A bit sad

I have been doing quite a lot of sewing lately ( I am now on Morphine tablets which although not ideal in the long term are bloody marvellous at taking some of the pain away until things improve ) but I am not showing you what I've been doing just yet as I want to tell you all of something very thought provoking that happened to me this week.

I attend a small quilt group every Tuesday night and although I hadn't been for a while - with these new pills I have been feeling so much better I managed to get there last week and the week before.

Anyway we had visitors on Tuesday night - a couple of ladies from a locallish quilt group selling fabric. You see one of their members sadly died just after Christmas and this fabric belonged to her. When she passed away her husband did not know what to do with all her stuff and was actually going to dump it all in the land fill site. Her friends came to the rescue and decided they would sell it for her and then her family would donate the proceeds to charity.

When they were due to come on Tuesday we knew these friends had already been to a few venues and had held a sale in a church hall so we were not expecting too much. Well when they arrived we were all absolutely staggered by the sheer quantity of fabric they brought in. I wished I'd had my camera - it was amazing. The ladies told us that this was only about a QUARTER of what they'd started with !!!!

The lady who'd died had also had 5 sewing machines, cutting mats galore and anything else you could think of to do with quilting but many of them. I think she was a compulsive buyer.

I obviously bought some fabric and I kept thinking how sad it was that she never got to use this fabric although of course it was good that at least it would be bought by quilters who would love it and use it to make beautiful quilts with. What a shame it would have been for it all to be dumped.

It certainly made me think about how much fabric we own. My stash is a good size but really I could see how it could so easily get out of control. Before this I was thinking I would try and use more from my stash this year and this has seconded it.

Here's what I got

To date her friends have sold over £8,000 worth of quilting stuff - I think that's about $13,000

Makes you think doesn't it ?

Simple is good.

No I haven't forgotten my blog- just I am still having nerve trouble with my wretched leg. It is getting sooo painful now nearly all day long. At the moment I can stand or lie down ( quite uncomfortable ) but am literally unable to sit- at all !! If it can be done standing or lying then great I'm fine but sitting is out of the equation. I am awaiting physiotherapy but my doctor has told me there is a 3 month wait for that. Last week I was sent for x-rays just to make sure it is nothing worse than a trapped nerve. My husband had to drive me to the hospital while I gritted my teeth and slumped in the passenger seat.

About 2 minutes from the hospital my mobile phone rang. It was my son Patricks school to say he had been involved in an accident at lunchtime. He was fine but was missing a couple of teeth !!!! Whaaaaattt ???? Apparently he had been drinking a can of Pepsi and another boy had killed a ball at him ( completely by accident ) the ball hit the can - the can hit Patricks mouth with some force and this is the result.

An emergency trip to the dentist for a lovely session of root canal work. Because the teeth snapped at gum line my dentist believes the roots will be strong but obviously he will have to have work to build up on what he's got. I'm completely gutted as of course they are his adult teeth and he hasn't had them long. I have always nagged both my kids to clean and look after their teeth - they will thank me in the long run. All those times they used to say they were too tired to do them at night and would give them an extra clean in the morning just didn't wash with me !! Anyway with a bit of luck Patrick will be happy with his false ones and it could have been a lot worse.

After all the drama - I cancelled the x-ray that day and went the next - I was really in the mood for some nice stress-free simple sewing. My friends little boy was having his second birthday the week after and I decided to make him a quilt for his new big-boy bed.

I started with a few I-spy squares that I had cut out a while ago.

There are 20 here but I managed to find another 4 for a 4 by 6 layout.

His bedroom has just been re-decorated in red and blue so I picked some nice bright ones from my stash to frame each block. I also used a bit of this for the inner border.

If you can't see the selvedge it is marked 2003. this pre-dates my quilting days as I think I started the following year. This is probably one of the first fabrics I bought then.

Here is a close-up of some of the fabrics

And here is the finished quilt.

