping' me or without feeling guilty for leaving said little person playing on his own. As I'm a working mummy, I am only home during nap time for 4 days and some days nap time is about an hour or so long, so that lets me catch up on a a little bit of cleaning or maybe something I've sky+'d. Other days the little person has a LONG nap time. Like today, he decided to sleep for 3 hours!! So I made very good use of the time and did this ....

I made the blocks last week when I was on holiday and last night I put them together to make the 4 rows.  So during nap time I sewed roundabout the hearts, sewed the rows together and put on the inner and outer borders.  As I mentioned in a previous post I've had the material and pattern since about July 2006 so I'm very glad to now have a completed quilt top.  I bought some backing material last weekend so at some point this week I'll layer it up and start to quilt it.  Not sure how to quilt it, I'll probably just do a random squiggly thingy.  That the vibe I'm getting from it, higglety-pigglety-squigglety-ness.

Pedro asked me why I'd made it?  It's difficult to explain 'just because'!  I think he meant if I'd made it for someone or for a particular reason.  But no, it's just for me and will look pretty in our livingroom.

Busy, busy, busy

There just never seems to be enough hours in the day lately.  Not even down to any one thing in particular, just lots of things going on!

But I have been making stuff - woo hoo :)  I got this fabulous book for my birthday last November and I've finally got round to making something from it.  He doesn't have a name yet, possibly Loppy cos his mouth is a bit lop-sided but I'm not sure.  I loved making it, really quick but really effective.  If I get time I intend to make another this weekend.  Everybody need a sock animal I've decided!

I've also been making another mug rug tonight, it's not properly finished but here is a little look.

On other things my weight loss is coming along nicely, now lost a total of 8lbs since 11 January - 3 weigh-ins so far.  Many more lbs to go but I'm happy with the way it's going so far.

Very tired now, so off to bed for me and maybe just a page or two of Keith Richards' book.  It's a facinating read but it's written how I imagine he speaks, rambling through different topics before getting back to the original story, can be a wee bit confusing depending on how tired I am!

Mojo Rising

no, not just a line from LA Woman by the Doors.  But what is going on with me!!  I've been making stuff, woo hoo :)  Lookie see - my first EVER mug rug!  Thought I really should try them out before I make ones to send to someone.  Not bad me thinks - as long as you don't look too closely (then it looks REALLY bad LOL)

So I need to get my thinking cap on for designs for my swap partner rugs, got a couple of ideas but not quite sure yet.  Might need to buy some material depending on what I decide on, oh what a task that will be!

But I'm already planning my next quilt.  It's not a new plan, more like a long forgotten plan that I've finally plucked up the courage to continue with.  If you look closely at the picture below you will see that the magazine is actually dated 'August 2006' - yes that is not a mistake, 2006. 

I bought the magazine way back then, flicked through - as you do - and decided I LOVED this pattern, a log cabin with an appliqued heart in the middle.

 So off I went to my sister's shop (which has since closed due to a variety of reasons) bought the yummy material below.  Started to cut it up into strips and then ............... nothing.  Other things cropped up, I packed the material away to keep it nice and clean and I promptly forgot about it, until recently.

So I've decided that it will not live in a box under my bed no longer.  It deserves to be made into an actual quilt.  Now all I need to do is actually sit myself in front of my sewing machine and put thread and needle into the material. 

Spiderbaby, spiderbaby

does whatever spiderbaby does ..................

Today was the dude's first Halloween party at toddlers and I found the best spider costume.  It's got cool stripey trousers!!!  We had a great time, loads of kids turned up and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  I even made my first ever pumpkin lantern (with a handle) and a spiders web that I'm particularly chuffed with!

It's been a looooong day but I'm pleased that it's my last Friday at work for at least the next month - hopefully longer.  I'm also very pleased that our car passed it's MOT - well quite shocked really, but we're legal again.  Much happier about that!

So that's halloween just about all done with - taking the dude through to visit his great-granda in his old folks home on Sunday for their halloween party (I wonder if they will dress up the old dears :o) and then it's time to get started on Christmas.  Got a few things to make before then - busy, busy, busy.  Isn't something like 59 sleeps to christmas!?!?!?!

