Interesting

Combination of fabrics here ..

Really not sure what I think of the blocks so far, but 4 down, 20 more to do!  It is definitely scrappy that's for sure.  Can't wait to see what it will be like finished but I'm thinking it will be more on the 'fugly' side of things, but that's cool, everyone needs a 'fugly' quilt I think.  Honestly we all do :)

Quote for today, perfect for anyone who gets out of the wrong side of the bed!!!!

Nice surprise

(or really dodgy memory, depends on how you look at it!)

I mentioned in this post that I was starting the Scrappy Round the World Trip quilt that blogland has been going crazy over for, well longer than I've known about it.  I'm always last on the scene with these things.  Anyhoo, I knew I'd chosen my fabrics, cut them into strips and had started to sew them together.  Now a little time had passed since I'd done that so I was CERTAIN that I still needed to sew the long strip together but when I finally got my butt in gear I discovered this .....

I've already done that (yay), (I've made one block just to get an idea in my head what my materials look like - it's VERY scrappy!)  Next was cutting the long strips/tubes into 2.5" strips/tubes and then unpick the short strips/tubes so that the blocks have the 'step' look.  Now that all the loops have been unpicked I need to sew them together.  That is tonight's task, well starting them.  Got 24 blocks to do and I seriously doubt I'll get them all sewn in one sitting.  Especially as they need pressed first and I've got to get the ironing stuff out then I really do the slightly large pile of ironing first.  At least then I can sew relatively guilt free!!!

My other minor obsession at the moment is Pinterest.  I (heart) Pinterest, doesn't everyone?  Currently my Pinterest obsession is the quotes section.  Some of them are funnies, some of them are motivational, some of them are inspirational.  I'm planning that I'll share one on every blog post.  (I was going to say daily, but really who am I kidding thinking I'm going to blog every day, need to be realistic here!?!?!)  So here's today's little bit of wisdom. 

Go on imagine it.  It works if you are upset or really annoyed, you'll laugh I promise.

Don't this at home ...

To explain, this is my right hand, placed on my right leg facing towards me.  Apparently not everyone can do this!  I've been able to this for as long as I can remember and never really thought anything of it.  On Monday I finally had my appointment with the Physiotherapist for a pain I've been getting in my right hand for just over 18 months and she explained that I have hypermobility.  This basically means that my ligaments aren't as strong as most people and they don't fully support my joints so I'm able to move them more than other people and, more to the point, they move past the normal range of motion, which isn't advisable.  I had to do various simple tests like see if I could place both hands, palm down, on the floor without bending my legs.  So after these tests I received a score of 9 out of 9, so I'm very hypermobile apparently.  Although I don't have hypermobility syndrome thankfully.  

So since Monday I've been having lightbulb moments all week when different things happen, like going over on my ankle and realising that this is due to having rubbish ligaments and joints!  It's also linked to poor posture and clicking joints, both of which I have the pleasure of.  I can't get rid of rid of it but if I try and strengthen the muscles it will be an attempt to support my joints.  From what I've discovered it's also common for people with hypermobility to have weak muscles strength - believe me I'm rubbish, I have no strength whatsoever. So it's been an interesting week.

I have been missing in action for nearly a month from my blog.  I've been thinking about where or not to blog about why for a little while now.  But due to the very nature of the beast, not discussing it is part of the problem.  So at the risk of overexposing myself, nearly 2 years ago I was diagnosed with depression and put on medication for a short time.  That helped me get over that phase of life (I still remember the incident when I realised I wasn't coping and needed a bit of help).  But that was a while ago and I've been back to myself for a while, until a couple of months ago when things just started to become overwhelming again.  I'm reluctant to take medication again so I've been giving myself a little TLC, eating way too much (bang goes the diet)  and I'm back on more of an even keel (I was going to say normal but that never been a word associated with me!!).

So being a more enthusiastic about most things I'm starting to think about putting my sewing machine into action.  Having had a very busy August and a September that isn't really worth dwelling on I remembered I haven't blogged about my purchases from Festival of Quilts in August.  I bought the Farmer's Wife Sample Quilt book which I've wanted for a while, some red, black and while fat quarters, some halloween fabric, a little charm pack and some bargain fat quarter bundles of blues, greens and yellows.  Not sure what I'm doing to do with it all yet but I'm sure I'll find something!