It turned out good and even the quilting went well. Straight line quilting in the blocks and a swirly border. Isn't it nice when it all works out fine with no hiccups ( or hiccoughs - lol ). This quilt was very well received by young Ewan and his parents. I hope he has fun with it - spotting all the different things.

One last thing - whilst sorting out my photos I came across this picture that I don't think I've shown. It was an orphan block that I quilted and made into a cushion as a gift for an elderly couple that DH Jason has as his customers. He took it to them for Christmas and it has pride of place on their sofa I believe.

Well off to pop a few more pills - I am so trying not to moan about all this and I'm sure once I get moving on the physio I will see some improvement There are a lot of folk far worse off than me. I have also ordered a DVD from Amazon called Pilates for people with Back Pain. I'll give that a go too.

I also have something else to show you but have no photos yet so that will be for next time.

Bye for now xxx

Scraps and a gift

Before Christmas I decided I would do something with my big box of little scraps. These are quite small bits that had accumulated over time. I had used up my box of strings previously on my crap circle quilt shown below. I had a lovely couple of hours sitting on my bed sorting through these with the help of one of my furry babies. If you click for a better look you will see my cat, scraps and quilt - lol !

I then started sewing them together randomly and trimming after each seam. This is great fun and something I really enjoy. I have a 6 inch square ruler and once the piece got to a big enough size these scruffy pieces got turned from these

Into these . . . . . .


I have not been doing a lot of sewing - mainly due to the ongoing problem of sciatica - but now and again I have been doing a few more of these here and there. Yesterday I counted them up and discovered I have made 95 blocks already with still no end to the scraps - lol ! Not sure how I will set these but for the moment I am really enjoying them. Quite satisfying making something from nothing. When I started quilting - seven years ago - I used to throw my scraps in the bin. What a terrible thought !!!

I am still slowly working on the 600 flying geese needed for the quilt in my last post. However my sewing machine is playing up again so for now I am using my little back-up machine to make these scrap blocks.

Last week a new friend - Julie - from my quilting group became a grandma for the first time. She phoned to let me know her daughter had the baby - a little girl called Amber Lily. My first thought was to make her a little something. I was going to knit a little jacket but I knew Julie had done lots of knitting for her so I decided a small wall-hanging for the nursery would be nice.
Here is the start of it

And here it is appliqued, bordered, quilted and bound. Tada !!! There are little hanging tabs on the back so hopefully it will be up on the wall soon..

I gave it to Julie on Tuesday to pass onto the new parents and she was so touched she almost cried - literally. I did not expect that ! It was so nice to do something from start to finish.

Because I can't sit at the computer for long before my leg starts paining I am behind on answering comments and emails - please forgive me. I am keeping up with all your blogs and comment when I can. I am currently awaiting hospital appointments for physiotherapy and am sure once I start these my sciatica will improve. I can't wait to get back to my quilting properly.

Have a good week xxx

Good morning. I have a couple of questions for you today. The first one I'm pretty sure I know the answer too but I'm very curious about the second.

1. Do you have UFO's ? - see I think I'm almost positive most of you will say yes - lol. I think of my UFO's as something I have started and abandoned before it is done. I am not classing my long term projects in this - such as my English Paper Piecing quilts ( of which I have a few ) as I keep doing a bit here and there. When I get to the stage where my quilt becomes a UFO for whatever reason - deadline on something else, just got distracted etc - I stop working on it. This leads to my next question.

2. Are your UFO's carefully put away in a logical order - perhaps with notes - so you can see where you're up to ? Or are they literally bundled away out of sight, out of mind - lol.

You have probably guessed I'm going somewhere with this. Yes I am working on one of my numerous UFO's - not sure how many I've quite got but a few should cover it :-) After the Christmas rush I got to thinking which one of my quilts-in-progress would I like to see finished first. I decided on one I started only last year but which I really want completed. I will re-cap on this. It is one I saw in Quilters Newsletter and was love at first sight. It is made mainly in Reproduction fabrics and my wonderful friend Dawn very kindly bought me the poison green, chrome yellow fabrics I was struggling to get hold of. She had seen the quilt " in the flesh " and also sent some photos of it. We decided to both make this quilt.