The other event of this week is that the dude is now 17months old. How did that happen? Life is just flying past way too quickly for my liking. Like I've been told, before I know it I'll be buying his first school uniform. Stay a baby little dude for just a little longer - please! But how cute is this cheesy face (although covered in chocolate!!!)  The other picture is just plain funny - looks like he's trying to match his daddy's big belly LOL



 

TGIF

I'm sooooo relieved it's Friday.  Work is mad at the moment, tons of stuff going on and very few people to do it.  Monday seems like it was a light year away!?!?  If only the dude was school age and I'd have had a decent excuse to get a holiday but at this rate it could be christmas before I get any real days off.  Although I do have a plan that will increase my time at home.  I'm going to trial a change in working pattern throughout November - instead of going into work 5 days a week, I'm going to try out 3 full days and 1 half day.  It will mean I should finish at 12.30 on a Thursday and not start again til Monday morning, I'll have a long weekend - EVERY weekend!  Well if it all goes to plan and the work agree to it - fingers crossed.

My Friday night is currently being spent catching up with all the tv I've recorded this week - Neighbours (somebody has pushed Paul Robinson off the mezzaine - shock! horror!); Strictly - It Takes Two - Ann Widdecombe is doing the quick step tomorrow, it'll be hilarious :); currently watching Private Practice and I think I've missed a week cos I'm confused about what is going on. 

The other night I subscribed to Fat Quarterly and it's great.  I got the holiday special emailed today and I want to rush off and make ALL of it! Right NOW!

It's been a while

I've been doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Mainly working, but I'd better not say too much about that as all employees have been reminded about the 'social networking policy' that is now in existence - so I cannot comment in case I say something potentially negative which could lead me to be sacked!! Suffice to say my daily theme tune is 'Happy Days are here again'.

So onto more important things, the following is a brief tour of my life from the last few weeks .........

We've been to Toddlers (the dude is in the stripe tee),   

we've been entertaining small people,

we've been to look at lots of lurvely quilts at the Quilt Championships,

and I've playing with bits of material, trying to make a baby quilt for a little new person who is due to come into the world at some point this week!  It's not the greatest of pictures, it looks quite pink but it's a range of pastel colours.

Exhausted

It's been a busy few weeks round these parts. Getting back into the old diet (lost 2.5lbs in 1st week), work is getting busier and 2 big family celebrations. My big bruv is now the tender age of 40!!!! I'm the only one of us still in my 30's now - ha ha And this weekend has been one of my cousin's wedding.

We left for Carnoustie on Friday afternoon and were staying in a self catering flat for 2 nights along with my dad and his wife. It was a really nice flat, older property with big rooms, high ceilings and an amazing view from the livingroom out over the sea.

It's been a really good weekend, weather has been fantastic (bit windy but what else can you expect on the east coast of Scotland!) and it's been really chilled out. The dude has been fab, not phased at all about sleeping in his travel cot, or in a different location and was a total flirt with the waitresses at the hotel!

The day began with us waiting outside for the new bride and groom to arrive by helicopter so the dude thought he break in his new shoes! Then a wee chilled out drink with daddy. Unfortunately the meal was a bit of a let down and the dude almost didn't get fed (apparently they thought the 'babies' wouldn't need a their own meal) but it all ended well - he had half of mine and then some cheesey pasta.

This morning we decided to take a little wander along the beach first time paddling in the north sea! We had great fun.

I was so busy last week that I didn't get any sewing done so my aim this week is to finish the backing of my current WIP.

Nippy Reality

It is offically the end of my 2 weeks holiday (boo hoo :(), back to the snappy teeth of reality of work tomorrow morning!

We've had the odd day out - visited the Scottish Deer Centre, Edinburgh Zoo, done the odd bit of shopping, tidied up our garden, made plans for improving the kitchen, finished the monster quilt, started another quilt (yeah!) but most importantly we've chilled out and spent time with the dude.
a reindeer having a munch
choice of colours for the kitchen
koala chilling out
a painted hunting dog
spinning the dude

I've also started my next quilt!!!! Made 3 of 7 strips already. I'm looking forward to how it looks when it's finished.