Now I had a quick look over on flickr yesterday and I've realised there is another Brit Quilt Swap about to begin.  So since I had such a good time doing the last one and I'm in need of some enjoyable distraction I'm going to go see if I can sign up before it's too late.

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. 

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.

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.

Crazy animals and busy times!

Well I think that's what the fabric is called!  I can't actually remember and none of the selvedges I can find have the full name.  But it's by Moda, at least I know that.  I've had the material for a few months (think I bought it at the Scottish Quilt Championships last October but it might have been the spring one!) but couldn't think what to do with it.  So after seeing a few square in square quilts over the last few months I decided it would be an ideal design to show this fabric off.  The white fabric is actually a white duvet cover that I bought in Asda.

Really need to try and take some pictures in daylight, these don't really do the fabric justice.  Still to sew the rows together but it's taking shape really well.  I'm planning to give it a border so should get than done by the weekend hopefully.  Mind you we've got our next block in the Mystery Quilt - paper piecing, another new technique for me, which is great looking forward to try my hand at that.  And we've now got our partner info in the Brit Quilt Swap so I've got my thinking cap on to design something for my partner.  These are my first 2 ideas, scribbled out very quickly during my lunch yesterday.

 To top of last night look what I spied outside and double rainbow!  The sky had a really cool pink tinge to it for a while afterwards too.

First of many

and many firsts this weekend.  Like the first block being created for my first mystery quilt (see the wee linkie thing at the right hand side).

My first attempts both 1/2 square and 1/4 square triangles - they're not as difficult as I expected.  Who'da thunk it!!  I really enjoyed making it, only one small error where I misread the distructions but it was easily and quickly fixed.

My first time using orange (ok not a big first, but a first nonetheless!).  It actually goes surprisingly well with my couch and carpet in my livingroom which is a pleasant coincidence.  My first block sewn with my new 1/4" foot - huge difference in my precision, admittedly the block could be better but that was because I was rushing to get finished so was getting sloppy.  (I'm still contemplating unpicking one seam and redoing)

Not a new first but my first in a LONG, LONG time.  I bought a SMALL size from M&S this weekend, it's a belt, not a pair of jeans but it's still a small.  I honestly don't remember the last time I bought anything to wear that had small on it.  It's been a bit of bumpy weight loss road I've been on lately but I've still lost 1.5st and I'm back on track this week so we'll see what I've lost tomorrow.

And lastly the first of many new words from this little person, I can't keep up with everything that he's coming away with these days!  We've had everything from window, jam, milk to Judy and Darkest Peru tonight (we were reading Paddington).  I can't believe it will be his 2nd birthday in 2 weeks, it's just flown past.

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!

Scrappy Sparks

About a week ago I got an email from Sarah's Cards with an offer that was just too good to miss - a £75 grab box for £25!  Not one to pass up a bargain I grabbed at the chance to get one and I was lucky enough to get one before they all disappeared.  The concept is that all the boxes are different and you don't know what you get until it arrives.  So after stalking the postie for a few days, it arrived at the end of the week.  It's been an age since I have the joy of a pizza box being delivered and look at the goodies that were inside

 There is even a page all about boys!!  I couldn't have picked it even if I'd tried!?!?!

The purpose of buying this box is to spark my interest and creativity for paper based crafting as I have yet to make any scrapbook pages of my son - he's over 22 months and I've not made any scrapbook of him yet.  The rate I'm going I'll have forgotten all the little things before long.  It's definitely not for the lack of photos, I probably have thousands of his first year, not so much from his second year (that's what being back at work does for you). 

I've got lots of ideas running through my head - for scrapbook pages, for a couple of quilts for Euan, for FINALLY decorating our bedroom, for many, many things.  Just need to try to squeeze and few extra hours into every day to get it all done - easy eh!

Getting There

I had the luxury of a cheeky wee afternoon to myself the other day, well I say luxury, but I felt guilty the whole time because I could quite easily have kept Euan with me but his granda was happy to still look after him for the afternoon.  The joys of being a parent eh!

Anyhoo I used the time wisely and got round to starting to quilting my log cabin quilt. 

I got on really well too and by 8pm, after nipping out to get weighed (18.5lbs so far - go me!) and collecting a very tired little boy, it was all quilted.

Although I did do the same as the last time, made a couple of little errors on the back, where the backing hasn't been as flat as it should have been so there are 2 or 3 little creases on the back, quilted in!  It doesn't annoy me enough to rip the stitches out (cos that would take AGES, and I really don't have the patience for it) but it does remind me that I need to do my quilting with less speed and more haste - to paraphrase that old saying.