Anyway I knew where it was - all piled up on a tray under my sewing table - like so

Some bits were done - some fabrics cut - little bits half done - no order whatsoever ! So I spent a bit of time working out exactly where I was with this.

There are 25 blocks in the quilt. I discovered 4 were complete.

Each block starts with a nine-patch in the centre and is then bordered. I found all nine-patches done and some ( about 5 more ) had their borders. I had no little borders cut so first job was to go through my fabric drawers and get the fabrics I had used so far - adding a few more to the mix - definitely a scrappy quilter at heart.

I now have all the borders on the nine-patches and am in the process of making lots of flying geese units ( there are 600 altogether )

To my delight I also found I'd made the 80 four-patches needed for the outer border. I can't even remember making these - lol !

I know this is a little long winded but I wanted to share how much fun I had sorting through all my bits and pieces and finding out what needed doing. I know it would have been far easier if everything had been tidy and labelled in little bags and the rest of my pieces cut out but I guess that's just not me.

I am up to 9 blocks complete now with lots more flying geese made and ready to sew. Might get some done later with a bit of luck although my leg is troubling me today. Could be worse.

My heart goes out to everyone affected by the Australian floods - so much devastation - the world truly has it's troubles. I hope to make a small donation tomorrow and wish it could be more.

Take care xxx

SSCS

Well a combination of being really busy and having a bad sciatica flare-up meant my poor old blog has been neglected. We had a fantastic Christmas and enjoyed every minute of it. Lots of food, gifts and fun all round. Who can ask for more ?

Without further ado here is the Christmas part of my SSCS parcel organised admirably once again by Chookyblue.

My partner was Kate and just look at those 3 cute santas. They will be hauled out year after year I know. Had to keep them away from one of my cats as he took quite a shine to them - lol !

The main gift was these 2 beautiful items - a block of the month holder and a needlecase.



Here's the insides. Lovely, lovely fabrics - very well made and practical too. I plan to start a little stitching very soon so these will be set up ready to go.

Thanks so much Kate - I really love them. I am also very proud of myself for lasting out til Christmas Day to open them ( second year running - lol ).

And here's what I sent to my partner in Brazil. Denyse got these as well as some little extras of fabric, thread and a diary. Hope she likes them. Had a little fun with the instructions at one point but all came right in the end. Took a long time to make as those flowers are hand-appliqued which you may know is not my forte.
The back is the same as the front.

Over the next few days I will try and cobble up a couple of posts together as to what I was up to before Christmas. Sewing was done including some very last minute stuff - I will never change.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Peaceful New Year and thanks so much for coming back to read my blog even though posting has been sporadic of late.

Take care xxx

UFO - tick !!

I am SO glad this one is done. English paper piecing takes a long time anyway but when you're stopping and starting for umpteen other quilts well time just flies. Last time this appeared on my blog I was up to the navy blue hexagons. I then found this lovely print in my stash and appliqued the whole thing on. With mitred corners too I'll have you know - lol ! That was a job in itself. Then a 3 inch strip of navy added. This did 2 things - made it bigger obviously and meant I didn't have to bind those funny shaped edges. I thought long and hard about hand quilting this but decided it would probably add another couple of years onto it ( took about 3 years I think anyway )

So I took the bull by the horns and quilted it on my Janome 1600p - only the second one I have done on this machine. I used a lovely pastel variegated thread and meandered away. My machine quilting is not perfect by any stretch but I love how this turned out. I am glad I went for the machine option although it would have looked good hand quilted - especially as it is all hand pieced but there you go.

At one point I nearly abandoned this. I had started out just working in rings round a single hexagon but after a while decided I didn't like it. Because the fabrics are pretty I went ahead and unpicked the whole thing. This was on a quilting day with my group. Whilst everyone else was sewing away on lovely new projects I sat and unpicked and unpicked. Took all day and some of the evening too when I got home but then I was able to start again.

These pictures should click to make bigger if you want.