On a different note while I've been downloading photos from my camera and writing this blog I've been playing about with itunes on my ipod touch (mult-tasking at it's best - esp as it's not quite 7am yet!) and their collection of artists under each genre selection has me perplexed - Jason Mraz under rock!  Don't get wrong I like his stuff, but I'd never have put him in the genre of rock.  But do check out Hugh Laurie in the Blues genre - he's really good.  I was reading something yesterday that he (yes I do mean Hugh Laurie as it Dr Gregory House/Fry & Laurie) is releasing his 1st blues album this year. 

Okay dokey I'm off to see what the day has in sort for me - here's hoping for a warm, sunny day with lots of smiles! 

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.

Belated Valentine

I totally forgot that it was valentine's this week.  We had a very low key affair, in fact we actually we swapped cards on Sunday night instead of Monday and I got some very, very lurvely Lush smellies.  Now I just need to find the time to soak in a lovely scented bath.  Maybe tomorrow night, in preparation for going back to work on Monday - I'm liking the sound of that actually!

But in honour of it being valentines this week , I finally started my heart log cabin quilt (the one I've had the material & pattern for since 2006).  Started and made up the blocks.  It was fairly easy to put the blocks together - I'd never done strip piecing before and it was much easier that I anticipated it to be.  I've still to applique the hearts onto the block and then put the blocks together to make up the top. 

I'm really liking the way it's looking so far, I'm getting quite excited about how it will look finished!

Bye ..... Hello

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in my very first quilting swap.  Well after making about half a dozen, I finally had 2 mug rugs that I was happy with to be sent to someone. 

So these have been posted off to someone, on the other side of the world!!!  Now I just have to wait to receive my package from the swap, I've no idea where it is coming from and it's really quite exciting.  So I've said 'bye' to my mug rugs - the first time I've ever sent any of my quilting to another quilter, it's quite nerve wracking!  And I've said 'hello' to some new tricks, tips and styles.

I've enjoyed making these mug rugs, I've tried different quilting styles.  Different ways of piecing material, different colourways.  The binding was giving me a bit of headache but again it helped to have a few attempts to sort out what the problems were.

This is one of the 'not quite up to scratch' mug rugs I rejected for sending to my swap partner.  And my funky sock monster that I made too - he lives in my kitchen and his name is Loppy. 
We've had some other 'bye' and 'hello's this weekend.  This happy little man has been getting chatty - 'bye' started on Friday as we were leaving toddlers, a few people said bye to us and he just replied!  The same with hello, I answered the phone yesterday and then heard the wee man, who was walking at my feet go, 'ellooo'.

There was me last week starting to get paranoid that his speech wasn't so great and then over the weekend we've had a total of 3 new words in fact - bye, eye & hello!  I vow I will stop worrying about his development and just let him do things at his own pace.  He's is own little person and he does things his own way.  And I'm happy with that - really I am!

Cat on the Mat

Well more of the moggy on the mug rug.  My friend at work has a little coaster which is pretty much at the end of it's useful life so when she mentioned last week that she should probably get herself a new one, I had a little idea.  And this is what that idea led too - she's cat daft and has a ginger kitty cat like me!

I've worked on the 2 mug rugs for the swap I'm in, this weekend tops are made, just need a little light quilting and then to be bound.  I did intend to get on to that tonight but the dude has been full of jumping beans today and has been bouncing off the walls since 7am this morning so I'm drained of what little energy I did have.  

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. 

Inspired by Inspiration

As I've just signed up for my first EVER swap (what I am thinking!!!!) I'm just spending a little time tonight looking at my meagre fabric collection and lots of lovely inspiration on t'interweb.  I've come across this fabulous collection of inspiring goodies on the PS I Quilt blog.  I do intend to make some lovely cushions for my livingroom but they are way down the list of things to be done.  Much higher up are the roman blinds for the kitchen, I bought the material ages ago and still in the bag that it came home in!  Haven't quite plucked up the courage to start them yet.  Not sure why I find the idea of roman blinds so daunting but I do!

As I feel a blog post is never quite complete without a photo, here is a random one of my little dude.  This little man cannot get enough bananas (or 'nanas' as they are now known in this house) into his little tum-tum.  I swear one of these days he'll turn into a monkey!!!

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.