Anyway after my last post when I told you all my machine had been stripped and oiled by me it was working like a dream - for about a couple of days. Then the funny noise re-appeared. So this time I did take it to the repair place. Apparently I may have a slipped jockey pulley - ouch !! Sounds painful - lol ! They have had it 2 weeks now and I am anxious to get it back. They have a lot of machines in and told me there would be a 2 week wait so I'm sure it'll be home soon. I have another back-up machine but to be honest don't get on with it that well. I have done a little on it but am looking forward to using my other one.

I have pulled fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt and this is what I'll do when my machine gets here. I will show you my colours next time as well as some photos of what I've been doing whilst my poor machine has been in hospital.

I have finished my SSCS gift but of course can't show photos of that yet. But lets just say I went out of my comfort zone a little and did some hand applique - shock !!

Anyway time is getting on and I have to dash - take care xxx

Tempted !

Because I have been very good and spent a lot of time lately working on UFO's I am feeling the need to use some new fabric ie. start a new quilt. It seems so long ago that I did this. I have a big UFO finished this week but have not taken photos today because it has been so dark and dismal that the light has been awful. I will wait for a brighter day to do so as I really want you to see this quilt at it's best.

Before I did anything however my sewing machine needed attention. Not the newish machine that I bought for quilting but my ordinary machine that I do all my piecing on. When I used it last it kept making a funny noise every so often. I can only describe it as the noise Donald Duck makes - I kid you not - lol ! At the time I was intent on quilting anyway so I just put it to one side and left it. Yesterday however I was in the mood for some serious piecing. I had phoned the sewing place and they said if I brought it in they would have a look at it. But there was a 2 week wait and a basic service would cost £50 ( I think about $80 ). Now I love spending at anytime but when I thought of what else I could spend that cash on - well it got me thinking.

I had already removed the footplate and gave it a good old clean in there - I do it all the time. Being brave I decided to go a bit further and started removing the side cover being careful not to lose the screws. Surprising how much fluff had built up. Then I started manually turning the wheel and watched which bits inside moved up and down. I'm not sure of the technical name for any of these parts but being very cautious I applied a couple of drops of machine oil to the bits that seemed to be doing the most work. I had a hairy moment when I did indeed drop a screw inside the machine and said a very rude word - lol ! But with the removal of the bottom of the machine I managed to get it and screw it back in the right place. Once it was altogether I grabbed a bit of scrap fabric and tried it out. To my absolute delight it was great. No strange noises and definitely sewing smoother. Nowhere in my manual had it mentioned oiling the machine - it is 3 years old and I have used it a LOT so I suppose it stands to reason a drop of oil would not go amiss. I am chuffed to bits and am now deciding what to spend my pennies on.

To give it a bit of a workout I spent a couple of hours sewing strips together cut from these fabrics.

They are quite subtle for me and I have had them for a couple of years. Also unlike me they are all from the same range - I never normally buy stuff like this. It is called Zen from Makower and is vaguely Japanesey.

I had bought a new ruler a few months back and armed with a wonderful tutorial from Lurline (she has it listed on the left hand side of her blog ) I had a lovely time sewing and chopping and pressing. Today after a bit of applique I have this

The question I am asking myself is do I like the block enough to make more and turn them into a quilt ? These are big blocks - almost 20 inches square. I would need to make another 11 and then borders to make a new quilt for Jason and I. Shall I or shan't I ? If I do go ahead I am thinking to hand quilt each block separately and put them together Quilt As You Go. I need to think about this one - lol !

As usual I am behind on answering emails - still having back probs - so if I owe you a reply you never know I might get round to it soon. I have been having some lovely comments from no-reply bloggers whose profiles are private so have no way of thanking them for taking time to chat to me. All comments are very much appreciated even if I don't always manage to answer.

One last thing. I am trying to get hold of a copy of Australian Patchwork and Quilting. It's Vol 17 no 7 - 2009 Yearbook. I will gladly swap, buy or whatever. I would be eternally grateful for any help..

Take care xx